18 



CHILI. 



in various degrees, with other substances. Having 

 made a careful collection of specimens, we return- 

 ed to the Asiento, or village of Guasco. 



Our fair hostess had in our absence made up a 

 party to visit the Conway, as I had requested her 

 to do, on hearing her say, that no one in the Asieur 

 to had been on board of a man-of-war : most of 

 them, in fact, had never been afloat, and some 

 had never even seen a ship in their lives. I gave 

 them dinner on board, and showed them over the 

 ship, with which they expressed themselves much 

 gratified ; but none of them evinced that childish 

 kind of surprise, which people a little, and but a 

 little, acquainted with a subject, are more apt to 

 betray, than those totally ignorant of the sub- 

 ject. 



The Spaniards, in all things excepting politics, 

 are a deliberate people, and, as their descendants 

 partake of the same cautious spirit, it is not easy, 

 at any time, to excite them to the expression of 

 strong emotion. Being somewhat piqued, there- 

 fore, that my friends were so little roused by the 

 new wonders of a man-of-war, I laid a plan for sur- 

 prising them, which succeeded completely. Af- 



