430 



BLONDE TALCAHUANO. 



June 



pared for sea : an offer of such assistance as I could render was 

 accepted by the commodore ; and, having arranged the Bea- 

 gle's affairs, as far as then necessary, I went on board the 

 Blonde, taking with me Mr. Usborne, J. Bennett, and a whale- 

 boat. Lieut. Wickham was to forward the Beagle's duty 

 during my absence, and take her to Copiapo, Iquique, and 

 Callao, before I should rejoin her. 



18th. Weighed at three in the morning and cleared the 

 port before daybreak. A northerly, freshening wind favoured 

 us much when in the offing. 



21st. Anchored in the bay of Concepcion, off Talcahuano, 

 at noon. As soon as I could get a boat I landed, and hastened 

 to obtain information, horses, and a guide, as the commodore 

 wished me to go to Captain Seymour, and concert measures 

 for removing the crew and the remaining stores. 



The captain of the port told Commodore Mason that the 

 part of the coast on which the Challenger went shore, is quite 

 inaccessible in any weather, but that boats had entered the 

 mouth of the river Leiibu, near Molguilla. 



Lieutenant Collins (of the Challenger) had been at Tal« 

 cahuano, trying to procure a vessel, in which the shipwrecked 

 crew might embark by means of boats, at the Leiibu, but not 

 succeeding he had returned to his shipmates ; whom he ex- 

 pected to find at the mouth of the river. It was said that a large 

 body of Indians was in motion towards them, that the crew 

 were short of provisions, and that they were becoming sickly. 

 Assisted by the governor of Talcahuano, horses and a native 

 guide were soon obtained ; but I wanted a more energetic 

 assistant, and engaged a Hanoverian who was used to the half 

 Indian natives of the frontier, and well known among them. 

 This man was Vogelberg, or Vergara, already mentioned. 

 With orders and letters from Commodore Mason, accompanied 

 by Vogelberg and H. Fuller, and provided with five horses, I 

 left Talcahuano the same evening. 



Being personally acquainted with the Yntendente, and his 

 second in command, I hastened immediately to their houses at 

 Concepcion, wishing to get an order to pass the Bio Bio River 



