OS 



MISERIES OF INDIAN WARFARE. 



almost all handsome, and had the appearance of 

 belonging to a fine race : unlike their parents, 

 they were unconscious of the evils by which their 

 country had been overwhelmed, and looked as 

 happy and merry as their elders were despondent 

 and miserable. 



The governor received us courteously, and gave 

 us all the information he possessed. Accounts, 

 he said, had been received of Benavides having 

 crossed the river Biobio at a place called Mon- 

 terey, twenty-five leagues above Conception. He 

 had marched upon Chilian, a town about thirty 

 leagues off, in a N.N.E. direction ; and had with 

 him thirteen hundred followers, including the 

 English and American seamen taken at Arauco. 

 A considerable force, he told us, had recently 

 marched from Conception, and succeeded in 

 getting between Benavides and the river Biobio ; 

 there being also a well-appointed force in Chilian, 

 it was next to impossible, he thought, that the 

 outlaw could now escape. Benavides, it seemed, 

 never gave quarter, but the governor assured 

 me that, as the Chilians did not retaliate, the 

 seamen incurred no danger on this account. I 

 was anxious to engage some Indian messenger, to 

 communicate either with the pirate himself, or 

 with his captives ; but the governor drew up at 

 this, and expressed some surprise at my thinking 

 it either proper or possible to negotiate with 

 this desperate outlaw, who was, he said, little 

 better than a wild beast, and approachable only 

 by force. 



As correct information respecting the further 

 proceedings of Benavides would probably reach 

 the local government in the course of a couple of 

 days, I determined to wait for the courier, and 

 to employ the interval in examining the Bay 

 of Conception. An officer was accordingly sent 

 with boats, to survey and sound all the different 

 anchorages, while the ship proceeded to several 

 small ports lying round the bay. The first of 

 these was Penco, a town built on the site of the 

 old city of Conception, which was swept away by 

 a great wave, that accompanied the earthquake 

 of 1751. When the city was to be rebuilt, a 

 more inland situation was chosen ; but as it stands 

 at present on low ground, it is questionable 

 whether an earthquake wave of any magnitude 

 might not still reach it. As we had heard of coal 

 being in this district, we engaged a guide to show 

 us where it was to be found, and had not walked a 

 mile into the country before we reached some ex- 

 cavations at the surface of the ground, from which 

 the coal is worked without any trouble. The seam 

 is thick and apparently extensive, and might, pro- 

 bably, with due care and skill, be wrought to any 

 extent. 



In the course of our walk to the coal-pits, we 

 fell in with an intelligent native, who offered him- 

 self as our guide, and interested us a good deal 

 by his account of the past and present state of the 

 country. He had been cattle-keeper, he said, to a 

 farmer, and, at one time, had charge of two hun- 

 dred beasts ; but that his master had not one 

 left, and was now as poor as himself. The estate 

 had formerly produced many thousand fanegas of 

 wheat, which had served to maintain a consider- 

 able population : " but," added he, " the fields are 

 now grown up with long grass ; all the enclosures, 

 and all the houses gone; the cattle entirely driven 



off ; and the inhabitants dispersed, no one knows 

 where. Who will rear cattle, or sow grain, if not 

 sure of the herd, or the harvest ? and so," added 

 he, "it will continue till these sad wars and incur- 

 sions are at an end, and property be made secure ; 

 for nobody will remain even in this fertile and 

 beautiful country in such times as the present." 

 The correct feeling which this rude peasant dis- 

 played for the natural beauties of his native spot 

 was very remarkable ; for he was never tired of 

 expatiating on the picturesque graces of the land- 

 scape, and was perpetually calling our attention, 

 as we walked along, to some new and more 

 pleasing aspect which the scenery had assumed. 

 He was so much delighted with our admiration 

 of his country, that he forgot, in our praises of its 

 beauty, the calamities under which it was labour- 

 ing ; and having, probably, rarely met with such 

 sympathy before, he scarcely knew how to thank 

 us for our companionship. 



The natives of the southern provinces of Chili 

 have always been described as a bold and hardy 

 race of men, although not so warlike as their neigh- 

 bours, the Indians of Arauco, who, though often 

 conquered in single battles, were never completely 

 subdued by the Spaniards. Whenever a judicious 

 President happened to be at the head of the 

 government of Chili, a treaty was generally entered 

 into between that state and the Araucanians ; yet, 

 notwithstanding the acknowledged fact that these 

 alliances proved invariably advantageous to both 

 parties, the next governor would, in all probability, 

 go to war ; considering it unworthy to remain on 

 good terms with a set of savages. From that 

 moment, a miserable conflict was commenced, 

 of inroads on one side and hard fighting on 

 the other, equally mischievous to Chilians and 

 Araucanians. These wars generally began by 

 the Spanish disciplined troops entering the Indian 

 territory, and possessing themselves of the capital, 

 Arauco, and other towns ; but, ere long, they 

 were always forced to retire before the bravery 

 and numbers of the Indians ; who, in their turn, 

 entered and laid waste the Chilian frontier, drove 

 off the cattle and dispersed the inhabitants, acting 

 pretty much in the style of our Borderers of old. 

 However spirited and romantic such a state of 

 things may sound in poetical description, it is 

 very melancholy to witness in real life. Indeed, 

 while this poor peasant was detailing to us the 

 ruin and misery which had befallen his country 

 from this profitless and barbarous system of war- 

 fare, and when his narrative was confirmed by 

 every circumstance around us, we felt somewhat 

 ashamed of the lively and pleasing interest with 

 which we had recently listened to an account of 

 the very same transactions, at a distance, and 

 before we had witnessed the reality. 



On returning to the beach, we were assailed by 

 a number of little girls, six or seven years of age, 

 each with a fowl in her hand, and all beseech- 

 ing us to purchase. These children were very 

 pretty, and their cheeks, unlike the natives be- 

 tween the tropics, chubby and rosy ; their hair, 

 resembling that of their Spanish and Indian an- 

 cestors, was long, glossy, and black, hanging over 

 their brows, till smoothed back by the hand, to 

 disclose their still blacker eyes. When the little 

 monkeys looked up in our faces and smiled, so as 

 to show their beautiful white teeth and dimpled 



