suppose they were more particularly gotten up; yet the crowd of grown persons, unaccompanied by children, who may be met in the street near one of these displays, is an evidence that even age receives gratification at the sight. Of course the dolls, fancy ornaments, and toys belonging to the children of friends and neighbors far and wide, are laid under contribution to furnish materials for an exhibition very benevolently thrown open to the public until the festival of the "adoration of the kings."

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CHAPTER VIII.

A VISIT TO THE CACHAPUAL.

ARRIVE AT THE HACIENDA OF A FRIEND.-THE PLAIN OF RANCAGUA.-A CURIOUS HILL.-RANCAGUA.-THE CACHAPUAL.THE POSADA AT THE DEPARTMENTAL CAPITAL.-TRIALS OF A NIGHT.-RETURN TO THE HACIENDA.-TRAVELLING CHILE

FASHION.

April 3.-Left Santiago in company with the engineer of the Copiapó railroad, to visit the river Cachapual, separating the department of Rancagua from the province of Colchagua, at the distance of twenty-two leagues from the capital. During the preceding week the weather had been unusually cool for the season, and greatly more overcast than in the corresponding period of the preceding year, rendering it probable we might anticipate an agreeable temperature by day, even if half stifled with dust on the road. Starting from the city with a relay of five horses, we reached the Maypu near sundown, Mr. C. desiring to examine the newly constructed bridge with a view to its future use for railroad purposes. The stream was lower than when I crossed it in December, presenting, however, the same rapid, muddy, and torrent-like brook as then. A part of the high banks bounding its waters during floods had been thrown down by the earthquake of the preceding morning, and the walls of the neighboring houses had also been injured to some extent; but the strong stone abutments and piers had not experienced the least damage, and the lattice-framed superstructure of wood had proved too flexible to be strained by the undulations of the earth. Indeed, from the accounts of the toll-receivers, and the visible effects of the phenomenon, it was concluded that we were without the eastern line of maximum disturbance—a fact of which the diminishing number and extent of broken walls, as we had drawn nearer the Andes, had duly warned me.

We were most kindly and hospitably welcomed at the hacienda of the friend with whom a week had been passed so pleasantly in December; and being the first persons whom they had seen from the city since the earthquake, we were soon busy answering the thousand questions which the vivid memories of its violence suggested. The mansion had been terribly shaken; its walls broken; and one of the ladies-a visitor-in her efforts to escape impending danger, was very considerably injured by a fall. As the results of this earthquake have been detailed in Chapter IV, PART I, no further mention need be made of it here than to say, that the ladies continued so alarmed that they slept with doors partially open, and every preparation for instant flight. True, there were still shocks every hour or two; and at the commencement some of them were sufficiently violent to cause the most serious apprehension. Instead of decreasing with the frequency of their repetition, the terror they inspire augments in rapid ratio: one cannot become "used to them.

Soon after daylight next morning we were off again in the birlocho, and at sunrise had reached the Angostura de Payne. The first beams were just illuminating the snow-peaks of the cordillera del Diamante and the cliffs that towered on either hand beside us, whilst the limpid stream of the gorge was rendered more darkly blue by reflection from a vertical sky wholly unclouded. The plain extends rapidly to the east and west soon after clearing the defile, presenting the same general characteristics that mark the basin to the northward; though the eye does not fail to detect its more general cultivation, as well as a change in the number and variety of the trees. For the first league the gently rising road winds along the base of the western range, frequently crossing the narrow stream. Of a sudden the mountain chain bends away to the southwest, the current flows more from the direction of the Andes, and the high

way continues direct towards the south, over a surface soon again declining in the same line. There are neither towns nor villages along it until Rancagua is reached, and not a great many dwellings, except those of the poorer classes; but surrounded by such scenery, the large number of travellers, of carts loaded with agricultural products, and of mule-trains going to and returning from Santiago (apart from their dust), rendered the route pleasant and attractive. Attractive it was, even with the inconvenience of dust; for the land is surprisingly productive, and its fields of maize and melons of different kinds, not less than the equipages and costumes of the motley travellers passing over it, could not fail to claim attention. Midway between the Angostura and Rancagua there is a hemispherical hill to the left of the road, of a strikingly regular form. It rises from the plain to a height of between 300 and 400 feet suddenly and almost without slope, its surface covered at intervals of a few feet with a net-work of lines intersecting each other diagonally. It is not on one side of the hill only that these lines are visible, but the whole surface is traced with them; and from the road they are not unlike paths made by goats or other small animals by constant use. The regularity of their intersection, however, would forbid such a supposition, even were there such a multitude of these animals hereabout.

Halting only to obtain breakfast at a wayside posada, Rancagua was reached about half-past ten in the morning. This town is very prettily situated nearly midway between the Andes and Western cordilleras, on an elevated portion of the plain, a mile or perhaps half a league to the north of the river Cachapual. At a little distance it appears to be quite a charming village, with steeples and an alameda on the outskirts; but when one comes to drive through its streets, solitude, poverty, and dirt dispel the pictures imagination had drawn. There are four or five streets, half a mile long, from north to south, intersected by others at right angles, and dividing the town into squares of about 150 yards each way. Only the central north and south streets are closely built up. Here are the public square and two churches. In one of the latter the patriot army under O'Higgins took shelter from an assault by the royalists; and the holes made by the balls of the attacking party are preserved as patriotic souvenirs. A force numbering, at the outset, more than four to one, had finally driven the patriots to the buildings about the plaza, cut off their supply of water, and reduced their number to 250 men capable of bearing arms. After a resistance of thirty-six hours, their leader finding himself wounded, and that it would be impossible to contend longer, the little band cut through their enemies and escaped to the capital unpursued.

There are also a prison and a military guard-house on the plaza, a vijilante or two about the streets during the day, and at night some pretensions to lighting and serenos. Some of the houses are of good size, and apparently are as well built as those at Santiago; but in the whole town there was not one that had glazed windows, or, if so, it eluded a special search for it made by Mr. C. and myself. There were quite a number of stores in the principal street, with a due quota of shops occupied by artisans; but silence and inactivity seem to mark the population more than at the capital. Even at sunset its pretty alameda-the two extremities appropriately terminated with the Araucanian pine and native palm-attracted only ourselves and two dirty-faced boys, whom we found dabbling in the acequia by which its trees are watered. We had been warned that but little could be expected at the inn, and hoped to obtain more comfortable quarters. To this end letters had been supplied us for the governor, from whom a kind invitation had been extended to me some months previously; and it was unfortunate for us that he had gone north several days before. This proved the more vexatious because we had been advised to depend on him for the horses and guide we should need in visiting the river, and there were no animals to be hired. Here was a predicament! It seemed incredible to be in a town of Chile having nearly 3,000 inhabitants, almost every man of whom owned a horse, and yet there be none to hire. Yet such was the result of our inquiry; and there was no alternative but to use the tired beasts of the birlocho. After no little perseverance and

much patience a pair of saddles were hired, for the remainder of the day, at a dollar each, and with our driver as guide, a start was made.

Like the Mapocho and Maypu in the dry season, the Cachapual is only a mountain brook formed by melting snows. After the ground has become saturated by winter rains, it rises and widens to a mile where the main road intersects it. As there are no bridges, it is of course impassable at the latter stage of the water. For a league above and below Rancagua (the limits of our ride), the north shore is a high and perpendicular bank, on which various lines show the heights attained by freshets. The southern boundary is so low that extraordinary floods often change the shore-line half a mile or more, threatening the valley in that direction with overflow. Its bed is a mass of sand and gravel rolled from elevations of the Andes. Half a league above the town, a rounded porphyritic hill rises from the river to a height of quite 200 feet. Originally this appears to have formed a part of the Andean spur, now terminating 300 yards to the south, and from which it has been separated by the action of water. The main volume at the time of our visit passed between them, though there had evidently been a large stream north of the hill within quite a few weeks. Above and below the little islet-for such it really is-the sand formed by attrition of the rock is deposited in lines covered with vegetation of various characters, a part of it of several years' growth proving that the freshets are not uniformly violent. There is a beautiful view in every direction over the plain from the top of Gorocoipo-the islet. It extends from the snow-tipped cordilleras of Rancagua, along the course of the stream by the baths of Cauquenes, to the gradually sloping ridges of the western range, through which it penetrates to the ocean, and from the Angostura de Payne in the north to the limit of vision across the plain to the S.S.W. In its tall cacti and innumerable Chaüars, with their towering spikes of pale-green flowers, the islet itself is not without interest; yet, as in almost all the scenery of Chile, the picture wants life and animation. As I looked upon it, I could but hope that with the thunder of the locomotive across this noble valley, there will come into existence a race more imbued with enterprise and energy-a people more competent to the development of its vast and incomparable agricultural wealth.

After picking our way along the stony paths for four or five hours, traversing the noisy stream at every hundred yards or so, miserable as it was in appearance, and inattentive as its proprietor had proved at our arrival, we were glad to get back to the posada. Such were the effects of heat and dust and fatigue in reconciling one to discomforts. Before leaving the village in the morning, dinner had been ordered for the hour at which we expected to return; but on ascertaining that Mr. C.'s examination would be completed earlier, the guide was sent back in the hope that his warning would expedite the repast. However, we had literally "reckoned without our host," as we were duly notified on requesting the meal to be served. There had been too many trials of patience during the day to permit a trifle to vex us; and as there was abundance of cool water to refresh the outward man, and a glass of fragrant Italia to comfort the inner, we awaited the pleasure of our landlord's cook with becoming equanimity. Afterwards, ten minutes or less of walking enabled us to pass from one extremity of the principal street to the other; and the alameda was perambulated in a like period, bringing us back towards the posada as the bell was being rung for vespers at the church on the plaza. There was nothing to do-not even a paper to read-and we fell into the stream of women going towards the church, hoping there would be an opportunity to see some of the beauties and fashionables of Rancagua. In this, too, we were disappointed. The little edifice was only relieved from almost cimmerian darkness by a wax taper or two; and in order to make room for new-comers, a snappish and growling priest pushed the women towards the altar, whilst their terror of earthquakes induced them to prefer remaining near the door. Even the music was execrable; and to encounter the odors and risks from contact with our own sex around, were rather heavy demands for the probable religious benefits we should derive from remaining long under the voice of so unamiable a curate.

Though there was not a pane of glass belonging to the inn, nor other apertures in either

dining-room or chambers than the doors of entrance, it boasted quite a respectable billiardtable; and as the game is a favorite amusement in all Spanish countries, we fully calculated on seeing something of the younger part of society at least, if not to divert ourselves during the early part of the evening. In this, too, we were destined to be deceived; and as there were few answers to be obtained to questions, except quien sabe? there was the less hesitation to court "nature's sweet restorer" at the earliest reputable hour. Alas! for man's good intentions. Our beds were in the same little room, and had only occupied attention when a servant asked if they should be prepared for us; a question not so superfluous as one who does not know Chile might suppose. Nine of every ten persons convey beds and bedding, put up in an almofrez, whenever they travel off the road between Valparaiso and the capital; and probably the larger number of travellers, to avoid heat and dust, start on their journeys about nightfall.

It was only when the light had been extinguished that we became aware the bedsteads had not been made for six-footers; but as we had seen that they were apparently clean, and meant to be up and off in six or seven hours, it was not a matter worth complaining of or trying to change. Mine was of iron, with narrow bars across it only at every twelve or fifteen inchessomewhat like a mammoth gridiron; and as the mattress was evidently no thicker than a stout board, every bar left its impression across the body. If I attempted to lie doubled, the hip-bone was in a most uncomfortable position over a bar, or my feet thrust the end of the mattress between the last bar and the bottom of the bedstead, leaving an aperture a foot wide; and so I finally accommodated myself diagonally-pushing my head through a space in the ornamental work of the top, and my feet through another at the bottom. Not the most eligible position from which to make a sudden escape in an earthquake, though it was by no means despicable to a man who had not slept a moment during the preceding night, and whose companion on the opposite side of the room—already in the land of forgetfulness-inspired the most lively envy to imitate so good an example. But I was soon made sensible that there were other occupants of the bed; and as my nimble companions sprang from point to point for a fresh vein to tap, it soon became a serious matter how to move quick enough in efforts to secure them, and yet not scrape the skin off forehead and feet. What a predicament!

An hour or two of this exercise in the darkness was sufficient, and a light was struck to facilitate the hunt, when the game appeared so numerous and agile that my only apparent chance of running them down was to take each article to the door and shake it in the patio. Although others soon found me, I was completely wearied out; but towards 2 A. M., just as memory was reeling, there came trembling on the air the first vibrations of the unmistakable rumble which precedes an earthquake, and I was startled to full sensibility again. As the earliest and alarming spasmodic shiver was beneath us, Mr. C. and myself simultaneously sprang for the lucifer matches, not knowing whether the walls were to be heaped over us or not. The shock was short, and as the murmur of its agitating voice died in the distance we again composed ourselves for a nap, my bedfellows being enabled to return to their feast with appetite sharpened by the respite they had had. It was probably three o'clock. Nature would no longer be cheated of her due. Alternate instants of sleep and wakefulness satisfied me that slumber was fast obtaining the mastery, when, in one of the latter intervals, there was a sudden and heavy crash, inducing belief that the house had been destroyed by an earthquake. We again sprang from bed, and by the time a light was obtained there was a vivid and blinding flash, quickly followed by a repetition of the peal, telling that a thunder-storm was raging near us. Rain followed in a little while, and fell with great violence.

Sleep and disposition to slumber were gone. The beating of the heavy drops on the tiled roofs, instead of soothing, tended only to excite nervousness, and we talked through the other hours of darkness. When daylight came-determined though we were to risk many discomforts on the road for the sake of getting away-there was no prospect of relief from the scene of trials. Rain fell in torrents, and the clouds were drifting low down in the valleys; nor was there such a cessation in the storm as justified our starting until near noon. Even then, for several hours, we