A Visit to Chile and the nitrate fields of Tarapacá ... With illustrations by Mr. M. Prior

Front matter

A VISIT TO CHILE AND THE NITRATE FIELDS On Deck. [Frontispiece. A VISIT TO CHILE AND THE NITRATE FIELDS OF TARAPACA etc. BY WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL, LLD. "gSitf) gUushaftorts BY MR. MELTON PRIOR LONDON J. S. VIRTUE & CO., Limited, 26, IVY LANE PATERNOSTER ROW LONDON : FEINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD. TO THE EEADER. For the views expressed in this book I alone am responsible. In the introductory remarks I state " How and Why " I went to Chile. Whatever I say of that country or of its people, is the outcome of personal opinion and observation. WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL. London, May, 1890. PAGE 5 CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY. CHILE AND THE NITRATE FIELDS OF TARAPACA WHY AND HOW I WENT THERE . 1

Chapter I. The Voyage

LISBON TO CORONEL. Our Fellow Travellers — The Calicia — Pastimes at Sea — St. Vincent — Cape Frio — Sharks and Sharpshooters — Rio de Janeiro — Yellow Fever — A Church Service at Sea— Tijuca — Whyte's Hotel — Difficult Banking Operations — A " Pampero " — The La Plata — Flores — Inland Quarantine — Monte Video — Cape Virgins — Patagonia — Straits of Magellan — Tierra del Fuego — Sandy Point or Punta Arenas — Ancient Mariners and Explorers — The Straits — The Scenery — The Fuegians — Cape Pillar — Entrance into the Pacific Ocean — Its Bad Behaviours

Chapter II. Coronel

Arrival at Coronel — The Town — The Arauco Railway Station — The Port of Coronel — Excursion to San Pedro — The Posada — The Bio Bio Bridge — Conception — Messrs. Hicks, Manby, and Bidder — The Present — The Future — The Coal Fields — Lota— Lota Parque — Departure from Coronel 33

Chapter IV. From Coronel To Valparaiso

The Coast Steamers — The Chiloe — The Pacotilleros — The Scenery — Tome — Sensitive Oysters — Talacuhano — Concepqion — The Tidal Wave — The Huascar and the Shah and Amethyst — Pierola's Prestige — British Complaints of the Foreign Office CONTENTS. VIII PAGE G7 87

Chapter V. Valparaiso

The Harbour and City— The Scenery— The Hotel de France— The " English Corsair," Francis Drake— The City as it is— European Influence- Foreigners and their Work — French, German, American, and British Clubs— The Chilian Press— The Suburbs ....

Chapter VI. President Balmaceda

Visit to Vifia del Mar— An Interview— The President's Policy— Exchange — The Dollar — Early Intelligence from Europe — The Cable— The Copper Syndicate 81

Chapter VII. Valparaiso To Santiago

The Railroad to Santiago— The City — The Streets— The Hotel Oddo— Santa Lucia — Colonel North's Reception by the President — The Cousino Parque — The O'Higgins Statue — Gubler and Cousifio's Brewery — Macul — A Picnic — The Vineyards — Macul Wine — The Club — Senor Maciver — The Cauquenes Station — The Drive to the Baths — Giant Cactus — Cauquenes Baths — The Establishment .

Chapter VIII. Baths Of Cauquenes

A Chilian Carlsbad — Senor Soto — Mr. Reed — The Corral — The Vaquero — Lassoing — The Samacuecca — Chilian Horsemen — An Equestrian People — Humming Birds — The Valley of the Cachapoal — A Picnic of Two — Farewell to Cauquenes 107

Chapter IX. Santiago Once More

Return to Santiago — President Balmaceda — St. Dominic — The Cemetery — The Holocaust of the Campaiia — Banquet at Valparaiso — Mr. Woodsend — The Cotopaxi— Hotel Colon— A Manta Difficulty — Don Luis Zegers — St. Vincent da Paula — The University — The Esmeralda Shield t CONTENTS. IX PACK 121

Chapter X. Valparaiso Vina Del Mar

Vina del Mar — Petitions and Petitioners — A Scholar in Distress — Excellent Askers, Givers, and Takers — Drink for the Church — A Herald of Winter — Farewell Festivities — How Small the World is !— The Great Ball — Captain Simpson — Departure from Vifia del Mar .

CHAPTER XL VALPARAISO TO IQUIQUE.

Departure from Valparaiso — The Serena — Aconcagua — The Coast of Chile — Birds and Fishes — Coquimbo — A Cosmopolitan City — The Copper Crash — Drive to Serena— "English Corsairs" — Early Visits to Serena — Huasco — Its Grapes — Carrizal — A Visit to a Workshop — Caldera — Spoils of War — Pacific Rollers — Antofagasta — Mr. Hicks' Anchor — Candidissima Causa Belli 128

Chapter XII. Iquique

Iquique — Friends in Waiting — The Nitrate Railway Station — The Water Boats — Festivities on the Coast — Mr. Rowland — Our Quarters — Anglo-Chilian Cuisine — Chilian Diet — Steamboat Fare — A Chilian " Crewe " — The City of Iquique — Its Wonders — The Fire Brigade — Living on Nitrate of Soda — Iquique in 1835 — Iquique in 1885 — Visitors from Above — Projectors — Mining Speculations — A Bird's-eye View from my Balcony — The March of the Trains — Up and Down the Andes 138

Chapter XIII. Iquique To The Pampas

The Ascent to the Pampas — The Moving Mountain — Molle — A Silver Mine — The Pampas — Darwin's Description — The Central Station — A Nitrate Clapham Junction — The Nitrate Kingdom — Pozo Almonte — The Resources of Civilisation — Saturnalia of the Salitreros — The Scenery — Maquinas — Buen Betiro — San Donato — Ramirez — The Liverpool Nitrate Company 160

Chapter XIV. Primitiva

Primitiva — Our Quarters — Mr. Humberstone — The Staff — The Workmen — The Pulperia — The Early Morning — Quo quousque ? — A Look Round — Drive to the Calicheras — The Operations on the Calichera CONTENTS. X PAGE 195

Chapter XV

Various Oficinas— Agua Santa— The War on the Pampas— Caleta Buena — Rosario di Huara— San Juan — Argentina — Ramirez — La Paccha — Jaz Pampa — Chilian Oficinas — Las Lagunas

Chapter XVI. The Nitrate Railway

Ignorance and Bliss — Raison d'etre of the Railway — Early Concessions and Forfeitures — Monopolies — New Companies and Loans — Lawsuits — ■ Mortgages— The War— The Nitrate Railway Company of 1882 — The New Loan — " Ikiki " — The Termini— The Decree against the Railway — The Appeal — The Decision of the Law Court— The President's Action — Diplomatic Interference 218

Chapter XVII. Visit To Pisagua Return To Iquique

Seals, Sea Lions, Pelicans, Sharks, and Swordfish — The Capture of Pisagua — The Railway Station — A Train for the Pampas — An Englishman's Experience of Peru — The Bolsa Men — Shipping the Nitrate — The Mussel Divers — The Nitrate Scales — The Bodega — Return to Iquique 227

Chapter XVIII. Earthquakes

Shocks at Iquique ; on the Pampas ; at Santiago — Effects of the Temblor —The Noise— The Effect— The Giant's Kick— The Tidal Wave- Make for the Open — The Mountains of Refuge — The Indian Woman and Child — H. M.S. Caroline — Pisagua — An Earthquake Register — Darwin's Remarks— The Moral Effects 240

Chapter XIX. Our Last Days In Chile

The Intendente— The Power of the Intendente— The Press— Gonzalo Bulnes — General Baquedano — Colonel Bulnes — Law and Lawyers — The Chilians— The Immigrants from Europe— Chile for the Chilians —"Viva Chile "—Preparations for the Voyage Home— Last Night in Iqnique— " Adelante ! "—Our Last Day— Adieux . . . .250 CONTENTS. XI PAGE

Chapter XX. From Iquique To Panama, Etc

Homeward Bound — The Cachapoal — Stowaways — The Paris Exhibition — Arica — Sad Anniversary — The Last of Chile pro tern. — Mollendo — Chala — Cruelty to Animals — Millions of Pelicans — Pisco — Callao — Lima — The War — Guayaquil — Panama — The Canal — Special to Colon and New York — Fever — Departure for Europe 258

Chapter XXI. The Genesis Of The Salinas

The Rainless Region — Darwin's Theory — Inland Arm of the Sea — Captain Castle — Inland Seas — Mr. David Forbes — The " Salinas " of Marine Origin — Recent Elevation of Coast — Salinas slowly formed — The Lagoon Hypothesis — Tropical Swamps — Vegetable Decomposition — Volcanic Exhalations not necessary — Doubts and Difficulties — The Chilian Commission — The Local Experts — Camanchaca — General Conclusions 289

Chapter XXII. Chile And Her Neighbours

The Pacific Coast — The South American Republics — Peru and Chile — Bolivia — Santa Cruz — The Confederation of Peru and Bolivia — The Liberating Army — Invasion of Peru by Chile — General Manuel Bulnes — Battle of Yungai — The Frontier Question — Bolivia and Chile — Melgarejo — The Desert of Atacama — The Secret Treaty — Mr. Hicks — Causa belli — Antofagasta — The Corruption of Riches— Mr. Rumbold's Warnings — Temptations — Crime and Violence — The Feudal System — Law and Order iu Chile — The Republic — An Oligarchy with a Chief — The Constitution — The Suffrage — The Council of State— The President's Messages 299

Chapter XXIII. Nitrate Of Soda Legislation

The Government of Peru — Attempts to Expropriate the Salinas — Compulsory Sales — Peruvian Certificates — The Export Duties — The War —Chilian Occupation — The Reaction — The Classification of Oficinas and Certificates, 1882 — Foreigners and Natives — Iquique — Initial Difficulties — 0 verprodttction — Restrictive Combinations — The Comite Salitrero — Comision de Peritos — Their Duties and Attributions — Their Measures — Their General Character — The Comite Salitrero Expires — Attempts to Combine to Regulate Production — The Government and the Nitrate Makers — Expediency of a Policy of Give and Take CONTENTS. PAGE

Chapter XXIV. The Uses Of Nitrate Of Soda

Guano — The Buccaneers — Known to Indians — Old Nitrate Works — Paradas — Fossilized Forests — The British Farmer — The Comite Salitrero — Prize Essays — Dr. Stutzer — Professor Damseaux — Professor Wagner — Lawes and Gilbert — -Experiments — Results — The Imports of Nitrate of Soda to Europe — Statistics .... 338 Appendix r &c. INTRODITCTOKY. WHY AND HOW I WENT THERE On 13th February, 1889, my wife and I embarked at Lisbon on board the Eoyal Pacific Steam Navigation Company's steamer Galicia, Captain Adey, for Valparaiso. But a few days previously, intending to spend a couple of months in Egypt, I ordered an outfit at Silver's, engaged apartments at Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo, and retained places to Ismailia in the Peninsular and Oriental Mirzapore for 7th February. We were leaving England that we might escape the remaining severities of a winter which had tried us both, and that I might visit friends I much valued, in a land which has always had for me great attractions.

An accidental meeting and a few minutes' conversation with Colonel North at a luncheon party on 28 th January, changed our destination from Cairo to Chile. Crippled by the results of a crush under my horse in my last campaign, in the Transvaal, unable to ride, obliged to walk with a stick, I have in my old age a lingering love of travel, a desire like that which animated Lord Lovel " strange countries for to see." I had never been farther south on the western coast of the American continent than B Panama. The Straits of Magellan exercised a strange in fluence over my imagination, or what was left of it. And so my compass began to turn from east to west, and the direction which at first I regarded as impossible, presently became obviously easy and desirable. I was invited to go out that I might see and report what had been done and what was being done, and to examine the works which had transformed the desert of Tarapaca — wastes without a sign of life or vegetation — into a centre of commercial enterprise, and which had covered it with animated industry and prosperous life.

It had been asserted in certain journals that commercial enterprises in that region were shams—" swindles," indeed, would be the word to use if they were what those organs described them to be — and that a railway, in which the public had invested largely, was "a tramway ending in a marsh." Although I can not say I was a very Gallio in respect to these things, I certainly knew nothing of them. I told my friends that I was perfectly and altogether ignorant "in that con nection." " So much the better ! " All I would have to do was to judge for myself and relate what I saw. There was no mystery to penetrate, no theory to demolish or sus tain, no complex problems to study. There was only one objection — the voyage — there was the rub ! By the exercise of dialectic skill, when we were settling the details of our Egyptian expedition, I had over come my wife's preference for Venice or Brindisi, as points of departure, to Tilbury.

I had persuaded her that where time was of no consequence, it was much better to take ship in the Thames and to proceed direct to the Suez Canal, improving her mind by the inspection of Gibraltar and Naples, or Malta, rejoicing on the way in the genial airs and bounding over the azure waters of the Mediterranean, WHY AND HOW I WENT THERE. than to endure the long and tedious railway journey to an Italian port. (I must admit the Mirzapore had by no means a cheerful experience of the Bay of Biscay, and had we been on board I should perhaps have been exposed to some just reproaches on the ground of mis representation.) But when I told my wife, in speaking of the proposal so suddenly laid before me, that the main impediment I saw to the acceptance of it was the fear of her suffering from the attacks of an enemy, much dreaded and hitherto always invincible, she at once declared that she was ready to encounter the miseries of the mat de mer, in the hope that she would not suffer more than the young ladies who were to be her companions.

I had my doubts, for I knew what she endured when crossing over to Ire land or France. But I hit upon an expedient which satisfied my con science, and which had a comforting effect on both of us. It was not possible to join the party which was to sail from Liverpool on 6th of February. I had to make arrange ments for an absence of six months instead of one of as many weeks — to provide for contingencies which might arise when I was thousands of miles away. I could come back from Egypt in six or seven days. I could not reach London from Santiago in less than six or seven weeks. It was arranged, therefore, that I should complete my preparations and take the " train de luxe" from Victoria to Lisbon, where we were to embark on board the Galicia, which was to arrive in the Tagus on the 13th. Thus the dreaded Bay of Biscay and the tumultuous rollers off the Spanish coast would be evaded.

If— judging from our five or six days' experience of it between the Tagus and St. Vincent — there was no prospect of my wife becoming accustomed to the sea, I resolved to abandon the proe2 secution of our voyage, to land on the island and take the first ship back to England. It so chanced that had it been expedient to act on that idea we should have had the quarantine to face and to suffer at St. Vincent. But it was not necessary. After three or four days of malaise in her berth, my wife, fortified by "Pope Eoach's Specific," defeated the enemy, got what sailors call her " sea-legs," and appeared upon deck triumphant. Although she sought retirement and dis appearedwhen "the fiddles"were on the table, she eventually became a very fair, if fair-weather, sailor, quite ready for a voyage round the world. There was indeed seldom occa sion for the application of these same fiddles — the stormy petrels of the festive board at sea —at our banquets.

Chapter I. The Voyage

— LISBON TO CORONEL. Our Fellow Travellers— The Galicia— Pastimes at Sea— St. Vincent— Cape Fio — Sharks and Sharpshooters — Rio de Janeiro — Yellow Fever — A Church Service at Sea — Tapoca — White's Hotel — Difficult Banking Operations — A " Pampero " — The La Plata Flores — Inland Quarantine- Monte Video— Cape Virgins— Patagonia — Straits of Magellan — Tierra del Fuego — Sandy Point or Punta Arenas — Ancient Mariners and Explorers — The Strait? — The Scenery — The Fuegians — Cape Pillar — Entrance into the Pacific Ocean — Its Bad Behaviours. Colonel North's party consisted of his daughter and her friend, Miss Wentworth Smith, Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. J. M. Power, C.E., Mr. Melton Prior, the artist of the Illustrated London News, and Captain Brough, a mariner of long experience in the merchant service in the Pacific and Atlantic seas, coasts and in all parts of the world, and our two selves, Mr. and Miss Gilling, who came on board the Galicia at Lisbon, were added to the members of the expedition, which was further augmented by Mr. Cook and Mr. Blain, two young gentlemen who were travelling for pleasure and improvement to the American continent.

Mr. E. Spencer, M.P., and Mrs. Spencer, who made Colonel North's acquaintance at Liverpool, and who were going to Valparaiso and New York, in the same vessel, accompanied the party. So we were a goodly company of fifteen, to which, later on, was added " a private secretary." The Galicia, an easy, comfortable old ship, built by the Napiers, with engines by the same firm working as well as the day they were born — eleven years back — had little adverse sea or winds to test her seagoing qualities, and ran westward day after day, with an average run of over 300 miles, from the time we left the Tagus till we sighted the highlands of Brazil on Tuesday, 26 th of February. Resources which lie dormant on shore are developed on board ship ; many remember the experiences of long vo}Tages and revive them for the benefit of their fellow pas sengers.

The ample flush-deck of the Galicia was a capital playground for the usual sports of the younger passengers, and if such things as Ethiopian minstrelsy, poker, marine roulette, &cc, were interpolated, it was rather as ornamental and occasional diversions than as settled pursuits. We had many foreigners and several hundred emigrants on board, and they were amused and astonished at the energy with which, as soon as the lotteries on the day's run and the pool auction were over, the English men and women, led by the Colonel, applied themselves to races, deck tennis, cricket, running and jumping, and other amusements, which, culminating in dance and song in the even tide, lasted till it was time to put the lights out. There were not many external attractions. There were of course flying-fish and porpoises which never come amiss, and there was one little excitement as we approached St. Vincent.

A suspicious case of illness between decks was reported, and if the Galicia had come to anchor and if the health officers had come down upon that " case," we should not have been allowed to start with a clean bill of health for Rio, and our one passenger, an English employe at the telegraph station, who was to land at St. Vincent, would have been clapped into quarantine. So Captain Adey kept the screw gently moving and the Galicia slowly turning, in the harbour of St. Vincent under very easy steam, with all THE VOYAGE — LISBON TO CORONEL. 7 kinds of officials holding on to us alongside, until at last our passenger was got rid of and restored to his wife and family, and we continued on our way over sunny seas. Each day passed exceedingly like the other. Sometimes there was uuna calma furiosa," and presently we were "in Native Divers.

St. Vincent. the doldrums." Then, after a while, came puffs of muggy wind, and we were in the tropics ; anon we had crossed the line, and "no one ever felt it" — and the Pole-star dropped astern. Every day there were lotteries, auctions, games, and capers. Signor Bottoni blew his cornet, and other performers produced guitars and banjos to vary our entertainments. But it was an effort, and a sea change was needed. After a week or so even the sea-gulls got tired of us and at last dropped behind the ship ; and there was no outside sensation worth mentioning till, on the 26th of February, we were off Cape Frio. "It was there," said one of the passengers, pointing to a rocky bay, "that Her Majesty's ship Thetis tried to batter the Cape down but went down herself with all her treasure on board."

While we were looking at the fine bold coast rapidly rising to view on our star board bow, as the ship was screwing her course through a mirror-like sea, there appeared above the surface, within easy shot, the back-fin of an enormous shark, which gave at once an impetus to the owner of every rifle in the ship. Attracted probably by fish upon which island-like clouds of " molly-hawks," boobies and noddies, blackening the ocean, were feasting near at hand, shark-fins enough to satiate a colony of Chinamen rose above the glassy surface of the easy-rolling sea, and became speedily the objects of indis criminate practice, and when Captain Adey made a very palpable hit, and the owner of a floating bull's-eye churned the water in an angry circle, there was widespread and loudly-expressed satisfaction at the feat.

But the sea did not give up its dead. The shark did not float as we expected and hoped it would, and presently, as if the news of danger had been made known down below, the sharks' fins disappeared altogether. In accordance with the custom which prevails in the ships of the great English companies at sea, there was divine service on board the Galicia every Sunday. The foreigners regarded the religious ceremony in the saloon through the gratings, or when service was on deck, looked on with something like amusement in their faces. One of my fellow-passengers observed that " he did not think [To face page 8, Service on Board. Englishmen were a bit better for all their Sunday praying and singing ! They came out to make money, and they drank and swore, gambled and quarrelled, and cheated just like other people !

" On the 27th February the Galicia, saluting the Imperial Standard as she passed the fortress of Santa Cruz, anchored in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro. The day was intensely hot. The glorious landscape of this most beautiful bay was seen through a quivering wall of air waves which, if it im parted a grace to the town which close inspection com pletely dissipated, concealed the details of the scenery. There were, however, plainly visible the well-named Organ Mountains (Orgaos) with pipes and barrels towering aloft as the background to the sharp outlines of the lower ranges, the peaks of La Gabia, and of the Sugar Loaf, and the gigantic outline of a face variously called Lord Hood's, Bonaparte's, &c. The Health Officers came off at their leisure an hour or so after we anchored, but they made a close inves tigation into our sanitary condition, "jalousing," as a gillie would say, the arrival of a fresh supply of Yellow Fever, of which there was already more than enough on shore.

" What on earth," exclaimed one of our British brethren, " are those absurd coffee-coloured chaps doing now? Why do we put up with such confounded nonsense?" The Brazilian Health Officers and the authorities thus slightingly designated had, in fact, turned out the whole of the passengers, first, second, and third class, the ship's company, officers, and all, and accompanied by the doctor of the Galicia, were proceeding to a strict examination before they would admit us to free pratique. They were exceedingly suspicious, indeed, though we had not com municated with land since we left Lisbon. The first-class passengers were passed nomination rapidly enough, but as there were between four hundred and five hundred emigrants, chiefly Italians, on board, considerable delay occurred before the scrutiny was complete, and we were free to land.

Of all nations, those of Portuguese descent are the most exact and strict in their observance of quarantine regulations, and certainly thev have good cause — these Brazilians — to watch narrowly any possible importation of the scourge which has so afflicted their country. Notwith standing the enlightened opinion of experts, the confirmed prejudices of mariners and the incredulity of English authorities regarding the value of seclusion, I must express my own strong conviction that it is almost possible to entirely shut out cholera and Yellow Jack by quarantine regulation. If there be any truth in the doctrine of the propagation of disease by microbes and bacilli, it surely stands to reason that, although these germs cannot be quite excluded from the air, the diffusion of them from personal centres can be nearly stopped if all the latter be shut up in isolated places.

The news brought by the consular officers and the Company's agents when they were allowed on board was not cheering. ' * Twenty funerals a day, ' ' some said — - ' Twice as many," according to others — mostly of victims to vomito. But that was nothing to speak of compared with the usual mortality of a bad epidemy at Rio. The ravages of Yellow Jack in the city were unusually widespread, and we were by no means encouraged to spend a night in one of the hotels in the town. But the coaling of the ship, inevitable and imminent, ports closed, doors shut, heat, dust, and smother, were evils to be shunned, even at considerable risk, so it was with much content we heard that we could make an expedition to the hill of Tijuca — I am not certain [To face page 10. The Harbour of Rio de Janeiro. — LISBON TO CORONEL. of the spelling — a few miles outside Rio, where a hotel, several hundred feet above the bay, would afford us delight ful shelter for the night.

Presently our party were collected on deck, handed over the side, and rowed off to the Quay, where brightly painted wooden stalls were laid out with fruit, vegetables, sweet meats, and bottled abominations to tempt the unwary stranger. The pleasant impression of the place produced from the deck of the ship was shattered when we landed. The bright colouring of the buildings gave to Rio a bright and cheerful aspect from outside, but it was "distance" that "lent enchantment to the view." The crowd that looked so picturesque through the glass was resolved into unseemly elements, men and women of every shade and colour from the deepest black (a great many of them) to the milkiest, sickliest white, in garments of many colours, their heads covered with eccentric structures of straw and coloured stuff, many ragged, some, if, indeed, it were not excessive jollity and merriment which made them caper and shout as they reeled along holding each other's hands, not quite sober.

Close to the landing place there was a market, and the quay near it was ankle deep in abominable vegetable refuse, rotten cocoanuts, pumpkins, gourds, oranges, covered with swarms of flies. The smells were very offensive. I could not help thinking that the sanitary officers might begin their labours on shore before they went off to sea to visit the shipping. Whilst our baggage was being landed, we strolled about the streets. Savage and civilised life rub elbows together in Rio. The lately-emancipated slave miserable in his freedom — " lord of himself, that heritage of woe,"— the creature whose ideal of life is animal enjoyment, clad in tattered clothes, idle, ill-fed, and helpless, jostles the dandy, dressed as if he were going to the Grand Prix, and negro "mammies" shamble alongside the dainty dames in Paris costumes, emerging from the Rua Ouvidor to look for their carriages.

Rude carts drawn by oxen rumble over the execrable pavement, and tramcars filled with a very motley democracy warn off well-appointed carriages with finely-accoutred servants and horses. Elec tric lighting, the telegraph, the telephone, the tramway are, nevertheless, in full activity in a city, the mass of the dwellers in which are lodged in habitations destitute of due provision for decency and comfort. We heard many things in relation to cleanliness and morality in Rio which, if true, leave much to be done by the sanitary science man and the Christian missionary. But reflecting on the likelihood that a foreigner would, if he were not an emancipated negro, see many things to shock him in the east end of cities nearer home, I thought it would be well, perhaps, not to be too severe on Rio, where the book-shop windows were placarded with terrible prints illustrative of the life and times of "Jack the Ripper," sent, probably, from Lisbon, where coloured representa tions of the deeds of that monster were to be seen on every wall.

The sight of the appliances of civilised life in the midst of a population which seemed to have so little need of them, gave rise to a feeling of dissatisfaction with the work of civilisation by no means reasonable. The people would not be less wretched were there no tramcars or railways. The patronage bestowed on the former by the very poorest proved that they were a valued boon. Probably the indolence of the natives, who never walk if they can help it, swells the dividends of the companies, which are said to be very flourishing indeed. — LISBON TO CORONEL. The introduction of electric telegraphs and lighting, the development of railways, and the improvement, including the suppression of mendicancy, such as it is, of Rio, are mainly due, it is said, to the Emperor's initiative and en lightened encouragement ; but I could not find from residents that there was any great regard or attachment exhibited by his people to Dom Pedro, whose ill-health and seclusion in his highland residence outside the capital have led to the creation of the dangerous breach, between sovereigns and their subjects, which may be filled up by indifference — if not something more aggressive at last — when the former are not visible to their people.