this vast concourse of people in the rear of the allied army gave Osorio the impression that it was a strong detachment of the enemy in reserve, and thus contributed somewhat to the result of the day. The battle lasted four hours, and was obstinate and bloody in the extreme. Two thousand men were buried in the field, and 2500 prisoners, including a large portion of the royalist officers, with all the artillery and munitions of war, fell into the hands of the patriots. Osorio, with but a tattered remnant of his once formidable army, made good his escape to Talcahuana. This port was soon after evacuated, and the independence of Chile secured.

The attention of the allied armies of Chile and La Plata was now directed to obtaining the liberty of Peru, which, for the next six years, was destined to be the seat of war. The first step to be taken in order to achieve this result was to obtain the supremacy of the sea. To this object the energies of the new Republic were successfully directed; and in 1820, the famous liberating expedition sailed under the direction of San Martin.

In 1823, a popular tumult compelled O'Higgins to resign the directorship, which he had held for six years, and a provisional triumvirate succeeded for a few weeks, until the election of General Freire as Director. At the end of three years, the dissensions, which had then assumed the form of civil war, obliged him to vacate the government, and for the succeeding four years Chile was torn by continual convulsions. From 1826 to 1831, no less than six different Directors, besides a second provisional triumvirate, successively stood at the head of the government. In 1828, the first constitution of Chile was promulgated under the administration of General Pinto. The next year is especially noted in the annals of Chile for the accumulation of its disasters. During this period of misfortune, society was in a transition state. The crude and ill-digested notions of government, which protracted war had engendered during the revolution, were becoming moulded, through the stern experience of anarchy and domestic strife, into those stable and well-defined principles of regulated liberty which were to form the basis of future government, and ultimately to render Chile the most prosperous and best organized republic in South America. In 1831, General Prieto assumed the reins of government.

A convention was called to revise the constitution of 1828, and the result of their deliberations was the present constitution of Chile, which was proclaimed on the 25th of May, 1833. Under this constitution, the affairs of Chile have advanced with order and regularity, undisturbed by the commotions which have distracted the sister republics. We shall allude to its prominent features when we come to consider the present political condition of the country.

In its geographical aspect, Chile is not less marked and peculiar than in its historical and political character. It is the most limited in longitude, and, with the single exception of Brazil, the most extended in latitude, of any country in the world. Reaching from the desert of Atacama to Cape Horn, it embraces more than thirty degrees of latitude, while the greatest width of its mainland is but 200 miles, and its average width about 160. But nearly one half of this great extension is embraced by the islands which skirt the western coast of Patagonia, and form collectively the southern province of the republic. It is separated by an almost impassable desert from Bolivia on the north, and by the Andes from the provinces of La Plata on the west. This great natural boundary, by approaching to the borders of the ocean at the forty-fourth degree of latitude, cuts off Chile, by the terms of her constitution, from any claim to the mainland of Patagonia beyond the summit of the mountains, and leaves the sterile region in possession of the Argentine confederacy. Recently, however, the government have claimed the whole peninsula of Patagonia in the name of the nation, and established a colony at the Straits of Magellan. This act elicited a serious remonstrance from the government of Buenos Ayres, and annually forms an item in the message of Rosas. It remains an open question between the countries, and may ultimately lead to a war. The superficial area of the republic is computed at 190,000 square miles. A large portion of this is occupied by the stupendous Cordillera and the parallel ranges and spurs which extend in some points quite to the Pacific shore. The entire breadth of the main chain is about 120 miles, but a small portion of which is within the limits of Chile. The dividing line between Chile and La Plata is the ridge of the Andes; and as the western declivity is extremely precipitous, while the eastern is quite gradual, including many leagues

of table land, less than one third of the territory included in the great Cordillera is within the jurisdiction of Chile. In a general view, the long narrow strip of land between the ocean and the Andes may be considered as an inclined plane, rapidly descending, within the space of about 100 miles, from an altitude of sixteen or twenty thousand feet, to the level of the sea. In detail, it will be found that there are three ranges of mountains parallel with the main chain, which ranges are the steps ascending from the ocean to plains, each more elevated as we proceed inland, so that Chile is in fact a succession of gigantic terraces, which by their wonderful luxuriance form, as it were, the hanging gardens of the world. These plains are, in many parts, traversed by spurs from the great range, and interspersed with isolated hills and low mountains. They present, by the richness of their verdure, in contrast with the snow-clad Andes beyond, a combination of beauty and sublimity in natural scenery unrivalled by any country on the globe. Even in the bosom of the Cordillera, amidst some of the loftiest mountains on earth, clad in eternal snow, abounding in frightful chasms and precipices of unmeasured height, we sometimes meet with broad and beautiful valleys, enlivened by unfailing waterfalls, and seeming, in their seclusion and their loveliness, to realize the romantic home of Rasselas.

There are no less than sixteen active volcanoes among the Andes of Chile, which, according to popular belief, occasion 'the frequent earthquakes experienced in that region. Perhaps a more philosophic view of the subject would attribute both phenomena to the same cause, and consider the volcano as the natural safety-valve for the escape of internal fires and explosive gases, which, without this outlet, might produce more frequent and disastrous earthquakes than now occur. The country abounds in streams and rapid torrents, presenting picturesque cascades, and everywhere fertilizing the soil. There are forty rivers emptying into the Pacific, many of them navigable for half their length. The waters of these streams. are conducted, by means of canals, to the plantations on the plains, presenting perhaps a more perfect system of irrigation than can be found out of Egypt. There are many lakes, in some of which, near the sea-coast, the water is brackish. Thermal springs abound, especially in the Cordillera, and medicinal waters are found in many parts of the country. It

is no unusual thing among the mountains to find a warm rivulet at a temperature of nearly 90° Fahrenheit, flowing within a few feet of another stream whose chilling waters are supplied from the everlasting snow on the summits.

The climate of Chile is unsurpassed for its healthful and agreeable character. The English who visit Italy, unused in their foggy island to see an entire clear day, and not often enjoying the sight of more than a square rod or so of blue sky at a time, become enamored of that really delicious climate, and would fain persuade the world that no air is so pure, no sky so bright, as that which pertains to "charming Italy." The conclusion is right enough as respects their world, and we should not here allude to it, did not so many Americans join in the cry, as if they, too, had never before seen fair weather, and could discover in the Italian firmament "an intenser blue," or imagine they could "see farther into it," than in any other sky. Those of our countrymen whose eyes are then for the first time opened to discern the beautiful in nature, should not afterwards be unmindful of the cloudlike glories of a summer sunset in New England, or of the more Italian splendor of a winter moonlight at the south. Both of these classes of persons might be moved to a higher admiration at the wonders of the heavens, and a more just appreciation of the excellencies of climate, could they enjoy a season in Chile. The remarkable purity of the atmosphere, together with the fact that the southern constellations are more numerous and comprise a much larger number of stars of the first magnitude than those of the north, impart to the nights in that country a brilliancy unknown on this side the Equator. Meteoric fires are often seen, and aerolites are not uncommon; but the aurora australis is less frequently visible in Chile than in corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic.

There are essential differences in climate between the two extremities of the republic, but not so great as distinguish the various sections of the northern temperate zone. The heat of summer in the northern provinces, which are almost within the tropic, is tempered by copious dews at night and the seabreeze by day. Only for a few weeks in midwinter, is the cold uncomfortable at night in the southern provinces, (we speak of course, only of the mainland,) while the day is at all times mild. The four seasons are distinctly marked, but

less strongly contrasted than in similar latitudes in the northern hemisphere. The principal distinction in the climate of different parts of the country is in the amount of rain which falls during the winter, from June to September. In the northern provinces, half a dozen rains in the season suffice to replenish the streams and fertilize the earth. In the central districts, rain falls from two to four consecutive days, with intervals of one or two weeks of delightful weather, through the season. At the south, the rains are much more frequent, continuing without cessation from one to three weeks, rarely accompanied by wind or thunder; and heavy falls of snow sometimes occur. In no part of the world, over so great an extent of latitude, can there be found so equable and agreeable a temperature. Heat without its debilitating influence, cold without the severity of a northern winter, and the natural transition from one to the other without the dampness of our spring or the chilliness of our autumn, complete the circuit of the Chile year.

The productions of Chile in all three of the natural kingdoms are abundant and valuable in the highest degree. The mildness of the climate, the completeness of the irrigation, the quantity of salts and other manures which are found in every part of the country, and even the warmth which the existence of internal fire here imparts to the earth, all conduce to the wonderful fertility of the soil. The products of both hemispheres appear to flourish with equal luxuriance. Wheat in the interior often yields one hundred for one, and nearer the sea-coast, where the soil is less fertile, sixty or seventy for one is a common harvest. Maize and other grains are produced in a like degree of fecundity. The finest hemp in America, equal to the best of European growth, is extensively cultivated. Flax is indigenous to the southern provinces. The red pepper, beans, potatoes, and almost every kind of vegetables, and delicious fruit, grapes, peaches, and pineapples, are abundant. The largest and many of the finest varieties of strawberries known are raised in such quantities, that all over South America the common name of this exquisite fruit is "la fruta de Chile." Silk is produced in perfection, but the art is yet in its infancy. Tobacco of good quality is raised, but being a government monopoly is not much cultivated. Cotton and sugar-cane are indigenous to the northern pro