We pushed forward without stoppage as far as Casa Blanca, one of the most ancient settlements of Chile, which, however, as previously remarked, has always preserved its village-like aspect. Here we fell in with several very handsome ladies, elegantly dressed, each sporting a gigantic crinoline. They had come from the neighbouring _haciendas_ to Casa Blanca to be present at a race-meeting. Having dispatched a hasty meal, we pushed busily forwards, and reached the village of Curacavi, where travellers to the capital usually pass the night. No great provision is made here in the shape of good inns, for considerable as is the traffic of loaded waggons, conveying merchandise and produce, the number of travellers is very limited, and even the few whom business or pleasure induces to visit the capital are for the most part natives of the country, or Europeans long resident, who usually take up their quarters with acquaintances or business connections, and are therefore exempt from all necessity to look after their comfort. Travellers who spend the night in such inns generally carry with them insect-powder, as the number of fleas and other troublesome insects is legion!!
At the capital, Santiago, the traveller is somewhat better off as regards houses of entertainment, and the Hotel Ingles (English Hotel), kept by a Frenchman, may not only boast of elegant apartments and an excellent cuisine, but surpasses all European hotels in expensiveness.[105]
Santiago de Chile lies in a beautiful fertile valley, and would present a much more imposing appearance, were it not that, owing to the frequency of earthquakes, the majority of the houses were built only one storey high. The long straight streets intersecting each other at right angles, are in a state calling loudly for sanitary regulation; uneven, badly ballasted, with huge ruts at the sides, so that it is difficult to say whether the foot-passenger or the charioteer is the worst off. Much of this is due to the number of heavy two-wheeled _carretas_ or country waggons, drawn by six or eight oxen, in which all produce is conveyed from the interior of the country to the harbour, and foreign merchandise transported from the sea-board to the capital. On our journey hither we counted 124 of these lumbering vehicles, creaking and rattling on their way; but there are on the average 300 such on the road between Santiago and Valparaiso. A good deal of the less bulky merchandise is also carried on horse or mule-back.