1835. CARMEN — ERROR WEATHER. 469 



site side. No time was then lost in galloping to Talcahuano, 

 and going on board the Blonde, so that Captain Seymour's 

 letter was delivered to Commodore Mason soon after ten. 



I found that the commodore had engaged an American 

 schooner* to go in search of the crew of the Challenger ; and 

 that Mr. Usborne had been sent in her, with the second master of 

 the Blonde,-|- three seamen of that ship, my coxswain, and the 

 whale-boat which I took from the Beagle ; she was a poor 

 craft, and wretchedly found, though reputed to have sailed 

 well, and to have been a fine vessel in her time. They left 

 Talcahuano on the day after a gale from the north-west (on 

 the 24th), which, by all accounts, was one of the severest that 

 had been experienced during many years. 



The Blonde sailed from Concepcion Bay on the 27th, the 

 morning after I arrived; but unfortunately, during all that 

 day, thick weather and half a gale of wind from the northward, 

 prevented our having even one glimpse of the land, as we were 

 running towards the entrance of the Leiibu. 



o 



On the 28th, thick weather kept us in the offing. On the 

 29th, at daylight, the schooner Carmen was seen, and soon 

 afterwards, through the haze, we made out Tucapel Head. 

 At this time, neither Vogelborg (who was on board as local 

 pilot) nor I, knew that the Heights of Tucapel Viejo were 

 identical with the headland we recognized by the name of 

 Tucapel Head. We both thought that Tucapel Viejo was in 

 the bay where the river ' Lebo' is placed in the old Spanish 

 charts. This error appears almost unaccountable to me now ; 

 though both he and I were then drawn into it by a variety of 

 reasons unnecessary to detail here, and we therefore advised 

 the commodore to run along-shore towards the supposed place 

 of the Leiibu (or Lebo), which he did ; but the weather was 

 so unfavourable, so thick and hazy, that nothing could be 

 seen distinctly. Scarcely indeed could we discern the line of the 

 surf, heavily as it was beating upon the shore ; and at noon we 

 were obliged to haul off, on account of wind and rain. 



* The Carmen ; for which such exorbitant demands had been made 

 in answer to Lieutenant Collins. f Mr. Biddleconibe. 



