The chief engineer and director of the southern railway (Ferro Carril del Sur), a North American gentleman named Evans, a graduate of West Point, had the kindness to invite some members of the Expedition to visit the Maipú Bridge, distant some 17 miles from Santiago, and accompanied them in person on their excursion to this the most interesting engineering work of the line. We set off at 1 P.M. by one of the ordinary trains. The road is intended to unite Santiago
with the very productive district of Talca, a distance of 180 miles, and is destined to exercise a most beneficial influence in improving the position of the peasantry.
The drive through the valley of Santiago is exceedingly interesting, as the line keeps close beneath the Cordillera through nearly its entire length, thus revealing to the gaze of the astonished traveller a succession of Alpine landscapes, such as one might behold in crossing the Semmering Alp. The ordinary rate of travelling in Chile is 25 miles an hour, but the expresses occasionally run at the rate of 60 miles per hour. As the splendid pastures on either side are grazed by innumerable herds, some of which were constantly straying upon the line, the item for injury done to cattle used to assume serious proportions, owing to the negligence of the drivers, till the directors, under the advice of Mr. Evans, offered a premium of 30 dollars a quarter to any engine driver who should during that space avoid killing any of the cattle: a singular regulation, but which put a stop to the evil. The line is solidly constructed, but very simply equipped, the waiting-rooms at the different stations being entirely deficient in that luxury which the traveller is accustomed to on first-rate European lines. But it tells in favour of the dividend.[113]
The splendid and substantially-built iron bridge thrown over the Maipú here, 1500 feet wide, at an elevation of 1822 feet above the level of the sea, was like everything used on the line, with the exception of the wood, imported from North America. Of the difficulty and expense attending land-transport in Chile, some idea may be formed from the fact that the freightage of one ton of goods from New York to Valparaiso, 10,000 miles by sea, is but £1 1s., whereas the conveyance of the same quantity from Santiago to Valparaiso, only 100 miles, costs £7 7s.!!
Although evening surprised us ere we returned to Santiago from Maipú, and a dense mist hung over the landscape quite precluding all views for the greatest part of the road, we were so fortunate, shortly before our arrival at the city, as to be favoured with a glimpse of the majestic range of the Cordillera, lit up by the declining rays of the sun, a spectacle resembling the sunset splendours of the Alps in Switzerland; but the novelty of the details of which, coupled with its suddenness and brevity of duration, greatly deepened the impression of awe and admiration with which we regarded it.
At noon of the 30th of April we set out on our return to Valparaiso. On this occasion we availed ourselves of a different
kind of vehicle, an American mail-coach as it is termed, from its having been first organized by a North American, which admitted of our seeing a different range of country. In this journey we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by Mr. James Volckmann, a young German gentleman, who is an active colleague of the renowned geologist, Mr. Pissis, and has already himself contributed many valuable additions to our acquaintance with the geology of Chile. The coach stopping at Melepilla, the next station, a neat little town nestling on a level surface at the foot of a lovely valley, whence it was to proceed the following morning to the port, we took advantage of the opportunity to pay an impromptu visit to a Chilean family in the neighbourhood, to which we had introduction. We rode out accordingly to the hacienda of Las Esmeraldas, about two miles distant from Melepilla, where we were received like old friends of the hospitable family Lecaros. Most of the wealthy landowners of the country pass only a few months of each year in their splendid houses at Valparaiso or Santiago, and spend the rest of their time in affluent retirement upon their properties. The small, externally unsightly, mansion was furnished within with all that could minister to that genuine English notion of COMFORT; and the ladies, though the hour was so late that they could scarcely have expected any further visitors, received us in full Parisian toilette. This surprised us the more, inasmuch as the national costume is very much more graceful than that of Europe,—even an elderly female, dressed
in sombre-hued silk, and with a long black coif around the head, the left ribbon of which is turned over the right shoulder, having quite a unique, piquant, and attractive appearance.
Even here the conversation took a political tone, and it speedily came to light that the stay of the ladies at Las Esmeraldas at the present inclement season was attributable less to any admiration of the beauties of nature than to some political disagreement; for the Chilean ladies, like all their sex of the Latin stock, delight in political demonstrations. However, they are mainly taken up with keeping the Ultramontane element, the influence of which is everywhere apparent, within the limits assigned it by the Constitution itself. The head of the family, Don José Antonio Lecaro, an excellent energetic old gentleman, told us a great deal about his property, of the improvements he had made and was still projecting, and we regretted that the advanced hour prevented our examining this well-managed hacienda, which is so large that the pasturage can maintain several thousand horned cattle and horses. Nevertheless, so far as regards numbers of farm-animals, it is probable that the proprietor of Las Esmeraldas is very far from being among the most extensive land-holders of Chile.