LXXVIII.
Santiago, Capital of Chili, March 24, 1852.
On entering the harbor of Valparaiso, I was struck with the number of vessels anchored in its deep bay, sheltered from all but the northers, which are at times most destructive to shipping. It has great depth of water, say from sixty to eighty fathoms, near the shore; from the broken and peculiar formation of the many clay-covered hills in the background, with deep ravines, and huts, and frame dwellings clustered on the side, above the narrow city below, it appears not unlike a town of stairs, the dry and parched appearance of the summits affording no vegetation, there having been no rain for many months. Much movement and commercial life are there; the shattered buildings of last year’s earthquake are mostly repaired; the hotels are very fair; the number of foreigners large, and the population upwards of fifty thousand. The civil war of last autumn having ceased, the newly elected president has been received by all classes on his arrival from the capital, and remains the guest of the city. He is a lawyer, and occupies a high judicial position; he is the first civil governor Chili has ever had; his opponent, General Cruz, who attempted to nullify his election, was defeated with the loss of four thousand men in one battle.
I had brought letters from Rio Janeiro for the officers of the flag ship Raritan and St. Lawrence, and had gone on board the former to pay the commodore a visit, when the latter entered the harbor, having left Rio two weeks before us, going round the Horn; but our ship had made the quickest passage on record—fifteen days and twenty-two hours, moving time, via the Straits. A salute of thirteen guns was received, and nine returned, agreeable to rank. The Portsmouth has also just arrived from Rio. Mr. Peyton, our Ambassador here, tells me that he has just received advices from Ecuador, that General Flores has been fitting out an expedition from Callao to Guayaquil, and the presence of this ship will be required there. These South American Republics, which do not merit the name, are almost always in confusion, you perceive. We found that the American vessel which had been seized by convicts at Port Famine, had arrived in the harbor of Valparaiso, having been rescued from the pirates by an English steamer; the ringleaders will soon be executed. I regretted to learn that the owner, who was barbarously hung, and whose body was burned, was an acquaintance, he having on one occasion conveyed me from New Orleans to Havana; I saw him last at San Francisco. The Captain is now here, accompanied by Mr. Duer, our consul at Valparaiso, prosecuting claims against the Chilian government; but I fear it will be very slow work. The usual mode of travel from Valparaiso, a distance of ninety miles, is in biloches, a sort of heavy gig with two and three horses, each mounted by postillions, the outside ones attached at will by heavy straps at each side of the shafts, and fastened with hooks to a heavy saddle; the riders attach or detach themselves at full speed, going with the greatest velocity up and down mountains and over a desert country, where nothing is seen but bushes and scraggy shrubs in a sandy soil. A few places are seen on the road where peach and pear trees, as well as grapes, are found, but the country is destitute of water most of the distance. The horses are driven ahead in a drove, and changed as required.
The Bilocheros have the habit of racing; a certain rivalry exists between them, and where opportunity offers they go at full speed up and down the hills, and over the plains, regardless of horse-flesh, which is only nominal in price. We made the distance in twenty-four hours, passing part of the night at a small village, where the fleas disputed possession stoutly, and we were glad to make a start at three in the morning to escape them. We had clouds of dust from the large numbers of laden mules and ox-carts. The entire elevation is some two thousand five hundred feet to the base of the Andes, a chain of Cordilleras, which show their snow-clad summits beautifully as you approach the delightful and extended valleys of Santiago, and it is gratifying to discern the well watered plain, with its long lines of poplars and willows in the distance. Bridges are thrown across the river, or mountain torrent, which is not unlike the Po at Nice, and the rides along the banks of the stream in this genial climate, with its vineyards and fruit trees, amply compensate for the trouble of getting here. The rides up the mountains give you a fair view of the city, which is extensive, and has a population of some ninety thousand. It is the residence of all the foreign ministers, and the seat of government; it derives its revenues from silver mines, and its agricultural products; it has a good supply of red porphyry for sidewalks; its streets are wide and long, and paved with small pebbles; its houses are mostly built of adobe, or unburnt brick, which resist the shocks of earthquakes. The cathedral is rather dangerous, being somewhat shattered. There is a corps of United States astronomical engineers here, whose observatory is placed on the summit of the little hill of Santa Lucia. I find an acquaintance here, in the person of the French minister, whose family came out with us in 1849. One of the church festivals has just taken place by torchlight, in the Alameda, the pride of the city, a promenade of a mile in length, with six rows of tall Florentine poplars, and pure streams of running water the entire distance.
Large numbers of ladies are seen in church-dresses, with black mantas covering the head; the people are not of the pure Castilian type as in the south of Spain, many showing signs of descent from the Indian race. The countrymen all wear the ponchos, of various colors; the poncho is a blanket with a hole in the centre, through which the head is passed, and falls over the shoulders. The women of that class wear men’s panama-hats, with long hair plaited, and falling in two parts over the back. It is curious to notice the primitive manner in which some things are done here. The watering of the streets is done by a muleteer on the back of his animal, which carries two small twenty gallon kegs, one lashed on each side; these are filled at the top from the fountain. When he arrives at the dusty spot he pulls the cork from the bottom and starts his mule on a trot until the contents are scattered, and then returns for fresh supplies. One of the curiosities shown here is the first house built by Valdivia in 1560. It is a one-story adobe dwelling, with gratings above near the roof, in order to give ventilation and light, and to prevent attacks of Indians by openings below; it has had additions since. The wheat crops are excellent, and the exportation of flour and beans from Chili to California is very heavy. We visited the chacras or farms in the valleys, where thousands of bushels of grain were exposed in heaps in the open air, without fear of rain, having been trodden out by cattle, and numbers of men, employed at fifteen cents per day, and found, were throwing up the wheat to the breeze, which carries off the chaff and winnows it perfectly. Labor is improving, however, and in the cities fifty cents per day, and one dollar twenty-five cents for mechanics, are paid, in consequence of the great emigration to California. Two vessels lately sailed thither with two hundred emigrants each, and from personal experience I know that very many Chilians are found in that country. Vast sums have been realized here from Eldorado for products, and large mills are now being erected in the south for the supplies of that market, though too late, I think, as Oregon can produce immense quantities when once the population becomes more dense. The transportation of products from this capital to Valparaiso is performed by heavy ox-carts, many with covers resembling small round-top houses with windows; these covers are a protection during the winter months, which commence in June, also against the sun’s rays in summer, which has already passed; they travel now mostly by night, with a brilliant sky, and you see families of women and children occupying their tenement by the desert road-side, or cooking the supplies brought with them. They train their oxen not only to pull, but to hold back the load by the horns; they have four yoke for the immense zigzag cuttings, a mile and a half in the ascent; they then reverse the order of things, and the poor beasts are seen behind, with heads bowed to the ground, holding back, and almost tripped off their legs, and not unfrequently off go the whole troop down the precipice and are dashed in pieces.
A nephew of the president joined me in coming up from Valparaiso, his family having left earlier, and we overtook them and dined on the road. They were going to his chacra, in another direction. At the little village where we stopped at night, he introduced me to the Catholic curate of this poor place, who regaled us with cakes and matte from Paraguay; matte is the leaf of a tree much in use as a substitute for tea and coffee, and sucked through a tube; we passed the evening in conversation and smoking cigarettes, until the time came to be devoured by fleas in bed.
The English steamers touch at half-a-dozen towns on the way up to Peru, giving an opportunity of passing a day at each. I shall embark from Valparaiso in a few days for Callao and Lima.