PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 25 



were then thrust through these temporary bulwarks, chap. 

 and a fire opened upon the assailants. This was a *— -.~*-' 

 sufficiently secure defence against the Indians, but i 8 2 5 e . r ' 

 it is easy to imagine what would have been the 

 effect of a few well-placed cannon upon a crowd of 

 persons so collected. 



In the selection of the site of the new city, the 

 advantage of the river Bio Bio was, no doubt, the 

 great consideration ; and when inland navigation is 

 as well understood in that country as in some others, 

 it will be of the greatest importance, though its 

 numerous shoals must occasion serious difficulties. 

 Part of the produce of the interior is now brought 

 down upon rafts, which, not being able to return, 

 are broken up and sold for timber. There is a ferry- 

 boat over the river for the accommodation of per- 

 sons who wish to pass from Conception to the In- 

 dian country, and sufficiently large to carry cattle or 

 horses. The natives cross in punts, but have so 

 much difficulty in stemming the current and avoid- 

 ing banks and shallows, that, though the extreme 

 distance is only a mile, they are sometimes an hour 

 and a half performing the passage. Although the 

 Spaniards nominally possessed territory far to the 

 southward of this river, yet it in reality formed their 

 boundary, and until very lately it was unsafe for an 

 European to venture far upon that side, on account 

 of straggling parties of the Indians.* The mouth 

 of the Bio Bio is circumscribed by banks, which 

 have progressively risen, to 210 yards; and even this 



* I have been informed that since this period (1825), the Inten- 

 dente has a magnificent estate on that side of the river, that the 

 Indians are quiet, and that Conception has undergone great im- 

 provement. 



