384 



PASSAGE OF CORDILLERA. March, 1835. 



made the common salute of the country, by taking off their 

 hats. Where would one of the lower classes in Europe 

 have shown such feeling politeness to a poor and miserable 

 object of a degraded race? 



At night we slept at a cottage. Our manner of travel- 

 ling was delightfully independent. In the inhabited parts 

 we bought a little firewood, hired pasture for the animals, 

 and bivouacked in the corner of the same field with them. 

 Carrying an iron pot, we cooked and ate our supper under 

 the cloudless sky, and knew no trouble. My companions 

 were Mariano Gonzales, who had formerly accompanied me, 

 and an " arriero,^^ with his ten mules and a madrina.^^ 



The madrina (or godmother) is a most important person- 

 age. She is an old steady mare, with a little bell round her 

 neck ; and wheresoever she goes, the mules, like good chil- 

 dren, follow her. If several large troops are turned into one 

 field to graze, in the morning the muleteer has only to lead 

 the madrinas a little apart, and tinkle their bells ; and, al- 

 though there may be two or three hundred mules together, 

 each immediately knows its own bell, and separates itself 

 from the rest. The affection of these animals for their 

 madrinas saves infinite trouble. It is nearly impossible to 

 lose an old mule ; for if detained for several hours by force, 

 she will, by the power of smell, like a dog, track out her 

 companions, or rather the madrina; for, according to the 

 muleteer, she is the chief object of affection. The feeling, 

 however, is not of an individual nature ; for I believe I am 

 right in saying, that any animal with a bell will serve as 

 madrina. In a troop each animal carries, on a level road, a 

 cargo weighing 416 pounds (more than twenty-nine stone) ; 

 but in a mountainous country a hundred pounds less.* Yet 

 with what delicate slim limbs, without any proportional bulk 

 of muscle, these animals support so great a burden! The 



* Throughout Chile, except between Santiago and Valparaiso, every 

 thing is conveyed on mules. This is an expensive method of transport, 

 but unavoidable without good roads and improved waggons. In a troop 

 of mules, there is generally a muleteer to each six animals. 



