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Leaving Port Otway, she steered along the coast with, strange
to say, easterly winds and fine weather, which enabled Lieut.
Skyring to add much to the survey of the coast of Madre de
Dios. Captain Stokes now began to show symptoms of a malady,
that had evidently been brought on by the dreadful state of
anxiety he had gone through during the survey of the Gulf
of Peñas. He shut himself up in his cabin, becoming quite
listless, and inattentive to what was going on ; and after entering
the Strait of Magalhaens, on his return to Port Famine, he
delayed at several places without any apparent reason; conduct
quite opposite to what his would naturally have been, had he
then been of sound mind. At last, want of provisions obliged
him to hasten to Port Famine; and the day on which he arrived
every article of food was expended.
The fatal event, which had cast an additional gloom over
every one, decided our quitting the Strait. Both ships were
immediately prepared, and we sailed on the 16th August;
but previously, I appointed Lieutenant Skyring to act as commander
of the Beagle; Mr. Flinn to be master of the Adventure;
and Mr. Millar, second master of the Adventure, to act
as master of the Beagle. The day we sailed, Mr. Flinn was
taken i l l ; and. Lieutenant Wickham being on the sick list, I
was the only commissioned ofiicer able to keep the deck. As the
wind was from the N.W., we were obliged to beat to windward
all night, and the next morning were off Sandy Point ;
hut it blew so very strong from the westward, and the weather
was so thick from snow-squalls, which passed in rapid succession,
that we bore up, and anchored in Freshwater Bay,
where the ships were detained by northerly winds until the
21st, when we proceeded; the wind, however, again opposing,
we anchored about half a mile from the shore, in a bight,
seven miles southward of Sandy Point. The following day we
were underweigh early, and reached Gregory Bay. When off
Elizabeth Island, I despatched the Beagle to Pecket’s Harbour
to recall the Adelaide, in which Lieutenant Graves had been
sent to procure guanaco meat. The Beagle worked through,
between Elizabeth Island and Cape Negro, and was seen by
us at anchor off Pecket’s Harbour before we entered the Second
Narrow.
Upon our anchoring under Cape Gregory, two or three Patagonians
were seen on the beach, and before half an hour had
elapsed others joined them. By sunset several toldos, or tents,
were erected, and a large party had arrived. When the Adelaide
first went to Pecket’s Harbour, Mr. Tarn told the Indians
that the Adventure would be at Gregory Bay in twenty-five
days, and, accidentally, we arrived punctually to the time. The
Patagonians must have been on their way to meet us, for they
could not have travelled from Pecket’s Harbour in the short
space of time that we were in sight. To their great mortification,
however, we held no communication with them that evening,
and the next day the weather was so bad we could not even
lower a boat. At noon the wind blew harder than I had ever
witnessed ; but since we were on good holding-ground, and the
water was smooth, no danger was anticipated.
As the snow-squalls cleared off, we looked towards the
Patagonians, with the full expectation of seeing their huts
blown down :—to our astonishment, they had withstood the
storm, although placed in a very exposed situation. We counted
twelve or fourteen of them, and judging by our former experience
of the number belonging to each, there must have been,
at least, one hundred and fifty persons collected. During the
gale they kept close; and it was only now and then that a solitary
individual was observed to go from one toldo to another.
The weather having moderated, the Beagle and Adelaide
joined us on the following day. They rode the gale out, without
accident, off the entrance of Pecket’s Harbour. The next
morning being fine, we prepared to proceed; but previous to
weighing I landed, and communicated with our old acquaintances.
Maria was with them, and, if possible, dirtier, and
more avaricious than ever. We collected the guanaco meat they
had brought for u s ; distributed a few parting presents, and
then returned on board.
The Adelaide brought sixteen hundred pounds of meat,
which, with what was first obtained, amounted to four thousand