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 settlements of the Norwegians in Greenland.  In Chiloe it often rains for a whole month without intermission, and these rains are frequently accompanied by such tremendous hurricanes that the largest trees are torn up by the roots, and the inhabitants do not feel safe in their houses.  Even in January, their mid-summer, they have often long-continued heavy rain.  If during the height of a storm the smallest opening be perceived in the clouds towards the south, fine weather soon succeeds; but first the wind changes suddenly to the south, with even greater violence than it blew before from the opposite quarter, and comes on with a crash as loud and sudden as the discharge of a cannon.  The storm then passes away with a rapidity proportional to its violence, and the weather clears up.  But at this critical change of the wind, vessels are exposed to the utmost danger.  Thunder and lightning are rare, but earthquakes are frequent.  In 1737 these islands suffered severely by an earthquake; a few days after which a cloud or exhalation of fire, coming from the north, passed over the whole archipelago, and, as is said, set fire to the woods in many of the islands in the group of the Guaitecas.  It is said also that these islands were then covered over with ashes, and that vegetation did not again appear upon them till 1750, thirteen years afterwards.