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

1835. LARACIUETE — CARAMPANGUE. 437 ing her kindness, and paying her ' mayor domo'' for the hire of the horse, we pushed on with that one and two of the least jaded of our own animals. Between Chivilingo and the rivulet called Laraquete is a hill, unimportant at present, though it may hereafter become of consequence, as it contains coal. Some that I carried away with me was thought to be almost equal to cannel coal, which it very much resembled. The little river Laraquete, which will admit a large boat at high water, runs at the foot of the hill, and there is no surf whei-e it enters the sea. Very glad I was then to see nothing like a hill between us and Arauco We urged our horses along the dead level, and reached a pass of the Carampangue river as the sun was sinking below the horizon. From his sickly appearance and the black gathering clouds, I thought we should not be long without heavy rain, and that the sooner we could house ourselves the better. The Carampangue is shallow, except in the middle, but wide. Men and animals are carried over it on a ' balsa,' made of several logs of light wood fastened together, and pushed or poled across Avith their burdens by one man. These contrivances are very convenient where the water is shallow near the bank, and where the bank itself is low : for a horse can walk upon them from the shore without difficulty, or any scrambling ; and as soon as they ground on the opposite side, it is equally easy to disembark. Where wood is not plentiful, balsas are made of rushes tied together in bundles ; or of hides sewn up and in- flated, or made into a rough kind of coracle. The last few miles had been slowly accomplished by dint of whip and spur ; but from the river to Arauco was a long league over unknown ground, in the dark, and while rain fell fast. Heavily we toiled along, uncertain of our way, and expecting each minute to be bogged; our horses, however, improved as we neared their anticipated resting place, and almost tried to canter as lights appeared twinkling within an open gateway in the low wall of Arauco. * We asked for the house of the 'coman- • It is a low wall, or rather mound of earth, enclosing- a number of ' ranches' (cottages or huts).