V 



368 vALDiviA. Feb. 1835. 



on the road^ and next morning reached Valdivia^ whence I 

 proceeded on board. 



A few days afterwards I crossed the bay with a party of 

 officers, and landed near the fort called Niebla. The build- 

 ings were in a most ruinous state, and the gun-carriages 

 quite rotten. Mr. Wickham remarked to the commanding 

 officer, that with one discharge they would certainly all fall 

 to pieces. The poor man, trying to put a good face upon 

 it, gravely replied, No, I am sure, sir, they would stand 

 two ! The Spaniards must have intended to have made 

 this place impregnable. There is now lying in the middle 

 of the courtyard a little mountain of mortar, which rivals 

 in hardness the rock on which it is placed. It was brought 

 from Chile, and cost seven thousand dollars. The revo- 

 lution having broken out, prevented its being applied to any 

 purpose, and now it remains a monument of the fallen 

 greatness of Spain. 



I wanted to go to a house about a mile and a half distant ; 

 but my guide said it was quite impossible to penetrate the 

 wood in a straight line. He offered, however, to lead me, by 

 following obscure cattle-tracks, the shortest way ; the walk, 

 nevertheless, took no less than three hours ! This man is 

 employed in hunting strayed cattle; yet, well as he must 

 know the woods, he was not long since lost for two whole 

 days, and had nothing to eat. These facts convey a good 

 idea of the impracticability of the forests of these countries. 

 A question often occurred to me — How long does any 

 vestige of a fallen tree remain ? This man showed me one 

 which a party of fugitive royalists had cut down fourteen 

 years ago ; and taking this as a criterion, I should think a 

 bole a foot and a half in diameter would in thirty years 

 present a mere ridge of mould. 



February 20th. — The day has been memorable in the 

 annals of Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake expe- 

 rienced by the oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on shore, 

 and was lying down in the wood to rest myself. It came on 

 suddenly, and lasted two minutes; but the time appeared 



