CAPTAIN HENRY FOSTER. 



when the light was thrown into these clefts, it 

 gave them a brilliant appearance, like frost-work. 

 The copper-ore was richest in the quartz veins, 

 but it was found frequently unconnected with 

 them, and combined, in various degrees, with 

 other substances. Having made a careful col- 

 lection of specimens, we returned to the Asiento, 

 or village of Guasco. 



Our fair hostess had in our absence made up a 

 party to visit the Conway, as I had requested her 

 to do, on hearing her say, that no one in the 

 Asiento had been on board of a man-of-war : 

 most of them, in fact, had never been afloat, and 

 some had never even seen a ship in their lives. 

 I gave them dinner on board, and showed them 

 over the ship, with which they expressed them- 

 selves much gratified ; but none of them evinced 

 that childish kind of surprise, which people a 

 little, and but a little, acquainted with a subject, 

 are more apt to betray, than those totally ignorant. 



The Spaniards, in all things excepting politics, 

 are a deliberate people, and, as their descendants 

 partake of the same cautious spirit, it is not easy, 

 at any time, to excite them to the expression of 

 strong emotion. Being somewhat piqued, there- 

 fore, that my friends were so little roused by the 

 novel wonders of a man-of-war, I laid a plan for 

 surprising them, which succeeded completely. 

 After dinner, the party landed, and scattered 

 themselves about in groups on the sunny face of 

 a rock, fronting the ship. It was quite calm, and 

 the water was so smooth, that, although the whole 

 Pacific was open to the west, there was not the 

 least swell ; and only a little scarcely audible 

 ripple broke at our feet. I had given orders 

 that, at a certain hour, about which a breeze 

 from the land might be expected, the sails should 

 be set. Accordingly, at the appointed time, a 

 shrill whittle was heard : this attracted the atten- 

 tion of my Chilian friends to the ship, lying within 

 three hundred yards of the beach. In the next 

 instant, the sailors were seen flying out upon the 

 yards to loose the sails. The ladies, who had 

 never before witnessed such a sight, gave an 

 involuntary scream of terror, lest the seamen 

 should fall ; while the gentlemen shouted with 

 delight and surprise, to witness their dexterity. 



Our adieus were most pathetic, although our 

 acquaintance had subsisted not quite thirty hours ; 

 and as we sailed away, we could observe through 

 our glasses that the ladies remained seated on the 

 rocks, like so many deserted Didos, waving their 

 handkerchiefs to us till the night closed in, and 

 we lost sight of one another in the darkness. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



Copiapo Anchorage.— Earthquake of 1819.— City destroyed. 

 — Old Monk in the midst of his ruined Convent. 



We had some difficulty next day in finding the 

 harbour of Copiapd, which was not distinctly laid 

 down in the plans in our possession. On coming 

 near it, a dangerous line of reefs was discovered, 

 of which no books nor charts made any mention. 

 This circumstance determined me to have the 

 whole bay trigonometrically surveyed, and care- 

 fully sounded. As soon, therefore, as the ship 

 was anchored, I sent one of the midshipmen, Mr. 



Henry Foster, an excellent surveyor, on this 

 service. But as it was soon discovered that two 

 days would be barely sufficient to accomplish this 

 indispensable work, I determined to employ the 

 interval in visiting the town of Copiapd, lying 

 eighteen leagues in the interior. 



The gentleman just mentioned was shortly after- 

 wards promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and ac- 

 companied Captain Parry, on his great voyage in 

 1824, and 1825, as assistant -surveyor. It gives 

 me great pleasure to have a public opportunity of 

 bearing testimony to the talents and knowledge of 

 this rising young officer — but it is with a sorrow, 

 which the lapse of years only augments, that 

 I mention his untimely death in 1831, nearly at the 

 conclusion of a voyage of scientific research, under 

 his command ; after he had been promoted, and 

 honoured by the Royal Society by the presentation 

 of the Copley Medal, for his numerous and im- 

 portant observations, made during the North 

 Western expedition under Captain, now Sir Edward 

 Parry, in 1824, and 1825. 



The first thing which arrested our attention, 

 after anchoring, was a curious pile, or large 

 brown stack, on the beach, apparently of hewn 

 stones. After we had in vain examined it through 

 our glasses, our Coquimbo friend explained to us 

 that it was a quantity of copper, the cargo of a 

 ship he had ordered to call in a few days. He 

 was well pleased to find his agents had so punc- 

 tually attended to his directions, especially as 

 they had no idea of his intending to visit the 

 coast. Presently we saw a man riding along the 

 edge of the cliff above the beach on which the 

 copper was placed, and on sending a boat for 

 him, he proved to be the person in charge of the 

 copper, much delighted that his employer had 

 found him at his post. He was instantly de- 

 spatched into the country to get horses for our 

 journey next day. 



Early on the 23d of November, we set off for 

 Copiapo. Besides the never-failing motive of 

 curiosity to see this place, merely because it was 

 new, we felt most anxious to witness the effects 

 of the- great earthquake of April 1819; and, if 

 our time would permit, to visit the silver-mines 

 in the mountains near the town. Our party con- 

 sisted of three passengers from Coquimbo, and 

 three of the officers of the Conway, including 

 myself. The first part of the road lay along a 

 hard level surface, chiefly rock, at some places 

 covered with a thin soil. We then entered a 

 broad valley, the sides of which were formed 

 entirely of water-worn stones and gravel, covered 

 by a stratum or crust several yards thick, of a 

 rock composed entirely of pieces of broken shells, 

 stretching, as far as we could discover, over the 

 whole country bordering on the sea. The valley 

 was three or four miles across, and bore every 

 appearance of having been, at some former period, 

 the channel of a mighty river, now shrunk into a 

 scanty rivulet, flowing almost unseen amongst 

 dwarf willows, stunted shrubs, and long rank 

 grass. The soil was completely covered, at every 

 part of the valley, by a layer, several inches 

 thick, of a white powder, since ascertained, by 

 analysis, to be sulphate of soda, or glauber salts. 

 It looked like snow on the ground, an appearance 

 it still retained even when made into roads, and 

 beat down. The dust thrown up by the horses' 



