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WOOLLYA—HOPES. Feb.
also was quite fine, without a drop of rain, while at the ship,
in Packsaddle Bay, it rained frequently. I mention these
instances to show how different the climate may be even in
places so near one another as Packsaddle Bay and Woollya.
14th. AVith considerable anxiety I ci'ossed over from Button
Island to AVoollya. Several canoes were out fishing, women
only being in them, who did not cease their occupation as we
passed : this augured well; and in a few minutes after we saw
Jemmy, York, and Fuegia, in their usual dress. But few
natives were ahout them, and those few seemed quiet and well
disposed. J emmy complained that the people had stolen many
of his things, but York and Fuegia had contrived to take
better care of theirs. I went to their wigwams and found very
little change. Fuegia looked clean and tidily dressed, and hy
her wigwam was a canoe, which York was building out of
planks left for him by our party. The garden was uninjured,
and some of the vegetables already sprouting.
Jemmy told us that strangers had been there, with whom
he and his people had ‘ very much jaw,’ that they fought,
threw ‘ great many stone,’ and stole two women (in exchange
for whom Jemmy’s party stole one), but were obliged to retreat.
Jemmy’s mother came down to the boat to see u s ; she was
decently clothed, by her son’s care. He said that his brothers
were all friendly, and that he should get on very well now that
the ‘ strange men’ were driven away. I advised Jemmy to take
his mother and younger brother to his own wigwam, which
he promised to do, and then, finding that they were all quite
contented and apparently very happy, I left the place, with
rather sanguine hopes of their effecting among their countrymen
some change for the better. Jemmy’s occupation was
hollowing out the trunk of a large tree, in order to make such
a canoe as he had seen at Rio de Janeiro.
I hoped that through their means our motives in taking them
to England would become understood and appreciated among
their associates, and that a future visit might find them so
favourably disposed towards us, that Matthews might then
1833. GOIiEE ROAD SUCCESS BAY. 225
undertake, with a far better prospect of success, that enterprise
which circumstances had obliged him to defer, though not
to abandon altogether.
Having completed our work in Packsaddle Bay on the 18th,
the Beagle went to the inlet originally called AVindhond Bay,
a deep place full of islets : thence, on the 19th, she moved to
Gretton Bay, on the north side of AVollaston Island, and to
Middle Cove. On the 20th, it was blowing a gale of wind
from the south-west, but we pushed across before it to Goree
Road, knowing that we should there find secure anchorage,
and be unmolested by the furious williwaws which whirled over
the high peaks of AA'^ollaston Island.
AVe weighed from Goree Road on the 21st, and ran under
close-reefed topsails to Good Success Bay, where our anchors
were dropped in the evening. The night of the 22d was one
of the most stormy I ever witnessed. Although close to a
weather shore in a snug cove, upon good holding ground, with
masts struck aud yards braced as sharp as possible, the wind
was so furious that both bowers were brought a-head with a
cable on each, and the sheet anchor (having been let go early)
had half a cahle on it, the depth of water being only ten
fathoms. During some of the blasts, our fore-yard bent so
much that I watched it with anxietj', thinking it would be
sprung. The storm being from the westward, threw no sea into
the cove, but I several times expected to be driven out of our
place of refuge, if not shelter. During part of the time we
waited in Good Success Bay for an interval of tolerable weather,
in which we might cross to the Falkland Islands without
being molested by a gale, there was so much surf on the shore
that our boats could not land, even while the wind was moderate
in the bay.
AVhile we were prisoners on hoard, some fish were caught,
among which was a skate, four feet in length and three feet
wide. Several fine cod-fish, of the same kind as those off Cape
Fairweather, were also hooked, and much relished.
Oil the 26th we sailed, passed through a most disagreeable
swell off Cape San Diego, and ran before a fresh gale towards
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