Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle Part 59

SIR; Beagle, Port Gallant, 19th June 1829.

It is my direction that you put yourself under the orders of Lieutenant Skyring, and co-operate with him in the execution of the service on which he is about to be employed.

Mr. Kirke, with a boat and five men, will be sent to a.s.sist.

I have, &c.

(Signed) ROBERT FITZ-ROY.

To Lieut. Thos. Graves, Commander.

His Majesty's schooner Adelaide.

SIR; Beagle, Port Gallant, June 19th 1829.

It is my direction that as soon as you consider the rates of the chronometer on board the Adelaide sufficiently settled, you proceed in her to search for, and, if practicable at this season of the year, survey such part of the pa.s.sage which is supposed to lead from the vicinity of Cape Tamar to Concepcion Strait and the Gulf of Trinidad, as your time and provisions will allow.

Your chief object will be to open a pa.s.sage from Cape Three Points to Cape Tamar, between the ma.s.s of islands which lie between those capes. {564}

When to the northward of Cape Tamar, and before reaching as far north as Oracion Bay, or the lat.i.tude of 52 6', should you notice an opening to the eastward, with a current or stream of tide setting through it, and an appearance of its joining another body of water, of considerable extent, you will endeavour to ascertain whether it communicates with the Skyring Water, provided that, in so doing you do not turn from your chief object more than a few days.

In the execution of the above orders you will act as you may consider best for the service of his Majesty; and if, at any time before its completion, you find your provisions getting short, the climate too severe, or yourself, or those under your orders, in bad health, you will immediately make the best of your way to Chiloe.

You will endeavour to be at San Carlos, in the island of Chiloe, before the 20th of September, and will let nothing that can be avoided detain you beyond that time.

I have, &c.

(Signed) ROBERT FITZ-ROY, Commander.

To Lieutenant Wm. Geo. Skyring, His Majesty's sloop Beagle.

By Phillip Parker King, Esq., Commander of His Majesty's surveying vessel Adventure, and Senior Officer of an Expedition for the survey of a part of South America.

As soon as you shall have completed the rates of your chronometers and be otherwise ready, it is my direction that you proceed to sea in His Majesty's sloop under your command, to survey the sea-coast of Tierra del Fuego, from Cape Pillar to the east entrance of the Strait of Magellan, in the progressive examination of which you will be guided by the state of the weather, and other circ.u.mstances, keeping in view that the most interesting part of the coast is that portion between Christmas Sound and the Strait Le Maire, particularly the openings of New Year Sound and Na.s.sau Bay, and the openings to the eastward of the latter as far as New Island; as there is reason to believe that there is a considerable body of water to the eastward of the termination of Admiralty {565} Sound, communicating with the sea by some one if not many openings in the neighbourhood of Na.s.sau Bay, and with an outlet on the N.E. coast (St. Sebastian Channel); and as the existence of such a strait would be of the greatest importance to small vessels bound to the westward round Cape Horn, you will see it fitting not to spend so much time to the westward of Cape Noir as may in the least impede the determination of the question, or prevent it being completely explored. It is my intention to be at Port Famine by the 1st of April, and at Rio de Janeiro by the 1st June, calling in my way at Monte Video, or Gorriti, for chronometrical observations; and if can, conveniently, I shall also go to Port Desire for the same purpose. But as it is at present uncertain what orders I may find for me at Valparaiso, you are to act according to your own discretion, so that you arrive at Rio by the 20th of June to rejoin me.

Given under my hand, on board the Adventure, at St. Carlos de Chiloe, November 18th, 1829.

PHILLIP P. KING, Commander.

To Robert Fitz-Roy, Esq., Commander of H.M.S. Beagle.

By Phillip Parker King, Esq., Commander of His Majesty's surveying vessel Adventure, and Senior Officer of an Expedition for the survey of a part of South America.

As soon as the Adelaide Tender is ready, you will proceed to sea, in the execution of the following orders:--

As your princ.i.p.al object will be to trace the main-land from the peninsula of Tres Montes to the southward, by penetrating into all the openings that lead easterly, you will commence at the Channel Mouths, and explore them to their termination.

In the event of their affording a communication with the Gulf of Trinidad, and your having time, you will examine the channels that you have reported to exist in the neighbourhood of Neesham Bay, so as to complete the Fallos Channel, which separates Campana from the land within it.

Should the Channel Mouths not afford the expected termination, you will proceed through the Mesier or Fallos Channels, in {566} which, and in the channels more to the southward, you will explore all openings leading into the interior, and, if possible, not lose sight of the main-land until you reach the Strait of Magellan; by doing which it is expected, from the results of your last survey, that you will pa.s.s through the Skyring and Otway Waters, and enter the Strait by the Jerome Channel. The above being the princ.i.p.al object of your operations, you will take every opportunity of examining all other interesting parts of the coast, in the vicinity of your anchorages, among which the following seem to be of most interest:--

The Guaianeco Islands, and the probable place of the Wager's wreck, which would seem to be to the southward of, and not far from the Dundee Rock of your former survey.

If time afforded, it would be interesting to lay down the sh.o.r.es of Concepcion Strait; also to examine the deep opening on the west side of St.

Estevan Channel, in the lat.i.tude of 51 8'.

Lord Nelson Strait is also of much interest, and any extension of our knowledge of the land that bounds the western side of Smyth Channel.

But in these you will be guided by your own discretion, keeping in mind the princ.i.p.al object of the present survey, that of tracing the sh.o.r.es of the main-land.

The Adventure will be at Port Famine by the 1st of April, if nothing occurs to prevent it; and at Rio de Janeiro by the 1st of June, where you will rejoin me; but you are at liberty to call at Monte Video, on your way, for any supplies which you may require.

(Signed) PHILLIP P. KING.

7th Dec. 1829. San Carlos de Chiloe.

To Lieutenant W. G. Skyring, commanding H.M. schooner Adelaide, Tender to H.M.S. Adventure.

{567}

Some Observations relating to the Southern Extremity of South America, Tierra del Fuego, and the Strait of Magalhaens; made during the Survey of those Coasts in his Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1830. By Captain Phillip Parker King, F.R.S., Commander of the Expedition.

[The original paper, from which the following observations have been extracted, was read before the Geographical Society of London on the 25th of April and 9th of May 1831; and was printed in the Journal of that Society for the same year.

It is here reprinted, with a few omissions and very slight alterations, in order that this volume may contain all that the Author has yet published respecting South America; excepting particular Sailing Directions.]

Considering the vast extent of the sea-coast of the southern extremity of America, it is not a little surprising that it should have been so frequently pa.s.sed by, during the last century, without having been more explored. Within the last twenty years, however, it has been very much resorted to by English and American vessels in the seal trade, and to the observing portion of their enterprising crews many of its intricacies are well known; but as the knowledge they have derived from their experience has only in one instance, that of Mr. Weddell's voyage, been published to the world, our charts cannot be said to have been much improved for the last fifty years.

The eastern coast of Patagonia, by which name the country between the River Plata and the Strait of Magalhaens[215] is known, {568} was coasted, as well as the north-eastern side of Tierra del Fuego, by Malaspina; and the charts of his voyage not only vie with any contemporaneous production for accuracy and detail, but are even now quite sufficient for the general purposes of navigation.

The Strait of Magalhaens has been explored by several navigators; but, among the numerous plans of it extant, those of Sir John Narborough and Cordova are the most correct. The first is particularly noticed in the late Admiral Burney's very useful work, and the result of the last has been published in the Spanish language, and is ent.i.tled "Ultimo Viage al Estrecho de Magallanes." A second voyage was also made by Cordova to the Strait, the proceedings of which form an appendix to the above work. It is furnished with a good general chart of the coast, another of the Strait, and many plans of the anchorages within it. Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Bougainville, had already made considerable additions to Narborough's plan, from which a chart had been compiled that answered all the purposes of general geographical information, and might even have been sufficient for navigation: for the latter purpose, however, Cordova's chart was much superior; but, being published in Spain only, and its existence little known in England, I found great difficulty in procuring a copy before I sailed, for my own use.

The southern coast of Tierra del Fuego, between Cape Good Success, the southern limit of Strait le Maire, and Cape Pillar at the western end of the Strait of Magalhaens, was very little known. Cook's voyage affords several useful notices of the coast between Cape Deseado and Christmas Sound, and the Dutch fleet under Hermite partially explored the neighbourhood of Cape Horn: a confused chart of this coast, however, was the best that could be put together; and although Mr. Weddell has more recently published an account of the harbours and anchorages near Cape Horn and New Year Sound, yet little available benefit was derived from it, because these different navigators having confined their examinations to small portions of the coast, it was difficult to connect their respective plans, even on so small a scale as that of the general chart.

The western coast of South America, which is very intricate, extending from Cape Victory (the north-west entrance of the {569} Strait of Magalhaens) to the island of Chiloe, may be said to have been wholly unknown; for since the time of Sarmiento de Gamboa nothing in the least descriptive of it had been published, with the exception of the brief notices of two missionary voyages in piraguas, from Chiloe to the Guiateca and Guaianeco islands.

Every person conversant with South American geography, must be acquainted with the voyage of Sarmiento. From the determined perseverance shown by that excellent and skilful navigator, through difficulties of no ordinary nature, we are possessed of the details of a voyage down the western coast, and through the Strait of Magalhaens, that has never been surpa.s.sed. His journal has furnished us with the description of a coast more difficult and dangerous to explore than any which could readily be selected--for it was at that time perfectly unknown, and is exposed to a climate of perpetual storms and rain: yet the account is written with such minute care and correctness, that we have been enabled to detect upon our charts almost every place described in the Gulf of Trinidad, and the channels to the south of it, particularly their termination at his Ancon sin Salida.

It would be irrelevant to enter here into the history of Sarmiento's voyage, or indeed of any other connected with these coasts. Modern surveys are made so much more in detail than those of former years, that little use can be made of the charts and plans that have been hitherto formed; but the accounts of the voyages connected with them are replete with interesting and useful matter, and much amus.e.m.e.nt as well as information may be derived from their perusal, particularly Sir John Narborough's journal, and Byron's romantic and pathetic narrative of the loss of the Wager.