36 DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



Of the foreign vessels during the above period, fourteen were English, thirteen French, and 

 ten Peruvians. 



These are the ports resorted to by foreign vessels most generally ; nor are they permitted to 

 enter others without first anchoring at one of them and obtaining permission to do so. Except 

 for an occasional load of copper sometimes conveyed to points of the coast north of Valparaiso, 

 or perhaps coal from the Colcura or Coronel mines, south of Talcahuano, there is nothing to 

 attract them elsewhere, and no shelters in stress of weather. Vessels coming through the 

 Straits of Magellan have sometimes found it necessary to stop for wood* and water, or by 

 adverse winds, at Port Bulnes, a good harbor within the first narrows ; but it has no trade 

 whatever, and hitherto the convict colonists have not been able to cultivate a sufficient supply 

 for their own wants. 



Most disastrous have proved the two attempts to form settlements here. First, the King of 

 Spain despatched a numerous fleet, under the command of Sarmiento, in 1582, who founded a 

 city with all the pomp and solemnities practised on like occasions by his nation at that era, 

 giving to it the name of San Felipe, in honor of his royal master. Four hundred men and 

 women were embarked for this colony ; though it is probable that a portion of them never 

 reached the locality, as we have authentic record of only three fourths of that number having 

 landed on the shores which had played so treacherous a part when that most energetic and 

 faithful officer and seaman had first passed to the eastward through the straits. Of these, only 

 two survived, one of whom wag picked up by Cavendish, who called the place Port Famine, 

 in allusion to the fate of the emigrants, nearly all of whom had died from starvation ; and the 

 last survivor was taken off in 1589 by Andrew Mericke, though he did not live to cross the 

 Atlantic. And subsequently, when the young republic of Chile found Juan Fernandez an 

 impracticable penal settlement, the prisoners were transferred to Port Famine, to which the 

 name of Port Bulnes was given in honor of their then President. Inducements were offered 

 other citizens to emigrate there,, and at the close of 1849 the population comprised 378 persons, 

 of whom 194 were men, 88 married women, and the remainder children. Owing to the foster- 

 ing care of the government, their condition was reported to be most prosperous ; sheep, hogs, 

 and black cattle had been introduced, which multiplied well; and the prospects were that 

 wheat, potatoes, and certain vegetables, could be cultivated advantageously: but there was not 

 a soul willing to remain beyond the term of condemnation or service for which he had stipulated. 

 Hoping to make them more contented, and to advance the growth of the colony more rapidly, a 

 new governor was sent out, with enlarged powers, in February, 1851 ; but, instead of attaining 

 the desired objects, the prisoners and a part of his own guard mutinied during the revolutionary 

 struggle of the same year, barbarously murdered him and the priest, and made their escape in 

 two vessels lying in the harbor, of which they took possession forcibly. A part of the crimi- 

 nals were retaken and executed, and another governor sent there in 1852, of whom my last 

 intelligence (May, 1853) was, that himself and six companions had been made prisoners by 

 the Patagonians and carried to the interior of the country six months previously. Large sums 

 had been offered for their ransom, and it was still hoped that they would be liberated. 



ISLANDS. 



Of the thousand islands which line the western coast of Patagonia, we have little intelli- 

 gence. The region is too wild and rugged, and the soil too cold and moist, to encourage the 

 settlement of civilized human beings ; and the few wretched Indians who wander from place to 

 place along their inhospitable shores are driven to exist on a scanty supply of seals and fish 

 snatched from the ocean. Excepting the unfortunate colony in the Straits of Magellan, Chiloe 



* There are also veins of coal more than five feet thick in the vicinity, but they have never heen worked for want of intelligent 



miners. 



