386 



PATRIOTS — SPAIN — CLIMATE. Jan. FeK 



to do in turn, each man a fortnight : part of which time was 

 allowed for the journey. These three had worked eight days, 

 finding themselves in everything and receiving no pay ; two 

 were old men : one more than sixty years of age ; and the 

 third was the oldest man's son. They all declaimed against 

 the so-called ' Patriots ' (Chilians) very vehemently, and asked 

 repeatedly when they might hope to see the Spanish flag hoisted 

 again. The old man had been a cacique, and under the 

 Spanish authority had charge of a watch-house and a small 

 party of men, on Point Centinela : but directly the Spaniards 

 were overthrown he was made a private militia-man — not to 

 iight,'' he said, " but to work.'' If any public work was in 

 progress, a party of militia-men were ordered to it, in their 

 respective turns : and if the commandant had a friend to 

 oblige, who wanted a job done, he would order a man to work 

 at it for a week, when another would take his place, and so 

 on. For these services no pay was given. The old man said 

 that they were paid in money for every service performed when 

 under the Spaniards ; and he could hardly be made to believe 

 that there was no prospect of their returning. 



There is a marked difference of climate between the east 

 and west sides of Chiloe, as to quantity of rain and wind. 

 A proportion of both appears to be arrested (as it were) on 

 the windward side of the heights, so that the neighbourhood 

 of Castro and the islands in the Gulf of Ancud, enjoy much 

 finer weather than is met with about San Carlos. But even 

 there the inhabitants say a change has taken place gradually, 

 and that they have not now nearly so much rain as used to fall 

 formerly. They attribute this to the wood being cleared away, 

 not only on Chiloe itself, but on the neighbouring Cordillera. 

 There is an idea prevalent in Chiloe that, after a great erup- 

 tion of Osorno in particular, or indeed of any of the neigh- 

 bouring volcanoes, fine weather is sure to follow. Without 

 denying the possibility of some such correspondence, I should 

 incline to think that there have been accidental coincidences ; 

 and that fine weather occurring about or soon after those 

 times, has been more remarked than at other periods. 



