436 



NORTHERN CHILE. 



June, 1835. 



ready way of explaining my employment, was to ask them 

 how it was that they themselves were not curious concerning 

 earthquakes and volcanoes? — why some springs were hot 

 and others cold ? — why there were mountains in Chile, and 

 not a hill in La Plata? These bare questions at once 

 satisfied and silenced the greater number; some, however 

 (like a few in England who are a century behindhand), 

 thought that all such inquiries were useless and impious ; 

 and that it was quite sufficient that God had thus made the 

 mountains. 



An order had recently been issued that all stray dogs 

 should be killed, and we saw many carcasses lying on the 

 high road. A great number had lately been affected with 

 hydrophobia, and several men had been bitten, and had died 

 in consequence. On other occasions hydrophobia has pre- 

 vailed in this valley. It is remarkable thus to find so strange 

 and dreadful a disease appearing time after time in the same 

 isolated spot. It has been remarked that certain villages in 

 England are in like manner much more subject to this visita- 

 tion than others. Hydrophobia must be extremely rare on 

 the eastern side of the Andes, for Azara thought it was un- 

 known in America ; and Ulloa says the same with respect to 

 Quito. I could not hear of a case having occurred in Van 

 Diemen'*s Land, or in Australia ; and Burchell says, during 

 the five years he was at the Cape of Good Hope, he never 

 heard of an instance of it. Webster again asserts that at the 

 Azores, hydrophobia has never occurred; and the same 

 observation has been made with respect to Mauritius and St. 

 Helena.* In so strange a disease, some information might 

 possibly be gained by considering the circumstances under 

 which it originates in distant climates. 



At night, a stranger arrived at the house of Don Benito, 

 and asked permission to sleep there. He said he had been 



* Azara's Travels, vol. i., p. 381. — Ulloa's Voyage, vol. ii., p. 28. — 

 Burchell's Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii., p. 524. — Webster's De- 

 scription of the Azores, p. 124.— Voyage a I'lsle de France par iin Officier 

 du Roi, tome i., p. 248. — Description of St. Helena, p. 123. 



