460 PORT DESIRE— NO ARIEL ROCKS. June 1830.
the turn of tide in our favour carried us towards the entrance
of the harbour, into which we worked, the tide of ebb having
just ended; and we moored abreast of the ruins. My first
care was to look for traces of the Adventure or Adelaide, but
I found none. A bottle which I had deposited for the Adelaide,
at our last visit, by Captain King’s direction, was exactly
where I then left it, and the papers it contained were untouched.
AVhile in this port I got good observations, the weather being
clear, though very cold. No guanacoes were shot although
many were seen, but numbers of sea-birds were brought on
board.* A quince was given to me which was found in a
place where the Spanish colony had made a garden. We
remarked that the tracks of the guanacoes on shore here were
not so large, by one-half, as those we had so lately seen in
Tierra del Fuego. Having noticed the currents particularly,
in order to compare them with what I observed formerly and
with the tide in the port; I can now say, decidedly, that the
flood tide comes from the southward, and that the ebb sets to
the south-east. North of Port Desire, or from Port Desire
to Cape Blanco, the flood is much the strongest, but off
Penguin Island the ebb is, I think, the strongest, setting two
or three knots an hour. It is high-water and slack-water, in
Port Desire, at half-past twelve, on the days of full and
change. The tides, if not attended to, would baffle a ship
much in making this port.
“ On the 21st we sailed, with a fresh breeze from the S .W .;
and at nine a .m. on the 25th when about one mile southward
of the alleged position of the Ariel rocks, and near the
nominal longitude, I hauled to the wind and ran some distance
on their parallel, looking out for broken water. There was a
very irregular and heavy swell, as much as would be raised by
a gale of wind, but caused apparently by a current; and while
waiting for the meridian altitude, before bearing up, having
run twenty miles on the same parallel, a heavy swell rose on
the quarter, which struck our weather quarter boat, and turned
• T h e powder and shot expended here procured four meals of fresh
provisions for all hands.
June. RIVER PLATA— MONTE VIDEO. 461
her in upon the deck, breaking both iron davits. One of the
davits of the lee-boat was also unshipped by the jerk, and the
after-part of the vessel well di-enched with water. We secured
both boats again, but the one to windward was badly stove.
For a moment, I thought we had indeed found the rocks, and
the huge black back of a dead whale which just then shewed
itself very near the vessel, much increased the sensation. I
imagined that we were in a meeting of tides or currents; where
old trees, dead whales, &c. are often found, and have frequently
caused reports of rocks; for the water was not more shallow than
we had found it during the day, the soundings having varied
from forty to fifty fathoms; so having obtained the meridional
altitude we bore up, and steered our course again.
“ On the 26th we entered the Plata, and at one a .m. on the
27th, Lobos Island was seen, and soon afterwards the high
land about Pan de Azúcar. We continued. working to the
westward, and at daylight were off“ Whale Point, but the wind
fell light, and the current being against us, we lost during the
day what had been gained in the night. At seven p .m. the
current set so strongly out of the river that we were obliged
to drop a kedge with a stout hawser, and ride by it, though
keeping all sail set and going between four and five knots
through the water. When the hawser bore a strain, the log was
hove, and the current found to be setting more than five knots.
This was off“ Maldonado ; Lobos beai-ing N.N.E., distant four
miles. Soon after nine the stream slacked, we tripped the kedge
and worked up the river, the wind being still westerly, but the
current having turned in our favour. The U. S. frigate Hudson
passed, steering to the eastward:—she was the first sail
we had seen since leaving San Carlos de Chiloe. At daylight
next morning (28th), we were in sight of Flores Lighthouse,
which was reported to be a vessel under sail. Soon after which
another vessel was reported as being under all studding sails ;
this was the Mount itself: so curiously were objects distorted
by the haze. Soon after noon we anchored off Monte Video,
and from Captain Talbot, of H.M.S. Algerine, I heard of the
arrival there, and subsequent departure of the Adventure and
the Adelaide.
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