ame name. While the horses were being
changed, we walked down to the little wooden pier, on the sea-shore,
and saw the 'Sunbeam' just coming out of Lota Bay.

Drawn up by the side of the pier was a picturesque-looking
market-boat, full of many sorts of vegetables, and little piles of
sea-eggs, with their spines removed, and neatly tied up with rushes in
parcels of three. The people seemed to enjoy them raw, in which state
they are considered to be most nutritious; and when roasted in their
shells, or made into omelettes, they are a favourite article of food
with all classes. Coronel is a great coaling station, and the bay,
which is surrounded by tall chimneys, shafts, and piers, connected
with the mines, was full of steamers and colliers.

Our road now ran for some time through undulating pasture-land, in
which were many large trees, the scene resembling a vast park. Masses
of scarlet verbena, yellow calceolaria, and white heath, grew on all
sides, while the numerous myrtle, mimosa, and other bushes, were
entwined with orange-coloured nasturtiums, and a little scarlet
tropaeolum, with a blue edge, whose name I forget. Beneath the trees
the ground was thickly carpeted with adiantum fern. The road over
which we travelled was of the worst description, and our luncheon was
eaten with no small difficulty, but with a considerable amount of
merriment. Once, when we jolted into an unusually big hole, the whole
of our provisions, basket and all, made a sudden plunge towards one
side of the coach, and very nearly escaped us altogether.

Half-way between Coronel and Concepcion, we met the return
stage-coach, crowded with passengers, and looking as if it had just
come out of the South Kensington Museum or Madame Tussaud's, or like
the pictures of a coach of Queen Elizabeth's time. It was a long low
vehicle, with unglazed windows all round it, painted bright scarlet
decorated with brilliant devices on every panel, and suspended, like
our own, by means of innumerable leather straps, from huge C springs.
The seats on either side held three passengers, and there was a stool
in the middle, like the one in the Lord Mayor's coach, on which four
people sat, back to bask.

Soon after we drew up to rest the horses at a little posada, kept by
two Germans, called 'Half-way House,' and seven miles more brought us
to a rich and well-cultivated farm belonging to Mr. Hermann, where we
stopped to change horses.

It was six o'clock in the even