SOUTH AMERICAN NEWS. 



151 



jumbled together ; and, in short, treated the 

 whole subject very much in the way it used to be 

 received in England a few years ago. They 

 were, in fact, far more occupied with English, 

 West Indian, and North American topics, and, 

 above all, with the little matters which concerned 

 their own town, than with the momentous affairs 

 affecting the whole southern continent ; upon 

 which, however, their own prosperity must event- 

 ually depend. 



It was by no means easy to get in return the 

 news we wanted, even from people who had re- 

 cently been in England, or in Jamaica, for they 

 had no idea of the extent of our ignorance, made 

 no allowance for our dates, and never dreamt of 

 telling us anything, not new to themselves ; for- 

 getting, that to us who had not seen an English 

 paper for half a year, everything was news. And 

 they were just as much surprised at our indiffer- 

 ence about Jamaica and New York intelligence, 

 as we had been to find them careless about Lima 

 and Valparaiso. When in reading the papers we 

 came to some allusion, and asked what it meant, 

 the answer generally was, " Oh ! I thought you 



