Life in Patagonia. 95 



ists conceived the idea of capturing 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 Rio Negro. One of the ships came to grief on 

 the bar, which is very difficult ; 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 disem- 

 barked 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, find- 

 ing it impossible to continue its march near the 

 river, owing to the steep hills intersected by valleys 

 and ravines and covered 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 loaded and placed 



