V O Y A G E
P A C I F IC A N D B E E R I N G ’S S T R A I T .
CHAPTER I.
May,
1825.
Departure from England—Teneriffe—Sun eclipsed—Fernanda Norhona—Make the Coast
of Brazil—Rio Janeiro—Passage round Cape Horn—Conception—Valparaiso.
O n the 19th of May we weighed from Spithead, and the following CH A J
afternoon took our parting view of the Devonshire coast, and steered
out of the Channel with a fair wind. For several days afterwards our
progress was impeded by boisterous weather, for which the approach
to the Bay of Biscay has long been proverbial. We however escaped
tolerably well, and favourable breezes soon succeeding, we advanced to
the southward.
On the SOth we ascertained, by running over the spot in a fine
clear day, that a reef of rocks, named the Eight Stones, did not exist in
the situation which it has fora number of years occupied in our charts:
the next morning we passed the Desertas, and on the 1st of June were
off* Teneriffe.
As I purposed touching at Santa Cruz, we immediately hauled up
for the land, and it was a fortunate circumstance that we did so, for
so strong a current set to the southward during the night, that had
we trusted to our reckoning, the port would have been passed, and
there would have been much difficulty in regaining it. I mention the
circumstance with a view of bringing into notice the great southerly
B