1835. 



DANGERS — ESCAPE —USBOTINE. 



475 



ther side of Mocha, while it was blowing hard, with a high 

 sea running ; and in all probability, not one person would have 

 been saved had she struck. If Mr. Usborne had not known 

 this land well, from his late survey, it is not likely that they 

 would have escaped, because when they found themselves about 

 half a mile from the breakers, the tack which appeared to the 

 others to be by far the best, was in truth the worst : had they 

 gone on that tack, nothing could have saved them. Mr. 

 Usborne saw their position exactly, and knowing how the cur- 

 rent would affect them, determined upon what they thought 

 the wrong tack, and rescued them. I say that Mr. Usborne 

 did this ; because Mr. Biddlecombe was sick, and the master 

 of the vessel reluctantly yielded to the person who he saw was 

 at home, while he himself was utterly bewildered. 



After this narrow escape, the schooner was drifted to the south- 

 ward, as far as the latitude of Valdivia, before the southerly 

 wind, which took the Blonde to the mouth of the Leiibu, 

 drove the Carmen back slowly to the northward. Mr. Usborne 

 and his companions had almost entered the opening of the Bay 

 of Concepcion early in the morning of the day on which the ' 

 Blonde took them in tow, but had been drifted away again by 

 a fresh wind, and were failing to leeward fast, for want of sail, 

 when the Blonde arrived. Mr. Usborne recovered from his 

 fatigue in two or three days, but Bennett was ill for a fort- 

 night. 



During the few days they were away, they suffered much. 

 As for the ten men belonging to the vessel, they were utterly 

 useless, being frightened or sick during the whole time ; so 

 that but for the exertion of the Blonde's seamen, of Bennett, of 

 the master of the vessel (Mr. Thayer), of Mr. Biddlecombe, 

 and above all, Mr, Usborne, the Carmen might have left her 

 remains on the shore, when perhaps few, if any, would have 

 survived to tell the fatal tale.* 



The Blonde worked to windward, with the schooner in tow, 

 during the remainder of the day and early part of the night, 

 and at midnight they both anchored off Talcahuano. 



* Mr. Ubborne's narrative of this affair is in the Appendix, No, 27- 



