The weather had for a long time been cloudy; but on this night
, a clear sky presented to our view a comet of unusual magnitude and
brilliancy, situated to the S. E. of the square formed by iira-g Ceti. The
head had a bluish cast, and increased in lustre toward its nucleus, where
indeed it was so bright, that with our small telescopes it appeared
to be a star; but this was evidently a deception, as Mr. Herschell,
who made some interesting and satisfactory observations on the same
comet, found on turning his twenty feet reflector upon it, that the star-
like appearance of the nucleus was only an illusion *. The tail extended
between 9° and 10° of arc in a N . W . direction, and gradually increased
in width from the nucleus till near its termination. YVe made a number
of measurements to ascertain its place, and continued them every
night afterwards on which the comet appeared; but as its orbit has
been calculated from far more accurate observations, and ours were
necessarily made with stars unequally affected by refraction, which
involves a laborious reduction, besides the abstruse calculation for
determining its orbit, I have not given them a place.
On the following night we noticed distinctly the bifurcation of the
tail represented in the Memoirs of the Astronomical Society. The
branches were of unequal length, and the lower one diverged from the
nucleus, at an angle of about 40“ T.
On the 6th we made the Island of Mocha, on the coast of Chili, a
place once celebrated as a resort of the Buccaneers, who anchored off it
for the supplies which in their days it furnished. Its condition was then
certainly very different from the present; several Indian chiefs and
a numerous population resided there, and it was well stocked with
cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry. At present it is entirely deserted,
except by horses and hogs, both of which, Captain Hall states, are
used as fresh stock by whaling ships in the Pacific. The Indians
appear to have been generally very cordial with their visiters, exchanging
the produce of the island for cutlery and trinkets. They,
however, apparently without provocation, attacked Sir Francis Drake,
* S ee Memoir Ast. Soc. vol. ii. p. 2.
f A sketch o f this appearance is introduced a t th e end of th e book.
and wounded him and all his boat’s crew. In 1G90 the island was
found deserted by Captain Strong, and it has since remained uninhabited.
The cause of this is not known, though I was informed in Chili,
that it was in consequence of the frequent depredations committed by
vessels that touched at the island.
VY^e quitted Mocha, passed the Island of St. Mary, which must
not be approached on account of sunken rocks, and anchored at Talca-
huana, the sea-port of Conception, on the Sth, fifty-six days from Rio
Janeiro. Here we found the British squadron, under the command of
Captain Maling, from whom I received every assistance and attention.
Our arrival off the port was on one of those bright days of sunshine
which characterize the summer of the temperate zone on the
western side of America. The cliffs of Quiriquina, an island situated
in the entrance of the harbour, were covered with birds, curiously arranged
in rows along the various strata; and on the rocks w'ere numberless
seals basking in the sun, either making the shores re-echo with
their discordant noise, or so unmindful of all that was passing, as to
allow the birds to alight upon them and peck their oily skin without
offering any resistance.
The sea-port of Conception is a deep, commodious bay, well
protected from northerly winds by the fertile little island above-mentioned.
lying at its entrance : there is a passage on either side of it, but
the eastern is the only one in use, the other being very narrow and
intricate. The land on the eastern and western sides of the bay is
high, well wooded, and on the latter very steep; on the former it slopes
from the mountains toward the sea with gentle undulations. Several
villages are situated along the shore on both sides, but principally on
the eastern. Around these hamlets, some diminutive patches of a
more lively green than the surrounding country, show the very limited
extent to which cultivation is carried ; of which we had further proof
as we proceeded up the bay, by witnessing groupes of both sexes up to
their middle in the sea, collecting their daily subsistence from beds of
choros and other shell-fish.
Talcahuana we found to be a miserable little town, extending
along the beach, and up a once fertile valley; divided into streets and
C H A P .
I.
October,
1825.