178

HAIL STORM.

CHAPTER VI.

Departure from La Paz.-Personal alarm and momentary despair.-Confidence and consolation. The very best thing in the world' is in some cases the very worst.'Kindness of manner frequently of more avail than a full purse. Return to Potosi.-Downfall of the Association. -Cheerless society.-Extracts of letters.

OCTOBER 5th, left La Paz for Potosi, and in the evening bore the pelting of a tremendous hail-storm, which, in spite of all sneers at a similar adventure of Baron Munchausen's, positively pursued closely for several miles before it overtook me. It came down with a force that raised the dust along the whole extent of the plain, so as to give it an appearance of the sea when rolling in with fury upon a beach; and on my looking occasionally behind, it conveyed, with no very pleasing sensations, an idea

MOMENTARY ALARM.

179

of those waves of moving sand, in which whole caravans have been overwhelmed in the deserts of Africa.

7th. Unpleasant weather with snow and sleet. When about four leagues from the post where I intended to take up my quarters for the night, I was suddenly seized with an illness, accompanied by violent pain, which rendered me utterly unable to endure the movement of my horse, and compelled me to alight and stretch myself on the road-side, where I lay full five hours in agony, and with symptoms that led me to suppose I must have burst a blood-vessel or ruptured an artery. I confess that I felt a sense of alarm to which I was not accustomed, and even detected myself with downcast head and folded arms, yielding in dejection to the gloomy dictates of that desponding matron Melancholy, 'Goddess of the tearful eye,'—but neither my sorrow, my apprehension, nor my care, was of long duration. In the serious events of life, there are few cases in which the mind may not summon to its aid sentiments of a tendency, not only to soften the severest ills and to banish gloom from the darkest cavern of despair, but to inspire a confidence which the world cannot shake.

180

MENTAL REFLECTIONS.

"Omnipotent Power!

'Tis thine to lull the agonizing hour,

To charm the burden from the soul, and give

The tears that solace and the hopes that live."

In giving to the world a journal of the ordinary occurrences of life, it is difficult to exclude all those which are of a merely personal nature, and as such, frequently have little or no interest for the general reader; but, to suppress the subjects of our serious thoughts, merely from a feeling of false shame, would, I conceive, be a tacit admission, that our apprehension of the opinions of men was stronger than our reverence for Him, in whom "we live, and move, and have our being." It is an acknowledged truth, that our present and eternal interests are so inseparable, that one can hardly be treated of without allusion to the other; in the intervals, therefore, of the busiest worldly occupations, momentous reflections will interpose. Life is but a web of "mingled yarn, good and ill together," a succession of contrary events from grave to gay, and he who records them must of necessity present similar incongruities in his pages. Be this, then, my excuse, if excuse be requisite, for occasionally turning the thought

"From vain and vile, to solid and sublime!"

Had I been in the midst of a congregation

MENTAL REFLECTIONS.

181

of thousands, under the dome of Saint Paul's, listening with due attention to the soul-inspiring notes of the anthem, the scene, with all its imposing attributes, could not have surpassed in solemnity, or more effectually impressed the mind with devotional feelings, than that in which, on the present occasion, I found myself placed. The dreary solitude of a desert, in pain and sickness, remote from every relief, deprived of the companionship of friend or stranger, was assuredly a situation in which even the severe "who blush at what is right,""they who profess to know God, but in works deny him," will scarcely consider it artificial piety, or the mere momentary effusion of a mind alarmed, if a man casually though openly, avows that, in the absence of all earthly aid, he availed himself of the only consolation he had left, that of seeking in the balsamic truths and healing sentiments of Religion the mitigation of his pain and the solace of his cares-that he reposed with confidence on the "rod and staff," with which man may safely "walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil."

"Vamos, patron mio, poco à poco hasta la posta, animese vd. que Dios le aliviará;' were the mild encouraging expressions of my peones, as I writhed in agony on the ground; and, at a favourable

182

COMFORT AT THE POST-HOUSE.

moment assisting me on horseback, we proceeded at a very slow pace, stopping at short distances, but ultimately arrrived about midnight at the post of Aio-aio. There, in the corner of a naked hut, my peones soon made me a luxurious bed of sheepskins, and kindling a fire in the middle of the floor, prepared from a shoulder of llama an excellent broth, which they seasoned highly with aji (capsicum), as being "the very best thing in the world I could take for el pujo de sangre;”* but it was probably the very worst, and I can aver that I felt myself nothing the better for their prescription, which, however, was most conscientiously recommended, and submissively followed from necessity by me. No hai cosa mejor que aji, creale vd. (there's nothing better than red pepper, you may depend upon that,) was the consolation I received at every spoonful that was occasionally thrown into the broth as it bubbled on the fire.

6th. The morning commenced with heavy rain; but the state of debility to which I found myself reduced, deprived me of courage to encounter it, and I am inclined to think, that the quiet in which I passed the early part of this day enabled me to perform my journey to Potosi