"Sei einig nur Germania, So stehest du auch einzig da, Das grosse Vaterland!"
was received with enthusiastic applause, and was greeted with deafening cheers.
This widely-expressed sympathy for German nationality found expression in various other ways, not the least conspicuous being the marked courtesy to the Expedition manifested by the natives of Chile itself, and in an especial degree at Santiago, the capital, where public officers, naturalists, and lovers of science vied with each other in welcoming such of our number as went over to spend a few days there, and in aiding them to carry out the object they had in view.
With these scientific aims were united others of a political nature, our Commodore having been honoured with H.I. Majesty's commands to enter into a commercial treaty with the free Republic of Chile. For this purpose Commodore von Wüllerstorf had gone to Santiago in company with the Austrian Consul-General, M. J. F. Flemmich, and the author of this narrative, the two geologists and the draughtsman of the Expedition having set out thither some days before.
The journey to the capital of Chile is not among the most inviting. There are numerous crests of mountains (_questas_) to be crossed _en route_, which at many points are steep, not to speak of the bad construction of the roads, and the little care taken to keep them in order. Frequently the carriage rolls along the very verge of a profound abyss; the soil seems about to give way, gravel and stones plunge thundering down, while neither wall nor wooden railing intervenes to prevent the traveller from following them. Moreover, the vehicles in ordinary use are not calculated to diminish the perils of such a journey, especially if it is an object to arrive speedily at one's destination, when the regular national coach, the Birloche, as it is called, must be used. It is a sort of double-seated two-wheeled cabriolet drawn by two horses, while five or six horses trot alongside, which furnish the change of horses when required. The driver rides one of the horses, as in Havannah, and is wonderfully skilful in his way. He usually wears the national brown-covered _poncho_ (a quadrangular piece of cloth with an opening in the centre through which the head passes), a small straw hat, linen pants, and on his bare feet enormous, heavy spurs, sometimes fastened by a piece of leather, sometimes with a mere cord.