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982 ADVENTintE— WILLIAMS. April
Early on the 12th, we were off the river Negro ; hut haf-
fling winds and a heavy swell (raised hy the late gale), prevented
our anchoring near the har, or sending in a boat.
Soon after noon on the 14th, while standing off and on, waiting
for the swell to go down, and allow of a boat crossing the
bar, a sail seen in the horizon was made out to be the Adventure.
We steered for and spoke her, found all well, sent her on
to Maldonado, and again stood towards the bar. Our tender,
as I mentioned, sailed from Berkeley Sound on the 4th ; but
was obliged to heave-to during the gale in which we were
able to scud.
Next day (15th), a decked boat, like the Paz, with some
difficulty crossed the bar, and brought me letters from Lieutenant
Wickham, by which I learned that he and his party
had sailed from the river, intending to visit the Gulf of San
Matias, only a few days before we arrived, having previously
examined all the coast, from Port Desire to Valdes Creek.*
I was sorry to hear that Corporal Williams, a very worthy
man, in every sense of the words, had been drowned in the
river Negro. Williams had been in two polar voyages, and
under Captain King, in H.M.S. Adventure, from 1825 to
1830. The rest of the party were well, and making rapid progress
with their task. Wind favouring, we made all sail for
the Bay of San José, hoping to meet the little vessels under
Lieutenant Wickham, but could not find them so concluding
that they had run further south than was intended at their
departure from the Negro, we steered out of the Gulf of San
Matias, and made sail for the Plata.
At daylight on the 26th, land was seen near Maldonado,
and at two, we anchored off’ Monte Video. In a few hours the
French passengers were landed; next day our anchor was
again weighed, and at noon on the 28th we moored the Beagle
in Maldonado Bay, close to the little island of Gorriti. Our
tender, the Adventure, had arrived on the 23d. My thoughts
* Or port, as it has been called, though improperly, because it is at
times almost blocked up by a bar.
t They were in Port San Antonio.
May 1833. p l a n s— f u t u r e v i e w s . 283
were at this time occupied by arrangements connected with
her, besides the usual routine observations. I was extremely
anxious to fit the schooner properly, and to set her to work,
but at the same time to keep all our other operations in active
progress. A decked boat was lying in Maldonado, just built,
which her owner, Don Francisco Aguilar, offered to lend me
for two months, if I would rig her for him, and this proposal
exactly suited my views, as it would enable me to send for
Lieutenant Wickham, and supply his place by Mr. Usborne,
leaving Mr. Stokes to continue the survey about San Bias and
the Colorado. Accordingly, the Constitución, as this little
craft was named by her owner, was hauled alongside, and Mr.
Usborne with a party, set to work in preparing her for a trip
to the Biver Negro. On the 1st May Mr. Usborne sailed,
having with him Mr. Forsyth and five men ; he was to go
to the Biver Negro, join and assist Mr. Stokes, and inform
Lieutenant Wickham that he was wanted at Maldonado, to
take charge of the Adventure. The Constitución was about
the size of the Liebre, a craft I should hardly have thought
fit for such a voyage had I not heard so much from Mr. Harris
and his companion, Boberts, of the capital weather those
decked boats make in a gale. With their hatches secured, tiller
unshipped, a storm try-sail—or no sail at all set, and nobody
on deck, they tumble about like hollow casks, without caring
for wind or sea.
Next day (2d) the Beagle returned to Monte Video, to
procure carpenters, plank, and copper for the Adventure. I
found that she was so fine a vessel, and so sound, that it
was well worth while to copper her entirely afresh, with a
view to her future operations among islands in the Pacific,
where worms would soon eat through places on a vessel’s bottom
from which sheets of copper had been torn away. At this
time the Adventure’s copper was complete, but thin, and as
the carpenters said it would not last above two years more with
certainty, I determined to copper her forthwith, and make one
substantial refit do for all. Here, to my great regret, Mr.