GOVERNOR OF COKCEPTION. 



341 



country had been overwhelmed, and though doubt- 

 less often hungry and cold enough, looked as hap- 

 py 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 Monte- 

 rey, 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 get- 

 ting 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 an- 

 * xious to engage some Indian messenger, to com- 

 municate either with the pirate himself, or with 



