Buena Vista, a seat of the late Marquess of
Montemira, six leagues from Lima, was the Sunday rendezvous of every
fashionable of the capital who had a few doubloons to risk on the turn of a
card. On one occasion, a fortunate player, the celebrated Baquijano, was
under the necessity of sending for a bullock car to convey his winnings,
amounting to above thirty thousand dollars: a mule thus laden with specie
was a common occurrence. Chorillos, a fishing town, three leagues south of
Lima, is a fashionable watering place for a limited season. Here immense
sums are won and lost; but political and literary coteries, formerly
unknown, daily lessen the numbers of the votaries of fortune.
So strong was this ruling passion, that when the patriot army has been
closely pursued by the royalists, and pay has been issued to lighten the
military chest, the officers, upon halting, would spread their ponchos on
the ground, and play until it was time to resume the march; and this was
frequently done even on the eve of a battle. Soldiers on piquet often
gambled within sight of an enemy's advanced post.
_Memoirs of Gen. Miller._
* * * * *
THE NATURALIST.
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