P R E F A C E .
I n this W o rk , the result o f nine years’ voyaging, p a rtly
on coasts little known, an a ttemp t haS been made to combine
giving general information with the paramount object—th at of
fulfilling a d u ty to the A dmiralty, for the benefit o f Seamen.
Details, purely technical, have been avoided in the narrative
more than I could have wished; but some are added in the
Appendix to each volume: and in a nautical memoir, drawn
up for the Admiralty, those which are here omitted will be
found.
There are a few words used frequently in the following
pages, which may not at first sight be familiar to every reader,
therefore I need hardly apologize for saying that, although
the great Portuguese navigator’s name was Magalhaens—it is
generally pronounced as if written Magellan:— that the
natives of Tierra del Fuego are commonly called Fuegians;—
and that Childe is thus accented for reasons given in page 384
of the second volume.
In the absence of Captain King, who has entrusted to me
the care of publishing his share of this work, I may have
overlooked errors which he would have detected. Being
hurried, and unwell, while attending to the printing of his
volume, I was not able to do it justice.