BURNING OF AIIAUCO. 



353 



On the morning of the 19th of October I landed 

 at Arauco, to make^ if possible, some arrangement 

 with the commander of the Chilian expedition, in 

 the event of any of the prisoners effecting their 

 escape, and reaching his camp. We found the 

 head-quarters established in the centre of the ca- 

 pital, which had consisted of fifty-six houses, ar- 

 ranged in rows: nothing now remained but a num- 

 ber of black square marks, except where a few 

 houses had been more substantially built than the 

 rest. Part of the walls of Benavides' own house 

 were still standing, but the rafters and the door- 

 posts were burning on the floor when we visited 

 it. On the walls we could see the names of some 

 of the captives who had been confined there, 

 traced with charcoal, or scratched with a knife. 

 Captain Sheffield of the Herselia, who had ac- 

 companied us from Valparaiso, carried us through 

 the town, where he had been so long a prisoner, 

 and over the smoking ashes of which he looked 

 with malicious satisfaction. This diminutive ca- 

 pital was about three hundred yards square, en- 

 closed by a wall twelve feet high, and guarded by 

 towers at two of the angles, with one of its sides 



VOL. 1. z 



