Stay from 17th April to 11th May, 1859.
Importance of Chile for German emigration.—First impressions of Valparaiso.—Stroll through the city.—Commercial relations of Chile with Australia and California.—Quebrada de Juan Gomez.—The roadstead.—The Old Quarter and Fort Rosario.—Cerro Algre.—Fire Companies.—Abadie's nursery-garden.—Campo Santo.—The German community and its club.—A compatriot festival in honour of the Novara.—Journey to Santiago de Chile.—University.—National Museum.—Observatory.—Industrial and agricultural schools.—Professor Don Ignacio Domey Ko.—Audience of the President of the Republic.—Don Manuel Montt and his political opponents.—Family life in Santiago.—Excursion trip on the southern railroad.—Maipú Bridge.—Melepilla.—The Hacienda of Las Esmeraldas.—Chilean hospitality.—Return to Valparaiso.—Quillota.—The German colony in Valdivia.—Colonization in the Straits of Magellan.—Ball at the Austrian Consul-general's in honour of the Novara.—Extraordinary voyage of a damaged ship.—Departure of the Novara.—Voyage round Cape Horn.—The Falkland Islands.—The French corvette Eurydice.—The Sargasso sea.—Encounter with a merchant-ship in the open ocean.—Hopes disappointed and curiosity excited.—Passage through the Azores channel.—A vexatious calm.
The free State of Chile enjoys a higher degree of tranquillity than any of the former Spanish dependencies of South America,
and in climate, in fertility, and in liberal institutions, transcends all others in affording the European emigrant the best prospects of a prosperous future.
Chile possesses a constitution which many a European state might envy, the civil freedom, which forms the basis of all laws, and just now is so eagerly debated and investigated in some parts of Europe, having been in practical operation here for upwards of a quarter of a century, during which it has materially contributed to develope the resources of the country and the prosperity of its inhabitants. Owing to the disturbed state of the American Confederation, hitherto the El Dorado of European emigration, countries such as Chile, of an extent similar to that of England and Greece together, and with a population barely exceeding one million of men, possess the very highest attraction. True, at the period of our visit the long-enjoyed political tranquillity was for a while disturbed by a revolutionary convulsion, but it has cost neither time nor trouble to suppress it, upon which the leaders, more ambitious than patriotic, took to flight, and public order and safety were reinstated upon the broad basis of a constitution, which was wisely drawn up so as to admit of keeping pace with the times.
We beheld Chile under anything but its normal favourable aspect; many of the leading families of the country had been plunged by political troubles into grief and mourning; trade was falling off; the ordinary buoyant disposition of the Chileno had given place to painful anxiety; yet all we
heard and saw during our stay at so unpropitious a period, only served to strengthen our conviction that a great and splendid future awaits this delightful country.
He who merely lands at a seaport such as Valparaiso, and wanders through its lengthy but elegant streets, carries away with him no just conception of Chile and the life of the country beyond the Andes. Everything about the town, houses, shops, and population, has quite a European aspect, so that the stranger walking through some of the streets with their lofty grey edifices, gay signs, and large and splendid magazines, abounding in everything that can minister to human luxury, might readily fancy himself transported to some northern European capital. Nothing is here to tell of its being the native country of the Araucanian, nothing recalls that singular national aboriginal type, and it is only when contemplating the majestic forms of the surrounding landscape that he can realize that he is actually in the proximity of Andes, "giant of the Western Star."
One of our first walks through the city, the buildings of which extend, row after row, for a considerable distance along the bay, and surmount the hillocks (Quebradas) which rise at a short distance from the shore, brought us to the Aduana, or Custom-house, one of the most extensive, beautiful, and commodious buildings in the city, which, commenced in 1850 by a Frenchman, was finished six years later by an American, named John Brown. The ground on which the various buildings are erected was quite recently gained from the sea
by embankment, as was also done in the case of the existing Plaza de Armas, and the wide and graceful Calle de Planchada, both which sites were under water less than twenty years since!