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122 GUANACOES CAPE HORN. Dec.
he could not resist telling us was, that the old man said he was
dirty, and ought to pull out his beard. Now, if their language
differed much from that of York Minster, or was indeed other
than a dialect of the same original, it is not probable that
York could have understood the old man’s meaning so readily
when he spoke quietly, Mthout signs.
Richard Matthews was Mth us, but did not appear to he at
all discouraged by a close inspection of these natives. He
remarked to me, that “ they were no worse than he had supposed
them to be.”
20th. Soon after day-light this morning, some very large
guanacoes were seen near the top of Banks Hill.* They
walked slowly and heavily, and their tails hung down to their
hocks. To me their size seemed double that of the guanacoes
about Port Desire. Mr. Darwin and a party set off to ascend
the heights, anxious to get a shot at the guanacoes and obtain
an extended view, besides making observations. They reached
the summit, and saw several large animals, whose long woolly
coats and tails added to their real bulk, and gave them an
appearance quite distinct from that of the Patagonian animal;
but they could not succeed in shooting one.
21st. Sailed fi-om Good Success Bay. On the 22d we saw
Cape Horn, and being favoured with northerly winds, passed
close to the southward of it before three o’clock. The wind then
sliifted to north-west, and began to blow strong. Squalls came
over the heights of Hermite Island, and a very violent one,
with thick weather, decided my standing out to sea for the
night under close-reefed topsails. The weather continued bad
and very cold dmdng that night and next day.
On the morning of the 24th, being off Cape Spencer, with
threatening weather, a high sea, the barometer low, and great
heavy-looking white clouds rising in the south-west, indicative
of a gale from that quarter, I determined to seek for an anchorage,
and stood into (the so-caUedt) St. Francis Bay. In
• So named in remembrance of Sir JTosepb Banks’s excursion,
t In the first volume doubts are expressed (in a note to page 199)
respecting tbe place named by D’Arquistade, St. Francis Bay; or rather»
I said’
n
1832. ST. MJtRTIN COVE— CONTRAST. 123
passing Cape Spencer we were assailed by such a furious hail-
squall, that for many minutes it was quite impossible to look to
windward, or even to see what was a-head of us. We could not
venture to wear round, or even heave to, for fear of getting so
far to leeward as to lose our chance of obtaining an anchorage;
however, we stood on at hazard, and the squall passed away
soon enough to admit of our anchoring in seventeen-fathoms
water, quite close to a steep promontory at the south side of
St. Martin Cove.
After being for some time accustomed to the low barren
shores and shallow harbours of the Pampa and Patagonian
coasts, our position almost under this black precipice was singularly
striking. The decided contrast of abrupt, high, and
woody mountains, rising from deep water, had been much
remai'ked in Good Success Bay ; but here it was so great that
I could hardly persuade myself that the ship was in security
—sufficiently far from the cliff.*
25th. Notwithstanding violent squalls, and cold damp
weather, we kept our Christmas merrily; certainly, not the
less so, in consequence of feeling that we were in a secure position,
instead of being exposed to the effects of a high sea and
heavy gale.
I said, that “ I do not think the bay adjacent to Cape Horn is that which
was named by D’Arquistade, ‘ St. Francis,’ and, if my supposition is
correct. Port Maxwell is not tbe place which was called ‘ St. Bernard’s
Cove.’ ”
I f tbe modern chart be compared with that issued by the Admiralty a
few years ago, published by Faden in 1818, it will be seen that the par.
ticular plan of St. Francis Bay, given in Faden’s chart, agrees muchbetter
with the west side of Nassau Bay than with any other place ; and that the
“ remarkable island, like a castle,” noticed in the plan, is evidently
“ Packsaddle Island,” of the modern chart. The rough sketch of land
towai-ds the north and east, as far as Cape Horn, on that plan, I take to
be the random outline of land seen at a distance by the person who drew
the plan, and the name “ Cape Horn,” affixed to the southernmost land
then in sight; which must have been Cape Spencer. But it is now too
late to remedy the mistake, which is indeed of no consequence.
• As the shores of Tierra del Fuego are so much spoken of in other
places, I say no more of them here.
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