C H A P T E R V I I .
Leave Rio de Janeiro—Santos—St. Catherine’s—Monte Video—P u rchase
the Adelaide schooner, for a Tender to the Adventure Leave
Monte V id e o -B e a g le goes to P o r t Desire—Shoals off Cape Blanco
■ —Bellaco Rock—Cape Virgins—Possession Bay—F ir s t Narrow—
R a c e -G re g o ry B a y -V i ew -T o m b -T r a f f i c with N a tiv e s-C o rd ia l
meeting—Maria goes on b o a rd -N a tiv e s intoxicated—Laredo Bay—
P o r t Famine.
W e were ready to resume our voyage early in September
(1827) ; but not having received any communication by the
packet, from the Admiralty, relative to the purchase of _a
tender, I determined to await the m-rival of the next, early in
October. I was again disappointed, and very reluctantly left
Rio de Janeiro, on the 16th, for Monte Video; but that I
might still benefit by the orders wliich were sure to he in the
following packet, I determined upon calhng at Santos, and
St. Catherine’s, for chrononietrical observations; leaving the
Beagle to wait for letters conveying the decision of his Royal
Highness the Lord High Admiral.
We reached Santos on the 18th, and staid there until the
28th. In this interval I paid a short \dsit to St. Paul’s, for the
purpose of making barometrical observations.» At St. Cathe-
• On our passage from Santos to St. Catherine’s, in latitude 28° south,
we caught a ‘ d o lp h in ’ {Coryphena), the maw of which I found filled
with shells, of Argonauta tuberculosa, and all containing the ‘ Octopus
Ocythoe’ tha t has been always found as its inhabitant. Most of the
specimens were crashed by the narrow passage into the stomach, hut the
smaller ones were quite perfect, and had been so recently swallowed th a t
I was enabled to preserve several of various sizes containing the animal.
T o some of them was attached a nidus of eggs, which was deposited between
the animal and the spire. T h e shells varied in size from two-thirds
of an inch to two and a h a lf inches in length ; each contained an octopus,
the bulk and shape of which was so completely adapted to th a t of the
shell,
'(f'lr:
T'JI
111il
! i ' i