e hardships and adventures; but he found always the same story,--the
Indians regarded as wild beasts, and, acting only too much as such,
falling by night on solitary ranchos, or on lonely travellers, and
murdering them, and, on the other hand, being shot down wherever they
were found.

With great difficulty and perseverance he made his way to the Biobio
river, leaving his family at Concepcion, the nearest comparatively
civilized place. Here he meant to make his way to a village of
independent Indians, with whose chief, Corbalan, he had hopes of entering
into relations.

To cross the rapid stream of the Biobio, he had to use a primitive raft,
formed of four trunks of trees, about eighteen feet long, lashed together
by hide-thongs to two poles, one at each end. A horse was fastened to
it, by knotting his tail to the tow-rope, and on his back was a boy,
holding on by the single lock of the mane that is allowed to remain on
Chilian horses, who guided him across with much entreating, urging, and
coaxing. On the other side appeared Corbalan, the Indian chief on
horseback, and in a dark poncho, a sort of round cloak, with a hole to
admit the head, much worn all over South America. He took Captain
Gardiner to his house, an oval, with wattled side-walls, about five feet
high and thirty-five long, neatly thatched with grass, with a fireplace
in the centre, where a sheep was cooked for supper. Corbalan could speak
Spanish, and seemed to be pleased with the visit, making an agreement
that he should teach Gardiner his Indian tongue, and, in return, be
instructed in the way of God and heaven. He had convened forty-five of
his people, among whom were five chiefs, each of whom made the visitor
the offering of a boiled chicken, while he gave them some coloured cotton
handkerchiefs and some brass buttons. It was a beautiful country, and
reminded the guest so much of some parts of England, that it needed a
glance at the brown skin, flowing hair, and long poncho of Corbalan to
dispel the illusion that he was near home. Things looked so favourable,
that he had even selected a site for the mission-house, when some change
of sentiment came over Corbalan, probably from the remonstrances of his
fellow-chiefs: he declared that a warlike tribe near at hand would not
suffer him to harbour a stranger, and that he must therefore withdraw his
invitation.

So ended this attempt; and the indefatigable Captain turned his attention
to the Indi