I spent the evening as before, talking round the fire with my two companions.

The Guasos of Chile, who correspond to the Gauchos of the Pampas, are, however, a very different set of beings.

Chile is the more civilised of the two countries, and the inhabitants, in consequence, have lost much individual character.
Gradations in rank are much more strongly marked: the Guaso does not by any means consider every man his equal; and I was quite surprised to find that my companions did not like to eat at the same time with myself.

This feeling of inequality is a necessary consequence of the existence of an aristocracy of wealth.

It is said that some few of the greater landowners possess from five to ten thousand pounds sterling per annum: an inequality of riches which I believe is not met with in any of the cattle-breeding countries eastward of the Andes.