About four o’clock Tom and I went ashore.  We had intended going alone in the ‘Flash’ (our lightest boat), but a strong southerly wind had sprung up, which at once made the sea so rough that we went in the ‘Gleam’ (the gig) instead, with six oars.  It took the men all their time to get us ashore, though we had not far to go, for wind, tide, and waves were all against us.

Valparaiso consists mainly of two interminable streets, running along the edge of the sea, at the foot of the hills, which rise immediately behind them, and on which are built all the residences and villas of the gentlemen of the place.  Very few live in the town itself, which is composed almost entirely of large warehouses and fine shops, where you can get almost anything you want by paying between three and four times as much for it as you would do in England.  For instance, the charge for hair-cutting is a dollar and a half (4s.), a three-and-sixpenny Letts’s Diary costs two dollars and a half (10s.), a tall hat costs fifty-eight shillings, you must pay sixpence each for parchment luggage-labels, threepence apiece for quill pens, four shillings for a quire of common notepaper, and so on in proportion.

We had, as I have said, seen the yacht leave Lota Bay, with a strong head-wind blowing, on Thursday, the 19th instant.  In a few hours the wind fell to a calm, which then changed to a light favourable breeze, and the ‘Sunbeam’ reached Valparaiso on the following Saturday afternoon, anchoring out in the bay, not far from H.M.S.  ‘Opal.’  Here they rolled and tumbled about even more than if they had been at sea, the swinging capacities of the saloon tables and lamps being tried to the utmost.  On Sunday half the men went ashore for a few hours’ leave, but neither they nor the boat returned until the next morning, as they had not been allowed to leave the shore after nine o’clock.  In the meantime Tom had been told that small-pox was raging in the town, and he was much annoyed at their having to pass the night on shore, owing to proper inquiries as to the regulations of the port not having been made by them on landing.  The next day the doctor went to see some medical confreres at the hospital, and found that the reports were much exaggerated, the reality being that small-pox is always more or less prevalent both here and at Santiago.  Three months ago it was very bad, but at the present time it is not worse than usual.  Tom and Mabelle started for Santiago on Monday, but unfortunately left their letters of introduction behind; and as they did not like the hotel, they found it rather dull.  We could not telegraph to them from Cauquenes, or anywhere en route, for there were no wires; so on Wednesday morning, not hearing or seeing anything of us, they returned to Valparaiso.  Tom left a long letter for me, with enclosures (which I never received), in the innkeeper’s hands, asking for a telegraphic reply as to our plans and intentions, and, as I have