12 



CHILI. 



On Monday the 19th of November, we sailed 

 from Coquimbo for Guasco, another port from 

 which the produce of the mines is exported. We 

 anchored at two o'^clock on the 20th of Novem- 

 ber, and in about an hour afterwards were mount- 

 ed, and on our way to a village called the Asien- 

 to, or seat of the mines. It lies about five leagues 

 from the sea, on the left bank of a stream of snow 

 water, which, though not large, is sufficient to 

 give full verdure to the flat bottom of the valley 

 through which it flows, and to place it in agreeable 

 contrast to the rest of the country, which is a 

 sandy desert in every direction. 



Within the space of one month, we had now 

 witnessed all the intermediate degrees of fertility 

 and desolation. At Conception, the eye was de- 

 lighted with the richest and most luxuriant foli- 

 age : at Valparaiso, the hills were poorly clad with 

 a stunted brushwood, and a faint attempt at grass, 

 the ground looking starved and naked: at Co- 

 quimbo, the brushwood was gone, with nothing in 

 its place but a vile sort of prickly-pear bush, and 

 a scanty sprinkling of grey, and sometimes pur- 

 ple wiry grass : at Guasco, there was not a trace 



