Capital Is Here So Deficient, That The People Are
Obliged To Sell Their Green Corn While Standing In The Field,
In Order To Buy Necessaries For The Ensuing Year.
Wheat in
consequence was dearer in the very district of its production
than at Valparaiso, where the contractors live.
The next
day we joined the main road to Coquimbo. At night there
was a very light shower of rain: this was the first drop that
had fallen since the heavy rain of September 11th and 12th,
which detained me a prisoner at the Baths of Cauquenes.
The interval was seven and a half months; but the rain this
year in Chile was rather later than usual. The distant Andes
were now covered by a thick mass of snow, and were a glorious
sight.
May 2nd. - The road continued to follow the coast, at no
great distance from the sea. The few trees and bushes which
are common in central Chile decreased rapidly in numbers,
and were replaced by a tall plant, something like a yucca in
appearance. The surface of the country, on a small scale,
was singularly broken and irregular; abrupt little peaks of
rock rising out of small plains or basins. The indented coast
and the bottom of the neighbouring sea, studded with breakers,
would, if converted into dry land, present similar forms;
and such a conversion without doubt has taken place in the
part over which we rode.
3rd. - Quilimari to Conchalee. The country became more
and more barren. In the valleys there was scarcely sufficient
water for any irrigation; and the intermediate land was
quite bare, not supporting even goats. In the spring, after
the winter showers, a thin pasture rapidly springs up, and
cattle are then driven down from the Cordillera to graze
for a short time. It is curious to observe how the seeds of
the grass and other plants seem to accommodate themselves,
as if by an acquired habit, to the quantity of rain which
falls upon different parts of this coast. One shower far
northward at Copiapo produces as great an effect on the
vegetation, as two at Guasco, and three or four in this
district. At Valparaiso a winter so dry as greatly to injure
the pasture, would at Guasco produce the most unusual
abundance. Proceeding northward, the quantity of rain does
not appear to decrease in strict proportion to the latitude.
At Conchalee, which is only 67 miles north of Valparaiso,
rain is not expected till the end of May; whereas at Valparaiso
some generally falls early in April: the annual quantity
is likewise small in proportion to the lateness of the
season at which it commences.
4th. - Finding the coast-road devoid of interest of any
kind, we turned inland towards the mining district and
valley of Illapel. This valley, like every other in Chile, is
level, broad, and very fertile: it is bordered on each side,
either by cliffs of stratified shingle, or by bare rocky
mountains. Above the straight line of the uppermost irrigating
ditch, all is brown as on a high road; while all below is of as
bright a green as verdigris, from the beds of alfalfa, a kind
of clover. We proceeded to Los Hornos, another mining
district, where the principal hill was drilled with holes, like
a great ants'-nest. The Chilian miners are a peculiar race
of men in their habits. Living for weeks together in the
most desolate spots, when they descend to the villages on
feast-days, there is no excess of extravagance into which
they do not run. They sometimes gain a considerable sum,
and then, like sailors with prize-money, they try how soon
they can contrive to squander it. They drink excessively,
buy quantities of clothes, and in a few days return penniless
to their miserable abodes, there to work harder than beasts
of burden. This thoughtlessness, as with sailors, is evidently
the result of a similar manner of life. Their daily food is
found them, and they acquire no habits of carefulness: moreover,
temptation and the means of yielding to it are placed
in their power at the same time. On the other hand, in
Cornwall, and some other parts of England, where the system
of selling part of the vein is followed, the miners, from
being obliged to act and think for themselves, are a singularly
intelligent and well-conducted set of men.
The dress of the Chilian miner is peculiar and rather
picturesque He wears a very long shirt of some dark-coloured
baize, with a leathern apron; the whole being fastened
round his waist by a bright-coloured sash. His trousers are
very broad, and his small cap of scarlet cloth is made to fit
the head closely. We met a party of these miners in full
costume, carrying the body of one of their companions to be
buried. They marched at a very quick trot, four men supporting
the corpse. One set having run as hard as they
could for about two hundred yards, were relieved by four
others, who had previously dashed on ahead on horseback.
Thus they proceeded, encouraging each other by wild cries:
altogether the scene formed a most strange funeral.
We continued travelling northward, in a zigzag line;
sometimes stopping a day to geologize. The country was so
thinly inhabited, and the track so obscure, that we often had
difficulty in finding our way. On the 12th I stayed at some
mines. The ore in this case was not considered particularly
good, but from being abundant it was supposed the mine
would sell for about thirty or forty thousand dollars (that is,
6000 or 8000 pounds sterling); yet it had been bought by
one of the English Associations for an ounce of gold (3l.
8s.). The ore is yellow pyrites, which, as I have already
remarked, before the arrival of the English, was not supposed
to contain a particle of copper. On a scale of profits nearly
as great as in the above instance, piles of cinders, abounding
with minute globules of metallic copper, were purchased;
yet with these advantages, the mining associations, as is well
known, contrived to lose immense sums of money.
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