THE GREAT CORDILLERA. 



145 



capable of prosecuting their perilous journey ; and 

 when I saw the wretched abode, I had often felt 

 how cheerless it must have been for her to have 

 remained there so long. 



The lady who now came to Uspallata was the 

 very person whose singular sufferings I have de- 

 scribed, and the fine little boy was the child that 

 was born at Villa Vicencia. He had been in Chili 

 ever since, and now the little manly fellow had 

 ridden across the Cordillera, and was about to in- 

 troduce his brothers and sisters to the wild hovel in 

 which it had been decreed that he should be born. 



In the morning, before daybreak, we made pre- 

 parations for starting. Some part of the goat was to 

 form our breakfast ; we had some tea with us, and 

 I was very anxious to get some milk, but when I 

 asked the man, he replied, "Leche no hai," with a 

 look that seemed to doubt there being any in the 

 universe. The cows, he said, were four leagues 

 off, and that they would not come for a couple of 

 hours. Have the goats no milk?" asked I ; the 

 fellow laughed at the idea ; however I found out 

 that they had kids, and I therefore insisted on his 



