Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

394 SCHOOLS — VAQUEANO. -A-Ug. Sept. While visiting various islands I was much struck by the good order and cheerful alertness of several schools of boys, and by the apparent respectability of their teachers : and I was informed that these schools were much fostered by General Aldunate and his worthy secretary, Forelius (a Swede). Nothing could be more pleasing than the appearance of the islands ; all highly cultivated, and thickly peopled by a quiet race of men, apparently industrious, certainly most obliging and hospitable. At Lemuy I heard that the fugitives had just left Chelin and Quehuy, in a piragua belonging to one Antonio Vargas, and were gone to the Cordillera, somewhere near the Corcovado, to kill seals and collect oil for him and Padre Forastes, until we should leave Chiloe, when they would return and work for the priest. This information cost me an ounce of gold, given to Vargas''s own brother : and for six dollars, in advance, with a promise of more, I engaged a guide (vaqueano) to go with me to the main land. This man had no idea of moving by night but, understanding clearly that the piragua was gone to an inlet under the Corcovado Mountain, I sailed at once across the gulf, steering by the hght of the volcano, much to the terror of our vaqueano, who shrunk down to the bottom of the boat, drew his poncho over his head, and kept muttering prayers, sometimes to the Virgin and his ' devoto' (patron saint), sometimes to ' bruxos;' but never ventured to look up at the large sail, or watch the boat reeling through the waves, as she sailed across with a fi-esh westerly wind. After a variety of petty difficulties and disappointments, and searching every inlet within twenty miles of the Corcovado, without finding a trace of the fugitives, I at last abandoned the pursuit and returned to San Carlos ; having relanded our unhappy vaqueano, who, while close to the land, had been use- ful ; but whom we had ruined, he often asserted, by obliging him to promise away all his property in masses, in offerings to saints, and in presents to ' bruxos' for his safe deliverance from such continual peril. After hearing such a melancholy state- ment of his prospects, I added a present to his earnings, which