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Updated: June 19, 2025
The cause of his fear lay in the report of a Spanish frigate having been seen cruising on the coast. This officer was an Englishman, in the service of the republic of Chili, and lieutenant of a corvette lying before Talcaguana.
Freire, who had already distinguished himself as a general, is a stately-looking man, at that time about forty-five years of age, and of a very agreeable exterior; he was born in Talcaguana, of very poor parents, and, without enjoying any particular advantage of education, has raised himself, by his own merit alone, to the high rank he occupies.
Even the yawning gulph in which it sunk has filled again, so that it is only here and there upon the plain that some fragment of a former dwelling reminds one of the fearful catastrophe. The inhabitants of Talcaguana and Conception make excursions to Pencu, to examine, as a curiosity, a water-mill established there by some foreigner.
Thus Talcaguana was at our mercy; nor had we any thing to fear, either from the armed corvette, or the battery on shore; the former being so situated that it must needs have struck to our first broadside, and the latter mounting only six guns quite unfit for use, and resting upon broken carriages. We had also removed our observatory, and conveyed all our effects on board.
During the centuries that it has been in possession of the Spaniards, it has advanced as little as their other colonies in cultivation or civilization. The calm made it impossible on that day to reach the village of Talcaguana, where ships usually lie at anchor, and we were consequently obliged in the evening to lay-to at some miles distance.
The new town of this name has been built farther inland, on the banks of the beautiful river Biobio, and is seven miles distant from Talcaguana. Early in the morning on the 18th of January, I went with Dr. Eschscholtz to Talcaguana, where horses were in waiting to take us to Conception.
All the arguments I could urge to obviate the President's objections were ineffectual: all I could obtain for our learned associates was permission to travel round the bay of Conception and the environs of Talcaguana, for which a passport was made out; and a subaltern officer was appointed to accompany them, who in all probability had also his private instructions to see that the journey extended no farther.
The environs of this village are considered the loveliest district round the bay, and infinitely surpassing Talcaguana in the beauty of its scenery. Few remains of the old town are visible. The earth seems to have actually opened and swallowed it up, leaving scarcely a trace behind.
I took all the circumstances into consideration; and though the motive for such a proceeding remained perfectly incomprehensible, I still resolved to take measures for my security, in case it should be really attempted. I passed a sleepless night, and early in the morning bade adieu to my kind host, to whom I was unable to impart my new cause of anxiety, and hastened back to Talcaguana.
Overwhelmed with courtesies and promises to make our residence here as agreeable as possible, we left the President, and concluded the day in pleasant society at the house of our host Mendiburu, who on the following morning accompanied us back to Talcaguana.
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