158 



CHILI. 



interdict by an ingenious piece of casuistry ; ar- 

 guing, that as the promise had been made by her 

 mother in town, it could never be intended to ap- 

 ply to the country. The good-natured mother, 

 who probably repented of her absurd vow, allow- 

 ed that a good case of conscience had been made 

 out ; and the pretty Rosalita danced away with a 

 spirit which was taken up by the whole room, and 

 a more animated ball was never seen. 



30th of March. — Before breakfast to-day, we 

 witnessed the South American method of killing 

 cattle, a topic which, though at first sight no very 

 delicate or inviting one, will not, I trust, prove 

 uninteresting or disagreeable in description. 



The cattle, as I mentioned before, had been 

 driven into an inclosure, or corral, whence they 

 were now let out, one by one, and killed ; but not 

 in the manner practised in England ; where, I be- 

 lieve, they are dragged into a house, and dispatch- 

 ed by blows on the forehead with a pole-axe. Here 

 the whole took place in the open air, and resem- 

 bled rather the catastrophe of a grand field sport, 

 than a deliberate slaughter. On a level space of 

 ground before the corral were ranged in a line four 



