d in the
neighbourhood, which serve to accommodate the parishioners when they
come to church on Sundays or any festival to attend mass. In the whole
archipelago there are but four places where the houses are placed so
near together as to assume the appearance of a town or village. These
are the city of Castro as it is called, Chacao, Calbuco, and the port of
San Carlos. This last is the largest and most flourishing. In 1774 it
contained sixty houses, with 462 inhabitants. In 1791, it had increased
to two hundred houses and eleven hundred inhabitants; but its prosperity
arose on the ruin of Chacao, which was the only port in the whole
archipelago till 1768. The harbour of Chacao is rendered very dangerous
by reason of many rocks and shoals, and is much exposed to winds from
the north and north-east; on which account Don Carlos de Berenger, when
governor, recommended that a town should be built at _Gacui del Ingles_,
or English harbour, which was accordingly ordered by the court of Spain
in 1767. The bay was then named Bahia del Rey; or Kings Bay, and the
town and harbour San Carlos. It is in lat. 41 deg. 57' S. and long. 73 deg. 58'
W. The port is good, but ships are often wrecked at the entrance, in
consequence of tremendous hurricanes which come on suddenly, at which
time the land cannot be seen. Since the erection of this town, the seat
of government has been removed to it from Castro.

It is difficult to understand what motives could have induced the
Spaniards to settle in this miserable country, when the whole extent of
this western side of South America was open to them. Where gold and
silver are to be found, or where wealth is to be acquired by commerce,
men will readily settle, however barren and unfavourable the country, or
however pestilential the climate. But Chiloe offers no incitements to
avarice, and only a bare and comfortless subsistence to perpetual
industry. Perhaps the principal part of the original settlers were
people who escaped from the fury of the Araucanians, unable to remove to
Peru, or to subsist if they got there, and who were therefore glad of
getting any place of rest and security. There is perhaps no other colony
in the world to which Europeans have carried so few of their arts and
comforts, or where they have attempted to colonize under so many natural
disadvantages. Two instances indeed may be excepted; the project of
Philip II. to fortify the Straits of Magellan, and the unaccountable
se