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480 ■ BI.ONDK TABCAHÜANO. June
pared for sea : an offer of such assistance as I could render was
accepted by the commodore; and, having arranged the Beagle’s
affairs, as far as then necessary, I went on board the
Blonde, taking with me Mr. Usborne, J . Bennett, anda whaleboat.
Lieut. AVickham was to forward the Beagle’s duty
during my absence, and take her to Copiapo, Iquique, and
Callao, before I should rejoin her.
18th. Weighed at three in the morning and cleared the
port before daybreak. A northerly, freshening wind favoured
us much when in the offing.
21st. Anchored in the bay of Concepcion, off Talcaliuano,
at noon. As soon as I could get a boat I landed, and hastened
to obtain information, horses, and a guide, as the commodore
wished me to go to Captain Seymour, and concert measures
for removing the crew and the remaining stores.
The captain of the port told Commodore Mason that the
part of the coast on which the Challenger went shore, is quite
inaccessible in any weather, but that boats had entered the
mouth of the river Leübu, near Molguilla.
Lieutenant Collins (of the Challenger) had been at Talcahuano,
trying to procure a vessel, in which the shipwrecked
crew might embark by means of boats, at the Leübu, hut not
succeeding he had returned to his shipmates ; whom he expected
to find at the mouth of the river. It was said that a large
body of Indians was in motion towards them, that the crew
were short of provisions, and that they were becoming sickly.
Assisted by the governor of Talcahuano, horses and a native
guide were soon obtained; but I wanted a more energetic
assistant, and engaged a Hanoverian who was used to the half
Indian natives of the frontier, and well known among them.
This man was Vogelberg, or Vergara, already mentioned.
With orders and letters from Commodore Mason, accompanied
by Vogelberg and H. Fuller, and provided with five horses, I
left Talcahuano the same evening.
Being personally acquainted with the Yntendente, and his
second in command, I hastened immediately to their houses at
Concepcion, wishing to get an order to pass the Bio Bio Riven
183.5. RIDE FROM CONCEPCION. 431
that night, and to procure a circular letter'to the local authorities.
Not a minute was lost by either of those zealous
officers in attending to and complying with my requests.
Alemparte left his dinner to write a circular letter, in his own
hand ; and neither he nor Colonel Boza would return to then-
respective parties, until they had ascertained that I was properly
provided with horses and a guide, and that I required no
further assistance.
Although orders were issued and the ferry-boat at her
station, no crew were to be found, and only those men who
belonged to the boat knew how to cross over safely. ^ Vexatious
as the delay seemed, I was afterwards glad of i t ; for
judging by the work in day-light, 1 doubt our having ever
reached the opposite hank with our horses, in a dark night.
While talking to Colonel Boza I remarked a watchful, wild-
looking, young Indian, in a Chilian half-uniform, standing m
the house. Something unusual in his manner attracted my notice
though hurried, and I have since regretted losing that opportunity
of acquainting myself with the son of Colipi, a famous
cacique, who is the principal, and a very powerful leader of
the northern Araucanians, though at present a friend to the
Chilians. Colipi is a very tall and unusually strong man; his
onset and his yell are talked of with a shudder, hy those who
have suffered from Indian hostility. Fducating his son at
Concepcion is one of the methods used to conciliate the ‘ Bar-
baro.’
22d. Before the dawn of day we were looking for the watermen
; and, as the sun rose, succeeded in getting ffieir boat, or
father flat-bottomed barge, into motion. We rode into the river,
ahout two hundred yards, until we reached the barge, then
lying close to an overflowed bank. By some persuasion of voice,
whip, and spur, the horses were made to leap out of the water,
over the gunwale and into the boat. They certainly showed
more sense than horses usually have, in understanding so
readily how to behave; hut whether their owners showed
more than asses, in having so clumsy a ferry-boat, may be
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