he had several passengers on board, and
amongst the rest Don George Juan, a man of very superior abilities, (and
since that time well known in England) who, with Don Antonio Ulloa, had
been several years in Peru, upon a design of measuring some degrees of the
meridian near the equator. We were now bound to Conception, in order to
join three other French ships that were likewise bound home. As this was a
time of the year when the southerly winds prevailed upon this coast, we
stood off a long way to the westward, making the island of Juan Fernandez.
We did not get into the Bay of Conception till the 6th of January, 1745,
where we anchored at Talcaguana, and there found the Louis Erasme, the
Marquis d'Antin, and the Delivrance, the three French ships that we were to
accompany. It is but sixty leagues from Valparaiso to Conception, though we
had been so long making this passage; but there is no beating up, near the
shore, against the southerly wind, which is the trade at this season, as
you are sure to have a lee-current; so that the quickest way of making a
passage is to stand off a hundred and twenty or thirty leagues from the
land.

The Bay of Conception is a large fine bay, but there are several shoals in
it, and only two good anchoring places, though a ship may anchor within a
quarter of a league of the town, but this only in the very fine months, as
you lay much exposed. The best anchoring-place is Talcaguana, the
southernmost neck of the bay, in five or six fathom water, good holding
ground, and where you are sheltered from the northerly winds. The town has
no other defence but a low battery, which only commands the anchoring-place
before it. The country is extremely pleasant, and affords the greatest
plenty of provisions of all kinds. In some excursions we made daily from
Talcaguana, we saw great numbers of very large snakes, but we were told
they were quite harmless.

I have read some former accounts of Chili, by the Jesuits, wherein they
tell you that no venomous creature is to be found in it, and that they even
made the experiment of bringing bugs here, which died immediately, but I
never was in any place that swarmed with them so much as St Jago; and they
have a large spider there, whose bite is so venomous, that I have seen from
it some of the most shocking sights I ever saw in my life; and it certainly
proves mortal, if proper remedies are not applied in time. I was once bit
by one on the cheek whilst asleep,