Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/71

 Wharf had not sunk, and that Chelsea was not dead. While here all hands had liberty on shore. Of course we visited the fore, main, and mizzen tops, named after  the well-known hills on the south side of the fort, where  the sailors resort. The valley between the hills is the resort of the abandoned and the roughs of Chili. Valparaiso has twenty thousand inhabitants. There are many Spaniards, Dutch, French, English, and Indians,  and a few Americans. The native Chilians are very patriotic. The young ladies have very black, piercing eyes, and are quite fond of music. When passing the houses, one can nearly always hear them singing. Then up will come a little Chilian girl, with her field-pike in  her hand, singing, "When Callao is taken, our sea-coast  will be free." The houses are mostly one story, built of sun-dried bricks. These bricks are about two feet long, and one wide, and are very rough. They look like the surface of a corn-ball. The walls are from two to six feet thick, plastered outside, and are anything but neat  inside.

June 5th we bade farewell to "Paradise Lost" and stood out to sea.