92 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



war the Imperialists conceived the idea of captur- 

 ing the Patagonian settlement of El Carmen, 

 which they knew to be quite unprotected. Three 

 ships of war, with a large number of soldiers, were 

 sent out to effect this insignificant conquest, and 

 in due time reached the Eio Negro. One of the 

 ships came to grief on the bar, which is very diffi- 

 cult ; and there it eventually became a total wreck. 

 The other two succeeded in getting safely into the 

 river. The troops, to the number of 500 men, 

 were disembarked and sent on to capture the 

 town, which is twenty miles distant from the sea. 

 The ships at the same time proceeded up the river, 

 though it was scarcely thought that their co- 

 operation would be required to take so weak a 

 place as the Carmen. Happily for the colonists, 

 the Imperial armada found the navigation difficult, 

 and one of the ships ran on to a sandbank about 

 half way to the town; the other proceeded alone 

 only to arrive when it was all over with the land 

 force. This force, finding it impossible to con- 

 tinue its march near the river, owing to the steep 

 hills intersected by valleys and ravines and cov- 

 ered with a dense forest of thorns, was compelled 

 to take a circuitous route leading it several miles 

 away from the water. Tidings of the approaching 

 army soon reached the Carmen, and all able-bodied 

 men within call were quickly mustered in the fort. 

 They numbered only seventy, but the Patagonians 

 were determined to defend themselves. Women 

 and children were brought into the fort ; guns were 



