19th & 20th August 1834

Valparaiso
Passed the town of Quillota, which is more like a collection of nursery gardens than a town, & followed up the valley. — The orchards were beautiful, presenting one mass of peach-blossoms. I saw in one or two places the Date-Palm; it is a most stately tree. I should think a group of them in their native deserts must be superb. — We also passed S. Felipe, a large pretty straggling town like Quillota. The valley has here expanded into one of the basins or plains already mentioned as so curious a part of the scenery of Chili. We crossed it & proceeded to the mines of Jajuel, situated in a ravine in the very Andes.