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CHAPTER XV.
Beagle and Adventure sail from Monte Video—Port Desire—Bellaco
Bock—Refraction—Port San Julian—Viedma—Drake—Magalhaens
'—Patagonians—Port Famine—San Sebastian Bay—Woollya—Jemmy
■— Story—Treachery—Oens-men —Improvement — Gratitude —Falklands—^
Events—Captain Seymonr—Search for Murderers—Lieutenant
Smith—Brisbane —Wreck—Sufferings —Lieutenant Clive—Sail from
Falldands.
D ec . 6th, 1833. With a supply of provisions and coals,*
sufficient for at least nine months, the Beagle and her tender
sailed together from Monte Video.
We first touched at Port Desire (23d Dec.), and after
passing a very cheerful Christmas-day,-)- and exploring the
inlet to its extremity, the Adventure was left to complete
some alterations in her masts and rigging, while the Beagle
would survey the coast between Sea Bear Bay and Port San
J ulian.
The party who went up the inlet were much struck by the
wildness and height] of the rocky cliffs which they saw on
each side of what appeared to have been the bed of a former
river ; but could go no further with the yawl than I had been
in 1829. This I had foreseen, and therefore Mr. Chaffers, who
was in charge of the party, took with him a small dinghy, in
wliich he went on after the yawl was stopped by the mud.
Having proceeded two miles further, the prospect changed
suddenly; instead of wild glens and precipitous heights of
porphyritic rock, low flat banks were seen, covered with rushes
near the water, and, further from the stream, with luxuriant
pasture. I t was almost high water when the dinghy reached
this spot and entered a fresh water river about a hundred
* Wood and water being easily procured in the regions we were going
to visit, we carried only a month’s store of those essentials.
t After noon on the 25th, both crews amused themselves on shore in
wrestling], racing, jumping], and various games,
J About three hundred feet.