NOTICES OP CHILE. 



83 



sea.* The high land is continuous entirely round the bay, but 

 is thrown into waves or undulations ; and, in several places, is 

 broken into deejD glens or gorges, called quebradas,^' which 

 embouche close to the water's edge. 



In front of the anchorage is a high bluff, or block of land, 

 formed by a ^^quebrada" running on either side of it, called 

 Monte Alegre, and sometimes reproachfully, " Cerro de los 

 Judeos,'' or Jews' Hill. Upon it are built several fine dwell- 

 ings, occupied by English and American residents, who live 

 there, almost entirely apart from the natives, forming a sort of 

 foreign colony. The quebrada on the right, is the ^'Quebrada 

 de San Augustin between it and the next — Quebrada de 

 San Francisco" — are the ruins of the former castle and gover- 

 nor's house, which were shaken down by the severe earth- 

 quake of November, lS22.t Farther to the right, the high 

 land is divided by quebradas into several blufis, called by En- 

 glish and American sailors, " the fore, main, and mizen tops." 

 To the left of Monte Alegre, are the Catholic and Protestant 

 burial grounds, separated by a passage twenty feet wide ; and 

 not far from them, is the powder magazine. A little beyond 

 this point, the high land begins to recede, leaving a broad tri- 

 angular plain, upon which is built that part of the town called 

 the " Almendral," or Almond Grove. The name led the tra- 

 veller before alluded to, into a supposition that the groves seen 

 from the anchorage are of almond trees, but there are not more 

 than two trees of the kind in the place. What he saw, are the 

 <<01ivdres," or plantations of olive trees, of which there are 

 five or six in difierent parts of this section of the town. At the 

 end, or bottom of the AlmendrdI, is seen the road to Santiago, 

 mounting in a zigzag line over the hills, or <^ Altos de Valpa- 

 raiso." At the foot of the altos" is a small brook, nearly dry 

 in summer, but which in winter swells to a large stream, almost 

 worthy the name of river. 



To the northward and eastward, and about three miles from 



* Porter's Journal. 



f For an account of that earthquake, see Miers' Travels in Chile and La 

 Plata. London, 1826. 



