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4 7 6 CONCEPCION— ItE -liU IL O IN G . July
Until the lOth, it was necessaiy to remain at anchor, as
there were accounts to settle between the commodore, the
consul, the pursers, the officers, and the owner of the schooner ;
there were visits to the Authorities, to thank them for their
assistance, and, as usual on board men-of-war, there was much
to do in very little time. To Don José Alemparte, the yntendente
of the province ; to Colonel Boza, the principal military
authority ; to D. Miguel Bayon, the governor of Talcahuano ;
and to Don Pablo Delano, captain of the port, sincere thanks
were really due for their earnest exertions. Mr. Rouse took his
leave of us on the 10th, and we then sailed.
While the Blonde was lying off Talcaliuano, I had a few
opportunities of looking about, and seeing that both Concepcion
and Talcaliuano were rising out of their ruins, and that
their unfortunate inhabitants had, at least, roofs over their
heads. Concepcion was, and is still nominally, a city : but it
will be long before it again appears as such to the eye of a
stranger. Some idea may be formed of the low scale to which
every thing was there reduced, when I mention that it was
very difficult to find a carriage of any kind in which the Commodore
could go to visit the Yntendente.
Great discussions had arisen on the subject of rebuilding the
city. The government party wished to remove the site to a
better position ; but there was so strong an opposition, that
the result was likely to be the gradual rebuilding of the town
in the same place, while the removal was still undecided, and
under consideration. Two situations were named as much more
eligible than the former : one on the banks of the little river
Andalien, about a mile from the old city ; and the other, on a
rising ground about two miles on the Talcahuano side of Concepcion.
Tliis latter position has many and great advantages, as all
acknowledged ; but people were reluctant to move ; each one
had or fancied an advantage in the old situation of his house,
encumbered as it was with ruins. Besides, many more serious
difficulties would arise in leaving small freeholds, and obtaining
equivalents in another place : however, an active government
might have accomplished so desirable a change without injuring
anyone, by purchasingtheground, and distributing it so fairly
that each man should gain rather than lose. The sum necessary
for purchasing ground for a new city, would not have been
greater than might have been borrowed ; and repaid in ten
years out of the custom-house.
Perhaps there is not a situation in the world much more
advantageous to the prosperity of a commercial city than this
of which we are speaking. Centrally placed between the great
and navigable river Bio Bio, the port of San Vicente, the noble
bay of Concepcion, and an easy communication by land with
the best part of Chile, a part which may well be called one of
the finest countries in the wor l d w i t h a large extent of level
and fertile land on all sides—with the means of obtaining
water by sinking wells to a small depth, as well as by an
aqueduct from the Bio Bio—and with the blessing of an unexceptionable
climate—how could the New Concepcion fail
to thrive, and increase rapidly ? It might he shaken down and
destroyed by an earthquake as soon as built, maybe said. Probably,
may be replied, if the inhabitants should be so unwise as to
build houses of brick and stone, one or two stories in height,
and with lieavdy tiled roofs. But let them try another mode
of building, AVood is abundant, and let them make that the only
material of which either walls or roofs shall be composed. A
strong frame-work, similar in some measure to that of a ship,
lightly covered or ceiled with thin planks, and roofed with
shingles,* would, if placed on the ground and not let into it
as foundations usually are, withstand the convulsions of any
earthquake which has yet happened in that tormented country.
AVhy do not the Chilians pay more attention to the remark of
the aborigines of Peru, who, when they saw the Spaniards
digging deep foundations for their buildings, said, “ You are
building your own sepulchres ?”f
The houses of the natives of Peru were in those days built
without foundations, simply upon the levelled ground; and
they withstood the severest shocks. No house should extend far
* Small pieces of wood, like tiles. t Ulloa, vol. i. p. 340.
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