CONCEPTION, CoNenre ION, Or PEN CO, is the chief city of Chili, in South America, and principal place of a province and co•regiomento of the same name, was founded by Pedro the Valdivia, in the year 1550. The old city was situated on a gentle declivity, at the mouth of the river St Pierre, and its houses and public build ings, with the exception of the college of the Jesuits, were equally mean and insignificant. In the year 1751, it was completely destroyed by an earthquake, and the greater part of it swallowed up by the sea. About three leagues from the old town, and a quarter of a league from the river Biobio, a spot was chosen, in 1763, for the scite of the new city. In order to guard against the effects of earthquakes, the town was built so as to occupy a great extent of ground, and the houses were erected only of one story. Owing to the low state of commerce, the houses of the most wealthy inhabitants arc destitute of furniture, and almost all the artificers in the town are foreigners. The harbour of Conception, which is in the form of a horse shoe, and which is called by the Spaniards Ilerradura, is five leagues from the town, with which it communicates by means of light vessels by the river Andaliers. The town of Conception carries on a con
siderable trade with Pcru, by means of ten or twelve vessels, and the principal articles of commerce arc, hides, tallow, dried beef, and wheat, besides the flour and bis cuit which it furnishes to French vessels on their way to Peru. In return for these it receives, from Lima, tobacco, sugar, and some articles of European manufac ture. The inhabitants also carry on a considerable trade with the Puddles, a savage and independent tribe, who inhabit the Cordilleras. The quantity of gold annually found in the diocese of Conception is valued at 200,000 piastres. Population, 13,000. \Vest Long. 73° 4' and South Lat. 36° 49' 10".
For a fuller account of this town, and the bay of Con ception, sec Ulloa's Voyage to South America, vol. ii. chap. v. vi. p. 234, Eng. edit. 1807 ; La Perouse's Voy age round the World, vol. i.; Alcedo's Geograph. Dic tionary, vol. i. p. 500. ; and the article Cum, vol. vi. p. 20. (iv)