After a pretty favorable passage of seven days, we anchored on the 30th of June in the harbor of Valparaiso.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Bombilla is the name given to this pipe, and the cup or gourd in which the decoction of the mate is prepared, is called the macerina.
CHAPTER II.
Valparaiso and the adjacent country—The Bay—Aspect of the Town—Lighthouses—Forts—Custom House—Exchange—Hotels and Taverns—War with the Peru-Bolivian Confederation—First Expedition—Preparations for the Second Expedition—Embarkation of the Troops—Close of the Port—July Festival in honor of the French Revolution—The Muele, or Mole—Police—Serenos, or Watchmen—Moveable Prisons—Clubs—Trade of Valparaiso—Santiago—Zoology.
The impression produced by the approach to Valparaiso on persons who see land for the first time after a sea voyage of several months' duration, must be very different from that felt by those who anchor in the port after a passage of a few days from the luxuriantly verdant shores of the islands lying to the south. Certainly, none of our ship's company would have been disposed to give the name of "Vale of Paradise" to the sterile, monotonous coast which lay outstretched before us; and yet, to the early navigators, its first aspect, after a long and dreary voyage, over the desert ocean, might naturally enough have suggested the idea of an earthly paradise.
Along the sea coast there extends a range of round-topped hills, 15 or 16 hundred feet high, covered with a grey-brownish coating, relieved only here and there by patches of dead green, and furrowed by clefts, within which the bright red of tile-roofed houses is discernible. Half-withered cactus trees, the only plants which take root in the ungenial soil, impart no life to the dreary landscape. The hills continue rising in undulating outlines, and extend into the interior of the country, where they unite with the great chain of the Andes.
The bay of Valparaiso is open on the north and west; on the south it is protected by a little promontory called the Punta de Coromilla. In this direction the shore is steep and rocky, and the waves break against it with great fury. From the Punta de Coromilla the bay extends from east to north-west in the form of a gently curved crescent, having a sloping, sandy beach, which rises very gradually towards the hills. On the north side of the bay there are several small inlets, almost inaccessible and edged with steep rocks. The bay is sometimes unsafe, for it is completely unsheltered on the north, and the heavy gales which blow from that point frequently end in storms. At those times the bay is furiously agitated, the waves sometimes rising as high as in the open sea, and the ships are obliged to cast their sheet-anchors. Many vessels have at various times been driven from their anchorage, cast ashore, and dashed to pieces on a rock called Little Cape Horn; for, when a violent gale blows from the north, it is impossible to get out to sea. Sailors are accustomed to say that in a violent storm they would rather be tossed about on the wide ocean than be at anchor in the bay of Valparaiso. But against the south wind, though sometimes no less boisterous than the northern gales, the harbor affords secure refuge, being perfectly sheltered by the Punta de Coromilla.