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

466 CAUTEN PASSAGE OF CARAMPANGUE. June Cauten, Tolten, and Bueno ? The Cauten, or Imperial, is spoken of by the earlier writers on Chile, as admitting ships of burthen ; but now the entrance of each of those rivers is almost closed by a bar. In opposition to this idea it may be urged, that where a large river runs into the sea exactly against the direction of the pre- vailing wind and swell, a bar of sand, shingle, and mud must be formed by deposition from the opposing waters ; and that it is only where a river runs uninterruptedly into the sea, protected^ from wind and swell by a projecting islet or point of land, that a perfectly clear entrance may be expected ; and, therefore, that the Spanish accounts must have been incorrect. I suspect that they described those rivers as they found them at some dis- tance in-Iand, not at the mouth. Leaving the hospitable colonel assembling a remai-kably awk- ward squad, whom he was anxiously preparing for the threat- ened attack of the ' Boi'oanos,' we rode away upon the good horses which, three days previously, had brought us from Con- eepcion. At the Carampangue there was no balsa. What was to be done ? To wait until some one brought a boat from the oppo- site shore might expend the day ; but the river was wide and deep, and the weather too cold for so long a swim : neverthe- less, five dollars excited our guide, or rather horse-keeper, to make the trial, and during several minutes I thought he must have been drowned : for, instead of slipping off the horse, and holding by the mane or tail when he began to swim, the man sat bolt upright, so that the poor horse's head was scarcely visible ; and both horse and man appeared to get confused, turning round in the stream two or three times, while the cur- rent was carrying them down the river. At last they struggled out, to my infinite joy, and galloped off in search of the men whose business it was to attend at the ferry with a balsa. While j we were anxiously waiting, a large party appeared on the oppo- site bank, with whom were the balsa-men. They had been merry- making, the previous day having been the feast of St. John and as they had hardly recovered from the eflFects of ' chicha,'