neath their shade. In the course of our four hours' drive, we
crossed a great many streams, in some of which the water was deep
enough to come in at the bottom of the carriage, and cause us to tuck
ourselves up on the seats; there was always a little pleasing
excitement and doubt, as we approached one of these rivulets, as to
whether we were to be inundated or not. We met a good many people
riding and walking about in their holiday clothes, and at all the
cabarets groups of talkers, drinkers, and players were assembled.

The cottages we have seen by the roadside have been picturesque but
wretched-looking edifices, generally composed of the branches of trees
stuck in the ground, plastered with mud and thatched with reeds. Two
outhouses, or arbours, consisting of a few posts and sticks, fastened
together and overgrown with roses and other flowers, serve
respectively as a cool sitting-room and a kitchen, the oven being
invariably built on the ground outside the latter, for the sake of
coolness. The women, when young, are singularly good-looking, with
dark complexions, bright eyes, and luxuriant tresses, which they wear
in two plaits, hanging down their backs far below the waist. The men
are also, as a rule, fine-looking. In fact, the land is good, and
everybody and everything looks prosperous. The beasts are up to their
knees in rich pasture, are fat and sleek, and lie down to chew the cud
of contentment, instead of searching anxiously for a scanty
sustenance. The horses are well fed, and their coats are fine and
glossy, and the sheep, pigs, and other animals are in equally good
condition. It is therefore a cheery country to travel through, and at
this spring-time of the year one sees it in its highest perfection.

Before reaching Talca we had to cross the Maule, a wide, deep river,
with a swift current. The carriage was first put on board a large
flat-bottomed boat, into which the horses then jumped, one by one, the
last to embark tumbling down and rolling among the legs of the others.
With a large oar the boat was steered across the stream, down which it
drifted about 200 yards into shallow water, where the boatmen jumped
out and towed us to a convenient landing-place. Here we found several
people waiting to be ferried over. A troop of mules having been driven
into the water, which they seemed rather to enjoy, swam across safely,
though they were carried some distance down the river.

About five o'clock we arrived at T