raised in great abundance, and I saw many extensive vineyards. The grapes will not dry into raisins ; but from them are manufactured large quantities of a miserable description of wine called "chicha," the common drink of the country people. Chili abounds in copper mines, and it has some of gold and silver. The shortness of my stay did not admit of my visiting the mines about Santiago. The copper mines on the coast, more to the northward, are the most profitable, as they yield more abundantly, and supply the richest ores. Copper ore, wheat, hides, tallow, horns, and timber, are the natural exports from Chili. Hides, tallow, and horns were scarce at the time of my visit, and commanded high prices. Of the foreign commercial houses in Valparaiso, the English take the first rank, the Americans next, and then come Germans, French, and Italians; but unquestionably the greater proportion of foreign commerce is conducted by the English. In Chili, no man's signature is valid without a flourish appended, although the flourish subscribed to a promissory note or other document without the signature is esteemed legally binding. In illustration and confirmation of this, the following anecdote was instanced: A man who could not write, but who had amassed considerable wealth, and was in the habit of negotiating monetary matters to some extent, had a bill presented to him subscribed by a x, the party's usual sign-manual. Having attentively considered it, he denied the genuineness of the document, and declared it to be a forgery. The matter was submitted to the tribunal; when the president inquired, CLIMATE AND DISEASE. 279 how as one cross was so like another, he could prove the individual one in dispute before the court was not of his own design. The man submitted that it would be a great hardship to compel him to betray the secret that was his sole protection, but if the president would solemnly bind himself not to divulge it, he would convince him that the cross attached to the bill now in court was a forgery. The president gave the necessary assurances, and the man explained, that on each occasion of making his cross, he invariably used his thumb as a guide to both strokes; and he produced many documents, and every cross corresponded in its diagonal strokes to the outline of his thumb. The holder of the forgery was nonsuited. Valparaiso enjoys a temperate and healthy clime; but in the summer months it is an exceedingly disagreeable place of abode, as the strong winds then prevailing from the southward involve it in clouds of dust and showers of sand, which renders quitting your house not only unpleasant, but absolutely painful. The country, though salubrious, is subject to periodical visits of that ravaging disease, the smallpox; and there is a pit on the plaiyanche, near the lighthouse, where the bodies of the poorer classes are thrown in just as they may have died. I had the curiosity to examine it; and there, in a festering heap, lay male and female, infant and adult, old and young, ruthlessly hurled together; the slimy and mouldering garments of the hapless wretches adding to the melancholy horrors of the revolting spectacle. I am at a loss to divine the wisdom of thus exposing to strangers the baleful disorders of the country, and the little respect that is shown to the dead. Valparaiso is liable to repeated shocks of earthquakes, and it was matter of surprise that, during my stay, none were experienced. It is usual for a shock of greater or less violence to occur every week, and sometimes oftener. They have created more alarm at what might be the consequences than serious damage. But Concepcion to the southward, and Realejo to the northward, have both been laid in ruins. There is consequently a want of security in household property, which, though by no means generally admitted, is, I can plainly see, sufficiently felt. The aboriginal race would appear to be extinct in this part of Chili, as during my peregrinations I did not fall in with a single Indian. CHAP. XI. The classes that should quit England. Under weigh for Tahiti. Gambier's Islands.-French Priests and their Influence. Timoe or Crescent Island. Osnaburg Island, or Matilda Rocks.— Sight Anā.-Drop Anchor in Taonoa Passage, Tahiti.- French Protection forced on Tahiti by Admiral du Petit Thouars.—Taken to the Calliboose by Natives.-A Dish of Sauce from a Mutineer. - Condolence from a Descendant of the House of Israel. Liberation from Confinement. - The Captors tried and fined. — The Author of " Typee" and " Omoo."— His Memory assisted. — Commodore Wilkes. -Bound for Raiatea.-Industry of the Natives. - Tapoa, the King of Borabora. -Tahaa and its Reefs, &c. - Bound on another Pearling Voyage. — The Island of Ohiteroa or Rurutu.-Tedious Passage to Rapa. - Engage Divers with Difficulty.-Tioo.-The Queen of Rapa. - Her Character for Gallantry. — Religion of the People. A narrow Escape. Bass's Rocks. Adverse Winds. Gambier's Islands again. Conduct of French Priests. - Behaviour of Mareva Natives. Leave Gambier's Islands. A Comet.- Sight Lord Hood's Island.-Les four Facardines.-Thrum Cap Island. — At Anchor in the Lagoon of Bow Island.-Engage Bow Islanders - Sudden Sickness and Death of a Native.-Visible Tokens from the Tupapan.-An Arrival from Amann.-Perfidy of a Sandwich Islander.- Fishing Excursions.- Cease Diving for want of Food.- A Fugitive from the Island of Faeatae. -Return of the Schooner.-Captain's Report. - The Jules de Blosville, a French Brig. Conduct of her Captain. Give up Diving. · Remarks on Pearls.-The "Doctor's" Saucepan. A Calm. - Aviri, or Prince William Henry Island. A Gale.. Sight Rapa. Go ashore in a Boat. Superstitiously accounted for. Parting Benediction from Rapa. - Gale renewed. Speak the French Barque Jules César.-The Gale continues. Again fall in with the Jules César. - Isle Masafuera. Juan Fernandez. Reach Valparaiso. Arrival of a Schooner. - Bad Passage made by every Vessel coming from the Westward. Loss of the Vessel into which Cargo had been transhipped at Tahiti for Sydney. "Thy spirit, Independence, let me share, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky." I WOULD recommend any young man, "grounded in the rudiments," capable of using his hands, or possessing any kind of useful knowledge, and who may be ashamed to work in England, or who may be struggling for mere existence, or the means of concealing that poverty which is blighting his soul, to quit it; never mind in what capacity, or how humiliating for the time. England is too crowded with shabby gentility for it to obtain much trust; and to confess poverty is almost as good a recommendation as a written discharge from Bridewell. on a young man's going abroad, if there is no stain upon his character, more sympathy is felt towards him by his countrymen, and the generous hand of assistance is much more promptly extended. But Let him refrain from abusing any change in his fortune for the better, and ten chances to one but he succeeds in life. Too many, after finding themselves relieved from a life of pinching care and griping necessity, are apt to fall into excesses by too freely indulging in those pleasures which were formerly beyond their reach. Above all things, let him abstain |