With these scientific aims were united others of a political nature, our Commodore having been honoured with H.I. Majesty's commands to enter into a commercial treaty with the free Republic of Chile. For this purpose Commodore von Wüllerstorf had gone to Santiago in company with the Austrian Consul-General, M. J. F. Flemmich, and the author of this narrative, the two geologists and the draughtsman of the Expedition having set out thither some days before.
The journey to the capital of Chile is not among the most inviting. There are numerous crests of mountains (questas) to be crossed en route, which at many points are steep, not to speak of the bad construction of the roads, and the little care taken to keep them in order. Frequently the carriage rolls along the very verge of a profound abyss; the soil seems about to give way, gravel and stones plunge thundering down, while neither wall nor wooden railing intervenes to prevent the traveller from following them. Moreover, the vehicles in ordinary use are not calculated to diminish the perils of such a journey, especially if it is an object to arrive speedily at one's destination, when the regular national coach, the Birloche, as it is called, must be used. It is a sort of double-seated two-wheeled cabriolet drawn by two horses, while five or six horses trot alongside, which furnish the change of horses when required. The driver rides one of the horses, as in Havannah, and is wonderfully skilful in his way. He usually wears the national brown-covered poncho (a quadrangular piece of cloth with an opening in the centre through which the head passes), a small straw hat, linen pants, and on his bare feet enormous, heavy spurs, sometimes fastened by a piece of leather, sometimes with a mere cord.
We pushed forward without stoppage as far as Casa Blanca, one of the most ancient settlements of Chile, which, however, as previously remarked, has always preserved its village-like aspect. Here we fell in with several very handsome ladies,
elegantly dressed, each sporting a gigantic crinoline. They had come from the neighbouring haciendas to Casa Blanca to be present at a race-meeting. Having dispatched a hasty meal, we pushed busily forwards, and reached the village of Curacavi, where travellers to the capital usually pass the night. No great provision is made here in the shape of good inns, for considerable as is the traffic of loaded waggons, conveying merchandise and produce, the number of travellers is very limited, and even the few whom business or pleasure induces to visit the capital are for the most part natives of the country, or Europeans long resident, who usually take up their quarters with acquaintances or business connections, and are therefore exempt from all necessity to look after their comfort. Travellers who spend the night in such inns generally carry with them insect-powder, as the number of fleas and other troublesome insects is legion!!
At the capital, Santiago, the traveller is somewhat better off as regards houses of entertainment, and the Hotel Ingles (English Hotel), kept by a Frenchman, may not only boast of elegant apartments and an excellent cuisine, but surpasses all European hotels in expensiveness.[105]
Santiago de Chile lies in a beautiful fertile valley, and would present a much more imposing appearance, were it not that, owing to the frequency of earthquakes, the majority of the houses were built only one storey high. The long straight
streets intersecting each other at right angles, are in a state calling loudly for sanitary regulation; uneven, badly ballasted, with huge ruts at the sides, so that it is difficult to say whether the foot-passenger or the charioteer is the worst off. Much of this is due to the number of heavy two-wheeled carretas or country waggons, drawn by six or eight oxen, in which all produce is conveyed from the interior of the country to the harbour, and foreign merchandise transported from the sea-board to the capital. On our journey hither we counted 124 of these lumbering vehicles, creaking and rattling on their way; but there are on the average 300 such on the road between Santiago and Valparaiso. A good deal of the less bulky merchandise is also carried on horse or mule-back.
Of striking public buildings Santiago is almost as destitute as Valparaiso, the Mint,[106] which dates from the time of Spanish Supremacy, being the sole building worth noticing. The city also boasts of a Plaza, a large quadrangular, open spot, of no special elegance, although it has on one side the Cathedral, still in process of erection, on the other a range of private dwellings with arcades beneath, in which nestle swarms of stall-vendors, besides several Government buildings which are concentrated here. Of public promenades, the Alameda, a long, wide poplar-alley, is, beyond all question, the finest, as well as most frequented, especially on Sundays and holidays. The period of our visit, the winter of
the Southern Hemisphere was not favourable to our carrying away a correct impression of the public walks at their gayest, especially when, as in our case, the weather is raw and gloomy, and the mournful rustle of dead leaves sounds like the elegy of departed gaiety. Thus, for example, the dam along the sides of the river, the waters of which in the rainy season swell into a furious torrent, but the bed of which was now quite dry, forms in summer a delightful walk; whereas in winter it is only visited by students, preachers meditative of their next discourse, or lovers oblivious of the elements.