CHAPTER VI.

FIRST EXPERIENCES IN CHILE.

TRAVELLING TO SANTIAGO.-HALT AT CASA-BLANCA.-SCENES BY THE ROAD.-CUESTA ZAPATA.-PANORAMIC VIEW FROM THE CUESTA PRADO —ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT -CHOICE OF A LOCALITY FOR THE OBSERVATORY.-ARRIVAL OF THE INSTRUMENTS-PREPARATION OF SITES ON SANTA LUCIA.-WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT OF US.—THEIR INTEREST IN THE STARRY HEAVENS.-SLOW PROGRESS WITH WORK ON THE second obSERVATORY.—NOVELTIES IN THE STREETS.— STREET SCENES IN THE MORNING.-NOVELTIES OF CLIMATE.

There are but two modes of expeditious travelling here-on horseback or in a birlocho. The vehicle so called is a gig whose springs are of extra strength, its shafts secured with longitudinal plates of wrought-iron, and its wheels guarded with tires of nearly double the thickness used in the United States. The postilion's horse assists in drawing the carriage by a strong cord of twisted hide secured to the left shaft. The cord has an iron hook in its extremity, that he may the more readily fasten it to the ring of his surcingle. A third horse is attached to the right shaft in the same manner whenever a hill is about to be ascended. The traveller has only to make himself as comfortable as possible. Ordinarily he makes an agreement with the birlochero on the day previous to departure, and receives a dollar from the latter as a security for punctual fulfilment of the contract. There is no fixed price. If there be great demand, as at the time of the national festivals, or when families are leaving the capital to pass the summer at the port, forty dollars may be demanded for the journey; if there be an excess of vehicles at either end, they will gladly hire one for twelve. As the carriage holds two persons comfortably, at the latter rate the price for each is about seven and a half cents per mile. If the birlochero gives satisfaction, it is customary to pay for his supper or breakfast on the road; but it is no part of the obligation, and a threat to withhold it often makes the delinquent obedient. Not that he would go without such a meal, for that the owner of the vehicle provides at a fixed rate; but when the traveller foots the bill, the sum allowed is a perquisite, and he has the additional comfort of a more abundant feast. Most natives prefer starting late in the afternoon, and making one third of the journey by seven or eight o'clock, resuming it by three in the morning at latest. This is probably the wisest arrangement; because the hottest part of the day and dust are avoided, and the horses have reasonable rest. Post-houses have never been established; and want of confidence in their subordinates prevents proprietors from having relays on the road, so that all twelve of the horses usually employed in the journey are driven through from city to city, and are changed on the road as required. To take care of the loose herd, there are two other persons besides the birlochero, one of whom is a boy often not larger than an ape, yet who will ride as boldly and throw his lasso as confidently as a more matured individual.

With my head protected by an old slouched hat, and my person comfortably wrapped in a cloak, I started on the journey without a companion. In an hour and a half of pretty steady climbing over a zigzag road, with three horses abreast, we reached the summit of the hills immediately back of the city, and some 1,350 feet above it. Here, a cold and driving mist was encountered. To one unacquainted with the road this rendered objects and distances uncertain; and the fog continuing all night, it obstructed the views that moonlight would have made pleasant. From the highest portion of the hills to a cluster of huts on the eastern side-some three milesthe average descent is only about one hundred feet per mile, though there is a small portion of the road with quite five times that inclination. Then succeeds eight or ten miles of nearly level road across indurated sand destitute of trees; and afterwards-to Casa-blanca, a village thirty miles from Valparaiso-the country is rolling and tolerably well wooded. Casa-blanca

is about eight hundred feet above the sea. Here the birlochero claimed an hour's delay, to enable him to collect his horses in the vicinity; an indulgence which four hours and a half in a cramped position, with alternate showers of mist and dust in my eyes, induced me to yield very readily.

October 26.—One, two, three! hours had passed, and still there was no sound of approaching horses' feet to relieve the impatience each moment rendered more irksome. Tired with alternately pacing the short paved trottoir in front of the posada, and lingering over the old newspapers on its tables, as day began to lighten the dense fog, a start was made with the same animals that had brought us from Valparaiso; I, in ignorance, hoping we should be able to hire fresh horses by the way; the birlochero expecting that his own herd would overtake us before we could reach the first considerable eminence on the plain. Many a time did he look back as he thwacked the tired beasts into a moderate trot, muttering oaths "not loud but deep," and shaking his clenched fist earnestly towards invisible delinquents.

Broad daylight found us still trotting over the slightly rolling plain between hedges made musical by the matins of many birds in their (spring) gala robes, and charming to the sight by flowers of various colors. The air was loaded with the perfume of Acacia cavenia flowers, which are in such profusion that the trees are cut down to repair hedges. By the roadside, the dwellings of the peasantry are of the most comfortless description; mostly a few wattled canes or sticks, thatched with straw, and sometimes plastered with mud, though rarely whitewashed. The occupants are in keeping with them-a swarthy and unwashed race, whose every feature and motion betray want of energy and intelligence. Of moderate height, well formed though small limbs, tolerably prominent cheek-bones, and straight black hair, their origin cannot be mistaken; but these characteristics are not so distinctly marked as among the Peruvian Indians. Huge wagons containing merchandise from the port, or sacks of flour from the mills of the city, were met every mile or two. They were, ordinarily, in trains of four or five wagons, each having an arched thatch roof, covered neatly with raw hide, and being drawn by four or six yoke of well-conditioned oxen. They are kept in tidy and serviceable condition, and the carreteros are neat, well behaved, and good-natured fellows.

Within a little more than three leagues of Casa-blanca begins the ascent of the Cuesta Zapata, the first considerable eminence to be crossed. The road is cut in a winding line in the faces of the hill to an elevation of 1,850 feet above the sea, and its ascent is tedious from either side. Fortunately, near the western base we obtained assistance from a traveller on horseback; and relieving the vehicle from my weight, it was drawn up without much difficulty. At the summit a fresh southwest wind was driving clouds close to the face of the mountain into the eastern valley, and entirely obscuring everything more than a rod or two distant. Of course the birlochero was unable to see whether his reliefs were coming across the plain we had just left. Pushing rapidly down, and then slowly over a rolling country (for our tired beasts could scarcely move), we reached the village of Curacavi to early breakfast. Its distance from Casablanca is 25 miles, from Santiago 28; and the elevation above the sea is 550 feet. Within half an hour our cavalcade overtook us.

Fast and furiously drove the birlochero over the next four leagues, starting multitudes of field-rats and carrion hawks (Caracaras) from their enjoyments by the roadside. Nor did he cease the pace until we had partially ascended the Cuesta Prado, a mountain belonging to the range that bounds the great valley of Chile on the west. The ascent to be overcome from the west side is about 1,700 feet; and, as the slope of the mountain is more rapid than Zapata, the zigzags are shorter and steeper. Alighting, to relieve the horses from my weight and to admire more closely the novel flowers by the roadside, I was amply repaid for the fatigue it occasioned the sun was gaining power, and as his beams touched the ascending volumes of misty vapor they were converted into cumuli, between whose interstices flashed stray pencils of light, that curiously illuminated the dark verdant slope of the opposite ravine.

Taking advantage of a by-path followed by equestrians and cattle, I was able to reach the

summit crossed by the road some time before the carriage. The gradually dispersing mistwreaths had permitted me to anticipate a satisfactory bird's-eye view of the valley we had just traversed; but I was wholly unprepared for the magnificent panorama suddenly unfolded, and for a time could scarcely believe the scene real. Loss of sleep and regular diet had imparted something of nervous excitement to the brain, and the picture offered to it by the retina resembled rather the creation of an artist's fervent imagination, or one of the scenes fitfully offered in the half-waking dreams of a summer morning, than a portion of our matter of fact globe. How majestic, yet how charming, was the view from this elevation of 2,400 feet!

The great Andes, with eternal snow-clad peaks extending as far as the eye could reach, rose to the eastward as a wall before me. Seemingly upheaved at almost regular intervals below the broken and jagged eminences, and as abutments to their grisly sides, there were countless spurs with intermediate dark glens and ravines. Under foot, and winding to the north and south, so as very nearly to meet some of the Andean spurs, was the Western cordillera—its gently swelling curves and verdant sides alternately in light and shadow, as openings of the overhanging.cumuli permitted. Between these chains, and bathed in sunlight, lay a broad and fertile plain exquisitely diversified. Isolated and multiform eminences; the river Maypu and its tributaries, like ribands of silver; rows of tall poplars surrounding the white walls of country seats; groups of peasant travellers enjoying their morning repast beneath the thatched roofs of open road-side huts, near the foot of the Cuesta; horsemen, visible as pigmies, in the distance mid clouds of dust; herds of cattle and sheep quietly browsing the near mountain sides; and in its midst, just perceptible to the unassisted eye, within long shady groves, the great centre of Chilean life, Santiago-all adorn it.

Looking towards the coast, the angular road that descends the almost vertical face of the hill extends in an arrow-like line across a semi-cultivated plain, bounded by analogous ranges of eminences. Caravans of ark-like wagons, with bovine teams, seem scarcely to move along its surface; and were it not for the thin pencils of smoke ascending from scattered cottages, one might fancy it a land of desolation. Nearer at hand the vision is captivated by tall candelabralike cacti, Chaüars (Puyas coarctata), with long drooping leaf-stalks and great spikes of palegreen blossoms; multitudes of evergreens and flowers of every tint, now in the glory of spring luxuriance; and the ear is charmed by the notes of many beauteous feathered songsters:

"All, save the spirit of man, is divine.”

I had rambled out of sight of the road; and the birlochero, unable to comprehend any reason for it, was shouting at the very top of his voice for my return. Apparently, his patience was as much exhausted as mine had been at Casa-blanca; and as he could scarcely take the liberty to vent his anger upon me, the poor and unoffending horses were made victims. In spite of remonstrances, they were lashed into a full run, although we were descending at angles of scarcely less than 15° in sharply turning zigzags. Erect in the stirrups, with poncho and a handkerchief covering his hair flying behind, and his whip-lash whirling overhead, he thundered Jehu-like down the steep at a pace in which a falter or stumble of either horse might have projected us over the precipice at a speed sufficient, perhaps, to keep us revolving as new satellites about the earth, provided the old snow-peaks on the other side of the valley did not arrest us in the first gyration.

There is little to note in the approach to Santiago from the westward. As the supply of water for irrigation is scanty, few country-seats on this side betoken the wealth of its citizens. Midway between the summit of the Cuesta and the city the road crosses the Pudaüel, quite a body of water formed by the junction of the Mapocho and Colina, the united column falling into the Maypu a few leagues to the southwest. Farther on, the plain is very slightly cultivated, and the road dusty, until we enter the suburbs of the capital between rows of the quickgrowing poplar and comfortless hovels of adobes.

Resting for an hour or two, during which the official letters relating to the expedition, as well as those not merely introductory, were despatched, I started for Santa Lucia, the little

rocky hill in the eastern portion of the city which had been indicated by the ambassador at Washington as suitable for our purposes. Though it commanded a most charming panorama, the result of the inspection was far from favorable, because of the vicinity of the Andes, of its somewhat precipitous ascent, and the inevitably tedious and expensive labor required to level sufficient space near its rugged summit. A visit to Cerro Blanco, just on the northern skirts, and another to the plain south of the city, resulted somewhat similarly. There were no suitable accommodations for the officers near enough to either of the latter; and as the last was reputed to be excessively wet during winter, it was wholly unfitted for our purposes. So discouraging appeared to be the prospect of a location at Santiago, that arrangements were made to visit Talca as soon as the government should signify its approbation to our establishment in Chile. But both intelligent natives and resident foreigners well acquainted with the country advised against this, assuring me that while Talca possessed no advantage, so far as distance from the mountains could be considered, it would be impossible to obtain there the facilities which the capital afforded for erecting instruments, or their repair in case of necessity. The last difficulty was of vital moment. Moreover, the foundation of a permanent observatory on the southern portion of the continent was a great desideratum, which could only be obtained, they said, by enlisting influential persons in its behalf. This might require the intervention of two distinct classes-scientific men who would appreciate its utility, and political men to vote the necessary outlay. These could nowhere be found so well as at Santiago, about its university and government.

The action of the Minister for Foreign Affairs was prompt, liberal, and kind. Government recognised the importance and utility of the work we came to perform, and volunteered every facility within its control, viz: a portion of San Lucia should be levelled for our use, if that hill was selected; rooms in the castle should be placed at our control; a guard should be stationed at the observatories for their and our protection; and everything intended for us should be admitted free of duty. These evidences of the strongest good will and most liberal intentions towards us coming in aid of the reasons indicated, there was hesitation no longer; and having decided on making the city our head-quarters, within an hour or two after communicating such intention to the government, intelligence reached me of the arrival of the Louis Philippe at Valparaiso. Luckily for me, the United States had no minister in Chile at the time, and my business could be transacted with the Minister for Foreign Affairs without the formal, tedious, and unnecessarily prosy intervention required by diplomatic etiquette.

Returning to the port immediately, everything was carefully packed for transportation in and on eight of the great wagons of the country; and on the morning of the 9th of November our caravan delivered its assorted cargo at the foot of Santa Lucia, almost uninjured by rough handling and the last eighty miles' journey. Chronometers, barometers, and other delicate instruments, were suspended from the roofs by thongs of hide, guides of cord preventing their lateral motion; and they all arrived safely. The assistants had preceded me some days. Meantime the task of levelling a part of the hill had been placed under charge of the chief of police, who had a large gang at work on the tough porphyritic blocks. Situated in a populous portion of the city, blasting was absolutely prohibited, and the seemingly basaltic masses could only be broken down by building fires and suddenly pouring water on the heated rock, or with iron mauls and wedges-both processes necessarily tedious. But the work was progressing quite "as well as could be expected."

In order to form a terrace of sufficient width for the smaller and rotary observatory, it was necessary to build a wall across a short and steep ravine, and fill between the artificial and natural walls with rocks and earth. But as such a foundation would have been unstable for even the outer edge of a wooden tenement fifteen feet in diameter, the fire-engines were called in requisition to throw up water, for the purpose of settling the soil among the rocks. As it was necessary to wait until Sunday morning for the services of the only persons drilled to their use, this was attended with some difficulty and delay. The engines belong to government, and

are manned by citizens who choose to serve in this capacity rather than in the National Guard; and Sunday morning is their regular period for exercise. But the machines proved insufficient, and the chief of police subsequently caused a supply to be carried as far as the castle on mules, and thence in goat-skins on the backs of peons. Each skin holds from five to six gallons. The first ascent was by a ladder, and thence the vertical height to be overcome is sixty or seventy feet, over an irregular surface of rock, inclined about forty degrees. As the sun was glaringly hot, the labor proved very severe. Stripped as they were, with only pantaloons, hat, and sandals, when the poor fellows deposited their loads beside the excavated trench every muscle of their bodies trembled, and their hearts could be seen throbbing as though they would burst. But the task was accomplished without accident. The little building originally constructed at Washington, and then packed for shipment, was again put together, and on the 6th of December I had the satisfaction to obtain a first look through the telescope erected on its pier.

As the buildings advanced, the curiosity of the people increased, and there were stories of all kinds circulated respecting them. One was that government had imported a new kind of flourmill from America, and these were the two houses-we the millers. Nor was this at all implausible to those who were unable to ascend the hill; for the smaller observatory (as has been said) is circular, and has a conical roof, whose apex is of tin. The latter opens upward, on a hinge at one side, and has also a roof-door, extending from the eaves to the junction with the tin, which opens to something more than a right-angle. As the whole house revolves on balls that move between grooved rails of cast-iron under its sill, when it is whirling round with the doors open, it might readily be thought a mill. Moreover, our stone-mason (something of a wag in his way) assured many good Chilenos that the broad flat stones he was conveying to the summit were to grind flour with! It was rare sport for the boys when permitted to turn the house, and curious enough to see how many grown up boys (and girls too) were desirous to take a fancied ride within it. The flooring on which they stood was permanent; but the illusion was so perfect, that the motion of the house produced giddiness to those within, and in one or two instances, among the ladies, nausea like sea-sickness. Will some M. D. expound the sympathies of the eyes and esophagus?

With the erection of the telescope a new era commenced. The planet Saturn presented a never failing source of admiration and interest to the crowd that assembled every evening about our doors. Where there were so many spectators, all eager to look through the instrument, it was necessary to restrict their view to one object, and close the doors at the hour fixed for the commencement of work. Yet numbers returned several successive evenings to wonder at the new world and its gorgeous system of rings and satellites displayed to them for the first time by us; and for nearly three hours of every evening, during three months, either Lieut. MacRae or myself attended the pleasure of all who came. Rich and poor, old and young, were alike treated with attention; and when all others had had their turn, the sentinel, who stood patiently by the door, was never forgotten. Soon the younger portion of the visitors were desirous to know when the class would be formed and lectures commence;* the older to speculate about the cost of such a beautiful machine: both good symptoms, if the sparks thus elicited could only be nursed into flame. As one of the fruits of our expedition here, I hoped to make it burn brightly, and that we might boast that Santiago through our influence established the first national observatory of South America.

Slow progress was made in obtaining piers for the meridian circle. The instrument required blocks six feet eight inches long, two feet square at the base, and one foot square at top; but, from the imperfect knowledge of blasting possessed by our workmen, it would have been exceedingly difficult to obtain single masses of such dimensions, even had it been possible to elevate

* The ambassador at Washington had advised his government to place some of the best and most advanced students of the National Institute under my direction, that they might learn the use of instruments, and become familiar with astronomical computations. His letter had been printed in the journals of the day, and those who read it doubtless understood my position; but the mass supposed that, like every other foreigner, I had come to make money, and to this end was about to teach astronomy.