One of our most pleasing reminiscences is undoubtedly that of the magnificent natural fête got up by the German residents of Valparaiso in honour of the _Novara_ one heavenly Easter morning, which came off at the beautiful Quebradas of Quilpué, about twelve miles from the port. Quilpué is a station on the railroad which runs from Valparaiso into the interior, and is intended to form the communication between it and Santiago de Chile, 110 miles distant, but of which at present only the first 40 miles have been completed.
A special train, its locomotive neatly decorated with garlands of flowers and banneroles, conveyed the guests, 150 in number, to Quilpué. From this station the joyous party marched with the German flag at the head to one of the neighbouring dells, which seemed intended by nature to serve as the site of pic-nics in the open air. Here, under a number of spacious and elegant tents, we found long tables set out, which a cloud of waiters and cooks seemed engaged in loading with every delicacy that could tempt the palate.
The company wandered through the adjoining glades, or lay stretched out in the shade, in a delicious ecstasy of music and song. The alarm of war, which at the moment was booming through Europe, had found its way even to the foot of the Chilean Andes, and imparted to the festival a political feeling. Although the then state of political matters in Austria was by no means such as to fill the mind with enthusiasm for it, yet all the feelings of the German of Valparaiso were enlisted on the side of Austria in her struggle with France; less out of sympathy with her policy as then displayed than out of hatred of Napoleonic assumption.
Thus, in some of the after-dinner speeches which followed in due course, as well as in the inspiring songs with which the entertainment was enlivened, there was free expression given to this sentiment. A Bavarian physician and pharmaceutist, Dr. Aquinas Ried, whose house we found one of the most pleasant points of cordial re-union for the members of the Expedition, had composed a chorus for male voices, called "Welcome to the _Novara_," which he led himself with some of the members of the German Choral Union, the closing strophe of which,