and after him a young native of Buenos Ayres, who hoth cor-
rohorated Brisbane’s account.*
At my return on board, I was shocked hy the sad information
that Mr. Hellyer was drowned. He had walked about a
mile along the shore of a creek near the ship, with one of the
Frenchmen, who then left himf (having recollected that he
would be wanted for a particular purpose). Mr. Hellyer,
anxious to shoot some ducks of a kind he had not before seen,
walked on with his gun, saying he would return in half an hour.
About an hour after this, the capataz of the gauchos, Jean
Simon by name, riding towards the French tents to learn the
news, saw clothes, a gun, and a watch, lying by the water side;
but, as no person was in sight, he thought they must have belonged
to some one in the boats which were surveying, so rode
on quietly; and not until another hour had elapsed, did he even
casually mention to the Frenchmen what he had seen. They,
of course, were instantly alarmed and hastened to the spot, with
those of our party who were within reach. Some rode or ran
along the shore, while others pulled in whale-boats to the fatal
spot, and there, after much searching, the body was discovered
under water, but so entangled by kelp that it could not be
extricated without cutting away the weed. Mr. Bynoe was one
of those who found it, and every means that he and the French
surgeon could devise for restoring animation was tried in vain.
A duck was found dead in the kelp not far from the body, and
his gun was lying on the beach, discharged, with which the
bird had been shot.
To me this was as severe a blow as to his own messmates ;
for Mr. Hellyer had been much with me, both as my clerk and
because I liked his company, being a gentlemanly, sensible
young man. I also felt that the motive which urged him to
strip and swim after the bird he had shot, was probably a
* The German told me, among other things, that he had collected
rabbit-skins at his leisure hours, and had made, at different times, abovq
two hundred dollars by them.
t It vvas a positive order on board the Beagle, that no one should
make any excursion, in such places, alone.
desire to get it for my collection. Being alone and finding the
water cold, he may have become alarmed, then accidentally
entangling his legs in the sea-weed, lost his presence of mind,
and by struggling hastily was only more confused. The
rising tide must have considerably augmented his distress, and
hastened the fatal result.
5th. This day we buried the body of our lamented young
friend, on a rising ground near Johnson Cove, in sight of our
ship. All the French attended the melancholy ceremony, as
well as all our own party, excepting the very few who were
obliged to stay on board.
6th. An agreement was brought about, and witnessed by me,
between M. le Dilly and the master of the Rapid schooner, by
which the latter bound himself to convey to Monte Video those
of the Magellan’s crew whom the Beagle could not carry: and
next day another French whaler arrived (the fourth we had
lately seen), belonging to the owners of the Magellan, so there
was no longer any want of help for M. le Dilly.
A few days afterwards a sealing schooner, the Unicorn,
arrived, Mr. William Low being sealing master and part owner;
and, although considered to be the most enterprizing and intelligent
sealer on those shores, perhaps anywhere, the weather had
been so much against him that he returned from his six months’
cruise a ruined man, with an empty ship. All his means had
heen employed to forward the purchase and outfit of the fine
vessel in which he sailed ; hut having had, as he assured me, a
continued succession of gales during sixty-seven days, and, taking
it altogether, the worst season he had known during twenty
yeai-s’ experience, he had been prevented from taking seal, and
was ruined. Passengers with him were the master and crew of
a North American sealing schooner, the Transport, which had
been wrecked on the south-west coast of Tierra del Fuego,
in Hope Harbour; and he told me of two other wrecks, all
occasioned by the gale of January 12-13th.
At this time I had become more fully convinced tban ever
that the Beagle could not execute her allotted task before she,
and those in her, would be so much in need of repair and rest,
VOL. I I . T