CONCEPCION, Chile, the capital of -the province of the same name. It is situated on the banks of the Bio-bio River, and is connected by a short railway with its ports of entry, Tome and Talcahuano, eight miles distant on the Bay of Concepcion. In the latter city a 'United States consular agent resides. The streets and squares of the city are wide, well paved, well lighted and clean. An electric rail way traverses the principal streets. Concepcien is the seat of a bishop. The chief buildings are the city hall, the cathedral, theatre, the agricultural school and the normal school. The city is in a fertile agricultural region and has an active trade in agricultural products, hides, tallow, wine, flour, beef, etc.; very little manu facturing is carried on, the largest establish ment being breweries, furniture and carriage factories, saw-mills, flour-mills, distilleries, etc. It is in importance the third city of Chile. Concepcion was founded in October 1550 by Pedro de Valdivia, and was originally situated on the site of the present city of Penco. In
1555 the place was pillaged and destroyed by Araucanian Indians; and in 1557 was refounded by Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza. In 1730 the town was totally ruined by an earthquake, and in 1751 suffered from a like catastrophe in con sequence of which the site was removed and the city rebuilt in its present location in the fertile plain on the north side of the Bio-bio, 270 miles southwest of Santiago. At the time of the Spanish occupation Concepcion was the second largest city in the country. In 1818 the declara tion of Chilean independence took place here. In 1835 another disastrous earthquake visited the city and for a long time the place was al most entirely desolate, but it was afterward re settled and from that time the buildings have been more substantially and pretentiously erected, the streets reconstructed and the area of the city greatly extended. Pop. 55,000.