There are very few valleys which lead to the central ranges, and the mountains are quite impassable in other parts by beasts of burden.

The custom-house officers were very civil, which was perhaps partly owing to the passport which the President of the Republic had given me; but I must express my admiration at the natural politeness of almost every Chileno.

In this instance, the contrast with the same class of men in most other countries was strongly marked.

I may mention an anecdote with which I was at the time much pleased: we met near Mendoza a little and very fat negress, riding astride on a mule.

She had a goitre so enormous that it was scarcely possible to avoid gazing at her for a moment; but my two companions almost instantly, by way of apology, made the common salute of the country by taking off their hats.
Where would one of the lower or higher classes in Europe have shown such feeling politeness to a poor and miserable object of a degraded race?
At night we slept at a cottage.