Gt> 



THE CONVOY SAIL AFTER BENAVIDES. 



theless a man of resource, full of activity, and of 

 considerable energy of character. He converted 

 the whale-spears and harpoons into lances for his 

 cavalry and halberts for his sergeants ; out of 

 the ships' sails he made trousers for half his army ; 

 the carpenters he set to building baggage-carts, 

 and repairing his boats ; the armourers he kept 

 perpetually at work, mending muskets, and making 

 pikes : managing, in this way, to turn the par- 

 ticular skill of every one of his prisoners to some 

 useful account. He treated the officers, too, not 

 unkindly, allowed them to live in his own house, 

 and was very anxious, on all occasions, to have 

 their advice respecting the equipment of his troops. 

 Upon one occasion, when walking with the captain 

 of the Herselia, he remarked, that his army was 

 now almost complete in every respect, except in 

 one essential particular ; and it cut him, he said, 

 to the very soul to think of such a deficiency. He 

 had no trumpets for the cavalry : and added, that 

 it was utterly impossible to make his fellows be- 

 lieve themselves dragoons, unless they heard a 

 good blast in their ears at every turn : neither 

 men nor horses, he said, would ever do their duty 

 properly, if not roused to it by the sound of a 

 trumpet ; in short, some device, he declared, 

 must be hit upon, to supply this desideratum. The 

 captain, willing to ingratiate himself with the 

 pirate, after a little reflection, suggested to him 

 that trumpets might easily be made out of the 

 copper sheets nailed on the bottoms of the ships 

 he had taken. " Very true," cried the delighted 

 chief ; u how came I not to think of that before I" 

 Instantly all hands were employed in ripping off 

 the copper ; and the armourers being set to work 

 under his personal superintendence, the whole 

 camp, before night, resounded with the warlike 

 blasts of the cavalry. 



It is difficult to conceive how this adventurer 

 could have expected his forced auxiliaries, the 

 Americans and English, to be of much use to him 

 in action ; for he never trusted them even on a 

 march without a guard of horsemen, whose orders 

 were to spear any one who attempted to escape : 

 in this way he afterwards carried them many a 

 weary league over the country. 



The captain of the ship who had given him the 

 brilliant idea of the copper trumpets, had, by these 

 means, so far won upon his good-will and confi- 

 dence, as to be allowed a considerable range to 

 walk in. He, of course, was always looking out 

 for some plan of escape ; and at length an oppor- 

 tunity occurring, he, with the mate of the Ocean, 

 and nine of his own crew, seized two whale-boats, 

 imprudently left on the banks of the river, and 

 rowed off. Before quitting the shore, they took 

 the precaution of staving all the other boats, to 

 prevent pursuit, and, accordingly, though their 

 escape was immediately discovered, they succeeded 

 in getting so much the start of the people whom 

 Benavides sent after them, that they reached St. 

 Mary's Island in safety. Here they caught several 

 seals, upon which they subsisted very miserably 

 till they reached Valparaiso. 



It was in consequence of the report of Bena- 

 vides' proceedings made to Sir Thomas Hardy, 

 the commander- -in-chief, by these persons, that 

 he deemed it proper to send a ship, to rescue, if 

 possible, the remaining unfortunate captives at 

 Arauco. I was ordered on this service : and the 



senior officer of the squadron of the United States 

 having no ship to spare at that moment, I was 

 directed to use equal exertions to liberate the 

 seamen of that nation. The captain and mate of 

 the Herselia, who had recently escaped, offered me 

 their services as pilots, and I was much indebted 

 to them for their zeal and local knowledge. 



It ought to have been mentioned before, that 

 Benavides sometimes, when it suited his purpose, 

 affected to call himself a Spanish officer, and often 

 hoisted a Spanish flag ; though, in general, he 

 carried colours of his own invention, as chief of 

 the Araucanian nation, and declared himself totally 

 independent of Spain. The circumstance of his 

 sometimes calling himself a Spaniard, together 

 with his having received assistance from Chiloe, 

 made it rather delicate ground for neutrals to tread. 

 I was, therefore, instructed to avoid any measures 

 likely to embroil us with the contending parties ; 

 but to recover the seamen, if possible, without 

 offending either Spaniards or Chilians. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



The Bay of Conception. — Talcuhuana. — Desolation caused 

 by the War.— River Biobio.— Dilapidated State of the 

 Town of Conception. — Penco. — Strata of Coal. — Tome.— 

 Character of the Inhabitants of the Southern Parts of 

 Chili. 



As the wind, at this season of the year, blows 

 almost constantly from the southward, the passage 

 from Valparaiso to Conception was very tedious ; 

 for, though the distance was little more than two 

 hundred miles, it occupied us seven days before 

 we came in sight of the high lands over the town. 

 As we approached the shore we were cheered with 

 the appearance of hills wooded from top to bottom, 

 a sight to which we had long been strangers. The 

 Bay of Conception is a large square inlet, open on 

 the north, while the south and the west sides are 

 formed by a high promontory jutting out from the 

 mainland, and bending into the shape of an elbow ; 

 each side being three or four leagues long. Tal- 

 cuhuana, a miserable town, with a dilapidated fort, 

 is the sea-port of Conception, and occupies the 

 south-western angle of the square. The present 

 city lies a league further inland, about five or six 

 miles distant from Talcuhuana. 



We found in the harbour a ship from Lima, 

 full of Chilian Royalists: unhappy people who had 

 emigrated to Peru, when their country had been 

 rendered independent by the arms of San Martin. 

 Being followed to Lima by their evil genius, they 

 had resolved to return to their native place, and 

 throw themselves on the mercy of their successful 

 countrymen, the Patriots of Chili. These poor 

 people, strangers in their own land, now found their 

 possessions in the hands of others, and scarcely 

 knew whither to bend their steps. 



I landed with one of the midshipmen, intending 

 to ride to Conception, and on the beach met the 

 captain of the ship which had brought the passen- 

 gers. I had known him in Lima a most staunch 

 Royalist, and was amused to find him here trans- 

 formed into just as staunch a Patriot. The truth is, 

 that he, like many others we met with, whose sole 

 object was gain, cared very little for either side ; 

 and though he had the art to seem thoroughly in 



