378 
NORTHERN CHILE 
CHAP. 
The disease came on between twelve and ninety days after the 
bite ; and in those cases where it did come on, death ensued 
invariably within five days. After 1808 a long interval 
ensued without any cases. On inquiry, I did not hear of 
hydrophobia in Van Diemen’s Land, or in Australia; and 
Burchell says that, during the five years he was at the Cape of 
Good Hope, he never heard of an instance of it. Webster 
asserts that at the Azores hydrophobia has never occurred ; 
and the same assertion has been made with respect to 
Mauritius and St. Helena. 1 In so strange a disease some 
information might possibly be gained by considering the 
circumstances under which it originates in distant climates ; 
for it is improbable that a dog already bitten should have 
been brought to these distant countries. 
At night a stranger arrived at the house of Don Benito, 
and asked permission to sleep there. He said he had been 
wandering about the mountains for seventeen days, having lost 
his way. He started from Guasco, and being accustomed to 
travelling in the Cordillera, did not expect any difficulty in 
following the track to Copiapo ; but he soon became involved 
in a labyrinth of mountains, whence he could not escape. 
Some of his mules had fallen over precipices, and he had been 
in great distress. His chief difficulty arose from not knowing 
where to find water in the lower country, so that he was 
obliged to keep bordering the central ranges. 
We returned down the valley, and on the 22nd reached 
the town of Copiapo. The lower part of the valley is broad, 
forming a fine plain like that of Quillota. The town covers a 
considerable space of ground, each house possessing a garden : 
but it is an uncomfortable place, and the dwellings are poorly 
furnished. Every one seems bent on the one object of making 
money, and then migrating as quickly as possible. All the 
inhabitants are more or less directly concerned with mines ; 
and mines and ores are the sole subjects of conversation. 
Necessaries of all sorts are extremely dear ; as the distance 
from the town to the port is eighteen leagues, and the land 
1 Observa. sobre el clima de Lima, p. 67.—Azara’s Travels, vol. i. p. 381.— 
Ulloa’s Voyage, vol. ii. p. 28.—Burchell’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 524.—Webster’s 
Description of the Azores, p. 124.— Voyage a VIsle de France par un Ojpicier du Roi, 
tome i. p. 248. —Description of St. Helena, p. 123. 
