Valparaiso I had arrived here by a circuit to the North, & I determined to return to Valparaiso by a longer circuit to the South. By the middle of the day we crossed one of the famous suspension bridges of Hide. — They are miserable affairs & much out of order. — the road is not level as at the Menai, but follows the curvature of the suspending ropes. — the road part is made of bundles of sticks & full of holes; the bridge oscillates rather fearfully with the weight of a man leading a horse. — In the evening we reached a very nice Hacienda; where there were several very pretty Signoritas; they turned up their charming eyes in pious horror at my having entered a Church to look about me; they asked me, why I did not become a Christian, "for our religion is certain"; I assured them I was a sort of Christian; they would not hear of it, appealing to my own words, "Do not your padres, your very bishops, marry" The absurdity of a Bishop having a wife particularly struck them, they scarcely knew whether to be most amused or horrified at such an atrocity.
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