Q74 ORIGINAL ESTABLISHMENT. 1829. 
creditable to the engineer. It was surrounded by a deep and 
wide ditch; and under it lay two small batteries: one, San 
Antonio, commanding the passage between the small island of 
Cochinos, and the Main ; and the other flanking the anchorage 
off the town. At the Mole were two guns, and opposite to it, 
under the governor’s house, was the battery, Del Carmen, 
mounting twelve or fourteen guns. In the town, in a convenient 
situation, there were excellent barracks, capable of containing 
more than one thousand men. 
The original establishment was at the Sandy Point, on the 
western side of the port, where the situation is better sheltered, 
and, perhaps, equally capable of being well defended. It is, 
also, on the windward side of the harbour, and close to the 
safest anchorage which the port affords; but the inconvenience 
of water-carriage was found to be so great, that the establish- 
ment was removed to its present site. A still better situation 
might have been selected opposite to Sandy Point, at Leche 
Agua; where the anchorage is perfectly safe, and the commu- 
nication with Castro could be more advantageously made. 
Northerly and westerly winds prevail, and the town is exposed 
to all their fury, which, at times, is extreme. The anchorage 
nearest to it, for the sake of convenience, and expedition in 
loading and unloading cargoes, is often taken up, but is very 
unsafe, many vessels having been lost there, from the bottom 
being shoal, and rocky; and the swell, during a northerly gale, 
is so short and deep, that anchors will not hold. 
The town is built on two rising grounds, and in the valley 
that separates them; through which a rivulet runs into the 
bay, at a mole which affords sufficient protection to the boats 
and piraguas frequenting the port. The houses, which are all 
of wood, are generally small, and have but little comfort. The 
plaza, or square, without which no town in Chile of the least 
importance is to be found, is situated on a flat piece of ground 
at the summit of the southern hill, and commands an extensive 
view. It is about one hundred and eighty yards square, with 
a flag-staff in the centre. 
On the north side there is a strong, well-built stone store- 
