Life in Patagonia. 95 
ists conceived the idea of capturing the Patagonian 
settlement of Hl Carmen, which they knew to be 
quite unprotected. Three ships of war, with a 
large number of soldiers, were sent out to effect 
this imsignificant 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 ouly 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 
