CHAPTER XLIX.
Valparaiso:—Quillota:—Letter to President Brigham Young.
January 19, 1852.
We have continued to reside in Valparaiso, and to study Spanish diligently until this day. We make much progress, being already able to understand in part that which we read in the Spanish Scriptures, and in the daily papers, as well as in history. We have also gathered much general information of the countries of Spanish America, their manners, customs, laws, constitutions, institutions—civil, religious, etc.
Revolutions have been in progress more or less in nearly all Spanish America during the past year.
In Chili the present revolution has ended with the loss of many thousand lives, and without success.
In Buenos Ayres it still rages, and a great battle is soon expected between the combined armies of Brazil and Montevideo on the one part, and Buenos Ayres on the other—the two armies amounting to near twenty-five thousand men each, as reported.
Priestcraft reigns triumphant in all these countries, as by law established; and by law paid and supported—by marriages and christening fees, forgiving sins, etc.
In Chili the charges are as follows: Twenty-five dollars for a marriage, and one dollar for christening. For forgiveness of sins there are various prices to suit the circumstances of the customers.
We departed from Valparaiso in a cart drawn by oxen, and arrived on the morning of the twenty-fifth at Quillota—a small town situated in a beautiful and fertile valley on a river thirty-six miles from Valparaiso.