18 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, quake, or rather by an inundation, occasioned by a tremendous reaction 
of the sea. Such a catastrophe, it might be supposed, would be sufficient 
^1825’^’ the inhabitants from again building on low ground ; neverthe- 
less, the present city is erected on a spot scarcely more elevated than 
the other, and the river, when high, washes the threshold of the nearest 
houses. It has no defences ; and is also very badly situated in this re- 
spect, being commanded by a range of hills close behind it. Benavides was 
fully aware of this, and constructed a battery upon the eminence, which 
still bears his name : but the guns are spiked, and the fort is in ruins. 
During the late incursions, we were told, that the mode of re- 
pelling an attack was to collect the inhabitants in the squares, and bar- 
ricade the streets leading out of them, with whatever came first to hand : 
the musketry and the muzzles of the field-pieces were then thrust 
through these temporary bulwarks, and a fire opened upon the assailants. 
This was a sufficiently secure defence against the Indians, but it is easy 
to imagine what would have been the effect of a few well-placed cannon 
upon a crowd of persons so collected.' 
In the selection of the site of the new city, the advantage of the 
river Bio Bio was, no doubt, the great consideration; and when inland 
navigation is as well understood in that country as in some others, it 
will be of the greatest importance, though its numerous shoals must 
occasion serious difficulties. Part of the produce of the interior is 
now brought down upon rafts, which, not being able to return, are 
broken up and sold for timber. There is a ferry-boat over the river 
for the accommodation of persons who wish to pass from Conception 
to the Indian country, and sufficiently large to carry cattle or horses. 
The natives cross in punts, but have so much difficulty in stemming 
the current and avoiding banks and shallows, that, though the extreme 
distance is only a mile, they are sometimes an hour and a half per- 
forming the passage. Although the Spaniards nominally possessed terri- 
tory far to the southward of this river, yet it in reality formed their 
boundary, and until very lately it was unsafe for an European to venture 
far upon that side, on account of straggling parties of the Indians *. 
* I have been informed that since this period (1825) the Intendente has a magnificent 
estate on that side of the river, that the Indians are quiet, and that Conception has under- 
gone great improvement. 
