SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
223 
almost to frenzy. After this exhibition, our marines per¬ 
formed their evolutions, to the great delight both of the 
savage and the eivilised spectators; and, indeed, the whole 
scene was very interesting. The surrounding country was 
very beautiful; our station, on a lawn on the promontory of 
Talcahuana, peculiarly so: groves and detached groups of 
trees surrounded us, between which, on one hand, was the 
vale of the majestic Bio-Bio, whose broad waters were 
winding past the city, through rich woods and fields, at the 
foot of lofty mountains. On the other side lay the bay, in 
which the British ships, quietly at anchor, were dressed with 
dags in honour of the day. '[’lie fore-ground was filled with 
three very different races of men. The wild unconquered 
Araucanian Indians, the original possessors of the soil; the 
native Chilians, sprung from the Indian owner, and the Spa¬ 
nish usurper, of the country ; and ourselves, whose presence 
here a century ago would have boded war in both hemi¬ 
spheres, but who are now the protectors of the peace, nay the 
very existence, of the country. Nor were the external dif¬ 
ferences of appearance less than the moral distinction of the 
three races. We were dressed in all the modern European 
naval costume ; the Chilians in their broad hats, and hand¬ 
some striped ponchos ; and the Indians with little clothing 
beyond what decency requires : so that there wanted nothing 
