After the Tropic of Capricorn is passed, the Andes approach nearer to the sea, revealing their snowy crests from the steamer's deck, and from Valparaiso the fruitful valleys of Chile unfold, watered from the mountains--a more temperate zone, where the flowers as of Europe may be seen and the culture of the Chilean people is displayed. Of his native land a Chilean poet sings that its bulwarks are the mighty Cordillera, its frontiers the sea--a romantically expressed conception of the position of Chile which is geographically correct. A zone of territory three thousand miles in length and nowhere broader than two hundred miles, and, in general, only a hundred, confined between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, the Republic has perhaps the most curious form of any country in the world. Under his own flag the Chilean may journey from the heat of the Tropics to the cold of the Antarctic by taking steamer up and down his coast or by a more or less arduous land journey along the littoral. Such is the topography of this interesting land--interspersed with burning deserts, fruitful valleys and with glimpses of delightful landscape, snowy mountains and profound forests. To have opened a sketch of Chile with a reference to a poetical conception is not to argue that the Chileans are a dreamy and over-poetical folk. They are, on the contrary, practical, hardy, and courageous--courage which, in their conflicts with their neighbours in the past, and in their own internecine strife and revolution, has at times given way to cruelty and savagery--a condition, however, not confined to these more southern inhabitants of the South American Continent. By reason of their more practical ideas and enterprise in commercial matters, their ability--which is largely absent from the Spanish American people as a rule--of forming successful joint-stock companies to exploit this or that field of industry or finance, their superior navy and seamanship, and for diverse reasons, the Chileans have been termed, or have liked to term themselves, the "English of South America" a soubriquet varied by the appellation of the "Americans or _Yanquis_ (Yankees) of South America." The Chilean Navy was modelled after that of Britain; the army, however, after the German style. The early history of Chile, if less picturesque than that of Peru, is full of incident--often dreadful--and doughty deeds. Bluff old Almagro it was who set his eyes upon Chile--Almagro, the partner of Francisco Pizarro, partners whose quarrels finally resulted in the death of both.