May, 1835. 



COQUIMBO. 



421 



streaming from their faces over their breasts, their nostrils 

 distended, the corners of their mouth forcibly drawn back, 

 and the expulsion of their breath most laborious. Each 

 time, from habit, they utter an articulate cry of ^^ay-ay,^^ 

 which ends in a sound rising from deep in the chest, but shrill 

 like the note of a fife. After staggering to the pile of ores, 

 they emptied the " carpacho in two or three seconds 

 recovering their breath, they wiped the sweat from their 

 brows, and apparently quite fresh descended the mine again 

 at a quick pace. This appears to me a wonderful instance 

 of the amount of labour which habit (for it can be nothing 

 else), win enable a man to endure. 



In the evening, talking with the mayor-domo of these 

 mines, about the number of foreigners now scattered over 

 the whole country, he told me that, though quite a young 

 man, he remembers when a boy at school at Coquimbo, a 

 holiday being given, to see the captain of an English ship, 

 who was brought to the city to speak to the governor. 

 He believes that nothing would have induced any boy in the 

 school, himself included, to have gone close to the English- 

 man ; so deeply had they been impressed with an idea of 

 the heresy, contamination, and evil to be derived from con- 

 tact with such a person. To this day they relate the 

 atrocious actions of the bucaniers ; and especially of one 

 man, who took away the figure of the Virgin Mary, and 

 returned the year after for that of St. Joseph, saying it was a 

 pity the lady should not have a husband. I heard also of 

 an old lady who, at a dinner in Coquimbo, remarked how 

 wonderfully strange it was that she should have lived to 

 dine in the same room with an Englishman; for she re- 

 membered as a girl, that twice, at the mere cry of " Los 

 Ingleses,^^ every soul, carrying what valuables they could, 

 had taken to the mountains. 



May 14th. — We reached Coquimbo, Avhere we staid a 

 few days. The town is remarkable for nothing but its 

 extreme quietness. It is said to contain from 6000 to 8000 

 inhabitants. On the morning of the 1 7th it rained lightly 



