PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
19 
The mouth of the Bio Bio is circumscribed by banks, which have pro- CHAP, 
gressively risen to 210 yards; and even this stream is divided by a 
rock one-third of the way across it. If the plan of the entrance be OrtE" 
correct in the chart annexed to La Perouse’s Voyage, the formation of 
these banks has been very rapid, and has altered the channel of the 
river. 
The population of Conception is about 6S00 persons. The in- 
habitants, the labouring class at least, have a particnlarly healthy look, 
e men have hard features and strong sinewy limbs, and the women 
and children are fatter than would be agreeable to'most persons : short 
stature, dark hair and eyes, and pretty Indian features, are the charac- 
tW thev b “ ; “d for 
herbs with consisting principally of medicinal 
eibs, with which the countiy abounds, and in the preparation of which 
ey are well skilled. Fevers, occasioned by cold and dampness, are the 
most common complaints. 
In the streets of Conception I did not see a single cripple, a very 
rare circumstance in Spanish towns ; nor were we molested by beggars, 
eyond a few troublesome boys beseeching alms ; and this arose more 
om impu ence, and a determination to try their luck, than from any 
rea necessity : m secret, however, there are not wanting persons who, 
but enforce their 
unfrpn ^ ^ Stiletto. On meeting the Indians in an 
vour LTl particularly necessary to be upon 
and care vp T half-civilized barbarians are generally intoxicated, 
heart of thZto™ much strangers even in the 
PA . ’ ^ when alone in the country. A regiment 
of Araucaneans is embodied in the army of the state, and quartered in 
he town 1 they retain their own weapons, and continue their own 
tactics A specimen of their extraordinary and barbarous warfare was 
exhibited at Conception during our stay. 
Since the trade of Chilf has been thrown open, a remarkable 
change in the costume of the inhabitants, and also in the furniture of 
‘ril “ Englishman may now see with 
Ptide the inferior manufactures of his own country prised, to the 
‘ D 2 
