BENAVJDES THE PIRATE. 



321 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 CHILI. 



CRUISE TO THE SOUTH COAST OF CHILI, TO INQUIRE IN- 

 TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF BENAVIDES THE PIRATE. 



On the 1st of October I82I5 we sailed from 

 Valparaiso for Conception, the frontier town on 

 the coast, at the distance of two hundred and 

 twenty miles to the southward. Our object was 

 to discover what had become of certain English 

 and American seamen lately made prisoners by a 

 piratical chief of the name of Benavides, whose 

 head-quarters were at Arauco, the capital of an 

 unconquered Indian district of the same name. It 

 is situated on the coast opposite the Island of St 

 Mary'^s, one of the stations to which American 

 and English ships repair to catch seals, and recruit 

 their stock of wood and water. Benavides had, 



VOL. I. X 



