divine will in regard to us. Once I went below to inform the sisters of the danger: I found them also occupied in imploring the protection of heaven by the intercession of the Holy Virgin Mary. I offered them the assistance of my ministry, but they all answered, with a smile upon their lips, and with that tranquillity, that unalterable calm, which only a heart pure and inflamed with the love of God can give, " We are not disturbed about anything.
Let the Lord dispose of us as seems good to him." I had hardly reached the deck again when the wind suddenly changed and bore us in an exactly opposite direction.
On the ad of April we were near land. On the 3d we
saw the peninsula of the Tres Montes. The 8th and 9th we were coasting along Chiloe and Chile. On the Loth we saw the Island of Mocha and its dangerous shoals, level with the water. On the Lath we entered the beautiful Bay of Valparaiso, where we anchored about five in the afternoon.
Though we were extremely desirous to get on shore after so long a voyage - it was three months since we had left the Schelde - we were obliged to remain on board until the next day. As we contemplated the city from the middle of the bay it presented a truly enchanting appear
ance. It lies in crescent shape along the shore for a space of a league. A range of hills form a background, in which it lies as in an amphitheater. The numberless lights, shining from all the windows, presented a beautiful
illumination in the evening. We especially, after so long a captivity upon the sea, with nothing to look at but sky and water, frightful rocks and barren coasts, were, it is safe to say, fully capable of appreciating this sight, and very well disposed to do so.
Early the next morning I went on shore to look for suitable lodgings for the sisters and for my companions. I soon returned to the ship with the good news that there were some Jesuits from Buenos Aires at Valparaiso, and that the French nuns of the order of Picpus invited the