XVI 
PREJUDICE AGAINST ENGLISHMEN 
365 
breath most laborious. Each time they draw their breath 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 ore, 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, will 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 he was 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 Englishman ; so deeply had they been 
impressed with an idea of the heresy, contamination, and evil to 
be derived from contact 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 wonder¬ 
fully strange it was that she should have lived to dine in the 
same room with an Englishman ; for she remembered as a girl 
that twice, at the mere cry of “ Los Ingleses,” every soul, carrying 
what valuables they could, had taken to the mountains. 
14th .—We reached Coquimbo, where we stayed, 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, the first time this year, for 
about five hours. The farmers, who plant corn near the sea- 
coast where the atmosphere is more humid, taking advantage of 
this shower, would break up the ground; after a second they 
would put the seed in ; and if a third shower should fall, they 
would reap a good harvest in the spring. It was interesting to 
watch the effect of this trifling amount of moisture. Twelve 
hours afterwards the ground appeared as dry as ever ; yet after 
an interval of ten days all the hills were faintly tinged with green 
