urders sometimes take place; but the police speedily succeed
in capturing the criminals, who, after a summary trial, are shot.

In Valparaiso, as in most of the towns on the western coast of South
America, the _serenos_ go about all night, calling the hours and
announcing the state of the weather. At ten o'clock they commence with
their--"_Viva Chile!_"--"_Ave Maria purissima!_"--"_Las diez han dado y
sereno!_" (past ten o'clock and a fine night!) or _nublado_
(cloudy),--or _lloviendo_ (raining). Thus, they continue calling every
half-hour till four o'clock in the morning. Should an earthquake take
place it is announced by the _sereno_ when he goes his round in the
following half hour. However, the phenomenon usually announces itself in
so positive a way, that the inhabitants may easily dispense with the
information of the _serenos_.

Among the most remarkable objects in Valparaiso may be numbered the
moveable prison. It consists of a number of large covered wagons, not
unlike those used for the conveyance of wild beasts. In the inside of
each wagon, planks are fixed up like the board bedsteads in a
guard-house, affording resting-places for eight or ten prisoners. A
guard is stationed at the door, which is at the back of the wagon; and
in the front a sort of kitchen is constructed. These wagons are drawn by
the prisoners themselves, who are for the most part destined to work in
the streets and roads, and, accordingly, they take their prison with
them when they are ordered to any considerable distance from the town.
To a country in which there may be said to be no winter, this sort of
nomad prison is exceedingly well-suited, and the prisoners may be
conveyed from place to place at very little expense.

I went into some of these moveable prisons, and I must confess that I
never beheld such an assemblage of ill-looking faces as were collected
within them. In the countenances of some of the prisoners unbridled
passion and degrading sensuality were so plainly and so odiously
portrayed, that one shuddered to reflect that such features could be
an index of the human mind. Most of them were Creole Indians; but
there were a few Europeans among them. To me it was melancholy to
behold the European, who might be supposed to possess some little
share of education, mounting the prison steps chained to his
fellow-criminal, the uncivilized Chileno.

In Valparaiso, as in all seaports, there is a heterogeneous mixture of
different co