criT) --13 —^ (^acnell Uniuecattg Slibtacg Stifuta. Hew fork CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library G 440.H65 Over the sea and far away :belng a narra 3 1924 023 252 798 I Cornell University fj Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023252798 If %//^ ^•■>f WMDEEINGS EOUKD TEE WOELD LOSDON : PUINTED" BY SPOTTISWOODB AHD CO., MEW-STREET SIJUAttK ASD PARLIA^IENT STUEET Bridal Veil Fall, Yosemiti; Frontispiece. OVER THE SEA AND FAE AWAY BEING A NARBATIVB OF WANDERINGS ROUND THE WORLD BY THOMAS WOODBINE HINCHLIFF, M.A., F.E.G.S. PRESIDENT OF THE ALPINE CLUB AUTUOil Off ' SUMMEB MONTHS AMONG THE ALPS ' * SOUTH AMERICAN SKin'CHUS ' ETC. 'PER DIES FESTOS IN REMOTO GRAMINE '— /fomce WITH FOURTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS ESQRAVEI) ON WOOD BY O. PEARSON FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND SKETCHES / LONDON LONGMANS, GKEEN, AND CO. 1876 Gk TO WILLIAM HENEY EAWSON, ESQ. 'THE FOXraTDBE OF THE FEAST' THIS EECORD OF PLEASANT AND SUCCESSFUL WANDEEINGS BOUND THE WOKLD IN COMPANY WITH HIS SON WITH THE VEEY KIND EEGAEDS OF THEIR SINCERE FEIEND THE AUTHOR PREFACE. In the Autumn of 1873 I had a very welcome opportunity of starting upon a journey round the world in company with Mr. W. H. Rawson ; and we took so erratic a course that, though the world is generally supposed to be only about 24,000 miles in circumference, we succeeded in traversing nearly 36,000 miles of ocean, in addition to spending about six months in sojourns and expeditions among the terrestrial regions of the earth. Two principal reasons have induced me to venture upon publishing an account of our travels. Former visits had made me familiar with the forest-depths of the country about the beautiful Organ Mountains of Brazil, with, the palm-crowned rolling hills of the Banda Oriental, and with all the delights of shooting and galloping over the boundless Pampas of the Argentine Republic. I had, however, never before seen the wonders of the Straits of Magellan, with glaciers falling into the sea; I had neither VIU PREFACE. seen nor imagined the stupendous peaks of the Andes looking down upon the plains of Chile and Peru; nor had I any sufficient idea of the wonders and curiosities of the whole Pacific coast, its multitudinous fish and birds, its arid hills and earthquake-smitten cities. After having seen all these things, and been enabled to compare the Pacific with the Atlantic side of a neglected continent, I felt irresistibly tempted to say something concerning it, with the view of, if possible, persuading others to see what I myself intensely enjoyed, and to avoid following the example of the great majority of modern travellers, who, for some unknown reasons, appear almost unani- mously to exclude South America from their programme. My other reason is, that there appeared to me to be abundant room for a further and more detailed account of the natural aspect of many of the countries which we were fortunate enough to visit, especially with regard to their scenery, their flowers, ferns, and forests. The taste for these matters is, I hope and believe, advancing rapidly; and, though I have refrained from giving long and per- haps wearisome catalogues of plants, yet I have endea- voured from time to time to call attention to some of the most remarkable of those which give a distinct tone and individuality to the countries in which they are found. Moreover, having convinced myself in these and in many other wanderings of every variety, from the tops of lofty PREFACE. IX mountains to the recesses of the Tropical forest, that even a slight knowledge of plants doubles the pleasure of travelling, I gladly impress the fact upon others. It adds a new charm to every delightful scramble, and gives con- tinual interest even to what might otherwise be considered a dull walk. I enjoyed our Spring rambles in California even more than I could have expected. The wonders of the Yose- mit^ Valley, the sublimity of the forests, the shining snows of the Sierra Nevada, the lovely hills of the Coast ranges, and the vast regions of park-like land clothed in sheets of innumerable flowers, all combine to form a picture of beauty and magnificence which can never fade from the memory of the fortunate beholder. In the short time which has passed since our visit to Japan, many changes are already reported to have taken place; and I understand that greater facilities are given to those who wish to travel in the interior. There are, however, m.any other changes in full operation, which will be far less acceptable to lovers of the curious and the pic- turesque. Fortunately, nothing can take away the exquisite charm and beauty of the country itself, and I hope that no- thing will impair the amiable simplicity of the masses of the people. Nevertheless, if anybody contemplates a journey to Japan, he may be very sure that the sooner he goes the better he. will like it. Let him take his strong boots. X PREFACE. and say if he ever enjoyed anything more than a walking tour in the hilly region which we visited. The Illustrations are chiefly taken from photographs, which have been carefully engraved by Mr. George Pearson ; but I am indebted for the mountain view from Santiago in Chile to the well-known pencil of my friend, Mr, William Simpson, who made the drawing from a pen- and-ink sketch taken by myself upon the spot; and the engraving of the Bridal Veil Fall is taken from a picture painted by the same artist, and kindly lent by Mr. William Longman for the purpose. T. W. HINCHLIFF. Lincoln's Inn Fieles: March 1876. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Start for Brazil — Teneriffe and the Grand Canary — St. Vincent — Pernam- buco — Bahia — Rio de Janeiro — The Royal Palms — The Imperador Moth — Off to Petropolis — The Organ Mountains — A Delightful Garden— Vegetation of the Hills — Fern-hunting — Road to Juiz da Fora — Agassiz and Glacial Action — Speed of the Mules — Rough Method of breaking them in — Hum- ming-birds — Araucarias and Gigantic Aloes .... Page 1 CHAPTER II. Valley of the Retire — A direful Spider — Evening — Entrerios and Palmeiras — Ferns and Palniitos — Feather-flowers — Sail in the ' Neva ' — Storm at night — Arrival at Buenos Ayres — Great changes — Railway progress — The ' Oamp ' revisited — Owls and biscachas — Reports of Cholera — The magnificent 'Luxor ' — Arrival of the ' Eothen ' — Excursions to Ensenada and Ohascomus —A brilliant shot . . Page 26 CHAPTER III. Quarantine — The Bern ex machind — The Pampero at night — Start in the ' Eothen' — ' Seeing the New Year in' at sea — Cruelty in hoisting cattle — The Straits of Magellan— Sea-birds and wonders of the Kelp — The tragedy of Sandy Point — Snow Mountains and Glaciers — Cape Pillar — -Albatrosses and bad weather — Ooronel — The Gardens and Smelting Works of Lota — Arrival at Valparaiso Page 47 Xll- CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. The Cochrane statue — ' EarthquaMa ' — The suhiirhs of Valparaiso — BviildiBg materials — Foi-hvmting — Ohacabuco revels — DeUghtful climate — Railway to Santiago — Fruit — ^The bell of Quillota — Llai-Llai — Moonlight effects — The highest station — The plain of Santiago — Ajrival hy night — The Grand Hotel Santa Lucia and view of the Cordillera — Aconcagua and Tupungato^WiU they ever he ascended ? Page 72 CHAPTER V. The Alameda of Santiago — Precautions against fire — ^\S'hat became of the Jesuit Church — Remains of the dead — ^Bismarck in South America — A model farm in Chil& — Climate and Irrigation — ^Baths of Oauquenes — Thrash- ing wheat — Refreshments at Rancagua — ^A strange coach-and-four — The Hot Springs — Golden Adiantum — A view in the hiUs — Great Aconcagua — Return to Valparaiso Page 95 CHAPTER VI. On board the 'Santa Rosa' — A Pleating Fair — Porpoises on St. Valentine's Day — Ooquimbo and Serena — ^Huasco Grapes — Mountains of Melons — Countless Pelicans — Luminous Fish — A ' Little Revolution ' in Bolivia — Iquique and Arica — Arica Mummies — MoUendo and Islay — Scorpion-fight — Peruvian Soldiers — Remarkable situation of Quilca — Astonished Whales — The Chincha Islands — Callao Page 119 CHAPTER VII. First view of Lima — The Cathedral — ^Thoughts of Pizarro — Origin of the name of Lima — Climate of Lima — ^The Watershed of Peru — Breakfast at Chorillos — Fruits and Flowers — ^The Exhibition Building — Fair Ladies — The Alameda Nueva — Return of Rosito — Payta and bad news &om Panama — Crossing the Equator again — ' Old Boots ' — A Haunt of the Buccaneers — ^Arrival at Panama Page 147 CHAPTER VIII. Great Fire at Panama — Difficult boating — The effect of Judge Lynch The miseries of the 'Ai-izona' — 'Dipping' — The Barber's Shop on board — St. Jos^ de Guatemala — Ohamporico not to be found — Acapulco — Rubbed with a JeUy-fish — ^Mexican atrocities — The Whale and the ' Thrasher ' Doings of Brigands — Mazatlan — Sharp change of Climate — Cape St. Lucas A lonely Post-office — Towing the ' Colima ' to San Francisco — The Golden (^ate Page 169 CONTI'.N'TS. XIU CHAPTER IX. Good living at San Francisco — ' Oldest Inhabitants ' — ^Living by Bears — I'ro- gress of Good Taste — Splendid Lupines — Cliff House and the Sea-lions — The Redwood Tree — Wild Flowers — ^Berkely University — Buildings in Earthqualria — ^The ' Heathen Ohinee ' — A Chinese Theatre — ^The Chinese Immigration — The Mission Church of Dolores — ^Detestable Tramways — Californian Hospitality Page 196 CHAPTER X. A good pace over the Bay — Oalistoga — The ' dare-devil ' Coachman of California — Corn and Wine — Poison-oak — Piue Flat and a Tragedy — A long jolting to the Geysers — Close to Gehenna — Xothiug to eat — White Sulphur Springs — A Happy Valley — Californian Quail — The Poison-oak again — Return to San Francisco Pa^e 220 CHAPTER XI. Geographical comparison of Chile with California — Start for the Yosemit^ — Judging distances — Deserted Diggings — ^Lonely Chinamen near Mariposa — Skelton's — A lively Mule in the Forest — The 'Devil's Gulch' and the 'Bishop's Creek' — Hite's Cove and the Miners — The Demi-john defunct — ' A Miners' Inn — ^The Mule beaten — Fallen Rocks — Arrival in Yosemite Valley Page 242 CHAPTER XII. The Yosemite Valley — Its discovery — Indians — Size of the Valley — Inspiration Point and the Domes — Theories of formation — Erosion or Subsidence — The ' Bridal Veil ' — El Capitan — Leidig's Hotel — The great Yosemite Fall — The Sentinel Rock — The work of ancient Ice — The Mii-ror Lake — Avalanche Snow — Comparative Scenery — Return to Mariposa and Merced . Page 26" CHAPTER XIII. Stockton and Milton — Fine drive to Murphy's — ' Trap-door ' Spiders — ' Shakes ' ■ — The Big Trees of Calaveras — Cutting down a Giant — The ' Mother of the Forest' — The Prairie Owl — The Rising Generation — Sacramento City — Fare- well to California — The Farallon Islands — Sea-lions and countless Birds — A Flying Escort across the Pacific — John Chinaman on board — ' Perdidi Diem ' — Our Escort departs — Arrival at Yokohama . . . Page 203 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. First view of Yokoliama — Substitutes for Oabs — Lilium Auratum— Start for the Interior — Our Head Ooolie — Pelted with Blossoms — ^The ' Plains of Heaven' — Kanasawa — Kamakura,'and the Temple of Hachimon — Daihootz — — Disestablishment of Buddhism— What the Priests thought of it — Popular Religion — Will they break their toys ? — ^The Holy Island of Inoshima — Eace into Fuji-sawa — A break-down — The Treaty Limit — Town of Oda- waraa — Abundance of Ferns — Destruction of Hata — A Native Gentleman — View of Hakoni Page 3] 7 CHAPTER XV. The Lake of Hakoni — Running Postmen — Sulphur Baths — Meauoshita — Appa- rition of Mat — ^The ' Good Gardener ' — The Baths — ^Two-man Ginrikishas — Native Curiosity — Tattooing — A touch of Earthquake — A dangerous Bridge — Excursion to Totska — Oaves and Tumblers — Japanese Executions — The Tomb of Win Adams — His story — A Tattoo-Professor — Railway to Yeddo — Temples of Shiba — ^The ' Hundred Steps ' — New Fashions — The Invisible Prince — Tombs of the Shoguns — ^Temple at Asaku&a — The merciful Kuanuu — Binzuru — A Japanese Tussaud — Miracles of Kuanon . . Page 346 CHAPTER XVI. Departm-e from Yokohama — Waterfall at Hiogo — The Inland Sea — Countless Fishing-boats — Straits of Simonosaki— The Cathedral Rock — Nagasaki — Cruel method of Coaling a Ship — Farewell to Japan — A Japanese Pilot — His Powers of Drinking — Arrival at Shanghae — Chinese Heat at Midsummer — A Boat at Midnight — Voyage to Hong Kong, and View of Formosa — Flora of Hong Kong — ^The ' Happy Valley ' — Fresh Ferns^Crossing the Island to Little Hong Kong — A Hot Beach — Wild Pine-apples — Lychees and Mangosteens — Expected Typhoon — Visit to Canton — Chinese Gardens — Catastrophe of the ' Spark ' Pag-e 373 CHAPTER THE LAST. Sights in Canton — Temple of the Five Genii — Temple of the Five Hundred Gods — Chinese Shopkeepers — Goldsmiths — ' Dogmeat ' and ' Oatmeat ' — A Broken Bottle — The City Walls — Chinese Cleverness— Farewell to Hong Kong — Thoughts of Cambodia — Singapore — Divers — Botanical Gardens — A Mixed Crew — Penang — Myriads of Cocoa-nuts — ^The Atchinese — The Mon- soon — Cej'lon — The Cinnamon-Gai-dens — Great Rascals — Homeward-bound — The Milky Sea — Heat in the Red Sea — The Suez Canal — Alexandria — Home Again ... Page 305 LIST OF liLLUSTEATIONS Brtdal Veil Fail, Yosemit£ Frontispiece (From a Picture by William Simpson, Esq.) Sfmmek Palace at Peikopolis, Brazil The Ttjptjn&ato Group, prom Santiago, in Chile (From a Drawing by William Simpson, Esq.) The Baths of CAuauENis, in Chile . Sea Bikbs, on the Coast os Peru Sea-Lions, near San Francisco . The Dome and Halp Dome, Yosemiij6 Valley The YosEMiTi; Valley and Sentinel Kock The Foot op a 'Big Tree'. FujTTAMA, Japan Daibooiz at Kamakitka, Japan . View on the way to Hakoni, Japan . The ' Good Gardener ' op Japan at Home The Oinnamon-Gakdens in Ceylon . to face p 10 00 J? 112 125 T> 204 )T 272 »? 270 )> 302 „ 316 Ji 331 )} 342 }J 351 411 OYEE THE SEA AND FAR AWAY. CHAPTER I. A Start for Brazil — Teneriffe and tlie Grand Canary — St. "Vincent — Pernam- ■buco — Bahia — Rio de Janeiro — The Royal Palms — The Imperador Moth — OiF to Petropolis — The Organ Mountains^A Delightful Garden— Vegetation of the Hills — Fern-hunting — Road to Juiz da Fora — Agassiz and Glacial Action — Speed of the Mules — Rough Method of hreaking them in — Hum- ming-hirds — Araucarias and Gigantic Aloes. ' Over the sea ! Over the sea ! ' What words of magic charm to those who love the sea as I do in all its moods and fancies, and who never enjoy any prospect with more unmixed satisfaction than that of a run to Southampton with a couple of portmanteaus, and the purpose of start- ing next day across the Ocean ! The Eoyal Mail ship ' Douro ' was already an old friend when we stepped on board her on October 9, 1873, for I was one of a party who had two years previously made a voyage in her to Rio de Janeiro ; and I hoped this might be a favourable omen for a successful journey round the world. It is impossible to mention a pleasanter route with which to begin such a journey, but yet there seems an astonishing prejudice in the popular mind against having anything to do with South America. The ordinary Eng- lishman seems disposed to confuse all the different States of B 2 THE ' DOURO.' the whole continent in one mass of danger, and imagines that, if he does not get his throat cut, he is bound to die of the yellow fever. Owing to these, and perhaps other equally ridiculous delusions, the fact remains that very few people go there, except those who are bound by commercial or professional ties ; and, as far as my own experience goes, I may say that I have been ten times into and out of Rio harbour, from north and south, in various years, and, excepting my own companions, I never had a fellow-pas- senger who was travelling for pleasure only. So much the better for those who do go to those beautiful regions ; there is no appearance at present of that crowd of tourists which is gradually destroying the pleasure of seeing some of the fairest regions of the earth. Outside the Isle of Wight we ran into a very heavy swell, left behind by a gale of wind, and for the first two days the ' Douro ' danced a lively measure, which thinned the ranks of the passengers at feeding-time ; at night there were sounds as if all the glass and crockery were being smashed, but the casualties were found to be very slight when morning came. I had an after cabin near the screw, where, of course, the motion was rather vio- lent, and the captain told me a story of a man very fond of hunting, who once had the same berth in similar weather, and who, on being asked next day if he had managed to sleep there, replied, ' Oh yes, first-rate, and I dreamt all night that I was jumping over hedges and ditches.' After this, a glassy sea bore us into Lisbon, where we wandered about for a few hours, and said good- bye to Europe in the afternoon. Two or three days afterwards, in the early morning, we passed between THE GRAND CANARY. 6 Tenei'iffe, about twemy-five miles distant on the star- board, and the Grand Canary Island much nearer on the port side. As the sun rose, the Peak came out splendidly clear of clouds, and clothed in snow towards the summit, while the Grand Canary presented a very remarkable sight. The lofty and fantastic forms of the central vol- canic mountains were draped in the gloomy blackness of a storm cloud, discharging deluges of rain, from the very edge of which a long headland, ending in a steep preci- pice to the sea, was shining serene and golden in the morning sun. After three days more of violet seas, just broken into crests by the sweet breath of the north-east trade wind, with frightened flying-fish skimming over the waves in all directions, whales rolling like barges turned topsy- turvy, and merry porpoises running races as if for dear life against the ship, we found ourselves at St. Vincent, in the Cape de Verde Islands, on the tenth day from England. This island is frequently without rain for two or three years together, and I had always seen it looking like a red, burnt-up mass of hills, culminating in rough and irregular volcanic rocks. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw a good deal of it touched with a delicate green, as the result of unwonted showers. "We went on shore at the invitation of Mr. Miller, the late Consul there, and practical king of the island, who kindly showed us over his factories and vast coal-stores, which, together with the security of the harbour, form the sole raison d'itre of St. Vincent. It is, in fact, a harbour combined with a gigantic coal-cellar, for all the steamers that run up and down the Atlantic. The dirty operation of coaling B 2 4 FEENANDO NORONHA. ■went on all day, while the ship was surrounded by boats full of young niggers and half-breeds, who spend their lives in diving for sixpences and shillings, in water which is so clear that a plate can be seen at fifty feet below the surface. The love of gain even overcame the fear of sharks, which must have been near, for two half-grown ones were caught from the deck in the course of the day. As a proof of the advance of the English lan- guage, I observed that one of the darkies, who probably called himself John Brown, had painted JOHN BROON SBOTE on the stern of 'his own canoe.' Four days later we crossed the Equator in the coolest weather I ever knew in the same position. A fresh easterly breeze just capped with foam the deep violet sea, and nothing could on this occasion have been less appli- cable to the equatorial belt than the usual sailor's sobriquet of the ' doldrums.' We passed the island of Fernando Noronha, a Portuguese convict settlement, on the 25th, and saw its wonderful obelisk of rock, which rises up exactly in the form of a lighthouse to such a height that I have seen it from fifty miles across the sea. This is the scene of a recent picture in the ' Illustrated News,' which showed us the sea serpent rising out of the water and taking a ' double turn ' round a whale, which he then dragged down to the bottom of the ocean. Credat Judceus 1 The next morning found us at Pernambuco, with its exquisitely green cocoa-nut palms coming down to the edge of the sea. This place is renowned for its pine-apples, which are among the finest in the world, and happened on this occasion to be even cheaper than usual. We got very good ones, weighing about six pounds, for MARKET AT BAHIA. 5 half a milrei, or one shilling apiece ; but I have seen them very much, larger, and have heard on good authority of their being sometimes grown at Para and Peniambuco to the weight of fifteen or twenty pounds. Three days more brought us to Bahia, where we went on shore in time for breakfast, and then walked up the hill to smoke a cigar under the dense shade of mangoes and jack-fruit trees at a point which commanded a view of the city and shipping below us and the magnificent bay around. It is scarcely possible to pass Bahia without laying in a stock of humming-birds and beetles, and it is the best place to buy them. Everyone who is not much afraid of evil smells should walk through the markets and amuse himself by bargaining for mangoes, oranges, or marmoset monkeys with the laughing negresses, who in the most brilliant coloured dresses and turbans preside over the stalls and chatter merrily. I suppose it was the wrong season for the navel-oranges which I had always been accustomed to find at Bahia, and which are such a speci- alite of the place that they deserve a word in passing. They are almost as large as pomeloes, and the pips are collected in an excrescence on the outside, so that the inside is simply a mass of delicious juicy flesh without any of the leathery divisions which form the only drawback to the delights of an ordinary orange. Very early in the morning of the 31st we passed be- tween the fort and the Sugarloaf Mountain and went into Rio de Janeiro, after heavy rains which had not yet cleared the sky of vapours dense enough to spoil the beauty of the view. I must not dwell here too much on the charms of Rio scenery, as I endeavoured to describe the Atlantic b WANT OF HOTELS. side of South America more fully some years ago ; ' and must merely confine myself to matters not then described or more recently changed. One remark, however, I must make now as I did then, though it does not come under either of these definitions. The miserable want of decent hotel accommodation I found just as conspicuous as it was a dozen years before; and it is hard to believe that in a city of four or five hundred thousand inhabitants, with immense commercial interests, there is only one hotel, the ' Estrangeros,' that is in any way worthy of the name ; and that the others are hardly equal to a third-rate inn in any provincial town of Europe. The ' Estrangeros' even is far away from the business centres, and is yet in such demand that there is generally very littte chance of getting a room there without engaging it about a fortnight beforehand. We took up our quarters at the ' Nova York,' which is the remains of McDowall's original estab- lishment, and we had hardly been a quarter of an hour in the house before I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Gun- ning, one of our best Rio friends in 1871, and the ablest cicerone for the whole neighbourhood. Under his guidance we had then ascended the strange peak of the Corcovado, which, though only 2,400 feet above the sea, commands an astonishing view, and is the best point for comprehending the whole surrounding country. From the city and from the sea it looks perfectly inacces- sible, and yet we took two ladies to the top without fatio-ue and horses can go safely to within a short distance of the summit. The upper half of the mountain is a perpen- dicular precipice of granite, except on one side, where a • ■' South American Sketches.' 1863. A MONSTER MOTH. 7 very good path winds upwards through a shady forest. Here I saw what, for a moment, I mistook for a bird coming right at me with something hlie the jerky flight of a woodcock just flushed; but it proved to be only a very large Imperador moth. This species of moth is the largest of any I have seen, either alive or in collections, some specimens being from ten to twelve inches across their spotted pale brown wings. A great variety of ferns ornament the sides of the road, amongst which were two lovely species of Lindsoea, which were quite new \o me, but the fern collector has to be careful about snakes, for we saw several, and killed two in a very short time. The Botanical Garden is near the base of the Corcovado, and its famous avenue of royal palms is a truly magnificent sight. One of the many tramways lately established for the convenience of the city, runs thither in little more than an hour. The change made by these institutions has been very great indeed. When I knew Rio formerly, carriages were excessively expensive; and as the place is too hot for much walking, people seldom moved more than they were obliged, to move : now the tram-cars are full all day with people going in every direction, and numbers of clerks and men of business are enabled to sleep in the lovely suburbs, amidst groves of oranges and gardens full of brilliant flowers, instead of being cooped up in the city itself. The receipts of the companies must be very large and the expenses small. Their tickets serve as small change, which is a great convenience in a country where there is nothing but paper money, with the exception of copper dumps, a cumbrous exaggeration of our extinct cartwheel penny-pieces. 8 THE EOYAL PALM. The car stops at the very gate of the garden, where a startling effect is always awaiting a visitor for the first time. An avenue of one-third of a mile in length is formed by a double row of cabbage-palms ( Oreodoxa regia) lining the broad path which intersects the garden. These noble palms are a hundred feet high, and have grown with such marvellous regularity that their crowns meet in a continuous arch, as if composed of glorified Corin- thian capitals. There is a shorter similar avenue at right angles to the first; and in clear weather it is a charming sight to look up those tall pearl-grey stems to the shining green of leaves gently rustling under the ' central blue.' I was making notes one day at the foot of one of these giants, when I heard a swishing sort of noise overhead, like that of heavy rain, though the sky was cloudless ; and a by- stander had just time to warn me from the spot, when a dead leaf about twenty feet long, with a stem as thick as my arm, fell exactly where I had been sitting. It was just as if the royal palm had thrown down a leaf to enable the stranger to form some notion of his noble propor- tions. Right and left are broad lawns planted with trees from various tropical regions, varied by flower-beds and artificial pools of water, gay with lilies, and shaded by overhanging masses of bamboos. Here were palms and Bcrew-pines, camphor trees, immense aloes, sago-palms {Cycas circinalis), mangoes, and plantains: but the hand- somest foliage is that of the breadfruit tree (Artocar- pus incisa), to which my attention was first called by one of its fruits falling on the path close by us, with so heavy a thud as to leave no doubt about a headache at all events FIRST OF THE FKRNS. 9 for anyone upon whom it might have chanced to drop. At the back of the gardens, cultivation blends gradually with primitive simplicity, and they are only separated by a narrow ditch from the tangled jungle and confused masses of rocks which surround the base of the Corcovado, and other mountains in the neighbourhood. Here among deep-shaded nooks are lovely Adiantums of several spe- cies; and here, more in perfection than elsewhere, are beds of that exquisite fern, Doryopteris palmata, in stoop- ing for which you may, as 1 did, lose the chance of catch- ing a huge blue butterfly that dazzled me with its lustre as it mockingly rose beyond my reach. Few people, however, would wish to remain long in Rio itself, where the sights are soon exhausted; especially when they know of the delightful retreats which tempt them to homes among the surrounding mountains. Tijuca, with its admirably managed hotel, its shady gardens, its cool bathing places and dashing streams, is but a few miles from the capital, and forms an abode of bliss after a hot day's work ; but we wanted to go into more distant quar- ters at Petropolis, on the other side of the bay, and up in the heart of the Organ Mountains. This distance of about forty miles is performed every day, up and down, by the combined aid of steamboat, railway, and coach, under the command of an Englishman, Mr. George Land, whose name will be gladly welcomed by those of his countrymen who know anything of Rio de Janeiro. Day after day, in all weathers, he has for years been at his post, managiQg everything, never forgetting anything, and never making a mistake. I was truly glad to see his jolly face once more, and to shake hands over the fact that we 10 UP THE SIERRA. were going up to Petropolis immediately. He bustled the negroes about, everything was soon on board the steamer, and at two o'clock punctually we started for the run of fifteen or sixteen miles across the harbour. This gives some idea of its size, for it is hard to believe, as we pass through the narrow entrance by the side of the Sugarloaf, that we are really entering a harbour of about fifteen by eighteen miles in extent. In an hour and a half we had threaded the maze of islands and reached a pier where a railway train was wait- ing to start for the eleven miles to the base of the Sierra, through a low and often swampy region, where the only reason for wishing to stop was the desire to see more of the wonderful ferns and flowers which seemed to fly past the rushing train. Seven or eight light coaches with four or five mules apiece were waiting at the terminus, and the number on each passenger's ticket told him which coach to take. George Land stayed behind to bring up the heavy baggage in a more substantial vehicle, and in about two minutes we were already rattling up the first slopes of a sort of tropical Sirnplon or St. Gotthard. In scarce a hundred yards from the railway platform the road dives into the shade of a forest, which formerly com- pletely covered the mountain side over which it has been carried in about eleven miles of zigzag to its highest point at about three thousand feet above the sea. The alternations of sun and shadow on this road are peculiarly striking. Sometimes it passes under the overhanging branches of gigantic evergreen trees, whose tall stems are decked with orchids and gay epiphytes, or masses of drooping ferns and crimson parasites, which climb to the FLOWERING TREES. 11 utmost boughs to clothe them with blossoms not their own. Sometimes a sudden turn leads to a more open part of the road, and reveals the astonishing view of the bay of Rio with its countless islands already far below and stretching away to its gateway from the Atlantic, where the Sugar- loaf appears reduced by distance to the dimensions of a pigmy. Throughout the distance the banks are loaded with masses of ferns, conspicuous among which the Adiantum cuneatum (our hothouse Maidenhair) often grew in such thick beds that it might have been mown like a crop of grass. Several noble species of Lomaria and Blechnum were frequently in company with Begonias, throwing up flower-stems of six feet in height. On the whole, how- ever, there was a greater lack of flowers in the hot month of November than in the Brazilian winter of May and June, which we spent there a few years before. At that season the forest-clad hills in all directions were dotted about with large Cassia trees, whose myriad yellow blos- soms made them look like clumps of pure gold among the shining evergreens ; and two species of Melastoma in great abundance were equally thickly covered with the large and splendid purple flowers which place them in the very high- est class of vegetable beauties. If our carriage had been in any way like a Swiss diligence we should have had ample time to walk on ahead to examine the road-side treasures ; but the pace of the Brazilian mules is a very diff'erent aff^air. The team was changed about half-way up the mountain, but with this exception they never stopped, and generally succeeded in keeping up a trot which would soon have left a pedestrian in a hot climate considerably in the lurch. 12 PETROPOLIS. From the top of the pass the road declines a little to Petropolis, and the driver brought his team in at top- speed, till we pulled up at McDowall's hotel, exactly four hours after leaving Rio, now about forty miles behind us and nearly 3,000 feet beneath. Those who have enjoyed themselves vastly in distant regions, and find themselves unexpectedly returned to their beloved haunts, will understand the joy I felt at seeing myself once mor,e at home in Petropolis, with my former host, Mr. Mills, coming down the garden-steps with a smiling welcome. Nearly every plant in the gar- den was an old friend, and I was installed in the same room which I had formerly occupied for two or three months. The house is large and comfortable, with all the rooms on the ground-floor ; and ours were part of a set which opened out upon a broad marble-floored verandah, from which a flight of stone steps led down into the garden. One corner of this was set aside for camellias grown into small trees of about fifteen feet high, and strong enough to climb into when we wanted to pick the topmost blossoms. They were so full of flower in June, that after a gust of rain the black gardener, old Matteo, had to carry ofi" the fallen bloom by the barrow- ful, reminding me of the pufi" attributed to George Eobins when, in describing the place he was selling, he added, ' The only drawback to this charming residence is, that it requires an extra man to sweep up the rose-leaves from the garden walks.' Here, too, were Fointseitias, not in little plants like those which often ornament a London dinner-table, but grown into very large bushes, on which I have found the OUR GARDEN. 13 crimson stars of their floral bracts to be two feet in diameter. The mauve-coloured Bougainvillea ran along a trellis in a sheet of beautj'. The clove-tree, Metrosideros, spread its flowers like crimson bottle-brushes ; and double Altheas of many colours hung down a profusion of blossoms which might at a little distance be mistaken for large carnations. The huge arms of a giant Cereus were in November covered with its large white flowers, and the Gardenias, or Cape Jasmines, in plants of eight or ten feet high, perfumed the whole place with a thousand blossoms. Amongst all these were beds of roses, Xeapolitah violets, with other native and European flowers, and an immense scarlet Salvia of the species which we have in green- houses, the honeyed blossoms of which Avere being per- petually probed by the beaks of dark green humming- birds with a tinge of gold. Such was the flower garden, from which steps led down into a vegetable garden, bounded on one side by a stone wall, covered from end to end with ferns of many kinds, including the exquisite sUver fern, which in the Brazilian hills grows to such perfection, that I have gathered fronds from three to four feet in length, with stems almost as thick as a lead-pencil. At the end of this again came a plantation of bananas, which furnish the house with a perennial supply of that delicious fruit ; and lastly, a small grove of figs, peaches, and oranges. A steep hill-side was the boundary in this direction, from which Gleiclienias spread their tangled mass of fronds which branch down like stag's horns almost to the roots of the orange-trees. To com- plete the picture, it should be said that near a corner of the orange-grove there is a bath room, where every 14 FOREST- CLEARINGS. morning may be found a supply of pure cold water, which, even in the tropics, is abundantly supplied at an elevation of a few thousand feet above the sea. Petropolis itself is a German colony, which was founded by the present Emperor, a man whose high intelligence is never failing to meet the best interests of his country. It is built among lovely hills, separated by as many valleys, through each of which the traveller finds small hamlets and lonely houses, where the pro- prietors of little plots of land cultivate fruits and vegetables for the market, and from time to time clear spaces in the forests, where blazing trees, frightened snakes, and bamboos bursting like bombshells under the influence of fire, make way for patches of the rich strong grass which is cut four or five times a year as food for the necessary sheep or cattle. The space is too small to allow these useful animals to trample and feed at their leisure ; they are pastured under cover, and only allowed to eat the rations which are served out to them after being cut by their masters. On the edges of these cul- tivated spots the forest reigns in its primitive beauty ; creepers, climbers, trailers, fasten themselves to the boughs of the monarchs of the forest, about the feet of which are dark jungles filled with choice ferns and flowers, where every now and then, rising out of the mass, may be seen a fuschia of fifty or sixty feet in height, blooming from top to bottom, by the side of a group of lofty tree-ferns forming natural umbrellas with their green and lace-like fronds. Above the limits of thick forest are seen the great bald peaks of granite, which attain their greatest height FLORA MONTANA. 15 and most fantastic forms in the summits of the true Organ mountains between Petropolis and Theresopolis, where they reach the height of about 8,000 feet, and shine out with inexpressible glory far above the dark regions of trees, all lustrous in the golden haze which veils the details of their blue magnificence. Mixed with the other vegetation of the forest-paths are bamboos of every size, and of several species, from the smaller ones which droop right and left like exquisite green fountains, to the larger kinds, which rise more stiffly to the height of eighty feet, and, when they fall, leave stems as thick as a man's thigh across the track. But who shall describe the charms which await a botanist even of the meanest capacity, when he makes up his mind to discard bodily comfort and cleanliness for a few hours while he dives into the heart of any one of the valleys that lie embosomed among the Organ Mountains of Brazil ? In some of them ithe Coboea scandens hangs its purple bells from bush to bush; in some, the common passion-flower roams at its own sweet wUl over everything it comes in contact with, and here and there I have seen the scarlet passion-flower of our hothouses twining its brilliant blossoms round the shining green stem of a bamboo. By the sides of sweet streams, among the woods, may be seen large* bushes of the Ahutilon venosum^ hanging its orange bells and crim- son streaks over the placid water, close to huge Daturas, with their hundreds of white trumpet-like and sweet- scented blossoms, some of which I have found to be sixteen inches in length. Of all regions that I have as yet seen in the world there is nothing comparable to this Brazilian hill- country, 16 FERN HUNTING. as a field for the fern-hunter. At various times my com- panions and myself have collected about 250 distinct species within a day's walk or ride from Petropolls or Palmeiras. Most of these were found in 1871, when, apart from the arborescent ferns and others too large for our apparatus, Mr. Frederick Longman succeeded in drying about 200 of them, which, on being forwarded to Dr. Hooker at Kew, were found to contain a few species new to science. But, to the last day of our three months' sojourn, I believe we never once went into the woods without finding some hitherto unnoticed treasure, and there would be work for several months more before any one could pretend to have exhausted all the haunts within easy reach. No sportsman ever enjoyed the pursuit of game more thoroughly than we enjoyed our daily fern-hunts. Armed with our tin vasculums, we used to scramble up any con- venient bank and push our waj?^ as best we could through the jungle and up into the dark depths of the forest. I suppose we ought properly to have been afraid of snakes, tarantulas, jiggers, and all kinds of noxious insects, which were certainly there, but no notion of the kind ever checked us in our favourite pursuit. What true lover of it would allow himself to be stopped by anything short of a Bengal tiger, when he has good reason to expect fresh discoveries at every step ? Strong hobnailed boots that had been christened on the Alps were, however, absolutely necessary on the wet and slippery slopes where a dense vegetation often prevented us from seeing our footing, and where we were sometimes startled by putting a leg up to the knee in the rotten trunk of a fallen and invisible riLM-FERNS. 17 monarch of the forest. Then we divided the ground between us, occasionally sliouting to each other, partly with a view to prevent losing ourselves entirely and partly to announce a new and precious ' find.' Sometimes it was a new species of Trichomanes that had chosen to climb twenty or thirty feet up the trunk of a tree in the dark damp shade or along the face of a huge rock, where its fronds extended right and left across the dark brown surface, and stretched upwards to meet the rosy blossoms of a cactus which peeped down over its head from a somewhat sunnier position. Sometimes it was a new Acrostichum, the fronds of which were almost as dark and shining as a branch of Portugal laurel; and then again, upon another tree-stem might be found, rarest of the rare and loveliest of the lovel}', the pendent fronds of Asplenium mucronatum. This exquisite plant fixes its slender root in the bark of a tree, whence droops a cluster of narrow pale green fronds tapering through a length of from two to four feet, beautifully indented, and so light and delicate in structure that when held by the root and waved in the air they seem to float as if they were strips of gauze. Another remarkable fern is the Trichomanes Prieurii^ which was also very rare, but generally to be found in a dark and moist wood near a place called the Presidencia. A fine frond of it is about fifteen inches lono- and very finely divided; it grows in such dark places that it cannot be appreciated till brought out into full daylight; but its colour then appears as something truly marvellous. The green is that of the deepest emerald, but it has a metallic lustre which seems scarcely ' canny ' in a vegetable, though its beauty is exquisite. c 18 FLOEAt COVERTS. Its beauty is also, unhappily, ev^anescent. The lustre departs from it immediately like the hues of a captured mackerel, and all the care in the world will hardly suffice to carry it home without shrivelling up in the vasculum. Though dried in the most painstaking fashion, every frond tarns perfectly black and looks as if it were made of fine black lace. In these scrambles and tusslings in the forests it was often difficult, and sometimes impossible, to avoid a tumble among the trailing plants which were generally ready to trip up our feet ; and we used to present a very shabby appearance when, dishevelled, covered with moss, and bathed in perspiration, we emerged upon the paths of daylight, and had the intense pleasure of sitting down to compare discoveries under the soothing influence of the pipe of tranquillity. But I must not let this hobby run away with me any further; it would fill a book by itself. My excuse for saying thus much must be, that there are now so many thousands of people who delight in similar pursuits in Europe that I was anxious to give them a hint of what an infinitely grander field awaits them if they like to go to the Brazilian hills, where, without any diffi- culty, and with luxurious quarters to live in, they may ramble and botanize to their hearts' content tiU they come home hungry to dinner. They will find the coverts full of floral game from one end of the year to the other and a three months' holiday from England will give them six or seven weeks for the cliasse. Before the Emperor founded the German colony of Petropolis and built a summer palace in the middle of it the site was only represented by a filthy little hamlet on THE MINAS ROAB. 19 the line of the old mule-road to the important province of Minas Geraes, which contains the most valuable of the mines in the interior. Some of the most intelligent men of the country, and notably the Count Mariano Lage, who had seen the advantage of good roads in Europe, resolved to make a magnificent one into Minas, instead of the miserable track by which all produce was brought down to the coast on the backs of long trains of mules flound- ering slowly over the muddy and irregular soil. Granite mountains were on both sides of it in endless quantity: a company was formed, and at a very great expense a macadamized road was made for 100 miles to the north- ward of Petropolis. They induced Mr. Morritt, an ex- perienced Yorkshireman, to come out and inaugurate all that was needed in the way of coaches for passengers, and the whole arrangements required for an extensive traffic. No one could possibly have done the work more thoroughly, and no one who has been fortunate enough to enjoy the kindness and hospitality of his family and himself will be ever likely to forget them, or the pleasant days spent in their societ}'. I have been many times over this road to juiz da Fora, and in these degenerate days of railways and demons, as Mr. Ruskin would call them, I can safely recommend the journey to anyone still fond of good driving. A coach, built exactly after the English pattern, starts every day at six a.m. from opposite to the Emperor's palace at Petropolis, and deposits its passengers at six p.m. at the door of a comfortable hotel at Juiz da Fora. In this time it not only gets over 100 miles of road, but it stops a good hour for dinner in the c 2 20 ANCIENT ICE. middle of the day, and stays more than another hour at he various sta,tions. The work is entirely done by active and elegant little mules, who, when once started, seem to enjoy the fun of going as fast as they can. The pace would be impossible for horses in such a hot climate, but I have timed the four little mules over a stage of tea English miles in less than fifty minutes : and, on one occasion, they took us for a short stage of six miles in twenty minutes, or at the rate of eighteen miles an hour. And yet they never seem to be hot or tired. When Mr. Rawson and I travelled over this road at the end of 1873, I found the coachmen to be the same two German brothers that drove me over the same road a dozen years before, which says something for the climate in which, in spite of its heat, such daily work should for so long be possible. But in Brazil people harden themselves to the climate instead of giving way to it. Agassiz travelled over this beautiful road only a few years before his lamented death, and easily convinced him- self that this rich and luxuriant country had in bygone ages been swept by glacial action. He even found that the most successful coffee-plantations were exactly where the movements of ice had most enriched the soil by the trans- portation and mixture of its component elements. A great part of this famous Minas road runs through the heart of the coffee-plantations, which clothe the hill-sides on both sides of the way ; and I fancy that the general public, who do not hear much of Brazilian coffee, have little notion of the quantity grown in that country. The managing partner of one of the chief firms in Rio told me that their house alone had exported no less than 400,000 MAKE WAY rOE COFFEE. 21 bags in the preceding year. Each bag of coffee contains five arrobas, or 160 ibs., so that the total amount shipped by this one firm was 64,000,000 lbs. in a single year ! The anti-slavery sentimentalists of fifty years ago used to groan over the amount of human misery represented by a lump of sugar in their tea-cup. From a rather different point of view, I hope I may be permitted to lament over the awful destruction of vegetable life which is involved in the pro- duction of a few pounds of coffee. It is a pitiful sight to see the burning of the virgin forest and the blackened stumps which alone remain to mark what on the day before had been a scene of indescribable beauty. A French botanist at Rio once told me that it would take a fortnight to properly botanize one of the huge trees which from time to time fall without the aid of fire. For in truth each of them is not only a tree but a garden. The whole stem is clothed with other plants and flowers, and so is each wide-spreading bough. In this way a vast variety of orchids and ftrns, huge arums with shield-like loaves large enough to cover a man, brilhant red and yellow Bromelias and TiUandsias, epiphytes and parasites of all descriptions, rope-plants, creepers, trailers, chmbers. mosses, all live together like a happy family, far beyond the reach of man. So luxuriant is the vegetation that every seed appears to grow wherever it is deposited ; and I have even seen a species of tall white Amaryllis in full blossom growing on the boughs of a Jiquiiiba, nearly a hundred feet above the ground ! Such are the beauties which are doomed to crackle in wholesale conflagration to make way for the coffee-planter. The first station is a place called Padre Correa, ten 22 BREAKING-IN MULES. miles from Petropolis, where we were often tempted to spend a day, walking there in the morning and coming home by the evening coach. One day Mr. Morritt drove us thither to see the curious operation of breaking ia some new mules which had just arrived and had never yet felt the hand of man. A troop of them is brought up in the company of a quiet mare, called the niadrina, whom they will follow anywhere, though they will submit to no other guidance. When we arrived they were feeding close at hand, but the madrina was soon driven into a corral, and the thirty or forty mules followed her without hesitation, though they looked rather scared when the gate was closed behind them and they found themselves in prison. To them entered one of the stalwart Germans and a couple of strong Portuguese with their lazos. Mr. Morritt looked over the troop and selected two handsome mouse- coloured mules as the animals to be operated upon. By a little skilful management these two were seduced into a corner and kept there ; the gate was opened, the madrina was driven out, and the rest of the mules galloped out after her to finish their dinner. The two victims began to run violently round the corral, the men standing in the middle, but the second throw of the lazo caught the foremost round the neck and one of his fore-legs, and brought him heavily to the ground, where he rolled and kicked furiously. Dexte- rously contriving to avoid his heels, the men extricated his leg from the noose and allowed him to get on his feet again, and do his worst while they held the other end of the lazo. He plunged and struggled like an eel landed on the grass; but all his efforts were of no A STRAXGE TEAM. 23 avail against his powerful captors, who by sheer strength dragged him to a strong post, jammed his head close to it, and made him fast there. After a few moments' rest they approached him again, when he contrived to fling himself down, kicking out wildly; but they forced him up and made his head faster than ever. Then one of them managed to blindfold him with a broad bandage to prevent him from seeing where to strike with his vicious teeth; another man holding a bit before his nose waited till he opened his mouth, and then forced it in, while the other two fixed on the rest of the head-gear and harness, in spite of his maddest struggles. He was dragged out- side the corral and fastened to another post, where he again threw himself on the ground in a paroxysm of rage and terror. At last he became perfectly still, and I thought he had really died of a broken heart. Mr. Morritt, however, said that he was only sham- ming, and he was left motionless on the ground while the other unhappy beast was caught; and -after being treated in the same ruthless fashion was tied to an adjoining post. A spare coach was drawn out into the road, and two thoroughly tame mules stood by ready harnessed. The two captives were, after another tremendous battle, forced by main strength up to the pole and made to take the position of wheelers. One of them instantly threw himself in the dust and the other was jumping upon him, when the tame mules were brought up and harnessed as leaders, looking perfectly unconcerned at the frenzied antics of the novices. Meanwhile two strong men jumped on the box to manage the whip and reins between them,. The leaders began to pull at the first crack of the whip 24 A GIGANTIC FIG-TKEE. and forced the others forward ; the one that was rolling iu the dust did not at all approve of being dragged along the ground, and after a few yards of it he jumped upon his feet. Encouraged by wild shouts and whipping, the leaders broke into a mad gallop, and the victims soon found themselves obliged to do the same. The whole team dashed off at a run-away speed ; they were splendidly driven, and after about tialf an hour were brought home covered with foam. The new ones were bleeding rather freely from the bit, but they seemed thoroughly subdued, and in a very few days afterwards they took their places regularly in the coach, looking none the worse for the cruel treatment they had undergone in what must have been a terribly mauvais quart dlieure to them. I pitied them sincerely at the time, but my pity was afterwards merged in complete astonishment at the result. This corral is close to the banks of the Piabanha river which flows near the road all the way from Petro- polis, sometimes gliding smoothly among the woods, some- times rushing wildly among rocks and then tumbling headlong over the beautiful waterfalls of the Cascatinas. The former Emperor, Dom Pedro J., was extremely fond of this retired little spot, where he could enjoy himself in his own fashion with a few favourites ' far from the madding crowd.' Opposite to his place of abode is an enormous wild fig-tree of unknown antiquity ; it has been sadly shorn of its magnificence in the last dozen years, but when I first saw it its huge and lofty boughs spread out to a circumference of 480 feet. Under its beneficent shade we often used to lunch in the heat of the day, and try in vain to count the humming-birds as they ALOES AND ARAUCAKIAS. 25 sucked the rosy blossom of the air-plants which grew on ever}' part of the branches. At a short distance is a delicious pool among the rocks in the river, which is still called the ' Emperor's Bath/ and part of the way to it is planted with Araucavias. The Araucaria at maturity in. its own country is a very dififerent thing in appearance to what we are accus- tomed to see upon an English lawn. Those of Brazil are not of the same species as the hardy Araucaria imbricata which we have imported from Chile. Both species, how- ever, lose all beauty when they get old and reach the height of sixty or eighty feet, when the foliage consists of nothing but dark tufts set on the end of rigid boughs as bare as so many scaffold-poles. The finest aloes that I have ever seen grow in great profusion near Correa. The species is Fourcroya gigantea^ some plants of which we found with leaves twelve feet in length and flower- stems like splendid candelabra rising to the height of forty feet. I think it would be no exaggeration to say that, when we were last there, there were many hundreds of them all blooming as close as they could grow to one another on a few acres of the sloping hUl-side, close to a ffrove of Araucarias on the other side of the river. A man feels exceedingly small by the side of these monsters, with their vast and shining leaves ending in spines strong enough to run him through the bod}'. As with other species of aloes, each plant dies when it blooms. Their pith is highly esteemed for making razor-strops, and is considered better than cork for the lining of collectors' insect-boxes. 26 .GRANITE PRECIPICE. CHAPTER II. VaUey of the Eetii-o — A direful Spider — Evening — Entrerios and Palmeiras — Ferns and Palmitos — Featlier-flowera — Sail in the 'Neva ' — Storm at night — Arrival at Buenos Ayres — Great changes — Railway progress — The 'camp' revisited — Owls and biscachas— Reports of cholera — The magnificent 'Liixor' ■ — Arrival of the 'Eothen' — Excm-sions to Ensenada and Ohascomus — A hrilliant shot. It is impossible here to give any idea of the number and variety of the excursions to be made on foot or on horseback in the neighbourhood of Petropolis. The con- figuration of the land, with its countless hills and rich Avooded valleys, offers something new for every day. One of the most interesting walks was to a point about four miles along the main road, from which a path leads up the valley of the Retiro to the left till it loses itself in the depths of the forest. Here, almost in darkness from the overhanging trees, a stream of pure water dances down among mossy rocks from the hills, inviting cool repose among the palms, while through the gaps in the dense foliage overhead the specks of deep blue sky give a hint of how the sun is blazing on the outside of our mighty forest-umbrella. This forest clothes the base of three mountains which shut in the head of the valley; the one on the left presenting a surface of nearly perpen- dicular granite which rises at an angle of 70° or 80° to the height of about 2,500 feet above the tops of the trees which grow to its very base. The surface of A MONyTER SriDEK. 27 granite disintegrates very easily in a climate which com- bines considerable heat and great moisture; and every crack or minute hollow is seized upon as a place of habi- tation by Bromelias and other epiphytic plants. From top to bottom this awful and inaccessible precipice was bris- tlins: with their rio-id forms, and here and there ornamented by their tall spikes of flower. The beautiful falls of Itamarity, in the heart of the woods, are a constant source of delight for a day's walk in one direction; and the view from the Alto do Imperador over all the island-studded bay of Rio, is an equal attrac- tion in the other. Everywhere is an infinitely changing variety of ferns and flowers, palms and forest-trees; and an entomologist will find plenty of employment amongst brilliant butterflies and beetles, moths, and mantises, to say nothing of the direful spiders which are occasionally to be met with. I shall never forget one of them which was brought to us b}- a negro who had captured it by putting a box over the log of wood upon which it was found. The beast was black, with a body about an inch in dia- meter, and immensely long hairy legs, so thick and strong that when we coaxed him under a large tumbler he kicked inside with such force that we thought he would upset it. However, while one of us held the tumbler with one side slightly raised, the other introduced a little chloroform. The monster executed a savage dance, kick- ing out in all directions; but in a few moments he suddenly collapsed, the body tumbled down in the middle of his hideous legs, and he was ' as dead as Julius Cajsar.' The people are very much afi'aid of these creatures, even when dead, and we were warned that a touch upon the hairy deceased would cause a poisonous irritation. 28 FIREFLIES. The climate of these hills is exceedingly healthy, which is probably owing to the frequent and refreshing changes of weather. After a few days of rather excessive heat, everybody knows that a thunderstorm is coming, and it is a grand sight when it does come. Sometimes it is heralded by dense clouds settling down upon the ground, playing among the plants in the garden, and rolling along the streets, black and bodily, under the in- fluence of the accompanying storm-wind. The lightning leaps out of the darkness, the thunder crashes among the surrounding hills, the rain comes down in torrents ; but the storm soon passes ; the thermometer goes down twenty degrees; and a deliciously cool evening follows. And ah ! what pleasant evenings ha^e I passed, sitting with a few friends under the broad verandah, chatting about friends at home, listening to the distant cries of the monkeys in the forest or the clattering rattle of the great blacksmith-frogs by the river, watching the glory of the southern heavens, and trying to follow the dances of a thousand fireflies, themselves like stars endowed with locomotion ! But the day came at last when we must bid a long farewell to the quiet pleasures of Petropolis. In a week we were to sail from Rio southwards, and we meant to get there by a new and more roundabout way. I was more soi'ry than ever to leave a place where I had so often lived alone with Dame Nature and a few other quiet friends, entirely out of reach of Kursaals and crowds operas, picture-galleries, and all other distractions of Art. We sent all heavy baggage down to Rio, under the charge of George Land ; and in very light marching order A CREEPING MAIDENHAIR. 29 we climbed to the roof of the coach at six o'clock in the morning. It was a great comfort to have a parting look at all the favourite spots by the way, the mountains of the Retire, the rapids of the Piabanha, and the aloes and Araucarias of Padre Correa. About eleven o'clock, the iron bridge over the Parahiba and the clusters of waving bamboos on both sides of the road gave the familiar notice that we were not far from Entrerios on the Parahiba river, fifty miles from Petropolis. Here the road is intersected by the Pedro II. railway, by which we were going westward to Palmeiras to spend a few days in Dr. Gunning's part of the Sierra. Entrerios being half-way to Juiz da Fora, the coaches arrive from both sides at the same time; and as the train comes in soon after, everybody wanting to eat and drink at the same time, the little place is rather lively about noon. Two years before this our party slept there for a night, which gave us a day for exploring the neighbour- hood. Here we found a great quantity of Gymnogramma tomentosa^ a choice and very peculiar fern; and, pushing up by the first track that we could find into the upper forest, we were soon in the midst of magnificent trees and jungle, takino- care to mark our way back to the trail which we had left. We found many ferns here, different from those at Petropolis ; but the one which I must especially men^ tion is the very rare and exquisite Adiantum lunulatum. This curious form of Maidenhair is simply pinnate and does not branch : the rachis is almost as fine as a hair, and when it is about a foot long it droops down to the ground and takes root from the end like a strawberry- runner, repeating the process perpetually. We only found 30 PALMEIRAS. three or four specimens of it in a long search ; but while I was peering on the ground to look for it in the gloom of the forest, I suddenly came upon Avhat appeared to be a pair of brilliant eyes glaring at me from just beyond the toe of my boot. Stooping lower I found that the eyes were the bright round spots on the wings of a superb moth, apparently just emerged, and stupified by the new state of life to which it had pleased Providence to call him. The train started at 12.30, so we said good-bye to the German representatives of Mr. Weller in Brazil, and were fortunate enough to get a parting shake of the hand with our kind friend Mr. Morritt, who was returning from Juiz da Fora. For about a couple of hours the line passes through comparatively tame scenery near the side of the Farahiba river, which it crosses by a fine bridge before it begins to run down the Sierra on the south. Lower down it turns and twists among the mountains like a gigantic eel ; now running over ground cleared through the glories of the virgin forest, now diving into cool tunnels, and again emerging among the luxuriant vegetation all glowing in the tropical sun. Immediately after coming out of one of the tunnels the train stopped early in the evening at the little station of Palmeiras, made for the convenience of the colony established by Dr. Gunning among the mountains; and we walked up to the neat and comfortable hotel, built by him, about 200 feet above the level of the railway. With the exception of the occasional trains, nothing on wheels comes near this blissful retreat. Dr. Gunning has built himself a house on the hill-side near the station, and there are three or four other houses near at hand occupied by a few people who prefer the fresh air of a mountain- LAZY SLAVES. 31 garden to anything they can find in city life. A good deal of ground has been cleared for coffee and mandioca; and the negro slaves who cultivate it live in a small settlement by themselves. A philanthropic effort was made to provide a scheme by which these people might free themselves by a very moderate amount of work. Every piece of work done was credited to them in a book as money due to them at a rate agreed upon : when the money thus apparently due amounted to the price at which each slave was valued, he was to be allowed to go free. Not one of them attempted to avail himself of it, and they could hardly be induced to do anything, for fear of being turned adrift in a state of freedom, where they would have to work hard, instead of leading a nearly idle life at the expense of a kind master. I am afraid that some of our compassion is sadly wasted. Palmeiras is hotter than Petropolis, as it is not nearly so high above the sea, but it commands a much more extensive view, being on the side of the Sierra itself, with the forests sloping down into the open country in front, beyond which again are seen the blue forms of far- distant mountains in the south. The hospitality of Dr. and Mrs. Gunning generally fills their spare-rooms, and we found our friends Captain and Mrs. Brooker, of H.M.S. ' Egmont,' already established there. But the delightful little hotel which he has built, within a hundred yards of Ids own house, affords everything necessary. There are not many rooms, but they are scrupulously clean and very comfortable, the best of them opening out upon a wide covered balcony, where we could sit out of doors in any weather, and enjoy the glorious 32 THE EATABLE PALM. views of mountain and forest. The Doctor has installed a capital Englishwoman, Mrs. Williams, as the landlady, and 1 have little doubt that the beauty of the scenery, and the utter tranquillity of this most charming but generally unknown spot, will soon attract a larger supply of visitors from Rio. A path into the forest runs- from the very door, and we soon found considerable differences in the vegetation. There is a far larger proportion of palms than at Petro- polis, and a great quantity of the Palmito, or eatable palm, may be seen in all directions. When we dined with Dr. Gunning he introduced us to this yegetable and showed us how it is procured. Unfortunately the production of a good dish of it involves the destruction of several palm- trees. When the tree is cut down, the growing top-shoot is taken off and stripped of all its coatings till the heart is reached ; it is scarcely an inch in thickness, and though delicate it has not any very special flavour to justify the murder of an exquisite palm-tree in the heyday of youth. We found an immense variety of ferns, many of which, we had never seen on the other side of the mountains. Palmeiras is a perfect treasure-house of choice Adian- tums, and those who know anything of our stove-ferns will sympathise with the intense delight I experienced at finding in their native beauty and perfection such ferns as Adiantum trapeziforme, cuneatum, St. Catarince cul- tratum,, and subcordatum, a joy which perhaps reached its maximum when we came upon a moist and hot corner in the lower forest, where was a solitary colony of Adiantum rnacrophyllum , the tender rose-colour of the youno- fronds HOT AX LAST. 33 mingling with the green elegance of the older ones. Here also were two species of Lygodium, twining like hops round the stems of palms or any other convenient sup- port to the height of about twenty feet, their fronds fringed with the delicate characteristic tassels which con- tain the spores. One of the greatest curiosities was what we called ' the jointed fern,' till the authorities afterwards gave us its true name of Dancea elliptica. Instead of the tough and more or less woody rachis of almost all other ferns, this Dancea has a very juicy one, divided like the shoot of a geranium by joints, at each of which it breaks with a light touch and gives forth a liquid drop. It is a large and handsome plant, but very difficult to dry on account of the tendencies described. Palmeiras is the only place in the world where I have found in its native state that remarkable fern the Hemidictyon viarginatwv, of which there are some very humble specimens at Kew. Not more than a quarter of a mile from the house was a plant of it, which in July had pale green fronds eleven feet high with broad pinnte as delicate as silver paper. In the last days of November it was almost too hot for mid-day rambles, especially as we had thus far con- tinued to wear nothing lighter than ordinary English shooting-clothes. I was so nearly roasted one day by the blazing sun, that on reaching a shady place with a trick- ling stream I was compelled to sit with my feet in the water and bathe my head for a quarter of an hour with a wet handkerchief. While I was in this position a purple fresh-water crab walked across my toes, and the largest blue butterfly that I had ever seen was fluttering in the p 34 THEN CAME THE STORM. sunshine j ust outside my dark retreat. On getting back to our quarters about two o'clock tbat afternoon, I found for the first time in my life that the ferns in the vasculum had dried like hay ; my clothes were dripping as if I had been cast into the sea, and we were both very glad to apply the best remedy that I know for over-heating or over-exertion in a hot climate. It consists of simply drinking a bottle of Guinness's stout before doing any- thing else. The cure is instantaneous. That evening we dined at Dr. G unning's, and the heat was so great that his wife kindly supplied us with thin white Chinese jackets in place of coats and waistcoats ' allowed to retire.' But our reward was at hand. A tremendous thunderstorm burst over our heads during dinner and was followed by a divinely tranquil night. The moon and stars came in fullest beauty to illuminate a scene which appeared to belong to some other world. The whole extent of the lower ground before us was covered by a vast sheet of mist as white as snow, over which rose up the mountains bathed in moonlight and looking like islands rising out of a sea of glass. There was almost an unearthly beauty in the sight, and it was hard to tear ourselves from the cane chairs in the verandah long past midnight, though at five o'clock in the morning we had to make a last start from the hill regions of Brazil. Early as was the hour, the kind-hearted and faithful Doctor came down to the station to see us off and give a few useful hints for our convenience. Rushing down the hUls, charging through tunnels and twisting round strange corners among the mountains, the train reached Belem or Bethlehem, and ran into the station at Bio about FEATIIEK-FLOWEliS. .-^.1 ten o'clock. Not far from the city we passed near the Emperor's palace of St. Cri&tovao ; and nearer still to the station is the singular quarter of the abattoirs^ or public slaughter-houses. Every wall and every roof in their immediate neighbourhood was black with the small vul- tures called Urubus, which form themselves into an unusually useful board of health by devouring and assimi- lating every particle of the garbage which might aiFect the sanitary condition of the city over which they so worthily preside. As we went into Rio another violent thunder- storm burst upon us with deluges of rain, and turned the streets of the capital into rivers, often up to the knees of the horses, and considerably spoiling the effect of a. state visit of the Emperor and Empress to the large church in the Rua Direita. There was little more to be done at Rio and still less time to do it in. There was a certain amount of shopping to get through, the most notable feature of AA'hich was the customary visit to Mdlle. Natte in the Rua do Ouvidor. who has a splendid collection of ornaments made from the feathers of Brazilian birds. Let no man think he knows anything about feather-flowers till he has been to Rio. The gay imitations which may be picked up in any quantity at Madeira or St. Vincent are rough, vulgar things made of painted feathers: those in Brazil are made of genuine feathers in all their naturally splendid colours. The Avreaths formed of the breasts of humming-birds, the pure white fans edged with the flamingo feathers of scarlet, tipped with black, are beautiful beyond description, and Mr. Rawson took home some exquisite specimens. With regard to the birds themselves, it is surprising to find how 36 STAKT FOR THE SOUTH. few of them, except the many-coloured humming-birds, are visible ia the ordinary rides and walks. Now and then a grand kingfisher may be seen on a river-side rock ; and here and there a brilliant toucan darts across the road in all the splendour of crimson, blue, and yellow; but as a rule they remain in the depths of the forests, where they are very difficult to see amongst the multitudinous branches and leaves. Three of us once tried a day's shooting at a place about twenty miles from Petropolis, but we only shot a few small birds, most of which fell into impene- trable jungle, and the largest of those picked up was a quaint little kingfisher scarce three inches in length. The butterflies and moths everywhere were simply magnifi- cent, but the audible and visible birds were far more scarce than I should have expected. We spent our last evening very pleasantly in dining on board the ' Egmont,' with Captain and Mrs. Brooker; and, as the weather turned out so bad that the captain did not like sending away a boat's crew with us, we settled down to a comfortable rubber of whist, with a shake-down on board at the end of it. In the afternoon of the next day, December 3, we fairly started in the Royal Mail ship ' Neva.' where we spent a pleasant week under the charge of Captain Bax, and in com- pany with several of my old friends who were returning from England to Buenos Ayres. Heavy rain once more spoiled the famous view of the Organ Mountains as we steamed out of the bay, and the Sugarloaf was, as it were, draped in a shower-bath ; but the sky cleared soon after we got outside, and Ave were favoured with a full moon and a lovely evening. A rAMWCKO. 37 After three days of cliarming weather, I was saying to Captain Bax that I thought matters must have greatly changed of late years, for in four voyages I had made over the same course in the branch steamer ' Mersey,' we used always to have violent winds and storms from every side of the compass. He laughed, and said that I must have been a particular Jonah to the ' Mersey.' But that night the Pampero, the great south-west wind from the Pampas, burst upon us in all its fury. The lightning blazed almost incessantly, lighting up the masts and rigging, and leaving us at intervals in a darkness that might be felt. Amid deluges of rain, the wind roared through the rigging with the peculiar sound which it only makes when in its most savage humour; and the lightning revealed a sea of hissing scud, chopped down by the very force of the storm. The captain stopped the ship, and lay-to for several hours about midnight : everybody else had long turned into bed, except the watch ; but the wildness of the scene had an irresistible attraction for me, and I re- mained chatting with him at the open door of his own cabin on deck, where we could see everything that was going on, and now and then making sallies out into the tempest to look for any signs of a change. Truly it was a sight worth seeing ; but at last, towards morning, I turned in hke the rest of the world, and when I woke up the storm had departed, and we were running merrily in towards Montevideo. The captain said that it was, while it lasted, the hardest blow he had ever known upon the coast. Early in the morning of December 9 the ship was anchored in the outer roads of Buenos Ayres, and it is im- possible to think of any city iu the world by the side of 38 GREAT CHANGES. the water that is so difficult to get at in a large vessel. We had to take up our position at a distance of about seven miles, which formerly involved a very disagreeable passage in a whale-boat. Small steamers are now in this respect a great improvement, and one of them soon came out to take us on shore. It is to be devoutly hoped that the Buenos Ayreans will soon be able to carry out one or other^ of the grand projects submitted to them for the purpose of facilitating the approach to their city ; either by deepening the channel, or making a new entrance in connection with the Ensenada railway. We had no trouble with the Custom house, and soon found ourselves settled in the Hotel de la Paix, an astonishing improvement upon the hotels of a few years ago. A dozen years, however, have made more changes in this city than a century would have effected in many places. Instead of one little railway then going to the west of the city, important lines are now running north and south, while the Western system will some day be extended to the Pacific. Tramways are established in every part of the city and suburbs, and the suburbs themselves may be said to have been created in the time. An immense sti- mulus was given to the new Buenos Ayres by a calamity which at one time threatened almost to destroy it. The city of 'Fresh Breezes,' famous for its healthiness, was in the beginning of 1871 attacked with the pestilence of a deadly fever. No one could understand it : some attri- buted it to local uncleanliness, others attributed it to the water of the river bi-inging down the poison from thousands upon thousands of men and horses that perished in the ' I laear tliat Jlr. Batfiman's plan is being rapidly carried out. PESTILENCE. 39 Paraguayan war, and were thrown into the Parana or left to rot where they lay. The latter opinion has in its favour the facts that the disease showeditself at Corrientes and other towns up the river before it arrived at Buenos Ayres ; and that, though no systematic reform of the sewerage was attempted, yet the disease did not show itself in the succeeding years. Whatever may have been the cause, the effects were appalling. Men, women, and children died in hundreds and thousands. So great a panic prevailed, that all who could leave the city did so. Only a quarter oi a popula- tion of nearly 200,000 remained, and among these at one time there were a thousand deaths daily from the pesti- lence. Some of the low crowded houses of the Italians were said to be left full of corpses which no one ventured to touch. In the midst of these scenes, some who were compelled to remain there contrived to take it all very coolly in much the same way as that which the Decameron introduces us to during the great plague of Florence. Business was of course nearly suspended, and those who left their families in the country for a few hours' work in town knew that it was by no means improbable that they should never see them again. It was found that the disease never spread beyond the limits of the city, and the result of this was that everybody wished to provide him- self with a country house. Land buying became a brilliant speculation for good judges who saw their way to making their money over and again, and the jjlague was at all events one very important element in the great- extension of the city. Trains, now come in from aU sides loaded with men of 40 ■ REVOLUTIONS. business' who live at Flores, or Belgrano, or some other new suburb, where houses and gardens and railway stations cover the ground over which we galloped with our guns a dozen years ago. At the same time great changes have been made in the buildings of the city itself. Great shops and cafes in the French style have been opened, and I was told that the rent of one of the largest of these shops was equal to 2,000L a year of English money. Latterly it is said there has been too much speculation in land and building; -but that is a matter which always rights itself in time, though no doubt some ' go to the wall ' in the course of the process. I believe, however, that nothing can prevent a great increase in the demand for property in the territories of the River Plate. If their public men can only be per- suaded to continue in the ways of peace and common sense, instead of plunging into the constant hubbub of revolutions, and calling out the citizens to cut each other's throats, to the screaming tune of ' Viva la Libertad,' there can be little doubt of a rapid increase in the natural pros- perity of the country. Happily there are symptoms of a diminution of this revolutionary element, the main curse of the countries which Mr. Canning declared that he had called out in the new world to redress the old. The last attempt at a revolution in Buenos Ayres was headed by one of the most popular men in the country, but it soon died out like the snuff of a candle; and we may now, perhaps, hope that a good many of the national and poli- tical ' wild oats ' have been sown. If General Mitr^ could not make a successful insurrection against the Govern- ment, it is hard to believe that anybody else could. THE CAMP REVISITED. 41 Eailways, telegraphs, and steamboats are working a revolution of a different kind, and thousands of people now find honest employment instead of indulging in the mischief which ' Satan finds for idle hands to do.' Some of the railways have already made a great success, and there is' little doubt that the others will. The Great Southern Company, finding they could make a better dividend for themselves than the Government guarantee of, I believe, seven per cent., paid a fine to the Govern- ment and cast off their swaddling clothes. It is feeling its way through the great plains of the south, while the Central Argentine with its branches must soon bring down the productions of half a continent from the Andes to the Parana. One of the first days after our arrival an old friend took us out by railway to his country place at Lomas. The whole neighbourhood had been so changed and built over that I did not know the once familiar district; and the planting of Eucalyptus, the Australian gum-tree, in all directions, contributed a good deal to the general dis- guise, for these tieesgrow so fast that there were groves of fifty or sixty feet in. height where there had been not so much as a bush. He had an open carriage ready to take us for a drive to see something of the open country, which is familiarly called ' the camp.' Here, passing the limits of regular road, we found ourselves out at Santa Catalina, the adjoining property to the Monte Grande, where I formerly spent many happy days riding over the plains with gun ou saddle, and hobbling our horses to stalk snipe and wild ducks in the marshes. I was quite taken by surprise, as I had no idea that we should now be taken 42 SOUVENIRS. out to my favourite old shooting-grounds in a carriage. The surprise was one of unmitigated joy as I recognised the well-known forms. Here were the little owls sitting as of yore near the holes of the biscachas, who wait till sunset to come out ; here were the tiru-teros, or horned plovers, wheeling about with their peculiar cry ; and the chamangos, a kind of small hawk that never feared coming close to a gun. Here on one side were the thickets of Santa Catalina where w^e used to shoot doves for pies; and there, right before us, was the smooth broad lagoon where I shot my first flamingo and rode home with him tied to my saddle. On the present occasion, however, we had no intention of staying long in the River Plate. It was only a passing visit on our way to Chile, for which we were bound in all haste. To enjoy Buenos Ayres properly requires ample time for making long expeditions up the Parana and Uruguay, with intervals of town hfe and agreeable society between them. On the palm-crowned hills of the Banda Oriental the large and small partridges rise from almost under your horse's feet, and you may gallop after ostriches over beds of scarlet verbenas and petunias ; you may see the trees full of parrots, and dig up megatheriums on the banks of the Uruguay. In the vast plains of Buenos Ayres and Entrerios the freshness of the air and the free life of shooting and riding in a land of sunshine fill the mind and body with delight, which returns even now in only calling up the remembrance of -them. Our plan was to go down to Montevideo before long and wait for the arrival of the first ship of the Liverpool Pacific Steam JS^avigation Company to take us through QUARANTINE. 4o the Straits of Magellan to Valparaiso ; but one fine day came a dismal report that the Montevidean Government had had the audacity to put the Buenos Ayrean steamer in quarantine on the pretence of cholera. She was re- leased next day, and we hoped to hear no more of the matter. However, it was the time of peaches ; the weather was hot, and in a country where anybody could lav his boat against the banks of the Parank and stuff it with peaches as long as he cared to pick them, it is not unnatural that a few of the people in a vast city should die of eating a superfluity of fruit. This, coupled with the fact of a few deaths on board a dirty quarantine pon- toon at Ensenada, was made the most of by the Monte- videans, who returned to the charge and imposed three days' quarantine on every vessel going down the river. Presently after, they increased it to ten, and then to twenty days. This promised us very serious trouble, as we could not meet a Pacific steamer without going to Montevideo, and we dared not go far from Buenos Ayres for fear of losing some chance which might be the onl}' one. At last we made up our minds to go by what was advertised as the 'Magnifico Vapor, Luxor,' of 3,000 tons, from Hamburg. She was telegraphed from Monte- video, and the agent offered to take us in a steam launch if we liked to look at her, at six o'clock next morning. We took the offer, and met the ship just as she came up to her anchorage. We thought she looked much more like 1,200 tons than 3,000, and when we got on board we found that she only had a few exceedingly nasty little cabins, and they were all taken. I never saw such a detestable-looking ocean-going steamer in any port of the 44 THE- HEIBO. world. We were considerably disappointed by this break- down of our hopes, but we had to remain there for an hour or two before the launch returned. I cannot imagine what would happen to the magnificent ' Luxor ' when at sea, for in the ripple of a breeze on the river she rolled at her anchorage so that a great part of her passengers were pouring their sorrows, not into the ocean, but into the River Plate. Meanwhile we had an abundance of kind friends who loaded us with hospitalities. A good boat-club established at the Tigre, a short ride by railway, was a great attrac- tion to my companion; and near the boat-house I once more saw an old acquaintance in the brilliant blossom of the seibo (Erythrina), which in some places higher up the Parana transforms miles of its banks into seeming walls of deep carmine. Some other pleasant expeditions were arranged about this time by my old friends, Mr. Coghlan and Mr. Crawford, two well-known engineers. Mr. Ash- bury, of yachting fame, had lately arrived with his beautiful steam yacht ' Eothen,' and it was determined to show him the works of the Ensenada and Great Southern railways The Ensenada day came olf first. Mr. Sackville West, the British Minister, with Mr. St. John, his Secretary of Legation, and a few other friends besides ourselves, were invited to join the party. It was an unusually hot day when the little special train started out of the Buenos Ayres station, and we had a cloudless blaze till the sun sank below the horizon. The thermometer, in the coolest verandah that could be found, and entirely out of the reach of the sun, rose to 97°, but there is nothing oppres- sive even in this amount of heat in the glorious climate of TUE ' COW-CATCHER.' 4.5 the Rio de la Plata. A strong fresh breeze blew all day, and though we were walking about for a considerable time, I don't think anybody was inconvenienced by the heat. We inspected a large saladero, and saw some mag- nificent Basques at work upon the bone-ash. These men are considerably better paid than if they were serving Don Carlos in Spain ; they are the best workmen in Buenos Ayres, and many of them are immensely powerful and very handsome. Care was taken to refresh the company from time to time with iced champagne in the railway carriage, and Mr. Simpson, the manager, provided a deli- cious cold collation at his own house in the middle of the day. The Great Southern day was a somewhat longer affair, as we went to Chascomus, about seventy-five miles to the south of Buenos Ayres. This took us through the wild scenes of the Pampas, as effectively as if the distance had been hundreds of miles. We had nearly the same party as before, but Mr. West and Mr. St. John now brought rifles for the chance of a shot near the lake of Chascomus. These railways are unprotected by anything in the shape of fences, so that the herds of wild horses and cattle stray upon them as much as they please, and the ' cow-catcher' in front of the engine dashed several of them dead or dying to the right and left of the line, which is marked by carcases and skeletons. It is also marked by empty bottles thrown in great quantities out of window by the passengers ; and if the Pampas sink below the sea, and rise again in some future geological period, the course of the Great Southern railway will be easily traced by a continuous line of bones and wine-bottles. 43 SHOT DEAD. Whilst a goodly feast was being prepared b}' Mr. Grant at Chascornus, we walked to the edge of the lake, very much dried up by th-e hot weather. A gigantic crane was standing in the water up to the top of his long legs, about a quarter of a mile from us, Mr. SackvUIe West fired at him, but only frightened him into moving another fifty yards. Mr. St. John then fired, judging the distance as best he could ; and the first shot, to our astonishment, went exactly through him, breaking both wings close to the body, as we found when a mounted man returned with the dead body. The next day was Christmas, and though the thermometer was about 90° in the shade, full justice was done to a splendid turkey and a blazing plum-pudding, with the toast of ' Absent friends.' QUARANTINE. 47 CHAPTER III. Quarantme — Tke Deus ex machind — The Pampero at night — -Start in the ' Eothen' — ' Seeing the New Year in' at sea — Cruelty in hoisting cattle — The Straits of Magellan — Sea-hu'ds and wonders of the Kelp — ^The tragedy of Sandy Point — Snow Moimtains and Glaciers — Oape PUlar — Albatrosses and bad weather — Ooronel — The Gardens and Smelting Works of Lota — Arrival at Valparaiso. How were we to get away from Buenos Ayres? That was the question. Day by day we found ourselves more and more entangled in the toUs of quarantine. The ' magnificent ' steamer ' Luxor ' had proved a delusion and a snare; and the agents of the Pacific Steam Naviga- tion Company admitted that they had no means of putting passengers on board their own ships calling at Montevideo. We discussed the alternative of going to Rosario and Cordova, or Rio Quarto, with the view of crossing the Pampas and the Cordillera of the Andes to Santiago and Valparaiso. But this would rob us of the famous Straits of Magellan, which we were particularly anxious to see; and while the idea was in course of discussion, the news came that, so to speak, our own familiar friend had lifted up his heel against us, and that the provincial towns on the Parana were themselves imposing quarantine on the inha- bitants of the supposed- to-be-plague-stricken metropolis. Last of all we found, that even if we ' escaped to the mountains,' the Chilian outposts on the passes of the 48 HOW TO ESCAPE ? Andes would prevent the entrance of anything unclean mto then* Republic. What was to be done, without the misery and humiliation of enduring three weeks in a quarantine establishment, full of Spanish and Italian emigrants whose overcrowding was in itself a natural stimulus to disease? The Deus ex machind appeared in the person of Mr. Ashbury, who was still at Buenos Ayres with the 'Eothen.' Being anxious to return quickly to England, he determined to go home by the ' Sorata,' and leave the yacht in charge of his sailing master. The ' Sorata ' was due at Montevideo on the following Monday; and Mr. Ashbury very kindly offered to take us with him down to the outside anchorage of Montevideo, and wait for her arrival. If a steamer bound for the Straits arrived first, he would put us on board her ; but if not, we agreed to go back to Rio, and take ;i fresh departure. Thus should we defeat the demon of quarantine; and in such a journey as that which we were undertaking, the loss of ten days, and going 2,500 miles out of our way, appeared very insignificant matters. On Saturday, the 27th, Mr. Ash- bury gave a luncheon on board the yacht, and the heat was so great that the coolest of champagne cups could not enable any of the party to sit down with his coat on. Late in the afternoon a steam launch came off to take the other visitors on shore, and it ought to have brought the steward, pilot, and baggage from the hotel. There was nothing, however, and we made up our minds to go back with Mr. Coles, the doctor of the yacht, and look after everything for ourselves. About half-past seven we got on shore, and found the beginning of troubles : it was AN APPROACHING STORM. 49 unluckily Saturday evening, and not a cart or a peon could be found to do anything for love or money. We had the additional bad news that the hour was too late for getting the 'permit' from the captain of the port, without which we could not go on board again. There was, how- ever, a very active and intelligent man in the service of one of our friends, who thought he could surmount all these obstacles if we gave him carte blanche to make the best bargains he could. Meanwhile we went back to the house of a hospitable friend, and for my own part I must confess that I heartily hoped that our ambassador would fail in his negotiations, and leave us in peace for the rest of the night. No such luck, however. About 9.30 he returned, and said that everything was ready. How he had managed to get the ' permit ' I know not, but there it was ; and he had also hired a crowd of peons and a couple of boats to take us and our baggage. The great heat of the day had been followed by a dark and rather threatening night, and the prospect of rowing for an hour and a half was far from pleasant ; but Ave felt bound to try it after so much trouble had been taken. The peons, bribed by double pay, took all the baggage down to the end of the mole, and a few of the articles were already in one of the boats when the boatmen suddenly declared that a storm was at hand, and nothing would induce them to start. Looking up to the moonless but starry sky, we saw to our astonish- ment a black wall of cloud rising swiftly over all the west and south. We were in the midst of perfect calm, and yet this awful cloud was seen dashing and surging to- Avards us with the speed of a hurricane. In another 50 FLIGHT. moment it smote us in the face with all its fury. The avant courier of the storm was dense and almost blinding dust carried by the roaring blast, in the midst of which we contrived to get all our traps together again, and made a vain attempt to persuade the guardia to shelter us in their guard-room at the extremity of the mole. There was nothing left for us but to go ' bock again ; ' and in the howling of the storm we had to pay an outrageous price to the peons for carrying our things back to where they had come from. The first heavy drops of rain came pelting through the dust-storm; and in another moment a very deluge burst upon us with continuous crashes of thunder and lightning, and a wind which seemed trying to blow us into the river. A.midst the uproar of the elements the Custom-house people made us understand that we could take nothing with us from the pier till the next morning, but they put our goods under the shelter of their office; and perhaps this was all for the best, as the peons were saved from the temptation of running away with some of them in the darkness. Then we ran for the Caf6 de Paris through deserted streets, which were suddenly turned into rivers, into one of which I plunged nearly up to my knees. A scrap of hasty supper was very necessary after this, and then in pitiable plight, covered with a kind of mud, caused by the rain coming upon a thick coating of dust, we returned to be welcomed by the good friends who, when they had recovered from laughing at our ridiculous and crest-fallen appearance, provided us with clean clothes while our own were drying. After some vigorous washing we were tolerably fit to join the social band, and forgot the sorrow of the evening in a nocturnal tobacco-parliament, and a comfortable shake-down on the floor. 51 A little before 5 a.m. we shook hands with our kind host in bed, and slipped out of the house to the rendezvous on the mole. The weather was once more splendid ; we collected the pilot and the steward, got all our traps out of the clutches of the Custom-house, and started for the dis- tant anchorage of the yacht. We got on board in time for an early breakfast, after which I was very glad to take off coat and waistcoat and lie down for a few hovirs. The heat of the previous day, the vexation and excitement about the baggage, the uncertainties of the evening, the difficulty of doing anything, the terrific appearance of the storm, and the short rest after it, all combined to make me feel unusually tired. About noon we slipped down the river with a rather sulky pilot in charge; the water was rough enough to compel closing the ports, and the heat below was intense. Very early next morning we dropped the pilot at the lightship, went on and came to anchor some miles out from Montevideo, wondering whether the outward or home- ward Pacific steamer would arrive first. In a couple of hours the problem was solved by the- arrival of the mag- nificent ' Sorata ' on her way from Valparaiso to England, and as soon as she anchored, the yacht moved on and anchored about three hundred yards from her. Our yellow flag would have compromised her seriously, so we waited patiently for the next morning, when she was to sail for Rio. All day we endured a series of thunder- storms with tremendous lightning and deluges of rain, which made the deck untenable, but in the morning all was fair. "We had all the baggage ready in one of the yacht's boats, while another was to take the party; and E 2 52 SEEING THE NEW YEAR IN. the moment the last Montevidean boat, full of officials, left the side of the ' Sorata,' we pushed off and stood on her deck just as she finished weighing anchor. We waved a farewell to the beautiful ' Eothen,' which weighed anchor at the same time, and started for her voyage home under command of the sailing master. It was with an indescribable feeling of relief and deliverance that we found ourselves once more at sea and clear of the clutches of Montevideo. The recent thunder- storms and rain had somewhat cooled the air, and nothing could be pleasanter than the voyage of four days and a half to Rio, during which we did our best to bury the old year properly and to welcome the new one. Our small com- pany of passengers assembled on deck at midnight, and under the broad light of the moon shining over a calm sea we drank the health of the new year, while the sailors rang the ship's bells with all the vigour they were capable of. With 2,500 tons of copper on board we did not travel particularly fast, but in the afternoon of January 3 we were running past the Sugarloaf into the ever-beautiful harbour of Rio. Never, perhaps, did its now familiar scenery appear to greater advantage, but as it was no part of our plan to stay there longer than necessary on the present occasion, our pleasure was greatly increased by finding that the Company's ship ' Cotopaxi ' had not yet left for the south, and would be ready to take us back as soon as she could complete taking in her 600 tons of coal. The ' Sorata ' wanted a similar supply, and the coaling of two such ships at once made a hard day for the people at the wharf in the intense heat of an extra-hot Brazilian sunshine. Next day we were transferred to the ' Goto- THE COTOPAXI. Oo paxi,' where I found an old friend in her commander, Captain Bax, the brother of our late captain of the ' Neva ;' and in the afternoon of the 5th, still with perfectly fine weather, we once more said farewell to Rio de Janeiro. We had a very fine and fast passage of only three days and a half to Montevideo, doing one day 338 knots in the twenty-four hours, or rather more than four- teen knots an hour throughout; and here I may as well say a few words in praise of the splendid vessels of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. To anyone who does not particularly dislike the sea, and wishes for three months' change of scene, combined with repose of mind and comfort of body, I could not recommend anything better than a vo}'age from Liverpool to Callao and back in one of them. Many of them, of about 4,000 tons burthen and considerably more than 400 feet in length, are from end to end like the. finest yachts, combining the elements of speed, beauty, and stability. They carry their ports high out of the water; some of them have the admirable arrangement of a nearly square saloon in the middle of the ship, and they have libraries of such well- chosen books that it is difficult to know which to begin with. Such was the ' Cotopaxi,' which brought us back to Montevideo on the tenth day after leaving it ; and sweet was the feeling of triumph over the worthy people of that place as we looked at it from our anchorage, and thought of the pleasant days we had been spending at sea instead of in their hateful quarantine establishments. I suppose they were pleased with the result of that system, for we now found that it had been extended, and ships from 54 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. Brazil also were condemned to eight days' quarantine in consequence of a few cases of fever on the coast. As Montevideo therefore for a second time prevented us from having a chance of shaking off her dust from our feet, we spent the day chiefly in watching cargo and cattle coming on board in lighters during a pretty fresh breeze. The cattle were lifted in a very primitive fashion by fastening a nooze round their horns, and applying the steam-winch at the other end of the rope. Under the pressure of this irrepressible ' demon,' as Mr. Ruskin would call it, their necks were drawn out to a length which I could hardly have believed possible before their ponderous bodies were lifted from the deck of the barge. There was something ludicrous in the appearance of a bullock in mid-air with his tail hanging down and his neck stretched upwards to a preternatural length; but the cruelty of the proceeding soon overcame the idea of mirth. I asked why they were not brought up properly in slings; and the answer was, that the Montevidean cattle are so wild that if they were brought on board in any such gentle fashion, they would make a furious disturbance as soon as they touched the deck; whereas by the rougher process of stretching and straining they were frightened into a stale of tran- quillity. Whether the end justified the means we must leave to the casuists; at all events it was successful, and when the rope was cast off, each beast allowed itself to be led away by one horn as quietly as a tame lamb. The sheep had even worse treatment, if possible. They were piled in the barge one upon the other, each with its four feet tied tightly together; the rope from the winch was passed through the fastenings ofeightsheepat atime THE LAZARETTO. 5o and the)- were thus hauled up by the feet like bales of goods, and deposited anyhow on the deck. Once upon a time I was remonstrating with the rough mate of a Scotch steamer about the cruelty of taking sheep from Leith to the Loudon market without giving them a particle of food or water for the two days and nights; the surly answer I received was, ' "What's the good o' giving them anything to eat? they'll be eat theirselves o" Tuesday.' I suppose the Montevidean purveyors would have agreed with him. Next morning the wind and sea had gone down, and all was calm sunshine. The departing officials consented to take letters on shore after sprinkling them with a touch of carbolic acid; there was a very grave question as to the necessity of quarantining an old donkey brought by a passenger from Spain; and among other discrepan- cies, the health officers allowed a box of specie to pass when duly sprinkled, while a case of jewellery was not to be purged so lightly from its contagious impurity. At last we Aveighed anchor, and went down in an hour and a quarter to Flores Island, where we left our ]\lontevidean passengers to languish for a week in the lazaretto; and as we steamed off grandly- on our way, we could see some of them sadly waving handkerchiefs and waiting their turn to be fumigated with all their effects. We hear of International Congresses about peace, labour, sociaHsm, and other matters : those who travel much about the big world, and know how often lazarettos are made conducive to the revenue of individuals, as well as how often qua- rantine is established on the most frivolous pretences, would like to see a Congress assembled to put a strong curb upon such absurdities. The Flores Island establish- 56 STRANGE EFFECTS AT. SEA. ment is not so bad a prison as it might be, but it is a prison ; and those who come out to work in a new world find it remarkably unpleasant to be ' cribbed, cabined, and confined,' and made to pay for it too, when they are eagerly longing to make money instead of spending the small sayings they may have brought from Europe. But I must dismiss the subject for the present, and remember that we are going at the rate of 300 miles a day to- Avards the famous Straits of Magellan. Soon after crossing the extreme mouth of the estuary of La Plata we found the sea for a considerable distance varied by large patches of a brownish colour, caused by shoals of countless small fish which were affording a royal feast to innumerable gulls and other sea-birds. Screaming and darting down with a splash upon their victims, thev seemed to be vying with one another as to who should eat the most, while a school of porpoises, tumbling merrily, seemed to enjoy their share of the fun. Next day, with per- fectly calm weather, the sea presented an appearance which I have never seen elsewhere. It was divided into broad, irregular belts, with well-defined lines of foam, much as if caused by water rippling against a muddy shoal or bank. The seeming shoals were represented by sheets of glassy water, while the intermediate belts were ruffled by a fi-esh breeze into a rippling sea. There was nothing of the passing cat's-paw phenomenon in this, for the dividing belts of foam showed clearly that these parallel belts of alternate breeze and dead calm must have maintained much the same position, for some time. As we ran to the south- wards, the sea at about 100 fathoms deep was only mode- rately blue, and looked as if it were mixed with a solution FERNAXDUS ilAGALIANES. 57 of chalk or skim-milk. The whole appearance of the sky and the tints of the clouds changed very rapidly in a couple of days ; the warm glow and lustre of the tropical regions vanished like a dream, and the hard chalky clouds looked more like what may be seen on a fairly bright day in the European spring. What strange events have sprung from small causes Q^hat invaluable treasury of geography, the book of ' Pur- chas his Piigrimes,' tells us that ' Fernandus Magalianes, a Portugal,' after serving with great distinction in the Portuguese navy, under Albuquerque in the East Indies, thought that bis services were not sufficiently appreciated by his royal master; and, on being refused an addition to bis stipend of ' halfe a duckat a moneth,' he went over to the Court of Castile, and told the Emperor that the Spice Islands of the Diloluccas properly belonged to Spain as being to the westward of the- meridian, which the Pope had fixed as the boundary between the possessions of Spain and Portugal in the new world. He went further, and offered to go by the west and secure those ' Islands of Spicerie ' for the Spanish Crown. The Emperor lis- tened to the enticing proposal, and Magalianes, or Ma- gellan, started on August 10, 1519, with five ships and 236 men under his command. After a fair share of the troubles which usually disturbed the navigators of that period, he and his expedition discovered the Straits which bear his name, and sailed through them to the Pacific Ocean, which he also named. They were much astonished by the ' giants ' whom they found in Patagonia, and who appeared to them so good-humoured in spite of their size that they resolved to capture some specimens. 58 THE GIANTS. They induced a few of them to come on board, and delighted the giants by filling their hands so full of pre- sents that they could not use them without dropping their treasures; and they then succeeded in putting steel fetters on the feet of two of them. The fetters looked very pretty and bright, and the giants were more pleased than ever till they found they could not move. Then they ' roared like bulls,' but all their roaring was useless. The ship that contained one of them deserted for home, and the luckless giant died when he felt the heat of the equatorial regions. The other died amidst the sickness which semi-starvation brought on the expedition when crossing the Pacific ; and however lovely they may have been in their lives, the Patagonian giants in their death were very far divided. What would not poor Fernandus Magalianes have given for the ' Cotopaxi ' that on the fifth day took us round the Virgins Cape and into the eastern entrance of is famous Straits? We were there before 4 a.m., which was long after daylight at that high latitude in the middle of January. The land on both sides was flat, and almost as low as the banks of the Scheldt at Antwerp ; the sea was smooth as glass in that tranquil morning, and patches of gigantic sea-weed afibrded floating sofas to countless gulls, divers, ducks, cormorants, and penguins. There they sat in luxurious ease till every now and then it suited one or other of them to take a header after one of the fish, which rejoice in these beds of kelp : he returned in a moment, shook his head as he bolted his victim, and quietly sat down to digest it while his friends followed his example. This sea- weed, the Macrocystis pyrifera is, in THE KELP. 59 a marine fasliion, the most successful rival of the ' big trees ' of California, which are the largest upon terra firma. Mr. Darwin ^ says that ' it grows on every rock from low- water mark to a great depth, both on the outer coast and in the channels.' It has been found growing up to, and spreading over, the surface of the water from a depth of forty-five fathoms, which, when added to the angular slant given to it by currents, was probably equal to a height of 400 feet. Its branches serve as buoys over sunken rocks, and at the mouths of harbours have a very considerable effect in breaking up the force of the waves. In addition to this, Mr. Darwin remarks that the number of living creatures of all orders that depend on the kelp for exist- ence is wonderful. He ' never recurred to a branch of the kelp without discovering new creatures.' Shells, corallines, Crustacea, &c., made it white below the surface of the sea ; among its leaves live numerous species of fish, which nowhere else could find food or shelter. Upon these in turn depend the fishing-birds, seals, otters, and por- poises; and, lastly, without these, 'the Fuegian savage, the miserable lord of this miserable land, would redouble his cannibal feast, decrease in numbers, and perhaps cease to exist.' As I have elsewhere said that a forest monarch of BrazU, covered with ferns, orchids, and all kinds of para- sitic plants, is ' not only a tree but a garden,' so it would seem that the kelp stands in a somewhat similar relation to the creatures of the sea. In a few hours we found ourselves in narrower water, with the shores rising into low hills, on the top of one of which we saw our first guanaco, looking about him like an 1 Voyage of the 'Beagle.' 60 A PATAGONIAN TRAGEOr. old chamois on guard. The long sharp bow of the ' Cotopaxi ' slipped through the glassy sea almost without making a ripple to disturb the multitudinous birds as they fished comfortably from their sea-weed beds, and rose and fell lazUy as the gentle swell reached them. About 2 P.M. we reached Punta Arenas, commonly called Sandy Point, and here the transformation scene may be said to begin. Thus far the temperature could hardly have been called cold, and we were still a long way from the snow mountains ; but in the three hours which we spent at Sandy Point a biting wind set in off the land, and gave us a foretaste of what we might expect in the next twenty- four hours. Punta Arenas has long been a Chilian convict settlement, and was in 185o the scene of a fearful tragedy. The convicts made a successful rising, and after murdering the governor, their guards, and everyone that came in their way, about forty of them put to sea in a small schooner which they had appropriated. Unluckily for them, they fell in with a British man-of-war cruising in the Straits. Their appearance and their story appeared remarkably unsatisfactory, so the captain took them on board and carried them to Sandy Point, where a scene of horror showed what had lately taken place there. He then took them round to Valparaiso and handed them over to the Chilian authorities, by whose orders, as I was told, they were aU shot forthwith. The place is still a station for military and naval prisoners, with a Chilian guard of about eighty men. The governor, an Anglo-Chilian, came off to pay us a visit, and embraced one of our French passengers more Gallico with effusion. With him came an enormously tall SANDY POINT. Gl Englishman, who had been travellmg and shooting in the neighbourhood, and who in an Ulster coat reaching to his heels out-Patagonianed the Patagonian giants. There appeared to be very few boats, but one or two came off to trade with a few ostrich feathers, guanaco skins, &3., but they were not of very tempting excellence. The settle- ment is a very small one, containing as nearly as I could count about 150 houses and shanties, some of them of the smallest possible size consistent with sheltering human creatures. The land slopes up steeply from very near the beach, and it is only in the immediate neighbourhood of the settlement that a clearance has been made in the forest, which must previously have clothed the whole of the hill-side. The appearance of the trees was far finer than I could have expected. Two kinds of beech grow to a large size, and at the edge of a clearing their white stems have a charming effect against the forest depths behind them. Evergreen trees grow luxuriantly, for the . climate, though on the average of the year about ten de- grees lower than at a similar latitude in the Northern hemisphere, is much more equable, with almost constant wet. The immense amount of moisture covers the sur- face of the ground with a deep growth of mosses, film- ferns, and water-loving plants, which encroach even on the low-lying branches of the trees to such an extent that the inquisitive pedestrian, in trying to make use of these boughs, can easily slip off and find himself up to the middle in a mixture of bog-plants and rotten trees. Above this forest belt comes a region of scrub reaching nearly to the top of rough hills in form and colour very much like the Highlands of Scotland. A discovery of 62 THE FUEGIAX MOUNTAINS. coal has raised the hopes of those who wish to see the advancement of the place ; but, as far as I could hear, neither the quality nor the quantity was very inspiriting as yet. We sailed about 4 p.m. through Famine Reach, Fro- ward Reach, and English Reach, passing between moun- tains which were higher and more snowy as we advanced towards the west. Many of those nearest to the shores rose up to a height of probably about 3,000 feet directly from the sea, with the upper half still nearly covered with snow; and every now and then an opening in the line enabled us to look up lateral gulfs and fiords to the grand heads of the higher order of true snow mountains, with their glaciers running down to the sea. A distant glimpse of Mount Buckland revealed a peak almost exactly like the Jungfrau as seen from the Eggischhorn, and farther on we had a fine view of Mount Sarmiento, which is a noble mass of rocks and snow slopes rising to the height of nearly 7,000 feet. The ship was stopped for the few hours of a southern midsummer's night, as the captain did not like venturing on the intricacies of Crooked Reach till daylight. It was a strangely wild scene ; the mountains so closed in upon us that we seemed to be only in a rather narrow lake, with snow to the left of us, snow to the right of us ; and a biting wind drove great dark clouds before it, pelting us with blindin" hail and sleet that chilled the very bones of those who a week before were in the hottest weather of the southern tropic. In the intervals between the squalls grand gleams of sunshine would illuminate the forests and the snowfields • and the departing sun, between the rolling away of one GLACIER BAV. 63 black mass and the attack of its successor, gave a rosy tint to the crests and warmed the mossy rocks and nearer forests with a rich lustre of golden brown. About 3 A.M. on the 18th there was light enough to go ahead again through the turns and twists of Crooked Reach. We passed Glacier Bay on the north with splen- did fields of ice sweeping down towards the sea; and with the telescope could make out the details of many other glaciers a little further removed irom the main channel, and flowing down into the lateral fiords. All the well- known phenomena were distinctly visible: rocky aretes separated by precipitous couloirs; vast fields of n^ve, crevasses and blue icefalls, ending with the fan-shaped structure bounded by its lateral moraines. Here and there we thought we could detect a small puff of smoke, indicating the presence of a few wretched Fuegians, but we saw no boats or any positive evidence of these house- less savages. Long Reach was a kind of exaggerated Loch Lomond, with snow mountains on both sides, the view towards its eastern extremity closmg up with a magnificent group of the higher summits, chief of which was a noble mass which very closely resembled the Fins- teraarhorn as seen from the Furka. It must of course be remembered, that though the highest of these Fuegian mountains are only from 6,000 to 7,000 feet high, yet the effect upon a spectator who sees them from the deck of a ship, rising straight out of the sea and covered with snow almost down to its level, is quite as surprising as the view of an Alpine giant from some lofty pass. The wind grew stronger and colder with every hour ; and those of us who faced the pitiless hailstorms that 64 ISLAND OF 1:)ES0LATI0N. swept across the deck were 'glad of the thickest coats we could muster. One of the quartermasters seeraed rather astonished at my evident enjoyment of the wild scene and chilling blast; but I had not seen any snow moun- tains for three years, and the old spirit of the Alps was upon me, in addition to the spirit of curiosity which was roused as I looked upon this untouched region of Antarctic mountains. What a field of enterprise for a Patagonian branch of the Alpine Club, with two hundred miles of ■ untrodden ' peaks, passes, and glaciers' on each side of a strait which is regularly passed by some of the finest steamers in the world! Not only does all the charm of novelty await iiivestigation, but in addition to all the ordinary difficulties of mountaineering they would have the excitement of feeling that at the end, of an otherwise successful day, they might perhaps go to supper with some hungry Fuegians of the coast, and find themselves, like Polonius, 'not where they eat, but where they're eaten.' About noon we passed the eastern end of the well-, named Island of Desolation, and entered on broader water, where we encountered a heavy head sea, which was big enough to make the 420 feet of the ' Cotopaxi ' pitch and tumble like a lively porpoise, though nothing seemed able to materially slacken her pace. Most of us heartily wished the weather to get worse, for in that case the captain would have taken the ship through the renowned Smyth's Channel to the northward. The scenery of that channel is described as wonderfully fine, and in its narrow waters ships of the largest size are sometimes moored for the night in twenty-five fathoms, so close to the shore CAPE PILLAR. 65 that their bowsprits and anchors actually intrude into the surrounding trees. It is, however, considered so risky that the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's captains have orders not to attempt it unless when the state of the weather is such as to make the passage out by Cape Pillar a stiU greater peril. We tried in vain to induce Captain Bax to think that such was the case at present; and so we held on against an ever-increasing sea, till in. the afternoon we passed the fearful rocks of Cape Pillar at the end of the Island of Desolation, where we saw the waves dashing up the cliffs and pinnacles in towers of foam such as I never elsewhere beheld. The whole force of the Pacific beats against these tremendous precipices under the influence of perpetual gales from the west; and I can fully agree with Mr. Darwin, who, when taking leave of Tierra del Fuego, remarks that ' one sight of such a coast is enough to make a landsman dream for a week about shipwrecks and peril and death.' As we passed into the open ocean and saw the fierce sea Avith which we were battling, a French passenger pointing to it, said to me, ' Et voila, monsieur, ce qu'on appelle la mer Pacifique ! ' He seemed to think he had been swindled. The sudden transition fi-om a very hot climate in its hottest season to the cold and bitter -winds of the Straits caused a good many very severe sorethroats, some of which required the use of caustic daily, and pre- vented the sufferers from swallowing anything but slops for the rest of the voyage to Valparaiso. A considerable number of albatrosses were waiting to escort us when we got clear of the Straits, and it was a constant amusement to watch them hovering close over the deck with their F 66 ALBATROSSES. keen eyes ever on the watch for waifs and strays from the food department, or sweeping backwards and forwards with irresistible but seemingly motionless wings. There is no flapping movement to renew the speed ; with wings rigidly extended to a breadth of twelve feet and upwards, and moving only as the body moves, they look like won- derful machines wound up for the day, or perhaps endowed with perpetual motion. They were the only creatures that appeared to enjoy the weather of the next two days. A strong north-west wind and driving rain made life on deck miserable, and the rolling of the ship in a heavy cross sea set things flying in all directions in the cabin; but the albatrosses seemed as serene as ever, and though they often came within close pistol-shot we remembered the fate of the ' ancient mariner,' and no one ventured to pull a trigger on them. In the neighbourhood of Chiloe we had a dose of the rain which almost always falls there and nourishes a dense vegetation. Soon after this we began to feel warm again. The sea subsided into a long swell, and with sail and steam we went northwards at our best speed. The increasing heat did not at all suit the constitution of our friends the albatrosses, who tailed off' one by one ; the last of them deserted the day before reaching Valparaiso, and went back to cool himself in the more congenial blasts of the Southern Ocean. Early in the morning of the 20th we passed the island of Santa Maria, and with perfectly lovely weather an- chored at the coaling station of Coronel, a few miles to the south of Concepcion. Here, close to the low sandy beaches, were the familiar forms of coal-shafts, reminding us of the north of England, and showing how the dis- BOAT TO LOTA. 67 covery of a new source of wealth can in a few years transform the wilderness, even if it does not make it to blossom like the rose. The fortune of this neighbourhood was made by the discovery of coal in 1849, and the subse- quent establishment of the great copper smelting works at Lota, about seven miles from Coronel. The coal has a very indifferent appearance, looking more like slaty rubbish, but it does good work ; and while the ' Cotopaxi ' spent the day in replenishing her bunkers we had a singularly happy chance of seeing another application of it. We were fortunate in having for a fellow passen- ger an English merchant of Valparaiso who was well acquainted with the chief proprietors of Lota, and very kindly offered to escort us over the works. There was some uncertainty about horses, and we agreed to make a party of four and go by boat. A bargain was soon made with four sturdy ChUenos to take us there and back for eight dollars, waiting at Lota as long as we wished. They had a capital whale-boat and rowed well, getting over the seven miles in an hour, and passing round the rocks of a projecting point into a snug bay, which is furnished with a pier for ships to load and discharge at. In a few minutes more we found our- selves in the hospitable charge of the authorities, who led us through vast rows of buildings, crowned with a forest of chimneys vomiting smoke. Here, in addition to the natural heat of the day, we were brought almost up to melting-point by wandering amongst endless furnaces and rivers of molten copper, some fresh and red-hot, and others treacherously concealing their real condition by a newly- assumed shade of external blackness. Here were vast p 2 68 COPPER-SMELTING. piles of ore brouglit from the northern ports ; ponderous machines in haunts of darkness crushing it to powder; tough Indians and many- coloured demons of the alternate gloom and glare carrying it hither and thither, and watering the ground with their sweat ; foul smells, sul- phureous and abominable ; and then came the excitement of opening a fresh furnace and the outpouring of a new river of hell. We were introduced to the mysteries of variously valued ores and regulus, to mountains of slag and rubbish, and to the arcana of the scientific G-erman who tests and certifies to the quality of all the specimens that pass through his hands. At length we emerged into the comparative coolness of a blazing sun, where I saw men using brooms made of myrtle-boughs, blossom and all, to sweep the grimy floors of some outlying sheds. It seemed a cruel outrage on that divine flower, and made me think of the surprise with which Voltaire's Candide saw the children of the Incas playing at marbles with nuggets of gold. Here, too, we were in comparative absence of noise, and could listen to statistics about Lota and its works. The coal mines and smelting establishment are said to employ 2,500 hands; and the little town contains about 7,000 people, more or less dependent upon the works. The furnaces turn out about 1,000 tons of copper monthly, and could make more if pressed; and the value of the metal at the lower figure would be not much under 1,000.000?. sterling a year. In addition to the vast quan- tities of coal required for the smelting works, I was told that the company also sell coals to the extent of 400 000/. a year : and some idea may thus be formed of the vast business which is now being carried on at what was lately GAEDEN AT LOTA. 69 a desolate corner of the Chilian coast. The land formed part of the estates of the Cousino family, who have, of course, made an immense fortune, and who out of their abundance have lately given a large public park and garden to the good people of Santiago. Half a dozen saddled horses*^ were ready to take us up the hill that rises from the valley, at the end of which the works are placed. And here a wondei'ful change of scene presented itself. The fumes of preparing and smelting the ore have destroyed nearly every kind of vegetation in the line of the valley up which they are carried by the prevailing westerly winds ; but, on turning a few yards to the left when we reached the high ground, which is about 300 feet above the sea, we found ourselves among the brilliant gardens of Madame Cousino. Long winding walks made of pounded shells, some bordered with thick rows of Neapolitan violets, and others with hedges of scarlet geraniums, led in every direction to and from a handsome English-looking house, which commands the view to the Pacific. Here were aU the best native plants, aided by fresh supplies from Veitch's stores at Chelsea, all under the care of highly-paid European gardeners, with a good supply of water at their disposal. In some parts there were green sloping lawns decked with groups of the large yellow broom in full blossom, and scarlet geraniums eight or ten feet high, the combined effect of which was brilliant beyond description. In another direction paths had been cut out of the hill-side among the dense shade of the Chilian evergreen oaks, between the stems and branches of ^ One of these horses had carried one of the managers 90 miles the day hefore our arrival, and -won a race when near the end of the journey. 70 LAPAGERIA ROSEA. which we looked down upon the blue and shining ocean. The rose garden contained many of the choicest sorts, and the scarlet Calosanthus coccineus bloomed marvellously. The blue spiked veronica of our greenhouses was like a weed, growing into bushes of twelve or fifteen feet high, loaded with flowers from top to bottom. Bright calceolarias and verbenas clustered round immense heliotropes; and many-coloured dahlias, backed by thick evergreens, added their share of brilliance to the scene. From the gardens the land slopes gently towards the sea in park-like fashion, studded with groups of dark ilex, till it terminates in the undulating line of coast, with ferny caves and sunny head- lands, which, in their warm tints of red and brown and yellow, reminded me of many a view on the coasts of Greece. Among them are the haunts of the Copigue, or Lapageria rosea^ which with its long rose-coloured, wax- like bells is one of the most beautiful twining plants in the world. In spite of its exquisite beauty and seemino- delicacy, it is said to be almost the only plant of any kind that can exist under the influence of the sulphureous smoke of the smelting houses; and Dr. Cunningham men- tions having seen it ' in a flourishing condition windino- round the skeletons of shrubs killed by the smoke.' After paying some well-deserved comphments to the gardener we were invited to a very welcome luncheon by the manager, and after another walk in the garden we turned away from this floral paradise of Chile, and walked down the hill to the Gehenna of the smelting works. Here, as we stepped into our boat, we found that the gar- dener had appreciated praise, and kindly sent us down four magnificent bouquets, about the size of beehives. A DEATH AT SEA. 71 A strong breeze blowing on shore made it hard work for our boat's crew to pull out round the first headland ; but when that was done, we set sail and had a merry run back to the 'Cotopaxi.' From the sea we looked for the last time upon the splendid colours of that gay garden on the hill, and bade farewell to a place that will never be forgotten. A visit to Lota was a delightful first intro- duction to the West Coast of South America. We sailed early next morning, and at sunset buried a poor fellow who had fallen down dead in the stoke-hole. On the 22nd, about breakfast time, we anchored in the bay of Valparaiso. 72 VALPAEAISO. CHAPTER IV. The Cockrane statue — ' Earthquakia ' — The suburbs of Valparaiso — Building'' materials — Fox-hunting — Ohacahuso revels — Delightful climate — EaUway to Santiago — Fruit — ^The bell of QuiUota — Llai-Llai — Moonlight eifects — The highest station — The plain of Santiago — Arrival by night — ^The Grand Hotel Santa Lucia and view of the OordUlera — Aconcagua and Tupungato — Will they ever be ascended ? Coming on deck, after the usual bustle of packing and paying stewards, I had the pleasure of finding that an English friend, Mr. Kennedy, had come off to look for us and carry us through the clamours of a legion of contend- ing boatmen, and other human sharks and alligators, all anxious to have the first spoiling of a new arrival in a foreign land. Ridiculous claims were soon brought within the bounds of reason ; and we presently found ourselves installed with all our goods in the Hotel de I'Union, kept by a remarkably pleasant and agreeable French couple, who always enjoyed a chat about France and the glories of their native Pyrenees. Rooms were scarce, however, for it was the season when the fashionable world of Santiago finds itself constrained by excessive heat to come down to Valparaiso, and enjoy the luxuries of sea- air and bathing. Almost every spare room in the town was let, and. prices had risen, as they do all over the world in fashionable places, ' during the season.' The name of Valparaiso, Vale of Paradise, sounds 'earthquakia.' 73 very charming; but however justly it may be applied to Quillota and the country a little way inland, yet, as far as the city is concerned, it is assuredly a misnomer. It is not in a valley at all, nor is there anything in its outside appearance likely to suggest thoughts of Paradise to an ordinary spectator. It is a long, narrow, scrambling city, extending along the whole length of a nearly semi- circular bay, and walled in by a nearly parallel chain of hills rising to about 1,500 feet above the sea, with quebradas or ravines partially dividing them. Landing at the mole and entering the Plaza adjoining, we found ourselves face to face with a statue of Lord Cochrane ; and the street to the left where our hotel stands is also named after the British hero to whom South America was so much in- debted, and whose ghost seems now the presiding genius of the place. The next thing that I particularly noticed was the abundance of large cracks and recently fiUed patches in the handsome buildings all round, testifying to the violence of a July earthquake six months before. We were in truth now committed to what might properly be caUed ' Earthquakia,' a region which, regardless of all political boundaries, extends through about ninety degrees of latitude, and more than 7,000 miles of coast from Southern Chile to the north of California. Through- out the whole of this vast extent the earthquake-power flourishes the sword of Damocles over the inhabitants, and they know not who will first be struck. There is scarcely a place along the whole coast which has not been fearfully shaken, if not wholly destroyed, within the memory of man. Concepcion, Valparaiso, and Santiago have been shaken to the ground over and over again within the last 74 MENDOZA DESTROYED. three centuries; and if anyone wishes to see the catalogue of disasters in Chile alone during that period, I would refer him to the valuable work ^ of liieutenant Gilliss, of the American navy, who was in charge of their Astro- nomical expedition from 1849 to 1852. Nowhere have I read a more admirable account of what a courageous man could do under circumstances which drove all the inhabitants into panic-stricken flight. He remained watch- ing his instruments and calculating how long the parting^ ceiling would be supported by the opening walls; and only seizing his watch and hiding under the shelter of the lintel of the door whilst all the rest of the building came down about his ears in a blinding crowd of rubbish. But, even since the date of his work, a still more terrible catastrophe happened in 1861, at Mendoza on the Argentine side of the Cordillera, when the whole of that city was destroyed, and three-quarters of a population of about 20,000 perished in five minutes. On that occasion the shock was so far felt at Buenos Ayres, 900 miles distant, that the chief watchmaker there told me that his pendulum clocks were at once left ten seconds behind his chronometers. A special peculiarity about the phenomena of ' Earth^uakia ' is this. Soldiers and sailors will tell you that they soon get ac- customed to be shot at, and I have no doubt that they speak truthfully: the merely close probability of being killed in that way is comparatively nothing. They have at all events the satisfaction of feeling that they have a chance of shooting somebody else; but when the solid earth shakes under the feet, the feeling is quite otherwise. * ' The United States Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemi- sphere.' Washington, 1855. THE EARTH LIKE PIE-CRUST. 75 All human computations fail: the most experienced are the first to run out in their night-shirts, and they say with trembling that ' the more they look at it the less they like it.' Nevertheless, they live near the gaunt terror as happily as most people ; those who are not killed rebuild their houses on the same spot if they can find it ; laugh at the past misfortune, and forget the future proba- bilities of a similar scene. Mr. Gilliss speaks of a man who had heard of the crust of the earth surrounding sempiter- nal fires, but graphically remarked that he never realized the fact of its being something like mere pie-crust till he tried by standing tiptoe on the opening earth to delay his precipitation into the realms of Pluto. The docks, wharves, storehouses, &c., are chiefly at the southern end of the crescent-shaped bay ; the railway station is near the opposite extremity, and between them run nearly parallel streets which are traversed by an abundance of tramcars at the smallest of small fares. There are many good shops with all the latest useful and pretty things from London and Paris ; but everything seemed excessively dear with the exception of tramcars and photographs of Chilian scenery, which were well worth a dollar each. But a dollar for hair-cutting seemed an extortionate charge, though we afterwards found it was the regular thing all the way to San Francisco and China; and one might fairly hesitate before giving 21. 10s. for a white hat, or sixteen shillings for a bottle of ordinary champagne; but such were the prices. The houses at the back of the city are built almost close to the rocks, much like the situation of Hastings under the castle ; and steep flights of steps and zigzag roads lead at different 76 GREAT ACONCAGUA. points to the upper part of the town. Here is the Eng- lish Church and the Cerro Alegre, where many of the leading men of business have pretty houses and gardens ornamented with good Norfolk Island pines, Araucaria excelsa^ huge bushes of scarlet geraniums and yellow broom, passion-flowers, fuchsias, heliotropes, calceolarias, and roses of all descriptions. In front of these there is a kind of terrace road, commanding a fine view of Acon- cagua, the highest mountain in the world with the exception of some of the chief Himalayas. It is 23,600 feet above the sea, and even at this distance of about 120 miles its vast and solitary mass of snow and precipice presents a most magnificent appearance. It is quite alone in its glory, and being more than half as high again as Mont Blanc it appears to rise farther into the sky than one would think possible. Wandering past this comparatively aristocratic quarter we soon found ourselves exploring a still higher region of suburbs, wherein are to be seen the dwellings of peons, water-carriers, and labourers of all sorts and grades, tapering down to the domesticated Indians. Here the style of architecture also tapers ofi' till it arrives at the primitive simplicity of mud huts ; and little bits of land separated by curiously varied fences which, in a region where timber is scarce, are made by the poorer classes of anything but wood. ' Nothing in matter is lost,' and nothing in the way of flotsam and jetsam seems to be lost sight of by the industrious chiffonniers of Valparaiso. A very popular kind of fence consists of broken tea-chests beaten-out biscuit tins, old sardine -boxes, scraps of corru- gated iron, and perhaps a cactus here and there to help in REYNAED IN CHILE. 77 keeping tlie strange mixture together. A good many of the inhabitants of this quarter occupy themselves with the washing of clothes for the city, and through the open doors of their small houses many a picturesque group of half-Indian women off duty may be seen squatting on the ground in their own fashion, playing with their babies and chattering over a feast of figs and melons while the clothes are drying in the brilliant sunshine of a country where it scarcely ever rains except in one short season of the year. Yet a little farther on and higher up the last straggling hut is left behind, and the burnt-up ground is taken possession of by happy donkeys, who roll them- selves in dust and rubbish among the half-dead remains of calceolarias and antirrhinums till they are carried off to be again loaded with water-casks for the city. Beyond this come long successions of undulating hills, which were for the most part burnt brown, except where cactus and evergreen bushes took possession of the ground and offered some protection to innumerable blos- soms of orange-coloured Alstroemeria lilies. The rough roads and hiU-sides were so steep and hard under our horses' feet that it was difficult to believe all we heard about the delights of fox-hunting in such a country ; but it appears that if, instead of being in the hottest season of the year, we had seen Chile after the rains of winter, the country would have been green to the eye and soft to the foot, and we should have seen young England in full pursuit of Reynard. As it was, we rode on to see the cricket-ground, close to which football was going on, with preparations for a hurdle race. Another favourite hobby with the young men is their volunteer fire brigade, which 78 THE CLTIB. is kept up in great style. Conflagrations in these conn- tries are almost as much dreaded as earthquakes, and great attention is given by the volunteers to their system of organisation and drill. Their uniform is very hand- some, and with jack-boots, white breeches, scarlet coats, and helmets they looked almost as imposing as our Life Guards. An English visitor to Valparaiso, furnished with a few introductions, will feel himself quite at home before the first day is over ; he will find abundance of pleasant friends who spare no pains to entertain him ; and the foreign community in general, so far as I could see or hear, are on very sociable terms with each other. We were immediately made members of the club, which is an institution worthy of all praise. Throughout the middle of the day men of various countries meet here for lun- cheon, and all find something to their taste. Speaking as an Englishman, 1 am bound to say that the draught beer was admirable, and the cold roast-beef was as good as could be found in London itself, which is more than I can say for it in any other country that I have seen. The Chilians are making great progress in breeding good stock, and both their horses and their cattle are better than those on the other side ot the Cordillera. The reading-rooms of the club contained the chief newspapers of the world, and all our favourite reviews and magazines were ready to tempt us into idleness. Excellent dinners were always ready in the evening, after which we some- times went to the opera in the Plaza "Victoria where ' Norma ' and ' Lucrezia Borgia ' were being given by an Italian company with considerable success. There was a CHACABUCO REVELS. 79 specially grand performance one evening before we left in honour of the anniversary of the battle of Chacabuco. I am sorry to say I do not know who was the great hero on that occasion, but it was evident that the Chilians have an extremely grateful remembrance of the affair. As the audi- ence came out from the opera they found the whole of the Plaza filled with a dense crowd assembled to see a display of fireworks in front of the theatre, which was carried out in true South American fashion : grand set pieces showing illuminated sentences, such as ' Viva Chile/ alternated with showers of rockets and every species of explosion, with a recklessness as to the close proximity of the crowd which made me rather surprised next day at not hearing of anybody being killed. Suppers and various festivities followed, which among the lower classes caused an un- necessary amount of drunkenness, and gave rather more ■work than usual to the ' vigilantes,' or policemen, who parade the streets at night with whistles which make a hideous noise, and have the effect of keeping honest folks awake while giving rogues a very liberal warning that they had better get out of the way of justice. On the day after the Chacabuco revels we were very much sur- prised at finding we could get nothing for breakfast in the hotel, and the only waiters who appeared at all were manifestly obfuscated. Resolved to appeal to head-quar- ters, I went in search of our bright-eyed hostess, who explained that five of the staff had not come on duty, and probably would not come for a day or two. She added that she dared not complain to them, because they would leave her at once for the service of some one who would make more allowance for accidents connected with the 80 'dulce et decorum.' glorious battle of Chacabuco ; and she wound up by saying, ' Ah ! Monsieur, il faut beaucoup souffrir dans ce pays-ci! ' By degrees they dropped into their places again, looking as if nothing had happened, and evidently thought that it was ' dulce et decorum ' not only to tight for their country, but also to get drunk for it. The climate was delightful for true lovers of sunshine and clean dry heat. Clouds were very rare and never came to anything. There had only been one shower in the last six months, and even that was, as I heard, con- sidered quite an exceptional phenomenon. June, July, and August are the rainy months ; September is the spring, and by Christmas most of the fruits and flowers are in perfection, and the wheat harvest is complete. When we were there, in January and February, the country was already pretty nearly dried up, in all places not assisted by artificial irrigation ; and the hUls round Val- paraiso, being too steep for such a process, were entirely burnt up. There are no trees upon them, and hardy bushes and huge cacti presented almost the only fresh vegetation among the withered remains of the summer flowers; we could see by the countless stalks how gay the yellow calceolaria must have been, but it was only in shady nooks that we ever found a tolerable bunch of bloom. One afternoon, clouds gathered so gloomily and so low that I remarked to a friend, ' In any other part of the world that sky would certainly bring rain in half an hour;' to which he replied, ' Ah! but it won't here.' I was so far right that an almost imperceptible drizzle did fall for a few minutes ; but I could hardly have claimed the stakes if we had made a bet about the matter. Lieutenant Gilliss says BRILLIANT ATMOSPHERE. 81 that the result of three years' observations at the Valpa- raiso Exchange gave 62° as the maximum at 8 a.m., 78° as the maximum at 4 p.m., and 70° 8' as the mean of all the observations, but he does not appear to be satisfied as to their perfect accuracy. Santiago is hotter in summer, being away from the influence of the sea. What appeared to me especially delightful, was the almost constant bril- liance of the sun, with the absence of anything like oppressive heat. A light fresh air kept everything cool, except in the full sunshine, and the temperature at night was all that could be desired. The bright and exhilara- ting air of Chile frequently made me think of that glorious chorus in the Medea of Euripides, beginning with — 'Epc;^^6i5at TO jroKatov oXjSioe, Koi 6emv iralSes fiaxapav ael Sia XafxirpoTaTov ^aLj/ovT€S d^pSiS aidepos It was an air to rejoice in ; and although it may not seem to have quite such an ennobling effect upon the Chilians as upon the ancient Athenians, yet the Chilian spirit of progress, industry, honesty, and activity may at all events contrast very favourably with the doings of modern Greece. In spite, however, of the attractions afforded by hos- pitable friends at Valparaiso, the fresh breezes from the sea, and the ever-to-be-remembered roast beef at the club, we became anxious to go into the interior of the country, to see the famous Santiago, and the great chain of the snowy Cordillera. On January 28, leaving most of our baggage in charge of our landlady, we drove to the rail- way station and started by the afternoon train at 5.15 P.M. for Santiago, which is 184 kilometres, or about 115 G 82 MELONS EVERYWHERE. miles, from Valparaiso. The railway runs close to the sea for a short time, and then dives through a tunnel under the precipitous headland, which forms the northern end of the semicircular bay. The change of scene was won- derful before we had even left Vina del Mar, the first station on the line. We had been living in a city where treeless and barren burnt-up hills look down upon the dusty roofs of houses : we were now entering upon a valley where the busy hand of man, aided by water from the Aconcagua river, has turned a desert into cornfields and fruit gardens. Pretty country houses and inns were frequent, standing in gardens full of fruit and flowers to tempt the worthy citizens to come from Valparaiso dust for a refreshing holiday in the country, whence they may return loaded with bouquets and fruit baskets for friends in town. On the platforms were dozens of picturesque women and Murillo-like boys with baskets of peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, figs, grapes, and melons. Figs are both abundant and admirable in Chile, and a ration of them is in some districts given to the miners as part of their wages ; but the melon is, T should say, the national fruit par excellence. They are to be seen everywhere in hundreds and thousands, and the common water-melons are almost equalled in number by some of the finer sorts, the flavour of which can hardly be surpassed. A common peon thinks nothing of eating an enormous melon in great hunches at a single sitting, and washing it down with a drink of water. At many of the stations on the line they were lying piled up near the roadway in vast heaps like the coals in a gas factory, and waiting to be sent down to Valparaiso, where the consumption is prodigious. BELL OF QUILLOTA. 83 The gradual i-ise of the railway soon extended our view over the richly- cultivated plains, where corn stub- bles, gardens, and orchards stretched away to the foot of the hills which culminate in the famous Campana, or Bell, of Quillota, which at a height of 6,400 feet above the sea affords a good landmark for vessels, and is a fine point for viewing the surrounding scenery. Here it was that Mr. Darwin had an opportunity of testing the asto- nishing pui'ity of the Chilian atmosphere by finding that he could see the masts of ships lying in Valparaiso Bay, though the distance is tweut3--six miles in a straight line. Long rows of Lombardy poplars line the road-sides and water-courses; and though I believe that the original stock only came in the shape of a bundle of twigs from j\lendoza about forty yeai's ago, they now form an impor- tant feature in all the culivated parts of the country, and have grown almost as high as any I have seen in Europe. Tery many of them w^ere ornamented by patches of crimson, which afterwards proved to be the blossom of a brilliant parasite, which, mixing with the rich green of the poplar leaves, had almost as charming an effect upon the eye as a branch of om- holly well garnished with berries. As we approached Quillota, an old native gentle- man became rather voluble and excited about its charms. He was a very goodhumoured and sociable companion all through the journey to Santiago, but at Quillota we passed t\irough some of his own country property, and he was justly proud of its condition. Here, besides the usual groves of peaches, apricots, figs, cherries, &c., were orchards of walnuts rich in foliage and loaded with fruit ; and here, as elsewhere in Chile generally, I could see no 8-1 LLAI-LLAT. trace of bliglits or imperfections upon any of the various kinds of fruit-trees. Every leaf was perfect, and almost every shoot produced its fair share of spotless fruit. All the chief European vegetnbles flourish well, and I believe we sustained a serious loss by being too late for the strawberry season. The half-way station is Llai-Llai, pronounced Yai-yai, and, as there is only a single line of rails, the trains are so timed as to arrive there at the same hour from both ends of the line, and wait there a quarter of an hour for refreshments. The accommodation for this purpose was creditable, though in rather a simple fashion. However, there was plenty of the national soup, called casuela, with the usual allowance of chicken and mutton, and the inevitable lump of Indian corn floating about in it ; and we secured some very respectable tongue with a first-rate bottle of Guinness's stout. We had time enough to look about us and see the motley groups of people who . had emerged from the two trains, crowding round the fruit vendors, and almost covering the ground with peach-stones, grape- stalks, and the debris of a very varied collection, while bargaining with half-Indian girls for a fresh supply. Amidst all this bustling scene of gay dresses and swarthy- skins we found the English engine-drivers having a quiet chat, and not sorry to find fellow-countrymen. They seemed to like their lot in Chile well enough, and have the honour of taking supreme command of the trains: the conductor is a mere ticket-taking ofiicial, and none of the natives have anything to do with the progress or control of the company's trains. There are many parts of the line requiring prudent management of powerful brakes, and THE llIGHKisT STATION. 85 the sure steadiness of highly experienced men. From Llai-Llai a branch line goes to St. Felipe, near the base of Aconcagua and the Uspallata pass to Mendoza; but leaving this on the left, the main line begins a long- steady ascent to cross the mountain ridge which separates the valley of Aconcagua from the Santiago plain, and is obliged to follow such a winding course, that though Valparaiso is only seventy miles in a straight line from the capital, yet the railway takes 115 miles to accomplish the distance. The sun set in the usual cloudless sky as we began the ascent from the Aconcagua valley, but the last golden glow had hardly left the orchards and gardens and poplar avenues in the rich plain below, when the nearly full moon came out to lend a new kind of enchantment to the scene. The train curled itself higher and higher up the hUl-side, groaning through tunnels and dashing out among chaotic masses of rock, but still every now and then we could see all the plain below bathed in silvery light and distinct in all its details. By degrees, however, we seemed to get lost in wilder and wilder scenes. The moon looked upon nothing but awful rocks and weird cactus plants, throwing up their pillar-like arms against the sky-line ; then more tunnels, more rattling reverberations from adjoining pre- cipices, and at last we reached the Montenegro station, the highest on the line. The moonlight that shed such a charm on comparatively near objects failed to give us any idea of the distant objects to be seen at this part of the route ; but as the train rushed down into the plain of Santiago before us, we made up our minds to choose davlis;ht for our return and fill up the missing links in 86 THE GRAND HOTEL. the scenery. It was nearly 10.30 p.m. when we reached Santiago, and found ourselves in the difficulties attendant on arriving at night in an entirely strange city with no knowledge of the ways of its inhabitants. However, our old friend helped to start us ; we got a comfortable car- riage and successfully carried off our goods from the crowd of contending peons who do duty for regularly constituted porters. The driver lost no time, as we went at full speed through the long avenues of poplars which line the Alameda, and which looked doubly imposing in the broad light of the moon shining between them. Presently we turned into a large square and were installed in the luxurious quarters of the Grand Hotel, looking for the morning to show us what manner of place Santiago might be. I was more delighted with it than I could have expected, when I was roused from sleep by the noise and bustle of an early-rising people. Our windows looked into the principal square, the Plaza par excellence, facing the north — -i.e. facing the sun in the southern hemi- sphere. The opposite side of the Plaza is occupied by the post-office and various public buildings ; the western side is devoted to the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace, and the eastern to shops and stores with a colonnade in front of each of its two floors. It was not till we came out of the house that we had any notion of what a mag- nificent hotel we were inhabiting. It occupies the whole length of the south side of the square, and is built in a style which calls back the memory of the Tuileries. After the confined and crowded space at Valparaiso, the airy well-furnished bedrooms and lofty-vaulted salle a THE GARDEN. 87 manger afforded a most agreeable change. The centre of the square is occupied by an octagonal enclosure with a cii-cular garden in the middle of it. Four basins and fountains surround a central fountain with a sculptured group, apparently representing Christianity baptizing the Indians; but, thank Heaven, there are not as yet strangers enough in Santiago to produce a demand for guide-books, so people may interpret these things for themsehes and be happy. The garden was brilliant with petunias and verbenas, pinks, stocks, Phlox Drummondii, and the deep blue Convolvulus minor. Acacias and Australian gum-trees are planted round about them, mixed with fine magnolias and a beautiful shrub whose name I do not know, having exactly the appearance at a short distance of our purple lihic in full bloom. Though it was the hottest part of the year and five months after the latest rain, all these were maintained in perfection by constant and abundant watering. Here in the evening a gay crowd, with a large proportion of very elegant and charmingly handsome ladies, walk happily and listen to the music of a military band, as the sinking of the sun gives coolness to the air, and the snowy crest of Tupungato looks down ' sunsQt flushed ' from its throne in the distant heavens. The city of Santiago is nearl}' in the middle of a plain, at the height of about 2,000 feet above the sea ; and it contains one feature that is admirably adapted for showing off the whole place and the mountain panorama which surrounds it. Scarcely ten minutes' walk from the hotel stands the small rocky hUl of Santa Lucia, i-ising about 200 feet aboye the surrounding streets, and emi- nently dear to the hearts of the Santiaguenos. The view is 88 THE SANTA LUCIA. certainly superb, and the place has so long been popular that at last some spirited people have taken upon them- selves to turn it into a more perfect triumph of Cockney genius than anything of the kind, even in Europe. It is easy to think of places where we should be reminded of some one or other of its details, but for a grand combi- nation of gimcracks, the hill of Santa Lucia must carry off the palm. In some places they have blasted the rocks to make caves and staircases, and in others they have built up wondrous edifices of brick, representing gateways and towers, through and among which the visitors ascend hotly and tortuously. They have shown their regard for the good national love of flowers, and planted shrubs also, wherever they could get a spot of earth large enough for them. Near the entrance is a Grotto of Neptune, as we are informed in large letters ; and soon after there is a Cascada de Moises, or waterfall of Moses, with a solitary bust of the late L. Cousiiio, looking at nothing in particu- lar. He was so good a benefactor to the city that he ought not to have been placed in such an uncomfortable position. A little farther is the Enchanted Cave, and a stone slab entitled Sofa de Don Diego. A statue of a black horse, with no apparent object, stands across the skv- line, looking almost as awful as the monster at Hyde Park Corner, save that there is no Duke of Wellington on his back. Some very steep stairs cut in the rock lead to an exceedingly hot corner, called, for some incomprehensible reason, the Campos Eliseos, or Elysian fields ; after which the pilgrim passes a Calvary and gets to the top of the hill, where he is invited to pay twenty cents for lookino- through a telescope. Part of the hill-side was devoted to GENERAL VIEW. 89 gymnastics, swings, merry-go-rounds, flags, music, fire- works, refreshments, and all the stock-in-trade of a tea- garden. ' Persons of taste,' to use a last-century phrase, would hardly admire such an incongruous mixture, but nevertheless the place is an infinite source of delight to the inhabitants ; and the little Frenchman who cut my hair as - sured me that he had been all over the world, but had never seen anj'thing so beautiful as the Santa Lucia of Santiago, The officers of the United States astronomical party of about twenty years ago fixed their temporary observa- tory on this summit, and have recorded the effects of the astonishingly pure and clear atmosphere in enabling them to perfect their observations. The view from it is mag- nificent as well as interesting in a laiA deo;ree, and explanatory of the main geographical system of central Chile. Looking beyond the great city spread out around our feet, we see towards the north the comparatively low range which we crossed in the railway at Montenegro, and which bars in the rich plain on that side. It connects the inferior Cordillera of the coast with the main Cordillera of the high Andes, each of which runs, generally speaking, parallel to the other, down to the latitude of Chiloe, where at about 41° 30' S. the coast Cordillera vanishes, unless perhaps the island of Chiloe itself, separated only by a narrow strait at San Carlos, may be considered practically as an extension of it for a hundred miles farther to the south. The space between these two chains is the great plain of Chile, which extends with few interruptions for about 500 miles to the south from the neighboui'hood of Santiago. Looking therefore southwards from Santa Lucia, we see on the right hand 90 SUNSET ON THE MOUNTAINS, the long undulations of the coast range ; while on the left liand the eye loses itself in following the mighty chain of . mountains, clad in perpetual snow, which extends southwards to the Straits of Magellan. The greater part of.this appears rather like an irregular snow-capped wall, with only occasional summits like towers entirely domi- nating the rest, the sublime point of culmination in the view from Santiago being Tupungato. This truly magni- ficent mountain is 22,500 feet above the sea ; and, when seen from the city, though at a distance of nearly fifty miles, its crest of snow has a sublime appearance, being more than 20,000 feet above the plain. Day by day, as the sun sank to its western bed in the Pacific, and the coast range of hills threw its dark shadows over the plain of Santiago, the summit of Tupungato clothed itself in that ineffably lovely rose-colour which speaks of heaven illumi- nating the dead. Afternoon clouds would often fold themselves round the mighty sides of the mountain, only to disappear in the eyening and leave the whole scene in unbroken splendour. And what nights were those at Santiago, when the full moon shone out between ' Great Orion ' and the Southern Cross to keep watch over these stupendous glories, till the sun rose again to claim them for himself ! Lover of mountains as I am, and familiar with such summits as those of Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, and other Alpine heights, I could not repress a strange feeling as I looked at Tupungato and Aconcagua, and reflected that endless successions of men must in all probability be for ever debarred from their lofty crests. When we used to look at the highest peaks and passes of the Alps, the only RAREFACTION OF AIR. 91 question whicli suggested itself was, ' Which is the best way to get there ? ' In the presence of the huge peaks of the Andes I could but think of the great probability that no one would ever get to them at all. There they re- posed in divine dignity, too great for mortal approach, and suggesting the abodes where the gods of Epicurus ' sit careless of mankind,' and careless of the tremendous calamities dealt out to men by the fires concealed beneath the feet of these glorified monsters. The Alps have been conquered, and Mont Blanc has been obliged to bow down to the monarchs of the Caucasus; but nature proclaims the existence of an impassable limit somewhere; and the latest conquerors of even Elbruz and Kasbek have been compelled to admit the effects of the rarefaction of the air. Those who, like Major Godwin Austen, have had all the advantages of experience and acclimatisation to aid them in attacks upon the higher Himalayas, agree that 21,500 feet is near the limit at which man ceases to be capable of the slightest further exertion.^ Even this has only been attained by halting after a very few steps and lying down exhausted in the snow. Mr. Simpson, whose pictures of Himalayan scenery are so well known, tells me that he and his party suffered severely in cross- ing the famous Purung pass, which is 19,000 feet above the sea; and that some of the natives from the plains declared they were not only dying but dead ! Xone could advance without more and more frequent halts. There is reason to believe that from some climatal reason this diffi- » Since this was written, I find that Mr. Johnson, of the Himalaya Survey, has crossed a pass at 22,000 feet above the sea, but the slope waa probably long and gradual. 92 PEUPETUAL SNOW. culty of breathing, called puna in South America, is experienced with greater severity in the Andes than in other great ranges. When Mr. Darwin crossed the Por- tillo pass to Mendoza at the height of 13,000 or 14,000 feet, he found that ' the exertion of walking was extremely great, and the respiration became deep and laborious.' With their 9,000 or 10^000 feet above this, Aconcagua and Tupungato may probably defy intrusion unless through the medium of a balloon. As the eye follows the vast snowy chain in its course towards the south, it is impossible to avoid thinking of the changes which come over it within a few degrees of lati- tude. Here, in the latitude of Santiago, the height of the line of perpetual snow is about 15,000 feet above the sea ; in the latitude of Chiloe, only about eight degrees more to the southward, the snow-line descends to only 6,000 feet above the sea ; and this marvellous change is supposed by Mr. Darwin to take place not far from the neighbourhood of Concepcion, where the region of long rainless summers and great heat begins to join the region of endless forests, rainy climate, and little heat in sum- mer. In the Straits of Magellan the perpetual snow -line descends to 3,500 or 4,000 feet above the sea, according to Mr. Darwin ; but when we passed through them I think it was certainly not so much as 2,000 feet above us. This, however, was in the latter half of January, when there were still two summer months to assist in the melting and disappearance of the snow. Where the siiow-line is so low as this, true glaciers are found flowing into the sea, and almost every fiord which penetrates to the higher chain, not only in Tierra del Fuego, but on the GLACIERS AND FIORDS. 93 coast for G50 miles to the northwards, is terminated by ' tremendous and astonishing glaciers.' ^ The remarkable difference between the temperatures of the northern and southern hemispheres is well illustrated by the fact that w^e must go a thousand miles nearer to the North Pole in Norway to find in 70° N. lat. a snow-line as low as that which prevails at 55° S. lat. in the neighbourhood of the Straits of Magellan. The great glaciers on the coast for hundreds of miles nearer to the Equator break off into the arms of the Pacific with ' a crash reverberating like the broadside of a man-of-war, and drive huge waves across to the opposite shores of their lonely channels.' Through all this region the highest mountains are not more than 7,500 feet, whilst only about five hundred miles to the northward we have peaks, as we have seen, of from 20,000 to nearly 24,000 feet above the sea. In this more elevated region, however, it does not appear that there are any true glaciers at all. I was deceived at first by the grey colour of the water in the mountain rivers, which resembled the produce of glaciers like those in the Alps, but the effect is in trutli caused by the constant grinding and pounding of stones and pebbles, which are ever moving down towards the sea with a continuous roaring noise. The height of the perpetual line of snow no doubt varies exceedingly in different seasons, being determined, as Mr. Darwin says, more by the extreme heat of the summer than by the mean temperature of the year. This is certainly highly probable, but when he says that he ' was assured that, during one very long and dry summer, all the snow disap- ^ Darwin's ' Voyage of the Beagle/ p. 246. 94 MONARCH or THE ANDES. peared from Aconcagua, though it attains the prodigious height of nearly 24,000 feet,' I confess it is difficult indeed to believe the accuracy of his informant. When I remember what Aconcagua was in the middle of Feb- ruary, with the summer, and a very hot one too, drawing near its end ; and when I recall the jjure masses of snow rivalling in appearance the grandest niv^ of the Alps, and stretching downwards to the distant visible horizon, I should almost as easily have believed in the total disrobing of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa as in that of this noble monarch of the Chilian Cordillera. THE ALAMEDA. 95 CHAPTER V. The Alameda of Santiago — Precautions against fire— What hecame of the Jesuit Ohurch — Remains of the dead — Bismarck iu South America — A model farm in Ohile — Climate and Irrigation— Baths of Oauquenes — Thrash- ing wheat — Refreshments at Rancagua — A strange coach-and-four — The Hot Springs — Golden Adiantum —A yiew in the hills — Great Aconcagua — Return to Valparaiso. The position of the hill of Santa Lucia naturally commands a complete view of the bright-looking city, which stretches out its long white streets till they lose themselves in the fields and gardens of the plain which extends in all directions to the base of the surrounding hills ; and instead of looking down upon a forest of chimney-pots, which do not appear to exist there, we could see into the open patios or court3'ards of the houses, many of which were shaded by huge magnolias, Norfolk Island pines and other evergreens, with a variety of creeping and climbing plants hanging in fringes from the surround- ing corridors. The Alameda runs through the city from east to west. It is a very broad road divided into several parts by parallel rows of tall Lombardy poplars, which through its whole length throw a very delightful shade in the hot hours of the day. Part of it is traversed by tramways, which in most of the cities of South America have become an established institution, and the rest of the road is for all kinds of other vehicles, including even the 96 'out of town.' English, style of omnibus, together with a sprinkling of Hansom cabs. We were at the season when the heau monde of Santiago was supposed to be refreshing itself at baths and seaside places, which, greatly curtailed what was described as the normal gaiety of the Alameda; and we heard that many who could not aiFord to go anywhere else hide themselves strictly in their bouses that they may not be supposed to be ' in town ' at the unfashionable season, when the opera is closed. There was always, however, plenty to be seen of the more amusing kind of life which is not so much influenced by fashion. The fruit-stalls by the side of the road, and the mountains of melons on the ground, were always in full request among picturesque groups of peons, women, and children. Now and then a couple of horsemen, with brilliant-coloured ponchos^ galloping in at the end of a hot ride from the country, would pull up with the sudden grip which Chilian horses are accustomed to, and spend a few minutes in discussing a melon and pitching the rind into the lively little water- course which runs down by the road-side, while a group of children were admiring the carving of their huge wooden stirrups, which are something like the newest form of the domestic coal-scuttle. More languid dandies amble gently past holding overhead a kind of umbrella made of ostrich feathers; but I am happy to say that throughout both sides of South America people generally take the sun as they find it ; and no one, either native or foreigner, thinks it necessary to shelter his head under any of the monstrosities of hats and helmets which are presumed to be indispensable in the East. A common wide-awake hat, with a pocket-handkerchief in it FIRE. 97 on an extra hot day, is quite enough for a well-constituted head in the cloudless sunshine of the Pampas. Under the front of the hotel is a colonnade which con- tains some of the best of the shops, and a large bar with billiard -rooms and refreshment-rooms attached to it. This covered way is wide enough to admit of very pretty stalls with their backs against the broad pillars, doing duty as a humbler kind of shop, and looking when closed like large cabinets of carved wood. A very large and hand- some cruciform arcade runs through the whole block of buildings, and is certainly in much finer proportions than anything of the kind that I am acquainted with in Europe. Here, as in most parts of Santiago, the doors of many houses have a small square grille^ which enables the police to see if any unusual light within is giving notice of fire. There is a look-out tower for a similar purpose; the city is divided into fire districts, each of which has powerful engines, and every possible precaution is taken against what is a more than usually terrible danger in an excessively dry climate. We had the honour of being made members of the two principal clubs, where all manner of good things were always to be found, and one of them was supplied with the handsomest furniture that could be sent from London. There was, however, a very great difference between the number of English- speaking people in the two cities of Santiago and Valparaiso : at the seaport they swarm in its busy streets, but in the capital they appeared to be extremely scarce. If no other proof of this could be found, it would be sufiicient to say that a room in the house of an upholsterer was the only apology for an English church. 98 A HOLOCAUST. The cathedral is built very substantially, with rather low roof and no towers, with a probable view to the earth- quakes of the future. It is more than usually gaudy with golden shrines and candlesticks, and the Englishman who looks at the inscription in front of the gallery may delight his national vanity in finding that the organ is the handiwork of Messrs. Flight and Son. But the church that I most wished to see was the Jesuit church, the Iglesia de la Compania, which was the scene of the holocaust of a congregation in 1863. Here, on one of the most important festivals of the year, the church was decorated with a magnificence which drew together an immense assemblage of women and children, who compose nearly the whole bulk of the congregations in Catholic South America. Some of the ornaments took fire, and a panic-stricken rush to the door was followed by a block-up of people falling one upon the other, and making escape impossible for the rest. Some were rescued from the entangled mass by seizing the ends of lazos thrown in by people in the street, who dragged them out by sheer strength of pulling. The great majo- rity, however, to the number of 2,000 or 3,000, perished in the flames, in a scene of horror which has probably never been surpassed. While this tragedy was being enacted, the priests were described as preventing all egress through a door which would have saved many victims, if they had not kept it for their own protection and the removal of their property in the church. Such was the indignation of the public against the clerical party that it was deter- mined that they should not rebuild the church; so when ,^e went to look for it, behold it was no more! The THE BURYING-PLACE. 99 whole of the site was levelled and dug up, and an exqui- site monument has been lately erected in the centre of the space. It is, as we were told, the work of a Parisian artist, and consists of a superb female figure with outstretched arms and hands expressing the very depth of helpless and despairing agony : weeping angels in varied attitudes are placed around the pedestal, and the lamps which surround the whole monument are veiled on one side by an elegant imitation of drapery. The design is admirable, and it would be difficult to conceive a more touching memorial of such a scene of horror We afterwards crossed to the Recoleta, or burying-ground, on the north side of the city, which is separated from the chief part of it by the Mapocho river flowing down from the neigh- bourhood of Tupungato to join the main waters of the Maypu. The bed of the river is of considerable width, and is crossed by a long and very curious old Spanish bridge ; but in February therewas so little water in the river that it would have been easy to cross on foot over the small channels flowing among the desert of pebbles and large stones which testified to the power of the stream in the rainy season. Donkeys and boys seemed to think very little of the barrier. We walked for some time between the rows of huge dark cypresses in the Recoleta before we came to a rather handsome railing which enclosed a space of ground about the size of a small room, in which was a metal cross over the remains of the victims to the conflagration to the number of 2,000, ' mas o menos ' (more or less ), with a tablet recording the event. Our landlord said he believed that 3,000 would be nearer the truth, but no one knew exactly ; and he H 2 100 BISMARCK IN THE EACIFIC. added that he knew of men in Santiago who had so awful a, remembrance of the smell of burning flesh that they could not touch roast meat for twelve months after the catastrophe ! Santiago had long enjoyed the reputation of being eminently loyal to the Catholic Church ; but that loyalty must either have been sapped, possibly in part by the remembrance of the conduct of the priests on this occasion, or else it has been overweighted by other parts of the country; for the telegraph informs us that the Chilian House of Deputies have sustained by a two-thirds vote the penal clauses which impose imprisonment upon aU persons, lay or ecclesiastical, who execute any orders of the Roman Curia to the detriment of the State. The Bismarckian method has crossed the Atlantic and the Pam- pas : in spite of violent opposition, Brazilian bishops have been arrested and punished by imprisonment, and their friends in ChUe will assuredly meet with the same mis- fortunes if they attempt the subjection of the State by the Church. At the British Legation I had the pleasure of finding an old friend in the person of our Minister, Mr. Eumbold, in whose company I could revive sunny memories of Greece and Switzerland, as we looked over his portfolios of famUiar photographs, and forgot the distance between the Andes and the Alps. His secretary, Mr. Milner, was also a kind companion and excellent cicerone to us while we remained at Santiago. One morning he came by agreement to escort us to the model farm of the Cousino family- at Macul, about nine miles from the city. We drove away in a carriage with three horses, in the normal blaze of the Chilian sun, which often made me think of BIDE TO JIACUL. 101 the Indian griffin wlio, day after day, saluted his chief with ' Another sunshiny morning, Colonel I ' tUl at last he got tired of the monotony. For the greater part of the way Tupungato w;is in full splendour in front of us, looking ' every inch a king ' of mountains ; but we only now and then could see much of near objects by reason of the Cyclopean walls of adobes or sun-dried bricks between which the road winds throua^h the suburbs. The dust was something inconceivable ; confined withm these wind-excluding barriers it rose up vertically from under the hoofs of our horses, and lazily settled down upon us like a thick raiment. Sometimes we passed herds of cattle, and then the skv was obscured for awhile as completely as in a London fog of jyvemiere qualite. In spite of the consohng effect of cigars, I think we were all veiy glad when at length we entered the gates at ]\lacul and reached our destination. Here we found Mr. Graham, a weU-informed Scotch gardener, who is engaged in laying out the orna- mental part of the estate, and who led us through a large extent of orchards, gardens, and rough uncompleted park. Immense quantities of melons of all sorts were growing on open plots of ground, together with most of the European vegetables; long grass paths were flanked on both sides by rows of fruit-trees in wonderfully healthy condition. The apricot trees were still loaded with good fruit, though the earth beneath them was yellow with those which had fallen; plums and pears of the best sorts were mixed with peaches and nectarines of very tempting appearance, though scarcely ripe; and beds of delicious Alpine straw- berries made up for any deficiencies on the part of other fruits. Here, too, were fig-trees grown to nearly 102 AGEICULTUKAL PROGRESS. the size of forest trees, and looking something like horse- chestnuts ; near which was a large piece of rough ground with the remains of huge olive-trees which must probably have been planted about three hundred years ago: their 'giant boles' had been lately pollarded, and they are fast forming new growth. Beyond these we were taken to an enclosed piece of land with scattered trees, surrounded by a high bamboo fence, in which we found a herd of fallow deer, together with a few alpacas and a tame gua- naco which amused us highly, capering and jumping like a young lamb, but preserving all the time that vicious expression which characterises all the animals of its class, and is quite in accordance with their habit of spitting in one's face on the smallest provocation. Afterwards we were taken to the stables, and found an Irish groom who had just come from England with the last valuable addi- tion to the stud. One handsome stable had twenty-four stalls on each side, and had a small tramway and truck from one end to the other, which saved a great deal of labour both in bringing in and carrying out. Another Englishman, Mr. Canning, was in charge of the stock, and showed us his flock of Southdown sheep; but unfor- tunately his famous herd of cattle were far away at the other side of the estate, and we had not time enough to ride after them. Everything that money can do was being done to perfect the establishment of Macul; and, as Englishmen, we could not but feel a little reflected pride at seeing our countrymen at the head of every department of it, while watering-carts and agricultural machines from Ipswich and Chelmsford made us almost forget that we were in the very centre of Chile. Foreign plants are IRRIGATION. 1 03 sent out from Yeitch's nurseries, and Mr. Graham told me he had already sent them in return 22,000 bulbs collected by him and his peons on the neighbouring hills. We had had rather a roasting day for our long tour of inspection, and thoroughly enjoyed a glass of his good whiskj' before saying good-bye to Mr. Graham and his wife, with hearty wishes for their success in the new world. The effect of exchanging beds of flowers and groves of fruit-trees in their highest perfection for the ride home through fathomless dust was anything but pleasant : the remembrance of it, however, calls up reflec- tions upon the cause of a contrast which must strike a traveller in many parts of Chile. When Pindar dashed into his Olympian odes with the expression of apia-rov [mIv vBeop^ or ' water is the best of all things,' even better than gold, he was more likely to have had an arid country in his eye than any prophetic vision of Sir Wilfrid Lawson. Any one who travels on the Chilian plains, and sees the desert made to blossom like the rose, feels himself impelled to think of the difiiculties imposed upon the cultivators by the climate. They have had to do for themselves Avhat the Nile does for the land of Egypt. The nature of the climate may be easily understood by looking at a very few figures. A register was kept at Santiago from 1824 to 1 850, to record the number of minutes and hours during which rain fell throughout the twenty-seven years; and the average of a year's fall was 215^ hours, or nine days. Seven-ninths of this fell in the four months of May, June, July, and August; while in the whole five months of November, December, January, February, and March rain fell only for seven hours and a half. The whole 104 RAINFALL, twenty-seven Januarys would only have given fourteen hours' rain, had there not been an unexampled fall of forty hours during the January of 1837. June and July, by far the wettest months, only gave four and a quarter days' rain between them. The American Government party kept their record of rains in the usual way of reckon- ing by inches, and found the average of two years to be 48 inches, this being reached by an abnormal fall of fifteen inches in June 1850. These rains have the immediate efiect of producing a fresh and lively vegetation from the heated earth; but, in fact, they have very little substantial effect in a country where the plateau, being 2,000 feet above the sea, the bulk of the water is carried off by rivers rushing headlong to the Pacific; and where a grilling sun holds undisputed sovereignty for the greater part of the year. The successful and ever-increasing agriculture of Chile is produced by abundant irrigation, and the Government may take the Pindaric saying for their motto. The everlasting snows of the Cordillera are their natural reservoirs, and ©f course melt most rapidly in the hot season when the inhabitants are cut off from supplies of rain ; but most of this fund would naturally pass away in roaring torrents which do no work except that of driv- ing stones towards the sea. ' Divide et Impera;' spread them, and you compel Mother Earth to give forth her richest 1;reasures. At the time when the earher part of the register referred to was being kept, the country round Santiago was almost a desert, and there was no mode of irrigating it till a canal was cut from the Maypu river to the Mapocho, so as to tap the waters of the former river MOUNTAIN TOKRBNTS. ■ 105 and bring them down for the service of the plain. This was followed by leading countless small rivulets, called acequias, from the canal across the valley, and the land was gradually brought into cultivation. Vines and pop- lars, trees, gardens, and green fields, have sprung into luxuriance in every direction; and, as these in turn must give out some of the moisture they have absorbed, they, by the mere fact of their own existence, are modi- fying the dryness of the climate, and making vegetable existence still more and more easy for the future. More- over, the actual moisture is not the only good brought to the land by this system of irrigation. As the slope of the land is exceedingly steep from the high-lying snow of the Andes to the level of the plain, the descending streams have a furious speed. Let anyone imagine what the river Visp would be like, if, between the village of Zermatt and its confluence with the Rhone, it fell through 5,000 feet of elevation more than it now does. The case is almost strictly parallel. The mountain torrents from the Chilian Andes fall with great impetus towards the ocean, urging forward masses of limestone and other rocks containing mineral manures, and grinding them to a fine powder which mixes with the water. The water therefore not only irrigates the land, but supplies it with a manure which, though the only one, appears perfectly sufficient and exactly calculated to repair the, exhausted forces of the earth, ' Wheat- fields ordinarily receive four irrigations between the cessation of the rains in September and the maturity of the grain at the end of November; on each occasion the fields remaining submerged during one night, and sometimes for twenty-four hours.' The mineral 106 ■ FERTILITY OF THE SOIL. deposit left by this method of flooding ' in some years amounts to a stratum of three-quarters of an inch.' Land which a few years ago would hardly yield the planter fivefold of wheat, has, we are told, been now raised half a foot by this process without the aid of any other manure, and now produces in many parts twentyfold and even fortyfold. The wheat crops of Chile have, in fact, become amongst the most perfect in the world ; and Mr. Gilliss is my authority for saying that in the province of Concepcion sixtyfold is not an uncommon return, while there are fields which give a hundred for one. We had been strongly recommended to pay a visit to the Banos de Cauquenes, as a kind of little Wiesbaden, or rather Leukerbad, in the bosom of the Andes. On February 2 we left Santiago by the Southern Railway, which was already open as far as Curico, but will in due time be carried through the Republic to Concepcion and Valdivia. Our station was Cauquenes, about seventy miles from the city, and we were to get there in three hours. The engines and carriages on this line are of the American build instead of the English, as they are on the Valparaiso side : there were crowds of passengers, and at every station the groups of iruit vendors were in full activity to meet the wants of dusty and half-roasted folks. Passing through the most cultivated districts of the plain country we had plenty of opportunity to observe its condition. At this time of the year the wheat -fields were brown stubbles, but at several places we saw the people at work upon the concluding operations of harvest. The corn is collected into vast heaps in the open air, where, without fear of rain, it is thrashed out by the feet PAMPAS THISTLES AGAIN. 107 of horses galloping round and round ; afterwards, with a dry fresh breeze blowing across the plain, it is tossed up and down in the air, tbe chaff and fragments of straw flying before the breeze, covering the adjoining land, and producing a ludicrous effect on the nearest roAv of tall poplars by making them look as if they were packed in straw. Poplars in abundance line the edges of the rivu- lets which keep their feet cool, and divide luxuriant fields of maize and melons, beans, and alfalfa, the lucern of the countiy, and vineyards and orchards with every kind of fruit, Ever}'^ now and then, however, we were forcibly reminded of the artificial condition of everything around us. Close to the edge of A'erdant crops were occasional pieces of land not yet brought into subjection, where nothing was to be seen but a few dried-up weeds upon the burnt ground, and the two species of gigantic thistles which in the same way lord it over parts of the Pampas of La Plata, and terrify the horses with their formidable thorns. We crossed the turbulent Maypu and other streams, having exactly the appearance of true glacier rivers; but the turbidity of the water is due, as I have said, to the grinding and pounding of stones by furious torrents, and not to the gradual effect of glacier ice polishing its way over the rocks. For some miles, however, the road was carried by the side of a beautiful stream of clear spring-water, wliere we could see fish leaping like English trout, and the natives doing their best to catch them. Not far from this, among the low hills on the western side, is the lovely lake of Aculeo, whose pure water mixes itself with the ferti- lizing mud of the Maypu. Near to most of the stations, lOB A EUDE REFEESHMENT-EOOM. aud at various parts of the road, we saw groups of the most miserable huts, or fragments of huts, that could be imagined. Some of them, seemed to consist of mere scraps of mats and sticks, with bunches of rushes on the top; but they were full of copper- coloured peasants who seemed living happily and even merrily in a strange medley of children, dogs, cats, pigs, poultry, and hillocks of the inevitable melons. It often occurred to me that the simple half-Indian rustics of Chile must console them- selves with the reflection that the dread spirit of the earthquake is ever brooding under them, and that any day, in the twinkling of an eye, the hut-dwellers may have reason to thank Providence for not having exposed them to the risk of being buried alive in the ruins of grand hotels and crumbling cities. At Rancagua the train stopped a few minutes ' for refreshments.' There was a large, low, and dirty room, with sundry tables garnished with peaches and melons, which rapidly disappeared before the invaders; and at one end of it was a kind of counter where flies were playing with all sorts of cakes and lollipops not suited to the substantial tastes of Englishmen. It was presided over by a comfortable-looking individual of the Sancho Panza type, aided by a cheery old woman worthy of being his wife, to whom we applied for a glass of brandy and cold water. The old lady seemed rather confused among a collection of black bottles of every shape on the shelf, and smelt them hesitatingly after removing the old corks. She could not satisfy herself, however, by the application of one sense only; and — Oh ! tell it not to the fair damsels of Messrs. Spiers and Pond — she proceeded to taste them A CHAEIOT. 109 one by one,with her lips applied to the neck, freely spitting out ' her failures,' with many grimaces, on the floor, till she arrived at the right bottle, and handed it to us with a triumphant air of satisfaction. We reached the Cauquenes station about half-past five; and as the train rolled away to the south, we found ourselves in solitude upon the little platform : there were no other passengers and no ofiicials. Two or three boys came presently to stare at us, and we told them that we wanted to go to the baths if we could find a coach and somebody to drive it. By-and-by they produced a man from the back, who rather sulkily pointed to a queer old vehicle in a shed, and said that was the coach. He demanded twelve dollars (2/. 10s.), which we remon- strated with, but in vain. He declared that if we had been four persons we should only have paid three dollars each, but that as we had the bad luck to be only two, we must pay double fare ; adding, that if we did not like his aiTangements, we might stop where we were, or words to that effect. We had to surrender; and whilst he very leisurely began to make preparations we looked about curiously for a chance of something to eat, as we knew that the drive of nearly twenty miles, mostly up hill, would not be finished till long after nightfall. A pleasant good-tempered woman, who had something to do with the charge of the station, offered to make us a tortilla, or omelette, in a few minutes. It proved first-rate; and, with the help of an admirable bottle of Bass which she brought forth fi-om a cupboard, we were fully prepared for a start. There stood the coach at last, a wondrous vehicle with four horses abreast, like the chariots of the ancients, and all covered Avith dust and dirt as if the day's 110 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. work was over instead of beginning; but the man added to our humiliation by refusing to start tUl we had paid the twelve dollars beforehand, so we supposed there must have been something suspicious about our appearance. At last we got off at a rattling pace, and though the near horse was dead lame, he was not excused from work on that account. There were some peculiar features in our mode of progression ; the driver charged at full speed through several shallow rivers which we had to cross ; and, whenever we came to the base of a particularly long or steep hill, he halted the team for a few moments and then thrashed and larruped them at a gallop till they reached the very top of it, declaring that in no other way would they do it at all. If anybody likes to start a society for prevention of cruelty to animals in South America, he will have a fine field for his operations. The road rises through the valley of tlie Cachapual river, the head waters of which come from the snows of Maypu, an extinct volcano of 17,700 feet above the sea. The occasional force of this river is manifested by the vast wilderness of large stones and sandbanks, which are spread over the land where it enters the plain, and through which it makes a great variety of ever-changing channels. From our higher ele- vation we could see groups of men with horses and cattle, carefully picking their way among them and looking for the shallowest fords. But we soon left the plains far below, and found the road winding along the side of barren hills, which in the then dry season appeared to have little upon them except cactuses, aloes, ilex, and a few thorny shrubs ; but I afterwards foimd that these burnt-up hills are _not so really bare as they seem to be. A PEESH tEAM. Ill The grass, which grows abundantly in the rainy season, is simply turned to hay as it stands or lies, and cattle find plenty of food on a hih-side, which looks like a sheet of yellow ochre. MeanwhUe the sun was sinking fast behind us, and in front we had exquisite views of the snowy Andes to the eastward, glowing with those sublime, rosy tints which make the crowning glory of an Alpine evening. Somewhere about half way along the road our team was pulled up in a broad open space, with what we should call a good farmhouse on one side, and a store on the other, in which, as usual, anything and everything can be bought, from a tin pot to a bottle of champagne. We were to change horses. The driver threw his reins upon their backs, and, with the aid of a wild-looking native, took off all their harness and threw it down bodily in the two-inch dust of the road. The released animals started off according to their own sweet will, and we were left to wonder where their successors were to come from ; the coachman disappeared from the scene, and the aide-de- camp had jumped bareheaded on a barebacked steed and galloped off into space. It looked like a plot to keep us where we were for the night; but after a rather mauvais quart dheure and something longer, the wild man returned driving four fresh horses at full gallop before him in a cloud of dust. The old harness in wretched plight was picked out of the dirt, and fitted on the new-comers some- how or other, by dint of much pulling, jamming, and ex- cessively bad language. We were soon off again at full speed; and, aided by the stars above and the white dust below, we kept the road safely, and soon after 9 p.m. arrived at the gateway of the baths of Cauquenes. We 112 HOT SPRINGS OF CAUQUENES. brought a special letter of introduction from a friend at Santiago to the proprietor of this excellent establishment in the heart of the Andes, who is a fine handsome Ger- man, named Hess, and doubtless christened Carl ; but he is known' familiarly in Chile as Don Carlos, and is much more to be envied than his roj^al namesake in the Pyrenees. Late as we were for sanitary country quarters, he bestirred himself to find us two charming rooms and a light supper, after which we closed a hot day of bustle and dust with a sweet sleep in the comparatively cool mountain air that came through the open windows. "When Mr. Darwin visited this place some forty years ago, and said that ' the buildings consist of a square of miserable little hovels, each with a single table and bench,' he had very little notion of what the develop- ment theory would do under the management of Don Carlos Hess. The establishment now consists of several quadrangles surrounded by corridors, into which the various rooms open, all being on one floor; the gardens in the middle of them are w^ell planted, and intersected with paths shaded by thick trellised vines, while the pillars of the corridors are surrounded with passion- flowers, honeysuckles, fuchsias, and the drooping blossoms of Abutilon venosum. There is a large public room for meals in table d'hdte fashion, and those who like to pay for it can have any amount of luxurious feeding in their own apartments. The main attraction to the place is its hot mineral springs, which, as usual in these cases, are warranted to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to; fortunately we had no excuse for testing their eflUcacy. Hot springs in an earthquake-smitten country have an HOT SPRINGS. 113 interest peculiar to themselves; and I am quoting Mr. Darwin ^ when I say that ' the mineral springs of Cau- quenes burst forth on a line of dislocation, crossing a mass of stratified rock, the whole of which betrays the action of heat. A considerable quantity of gas is continually escaping from the same orifice with the water. Though the springs are only a few yards apart, they have very different temperatures, and this appears to be the result of an unequal mixture of cold water ; for those with the lowest temperatures have scarcely any mineral taste. After the great earthquake of 1822 the springs ceased, and the water did not return for, nearly a year. They were also much affected by the earthquake of 1835, the temperature being suddenly changed from 118° to 92°.' Don Carlos pays a rent of 6,000 or 7,000 dollars a year, and has built a large new bath-house at his own expense. The whole neighbourhood belongs to a family whose estate, as I was told, extends for three days' ride from north to south, and nearly as far from the west to the base of the Andes. The situation is good, and the views over the lower ranges of hills away to the snowy peaks in the distance are well worthy of a painter; the plateau on which the buildings are situated ends in a precipitous rock, the base of which is washed by the roaring Cacha- pual about 150 feet below; the springs flow into tanks a few yards from the edge of the rocks, and their overflow nourishes a large crop of the well-known Pampas grass which clings to every cleft. A winding path leads down to a suspension bridge, which hangs about forty feet above the furious stream. The footway consisted of sticks not 1 ' Voyage of the Beagle,' p. 263. I 114 THE GOLDEN ADIANTUM. stronger than those of a common sheep-hurdle, and was suspended from two ropes, one of which having stretched more than the other, caused the frail structure to slant down, to one side in a most unpleasant fashion. Alto- gether it was the most rickety attempt at a bridge that I ever came to, and I saw a dog stand howling for half an hour before he could be induced to cross it. However, we had to go over to look for one of the rarest of rare ferns, the Adiantum sulphureum, which Mr. Kennedy told us was to be found among the rocks on the other side of the river. We only found some burnt-up specimens there, but on the following day, in a wild rocky glen moist- ened by a small stream and shaded by overhanging ilex, we found it in perfection. The upper side of the frond is almost identical with that of A. Capillus Veneris, the Maidenhair of Europe; but the under side is covered with a bright yellow powder like gold-dust. When I mentioned this interesting plant to Mr. Bates, the well- known ' Naturalist on the Amazon,' he said it was some- what curious that Chile should produce a golden Adiantum., as it is also the home of a butterfly, which, though in other respects the same as one of the English species, has the under side of its wings apparently covered with silver. In the same gully we also found a fern which appeared to be identical with Lastrea oreopteris, the mountain fern of Europe ; but Mr. Rawson ascended for a consider- able distance without finding any other species. He brought back, however, a very pretty red mimulus; and on the hill-side we saw the earliest flowers of a grey, thorny, narrow-leaved aloe, which throws up a tall spike THE SOAP-TREE. Il5 of bell-shaped blossoms of an aquamarine colour with very brilliant orange stamens. Snakes were seen occasionally, and we tried to kill one in the garden close to my room, but he escaped in the long grass under the edge of the corridor. In the middle of the day the heat was certainly very great, so we made a start before breakfast one morn- ing with a small boy as guide to the top of a hill, which was probably about 2,000 feet above the house. The greater part of the way was over a steep, rocky slope, sprinkled with pebbly grit, which gave extremely "bad foot- hold for the nailless boots which I had unluckily trusted to ; at other parts a slight track wound up amongst huge cacti, armed with spines six inches long, ready to impale anyone who slipped, mixed with ilex, aloes, and a few scrubby bushes. Amongst the trees of Cauquenes is one which is said to be found only in this part of the country and the world. I am sorry not to have succeeded in finding its botanical name, but in Chile it is called the Quillai, or soap-tree ; it produces pure potash, which is used for washing, and is exported into France for cleaning woollen manufactures. The upper part of the ascent re- minded me rather of the last division of the Eggischhorn, without the benefit of steps ; except that the rocks were excessively hot from the sun and were garnished with the thorns of aloes and gigantic cactus. The actual top of the hill was smooth and covered with burnt-up grasses, varied with groups of ilex, under which it was possible to get a temporary shade. The view was remarkably fine, as on the one side we looked across the ChUian plain to the Cordillera of the coast, while on the other the great snow-peaks of the Andes rose serenely over the brown i2 11^ A FINE VIEW. outlines of the intervening slopes. At our feet was the Cachapual, roaring through the ravines of the valley, charged with the meltings of those vast snow-beds, and pounding the sides of the mountains into fertilization for the plains. By the time we got down again we were very glad of some cold water and breakfast in a shady room. The regular patients and residents seemed scarcely ever to leave the protection of their cori'idors and trellised paths. When neither eating nor soaking in the baths, they collected in little groups, working or reading, and playing at cards, dominoes, and chess. There did not appear to be any gambling ; everything was in a very peaceful, domestic style, and Cauquenes is probably the sleepiest as well as one of the most out-of-the-way bathing places in the world. The supplies are excellent ; the whole place is well managed, and it is well worth the while of any traveller to pay it a visit for a short time. If, however, he wants gay society, or hankers after the joys of Hom- burg and Wiesbaden, I would not advise him to hope for them at the baths in the heart of the Andes. After thtee or four days in these peaceful halls we said good-bye to Don Carlos, and were carried swiftly down the valley by another team of four abreast; and, after another light refection with our former friend at the station, we joined the midday train and reached Santiago in the early evening. But our days in Chile were num- bered, and on the 13th we were to sail from Valparaiso for the northern ports. We stayed a very short time longer in the capital, and spent the last evening in going once more to the top of the Santa Lucia to see the glories of a farewell sunset upon the snows of Tupungato. Next ACONCAGUA AGAIN. 117 morning v^e went back to Valparaiso; and, as the train rose gradually towards the watershed near Montenegro, we had a superb view of Aconcagua. This grand moun- tain not only enjoys the advantage of being nearly 24,000 feet above the sea, but it is so situated that it appears quite alone in its glory; and the eye must turn through a gi-eat many degrees before anything like a rival can be found in the form of Tupungato. After crossing the crest of the hill the train began a rapid descent to Llai- Llai, checked by powerful brakes; and we could now com- prehend the wild and singular features of the country which we had only partially seen by the ' glimpses of the moon.' We turned and twisted through tunnels and cut- tings in the rock; we rushed down hill between sun -burnt slopes and masses of conglomerate or plum-pudding stone, some of which looked as if the first earthquake would send them crashing do^vn upon the railway; we passed through bai'ren tracts which seemed to be in the exclusive possession of huge cacti and flocks of lovely little doves, with the occasional variety of bright green and sparkling beds of the ice -plant Mesembryanthemum : the rich valley of the Aconcagua dominated by the Campana of QuUlota again opened out far beneath us and be}ond ; and, when we next stopped, we were amongst the figs and grapes and melons of Llai-Llai. The branch line from there to San Felipe was on the point of being opened to the more distant Los Andes, which will shorten the work of those who may wish to cross the Andes by the Cumbre pass to Mendoza in the Argentine Confederation. In a few hours more we were welcomed back at the Hotel de 1' Union at Valparaiso, and found all that we had 118 FAREWELL TO CHILE. left behind in safe charge of our excellent host and hos- tess. Mr. Wheatley, whom we had met first at Petropolis, was here, and arranged to accompany us to California. We had only a day left for farewell visits to all our kind friends, and an evening devoted to fireworks and the opera. On the following afternoon we went on board the ' Santa Kosa ' and started for the northern ports, just after seeing our good ship the ' Cotopaxi ' anchor on her return from Callao. THE 'SAKTA ROSA.' 119 CHAPTER VL On board the ' Santa Rosa ' — A Floating Fair — ^Porpoises on St. Valentine's Day — Goquimbo and Serena — Huasco Grapes — Mountains of Melons — Countless Pelicans — Liuninous Fish — A 'Little ReToliition' in Bolivia — Iquique and Arica — Arica Mummies — MoUendo and Islay — Scorpion-fight — Peruvian Soldiers — Eemarkable situation of Quilca — ^Astonished "^Tiales — The Chincha Islands — CaUao. I THOUGHT I had seen a tolerably large variety of ships and cargoes in different parts of the world, but the first glance round the 'Santa Rosa' showed a state of things that was new and hardly credible in a sea-going vessel. I saw not only a steamboat, but a travelling fair, a market, a cattle show, and a fai'myard combined. Like all the vessels of the Liverpool Pacific Steam Navigation Com- pany, she looked handsome on the water ; it was the novel state of things on deck that produced astonisliment. The saloon and first-class cabins were on the upper deck, with a broad passage round them from end to end of the ship, two thirds of which were devoted to the fair and market. Rude divisions, made with sticks and sacking, separated the stalls of the various proprietors, who — men, women, and children — brought their own mattresses, and protected their goods by sleeping upon them at night, with the occasional assistance of a small dog. Here were piled up thousands upon thousands of sweet melons and water- melons, gourds and pumpkins, peaches, figs, and grapes, 120 THE FLOATING MARKET. wonderfully fine onions, peas and pears, beans and cab- bages, together with bundles of a large seaweed, which is dried into a semblance of brown macaroni, and made into a decoction for food. Some of the stalls offered the additional attractions of hats and bonnets, boots, cigars, toys, mate-pots, and all sorts of gimcracks : one man even tried to tempt me with a small gilt clock and an image of the Virgin Mary, or some inferior saint. With the exception of the fore-part of the ship, the decks were piled with these things through their whole length, not only up to the top of the bulwarks, but higher still, with the aid of boards and other devices. So narrow was the passage left between them and the cabins down the centre of the ship that I had to remove the dirty feet of a sleeping melon-owner before I could get at my own door. Under this deck was a lower one, half of which was the farmyard, containing scores of cattle, sheep^ and pigs ; the other half was another market, where perhaps the salesmen paid rather less rent in consideration of their inferior situation. On the top of all, from nearly amid- ships over the saloon, was raised a tent-shaped awning, under which the poorest class of passengers slept on mat- tresses which they provided for themselves. I remarked at the time, that under such circumstances it would seem impossible to prevent a fearful catastrophe in the event of fire or any sudden accident to the ship. Nobody could handle the boats till the melons, &c., had been one by one thrown overboard, to say nothing of the confusion that must prevail among such a motley crowd of deck passengers and a not very brilliant crew. Scarcely more than a fortnight after we left Valparaiso my anticipa- PLIMSOLL TO THE RESCUE. 121 tions were confirmed when tlie Company's ship ' Tacna,' piled up with top-cargo, turned gradually over, and most of the people were drowned; a cii'cumstance wMch gave rise to very unpleasant proceedings between the English. Government and that of ChUe. Never have I seen such a field for the Board of Trade and the immortal Plimsoll. However, there is no greater mistake than that of bother- ing one's self about possible calamities at sea after the anchor is weighed ; and I was perfectly happy as soon as I contrived to get a cabin in the forward part of the ship, where I was removed fi'om the proximity of foreign toes and the disagreeables of squeezing between Indians and onions on my way to bed. Having attained this point of emancipation, I was quite content to move about and con- template the natives at my leisure, and was delighted with the prospect of a new and probably very peculiar style of voyage. We had a quiet night on a sea which is usually tranquil, except under the influence of one of the occasional northers which are so much dreaded in the Bay of Val- paraiso; and we began the next day with a very extraor- dinary sight. Going on deck after breakfast, we found ourselves passing through a belt of porpoises in such countless thousands that I should have no hesitation in saying that they far outnumbered all that I ever saw elsewhere in the world put together. They were, roughly speaking, in a line of about a quarter of a mile in width, stretching from north-east to south-west, and extending for as many miles as the eye could reach. They were evidently in an unus.ual state of excitement, leaping and splashing the water furiously; and, as far even as the telescope coxild help the eye, the otherwise calm sea was 122 MILES OF POEPOISES. in a turmoil of agitation. It happened to be on Feb- ruary 14, but whether Valentine's Day had something to do with it, or whether it was a sort of opening of Parlia- ment, I must leave to the decision of the naturalists. Passing the headland of the Lengua de Yaca, or Cow's Tongue, we soon after went cautiously between the coast and some wUd rocky prominences rising out of the sea, and throwing up the smooth swell into towers of surf. We were presently so near the coast that we could easily see a man fishing below the lighthouse, which stands on sterile tawny rocks mixed with large patches of black. Everything seemed barren and burnt up ; and, with the exception of the everlasting cactus, we saw no signs of vegetation till we turned the point of Coquimbo and anchored among a few other vessels lying ofi' the town. Coquimbo, like most of the mining ports on the coast, is of nearly the same colour as the rocks in the neighbour- hood ; but a little to the north of it the town of Serena has some rather green surroundings, thanks to a small river which enables the inhabitants to produce a modicum of food. Close to Coquimbo rise the chimneys of vast smelting works, throwing off their clouds of white and sulphurous smoke as they turn into copper the ores which are brought down from some of the most valuable mines in Chile. The mining interests have introduced a good deal of Cornish blood into this part of the world; and such names as Treveck or Trevethick over a store will often attract the attention of a wandering English- man. The mines of Panulcillo and the neighbourhood gave birth to a railway connecting them with the port of Coquimbo. Mining, indeed, appears to be, directly or indirectly, the sole raison d^itre for the existence of civi- HUASCO GRAPES. 123 lised beings upon hundreds of miles of barren coast to the north of Valparaiso, and they ought to be well paid for consenting to exist there at all. Early on the following morning we anchored at Huasco, a very small port, at the foot of a valley traversed by the Huasco river, which contributes a little green colouring to the otherwise brown and arid landscape. The white grapes of this place are delicious, with a flavour like that of the Muscat of Alexandria. Some of the passengers passed their time in catching large horse-mackerel, of which there was a plentiful supply under the ship's side. Both here and at Carrisal, which we reached a few hours later, there are wild and savage headlands, and rocky islands rising out of the sea, white with the deposit of countless birds, and covered with cormorants sitting upon them and lazily turning then* heads right and left as if they were thinking it was almost time to have another fish. On the 16th we reached Caldera, the port of Copiapo, said to be greatly deteriorating in prosperity in consequence of its mines becoming less productive. As the ship had to take in coals, we wandered on shore and among the rocks on the beach, where we found myriads of barnacles and very large star -fish, with an abundance of a pretty little Mesemhyanthemum, but there was very little to enliven the desolate appearance of all around. Matters were rather more lively on board, where a small crowd of the inhabitants came to transact a little market- ing business, taking advantage of the ship's being along- side the mole to go backwards and forwards at their leistu*e. At every other port on the coast we had the amusement of seeing a swarm of boats come off almost 124 MAKKETING. before we had had time to anchor the ship. Racing, shouting, and swearing, they came on as if they were going to attack us in earnest, so great was the anxiety to get on board and be first in the market. They scrambled up the gangways, and in a few moments the decks were covered with the invading forces; and, as no part of the ship was kept clear of them, we found it was necessary to keep our cabins locked, a precaution which I have never elsewhere been driven to adopt. In most of these apparently Heaven-forsaken places the people condemned to live there are absolutely de- pendent for existence on the supplies thus brought to them : man cannot live on nothing but cactus and copper, or silver either ; and the mountains of deli- cious fruit and vegetables in the steamboats must be visions of veritable bliss. They also bring them the fashions, and it was often amusing to see a half-Indian 'beauty sitting on a heap of melons and trying on a pair of dandy boots, or taking the opinion of her friends as to the eflFect of a hat covered with bright green ribbons upon a complexion like that of an over-roasted chestnut. Business' generally seemed done quickly, and the moment the buyers had piled their purchases in the boats, they rowed ashore as fast as they could, and at once opened a retail business near the beach. If the profits on other articles ai'e as good as tbey are upon the melons, they have no reason to complain. One of them frankly told me that the wholesale price of the best melons in Val- paraiso was about fifteen dollars, or SI., for a hundred, while his retail price was twenty pence each, thus yielding ^ profit of about 160 per cent. CORMORANTS AND PELICANS. 125 A monotonous chain of dreary brown hills runs parallel to the coast, sometimes broken by hollows, like the Cwms of Wales, whose steep sides are evidently swept by falling stones. In one of these near Ohanaral, the top of which was probably about 3,000 feet above the sea, the sides had all the appearance of having been formerly swept by two streams of lava. One was of much darker colour than the other, and being much smaller and less powerful, would seem to have been deflected from its course exactly as a lateral glacier is turned when it encounters the main ice-stream. It may have been only an appearance, really caused by the deposition of falling stones from two kinds of rocks ; but certainly the likeness was remarkable. It is impossible to conceive more complete desolation than that which prevails for many hundreds of miles along this coast. Rain is almost unknown, and there is not a symp- tom of vegetation visible from the adjoining sea except the gaunt branches of the irrepressible cactus, which seems to possess the astonishing faculty of assimilating juices out of red-hot rocks. The wild headlands and jutting rocks of the coast afford all that can be desired by the millions of marine birds that inhabit them. Countless pelicans, cormorants, gannets, &c., come forth from the clefts and recesses of their whitened crags, and fish contentedly till they can hold no more, or skim along the sea in search of fresh pastures. They were a constant source of interest, as we were never far from land in this coasting voyage ; and I think that nothing can exceed the solemn earnestness of a pelican's expression as he sails past the ship, skimming close to the water with his great beak well in front, in 126 LUMINOUS FISH. eager search of dinner. Perhaps, however, it was still more interesting to see the gratified look with which he gently shook his head after swallowing a particularly dainty morsel. Now and then, too, we passed near flocks of various kinds of sea-birds, whirling round and round in the air, high over a shoal of fish, dashing down upon their prey as if they were shot out of a gun, and striking the smooth sea with a mighty splash. Sometimes singly, and sometimes a dozen together, they flung themselves down from heaven, with a rapidity and apparent reck- lessness that was worthy of all admiration. On the night after leaving Chanaral the sea provided a novel and astonishing entertainment, which I have never seen equalled in any part of the world. There was no moon visible, and the sea, as usual, was smooth as glass. The sharp bow of the ' Santa Rosa ' threw off two narrow lines of phosphorescence, but the rest of the water seemed perfectly black. Under these circumstances we were looking over the ship's side, and enjoying the evening cigar after a hot day, when I was rather startled by the appearance of Uluminatsd fish. Porpoises were racing alongside us in their own delightful fashion, and were as perfectly luminous under the dark water as if they had been under the influence of the lime-light at a theatre. We could distinctly see the movements of head and tail and fins through their whole course under water, and each one left behind him a track of brilliant sparkling light, exactly like the tail of a skyrocket with the refulgent whiteness of silver. Sometimes they fell behind out of sight, and then made another merry rush, passing close by the ship's side, and showing us that we had no chance WHISPERS OF REVOLUTION. 127 with them if they chose to ' put the pace on.' They were like illuminated phantoms of the deep. These seas must swarm with food for the legions of marine birds which frequent them. At distances of a few hundred yards at a time we passed large patches of very faintly illuminated water which, when the ship was almost close to them, seemed to explode in all directions like a jack-in-the- box firework. These were all shoals of fish ; and, when startled by the awfiil presence of the steam-monster, they bolted away, leaving fiery tails Hke a sea of squibs behind them. Seldom could be seen so curious and interesting: a sight as the phenomena of that evening. The porpoises seemed never weary of the fun ; and when, after watching them tm midnight, I turned into my cabin, I felt very sorry to say good-night to them. On the 17th we reached Antofagasta, an important mining station, where we found the Chilian corvette, ' General O'Higgins,' anchored in the bay and looking for an expected incursion of Bohvian revolutionists, who were reported to have taken possession of the famous Caracoles mines. Sums said to amount to 2,000,000 dollars had been deposited on board her for security, and she had a good force ready to land if necessary. The ' Lusitania ' was there also, loading with 800 tons of silver ore, and Ave watched a lighter full of it alongside of her which had a narrow escape of sinking. Minerals might be worked to a far greater extent in this part of the country if there were not such expense and trouble in procuring fuel and water. Nature is, as usual, just, and makes her choicest treasures most difficult of attainment. At Antofagasta we parted with a good deal of our 128 SOMETHING WRONG AT TOCAPILLA. garden-stuff, together with a number of four-horned sheep, which were treated. with a cruelty that was perfectly dis- graceful. Tied together so that they could not move a limb, they were bundled into a barge and piled one above the other as they fell, till it was hard to understand how those at the bottom escaped suffocation. A little further to the north, and just on the tropic of Capricorn, we passed round a hatchet-shaped peninsula, with Monte Moreno at one end of the face towards the sea, and Monte Mejillones at the other end ; after passing which we went into the port of Mejillones, close to the frontier of Bolivia. Next morn- ing we woke up at Cobija in Bolivia, which had a more respectable appearance than any place we had called at since leaving Valparaiso, and was possessed of a decent- looking church with two towers. A few hours later we reached Tocapilla, ■where there were evident symptoms of something remarkable having happened. It is a wretched little place at the foot of the usual chain of brown and desolate hills, where the Bolivian flag hung half-mast high over the office of the Captain of the port. We waited some time in vain for the appearance of that official or anybody else from the shore, but at last his deputy came, looking very mysterious as he conversed with Captain Newman in a low voice. Presently, how.- ever, we found out all about it, and, if there had not been a tragic element in it, the whole affair would have been irresistibly ludicrous. It appeared that the good people of Tocapilk had had a little revolution, poquita revolucion, by themselves. Taking advantage of a temporary absence of the Captain of the port, a small band of rascals had seized the Capitania, and established themselves in a little EXILED TO IQUIQUE. 129 brief autliorit5\ This news was taken by a steamer going south to the Capitan, who had gone to Cobija. He stai-ted at once with fifteen men, and, marching overland by night, he crossed the hills and dropped down upon the enemy at 4 a.m. They were probably drunk, but they showed fight, so he and his men killed a colonel and another man, wounded two others grievously, and put the rest in prison. The deputy had brought off two of them as passengers by the ' Santa Rosa,' to be exiled to Iquique in Peru. These heroes were small, shabby, evil-looking gamins, in imitation sealskin jackets, one of v.hom blub- bercd like a child ; but the other had an eye to business. They had been provided with passage -tickets, and he was caught by the captain trying to dispose of his to another intending passenger ! Having completed his victory and left his enemies all dead or in prison, the gallant Captain of the port had gone back to Cobija, whence he had been so ruthlessly disturbed. There must be a great deal -of mutual affection among the simple inhabitants of Toca- pilla, for the deputy who brought us the two prisoners embraced tbem fondly as he said good-bye to the ship ; and Ave found that the flag at half-mast high was a deli- cate compliment to the memory of the rebellious colonel who had been shot dead in the early morning ! Early on the 19th we reached Iquique in Peru, where the exiles were sent ashore, and we followed with the purser to spend a few hours in the town. This place is one of those which suffered most severely in the great earthquake of August 1868, and it had by no means yet recovered from the effects of it.' The frail structures and > Since this -was written, the unhappy town of Iquique has heen ahnost K 130 NITRATE OF SODA. houses of wood and plaster remind one at every step of the conditions under which people exist on a coast where it may be at any moment demonstrated that, if the dread earthquake comes, it is better that light things should fall upon their heads than heavy ones. The footway of the streets consists, as at all the northern ports we visited, of hot dust, loose stones, and broken bottles, the quantity of which latter articles in all directions surprised me till I reflected that empty bottles must be both nume- rous and useless among the thirsty inhabitants of regions where the barren soil contributes nothing to put back in them. The especial article of Iquique commerce is nitrate of soda (salitre), which is brought from the dis- trict of Tamarugal in trucks, over a zigzag railway, carried down the steep sides of mountains burnt to the colour of cayenne pepper. In this district it is calculated, according to Mr. Markham, that 'the nitrate of soda grounds cover fifty square leagues, and, allowing one hundred pounds of nitrate for each square yard, this gives 63,000,000 tons, which, at the present rate of con- sumption, will last for 1,393 years. In 1860 the export of nitrate of soda from Iquique amounted to 1,370,248 cwts., and a good deal of borax is also exported, though its shipment is prohibited by the Government.' The Pampa of Tamarugal is from 3,000 to 3,500 feet above the sea, and is, in fact, a continuation of the desert of Atacama. It derives its name from the tamarugo, or tamarisk tree, which is one of the few plants that thrive destroyed hj a fire in October 1875. The slightness of the buildings, the wooden footways, and the impregnation of the soil with nitrate, combined to make the destruction rapid and oyerwhehning ; and the damage done was estimated at 6,000,000 doUara. MELON-PELTING. 131 without the help of rain ; and it traverses the whole pro- vince of Tarapaca. At the time of our visit there were great complaints of stagnation in the salitre trade, in con- sequence of the Government having imposed a heavy ex- port duty; and Iquique was supposed to be duller than usual. This stagnation and consequent discontent count among the chief causes of the late revolution in Southern Peru. There was a great delay in getting the mails ready, but at last we returned to the ship, and found the con- tents of the market had been considerably lightened. ]\Iany of the stall-keepers had left us, and some wild- looking half-Indians had come in theii' place. The men wore gay-coloured ponchos, and some of the women had very battered, grey wide-awake hats, surmounting gaudy shawls and dresses. We began to notice a great change in the climate about this part of the voyage : the salt became very damp instead of perfectly dry; the dews at night were very heavy; fogs became more frequent, and, though rain hardly ever tails, the coast of Peru may in some degree be said to have a damp climate. AYe called in at the Pei'uvian Mejillones and Pisagua on the same day, and part of the way was enlivened by a pelting- match with melon-peelings between some of the cabin passengers and the native young ladies, Avho, entrenched under the awning above, could lower the edge of it for a peep with their bright black eyes, to be instantly followed by a shot at the first head they could discover. On the 20th we reached Arica early in the morning, and were met by Mr. Heimann, a very pleasant young German, who had come down from Tacna with letters for K 2 132 DESTEirCTION OF ARICA. Mr, Rawson. He took us on shore with him, and we soon found ourselves in the midst of the desolation still remaining from the earthquake of 1868. The town stands upon ground only slightly raised above the sea at a point where the hUl-chain recedes from the coast ; but it is flanked on the south by a lofty and precipitous head- land of inaccessible rock, opposite to which is a seal-beloved rocky island about 500 yards from the beach. The great earthquake battered down nearly the whole of the place; then the sea retired till the island remained as part of the mainland, and returned again in a wave of fifty or sixty feet high, tearing ships from their anchorage and driving thetn helplessly before it. The ruin was complete when the sea washed over the fragments left by the earthquake. An old man, who found us some horses, told me it had been his duty to look for the dead bodies, and he reported 819, but probably many more were carried out to sea or buried completely under the ruins. We landed at a still unfinished new mole, and found that while some of the town had been rebuilt in a light and perfunctory manner, a great p&,rt of it was still represented by a mass of bat- tered and tumble-down ruins, and there was no appear- ance of a population adequate to the task of restoration, It would be difficult .to imagine a more miserable scene, or a more violent contrast with the cities of North America, which, after the most terrible conflagrations and catastrophes, rise like a Phoenix from their ashes. We were anxious to ride out far enough to see the remains of the two ships which were washed up far in- land by the great earthquake-wave. So scanty seemed the resources of the ruined place that it was a matter of A STRANDED WRECK. 133 considerable difficulty to find four horses for the party. Mr. Heiinann kmdly lent me his own excellent steed, but we had to rummage the place for some time before we foiind three others with saddles to match. It was done at last, and we rode off through the still ruined districts of the town, over the usual allowance of dust and stones and broken glass, till we found ourselves on a plain of burnt-up and scanty herbage, where at a distance of three or four miles from the town we reached the carcass of the United States ship ' Wateree,' a large iron steamer whose rusty hull and huge paddle-wheels are left like the remains of some primeval monster upon the desert plain. From the configuration of the land it would appear that the sea carried her not only far across the railway where she now lies, but to a more distant point where a low range of hills must have been the first substantial obstruction to the advance of such a wave, which, as it returned, would have left her in the situation where she is now to be seen. After inspecting the huge skeleton, we galloped across the plain to the Tacna rail- way, by the side of which we saw the broken remains of another ship which was a victim to the same calamity. Pursuing pur course we arrived at the beach, and followed it for most of the way back to Arica; we rode for a few miles close to the seaside, where were an infinite number of sharks with their nasty fins above the water, playing among the rocks and tangled masses of seaweed on the coast, and suggesting horrible ideas connected with bath- ing. The beach was thickly sprinkled with the remains of whales whose bones were whitening among the shin- gle; and every now and then we came upon groups of 134 NATIVE CRAFT. vultures tliat were fattening upon the corruption of the latest victims to marine death. When we returned to the neighbourhood of Ai'ica we had to push the horses up a tolerably high bank, and once more reach the region of broken bottles, instead of the whale-bones, which in Bolivia and Chile are used to make foot-bridges over streams, whenever such phenomena are found to exist. A small stream creeps past the north side of Arica, by the sides of which a few hut-proprietors are enabled to cultivate small gardens and a number of fig-trees, which seem almost to rival the cactus in producing something out of next-door to nothing. It appears that the fertility of this part of Peru was much praised by the Spanish writers, one of whom, Garcilaso, went so far as to declare that in 1556 there grew a radish so large that five horses were sheltered under the shade of its leaves ! But, nous avons change tout cela. One of the horses got a nail in his foot near here, and showed symptoms of kicking in reply to all attempts to extract it. LuckUy by the side of the stream there was a man watering a couple of mules, who goodnaturedly came to the rescue with a piece of native craft. He walked quietly up to the horse, and, taking off his own red sash-like belt, tied it firmly to the end of the flowing tail; then going behind him he used this as a kind of breeching to prevent his kicking, and gently coaxing him to lift his foot, he fastened the end of the combined tail and belt round the fetlock; then he quietly lifted the foot higher and took out the nail very cleverly. The sun had been very hot, and when we rode back to the town we were quite prepared to lunch with Mr. Heimann at the little Hotel Morosini. We began with Bavarian SEA-BIRDS AND SHARKS. 135 beer, the first bottle of which went off like the Great Geyser the instant the cork was drawn, leaving not a drop behind. The next was more successful, but it was only a prelude to the immortal Bass, whose works are never so highly and worthily appreciated as when they have been just preceded by foreign rivals from any other country in the world. We then walked along the beach on the south side of Arica, between the attractions of seals and sharks on the one side, and legions of sea-birds clustered aU over the lofty rocks and precipices on the other. They did not appear to be at all nervous about being fired at Avith revolvers; and, unless the ball rattled against the rock within a few inches of them, they did not even condescend to fly a few yards to another station. We scrambled into great caverns in the rocks, and found them lined with feathers and other remains of dead and living birds: we picked our way amongst the vast irregular blocks which from time to time fall upon the beach, and lie partly on land and partly in water, where they harbour gigantic seaweeds and shell-fish, and where also we found fine specimens of echinus, or sea-hedgehog. After turning the comer of a rugged point which showed us a beautiful outline of the next great headland and the smooth ex- panse of the bay separating us fi-om it, we scrambled back to the town, and returned on board with an extra shade of colour communicated to our faces by a blazing sun on shore, where it always feels much hotter than af sea. The voyage by the coast gave us the opportunity of seeing a number of curious places, but there was one disadvantage in the fact that we were seldom far enough from land to look well over the range of hills about 3 000 136 THE ANCIENT DEAD. feet high which runs almost close to the shore for the' chief part of the way. In the neighbourhood of Arica, however, we had a grand view of the snowy peaks of the T^cora group, looking doubly beautiful from their contrast with the long monotony of arid browns and yellows which are the distinguishing feature of all the intervening land. The road to La Paz and Potosi winds through this group of mountains, but the easy way of getting to the Lake of Titicaca and the neighbouring country is by the Arequipa route from Islay to Puuo, where steamers have at last been established to traverse this wonderful lake at the elevation of more than 12.000 feet above the sea. The rail- way from Arequipa to Puno reaches the amazing height of 14,660 feet above the sea at the station of Vincocaya, On the farther side of the hill, which flanks Arica on the south, a cemetery of the ancient Peruvians was dis- covered, and if I had known enough about it at the time of our visit I should certainly have wished to see it, or at all events should have inquired if the mummy-crop was still as well worth seeing as it must have been a few years ago. In an interesting book,^ which was published in 1834 by an anonymous officer of the United States Navy, there is an account of his visit to this place. He found the spot indicated by hillocks of upturned sand with numbers of human bones bleaching in the sun, and portions of bodies with the dry flesh still adhering. ' The graves,' he says, ' have been a great deal dug and many bodies carried to England by travellers. Some boys who were playing about the place told us that an " Inglez " at Tacna had a large collection of them, which he is continually increasing: • 'Three Years in the Pacific.' By an Officer in the United States Navy. MUHIMIBS. 137 for a pair of the mummies, when perfect, he pays a doubloon. ' We dug in several places without being able to find anything. At last we inquired of an Indian, who was fishing mth a cast-net, where the graves were and how we might discover indications of them. He said that there were none, except to stamp on the ground and dig where it sounded hollow. We pursued this plan with consider- able success. The surface is covered over with sand an inch or two deep, which, being removed, discovers a stratum of salt, three or four inches in thickness, that spreads all over the hill. Immediately beneath are found the bodies in graves or holes, not more than three feet in depth. ' The body was placed in a squatting posture, with the knees drawn up and the hands applied to the sides of the head. The whole was enveloped in a coarse but close fabric with stripes of red, which has wonderfully withstood the destroying effects of ages, for these interments were made before the conquest, though at what period is not known. A cord was passed about the neck on the out- side of the covering, and in one case we found deposited on the breast a small bag containing five little sticks about two and a half inches long, tied in a bundle by two strings, which broke in our efibrts to open the bag. A native gentleman told me that drinking- vessels, and the implements of the occupation pursued by the deceased when living, as balsas, paint-brushes, &c., were frequently found in these graves. Several of the bodies which we exhumed were in a perfect state of preservation. We found the brain dwindled to a crumbling mass about the 138 THE END OF THE WORLD. size of a hen's egg ; the cavity of the chest was nearly empty, and the heart coniained what seemed to be indu- rated blood, which cut with as much facility as rich cheese. It was reddish black. The muscles cut like hard smoked beef "We sailed again in the latter part of the afternoon, and early next morning arrived at MoUendo, where we took on board the English Vice-Consul and the agent of the Company. Mollendo is a small town, fortunately perched at a considerable height above the sea, for this circumstance saved most of it from the ravages of the wave which followed the earthquake, but was checked by the loftiness of the rocky coast. It must have been a wonderful sight to see it rushing amongst the singularly sharp crags of the small islands which adjoin the port. An Englishman who was present told me that, when he ran out of his house and found the earth trembling visibly, and waving up and down to such an extent that he was obliged to straddle his feet apart to help him in keeping his balance; and when, in addition to the horrors of the land, he saw the awful wave coming in irresistibly from the sea, he had no doubt what- ever that the day had come when ' time should be no more.' With regard to that wave, it so happened that I afterwards travelled with another fellow-countryman who had chanced to be in New Zealand at the time, and saw it arrive on that coast about thirty hours after its birth on the coast of South America. It had crossed the Pacific at the rate of about 200 miles an hour, and had been diminished during its journey of 6,000 miles to the height of, I think, twelve or fifteen feet. We reached Islay in the morning of the 21st, and SEARCH POR A. REVOLUTIONIST. 139 thence we would fain have gone by railway to Arequipa and the lake of Titicaca. Other arrangements, however, tied us to reaching Panama as soon as possible, and most unfortunately we could not aflfbrd the time to wait for another maU. All we could do at Islay was to go on shore and look about us for a few hours. The captain kindly took me with him, together with the consul and the agent, preceded by another of the boats with my two companions and the purser. As we got near the pier, there were manifest signs of some great excitement on shore, and a score or two of the Peruvian army came ' at the double ' down a steep slope to prevent our landing. It seemed at first rather a joke that these men should try to stop the captain of the mail steamer, with two of the best-known officials on the coast; but the little men looked very fierce, and had the decided advantage of carrying loaded muskets to support their resolution. An ofiicer declared he had orders by telegraph to prevent any one from landing till they had searched the ship for a dangerous revolutionist supposed to be concealed on board, and I believe the man 'wanted' was Pierola, who has since given so much trouble to the Peruvian Govern- ment. The captain and the consul were naturally rather irritated at the idea that either they or their friends could be conspiring against the Grovernment; but it was not till after a good deal of angry altercation that we were per- mitted to land, upon the understanding that the authori- ties might do anything they liked with the distinguished revolutionist, if they could catch him. We marched up between the files of soldiers, who now looked rather like a guard of honour, though I thought 140 A SCORPION-FIGHT. some of them seemed extremely disappointed at not having been allowed to drive the gringos, or foreigners, into the sea ; and our captain began with ' giving a bit of his mind ' to the captain of the port for his absurd ad- herence to general orders ; then we went up a short steep road which leads between precipitous cliffs to the town, and slopes gradually upwards till the principal street ends with a still dilapidated church. Here for the first time during many days we found a fair supply of good water, and a real fountain in the middle of a small circle of plants. Several of the inhabi- tants cultivated a few flowers in boxes or pots, among which appeared the beautiful blossoms of the cotton-plant and the large crimson Hibiscus. There was another fountain at the lower end of the town, near which Mr. and Mrs. Smart received us in their house and garden, and where they had persuaded the Norfolk Island pine to grow to a tolerable size. They said that among the greatest nuisances of the place are the scorpions, which delight in a soil consisting of burning dust mixed with stones, broken bottles, and all the rubbish of a town where rain never comes to wash it away. They are known to be combative in a high degree ; and Mr. Smart told me that he had tried the experiment of putting four well-grown specimens to fight it put in a soup-tureen. In six minutes they all stung each other to death. Doubtless it was a good rid- dance ; but what were they among so many ? He tried to explain to me a diabolical creature, apparently after the nature of a centipede, which crawled up walls and came down by curtains, or by any other available means, and inflicted a deadly bite. Unluckily I have been unable to GUARD OF SOLDIERS. 141 arrive at any name for it which would be recognised in science. Islay is the port of Arequipa and the surrounding districts, and is the chief place of exportation for the wool of llamas, sheep^ and vicunas, and the famous Peruvian bark from the Chinchona trees of the interior. The country around is a dreary waste, rising suddenly at the distance of a few miles into a range of hills called the Lomas, about 3,000 feet above the sea, where for a short time in the year the ground is covered with flowers ; and, in the spring of 1860, Mr. Clements Markham found that an unusual rain had produced a renewed freshness in the month of March. The country is broken up into abrupt ravines, which near the foot of the hills are watered by streams of sufficient amount ' to sustain small groves of fis: and olive trees, the abodes of numerous flocks of doves.' From one of these the water is conducted through pipes for the supply of Islay, under the guardianship, in Mr. Markham's time, of a useful and obliging Irishman named Juan de la Pila, or John of the Fountain, who also com- bined the trades of carpenter, cooper, and blacksmith. When we returned on board we found we were to be favoured with the company of an officer and five full privates of the Peruvian army. Many of the people we had seen in the town looked at us very sulkily and sus- piciously; and the Islay enos evidently thought there was something dangerous and revolutionary about the ' Santa Kosa.' To make use of the famous confusion of metaphor attributed to Sir Boyle Roche, they ' smelt a rat, they saw it floating in the air, and they resolved to nip it in the bud ' by the presence of these warriors. The officer was 142 FEESH AND SALT. a young dandy, who spent a good deal of time at the pianoforte; the men were very quiet little bits of fellows, who generally carried their muskets in green-baize bags like cricket-bats, to protect them from the sea, and had a small stock of percussion -caps in their ears ! The ship was searched in vain for the great revolutionist, and soon after noon we sailed for Quilca with our military escort. This is an extremely curious place, and was formerly the Spanish port of approach to Arequipa. It stands on the top of a hill about 800 feet above the sea, and is only approached from the water by a remarkable cove which turns between very lofty and precipitous walls of dark rock, in such a manner that a vessel coming out from land would be invisible till it emerges suddenly from behind the rocks. It is near the mouth of the Quilca river, which brings down the melted snows from the great group of lofty mountains clustering about Arequipa, and which is suffi- cient in volume to make the sea muddy for several miles, a phenomenon which we had never yet seen on the west coast of South America. A sharp line divided the fresh water from the salt; of course the former was on the surface, and the stroke of an oar upon the yellow stream cut through it, and revealed the dark water of the sea below. This river does good work before it reaches its grave in the Pacific : it has mth the aid of guano turned the lofty plain of Arequipa into a rich campina, green with alfalfa and Indian corn, and has spread fertility in its course to the shore, where we could see emerald groves in place of the general desolation of the coast. A large quantity of olives and olive oil was put on board, to tes- tify to one of the benefits which it has conferred. ASTONISHED WHALES. 143 Here we had a slight disturbance with our detachment of the Peruvian forces, who took their weapons out of their green-baize bags and made themselves disagreeable by iilterfering with peaceable passengers. Our captain was not the man to submit to anything of the kind, and he caused them to collapse by saying that he was master of his own ship at sea. We soon saw the green bags again, and resumed tranquillity as we once more sailed towards the north. The highlands of the coast were for many leagues hence covered with a white dust, which made them look like a region of snow, though only some few hundred feet above the sea, and not many degrees fi-om the Equator. It consists of mica and silica with an admixture of potash, supposed by some of the scientific men to have been deposited by ancient eruptions of Misti, the great volcano of Arequipa ; but it is found to be of little practical use, except as an excellent material for scrubbing paint. There was scarcely a day on the west coast when we did not see whales blowing at various distances from the ship; but on February 22 three huge monsters came up to the surface, spouting grandly within about a hundred yards of us. They were apparently taken by surprise at finding they were so near to a leviathan much bigger than themselves; and, after taking a few moments to look about them, they one by one dipped down their heads, and turning their vast flukes perpendicularly in the air, dived back into the profundities of the ocean. All about the rocky headlands and rocks near Lomas there were constant flights of pelicans and other marine birds passing and re- passing; and we entered more and more into a region of damp fogs, though the sun was intensely hot in the day- 144 DELICIOUS GEAPES. time. The night dews made every seat on deck as wet as after a rain-storm; and one evening we saw two parallel belts of milk-white mist which stretched from east to west through the zenith, and looked exactly like an auroral arch which once upon a time I saw at Cam- bridge. In such, a climate, and upon a coast studded with rocky headlands and most dangerous rocks, it was necessary to maintain a vigilant look-out for the perils of the sea. On the 23rd we anchored at Pisco, in four fathoms water; and in a very short time the deck was covered with people who came to buy the last remains of our stores, and brought us a magnificent stock of grapes in exchange. They have as fine a flavour as any in the world, and it is here and at the neighbouring Yea that the favourite liqueur of the west coast, called Italia, is made from them. About two centuries ago the town of Pisco stood where the sea now breaks ; and the tide does not now ebb beyond the ruins of the former place, which was destroyed by an earthquake^wave in 16H2. On that occasion the sea retired, and, returning, submerged the town, and remained a quarter of a league beyond its for- mer limits. The present town is about a couple of miles from the coast, and is backed by vineyards and olive- groves, far beyond and above which shine the distant snows of the Cordillera of the Andes, the beneficent sources of moisture destined to pass into the form of olives and grapes, and to rejoice the dwellers in a thirsty land. Leaving Pisco behind, we soon passed very near the Chincha islands, the guano from which long proved such a substantial resource to Peruvian financiers, and comfort GUANO. 145 to the bondliolders. That fountain has, I believe, been exhausted, but not tUl the height of the principal island had been reduced by eight hundred feet, as I was in- formed. It seems to be almost inconceivable that such amazing deposits should ever have been made by birds, even if all the birds in the world had for ages congregated in a few particular spots ; and many men have had grave doubts as to the nature of this substance. But chemical analysis has apparently confirmed the original supposition. Certain it is that the amount of sea-birds along the coasts of Bolivia and Peru is simply astounding: at every point they are passing continually in hundreds and thousands : and eveiy headland and rocky islet is white with the de- posits, which testify to the constant accumulation of guano. It is technically divided into white, grey, and red, accord- ing to the antiquity of the bed, the former being of course the latest formation. The almost total absence of rain is of course greatly in favour of such a condition of things; but, after making all allowances, the result must remain one of the wonders of the world. Perhaps, however, the most extraordinary fact of all concerning it is that, though its immensely valuable properties were appreciated in the days of the Incas, yet the Peruvians of 1839 sold the monopoly of shipping it for nine years for forty thousand dollars. It is, however, only due to then' sagacity to add that they boldly rescinded their contract when they found that they had made a mistake. The amount of their mis- take may be estimated from the statement of Mr. Mai'kham, that the guano monopoly was in 1860 producing to the State an annual revenue of 14,850,000 dollars! Three- fourths of the total disbursements of the Government 146 SAN LORENZO. were raised by the sale of these marvellous deposits, left by the birds of infinite ages in the past. They acted as if they possessed resources of inexhaustible wealth : they abolished taxes, and spent a temporary possession in un- necessary armaments, and jobbing salaries and pensions, without any regard to the ruin of their successors. They set on foot ' an army of 15,000 men, for a population under two millions, ■with upwards of 2,000 officers ; ' and, when the abnormal revenue terminates, it is easy to see what tremendous difficulties must arise. In the afternoon of the same day we drew near the large and rocky island of San Lorenzo, concerning which there is a popular fable that it rose suddenly out of the sea at the time of the total destruction of old Callao by the earthquake of 1746, and that a boat with an astonished fisherman in it was thus elevated to an uncongenial element. We passed near some small islands, one of which is per- forated by a complete arch, and was literally covered with pelicans ; and in the evening we anchored at Callao, in water which is said to flow over the remains of the buried city. The five little soldiers fastened up their muskets into their green-baize bags, and, like most of the passen- gers, went on shore ; but as there was a thick fog, and it was too late to go to Lima, we preferred sleeping on board. A CALLAO BOATMAN. 147 CHAPTER YII. First view of Lima — The Cathedral — Thoughts of Pizarro — Origin of the name of Lima — Climate of Lima — The ^Vatershed of Peru — ^Brealrfast at Chorillos — Fruits and Flowers — The Exhibition Building — Fair Ladies — The Alameda JVueva — Eeturn of Rosito — Paj'ta and had news from Panama — Crossing the Equator again — 'Old Boots' — A Haunt of the Buccaneers — Airival at Panama. The fiest thing I saw in the morning was the head of a dark-eyed little man pokmg through the open window of my deck-cabin. At first I was inclined to throw my boots at him ; but, as he only asked in broken English if I wanted to go on shore, I contented myself with telling him not to bother me before breakfast. He had made up his mind, however, that our party should be his prey, and watched us like a cat for the next couple of hours to see that we did not throw ourselves into the clutches of any of the rival boatmen Avho were hanging about the deck. The fog cleared away before long, and we had an oppor- tunity of seeing our surroundings. There was a large amount of shipping in the port, including men-of-war belonging to various nations, and two huge Peruvian monitors, with decks nearly level with the Avater, and built, I presume, out of the proceeds of guano, the bountiful mother of almost everything recent in Peru. Xear to us was the beautiful steamer ' Oroya,' just sent out for the Company from England, in which we were in a few days to move northwards to Panama. In front of us, and but 148 DIRT OF CALLAO. little raised above the sea, was the dirty, dusty, busy town of Callao, one of the last places in the world that most people would choose for a residence, though, as the port of Lima, it has to be endured. There are long quays, huge storehouses, and a railway brought down to the water's edge, which tempts the visitor to start at once for Lima, away from the various nastinesses of Callao. There are castles and batteries which would be of very little use in modern warfare ; and there are more haunts of vice ot every description than might be expected from the number of the population. Lima is seen at a distance of about eight or nine mUes from the port, with its white towers and steeples rising out of the fresh and green surround- ings, which are due to the presence of the river running through it. The city stands at the height of about 500 feet above the sea, upon a plain which slopes gently up from the port and extends to the base of the low hills of Amancaes and San Crist oval; far above and beyond which rise the serene snows of the Great Cordillera. Soon after breakfast we consigned ourselves to the dark-eyed man, who turned out to be a rather amusing fellow, called Rosito. He was one of the fleteros, or num- bered and registered boatmen, who are under the surveil- lance of the captain of the port, and appear to be a well- managed institution at Callao. With the aid of a comrade, he got all our goods in his boat and rowed us first to the ' Oroya,' where we deposited most of them, only taking enough for a few days at Lima. "We were assured that Rosito might be trusted to manage everything in the way of the transit to the city ; so we strolled to the club to meet our kind and agreeable Captain Newman of the A MIXED POPULxVTION. 149 ' Santa Rosa,' who did the honours and introduced us to the place. The club at Callao is a very different kind of thing from the luxurious establishments of Valparaiso and Santiago, and its architecture is conspicuous for rude sim- plicity ; but there is a large, well-shaded balcony with a good view of the shipping, and newspapers from all parts of the world. There, too, we found a good glass of wine, and the cheery voices of a few fellow-countrymen. The general appearance, however, of CaUao is irregular, shabby, dirty, and confused. The population is in the highest degree miscellaneous. Besides the sailors and men of business of all nations, and the Peruvians of pure Spanish stock, there are Indians and African negroes, and every conceivable admixture of them with other races ; and here too we first came in contact with the ' Heathen Chinee.' The market-women, chiefly Indians and mulattoes, are very picturesque, sitting flat on the open ground with their little heaps of fruit and vegetables spread out on mats or ponchos in front of them. Their black hair hangs down in two or three plaited tails, which form a convenient plaything for the babies, which are often slung in the gay shawls or ponchos which cover their shoulders. They seem to squat where they please, and sometimes it is not very easy to pick one's way among them without treading upon some of theii' stores, the tempting appearance of which is not enhanced by their close proximity to the dust raised by the feet of the by- standers. The introduction of the Chinese element was another effect of guano, large numbers of coolies having been employed in the horrible and unhealthy occupation of digging and loading ships with it. 150 THOUGHTS IN LIMA. Rosito proved himself a good courier. He got the baggage labelled after passing it through the Custom- house ; he took the tickets, and jumped into the train which took us over the nine miles to the capital. There he engaged a coche for us and a cart for the baggage, with which he followed us to the Hotel Aubry, where we got tolerably comfortable, though rather dilapidated, rooms. He had not lost a single package, which. was something to his credit considering the confusion which prevailed in the Custom-house and railway stations; but, as he con- trived to wheedle twenty-five dollars, or 5^., out of us, he was certainly well paid for his services. There was no room for doubting it when he asked eagerly to be per- mitted to take similar care of us on our return journey to the ' Oroya.' It is impossible to enter the great square of Lima without being profoundly impressed by the historical associations of this capital of what was once the land of the Incas. Here Pizarro, who began life by keeping his father's swine and ended by conquering Peru with less than two hundred men, drew the plan of the present city, and laid the foundation-stone of the Cathedral where it now stands on the eastern side of the square. Here he, the murderer of Atahualpa, was himself assassinated by the friends of Almagro, his rival in the plunder of Peru; and in a vault under the great altar his remains are buried. What scenes has that Cathedral looked on since then! What festivities, murders, intrigues, and executions, from the days of the unhappy Incas- down to only two or three years ago, when two luckless brothers made an unsuccessful revolution; and, after being hung up to ORIGIN OF LIMA. 151 the towers of the Cathedral, were burnt in the square and publicly torn to pieces ! Two of the other sides of the Plaza offer cool walks under colonnades, which contain some of the best shops ; whUe the fourth side, which occu- pies the former site of Pizarro's palace, seems principally devoted to small cafes and cheap rubbish of various de- scriptions. The Cathedral is a noble building of 186 feet in front by 320 feet deep, and contains rare specimens of carving, as well as superb organs and many treasures. In the belfry are some very large and fine-toned beUs, the largest of which, called La Cantabria, is said to weigh iapwards of fifteen tons. The centre of the Plaza is orna- mented with a beautiful fountain, surrounded by oleanders and other flowering shrubs ; but, as we cross the brilliant sunny scene, it is impossible to forget that here, since the so-called introduction of Christianity by the Spaniards, men have been torn in pieces by wild horses, and done to death in every form of the most barbarous cruelty. Lima was founded by Pizarro in the year 1535, and called by him the Ciudad de los Reyes, or the City of the Kings, in honour of the IMag', so well known as the Trois Rois of Continental hotels. Though this origin of the name has been disputed, it would seem to be confirmed by the fact that, when Charles V. was requested by Pizarro to give a coat of arms for the new city, he in- cluded in it the star of the wise men and the three crowns due to them. The name of Lima appears to have been derived from Rimac, an Indian oracle, or the ' god who spoke ' to the ancient Peruvians, who was also the god- father of the river Rimac which flows through the city. There has been, and still is, a strange confusion in many 152 .PAST GLOMES. nations between the letters L and R. The Spanish Blanco and Plaza are in Portuguese Branco and Praza respec- tively ; and, while the Chinese call an American a ' Melican man,' the Japanese exactly reverse the pronunciation of the letters in question. In some such confusion between the Spaniards and the Indians it is supposed that the word Rimac eventuated in Lima. Nothing was con- sidered too great or too magnificent for the capital of Eldorado, when a room full of gold was demanded as the ransom of an Inca; and even as late as the year 1682, when the Duke de la Palata made his entry into Lima as viceroy of Peru, it is recorded that oiie of the principal streets he had to pass through was paved with ingots of silver valued at 16,000,000^. ! Such seems to have been the past of a country which in later days has only been saved from bankruptcy by the temporary supply of manure ! In the days of the Incas, Peru was infinitely more popu- lous and prosperous than it has been ever since. There was not only a vast population, but it was a self-supporting population. One of my friends now travelling in the interior, writes in amazement at the immense extent of land which the Inca 'terrace cultivation' covered with corn to the tops of the hills. At the present time a scanty popu- lation of about four millions of Peruvians has to buy corn from Chile to the amount of about four million dollars per annum. He thinks that in the old days Peru must have been 'one of the grandest countries in the world.' If the period of revolutions and ' playing at soldiers ' comes to an end, and the resources of the interior are developed by peaceful industry, Peru may be prosperous again. BALCONIES OF LIMA. 153 The streets of Lima have a more picturesque appear- ance than those of any other I have seen on either coast of South America; they look much less new and formal, and their stiffness is broken by the many large projecting balconies, the wood dark with age, and sometimes carved magnificently to the top of their sheltering roofs. They form delightful places for repose and conversation, or for enjoying a good view of all that is passing in the street ; and they are especially dear to the Limenians in the revels of the Carnival. Something answering the same piu*poses may be found in most places on the west coast, but in a totally inferior style. All of them however, handsome or ugly, are doomed. It having been discovered that in the event of fire they carry the flames along the streets with great rapidity, and even spread them over to the opposite side in narrow places, they are no longer allowed to be added to new houses or restored in old ones. There are said to be about sixty churches of various styles in Lima, and one of them is fronted with twisted pillai's, carved all over, and recalling Raphael's cartoon of the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. The better class of houses have large gates opening from the street into a patio or courtyard, ornamented with flowers and shrubs, through which the rise of a step or two takes the visitor into the principal rooms. In a climate which is supposed to be free fi-om rain, and where, in fact, it is so rare as to be looked upon as a portent of evil, the flat roofs are not cared for as they would be in Europe; consequently, when a heavy storm of thunder and rain came a j'ear or two ago to terrify the inhabitants, they found that they were not only terrified but very seriously injured. The rain poured through 154 CLIMATE. every gap in the roofs; and an English, merchant, who had lately filled his house with the best furniture that could be sent from London, had to lament the intrusion of an almost Noachian flood. The climate of Lima is generally delightful, and its inhabitants may be said to enjoy a perpetual spring. For the greater part of the year light morning fogs and mists prevent the sun from heating the air too early in the day; and, after the full and glorious sunshine of midday, the afternoon brings up another tender veil of thin cloud to again check its excessive ardour. The temperature is said to be never so low as 50° Fahr. in the coolest time of the short winter, and seldom rises above 80° or 82° in the fullest summer. We were there in the latter season ; and, hot as the sun was, we felt no inconvenience from walking at a brisk pace at any hour of the day. There is a lightness and purity about the air which I have hardly felt the like of, except in the unsurpassable climate of central Chile ; and it is impossible not to love a sunshine which bronzes the skin without impairing the activity of the limbs. July and August are the months of the heavy mists, called gdrua by the Indians, which exactly recall the words of the book of Genesis, where the author says that ' there went up a mist from the earth which watered the M'hole face of the ground.' A little farther inland the continued rise of the land towards the great mountains affords fresh changes of cli- mate, and enables Lima to be supplied with almost every variety of useful fruits and vegetables, for the soil is pro- lific wherever it can be brought in contact with water. This last is of course the grand desideratum of Peru on the THE BAIUUEK OF THE ANDES. 155 ^^'hole coast of the Pacific, west of the Cordilleras, from lat. 6° S. to the southern tropic. This is, however, but a narrow belt, and a remarkable feature of the country is that a journey eastward from Lima leads in less than 150 miles to the head waters of the Amazon river, which find their way through more than 3,000 miles of tropical luxuriance to their distant rest in the Atlantic. This gigantic mountain backbone of South America, compara- tively close to the Pacific coast, is, as it were, the boundary between two different worlds ; on the one side an arid belt producing scarcely any vegetation except in the neigh- bourhood of its scanty streams, or by the help of irrigation ; whilst on the other side the abundant moisture supplies the greatest river system in the world, and sends its Avaters rejoicing through the boundless forests of Brazil. The cause of this marvellous contrast is found in the prevalence of particular winds. The easterly trade winds carr}- the warm vapours of the Atlantic westward till they meet the lofty barrier of the Andes, where the last of them are condensed by the surrounding cold. On the Pacific side, the prevalent winds are parallel to the coast and carry very little moisture with them. A similai- example, though in a different direction, is offered by the Himalayas, which form a line of demarcation between the fertility of India and the deserts of Thibet. Those, therefore, who from the neighbourhood of Lima see the great snowy chain rishig far above the intervening ranges of dry hills, have only to indulge a veiy short flight of fancy to place themselves on the other side of the visible watershed, and reach the sources of the river Uoajali which joins the Amazon on its journey to Para. 156 RAILWAY AS HIGH AS MOKT BtANC. To open up communications between the narrow belt of the coast and the far larger part of the country on the farther side of the Cordillera, is naturally a matter of high im- portance to the Peruvian Government; and the Oroya railway is a step in that direction. Starting from Lima, it is intended to cross the chain at a point almost exactly as high as the summit of Mont Blanc ! By wonderful engineering it had advanced to a great height at the time of our visit, and has extended since to 11,543 feet above the sea ; but there was much talk about financial difficul- ties, and it has not yet reached the lofty pinnacle of its ambition. On the first evening of our arrival we dined under the hospitable roof of an English friend, who had lately re- turned from a visit to the old country, and who was kind enough to ask us to breakfast wdth him next morning at Chorillos. This place is about seven or eight miles to the south of Lima, and its principal raison d'etre is that it affords a charming seaside residence to those inhabitants of the capital who, when they want a change of air, judi- ciously object to living in the dirt of Callao, and bathing amongst the garbage of a busy seaport. It is connected by a railway, and we left by an eight o'clock train. The glorious sun had already dispersed the morning mists, and shone brilliantly over the flowers of the cultivated gar- dens and the gay beds of nasturtiums which ornamented the burnt-up railway banks with sheets of yellow blossom. And here I must once more mention the remarkable fact, that some of the most juicy plants in creation flourish in perfection upon a soil resembling hot brickbats. Not only most of the family of Cactus, Cereus, Opuntia, &c., but the THE CHORILLOS MAKKET. 157 Mesembrj'antheminns, including the ice-plant, and the various kinds of Tropseolum and Nasturtium, all abounding with tender juice, seem to revel on the west coast of South America in hot and ' barren places where no water is.' The Cacti are protected by an armour-like epider- mis ; but how about Nasturtiums ? Our host met us at the Chorillos station, and walked with us through the little town, which, adapting itself to the curve of the bay and the irregularities of the land, offers more variety to the pedestrian than the monotonous rectangles of a normal Spanish town. We passed through the market-place walled in with mats, where groups of women, chiefly Indians, sate behind piles of fruit and flowers, vegetables and fish ; and, when not actually in the middle of a bargain, they appeared to employ a good deal of time in hunting small game in each other's heads. The granadilla is a favourite fruit, like a large yellow egg; it is the production of a species of passion-flower, full of delicious pulp and small seeds, like those of a gooseberry. Here too, besides many of the well-known fruits, are paltas^ or alligator pears, a name which has been corrupted from avocados, as the Spaniards call them. But the most esteemed fruit of 'Peru is the cMrimoya, a species of Anona; it has been compared to all kinds of delicious things, including ' strawberries and cream,' and its flowers are beloved by the ladies for their exquisite scent. Dr. Seemann is credited with saying that, after having eaten pine-apples in South America, mangosteens in the Straits of Malacca, and chirimoyas in Peru, he would give the palm to the latter. I have also tried them all, and must vote for the mangosteens. Among flowers, the most bril- 158 SEA-BATHING. liant were those of the tree Hibiscus in various colours, imported from the East; and, as representatives of delicious scents, commend me to the white bunches of tall hyacinth- like tuberoses which abound in the gardens of both Chile and Peru. A steep slope led down to the bathing-establishment, partly sheltered from the sea by a small pier. Here are large buildings with rows of dressing-rooms, and every convenience for either walking into the sea or taking headers from stages. Here men, women, and children bathe and gossip together, clad in long bathing-dresses and Panama hats, which, in the case of some of the ladies, were gaily decorated with red ribbons. Hither resort all the beauty and fashion of Lima; and the convenience of the railway enables many men of business to keep house at Chorillos, and go into the city for their day's work after a morning bath in the sea, just as London men go back- wards and forwards from Richmond or Blackheath. Some ride down the hill and keep their horses to carry them up again: these are often very pretty animals, and the easy action called ' pacing ' is esteemed very highly among the indolent inhabitants of Peru. We walked up with our host to his house near the top of the slope, and found a delicious breakfast awaiting us, in a cool sort of verandah shaded by a slanting blind. T was introduced to a dish that was new to me, fried eggs and bananas, an admirable combination; and after a suc- cession of good things we wound up with granadillas and chirimoyas, at the proper time of day for the true enjoy- ment of fruit. As he had to go to Lima by the eleven train, we walked up with him to the station, and followed his AN ITALIAN ABROAD. 159 indications for a ramble along the top of the high cliffs between Chorillos and Callao. These cliffs are about the height of those between Hastings and Fairhght, and fall almost perpendicularly down to the beach, where we could see the Indian women washing clothes, and pounding them with stones : and from this fact I infer that fresh water somewhere near came through the land. The high plateau we were on was for the most part bare and brown, but here and there we found the heliotrope and yellow broom, together with a very pretty Solanum, and a con- siderable quantity of a beautiful yellow sea-poppy, which I had also noticed near the beach at Arica. Strange to say, a short distance down below the edge of the cliffs we could see some fine tall ferns in clefts of the rock, but Avithout a rope it was miich too dangerous to attempt scrambling down for them. After wandering for a couple of hours we walked back to the town, and before the next train started we had time enough to be attracted by the words ' Lunch Salon,' over a small shop. Apparently there was nothing for lunch but cigars and tobacco, but when we expressed our wishes, the proprietor lifted up half the counter and let ns pass into a little room, about eight or ten feet square. Still we saw no materials for eating, but he discovered a bottle with a red triangle upon it, which was refreshing after passing the hours of noon upon the hot and treeless hills. The walls displayed a few photographs of Pisa, Florence, and Milan, from A\'hich I rightly guessed that our host was an Italian. He had come from Milan; and when, as we were leaving, I told him that I had seen Milan from the highest peak of Monte Rosa, he broke out into a fit of handshaking enthu- 160 THE EXHIBITION. sjasm, and called forth an Italian friend to see the wondrous ~ phenomenon of a ' Seiior Inglez ' who had actually stood on the enchanted spot which they had been accustomed to gaze at with admiration from across the Lombard plains. It was very pleasant to see the evident delight with which they welcomed a few moments of con- versation with a stray traveller, who could talk to them about the charms of the land which they had left so far behind them. In the afternoon we weue escorted by another friend to what is called ' The Exhibition,' on the outskirts of Lima. There was no exhibition of any kind going on at the time,, as far as I know ; but there is a beautiful building, all ready for any sort of show or entertainment, like the nail which the Irishman drove into the wall to accommodate the coat which he hoped to hang upon it. As far as good taste and elegant architecture are concerned, I should not hesitate to prefer this building to that of any of the great exhibitions I have ever seen in the last twenty years in various parts of the world. Its pure whiteness shines conspicuously among the varied trees and flowers of the gai'den by which it is surrounded, and among which wind- ing paths lead in all directions between lawns and shrub- beries and artificial water. Here were French roses, huge geraniums, fuchsias, lilies, &c., backed by tall shrubs of the splendid Hibiscus, with deep red blossoms six inches in diameter, or by great purple Ipomaeas and other beauti- ful climbing plants twining over trellised arches. Olean- ders and magnolias were in the full beauty of bloom; while cypresses and gum-trees, and elegant Norfolk Island pines, looked down upon them all. One part of the ground A WONDERFUL CLOCK. 161 has been made into a Zoological- Garden, where the animals appeared to be kept in very good style ; at another place is erected a building for the accommodation of a curious clock, the construction of which is said to have occupied the entire attention of an ingenious citizen for several years. High above the ground, and ornamented with rather gaudy painting, it exhibits an arch of dials representing in suc- cession the hour of the day, the day of the week, the name and day of the month, the season of the year, the date of the year, and finally the number of the century ! Chinese gardeners do all the labour of the place under proper directions, and seemed, as Chinamen generally do, to be attending to their work. The whole grounds are enclosed by a handsome open railing ; and, as we followed a side path towards the gates, a considerable force of soldiers, who had been drawn up about forty yards from us to practise file-firing, began firing blank-cartridge at us all down the line with such energy that we hoped no ball-cartridge had got in by mistake. A good many spectators seemed much gratified by the display, and great fun was caused by a grey-wooled old nigger in his shirt-sleeves, with a battered chimney-pot hat on the back of his head, and apparently mad, who walked up and down in front of the line of fire, waving a thick stick, and evidently faiicying that he was reviewing the army. In the evening, a military band playing in the Plaza brought out a crowd of promenaders, and produced cus- tomers for some of the caf^s in the neighbourhood. The beauty of the ladies of Lima has long been justly famed. Their black hair, brilliant eyes, and exquisitely pure com- plexion, are combined with elegant figures whose every M 162 ' rAIK "WOMEN, movement is perfect grace. There is a serenity of beauty in their countenances ; and the favourite black silk manto, or shawl worn like a hood, serves to enhance their fairness, if it be possible to do so. The manto can be worn so as to cover the whole face, excepting one eye which flashes upon the beholder, and enables the fair owner to mystify her admirers by the completeness of the mask. Judging from the short experience of a few days, I should suppose that entirely uncovered faces are much more frequent than they used to be ; on the other hand, the modern ladies would seem to be more careful to conceal the famous white silk stockings and many-coloured satin shoes, cover- ing little feet of six inches long, which used to attract the eyes of travellers. The author of ' Three Years in the Pacific ' says that the extravagance of the ladies in these articles was excessive in his time, and that some years earlier, when sUk stockings cost from twenty to forty dollars a pair, it was considered a matter of reproach to wear them after they had been once washed. He more- over adds, ' it is an invariable rule, and has been from time almost immemorial, to purchase new shoes every Saturday.' Lima has been called ' the paradise of women, the purgatory of men, and the hell of jackasses ; ' but it would seem that shoemakers ought to have been included among those who have a good time of it. Lima is a very expensive city to live in, in proportion to the accommodation afforded. The charge of four dollars a day, or twenty francs, for a small room and a tahle d'hote breakfast and dinner does not seem in itself excessive till we see the nature of what is supplied for it. I very much doubt if any European dealer would have given much THE ALAMEDA NUEVA. 163 more than a pound for the furniture of any one of our rooms, consistmg as it did of a few rickety articles covered with the dust cast down by ants or other noisome insects, and peppered from the wooden ceilings on to our beds and letter-paper. A marine-store dealer would hardly have taken what were intended for locks and bolts, and the paper was very vaguely fastened to the walls. All sorts of liquors were of course extras, and the food was very indifferent. Washing of clothes was not to be obtained on any terms whatever in a limited time; and the landlord himself told me that he could not expect to get his own things returned by the lavandera in less than three weeks. He and all his people were perfectly civil and obliging, but the institutions of the country were too much for his own good intentions. I fully believe that he did his best for us as strangers, but it must always be understood that activity is an unknown quality in Peru, and that to seem to be in a hurry is to confess an inferiority of race. In the course of the next day we went to several more churches, and saw more of the lovely daughters of Lima bent upon their devotions, black-veiled, and waited on by the damsels who carry the little rugs or cushions upon which they kneel. We afterwards crossed the bridge to the farther side of the city, and entered the Alameda Nueva, a long straight walk, both sides of which are planted with handsome trees and shrubs with beds of gay flowers in the foreground. Here were India-rubber trees of large size, Xorfolk Island pines, magnolias and oleanders in fuU bloom, and grand plants of the red and yellow Hibiscus. The Chinese gardeners kept everything in excellent order, but u 2 164 ITALIAN HOUSEHOLD GODS, ■people in general seemed too lazy to enjoy the promenade. Thence we found our way over a burnt up hill on the outskirts of the city, which gave us an excellent view of the whole place and the neighbouring plains. At our feet were some of the gardens and orchards which supply the markets with their piles of fruit, and a little way farther was the bull ring. Bull-fighting, however, is strictly a Sunday amusement, and, as we were to .sail on Saturday, we lost the chance of hearing ' Bravo, Toro ! ' It is a most curious contrast that is presented by such a view in such a climate. The hill we were upon was almost as burnt and desolate as if it had just come out from the fire; and, as we followed its ridge to a higher point with a rather more extended view, the only result was seeing range after range of similar desolation ; yet, only a very few hundred feet below us, there lay the white and shin- ing city with its tall steeples rising over the verdure of evergreen trees and gardens maintained by the abundance of artificial irrigation. The track over these hills was very rough, and very damaging to boots, and the sun was excessively hot ; so when we scrambled down again and reached the Alameda once more, we were glad to take shelter in a large and shabby restaurant kept by an Italian, who had, however, managed to cover his walls with gaudy frescoes illustrating the chief events in the history of his native country, beginning with Romulus and Remus and the wolf, and ending with one of the battles of Garibaldi. In every country where I have met Italian emigrants or colonists, I have always found them thus accompanied by some of their favourite household gods. On Friday evening little Rosito put in an appearance ROSITO MISSING. 165 again, but we told him we should not start till the early train next morning, and dismissed him to spend the night as he liked. It is to be feared that he spent it in evil ways, on the strength of the small fortune he meant to make out of us in the morning. He did not come till long after his time, and when he did come, he seemed extremely hazy; he also displayed a tendency to poke the ribs of one of the party, and call him a diablo, apparently as a term of endearment ; and he was so slow in getting the baggage into a cart, that we were obliged to administer the spur of indignant remonstrance. After all, however, when we reached Callao there was no Rosito : he had lost the ti'ain, and was left behind with our belongmgs. This was unsatisfactory, to say the least of it; but he ulti- mately came down by a later train with everything all right, and he assumed a highly comical look of resent- ment at my having ever doubted his capacity for the perfect administration of affairs. On the whole he had afforded us a good deal of amusement, and we parted very good friends. We settled down in comfortable cabins on board the beautiful ' Oroya,' and, in company with a very few other passengers, sailed about sunset for Payta, the last port of Peru, not far below the entrance of the Gulf of Guayaquil, in Ecuador. Payta was not only the last port we were to see on the coast of Peru, but it was if possible more desolate in appearance than any of them. We, however, were occupied all day in shipping a valuable cargo of cotton which had come down from the interior, and was brought off to the ship on huge rafts, made simply of the rough trunks of trees, lashed together in such a way that the least ripple on the water must damage the lower side of the bales. 166 ' OLD BOOTS.' Here we received the dismal news that a terrible fire had burnt down the hotel at Panama, and the best part of the place where we knew we must expect to be detained for a few days, which would probably be anything but days of pleasure. The voyage was quietly hot and dull, the seas calm and glassy, only enlivened by the presence of countless pelicans and diving-birds, and the occasional visit of a booby flying close to the ship, at the same pace with ourselves, and now and then condescending to take a seat in one of the boats, where he narrowly escaped being knocked on the head by the chief officer. The most interesting feature in the passage was a steerage pa?senger, an elderly Englishman, whom I could not but christen ' Old Boots.' He had handsome features, grey hair, and piercing black eyes. He would sit reading and smoking for hours together in the sun, with his back close to the hot funnel of the ship, wearing a thick beaver greatcoat over a suit of corduroys, and having his legs encased in a pair of huge fisherman's boots. Seeing him thus on the day when we crossed the Equator, under a sun almost hot enough to fry chops on the deck, I could not resist speaking to him, and politely insinuating that I should like to know what he could possibly be made of. With a goodnatured smile he said he was accustomed to a hot climate, and had spent four or five years on the Gaboon river, which lies exactly under the Equator, on the west coast of Africa. Knowing this to be the head- quarters of the gorillas, I asked him about those interest- ing creatures, and found that he was very familiar with them. He had brought up a young one whose mother had been shot, with the aid of a black woman to suckle it, and SOUVENIR OF THE BUCCANEERS. 167 he declared that it did everything like a child. It throve well and became a great favourite, until one day an officious friend gave it some salt pork, which was fatal to our poor young cousin. He said that the poisonous malaria which is so deadly to white m«n in that climate produces fungi in the lungs, as was proved by twenty-seven dissec- tions; and he added that one house of business lost eighty- four clerks in seven years. He had lately been employed at La Paz and Lake Titicaca, in connection with two small steamers, which were sent out from Europe several years ago, to be put together and worked upon the lake. This has at last been done, after a great expenditure of time and money; but, considering that they are said to be of about 150 tons burthen, and that every bit of them, before the completion of the railway, must have been carried for long distances over mountains and on the backs of mules, perhaps the wonder is that it has been done at all. Near Cape St. Lorenzo we passed the island of Plata, a renowned haunt of the ' bold buccaneers,' who were said to have buried vast treasures in it. Rising several hun- dred feet out of the sea, with scattered groups of trees and bushes varied by enormous cactus plants, it was the sort of place to recall the famous ' Gold Beetle ' story of Edgar Allen Poe, and the search for hidden treasure. What hideous orgies niust have been held in this now peaceful and deserted island, when pirates and robbers, stained with blood, came hither to divide and quarrel over their plun- der ! After this there was very little to be seen, except the sea and its inhabitants, till, early in the morning of March 6, we awoke to find ourselves anchoring at Panama, or rather at about four miles' distance from it. A steam- 168 EYE-WHISKY. launch came out to take the mails and the rest of the passengers on shore; they were bound for either New York or Europe, but as we were only waiting a day or two for the San Francisco steamer, and as the hotel was burnt down, we were kindly permitted to remain in our floating home till the other ship was ready to receive us. There she lay, close beside us, the ' Arizona,' one of those huge wooden American steamers with which we were afterwards to be much better acquainted. Our captain took us on board her in his gig, to introduce us to her commander, with whom we had a pleasant chat over our first glass of the famous rye-whisky of the United States; PANAMA. 169 CHAPTER VIII. Great Fire at Panama — ^Difficult boating — The effect of Judge Lynch — The miseries of the 'Arizona ' — ' Dipping '■ — ^The Barber's Shop on board — St. Jos^ de Guatemala — Ohamporico not to be found — Acapulco — Rubbed with a Jelly- fish — ^Mexican atrocities — The Whale and the 'Thrasher' — Doings of Bri- gands — Mazatlan — Sharp change of Climate — Oape St. Lucas — A lonely Post-office — Towing the ' Oolima ' to San Francisco — The Golden Gate. After more than three thousand miles of burnt and bar- ren coast, with hills looking like vast mounds of cayenne pepper, the scenery of Panama was a very refreshing tieat. Once more at last we could see green hills of varied form, garnished with palms and other normal beauties of the tropical forest; and in general appearance the sur- rounding country reminded me on a small scale of the eastern side of the bay of Kio Janeiro, where there are countless prettinesses of island and of hill, without the beauty and magnificence of the Organ Mountains and the nearer peaks, which are the glory of the northern and western sides of the bay. Panama being only 9° north of the Equator is of course tolerably hot, but we did not find it very oppressive ; and it enjoys a reputation for healthiness which is a very favourable contrast to that of Colon at the other side of the isthmus. Fresh and pleasant breezes seemed to prevail ; and, from a register taken every fortnight some years ago, it appears that at sunrise, noon, and sunset the thermometer never went 170 THE GREAT FIRE. below 74°, or rose above 87° Fahr.; wMle the barometer never varied more than one-tenth from 30 inches. The city, after a long period of inactivity, was ronsed into new life by the gold discoveries of California and the formation of the railway across the isthmus. The latter work had to be constructed through dense and un- healthy forests, where the mortality was so great that it was said that a man died for every sleeper on the line. Immense reefs prevent direct approach from the sea, and great local knowledge is required to know by what course to take a boat in at different times of tide. Captain Hall took us on shore in his own boat the first time we went there ; but on another occasion, with a native boat, we had to take a much longer route to avoid the reefs visible at low water. The old walls of the town have a very rickety look about them, and the roots of trees and bushes are continually pushing the stones into the sea. The ruined walls and towers of old churches and monasteries are also decked to the top with trees and plants, which are thus making the ruin more complete than ever. We had no oppor- tunity of judging of the best quarters of the place^ as the fire had made a clean sweep of whole streets and squares of lofty houses and stores, which burnt so quickly that scarcely anything was saved. Though this fearful conflagration had only happened about a fortnight since, I was surprised to see how little the people seemed to care about it. Business was going on in temporary places ; and one man, who told us that he had lost 50,000 dollars, was quite merry as he pointed to the signboard with his name upon it, which was the first and almost the only thing that he had succeeded in saving: he was evidently A -n-ONDERFUL PEAEL. 171 satisfied that this wovild bring him ' better luck next time.' A group of people were examining two iron safes which were left out for inspection : they had been backed in with cement, and, though they had been subjected to twenty-six hours of terrific fire, they were hardly the worse for it, and in one of them the thin wooden drawers and partitions were not even singed. The wind saved the cathedral, though it was in all the confusion of repairs going on, and full of planks and shavings. Near it I saw a negro carrying on his shoulder a new and splendid image of the Virgin Mary. The dress was painted sky-blue ; the head was adorned with long and splendidly curling locks, and shaded by a lace veil crowned by a wreath of gorgeous red roses. As she thus went through the dirty street, sloped on the negro's shoulder, with her hands stuck out, and an inane smile on what was meant for a divine countenance, I thought I had never seen such a reductio ad ahsurdwm in the matter of a divinity. Set up in the corner of a cathedral shrine I daresay it would have looked more dignified, but in such a position, and in the garish light of a Panama sunshine, the efifect was too ludicrous for contemplation. A little beyond the cathedral were many unrestored ruins of another great fire in 1870 ; so that, while the city has been badly used of late, the church has had its lucky escapes. The upper parts of the cathedral are studded with sparkling mother-of-pearl shells, which form an im- portant feature of commerce at Panama. Mr. BoUaert some few years ago saw the pearl-stores of a leading mer- chant there, who showed him a beautiful pear-shaped pearl nearly an inch and a half long, and an inch broad in 172 A RISKY BOAT. the thickest part : he was hoping to get one to match it, that he might offer the pair to the Queen of England for 4,000;. Life in the bay of Panama was dull enough, and I had to get through a good part of the day in reading and writing, or dosing under the awning, and lazily watching the pelicans that were constantly passing and repassing in a very business-like search for food. This, too, was the only place where I have ever seen the birds which sailors call ' man-of-war hawks.' They were ever whirling round and round in large flights, at a great height above the sea. They appeared nearly black, with great spread of wing and very long forked tails, and nothing could be more grace- ful than their rapid movements. One marked drawback to Panama is the difficulty of getting ashore. Owing to the dangers of the reefs and the distance at which large ships are obliged to anchoi", the ordinary class of boatmen seemed to be almost unknown; and, when on the last day we were obliged to go and look for a parting chance of letters and papers, there was some little excitement in doing so on board an infinitely small flat-bottomed coble, rowed by one man with an apology for a pair of sculls. Our swarthy Charon did his best against a fresh breeze which increased steadily, and which, if it had increased a shade more, would have infallibly filled us with water, as it was already beginning to come in. Some skill was re- quii-ed to get through the reefs, and two hours were con- sumed in reaching a filthy beach, more covered with broken bottles and nastiness of every description than any bit of seashore that I am acquainted with. On the way back we hoisted a sail, and my companion Mr. Rawson, "WANT OF ETIQUETTE. 173 well-skilled in such matters, handled the sheet while our native laboured between the dangerous reefs with his oars. Once through them, we ran merrily under sail before the wind and safely reached the ' Arizona ' in half an hour. On our way we passed close by a lai'ge three-masted canoe under full sail, slashing through the water, and heeling over to the breeze at such an angle that a quantity of cocks and hens on the top of her roof-like covered deck had hard work to hold on, and looked marvellously puzzled at the strange attitudes thus enforced upon birds which were intended by Providence to walk upright. Sometimes my companions rowed themselves in the ship's dingy to the neighbouring island and stalked pelicans; but on the whole I think that a residence at Panama must be one of the dullest affairs possible in these degenerate days. In tlie heroic days of gold-diggers, gamblers, hell-keepers, and drunken rowdies, ever ready to ' commence shooting,' the place Avas no doubt lively enough to please the most fas- tidious. As it was, we were very glad to leave it behind us ; but in justice it must be added that, if we had found the heroic age still prevailing, we should probably have been still more eager to depart. Apropos of those glorious days, I heard a Californian story worth repeating. It was the rule that anyone coming in to the bar for a drink should invite all present to drink with him; but one day a gentleman of the period walked in and asked for a glass of brandy for himself without taking the least notice of those about him. Whether he was ignorant of the etiquette, or whether he merely wished to break through a vexatious and expensive custom, I know not; but the result was that, as he raised 174 HOW MUCH FOE TWO? the tumbler to his lips, there was a sound of Bang ! ping ! showing that a neat shot had taken the bottom out of his glass and spilt the, liquor. Nothing daunted, he asked for another glass ; but, as he lifted it to his mouth, a man from the other side of the room repeated the per- formance with equal dexterity, and another glass of good liquor was wasted. Then the stranger drew his revolver, and with a rapid movement, right and left, shot dead the two men who had interfered with his tranquillity, and simply asked ' How much for two glasses ? ' He paid his money and walked out, master of the situation, until he fell into the hands of Judge Lynch and a Vigilance Com- mittee. It was the fashion on this side of the water to laugh at, or seem shocked by, the proceedings of Lynch; but the institution did its work well in times and places where no other law could have had any effect at all, and where it would have been impossible to detain a prisoner for ordinary trial. The result has been successful ; and an informal system for the suppression of crime has been evolved into a permanent maintenance of order. When we said good-bye to the ' Oroya ' and went on board the American Company's ship, we soon found that we were in the beginning of sorrows. Instead of the beauty and cleanliness of the ' Oroya,' which was kept more like a royal yacht than an ordinary passenger ship, we had to deal with dirt and disorder in every respect. I am far from intending to make a general charge against the American Company, for the management of their ships across the Pacific to China and Japan leaves nothing to be desired; but between Panama and San Francisco the service has become detestable under the influence of the CHEAP AND NASTY. 175 ' cheap and nasty ' principles called forth by competition. The great railway system, as is well known, takes passen- gers fromXew York across the continent to San Francisco in rather less than seven days and nights, during which they have to feed themselves and pay extra for Pullman cars if they have any respect for their own comfort. The Pacific Steam Ship Company takes them in eight or nine days from iS^ew York to Colon, and thence across the isth- mus to Panama, where another of their ships is ready to take them to San Francisco in seventeen or eighteen days more. The attraction to a passenger is that he is thus conveyed to his destination for about half what the rail- way journey would cost him ; and, with the exception of drinking, he is fed for nearly a month into the bargain. It is therefore a favourite route for the impecunious: others also, to whom economy would be no consideration, some- times allow themselves to fall into the trap, and groan help- lessly over miserable food and intolerable crowding. By way of recouping themselves to some extent for 'alarming sacrifices,' the Company charged us for going only from Panama considerably more than the fare paid by the ' all- rounders ' for the double voyage, and the railway over the isthmus ! When we went on board after breakfast, we found that nothing could be done until the arrival of the invading horde; and everything was so badly managed that, though it was known all day that the corresponding ship fi'om New York had arrived at Colon, there was no message or telegram to say how many passengers might be expected. Consequently we could get no berths allotted to us, and no place to open a portmanteau in, 176 THE TEEACLE-POT. tin the evening. About sunset a steam-tug came oflF; and, when it approached, we saw to our horror that it was crowded hke a beehive. Then came the ' ugly rush ' to the purser's office, and in a short time every cabin was disposed of, and almost every possible berth provided with an occupant. On the upper deck the cabins or state-rooms, as the Americans are pleased to call them, were such little holes that it was barbarous to put two or three people into one of them for an imprisonment of about three weeks in a hot climate, without even the chance of choosing their own companions. The awning was pep- pered all over with holes, and the furniture was shabby beyond description. The crowding at meals, though there were other tables to spare, and the badness of the food, were things never to be forgotten. I have had a fair share of travelling, and have been looked upon as a sort of Mark Tapley for not complaining much about trifles, but I was fairly beaten by the salted salmon and miserable scraps, with cakes and treacle as substitutes for wholesome food. A very fat old lady sat next to me on the first day of confusion, and made signs for the treacle-pot. Not remembering that molasses is the American name for it, I handed it to her, saying, ' Would you like the treacle, ma'am?' She looked at me fondly, almost with tears in her eyes, and said, ' Oh my, now ! Oh law ! and you call it treacle, do you ? We caU it molasses, but my mother she came from the old country, she did ; and she always called it treacle. Oh my, now ! ' I saw that I had touched a tender chord, and did not carry the subject further. The difficulty of getting anything done was partly NASTY NEIGHBOURS. 177 owing to the fact of all the Chinese servants having struck work when the ship was on the point of leaving San Francisco, and the Company's agent being therefore obliged to go into -the highAvays and byways to catch such heathens as he could. Dirt and disorder were in the ascendant : there were constant altercations with the stewards, and the captain had to adopt strong measures to preserve discipline. Among the crowd of passengers there were a few pleasant and even delightful people, but there was a large majority on the other side. I hope never to forget two friends made there, an Englishman and an American ; the first link of sympathy with the latter being a communion of admiration for the quatrains of Omar-Khayydm. On the other hand, close to us at dinner sate a man who every day contrived to get a large raw onion from the cook, which he cut up and spread about obtrusively, in spite of his neighbours' remonstrances. There was a positively filthy couple fi-om one of the Southern States, with a young girl whom they were going to bring out at some Californian music-hall : the mother would sit for the hour together hunting like a monkey in the greasy head of her child, whom she kept between her knees. It was pointed out to me moreover that this lady spent a good deal of her time in a practice which I believe is, in the Southern States, called ' dipping.' All the world has heard of smoking, chewing, and taking snutF; but 'dip- ping ' is not so generally known to the civilized world as perhaps it may deserve to be. It consists of taking a pinch from a snuif-box with a small stick, a toothpick, a bit of twisted paper, or even a delicate finger-tip, and N 178 VICTIMS TO SECESSION. applying it to the gums and teeth, where it is kneaded into a small pellet and rolled about till the time comes for consigning it to the spittoon which stands by the side of the fair operator. I need hardly say that this ' Rose of the South ' was not popular as a first-class passenger. The doctor of the ship was always a charming companion, a,nd was one of those honest gentlemen of the South who, born to independent fortune, felt it their duty to fight for the right of Secession, lost everything, and took good- humouredly to learning various trades or occupations, sustained by the possession of a good conscience. I have seen several men of this stamp and of similar antecedents who, however humble their present path in life may be, would not change places with Ulysses Grant. We had an interesting character in the mulatto stewardess, who had been a slave before the war. Her master was, I think, killed, or at all events he was completely ruined ; and this excellent woman was bringing up and educating his penniless boy out of her own savings as a ship's stew- ardess. The negro barber was also a great institution on board ; and, as usual in American ships, he had turned his large cabin into a shop, where he was equally ready to shave beards, or to sell oranges, cigars, hats, boots, paper collars, and all kinds of small goods. Altogether we had a motley party on board, when, after several days' roasting at Panama and acquiring wonderful complexions, we at last sailed once more for the North and West, at the same time as the ' Oroya ' started on her return with the mails for the South, For the first few days the heat steadily increased to about 95° in the shade by day, remaining at 86° in the THE GUATEMALA FOREST. 179 cabins at night, when unluckily the dews were so exceed- ingly heavy that it was not particularly safe or pleasant to remain on deck. During this time we were needlessly crammed together at our meals as close as we could pos- sibly be squeezed, and had to struggle with untrained Chinese waiters for our very unsatisfactory food. There was a great deal of natural grumbling and growling on all sides till the sight of land at San Jose de Guatemala gave us something else to talk of. From the sea there is very little to be seen of this place, with the exception of an iron pier long enough to get clear of the surf and breaking water, with warehouses at the shore end and a large shed at the other. The heat was intense, as the ship lay through all the middle hours of the day taking in 700 bags of coffee, which were brought off lazily in lazy barges. The sea was unruffled by breezes, but the long silent swell from the ocean broke in muffled thunder on the beach, dashing its torrents of foam almost up to the roots of the forest belt which clothes the land to the very edge of the coast. A few pelicans basked tran- quilly at the furthest edge attained by the upward-rush- ing spray, apparently animated by the hope that afish might thus be brought to them without their having the trouble of going to look for it; and a few coffee-coloured boys were bathing as near as they could venture to the rollers. Behind them rose the forest gently sloping inland, incon- ceivably lovely to the eye, gorgeous with every exquisite shade of green fringed with gold, and all bathed in a soft divine haze of mysterious light. Such is the Guatemala forest, rivalling in splendour the plumage of the long- tailed Trogons which inhabit its recesses, and whose N 2 180 LOTUS-EATING. colourB of gold-tinged emerald make thern brilliant even amongst the most glorious of birds. Here then was a place which immediately recalled the ' Lotos-eaters ' of Tennyson. He must have had some spiritual vision of the coast of Gruatemala when he wrote : In the afternoon they came unto a land In which it seemed always afternoon. All round the coast the languid air did swoon, Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. And in the stillness of the glowing scene he might have thought : There is sweet music here that softer falls Than petals from blown roses on the grass : Music that gentlier on the spirit lies Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes ; Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies. Little did we dream as we gazed upon this sleep-in- ducing tranquillity that a very different scene would be presented to the ' Arizona ' when a few weeks later she would call at San Jose on her return voyage. Then her passengers learned amidst the most profound excitement that a native commandant had caused a British Vice- Consul to be nearly flogged to death ; and that, to avoid the wrath of his own Government, he was endeavouring to escape on board the American packet-ship. As his boat, however, neared the ' Arizona,' some of the free and independent travellers on board her showed their disap- probation of his conduct by firing revolvers at him and wounding him, mortally it was said, in place of allowino- him the hospitalities of the ship. The population were in a state of wild excitement, and it cost the Government of Guatemala 10,000^. to pay for the outrage upon Consul Magee. Now I certainly am not disposed to be cruel; but CHAJirORICO LOST. 181 if it was fated that this outrage and subsequent shooting were to take place at all, I should like to have been in the ' Arizona ' at the right time instead of the wrong. If that man was to be shot, I hope I may be forgiven for wishing to have seen the shooting, and to have heard the remarks of those who did it, as well as those of the spec- tators. It must have been a lively scene. Next day we ought to have called at a small port called Champorico, but we were buried in thick fog before arriving in the neighbourhood late at night. The captain took the ship very slowly and carefully towards the land till he fou.nd her in only five fathoms water, and we thought we could hear through the deep silence the dis- tant booming of the swell ashore. Then he put her head to sea again, and waited for daylight; but when morning came the fog was as thick as ever, and to our great delight he made up his mind to give up looking for the port. Those merchants who were anxiously waiting to put 6,000 bags of cofifee on board were no doubt pro- portionably disgusted. After crossing the great bay of Tehuantepec, we came in sight of the coast of Mexico, which provided us with a long-continued succession of bold hills, backed by higher and higher ranges of mountains, presenting charming varieties of form and colour till they lost themselves in the blue haze of distance. At intervals were fine sandy beaches and snugly retired coves, probably beloved of pirates and buc- caneers in the good times of old, and consecrated by many a deed of ancient violence. The great treat, however, was the beautiful approach to the renowned Acapulco. This was formerly the chief Spanish port upon the coast, 182 ACAPULCO. whence every year a Avell-armed galleon loaded with treasure crossed the Pacific to Manilla, bringing back the silks and treasures of the East, to be sent across the country to Mexico and Vera Cruz for transhipment to Europe. Here it was that Anson, in 1743, in charge of a squadron for the suppression of Spanish interests in those seas, cruised about in the ' Centurion ' under unheard of difficulties before he crossed the Pacific, and with the last fragments of his scurvy-smitten crew contrived after a battle within pistol-shot distance to capture a famous gal- leon with a cargo worth even in those days a million and a half of dollars, which he ultimately succeeded in bring- ing home to Spithead. Here too had been projected and essayed marvellous expeditions of buccaneers without even the pretence of war. And now what is Acapulco, after all the historic interest which surrounds it? Nature is the same, and the situation is lovely as ever ; but the shrunken town and ruined fort tell of commerce diverted into other channels, and of countless disasters brought upon the country by the lawless people and contemptible institutions which have usurped the power of old Spain in Central America. Some people will probably conclude that all this is the Nemesis of what was done in days gone by, and that the present wretched state of Peru, 'Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico is the legiti- mate reward of the barbarous cruelties that were perpe- trated by the Spanish conquerors of the New World. The approach from the sea was completely hidden till we turned a corner between rocky points crowned with rich vegetation, and saw a white, sandy, semicircular beach, fringed with white-stemmed cocoa-nut palms, varied with A DKLIGIITFUL KKTHEAT. 183 noble specimens of the Cycas circinalis, ov sago-palm. The rambling town is clean but poor-looking, and the eye follows its stragglings upward to ranges of beautiful hills which easily lead the imagination towards Popocatapetl and the city of Mexico, only 180 miles away. A pleasant ■walk to the old Spanish fort passes under the shade of large and splendid magnoHas; and, though many of the deciduous trees were bare of leaves at the time of our visit, yet few things could exceed the beauty of the foliage of live oaks in every direction. Close to the shore on the left was the perfection of a snug cemetery shaded by a grove of cocoa-nut palms, and bounded by a pure white beach where a boat's crew were sent to collect sand for scrubbins^ decks with. Within a few hundred feet of our anchorage, lofty rocks rose out of deep water, crowned with various sorts of cactus and prickly pears scattered among evergreen oaks and trees just bursting into the life of Spring. The calmness of this secluded retreat from the ocean was pei'fectly delicious ; the water seemed swarming with fish, as it does everywhere on the coast of the Pacific, and the j^elicans passing leisurely to and fro had an easy life of it: they seemed only to have to dip their great beaks into the water and bring them up again, shaking their heads right and left to help a victim down their capacious gullets. The fish jumped out of the sea close to the ship as if they had no hesitation about show- ing themselves, and I saw one of at least seven or eight pounds weight leap two or three feet out of the water, clearing a distance of three or four yards. Here too we luckily refreshed our larder with a stock of turtle, which comforted us much for a few days. 184 RUBBED WITH A JELLY-FISH, Jelly-fisli abounded in tlie bay, and I was told a story concerning them in connection with an eccentric English- man, who was tempted by the beauty of the beach to walk into the sea aiid bathe at Acapulco. He had little notion of the effect produced by a Mexican sun upon a white skin and a somewhat bald head, till he felt a sensa- tion of roasting all over the upper part of his body. At this moment a jelly-fish floated by him. It looked so deliciously cool and soft that he immediately seized it and rubbed himself all over with it as with a sponge. The effect upon his blistered form was never to be for- gotten, and he was nearly driven mad by the poisonous irritation which is produced by contact with these crea- tures, and which in his unhappy case must have caused double martyrdom. A small fleet of boats and canoes came off to the ship loaded with shells, including the large ' Danish helmets,' as they are popularly called in England, corals of many colours, baskets of shells, baskets of shell-flowers beauti- fully made, bunches of green cocoa-nuts by the dozen together on the stalk, with piles of oranges, bananas, and limes. There was something very attractive about the people who offered them for sale; many of the women seemed to have a natural grace and smiling brightness which was not in the least affected by a refusal to buy any of the treasures offered; and as they laughed and joked, the mirth came from between rows of exquisite teeth, and illuminated the most brilliant of eyes. As a good type of them, I remember a handsome girl who came to the ship's side in a canoe paddled by two of her friends. She wore a loose white dress and a bright blue shawl, A PRETTY JIEXICAX. 185 which she sometimes allowed to droop behind her shoul- ders, and sometimes gathered up like a hood over her magnificent head of black haii* with as much grace and dignity as a ' grande dame ' with her opera-cloak. The plain blue and white of her dress contrasted charmingly with the golden heap of oranges and bananas by her side ; and, as she held up her pretty corals and shell-baskets with a peculiarly graceful action of the hand and arm, accompanied by a beaming smile, I wished for an artist- friend to do justice to the portrait of such an attracti^'e market-woman. At Acapulco we were joined by three gentlemen who had made the overland journey from Mexico to that port amid much danger and difficulty. They gave a wretched account of the condition of the interior of the country. No one was safe; bands of brigands were in all directions, with dissatisfied store-clerks in prominent positions among them to facihtate plunder by their knowledge of business-men and business-doings. Murder and robbery were rampant in the land. In their journey across the country from the capital they had spent about ten days, during which they had to keep watch and ward by day and night. Several times they saw in the distance parties coming towards them, and prepared for action to the best of their ability, only to find, on coming nearer, that the supposed enemies were quiet people even more frightened than themselves. One of these gentlemen was already well acquainted with Mexico, and had been there for some time in the dajs of the Emperor Maximilian. Of late it appears that some of the leading robbers have taken a leaf out of the book of Greece and Sicily, and carry off rich gentlemen to enjoy 186 WHALE xVND TPIllASHEE. tlie mountain air till they can find a ransom of about twenty thousand dollars. Some years ago, the most fashionable gang called themselves Defendedores de la Iglesia, or Defenders of the Church. 'Call it by any other name, 'twill smell as ' badly. In the afternoon of the 19th we sailed from Acapulco for Manzanilla, distant about 300 miles ; and in the fol- lowing morning we saw a whale making an amazing dis- turbance about a mile away on the port quarter. He lashed his tail, leaping and plunging in a furious manner, while another fish seemed to be attacking him savagely. The captain said that this was one of the celebrated battles between the whale and the ' thrasher,' in which the latter has the valuable assistance of a sword-fish under water. The thrasher leaps into the air and throws himself on the whale with all his weight and power, while the sword-fish assiduously bayonets him from below till the monster succumbs to this combination of forces. The battle royal was going on till we lost sight of the combat- ants ; and it was remarked that it was lucky for Jonah that nothing of that sort took place when he was travelling inside his friend ! Soon after this we passed through a vast shoal of porpoises, blackfish, and other finny com- panions, holding something like what theatrical acrobats would call ' Olympian revels.' On every side of the ship they were racing, jumping out of the water, playing leap- frog in the air, and apparently tumbling over one another like clowns in a circus. I only hope they enjoyed them- selves as completely as they seemed to, for T certainly have to thank them for one of the most amusing enter- tainments that I ever beheld. There was an expression AN EVENING SCENE. 187 of business also with the fun ; and no athletes of Lillie Bridge, even in the last rush, can show a greater appear- ance of eagerness and exertion than is displayed by half a dozen porpoises in a neck-and-neck race by the side of a ship. After a lovely da}-, with heat slightly moderating, and aided by a young moon, we got through the intricate en- trance to Manzanilla, and about 10 p.m. anchored and fired a gun to arouse the natives. Presently a swarm of boats came off and we were boarded by a motley crowd, some of whom came to trade and some from merely motives of curiosit3\ The stores of the black barber were in great request among a little crowd of men with hats as big as targets, ponchos of many colours, and the conventional cahonciRos, or white trowsei's like pillow-cases, fringed round the ankle. Some of the women offered bunches of cocoa-nuts and bananas, but everything seemed to be done in the gentle sleepy fashion of those of whom it was said — Branches they Iwre of that enchanted stem. Little groups of dark-eyed damsels in white garments were slowly promenading the deck with the silence of bare feet, and others were chatting in low tones over their cigarettes in a quiet corner; the young moon threw a gentle light upon the scene, and a red lamp, suspended above the stern of the ship, completed tlie Tennysonian vision: And round ahout the keel with feces pale, Dark feces pale against that rosy flame, The nuld-eyed, melancholy Lotos-eaters came. About midnight our visitors had all slipped off as quietly as thev came, and I found myself sitting up for a pleasant chat with the doctor, till about three hours later the old 18S t MAZATLAN. ' Arizona ' herself slipped off in a quiet fashion, which is peculiar to American steamers that have the slow pulsation of ' walking-beam ' machinery. Two days later we reached Mazatlan without any ad- ventures beyond that of horribly frightening a huge whale who rose about eighty yards from the ship, and, finding himself so close, turned up his flukes incontinently and went down head foremost to where he came from. Mazatlan appeared by far the most important and flourishing place that we had seen since leaving Callao. Large clean- looking houses and buildings of various kinds stretched all along a curving beach of pure white sand ; and the rising ground behind the main part of the town was scattered over with pretty residences and gardens. Splendid palms waved their green crests among the streets ; and, behind all, the land rose in range above range of hills ending in the blue distance with lofty mountains, comprising several well-marked and precipitous points. Everybody longed to go on shore and see this bright-looking town at closer quarters; but there were such grave reports of virulent small-pox that, to our grief, the captain refused to have any communication with the land, except receiving specie and mails. Here we parted with one of the best and most pleasant of our fellow-passengers, who was bound for his mines in the interior. He described that part of Mexico as perfectly delightful in so far as nature is concerned. He lived among wild mountains abounding with bears, of which I think he had shot more than forty in the last autumn, with intervening valleys full of flowers and in- numerable humming-birds. The drawback to all these charms was the presence of brigands, whom a miserable MEXICAN BRIGANDS. 189 Government allowed to exist. It had become so difficult to convey the precious metals in safety to the coast that he had been reduced to paying black- mail to some of the chiefs and entrusting them with the convoy of treasure, a duty which they fulfilled without stealing a dollar. On one occasion when a leading member of the fraternity was in trouble, as Obadiah hid the prophets in a cave, so my in- formant sheltered this man for several months by giving him an appointment of some trust in the bowels of the earth ; and, when interi'ogated by the Government about his deal- ings with the brotherhood, he closed their mouths by saying, ' Seiiores, it has long been proved that you cannot defend me, and I must defend myself.' He told me that the influence of a degraded and ignorant priesthood was all-powerful for mischief, and the power of giving or with- holding absolution was unscrupulously used for the fur- therance of any nefarious designs they might entertain. He knew of one case where a priest, who was annoyed by the existence of a Protestant teacher in his neighbourhood, said in the presence of others, ' There goes a tree that pro- duces no fruit.' The hint was sufficient, and the unlucky heretic was next day attacked, killed, and almost cut to pieces. Since this we have had news from JMexico that at Acapulco a small Protestant community of fifty or sixty persons were attacked during their service by a band of armed men, some of whom walked into the chapel and stabbed the congregation right and left, while others waited outside to murder those who might escape from the interior. The only amusing story, however, that I ever heard about Mexican brigands was told to me by an American 190 STOPPING THE COACH. commercial traveller whom I met in Brazil about a dozen years ago. He wanted to go from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, and took his place in the diligencia^ after having been warned not to take more than a few doub- loons in cash, as the coach was pretty sure to be robbed on the way. In the course of the day they were stopped by a party of armed men who requisitioned the watches and purses of the passengers. My friend produced his eight doubloons, about 26/., and said that he had no more. ' I really hope, Seiior, that you are not attempting to cheat me, enganarme^ replied the chief of the robbers. On recei^dng an assurance that there was no more, the rascal politely handed him back two dollars, with the remark that he. might want some refreshments by the road. They went on their way, but before very long they were stopped by another gang, who were greatly troubled at finding they had been anticipated. His two dollars now disappeared : the thieves rummaged his trunks, took all the best of his clothes, and left the diligencia to pursue its journey once more. Their troubles were not over yet, however. A third gang appeai'ed later in the day, in a very unpleasant temper : they look all that remained in the passengers' trunks and stripped them of most of the clothes on their backs. My unhappy friend was left with nothing but his straw hat and a marvellous pair of drawers with sundry steel-springs which had been made for him in Paris to compress the rotundity of his waist. Under these circumstances he asked the driver if he meant to go any further; and, getting an answer in the affirma- tive, he turned back and walked in this light costume till he found a decent house, where a worthy man who saw CHANGE OF TE:MrERATURE. 191 "Nvluit had happened lent him a poncho and a horse, with which he rode back to Vera Cruz, arriving there in a most pitiable plight. ' Sir,' he said to me, ' I guess the first lot were the commissioned oflBcers, and the second lot were the non-commissioned ones; but I'm darned if the last of them wern't the full privates, and no mistake ! ' The authorities on shore were very dilatory in their proceedings, all the more so probably because the captain had refused on the strength of the small-pox panic to have more to do with them tlian was absolutely necessary; and it was not till late in the evening that we got away. The entrance to this land-locked bay is so narrow that the great ship had to be slowly backed out before her head could be put towards the open sea. Xext morning we found that we had crossed the greater part of the entrance to the long Gulf of California, and that a sudden and astonish- ing change of climate had taken place. For several weeks we had been able to wear nothing but white trowsers, thin jackets without waistcoats, and the most shadowy of neckties : anything more than a sheet in bed was in- tolerable, and even that was often too much. Those even who wore large rings might have wished to change them for lighter ones, like the luxurious dandy of Juvenal, who Yentilat sestiviuu digitis sudantibus auriuu. But, as we left Mazatlan, counterpanes were in request ; and on the next day, when we came into the cool current of wind and water from the Xorth, pilot-jackets and blankets were hailed with acclamation. The violent chano-e was very trying, and even the doctor added him- self to those who suffered from catarrh. As we drew near to Cape St. Lucas, at the foot of the peninsula of 192 A LONELY POST. Lower California, we could see the town of San Jos^ nest- ling at the base of an exquisite outline of mountains, varying in colour from Indian red to almost pure cobalt in the distance, rising above the white sandy beaches of the coast. About noon we rounded Cape St, I^ucas itself, and lay-to near a grand collection of yellowish white rocky points risingout of the sea, in form like the Needles, though on a much larger scale, one of which was completely hollowed through as if by a splendid Gothic archway. The sea here is so deep and so pure that for the first time in my life I saw real blue water of the violet type that ordinarily belongs to mid-ocean, reaching up to within a few ship's lengths from the land, where a belt of emerald green broke in gentle surf upon a shelving beach. The object of our stopping here was to land some de- spatches at one of the queerest little stations in the world. It is a settlement of a very few families which began with an eccentric runaway American, and would be a dull residence indeed if it were not in communication with San Jos^ on the other side of the cape. We sent a boat on shore with some letters; and, just as it landed on the open beach, we saw a solitary horseman ride down to receive them. Whilst waiting for the return of the boat, we had time enough to enjoy a thorough contemplation of the sea by the ship's side. Undisturbed by the re- posing paddle-wheels, it spread around us, smooth as glass, clear as crystal, and purple like the violet. It was so transparent that a small silver coin thrown overboard seemed as if it would never get out of sight : strange creatures could be clearly seen far down below the A CRIPPLE AT SEA. 193 surface ; and now and then a huge circular ray-fish was seen rising slowly to the top, and clumsily rolling away upon his sluggish course. They seemed huge to us, at all events, but the doctor declared that he had seen them as large as twenty feet across on the coast of Florida. To those who were not afflicted with colds the change of temperature was deliciously refreshing, and, with the aid of exquisite colours to charm -the eiye by land and sea, the short halt off Cape St. Lucas will long till a corner in my grateful memory. Early next morning a great excitement was caused by picking up at sea a boat with six men and an officer, who proved to have been sent in search of us from another of the Company's ships which had. broken her propeller and was Ij'ing helpless at Cedros Island, about 300 miles to the northward. There was nothing left for us but to go and look for her, especially as she was said to be short of provisions ; the boat's crew had been four days at sea, luckily with fine weather, and immensely enjoyed a ' square meal ' and a good sleep on board the ' Arizona.' In due time we came up with the cripple lying in a snug place near the island, where she had been detained for ten days ; and, as we ranged up near her, we received voUeys of cheers with much handkerchief- waving from her delighted passengers and crew. They were very short of food, and had lately subsisted chiefly on the quantities of fish that were caught by the passengers. Some hours were occupied in paying out two enormous hawsers and fastening them firmly to our stern ; and then we settled down to the dreary task of towing for some 800 miles a ship nearly as large as our own. We had o 194 riEST SIGHT OF ' FRISCO.' sent them a boat full of meat and other supplies, and the two ships communicated by means of writing with chalk on a large black board. Things did not go altogether smoothly in. the few days following, and some of the messages were not altogether polite; there was a good deal of altercation about the whole affair at the end of the voyage, and something of a squabble among the Company's officers. In spite of fresh breezes ahead we managed to tow the cripple at seven and a half knots an hour, but we were not so fond of our quarters or our provisions as to by any means enjoy the delay. Things got worse instead of better ; quarrels between the stewards and Chinese were far from improving the comfort of the passengers; and I fancy everybody was as glad as myself when on the 30th we had our last horrible salt salmon on board, passed by the Cliff House, and entered the Golden Gate of San Francisco. The city, which the inhabitants call ' Frisco ' as a term of endeannent, is admirably situated for the purpose of affording a great surprise to those who are lucky enough to approach it from the sea instead of by the railway. The Golden Gate is only a narrow opening between the low hills of the coast ; and, after passing through it, a long bend round to the south has to be made before anything comes into view which could convey a hint of the close proximity of a vast city. We crossed a wonderfully well-defined boundary line between the clear water of the Pacific Ocean and the thick yellow flood which is poured into the bay by the mud-compelling power of the Sacra- mento river ; we steamed between the mainland and a THE LAST OF THE 'ARIZONA.' 195 small fortified island ; cast off our incubus, the ' Colima,' to take care of herself ; and, curving round to the south- ward, we presently found ourselves in view of the great city. There was some trouble in bringing the huge form of the 'Arizona' alongside of the quay as the tide was very low ; but we got there at last, and then began an en- tirely new phase in our wandering career. The first of many symptoms of the good practical way in which they do things in America made itself evident in the excellent system of tLe hotel-porters who instantly boarded the ship. Here were the badge-bearing representatives of the ' Lick House,' the Grand Hotel, the Occidental, the Cosmopolitan, &c., all of course anxious for customers, but without a particle of that detestable clamouring, jostling, quarrelling, and howling which in so many of our Euro- pean cities drive a newly-arrived traveller to distraction, and make him tremble for his baggage if not for the safety of his coat. A word was enough, and a sign to a very jolly emissary from the ' Grand,' who looked more like a Kentish farmer than anything else I had seen since leaving England, brought him and his aide-de-camp to our cabins, where they marked everj- article of our luggage with the mark of the ' Grand,' and said we might go ashore without any further trouble. In a very short time everything was deposited upon a well- roofed quay; the Custom-house people gave us no trouble ; we and our goods were stowed in the hotel coach, and in about a quarter of an hour Ave were beginning to compare the attractions of a delightful American hotel with the dirt and discomfort of the 'Arizona.' :.' 196 CALIEORNIAIf COMFORTS. CHAPTER IX. Good living at San Francisco — ' Oldest Inhabitants ' — ^Living by Bears — ^Pro- gress of Good Taste — Splendid Lupines — OliiF House and the Sea-lions — The Redwood Tree — Wild Flowers — Berkely University— Buildings in Eaithquakia — The 'Heathen Ohinee' — A Chinese Theatre — ^The Chinese Immigration— The Mission Church of Dolores — ^Detestable Tramways — Oalifomian Hospitality. Ah ! WHAT A BLISSFUL CHANGE it was for the wanderers in the ' Arizona ' ! Cleanliness, comfort, order, civUity, and good living were all supreme in the Grand Hotel. The whole of these valuable articles were supplied for the very moderate charge of three dollars, or 12s. 6d., a day, which includes everything except wine. Large as the house is, a new one of nearly double the size was already springing up on the opposite Side of the street, of which all I have to say is, that bigger than the Grand it may he, better it can hardly be. The bread was as good as that of Vienna, which is generally considered the finest in the world ; milk and butter abundant and delicious ; pork, which would have soothed the soul of Charles Lamb; salmon, which converted me from my home opinion that two or three appearances of it in a season are quite suffi- cient; vegetables in perfection, and oysters at a shilling a score, were among the daily delicacies of San Francisco. We were too soon for any fruit except strawberries, but we heard wondrous tales on all sides about the peaches, THE OLDEST INHABITANTS. 197 pears, grapes, &c. &c., which would come in due season. One apparently trustworthy man told me that he had seen a single bunch of grapes weighing fifty pounds ex- posed in the scales of a shop, and kept there as a curiosity till it rotted ! I have seen a great many of the finest fruit- shows in England, but this old gentleman's account made me think of nothing less than the pictures of Caleb and Joshua coming back from the Promised Land. Of course we have all heard the stock jokes about Californian tur- nips and beetroots growing so deep that it takes two horses to pull one up; and that, if they are left a day too long in the ground, nothing can stop them from growing out at the antipodes ; but, without travelling into the realms of romance, it is certainly true that the fertility of California is altogether surprising to Europeans. The wonder of wonders, however, is San Francisco itself. Twenty- five years ago there was hardly anything in the settlement but a small mission church of Saint Francis, with its school and the few small houses neces- sai'ily connected with it. Now here is a city with a population drawing towards 250,000, sweeping round the edge of the bay and covering the high lands which look down upon it; here are magnificent streets with hotels like palaces, and miles of suburbs ever stretching farther from the sea ; here is everything that wealth and pros- perity can bi'ing together ; and yet San Francisco was only two years old at the time of the Great Exhibition ! Everything there dates from 1849, and if you talk to one of the ' oldest inhabitants ' you will see he is as sure to tell you that he came out with the first party in that year as every old pensioner in Greenwich Park was certain to 198 BEAR-HTJKTINa. declare that he carried Nelson in his own arms into the cockpit of the 'Victory.' These oldest inhabitants must be pretty tough, and very fortunate to have survived at all ; many of them must in a few years have had more op- portunities and chances of shuffling off their mortal coil than would fall to the lot of ordinary mortals in a century. The bullet and the scalping-knife must have often been far too near to be pleasant ; they have faced the ' Grizzly,' knowing that they will have no dinner if they do not kill him, even though the odds were probably in favour of the bear; they have toiled all day with the deadly hunger of gold upon them, doubtful even if success would not attract the murderous hand of a comrade ; they have figured in scenes where shooting a man was thought no more of than treading on a caterpillar ; they have passed through a ' hell upon earth,' and they have lived to see it purified. To such a one we can only say with Virgil, ' Fortunate senex ! ' As I wandered about the streets of the huge city full of handsome banks and shops and stores, swarming with a dense population of active, industrious, and orderly people, and contemplated the comforts of the Grand Hotel, I often thought of the adventures of one of my friends, since dead, who about twenty years ago went to California in search of sport. He was a good rifle-shot, and having killed lions in Africa, he was anxious to try his hand at the grizzly bears of the Kocky Mountains or the Sierra Nevada. Starting from New Orleans for San Francisco by way of Cape Horn, he was one of the first to catch the yellow fever which broke out on board soon after leaving port. There was a mob of miners and in- AN AWKWARD SITUATION. 199 tending emigrants on board, discipline was very bad, and as he lay sick of the fever he could not get any attendance except by bribes of a few dollars for even a glass of water. Some of the people on board, thinking probably that he was sure to die, began to help themselves prematurely to his dollars ; and when he recovered by something like a miracle, he found that he had no cash left. Under these circumstances he complained to the captain that he had been robbed. The captain, apparently a man of the times, answered in a manner which in these days would be called at all events rude, ' What the devil do I care ? Do you mean to say I robbed you? I only wish I had chucked you overboard as soon as you got the fever; and I'd have done it too if it warn't against the law.' After this rebuff he was obliged to take comfort in the reflection that he had still preserved his letters of credit to two houses of business in San Francisco. On going ashore, however, they found things in a dismal state : a big fire had de- stroyed a great part of the rude town and caused general ruin; and, when he came to inquire about the people whom he expected to supply him with money, he found that one had been ' burnt out ' and the other ' bust up,' and nobody knew anything more about them. He had nothing but his weapons and ammunition and a box of clothes: he was in a new country without a doUar or the prospect of one, unless he got it for himself. However, he proved equal to the occasion; he went up the country and held his own among the rowdies and miners by shooting bears, and supplying them with the meat at a dollar the pound. Some of his bears weighed 600 and 800 lbs., and in the course of about six months he had realized enough 200 CHANGES IK DIGGING. to retire honourably from the profession of butcher to a somewhat turbulent mining population. The early years of anarchy and reckless dissipation must indeed have been awful ; and the intervals of cruel work and privation were too often devoted to drinking, quarrel- ling, and various forms of vice. But when things get to their worst they begin to mend; the sounder men saw that something must be done, and Vigilance Committees undertook to sweep out the Augean stables. Many rogues perished abruptly, and a better class of men came to fill their places. Gold-digging was found to be in many cases a delusive toil, or at all events not such a profitable occupation as many others ; and comparatively steady habits of business came to the front. Speculations in land were wonderfully successful ; building followed, with commerce from all parts of the world to supply the increasing community ; and, lastly, agriculture has come to employ a solid steady class of country farmers, who are bringing more gold out of the soil of California than was ever brought by the gold-diggers. Moreover, a very im- portant change has taken place in the manner of mining; and a great benefit has accrued to society in the gradual extinction of the reckless, dissipated, individual digger. In passing through various parts of the gold districts we saw no diggers, except here and there a wretched old Chinaman, all skin and bones, scraping among the debris left long ago by his predecessors. The main work is now done by Companies, with of course very various and un- certain results ; but with this advantage over the solitary digger with no capital, that they are not driven to the desperation of hunger by a short period of bad luck, and HEBREW WANT OF TASTE. 201 with the further benefit of encouraging more orderly life among the men by the payment of regular wages. We saw several establishments of the kind which appeared to be going on prosperously, and the men that we saw there behaved extremely well. With the return of order, churches of everv denomi- nation sprang into existence, and some of them are hand- some. The inquiring traveller in San Francisco can, if it so pleases him, investigate the peculiarities of every form of service, from purest Catholic and High Church down to that of the Chinese joss-houses. The Jewish synagogue, with its two towers like pepper-pots, is more conspicuous than anything else in the city, but it is extremely ugly. The Hebrews everywhere have no notion of architecture; and, however rich the temple of Solomon may have been in gold and decorations, I can hardly believe that the external effect was successful. The Roman Catholic cathedral is a very handsome Gothic building, and several of the churches on Easter Sunday were as beautifully decorated with choice flowers as anything of the kind that could be seen in England. There are many indications that a few years have not only suf^ced to bring order out of lawless- ness, but to produce a considerable amount of sentiment among a people who are not generally credited with it, and who are too often supposed to care for nothing but the almighty dollar. There is a great taste for flowers in San Francisco, and the charming villas of the suburbs in every direction are ornamented with gay and well-kept gardens. The cemetery which we visited was another proof of this, and was to me quite unique in its arrange- ment. The situation has been chosen with perfect taste 202 A PRETTY CEMETERY. on the irregular hilly ground whicli rises behind the city, with a full view over the deep blue of the Pacific. Advan- tage was taken of the scattered old native ilex- trees, amongst which have been planted cypresses, Australian gum-trees, and mimosas. The ground is divided by broad paths winding up and down among the trees, and known by various names, such as ' Lily walk,' ' Rose path,' ' Acacia avenue,' &c., so as to avoid all trace of those horribly long and monotonous lines of tombstones which are to be seen in many of our English cemeteries. Between the trees the graves are arranged in irregular groups sur- rounded by flowers, and here I saw Gloire de Dijon roses in full blossom hanging over the tombstones, mixed with tall fuchsias and veronicas, pinks and double daisies. The in- scriptions were for the most part excessively simple, such as ' Our dear Nelly,' or ' To our dear Parents :' there was little ornamentation, but in several places J observed that a sculptured lamb was a favourite headpiece to a child's grave. Reflecting upon the fact that most of us have to be buried somewhere, I came to the conclusion that the cemetery of San Francisco would be one of the pleasantest spots that could be chosen for the purpose. A tramway leads thus far from the heart of the city, and a further ride or walk of a few miles over an admi- rable road brings us to the Cliff House on the edge of the sea. The greater part of the way is flanked by sandy hills, almost covered down to the edge of the road with innume- rable plants of perennial lupines, in varieties of blue, white, pink, and yellow. In England these plants die down to the ground in winter, and are obliged to make a fresh start every spring ; but the mildness of a Californian CLIFF HOUSE AND THE SEA-LIONS. 203 winter allows them to grow into great bushes, some of them as large as haycocks ready for carrying. These were all coming into bloom when we arrived in the coun- try, but a few weeks later we saw them in perfection, when the dense thousands of brilliant flower-spikes in their various colours formed some of the most striking floral displays that can be imagined. A sharp bend of the road led us down in a few minutes to the verandah of the Cliff House, where the eye which had been dazzled with lupines for the last hour now had nothing to contemplate but the vast ocean which stretches over to Japan, five thousand miles away, without the smallest intervening land. The only exception is to be found in the Farallones and a few small island rocks which rise out of the sea about two hundred yards from the cliffs above which the hotel is built, and which in fact form the chief attraction towards that excellent establishment. These islands of rock are the abode of a colony of several hundred sea-lions, Otaria Stelleri, whose behaviour and evolutions afford a fund of amusement to everybody, from the philosopher to the baby. We all know how popular a very similar animal has been of late years in the Zoological Gardens of London, but the islands opposite Cliff House are covered with others, and the blue rollers of the Pacific dash showers of spray over their lazy backs as they break against the well-worn rocks. Being a large family, of course they are of many sizes, amongst which our London friend would look very small. The larger ones must weigh, I should think, about as much as a cow ; and there was one notable sovereign among them who went by the name of ' King Tom ' or ' Ben Butler,' whose weight has been estimated at 2,000 lbs. Their abode is so 204 ' BEN BUTLER.' near to the hotel that an accustomed visitor armed with a good binocular could soon learn to know many of their faces as a shepherd knows his sheep. Scores of them are en- joying themselves in the broken surf made by the long sleepy swell which is turned into white spray by contact with the rocks. When they have dined sufficiently on the innumerable fish, they clamber in their awkward fashion up the rough precipices; and the proceedings of the next few minutes depend upon their respective size and importance in the community. The nature of the rocks prevents their seeing far ahead of them, but they take the best places they can find for drying themselves in the sun and digesting their meal. They come out of the water black and shiny ; but if they are left to dry in peace they soon assume a dull brown appearance. It often, however, happens that ' King Tom,' or some other leading member of the family, comes out intent on the same pjirpose. Woe be to a youngster who has taken possession of a spot which the sovereign has set his heart on ! A loud roar and violent shaking of the head gives quite sufficient notice to the intruder that he must turn out, and out he turns panic- stricken for a header into the sea. Meanwhile the great man establishes himself comfortably to dry in the sun, and by an occasional sleepy bellow warns all intruders not to disturb his repose. Here again the American Government has shown its good taste and sentimental feeling. In the same way as they have converted the Yosemit^ Valley and the Big Trees into inalienable parks for the benefit of the nation, so have they protected these creatures by law from all sort of molestation by the public, well knowing that SAN KAFAEL. 205 some of tteir enterprising citizens would not leave King Tom and his family many days of life if they were permitted to get at them. Ko one is allowed to disturb them, or even to bring a boat near enough to frighten them ; and with this compact they live at peace and are content to amuse the visitors to Cliff House, who enjoy their luncheon and cigars in the verandah of the hotel whUe they watch the performances of the sea-lions on their sacred rocks. One day we heard an unusual bellowing amongst the monsters, and saw that it was caused by a sailing-boat which had come out from the Golden Gate and approached nearer than usual. Till then I never knew how many of the creatures there must be ; but, as the boat drew nearer to them, they seemed to emerge from every cranny of the rocks, and with terrific roarings cast themselves violently down steep places into the sea. The people on board, seeing what a tumult they had created, put helm up and went about, as if they were afraid of being boarded by phocal pirates, while we were naturally delighted by the strange scene. The Cliff House is deservedly a great attraction to the dwellers in San Francisco ; and, apparently, the correct thing is to drive a friend out to it in a very light- built carriage, with large wheels not much thicker than a finger, behind a pair of horses trotting about fifteen or sixteen mUes an hour. There are always excellent eatables, pleasant rooms, and, down below, a charming walk or gallop over one of the purest sandy beaches in the world. Almost our first expedition from San Francisco across the water was to San Rafael and the very pretty hiU country on the north side of the Golden Gate. One of 206 SEQUOYAH. the small but very fast steamers wliich traverse the land- locked bay in all directions soon took us over to San Quentin, where we had an opportunity of looking at a Chinese establishment for catching and drying shiimps upon a large scale. Then a little railway took us quickly up to San Rafael, a delightful appendage to the great city. We had made friends with the captain of the steamboat, who went up with us in the train and very kindly showed us something of the place. All was new, very new,, but evidently growing quickly ; and the green valley, backed up by wooded hills, would be an immensely valuable property to hold now with an eye to a speedy future. We got some luncheon and walked westwards towards a range of hills studded with pines and other forest trees, which promised a view from the summit. The road wound up from the green meadows through a park-like region, shaded in many places by groups of ' Redwood,' or Sequoia sempervirens, a very elegant conifer peculiar to the coast range of California. A further interest attaches to it from the fact that this name was given to it before the discover)^ of the so-called WelUngtonia, which was properly named Sequoia gigantea by the botanists on account of its near resemblance to the S. sempervirens. The original name was given in honour of a peculiarly intelligent half-breed Cherokee Indian who was called Sequoyah ; he had, among other things, devised some- thing of an alphabet and written language for his tribe, and was therefore called by an American punster ' the best red- (-read) man out.' Such is the origin of the received scientific name, of the ' Big Trees,' as they are universally called in their own country ; and we can OLD FRIENDS IN FLOWEES. 207 hardly complain if tlie Americans are unwilling to designate one of tlie greatest of their own national wonders by the name of a British hero. Here and there oak-woods bordered the road, and the banks were full of flowers. For the first time I found the beautiful blue Anchusa in a wild state, together with a scarlet columbine, yellow Enotlwa, yellow borage, two species of blue iris, a kind of dwarf sunflower, and lovely beds of both the blue and white Nemophylla. Besides these, in the same neighbourhood we found abundance of Dodecatheon, very much like a cyclamen in appearance, and called ' shooting-stars ' by the American ladies. A little farther on, I made a dash down a grassy slope among the thickets, to see what was the meaning of some brilliant orange patches on the hill-side, and to my delight I found the Esclihohia of our gardens in its native splendour, larger and fuller in colour than we find it in cultivation. Close by were large branches of ' Southernwood,' Artemisia arborescens, the perfume of which reminded me of many an old fashioned garden and cottage-door in England, where it is fondly cherished under the name of ' Old Man.' This was a very satisfactory batch of flowers for the first short country walk in California, and when we got to the top of the ridge we found a variety of new trees, including the Madro7ia, as it is called throughout the country. It is properly speaking a magnificent species of A?'butus, covered when we were there with dense clusters of white bell-lilce blossom, which with its dark foliage and smooth red stem makes a very handsome figure in almost every part of the coast ranges that we saw. I was in the humour to enjoy in all thankfulness and happiness a lovely view 208 THE BEEKELY UNIVEESITT. from the highest point of our ridge, whence we overlooked a broad wooded valley, out of which rose up in the next distance the graceful summit of Tamal Pais, about 3,000 feet above the ocean immediately behind it. We intended to take another long day to ascend Tamal Pais, and to look upon the Pacific from its crown, but time and fate were against us, and the project came to the same end as many other ' good intentions.' Another line of steamers runs over to Oakland, on the opposite, or eastern, side of the bay, where is the terminus of the Great Pacific Railway, and where the train is ready to take you to New York, a distance of 3,.S00 miles, in a week, if you like travelling continuously day and night for that pei'iod. We, however, now only wanted to inspect Oakland itself and the neighbourhood, which is the fa- vourite and most fashionable resort of those who like some- thing of a country house not too far off to prevent their daily business in the city. Oakland is rightly named, and, even amidst the exigencies of building, the inhabitants have left enough oaks in and about the town and surround- ings to form shady groves and break the monotony of the streets. We walked on about three miles to see the buildings of the new Berkely University, which are well placed on the lower slopes of a line of grassy hills facing the bay and commanding a good view across it. There were two large handsome blocks with excellent lecture- rooms, and all proper appliances ; but all was perfectly new, and had scarcely escaped from the hands of the builders and carpenters. There appear to be two rival theories concerning building in countries subject, like California, to earthquakes. One is to make use of light materials, so A NEW UNIVERSITT. 209 that, if the structure falls, comparatively little harm may be done : the other is to build in such solid fashion that nothing short of a very extraordinary earthquake can knock the place down at all. On the coast of Peru, the earthquake-power has shown itself in such irresistible might that the former of the two methods is almost uni- formly employed, and those who have learnt by experience build low wooden houses which might fall to pieces quietly like a house of cards ; but in San Francisco, where earth- quakes, though frequent, are not severe, there appears to be a division of opinion. The Berkely University is built upon the solid principle, and long may it remain so 5 There are also now many large stone houses in the city ; but the greater part of them, including the hotels, are chiefly built of wood, coated with paint and sand so as to look exactly like stone. The wood theory appears to me to have a great deal to pay for itself as long as the houses are small, but I think that I would quite as soon be knocked on the head by a big stone as by a beam of wood, if it fell from a fouith-floor elevation. Moreover, for my own part I am much more afraid of fire than earthquakes, and the chances of being roastcl alive, especially in a dry climate, are greatly increased by living in a wooden house. At the back and by the sides of the University large grounds wei'e being laid ©ut with roads and paths among the masses of wild lupines and eschholzias; and quantities of young eucalyptus and various trees and shrubs had been planted, so that, though the place is very bare at present, there will soon be Academic groves for the future philoso- phers of Califoi'nia. We followed up the grassy side of a small adjoining glen, watered by a rippling stream and p 210 CALIFORNIA A GARDEN IN SPRING. sliaded by trees, among whicli I made my first acquaint- ance witli the Californian laurel, or Tetrantliera Calif ornica. This large and handsome tree is in appearance very like our bay-tree grown to a Huge size, and the scent of the leaves is almost as good, though not so lasting : the wood is something like that of our walnut, but more varied both in colour and marking, and is deservedly taking a high place in the estimation of the cabinet-makers. We climbed the hill behind the Univei'sity, over long slopes of grass and flowers, much to the alarm of many ' gopher?,' a species of rodent about half-way between a rat and a rabbit, who bolted into their holes before we could get near enough for a close inspection. Down below us was spread a broad expanse of the rich alluvial soil, still rather damp from the effects of an unusually wet winter, but green with thick growing crops of young wheat ; and far away over the great bay and its islands we had a lovely view of the green and wooded hills which cluster around Tamal Pais. We soon began to find that we had come to California at the best season of the year for seeing it. In April and May it is like a vast garden, and the climate is equally en- joyable in either town or country. During the succeeding months of full summer, the country becomes very hot, dusty, and burnt up ; while, by a strange contrast, in the city of San Francisco midsummer is the season when people shiver with cold ! The cause of this anomaly is that in those, months a cold north-westerly wind sets in .through the Golden Gate, and folds the city in a con- tinuously cold and raw fog, whilst everything is in the blaze of sunshine on the other side of the bay. Thus it comes to pass that in a place of about the same latitude THE 'heathen CHINEE.' 211 as Sicily people wrap themselves up in the month of July. The Chinese element is naturally one of the most striking features in San Francisco, and we felt obliged to pay some attention to the ' Heathen Chinee ' before leaving for the interior of the country. One section of the city is specially designated the Chinese Quarter, where a sudden turn round a corner brings the astonished visitor into the presence of the Celestials. Their habi- tual conservatism induces them to make everything look as if they were at home. I was told by one of the chief police officials that there are about 25,000 of them in the city. Here they have streets entirely filled .with Chinese houses, covered with the flaunting flags, lanteriis, scrolls, and gay devices which give the towns of China the ap- pearance of being decorated for a perennial f^te-day or fair. Here they have their theatre, their joss-houses, their brilliant shops full of precious wares from the East, and their filthy stalls of garbage to dine upon. Here, too, they have theu' opium-shops and dens of debauchery which exercise the minds of the Californian police, and which are considered unsafe for curious visitors excepting under their protection. One evening we went to their theatre, and I vowed to myself that I would never go to a Chinese theatre again. Nor will I. For a quarter of an hour the extraordinary novelty of such a scene was great enough to overpower the general feeling of disgust, but the latter soon turned the tables, and in half an hour I was glad to beat a retreat. We were helped by the presence of a detective accustomed to the language and manners of John Chinaman, who explained to us something p2 212 A CHINESE THEATRE. of the plot and action of the play, which appeared to b6 at a rather indecent stage of its protracted existence; The constant banging of gongs and strident noises from detestable instruments of music, accompanied with harsh and screaming voices ; the grotesque masks, the vile paint- ing, the ceaseless rushing about the stage, the terrific combats, the yells of the foes, the universal hubbub, all conspired to drive me out of this temple of Chinese dramatic art with the sensation of having sufi^ered from a hideous nightmare. The only redeeming feature was a group of tumblers, who, for no apparent reason, came forwards during a serious part of the performances, and did their particular work right well. They turned sum- mersaults over the tables, alighting on the very tops of their heads, and thence taking a fresh departure with such astounding coolness that I could not help wondering at the thickness of their skulls. The chief part of the clothes-washing of San Francisco is done by Chinamen, and is done so admirably that I often wish for their aid in London when I contemplate the contents of my shirt-drawer. In every part of the suburbs are small houses with boards at the door announcino- that Loo Sing and Ah Sam, or other gentlemen with similar names, devote themselves to taking in washing. They are masters of their craft, and send home the linen as white as snow and as smooth as glass. The ironino- process struck me as peculiar. Each shirt when ready was placed on the table in front of an industrious little man, who had a hot iron on one side of him and a bowl of clean water on the other; he dipped his mouth into the ■water, and by some curious action of the lips squirted out CHINESE WASHING. 213 the contents in a spreading shower of almost invisible dew ; then down came the iron and the result was perfec- tion. If these useful heathens were not there for ' washee washee ' purposes, I do not know who would fill their places in a country where there is a great prejudice against do- mestic drudgery. In California it is very difficult to get your boots cleaned decently ; and even in contemptible little inns a charge of twenty-five cents, or a shilling, is made for the luxury. Many gentlemen travellers take their own brush and blacking among their luggage, and do the work for themselves ; but I fancy that many men who could clean their own boots respectably would col- lapse before the difficulties of washing and ironing a shirt. The Chinese in California ha\e also done good service to the State in making its roads and railways by their cheap labour, and I have heard it said that the Great Pacific Railway could never have been made without them ; but the individual working citizen is selfishly ungrateful for this ; he simply vows vengeance against the Chinese for underselling him in the labour market, and no one need be surprised if he hears some day of a serious attack being made upon them by those who want to raise their own wages and are not very particular about having their shirts washed. Meanwhile there has been a very large and continuous emigration from Canton and other parts of Southern China, which has been an important source of income to the Pacific Steam Ship Company, whose vessels sometimes bring over 1,000 or 1,200 at a time. The whole arrange- ments for this traffic are carried out on fixed principles, which would be very well worthy of imitation elsewhere. 214 CELESTIAL EMIGRANTS. The Chinese have often been laughed at for their wo:-ship of ancestors and other old-fashioned ways, but these things are in truth only illustrations of the intense love of family and country which pervades their nature. If they are induced by the hope of profit and future wealth to leave their country for awhile, their next care is to see that they go back to it, dead or alive. Firmly convinced of the superiority of China over the rest of the world, they refuse to take root in other lands where they may have a temporary abode ; and they are by no means prepared to admire the American or any other Constitution. It is only on certain conditions that they condescend to make themselves useful and hoard up dollars among the Califor- nians. Their coming over ie a matter of solemn contract ; and, dead or alive, they go back to China. The Celestial emigrants in a foreign land are under the care and guardianship of tte Hweis, or guilds, repre- senting their native provinces; who look after their interests in this life and take care of their bodies after death- If they die on shore they are buried in a spot set apart for them for a period of two years, I think, by the end of which time the Californian Government is content to let their bones be dug up and properly prepared for sending home to their friends. If they die on board one of the Company's steamers, it becomes the duty of the surgeon to embalm or prepare their bodies by some similar process, and to have them put in coffins to be kept safe till they reach port. If one of them were thrown overboard there would be a mutiny at once, and a cessation of the Company's trade in carrying them for the future. There are many amusing stories of Chinese SMUGGLING IN COFFINS. 215 devices to combine economy with affection by carrying home tbeir departed relations without paying for them. The purser of the ' China ' told me that a quartermaster came to him one day and reported that some of the Chinese had got very queer-looking baggage down below in their berths. He insisted on overhauling it, and found sundry travelling-bags full of bones, which proved to be the remains of scraped friends surreptitiously concealed among their bed-clothes. This was considered a very mean trick, and resented accordingly. When properly sent home in coffins they are treated with the greatest possible respect, and the inviolability of a coffin is so piously maintained at the Chinese ports, that, as I have been told, it is sometimes made use of as a convenient means of smuggling goods in coffins through the Custom- houses instead of honestly carrying dead men. The Chinese are as fond of saving money as the peasantry of France, and generally they seem to use it for very sensible and creditable purposes. Sometimes one of them, when he has hoarded together a comfortable sum, will take it over to China and buy a house for his father and mother, or do anything that may be considered most desirable for the benefit of his family; and he will then so back to California and make another fortune for himself. If he wants to invest his money in a wife, he commissions a friend in the old country to get him the best he can find for 300 or 400 dollars, or whatever sum may be speci- fied as the highest price that he can afford to give. Her passage also has to be paid out of the money; and, as I do not suppose that Chinese peasants indulge in photographs, he must look with some doubt and anxiety for the a,ppear' 216: A DOUBTFUL BRIDE. ance of his expected bride. There was a story that one qf them was being laughed at for the unusual ugliness of her who came out to be his partner for life ; but he answered, ' Never you mind, handsome wife cost too muchee money, and kick up dam bobbery all the time too.' The only ' antiquity ' of the neighbourhood is the mission church at Dolores, where the visitor is soon re- minded of St. Francis in connection Avith San Francisco. The church was built in 1776, and its centenary will therefore be identical with that of the American Republic; but in the general rejoicings I fear that the Saint will be made to look very small in comparison with General Washington. The building is a very poor aifair, sur- rounded by a neglected churchyard, robed in weeds and disorder, and making a painful contrast with the neatness and beauty of the cemetery on the other side of the city. Thence with the aid of a map we found our way to the Mission rock through a new suburban district, where houses were rising like mushrooms in every direction, while the untouched land was gay with flowers, conspi^ cuous among which were beds of the Californian violet, golden yellow in colour with a very handsome brown eye. A beautiful blue iris was abundant in moist places. Hence a tramroad is carried over a wooden causeway back towards the city; and, as we happened to come in for a windy day, we had a good opportunity of testing the misery of these wooden roads. Pines of many descriptions supply the timber for all ordinary purposes in California, and wood of this kind when subjected to horses' feet breaks up into chips as thick as small straws, which when driven by a strong wind, and mixed with all kinds of small sand and THE TllAMS. 217 dusty rubbish, makes a most irritating compound: it fills up eyes and ears, smothers one's clothes, and produces slow torture as it works its way down the back of the neck. Altogether I found the Iramcars by far the most dis- agreeable institution in California. They run through the city in many directions, it must be admitted, and they are generally neat and clean ; but the cause of com- plaint is the way of managing them. At first starting all looks comfortable enough to the passengers who take their seats; but, as the car pulls up every minute or two, it soon becomes evident that the conductor's object is to put as many human beings into it as it can by any means be made to contain. The seats on both sides are soon crammed so that it is impossible to move an elbow, and the next lot have to stand between them till there is no more standing room. When the seats are entirely full, Avomen do not hesitate to crowd in and stand, as a sort of challenge to the men to get up and make room for them ; and if the hint is not soon taken they have various ways of pushing, squeezing, or parasol-poking which generally succeed in making one of the recalcitrants turn out. Even this is not all, for when every part of the inside is full, another batch of people crowd on the steps, cling to any- thing they can lay hold upon, and hang behind like a swarm of bees in such a way as to make escape difficult for those who want to get out. I often left the cars and walked rather than run the risk of sufiFocatiou. What would be said in England if conductors were allowed to fill an omnibus on the same principle as would be employed in stuffing a coal-sack ? It is astonishing that the people 218 THE MINT. submit to such treatment with equanimity ; the only ex- planation I can think of is that they are all in such a habit of being in a hurry that they sympathize with fellow- creatures who absolutely refuse to wait a few minutes for the next car. I must, however, give them the additional credit of being apparently a very kind-hearted people ; and, at all events, San Francisco is the only city in the world where on several occasions I have asked a question of a perfect stranger in the street, who, not being able to give an answer directly, has most goodnaturedly invited me to come with him to his own office where he could find what I wanted by referring to a directory, though he had to go considerably out of hig way. Another feature of national character which struck me very forcibly was the remarkable frankness and politeness manifested by the officials of San Francisco in many various departments. One day we merely presented our cards at the door of the Mint, and asked if we might be allowed to see the establishment. With scarcely a minute's delay, and without asking any sort of question, a very pleasant and intelligent officer led us through aU the departments, remarking that we were lucky in the day, as they were engaged in coining gold twenty-dollar pieces. He called up men to show us each of the processes in action; from the rolling of long bars of gold and bringino- them to the exact thickness by delicate machinery, to the punching out of the plain pieces of metal, and the final coining and stamping in machines, each of which turned out eighty to the minute. This coin, worth about four English guineas, is by far the handsomest I ever saw in circulation ; the taste of the design and the beauty of the KINDLY OFFICIALS. ' 219 execution appeared simply perfect. Our cicerone took all possible pains to show and explain to us the details of everything. Nobody seemed to consider us thieves in posse, and we left the place with a feeling on my part of Avouder as to whether in any other country a perfectly unknown foreigner, beiat upon a similar errand, would have been so well received and so kindly entreated. 220, -AWAY TO THE COUNTRY. CHAPTER X. A good pace over the Bay — Oalistoga — The ' dare-devil ' Coachman of California — Corn and Wine — Poison-oak — Pine Flat and a Tragedy — A long jolting to the Geysera — Close to Gehenna — Nothing to eat — White Sulphur Springs — A Happy Valley — Oalifomian Quail — ^The Poison-oak again — Eetum to San Francisco. Life in San Francisco was thoroughly enjoyable, and great was the temptation to linger in such good quarters ; but we were thirsting to see the marvels of the inland country, which through the medium of photography invited us every day as we walked along IVIontgomerv Street. The Geysers, the Sulphur Springs, the Yosemite Valley, the Big Trees, and the snows of the Sierra Nevada must all be seen before we should again tempt the perils of the ocean. Accordingly, early in April, making up a party of four, we started by a steamer at 4 p.m. to cross the bay to Yallejo, which, though, said to be twenty-six miles distant, was reached in one hour and a half This is a very lively pace, and would appear impossible to anyone who saw for the first time one of these clumsy-looking vessels, which look about as incapable of speed as one of the old yellow hulks that may be seen near any of Her Majesty's dockyards. Their looks belie them ; for under- neath their huge upper M'orks they have fine lines, and CAUSTOGA. 221 they go like tlie wind as soon as they are started. As far as comfort is concerned, they leave nothing to desire. There is an abundance of room, and seats of every de- scription; every convenience for eating, drinking, and smoking ; with the additional luxury of a barber's shop. I was compelled to assume that many of these busy people can find no time for such trumpery woi'k as shaving except when in transitu, for I always observed that on board the local steamers a rush was made to the barber almost before we left the quay. The lower deck accommodates piles of cargo, mixed up with poultry, carts, horses, machinery, Chinamen, and other useful articles. In one of them I saw a huge tub of live fish, with several people employed in changing the water continually by baling out and pouring in fresh supplies. On arriving at Vallejo we found a train ready to take us through the fertile Napa Valley to Calistoga, which we reached a little before 9 p.m. in a state of complete resignation to an excellent supper at the hotel. This estab- lishment is rather peculiar. All feeding-operations are con- ducted in the principal structure; but after supper we were conducted to our sleeping quarters in one of several neat cottages, built along the edge of a very unfinished and im- perfect sort of garden, ornamented with a few scattered palm-trees and flower-beds, conspicuous among which stands a tall trophy -like pile of huge blocks and stumps of various kinds of stony wood collected from the neighbouring petri- fied forest. We were getting into a region of natural curiosities and prodigies; and a petrified forest sounds very well in connection with hot sulphur springs, boiling gey- sers, and other indications of the arch enemy of mankind. 222 THE DARE-DEVIL COACHMAN. The cottage was clean and comfortable, and "contained four or five neat little bedrooms, which we were left to divide among ourselves as we pleased. There were no symptoms of anybody to answer the bell, if a bell had been there ; we were left entirely to our own devices and our own company; and after the evening pipe and gossip we had an undisturbed sleep in what seemed at that season of the year the quietest place that could well be imagined. Next morning we got up early and went to the hotel for breakfast at half-past six o'clock, as we were informed that the coach would start for the Geysers at seven, under the personal guidance of a celebrated man named Foss, known familiarly as the ' famous dare-devil coach- man ' of California ; and, as we were almost the first pioneer party of the season when the roads were sure to be bad, we expected some excitement under such anspices. Presently we saw a large char-a-banc approaching us with the great man on the box driving six horses, two abreast ; and, as there was a round flower-bed in front of the hotel, he gave us a first touch of his quality by driving round this at full speed, so that for a moment the wheelers were seen going in exactly the opposite direction to that of the coach. He pulled up at the door, flung down his reins, and descended to receive a mornino- greeting from a little circle of admiring friends. And really it was a pleasure to an Englishmafi to look at his big burly frame and honest rosy face, reminding me of a jovial English farmer rather than of anything that we are usually accustomed to associate with the United States. He was a cheery companion and good fellow, and I trust I need not describe him in the past tense; SPRING-BLOSSOMS. 223 but soon after our return to England I saw in a Cali- fornian paper tlie account of an accident on the same road that we travelled over with hira, which was of such a nature as to make me tremble for the fate of the jolly ' dare-devil.' He in some wav or other lost command of his team, and they dashed down a hill-side, upsetting the coach, smashing the harness, and scattering the passengers in all directions. They were picked up by degrees, grievously wounded, if not dead ; poor Foss was very seriously injured, and four of his six horses cleared out into the surrounding space. On the present occasion, however, no thought of danger entered into our heads ; and we started off merrily in company with about half a dozen other people. Soon after leaving Calistoga we began to see that a road in that part of the world has no connection with Macadam and stonebreakers. It is merely a broad line fenced off by wooden rails from the cultivated lands on each side of it; and in the spring, when the rich alluvial soil is still satu- rated with the winter snow and rain, the depth to which the wheels may sink is a matter of complete uncertainty. Through what is call'^d Knight's Valley the country was very pretty, in spite of the many inroads which cultiva- tors of the soil were making upon what was very lately the unsophisticated home of lovely Nature. Here were occasional flourishing farms, with clean happy-looking homes, surrounded by gardens and orchards of pears, apples, plums, peaches, and apricots, now all in sheets and masses of brilliant pink and white, and glorying in the warmth of the April sun. The greater part of the land is of course cleared and planted witli corn and grape-vines; 224 A GIGANTIC VINE, but in many places the farmers have had the good sense as well as the good taste to leave some of the magnificent oaks and other forest-trees which formerly covered the country. < A great breadth of land is covered with vines, the newly-planted ones looking like thin walking-sticks, and the old ones cut back nearly to the ground in thick black stumps. The wine manufactures of California are be- coming of very high importance, and I can testify to the excellence of several of them which we used to consume in the Grand Hotel. 1 took the opportunity of asking Foss and a fellow-passenger about the matter, and I was informed that wine costing the grower only thirty to fifty cents (from Is. Sd. to 2s. English) per gallon is the same that is sold in the hotels for a dollar a bottle, which would give about 1,000 per cent, profit on the transaction. Not a bad trade, it would seem. Wheat-growing too ought to be tolerably profitable if, as I was told, a fairly good crop gives a yield of sixty bushels, or 7g quarters, per acre without the aid of manure. In course of time no doubt the natural soil must be greatly weakened, but the difliculty of manure will probably then be met by a great increase in the stock of animals. I have previously alluded to the enormous bunches of grapes exhibited occasionally in California; but before leaving the subject of its vines, I should like to quote a passage from a recent letter of the Times correspondent in those parts. ' Among other things to be sent to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia is,' he says, ' the Montecito big grape-vine, from the Santa Barbara county, perhaps the largest vine in the world. It has been taken up and cut into sections THE POisox-OAK. 225 and otlierwise prepared for exhibition. The dimensions of this vine are fourteen inches in diameter at three feet from the ground, and nearer to the ground it has a diameter of eighteen inches, while its foliage has long covered a space equal to 10,000 square feet. Its produce has often reached the immense number of 7,500 clusters of an average weight of 1^ lbs., or nearly 12,000 lbs. in the whole. Its age is between fifty and sixty years, and it has for several years shown symptoms of decaying vigour. ' It appears, however, to have thrown up an oflFshoot sixteen years ago which has already nearly equalled its parent, by producing last year between 8,000 and 10,000 lbs. of grapes. California, like Chile, began with mining; but, like her, is finding her truest wealth in the resources of the vegetable kingdom. There was, however, one product of the vegetable world against which the ' dare-devil ' warned us with an earnestness which surprised me. The road had been gettiiig worse and worse, until at a part where it was carried along the sloping side of a hill covered with grass and bushes mixed with occasional trees, he found his leaders sinking so deeply in the mud that he doubted the propriety of trying to lake the loaded carriage through it. At his request we all got out to walk along the grassy slope, and rejoin him after a few hundred 3'ards, while his team floundered through the mire. But we had hardly set foot upon the bank when, pointing to some small bushes, he implored us for Heaven's sake not to touch them. He said they were ' poison-oaks,' and were never so dangerous as at that time of year. They were mean- looking bushes, just opening their young leaves, in appear- Q 226 ALARMING .STORIES. ance much like those of our blackberry; but I soon found that no fabled upas-tree ever inspired more fear than the * poison-oak ' produced in the minds of the natives. We were assured by our fellow-passengers that a touch from it would produce boils and blains, and poison all the blood in the system; and one of them declared that for two years he had sutFered nearly all the ills that human flesh is heir to in consequence of unluckily coming in contact with one of them. Their stories were so circumstantial that we kept at a respectful distance from the dreaded bushes; but, as on subsequent occasions we found our- selves inadvertently among whole thickets of them, where both hands and face must have been in contact with them at every step, without any evil consequences happening to either of us, I am compelled to suppose either that the effects were exaggerated, or that some constitutions are much more sensitive to the poison than others are. The plant is no more like an oak than a currant-bush : it is one of the Shtis, or Sumach, family, the Ehus toxicoden- dron ; and its name clearly implies its poisonous nature ; but I cannot understand why it did not poison us. It is rather an interesting, though by no means handsome, plant. It is naturally a creeper, and attaches itself like ivy to a tree or rock when it finds one at hand, and in this way it grows freely to a considerable height: but it sows itself everywhere ; and, when it grows upon an open hill-side or sinailar situation, it accommodates itself to circumstances and does . the best it can, though the result is only a scraggy bush of five or six feet high. I have since talked about it to a physician in London, who says that the poisonous qualities of Rhus toxicodendron 'JEFFEKSON BRICK.' 227 are well known in the Materia Medica; and that its dangerous quahties are undoubted if it comes in contact with a skin in any way damaged. We must therefore have been in a satisfactorily undamaged and unwounded state. A practical use of this detestable bush is the com- position of a powder eminently destructive to fleas and other vermin. The .Californians seemed to have a very genuine dread of it. One of the best and prettiest of the isolated houses and gardens in the valley belonged to our distinguished coachman ; and, when we stopped there to change horses, we were not a little disgusted to find that horses were not the only things to be changed. There was to be an end of the commodious glories of the big char-a-banc, the great man considering it too heavy for the rascally state of the road. We were to be jammed into two smaller traps in company with several other people ; and we were deprived of half the very small amount of bag- gage which we had brought for the excursion, and which was to be left at the house till our return next day. We were packed three on each seat where there was only room for two, and I was pinioned against the most atro- cious little wretch of the ' Jefiferson Brick ' type that I have ever encountered. Almost a beardless boy, he displayed a noisy bumptiousness and vulgarity that were simply astounding, and I believe I was only restrained from throwing him out of the carriage by my doubts as to the legality of the action, and the strong probability of his putting a bullet into me the moment he recovered his legs. The Americans, as I have already remarked in the matter of tramcars, seem to have no objection to 228 PIXF, FLAT. overcrowding in their vehicles ; and the squeezing in of extra passengers is submitted to with a calmness which would be inconceivable in England. As we advanced over a road which was getting continually worse and worse, the fact of our being pressed like herrings in a barrel to both sides of the carriage had u very disagreeable effect. The wheels on one side were often up to the axles in mud of seemingly bottomless depth, while those on the other side were on firm ground; and on these occasions the luckless people on the lower side felt that they must inevitably be capsized; the driver would look over his shoulder and shout to us to throw ourselves as much as we could to the other side, and we did so to the utmost of our ability ; but again and again it seemed that nothing could prevent the wheels from breaking and the carriage from turning over, often on the side of a hill where an upset would have been fatal to somebody; but at the last moment an encouraging yell to the horses, accompanied by an exciting larrup from the whip, always contrived to pull us through the difficulty in a manner which would astonish an ordinary coachman. Without any worse re- sult than constant alarms we emerged from the worst part of the country, and found ourselves about noon on the good turf of Pine Flat, where we halted for about half an hour. Providence was merciful enough even to preserve the objectionable youth, and leave him free for further mischief, a doubtful blessing to the American community. Pine Flat is the top of a kind of grassy pass over the hills, and was, when we saw it, clothed in the sweet fresh verdure of early spring. Scattered clumps of fir-trees ON FOOT AGAIN. ^id among the grassy openings formed a kind of advanced guard to the forests on each side, and there were manifest signs of their becoming still more scattered, and dispersed in the form of planks. A few, very few, new wooden huts adorned the place, of which one, I think, was devoted to stabling purposes ; two were inscribed with the names of land-agents, who did not, however, appear to be ready in their offices for the purpose of selling tlie surrounding land ; and two, at all events, were devoted to the sale and consumption of liquors. We had been bumped about for a good many hours since a light and early breakfast; we had had every muscle in our bodies strained in hano-ino- out of the vehicle, first on one side and then on the other, to prevent a wholesale smash ; our boots were wetted by going on foot in places where even the 'dare-devil' thought it safer for us to alight; and I need hardly say that we stepped with triumphant joy across the elastic turf into a hut where we were soon supplied with light refreshments by an amiable old man who professed, as became his years, to have been one of the original pioneers of California. We were greatly comforted by the time when fresh horses were ready for the forward march. It seemed, moreover, that the worst of our troubles had come to an end. Clearing the region of fir-trees and turf, we soon began a long gradual ascent over a more I'ocky line of country, where the comparative hardness and cleanness of the road made walking pleasant for several miles, while horses and carriages wound their way slowly upwards over a sinuous route among the hiUs. Trees here became rather scarce, but the hills were for the most 230 A TRAGEDY, part covered with what is universally known in California as ' chaparal,' a dense undergrowth of shrubs and bushes, conspicuous among which is the Manzanita, a kind of arbutus (Arctostaphylos glauca), so named from the Spanish diminutive of manzana, an apple, in reference to the small berries with which it is supplied. There are also immense quantities of disagreeably thorny bushes, which, in com- pany with the poison-oak, have hitherto prevented the fuU exploration of vast regions of the Californian coast range. A great excitement had lately arisen about dis- coveries of quicksilver in this region, and we saw many indications of the peculiar red rock (cinnabar) from which it is extracted. We passed near a house occupied, I believe, by some of the people connected with these mines, and stopped to deliver letters to a man who came out for them; but we had no idea at the time that this place would soon become famous for a remarkable tragedy. A few months after our departure from California one of the best, most successful, and most popular of the photographers in San Francisco was furnished by a discon- tented nurse with letters which left him no room to doubt the infidelity of his wife with a young Englishman, whose adventures and escapades numbered more than the hairs on his head. The photographer heard that he had gone up country to the quicksilver mines beyond Pine Flat. He went by steamboat and railway to Calistoga; ordered a trap, and tried his revolver by the way. He arrived by night at the place which I have spoken of, and asked to see the man he wanted, with whom he wished to speak for a minute on matters of business. The latter came to the entrance, and the photographer, simply saying ' I have SYMPTOMS OF SULl'HUE. 231 brought you a message from — my wife,' shot him dead as he pronounced the last words. The photographer was tried for murder, and the Californian papers, afterwards sent to me by a friend, described a curious state of things connected with the trial. Every one of the jurymen em- pannelled was challenged as to whether he had any decided opinions for or against capital punishment. Every one who expressed an opinion decidedly on either side was rejected: a jury of neutrals was chofeen to hear the case, and they found a verdict of ' Not guilt5^' Uphill and downhill, sometimes riding and sometimes walking, we followed many a turn of the twisting road between the hills amongst rather dreary and uninteresting scenery, till at last a long and continuous descent brought us down again to the region of fine trees ; and a sudden stench of sulphurous fumes proclaimed that we were near our destination. Presently we stopped at the door of a queer-shaped country hotel, and thankfully descended from the detestable vehicle. The distance was said to be only twenty-eight miles, and we had spent eight hours and a half in struggling over the road. Moreover, we had had nothing to eat since our very early breakfast, and looked for substantial refreshment in addition to the luxury of stretching our limbs, which were cramped with over- squeezing. However, it was not to be. The barbarous people of the house said that the dinner would be at six o'clock, and positively refused to give us any food what- ever till that time. We were naturally irritated by such a heartless proceeding, and by the utter indifference to the comfort of visitors which evidently reigned in the whole establishment. Remonstrance was useless, and there was 232 THE DEVIL AT HOME. no rival house to appeal to. The owners knew that every- body who came there was in a cid-de-sac, from which there was no possibility of escape till the next day, and chuckled over their victims in the same spirit as that which must animate a spider when a fly tumbles into his web. It was four o'clock, and we had to spend the time till dinner in a visit to the Geysers, under the guidance of a young showman with a thick stick, whose sickly and miserable ap- pearance testified strongly against spending a life amongst the intolerable fumes and stenches of the under world. Crossing a small stream ornamented with some hand- some ferns, we were in a few minutes at the entrance of a steeply inclined and irregular rocky ravine, extending upwards for about a quarter of a mile. In following up a slight path through this place it was quite impossible to avoid the consciousness of being unpleasantly near to the infernal regions. The ravine is bursting with jets of steam ; its rocks bristle with sulphur, alum, magnesia, and pure Epsom salts : in some places the earth seems bubbling like a saucepan, and in others it groans and grunts like the Devil at home, as he ought to be in a place where every spot is peculiarly dedicated to his comfort and convenience. The sickly showman pointed out the Devil's kitchen, and the Devil's armchair, his ofiice, his laboratory, and his pulpit ! Then there is the Witches' Cauldron, a darksome hole which looks as if some one were perpetually boiling tons of walnut-pickle in it. A little higher up are the Steamboat Geyser and Whistling Geyser, giving forth volumes of steam and dismal roarings ; and in one of them some ingenious person has placed an iron pipe over the orifice in such a way as to improve the tune. \ CLOSE TO GEHKNXA. 233 Throughout the whole ravine the heat was very oppressive, and the odours were sickening. Moreover, the very soil seemed rotten, and the whole place suggested the notion of a plague-spot of foul disease on the fair body of our Mother Earth. To the foot it felt rather like hot suet-dumpling, with an admixture of stones ; to the eye it presented many tints of dirty ochre, and in some places which we walked over rather gingerly, the firm pressure of a stick or um- brella-jjoint went right through and tapped a stream of hot black ooze, which flowed sluggishly as if it were the blood of some fabled dragon. It is certainly a very won- derful place, and, as such, is well worth seeing for once in a way ; but I would not recommend a very fat man to try it, as he might possibly break through into the Tar- tarian pie. For my own part I was not very sorry to emerge at the head of the valley, and preferred turning to the right over a fresh grassy hill and finding a new way home with one of my companions, instead of traversing Avernus again with its by no means interesting or agree- able cicerone. I do not know if the fumes of sulphur and other abominations promote appetite, or whether our hunger was naturally due to the fact that we had had nothing to eat since early morning ; but I do know that we were remarkr ably ready to enjoy the expected dinner, and that we were most lamentably disappointed. When at last we sat down to table in a shabby room we found the repast to consist of nothing but indifferent eggs and ham, as hard as iron, with bread ad libitum by way of an entree. We fell back upon smoking in the evening ; but, need I say that we were rather sulky after such treatment till we were 234 'CLEAN YOUR BOOTS, SIR?' consigned to miscroscopically small rooms where the only comfort was that the beds were clean ? Early next morn- ing we had some ham and eggs, the only change from eggs and ham, for breakfast, and started to return to Calistoga by the wuy that we came. We observed a con- spicuous notice to the effect that boots might be cleaned on payment of twenty-five cents : mine were very dirty, but I would rather have carried off all the mud in a Suffolk turnip-field than let the inhospitable natives of this Californian Inferno gloiy in the acquisition of a shil- ling more by cleaning them. It is true that we were rather early in the season ; but there were several other visitors besides ourselves, and there seemed to be no wish to oblige and no idea of apologising for deficiencies. It was a strange contrast to the pleasant and delightful ways of the hotels at San Francisco. We left the land of smells in the distance behind us ; crawled up the long slopes to the land of hills ; had some more of the veteran's beer at Pine Flat ; struggled once more through ruts in unfathom- able mud, girt about with divers flowers ; recovered our baggage at Foss's house ; and rattled gaily along through the vineyards and peach-groves of Knight's Valley to the hotel at Calistoga, which we reached about two o'clock, in time for the starting of the traiu southwards. We retraced our steps in that direction only as far as the St. Helena station, from which a very pretty drive of about two miles brought us to the establishment of the White Sulphur Springs, which are frequented for sanitary purposes as well as for the picturesqueness of the situation. Here we found everything in delightful contrast to the disagreeables of the Geysers hotel. The place is kept LAUREL COTTAGK. 235 ty Mr. AlBtrom, a Swede, and is a very delightful retreat from the bustle of the world. The main building stands a little back from a road which follows the course of a pretty river winding between hills not unlike those of Matlock on a large scale. Near this are the baths and taps of the hot sulphur springs, said to be as wholesome to the body as they are disgusting to the taste. On the other side of an open space are the public dining-room, bar, and reading-room ; and a little farther are several small detached cottages, with a few peach-trees in front. We were consigned to one of these called the ' Laurel,' where we spent several very pleasant days. There was a neatly furnished sitting-room with three or four bed- rooms opening out of it, and we had the house to ourselves ; so that, after being out all day and then disposing of dinner in the public salle a manger, we retreated to our own cottage for a rubber of whist by the side of a comfortable wood fire. We were not long in finding a delightful rivulet babbling down behind the establishment, like a bright trout-stream in Hampshire ; and, crossing this by a plank bridge, we followed up its course till the faint path lost itself among the woods of a peaceful valley terminated by a waterfall among a wUd scene of fallen rocks, huge trees lifting their heads to Heaven, and ruined trunks that hud crashed down towards the stream with the do-\\Tifall of the banks whereon they had lived for ages. There was a peculiar charm about the sUence and solitude of this wildly beautiful spot; untouched by man, it recalled stories of Indians who have long been driven from their old haunts, and it seemed a fitting place for 236 NEW FLOWERS. the wildest adventures of our old friends ' Hawk-eye ' and the ' Last of the Mohicans.' There was not a sound but that of falling water, as we wandered beneath the dark shade of oaks, or stopped to measure the stem of some gigantic conifer. Here were magnificent specimens of the Red-wood (^Sequoia sempervirens)^ apparently of very great age, and of another kind of fir with immense cones, the name of which I am not acquainted with. In openings among the bushy undergrowth and rocky places of the sloping sides of the valley, and on cool shady banks of the stream, we found a great variety of choice ferns and flowers. Among the ferns that were perfectly new to me were two exquisite species of the Platyloma family, one of them almost as finely divided as if it were made of dark green lace. I have never seen these in any part of the world except in some of the Californian valleys. Among flowers I saw for the first time a large quantity of the Trillium album, whose three-petaled blossoms of snowy whiteness were frequently more than six inches in diameter. Another beauty of the valley was a tall Saxifrage with very delicate stalk, and a profusion of white flowers with a fringed edge. There were two forms of Convillaria, one of them with white star-shaped flowers instead of the usual bells ; but among other beautiful novelties, that which I think most surprised me was a magnificent Fritillaria, with a tall spike of flower two or three feet high ; the individual blossoms were almost the same in appearance and colour as our English fritillary, but instead of being single on each stalk they hung gracefully one above the other, to the number to about eight or ten. A CHARMING rp:teeat. 237 We frequently explored the recesses of this delightful valley, diving among the bushes to look for flowers, or scrambling on the rocks for the chance of a new fern ; and I am the more anxious to record its quiet charm because there were manifest signs that its solitudes would soon be more invaded. Already, at the lower end of it, preparation was being made for a road, and though this in itself may not much damage the beauty of the sur- rounding scenery, yet it will go a long way towards dissipating such dreams as I indulged in about the pre- sence of Mohicans upon the scene. Who shall say how soon this enchanted spot may be turned into a Cockney garden with Ethiopian serenaders, instead of Uncas and Chingachgook, with the waterfall flaring in the light of many-coloured lamps like the unfortunate Giessbach, or illuminated like the Great Pyramid of Egypt for the Prince of Wales? Absit omen! Two of our party took guns one day, and went to seek for adventures among the dense woods and thickets which clothe the hills forming the southern barrier of this favourite valley, with the hope of being able to de- scend into it on the other side. They found nothing to shoot, though they thought they saw the traces of a bear, whom it is probably fortunate that they did not come in collision with. En revanche, they lost their way, and had to make a heroic struggle down hill through a horribly thorny and dilapidating thicket, from which, after some hours, they emerged by dint of hard labour, and arrived at Laurel Cottage in such a condition that one pair of trousers at all events had to be thrown away at once, past all hope of redemption by any arts of the tailor. We all 288 A GARDEN ON THE HILLS. saw at different times among these hills sundry specimens of the Californian quail, which, however, it would have been as illegal to shoot then as it would be to kill a par- tridge in England at the same season of the year. These very pretty birds are entirely unlike the quail of Europe, and are ornamented with a black feathery crest which, widening towards the end, hangs over in a graceful curve above the beak. While the sportsmen were trying their pluck and the endurance of their garments, I with our other friend fol- loweid up a narrow footpath behind the sulphur springs, which promised to lead us to the top of some very tempting hills rising above that side of the valley. Nor did the fair promise in any way delude us. Up and up we walked, among groves of trees and among sheets of many-coloured blossoms, as if we were in a continually ascending Rich- mond Park with the combined attractions of an endless flower-show. As Tennyson says in the ' Two Yoices,' You scarce could see the grass for flowers. Here, amongst other beauties, were three species of blue and white lupines in immense abundance, together with Gilia tricolor^ Collinsia bicolor, and. brilliant clumps of the golden Eschscholtzia ; a lovely species of yellow tulip, purple larkspurs, Indian pinks, and scarlet columbines. Grand oak-trees were rejoicing in the first tender green of spring, and formed a beautiful contrast with masses of ilex and other evergreen shrubs and trees, conspicuous among which were some grand specimens of the 'ma- drona,' whose large shining leaves and countless clusters THK P(1ISOX-0AK AGAIN. 239 of wliite bell-like flowers covered them with beauty to the very summit. We wandered for some hours about the tops of these undulating hills, every point adding some- thing fresh to the charming views around us, and intro- ducing us to something new in the world of trees and flowers. It was with no s'nall reluctance that we began our descent towards the valley, the general direction of which we knew, though we had lost all traces of a path. We left the region of park-like openings alternating with forest-trees, and presently found ourselves obliged to push our way down through thickets, much as if we were ' going with the beaters ' in an English copse. Suddenly it oc- curred to me to look more closely at a leaf, and I was at once conscious of the fact that we were up to our necks in amass of the much-dreaded 'poison-oak.' There was the enemy round to the right of us, round to the left of us, above us, and beneath us ; pressing against our hands and tickling our noses as with outstretched arms we laboured to make our way. Unconsciously we had run into the jaws of Rhus toxicodendron, and were in the middle of the trap before we had a suspicion of it. We were philosophical enough to know that under these cir- cumstances the fatal mischief was done already, if it were to be done at all ; and we had no doubt in deciding to push ahead and take our chance of some of the awful consequences which had been predicted by our American friends. In due time we got home after a delightful ramble, only tempered by the reflection that after taking such a powerful dose of ' poison -oak ' we were bound to be covered M'ith boils and blains and other horrors in a day or two. Nothing, however, happened to either of us ; 240 XO HARM DONE. and we might say with Tom Ingoldsby in the ' Jackdaw of Rheims :' — But what gave rise To no little surprise, Was that nobody seemed one penny the worse. So I will take my leave of this alarming vegetable in a spirit of gratitude for its gentle treatment of us, and with the hope of hearing more of its real properties from those who have had more experience of it. We found another charming walk along a broad path cut on the side of deeply wooded hiUs, and leading for a few miles over the high land and among the forest look- ing down upon the valley of the waterfall, before reaching which it lost itself in dark and shady wUds. Some of the conifers here were magnificent, and the open spaces were as usual full of flowers. The lilac bunches of Dodecatheon raised their heads higher and more densely than usual, and several species of ferns were flourishing better than in the valleys beneath. Among these was a peculiarly handsome one, with waving fronds about five feet long, and in appearance very like the Woodwardia radicans : but in this excursion we had very little bag- gage and no materials for preserving plants. The more I saw of this delightful neighbourhood, the more I enjoyed it. The park-like hills, the noble trees, the countless flowers, the shady walks, and rippling streams, must make it a paradise in the hot Californian summer. When we saw it, it was waking into the lovely resurrection of a genial spring, and there were abundant signs of endless hunting-grounds for a botanist or a general lover of Nature in some of her sweetest forms. I was very loath to part FAEEWELL TO CAUSTOGA. 241 from ' Laurel Cottage ' and tte many attractions and peace- ful retreats round the White Sulphur Springs of Calistoga ; but the inexorable hand of Time was pressing us upon the shoulder, forcing us into the railway, and driving us back to the crowded life of San Francisco. We had enjoyed some delightful glimpses of the pretty scenery of the coast ranges : we were now to make a fresh start to- wards the sublimer wonders of the Sierra Nevada. 242 CHILE AND CAIilFOBNIA. CHAPTER XI. Geoprrapliical comparison of Chile with California — Start for the Yosemit^ — • Judging distances — Deserted Diggings — Lonely Chinamen near Mariposa — Skelton's— A lively Mule in the Forest— The 'Devil's Gulch' and the ' Bjghop's Creek ' — Kite's Cove and the Miners — The Demi-john defunct — A Miner's Trm — The Mule heaten — Fallen Rocks — Arrival in Yosemitfi Valley. There is a eemarkable similarity between the geogra- phical position of Central California and that of Chile. The fertile plains of Chile extend for a distance of nearly 500 mUes from north to south, and are enclosed between the vast wall of the Andes on the east and the comparatively insignificant coast range on the west. The great central valley of California, traversed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, is about 400 miles in length, and is also enclosed throughout that distance by a coast range on the west and the snowy range of the Sieri'a Nevada on the east. These two ranges gradually converge at each end, meeting on the north near Mount Shasta, in about the latitude of 41° N., and meeting at the other extremity near the Tejon Pass in about 35° S. The great plains of Chile extend through the almost exactly corresponding latitudes of the southern hemisphere, namely, from about 33° to 41° south latitude. The coast range of California is lowest in the middle, near the neighbourhood of San Francisco, where the Monte Diablo, with its 3,856 feet, THE BACKBONE OF AMERICA. 243 and Mount Hamilton, with 4,400 feet, are tlie highest points. Northwards and southwards the elevation of this range rises considerably as it converges towards the main Sierra Nevada. Mount Shasta at the northern extremity is 14,400 feet above the sea ; many peaks of the Sierra Nevada are from 12,000 to 14,000 feet; and the highest of them in the south, which is named Mount Whitney in honour of the head of the geological survey, rises to 15,000 feet. The Sierra Nevada itself is only the western limit of the lofty mountainous plateaux which terminate on the east in the Rocky Mountains, properly so called, and which combine to form part of that marvellous mountain backbone of America which extends from Alaska to Pata- gonia, through more than a hundred degrees of latitude and sixty degrees of longitude, with a probable total length of about eight thousand miles ! In the greater part of this distance it divides the vast continent so as to cut off a comparatively narrow belt of more or less arid climate from the boundless regions of luxuriance towards the Atlantic ; and though California does not suffer from the amazing drought of "Western Peru, Bolivia, and a great part of Chile, nevertheless a large part of the State is apt to endure a very parching heat for a considerable portion of the year, and, like its South American sisters, it is finding the value of irrigation. Like Chile, its first fortunes were derived from mines and minerals; and, like it also, it has become alive to the fact that a rich soil properly managed pro- duces results better than gold in the manifold forms of the vegetable world. For the present, we are concerned mainly with the K 2 244 THE most central districts of Central California, that large region of the State which is enclosed between the coast range on the west side and the Sierra Nevada on the east. ' This portion of California,' says Professor "Whitney, ' is by far the most important, both from an agricultural and mining point of view. It does not embrace more than one-third of the State ; but it holds at least 95 per cent, of its population.' The upper half of the central valley is watered by the Sacramento river, and the lower half by the San Joaquin, both which rivers, aided by many branches, find their way from opposite directions into the Bay of San Francisco. The famous Yosemite Valley, for which we were first bound, is the cradle of the head waters of the Merced river, which, running nearly east and west, forms one of the chief feeders of the San Joaquin. The chief groups of ' Big Trees ' are at no great distance from it, and can generally be combined in an excursion of about ten days from San Francisco. There were plenty of agents in the city ready and eager to open the tourist season by selling us tickets for the ' round trip ; ' but it appeared evident fi*om the few reports as yet received from the mountains that the extraordinary amount of winter snow had made the season a month later than usual. The best and most attractive route is to go first to the Mariposa group of trees by way of White and Hatch's to Clark's Ranch, and down into the valley by a place called Inspiration Point, so named from the grandeur of the view afibrded by it. Everyone, however, agreed that the depth of snow would make it quite impossible to go by the Mariposa ' traU,' as it is customary to call a mountain road in ' BUFFALO JIM.' 245 California. We were advised to go to the Yosemit^ by a new route passing a place called Kite's Cove, and thence joining the trail from Coulterville. We were to be taken to the Yosemit^ and back for 58 dollars apiece, or nearly 12^. ; and, judging from the style and the amount of accommodation afforded for that sum of money, I imagine that somebody must have made an uncommonly good thing out of us. One afternoon in the middle of April we left at four o'clock by train to Lathrop and Merced, arriving about eleven at night in clean and comfortable quarters at a hotel called 'El Capitan.' Next morning, after a very early breakfast, we went to inspect the vehicle which was announced to take us on to the town of Mariposa. It was a small and seedy-looking char-a-banc with three seats very close together, each intended apparently for two people. Still we thought we might do pretty well, until to our horror we saw by degrees six more people emerge from the hotel with their bags, evidently intending to share the wretched trap with us. Remonstrance was useless ; the jobber who was making the arrangements declared that only one trap had been ordered : there it was, and we could have no more. It had a low roof supported on stanchions, with side-curtains, and it required an acrobatic feat with singular powers of bodily contortion to get in or out of it. The whole party was jammed in somehow or other, nine inside and one on the box by the side of the driver, who rejoiced in the name of ' Buffalo Jim,' and signed himself accordingly in the book of visitors when we got to Mariposa. We were full of wrath, but three of our fellow-passengers were 246 THE FAE WEST. American ladies wlio took it all so quietly that we had nothing to do but submit also, and devote ourselves to making friends with our new companions for the next few days. We got on very well together, and amused one another to the best of our ability, whenever the jolting of the vehicle did not make speaking dangerous, for fear of biting off the tip of the tongue before coming to the end of a sentence. Our new friends were from Michigan and Wisconsin, and had crossed the continent in the Great Railway ; and I was amused to find that on coming from the more Eastern States to California, they talked as if they were travelling in some foreign country. They could not understand our being in California without having gone to see 'the States^'' and I felt obliged to apologise on the ground that New York and Liverpool are so near that Englishmen think they can make a journey of that sort at any time. Certainly it seems strange to reflect that the continuous raUway journey from New York to San Francisco is about 500 miles longer than the voyage to Liverpool ! The idea of vastness in this journey had, I fancy, powerfully impressed the mind of one of the party, a very pleasant elderly man, and he told me an illustrative story which ought not to be lost. He said that a solitary Englishman once on a time arrived at some wild station in the Far West, where he found the landlord of the lonely inn with nothing to do, in default of travellers. The Englishman saw across the open expanse of country what he imagined was a small hill at no great distance, and asked his host to walk there with him. The American consented without a word, and JUDGING DISTANCES. 247 they walked on together foi' some hours, but the hill looked no nearer than before. The Englishman walked faster, followed by his host, who was determined not to give in, if he could help it. Presently he saw the Englishman stop and deliberately take off his shoes and stockings. As he was next turning up his trousers to the knee, the American came up and found him standing by the side of some sort of narrow ditch, ' HuUoa ! ' said he, ' what on airth are you about ? ' The Englishman said quietly, ' Well, I am going to ford this river.' ' River ! ' said his host, ' why it's only two foot wide ! why don't you jump over it, as I do ? ' ' Oh ! ' said the other, savagely, ' it's all very fine for you to talk like that, but how the devil am I to judge of distances in a confounded big country like this ? ' For some time we followed an excessively bad road near the side of a small river on our left hand, and a boundless extent of unfenced corn-land on the right. The immediate sides of the road were lined with brilliant flowers, and I observed that the countless lupines were all white on one bank of the river, and all blue on the other. Here, in addition to the masses of blue and white nemo- phila, poppies, borages, escholtzias, and others of our beautiful old friends, were two magnificent species of larkspurs, one of them with flowers of the most intense purple that can be imagined. There was also a great quantity of a liliaceous plant, closely resembling the blue Agapanthus of our greenhouses; and in open places farther on there were acres of a dark-yellow composite plant, whose starry flowers were tipped with a delicate primrose tint. Now and then, as the road turned close to 248 A FRIGHTFUL JOLTING. the river, we put up a few ducks and other startled water-birds from under the steep bank. The road was as bad as bad could be; full of deep ruts and quagmires, which on more than one occasion made Buffalo Jim prefer taking his team across country for awhile, and then re- joining it. Once we met a loaded waggon with a team of twelve horses coming towards us : there was no room to pass, so we, being the weakest, went to the wall, and were nearly capsized in charging up into a cornfield. What we endured in the way of bumping and jolting can hardly be described. Suffice it to say that we frequently were thrown upwards till our heads struck the roof, and the seats were so narro w and so abominably contrived that those on the outside, after a jump of this kind, came down again violently upon an iron rail in a manner which fills my bones with aches as even now 1 think of it. In my agonies I hit upon the device of keeping my hand upon the hateful bar, and found it was decidedly a more comfort- able substance to alight upon. After all, however, I believe, from what I have since heard, that we were suffering the joys of Paradise compared with those who travel in Cali- fornia in summer; when in place of mud and jolting tempered with sweet air and myriads of flowers, they are too often choked and blinded with intolerable dust as they rattle over a brown and thirsty land. We stopped to water the horses at a small farmhouse, by the side of some trees which were crowded with birds' nests of very curious construction, each of them made fast to a single twig. The scenery improved vastly as we gradually rose above the damp and level corn-lands, and wound along among the rolling hills and scattered groves A NATURAL PARK. 249 of trees which make a large part of California like one gigantic park. No landscape gardener could place the groups of various trees in better position than they have been left in here by the hand of Nature; and the open spaces as far as we could see presented all the colours of the paint-box, according to the nature of the predominant flowers with which each hill-side was covered as with a glorious carpet. Here and there we saw very singular- looking groups and irregular rows of slaty rocks, project- ing almost vertically out of the ground, and coloured gaily with red and yellow lichens. At first sight, they suggested the idea of a vast deserted cemetery, full of ancient tombstones, and ornamented by scattered groups of oak and fir trees. As we drew nearer to the famous mining town of Mariposa, there were abundant signs of deserted diggings by the road-side. Heaps of broken stones testified to the patience and labour of those who had worked hard and gone away with very difierent results. AU was quiet and peaceful now ; but as I looked at those piles of stony fragments, I could not but think of the scenes that must have been enacted here a few years ago. What wild joy, what dull despair, must have passed through the minds of those whose very soul was devoted to tearing gold out of the earth! What savage quarrels, what wild orgies, were entered into by some of those who washed, and pounded, and piled up those heaps of now deserted stones ! Nearer the town we came upon an occasional ghastly Chinaman, a mere bag of bones, trying to extract a treasure from the leavings of departed diggers, poking laboriously among the debris^ and looking just like a very old woman 250 A CLEVER DOG. investigating the contents of a dust-heap. Poor wretches! It was hard to believe that a Celestial could look so pro- foundly miserable. The distance to Mariposa was said to be only thirty- five miles, but the state of the road was such that we spent eight hours over it; and the amount of bumping and cramping that we had endured made us all uncom- monly glad to wriggle out of the vehicle at the door of the little hotel of Mariposa about four o'clock in the afternoon. The house was kept by a very pleasant Ger- man from the neighbourhood of Baden-Baden ; a store opposite to him, where we went to get some first-rate tobacco, belonged to another German family from Wur- temburg; and I soon found that in both cases the way to the German heart was to talk to them a little in their native tongue about their native country. A very amus- ing inhabitant of the hotel was a large brindled dog, who, at the word of command, went into the back garden, where he popped into the interior of a vertical wheel about ten feet in diameter, and drew the water for the house by trying to run up the inside of the wheel and turning it after the fashion of a squirrel in his cage. He worked with a steady energy which was delightful to behold. Mariposa is a scattered little place permeated by the Mariposa Creek, and it seemed to have been shorn of some of the dignity it might have formerly possessed by the diminution of the gold-digging interest, added to the effects of one of those disastrous fires which are constantly devouring the wooden habitations of America. Pretty wooded hills rise on both sides of the valley ; T NOBLE CONIFERS. 251 rambled up one of them while waiting for dinner, and found a floral novelty in a delicate yellow Erythronium {E. lan- ceolatum, I believe): a family which is represented in Europe by the well-known 'dog-tooth violet' of our gardens in early Spring. Everything in the house was, as might be expected, of a very simple description ; but we were tolerably supplied with materials for food and sleep, and went oiF early next morning with light hearts as s