216 
VOYAGE TO THE 
an easy rate. As is usual, there was some boasting and 
some competition among the officers and crews of the 
three ships as to their respective rates of sailing: we flat¬ 
tered ourselves that the Blonde behaved best, and on the 
29th of September we entered the port of Talcahuana, 
one of the best harbours of this coast of South America. 
The entrance is protected by the Island Quiriquina, and the 
bay, which is very capacious, is shut out from the north 
winds, which are the strongest and most dangerous that 
blow on this coast, and which, at some seasons, render Val¬ 
paraiso itself rather an insecure anchorage *. 
* The following description of the Bay of Conception, or, more properly, the 
port of Talcahuana, is translated from a curious work of IJlloa and his com¬ 
panion Don Jorge Juan, and suppressed by the Spanish Government, which 
grudged the information it contained to the rest of the world. It is now pub¬ 
lished by Mr. Barry, whose critical knowledge of the language in which it is 
written, and perfect acquaintance with the country described, are only equalled 
by the generous love of science which has induced him to publish, at his own 
expense, the “ Noticias Secretas dk America.'” 
“ The city of La Conception, also called by the ancient Indian name Penco, 
which is situated on the coast of Chile, in 36" 43' southern latitude, has so 
capacious a bay and such good anchorage, that the like is not to be found on 
the coast from Terra Firma to Chile. It runs north and south from the point 
of Quiriquina to the bottom, for little less than three leagues and a half, and 
east and west from the port of Talcahuana to that of Cerillo Verde, near which 
the city stands-f-, three leagues, which breadth it preserves to the Island of 
f Conception was entirely destroyed by an earthquake shortly after Ulloa saw it. It 
was rebuilt in a pleasant vale called Mochita, two leagues from Talcahuana, south of Rio 
San Pedro, and on the banks of the rapid Bio-bio. 
