178 



CHILI. 



her good sense^ had not much feeling for the mag- 

 nificent beauties of her native spot. In reply to 

 our reproaches on her insensibility, she said it 

 might be very wrong not to admire what she saw, 

 but as she had never been out of the valley in her 

 life, and, consequently, had no other scenery to 

 compare with this, she was, at least, vmconscious 

 of its superiority to the rest of the world. 



3d of April. — I rode this morning from the ci- 

 ty in company with two English gentlemen, to see 

 a waterfall. To attain this object, we had climbed 

 from the plain on which Santiago stands, by a 

 long and steep path, to the height of about four 

 hundred feet. We imagined ourselves to be mount- 

 ing the side of a steep ridge, and that on reach- 

 ing the top we should look down the other side 

 on the low ground beyond. But, instead of this, 

 we found ourselves on the level of a great plain 

 joining that which we had come from, which also 

 most strangely appeared to be exactly at the same 

 elevation with it, notwithstanding the additional 

 altitude we had gained. This singular optical 

 deception must have been caused by the extreme 

 regularity of the slope in the ground from the point 



