SANTIAGO. 



63 



of cultivation, the general character of the 

 country is still that of an uncultivated plain of 

 brushwood^ though formerly it probably was 

 a populous and agricultural district in posses- 

 sion of the Araucanian Indians, whose resist- 

 ance to their invaders has been celebrated both 

 in prose and verse. 



We now passed another ridge, rendered more 

 picturesque than the former, by the addition of 

 fine timber trees growing close to the road. 

 The mimosa and olive occurred frequently, and 

 a species of myrtle. This was not the dis- 

 trict of the forest trees, which are said to be 

 enormous in other parts of Chile. A story is 

 told of a priest who (perhaps by a miracle) 

 made, of one single tree, a church above six 

 hundred feet high, including rafters, flooring, 

 window-frames, and a large altar-piece. The 

 strawberries of the country are as big as pul- 



