Australian Emigrants
to Valparaiso, 1844

We have been favoured with the perusal of a letter from a 
young man, a carpenter, who left this (place- Melb) for
Valparaiso last year, and writes from that place on the
12th of March last. The following quotations from the letter
will probably be of use to the working classes, many of
whom were about the period when the writer left Melbourne,
bit with the mania for transmigration; The writer says
(addressing a friend in Melbourne):-

I am very glad you did not come for you would not like
this place, and there is very little work in your trade.
There has been a good deal of carpenter's work going on 
owing to the fire, but as soon as these new buildings are
done, I think it will be very slack; wages are, at present,
nine shillings per day, from daylight till dark; the days
were very long when we arrived, and working in the sun for
so many hours was almost enough to kill us.All the passengers
have been attacked with dysentry,some more and some less
severly, but we are all now enjoying good health.
This place is not a bit hotter than Port Phillip, and we
have no blow flies nor any bugs. The labouring men that
came with us are starving; they can obtain no work,for 
they do no understand the language, and besides the natives,
or Peons as they are called, work for fifteen pence a day,and
they will live where an Englishman would starve, for they
eat nothing but fruit and vegetables.  Firing is very dear,
as there is but little wood, charcoal is most burned the
houses not having fire places in them.  Meat is about three
pence per lb, clear of bone, for they cut all the bone out.
The climate is very pleasant; we have not had a drop of rain
since our arrival.  THe Government was very kind to the
people who could not get employment; they supported them for
some time, and they have given them house-room up to this time.
A---=, the bricklayer, has gone to the United States, he could
not obtain employment here, for there are no bricks used,only
doughboys,which are lumps of clay mixed with straw 
and dried in the sum.  The houses now building are all  for
stores; they are generally two stories high and very large.

I should not advise any one to come here, neither carpenter
nor any other trade for they can do no good, as the natives
will work at whatever they can for any wages that might be
offered, though they are very indifferent workmen, and
precious rogues, a person  not knowing their language they
would rob him of his teeth.  Provisions, and indeed everything
else, are brought in on mules, and fine beasts they are, as
are also their horses. The meat is all spoilt, for they shave
all the fat off it,and as for the mutton it looks more like 
dead cats than meat, a whole sheep not weighing more than
20lbs. Poultry and fish are pretty cheap, but vegetables dear,
ninepence for a single cabbage, and potatoes 12 lbs,for
sixpence. The rent of a house containing three rooms is from
fifteen to twenty shillings a week, so that on the whole a
working man can do but little good. 

As for public houses, almost all the shops are grog shops.
This is a shocking place to bring young females to, education
is very dear, and as for religon there is none at all, and
no Sabbath whatever, gambling and cock-fighting being the
diversion on the whole of Sunday. You can acquaint all you know
of the contents of this letter, for as far as my knowledge
goes there is not one of those who came here from Port Phillip
but would give all they have in the world to get out of it.
We have had two shocks of an earthquake since our arrival,they
call them slight, but slight as they were,they threw the bottles
off the shelves, and shook the houses as if they were boats
tossing about on the ocean, so you may guess it was not very 
pleasant.



source: newspaper titled;  The Melbourne Weekly Courier
edition date:  October 10 1844