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468 PLAYA BLANCA FEHEY-BOAT. June
AVe reached ‘ Playa Blanca’ as it got dusk. The heights near
Point Coronel were difficult, in the dark, but we passed without
worse disaster than a roll in the mud, from my girths breaking
while struggling in a slough. Along the level lands of Don
Juan de Dios Rivera we galloped briskly, until we were completely
bewildered in the darkness. At last we found ourselves
among enclosures, and by pulling up rails and breaking fences,
made our way to a farm-house, where such information was
obtained as enabled us to reach San Pedro, on the south bank
of the Bio Bio, soon after midnight. No inducement could
prevail upon the owner of the ferry-boat to let her take us
across before daylight, so we sat down by a fire, after feeding
our excellent horses, and dozed till daybreak.
With the first dawn we drove the lazy boatmen to their
barge, urging them alternately with money, entreaties, reproaches,
and threats. The river was exceedingly swollen by late
heavy rains, so that it was almost twice as wide, and quite as
rapid, as usual. Our heavy ferry-boat was ‘ tracked ’ up it
until it seemed possible for us to reach the other bank before
the current swept us out to sea; but the appearance of the
boat aud men, and the utter uncertainty caused by a very
thick fog, gave me no great hopes of reaching Concepcion in any
reasonable time, though a vivid expectation of passing a few
hours upon a sand-bauk at the mouth of the river, if we escaped
being hurried into the open sea. In this clumsily-built, flat-
bottomed boat (a sort of large punt) were five horses, a troublesome
young bull, six men, and three nominal boatmen, one of
whom merely attempted to steer. AVith very long poles oui
unwieldy crsdt was pushed into the stream, and while the shore
could be distinguished through the fog, made progress in a
proper direction, though most crab-like was the movement.
AVhen fairly out of sight of land, the boatmen became alarmed
and puzzled; but just then a large hell was heard tolling at
Concepcion, which served to animate them, and to ensure our
trying to go in the right direction. After an hour’s unpleasant
work, in a very cold morning, we landed about a mile below
Concepcion, having started about as much above it on the opposite
side. No time was then lost in galloping to Talcahuano,
and going on board the Blonde, so that Captain Seymour s
letter was delivered to Commodore Mason soon after ten.
I found that the commodore had engaged an American
schooner* to go in search of the crew of the Challenger; and
that Mr. Usborne had been sent in her, with the second master of
the Blonde,# three seamen of that ship, my coxswain, and the
whale-boat which I took from the Beagle; she was a poor
craft, and wretchedly found, though reputed to have sailed
well, and to have been a fine vessel in her time. They left
Talcahuano on the day after a- gale from the north-west (on
the 24th), which, by all accounts, was one of the severest that
had been experienced during many years.
The Blonde sailed from Concepcion Bay on the 27th, the
morning after I arrived; but unfortunately, during all that
day, thick weather and half a gale of wind from the northward,
prevented our having even one glimpse of the land, as we were
running towards the entrance of the Leiibu.
On the 28th, thick weather kept us in the offing. On the
29th, at daylight, the schooner Carmen was seen, and soon
afterwards, through the haze, we made out Tucapel Head.
At this time, neither Vogelborg (who was on board as local
pilot) nor I, knew that the Heights of Tucapel Viejo were
identical with the headland we recognized by the name of
Tucapel Head. AVe both thought that Tucapel Viejo was in
the bay where the river ‘ Lebo’ is placed in the old Spanish
charts. This error appears almost unaccountable to me now ;
though both he and I were then drawn into it by a variety of
reasons unnecessary to detail here, and we therefore advised
the commodore to run along-shore towards the supposed place
of the Leübu (or Lebo), which he did; but the weather was
so unfavourable, so thick and hazy, that nothing could be
seen distinctly. Scarcely indeed could we discern the line of the
surf, heavily as it was heating upon the shore ; and at noon we
were obliged to haul off, on account of wind and rain.
* The Carmen ; for which such exorbitant demands had heen made
in answer to Lieutenant Collins. t Mi- Biddlecombe.
ÍÍW
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