Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

308 WILD GOATS TALCAHUANO CONCEPCION. 1830. Yungue, and thence to a pass over the principal range, com- municating with the other side of the island. This pass, called the Puertozuela, is 1,800 feet high, and was visited several times by the officers. On one occasion, they went to the wes- tern part of the island, to hunt wild goats. The party set out in boats with the mayor-domo, or governor, as their guide ; but before they reached the proper landing-place, became so impatient that they landed, intending to walk back. The gover- nor, however, persevered, and returned, in the evening, with five fine she-goats, which he had taken with ' lazos.' Our pedes- trians found their return by no means so easy as they had contemplated, being obliged to pass the night in a cave, which they fortunately found at sunset, and they did not reach the ship until the following afternoon, fatigued, but much pleased by their ramble. The thermometer on board ranged, during the day, between 63° and 82°, and the barometer between 29-98, and 80 16. On shore the thermometer stood higher, in fine, unclouded wea- ther, and lower when the summits of the hills were covered with clouds. We put to sea on the 22d, anchored at Talcahuano on the 8d of March, and sailed again on the 17th, to proceed through the Strait of Magalhaens. While at Concepcion I had an opportunity of seeing Pino- leo,* the Indian chief, from whom Captain Basil Hall endea- voured to obtain the release of a captured Araucanian female, whose husband had been murdered in cold blood before her eyes.f Mr. Rouse, our consul, procured for me the necessary in- troduction, and, with one of the governor'^s aides-de-camp, accompanied us to the Indian quarters, situated on the out- • Pinoleo (from ' Pino,' pisando; and ' leo,' rio ; or, pisando sobre el rio, living- close to the banks of a river), is the Chief of a small tribe, whose territory is near the River Imperial ; but he generally lives in the confines of Concepcion. He has four wives in the interior (la tierra) and three in the town. t Hall's Extracts from a Journal, vol. i. pp.316. 322.