458 



MECE RATS CAMP. 



June 



essential articles of provision were exhausted : inactivity and 

 uncertainty were depressing the minds of all, and Captain 

 Seymour had begun to concert measures for abandoning the 

 ships' stores, which had been so painfully saved, and travelling 

 overland to Concepcion, when the letters from Commodore 

 Mason were given to him. It ought not to be forgotten that 

 Mr. Rouse decided to remain with Captain Seymour, and 

 share his fate, whatever plan he might adopt. 



Among evils of magnitude trifling vexations are little 

 noticed ; an absolute plague of mice caused amusing occupa- 

 tion, rather than annoyance. The ground, the tents, their 

 beds, everything and every place was infested by mice : nothing 

 was safe from their teeth ; provisions were hung up, and 

 people were obliged to watch them. Hundreds were killed every 

 hour, for they literally swarmed over all that part of the 

 country, and curiously enough the old people attributed their 

 appearance to the earthquake ! Besides these mice, which had 

 feet like those of a lizard, enabling them to climb in all direc- 

 tions, even along the smallest line or branch of a tree, there 

 were animals that they called rats, about the encampment at 

 Leiibu, which deserve mention, not on account of their num- 

 bers (as there were comparatively few) but because they were 

 formed like opossums, having a pouch to contain their young 

 for some time after birth. 



Early the next morning (24th) I went up with Captain Sey- 

 mour to the heights of Tucapel, which overlook the river and 

 command an extensive view of the sea. Flag-staffs had been 

 erected there, and large piles of wood collected, in order that 

 flags might be kept flying by day, and fires burning at night. 

 The little camp below presented a regular and very respectable 

 appearance : fourteen or fifteen tents, pitched in regular order, 

 and surrounded by a palisade with a ditch, would have caused 

 even a large body of Indians to hesitate before they attacked 

 it. I was much struck by the strength of the position, and 

 the ease with which it might be defended by a small force 

 against numbers, and still maintain communication with the 

 sea. There was formerly a small settlement there, called a 



