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CHILE.

and, apparently quite fresh, descended the mine again at a quick pace. This seems to me a wonderful instance of the amount of labor which habit, for it can be nothing else, will enable a man to endure.

THE SPANIARD.

ONE day, while we were at the gold-mines of Yaquil, a German collector in natural history, of the name of Renous, called, and nearly at the same time an old Spanish lawyer. I was amused at being told the conversation which took place between them. Renous speaks Spanish so well that the old lawyer mistook him for a Chilian. Renous, alluding to me, asked him what he thought of the King of England sending out a collector to their country, to pick up lizards and beetles, and to break stones. The old gentleman thought seriously for some time, and then said, "It is not well-hay un gato encerrado aquí (there is a cat shut up here). No man is so rich as to send out people to pick up such rubbish. I do not like it. If one of us were to go and do such things in England, do not you think the King of England would very soon send us out of his country?" And this old gentleman, from his profession, belongs to the better informed and more intelligent classes! Renous himself, two or three years be fore, left in a house at San Fernando some caterpillars, under charge of a girl to feed, that they might turn into butterflies. This was rumored through the town, and at last the priests and the governor consulted together, and agreed it must be some heresy. So, when Renous returned, he was arrested.

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TAMARIND-TREE AT POINT VENUS, TAHITI, SOCIETY ISLANDS.

SOUTH PACIFIC.

The captain with whom we descended the river Parana was an old Spaniard, and had been many years in South America. He professed a great liking for the English, but stoutly maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely won by the Spanish captains having been all bought over, and that the only really gallant action on either side was performed by the Spanish admiral. It struck me as rather characteristic that this man should prefer his countrymen being thought the worst of traitors, rather than unskilful or cowardly.

THE TAHITIAN.

AT Tahiti I was pleased with nothing so much as with the inhabitants. There is a mildness in the expression of their countenances which at once banishes the idea of a sav age, and an intelligence which shows that they are advanc ing in civilization. The common people, when working, keep the upper part of their bodies quite naked; and it is then that the Tahitians are seen to advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, and well-proportioned. It has been remarked that it requires little habit to make a dark skin more pleasing and natural to the eye of a European than his own color. A white man, bathing by the side of a Tahitian, was like a plant bleached by the gardener's art compared with a fine dark green one, growing vigorously in the open fields. Most of the men are tattooed, and the ornaments follow the curves of the body so gracefully that they have a very elegant effect. One common pattern, varying in

SOUTH PACIFIC.

its details, is somewhat like the crown of a palm-tree. It springs from the central line of the back, and gracefully curls round both sides. Many of the elder people had their feet covered with small figures, so placed as to resemble a sock. This fashion, however, is partly gone by. The women are tattooed in the same manner as the men, and very commonly

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NATIVE BAMBOO HOUSE, TAHITI, SOCIETY ISLANDS.

on their fingers. They are far inferior, in every respect, to the men.

On a short excursion into the mountains our line of march was the valley of Tia-auru, down which a river flows into the sea by Point Venus. We bivouacked for the night on a flat little spot on the bank of one of the streams into which the river divided itself at its head. The Tahitians, in a few minutes, built us an excellent house, and then proceeded to make a fire and cook our evening meal. A light was pro

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