80 



MENDOZA LADIES. 



their minds^ and save them from the ignorance 

 and folly of seeking admiration from the men^ 

 which is all they appear to think about^ and 

 which is amply repaid with the most profound 

 respect and adulation to their personal charms, 

 but decided contempt for their understandings. 

 At the ball, the whole town attended, the waltz 

 and Spanish dance went on : the gentlemen were 

 smoking and spitting about the room, and I re- 

 tired to the dirty miserable inn, thinking that I 

 should soon be performing a very different dance 

 over the mighty Andes, now stretching close to 

 this town, appearing a huge mass of impene- 

 trable snow towering most solemnly aloft, as if 

 in attempt to reach the heavens itself 



My short stay at Mendoza gave me very little 

 time to make any observations on the place. I 

 had the pleasure of being introduced to Dr. Gil- 

 lies, whose botanical researches have been so 

 justly appreciated in England ; but was sorry to 

 find him so indisposed as to be confined to his 



