Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

68 beagle's proceedings. Jan. 1827. minster Hall, and the Islands of Direction, at the western entrance of the Strait. For the first night Captain Stokes anchored in San Nicolas Bay, and in the evening examined a harbour* behind Nassau Island, which Bougainville, in the year 1765, visited for the purpose of procuring wood for the French settlement at the Falkland Islands. On the second night, after a day nearly calm, the Beagle was anchored in a cove to the eastward of Cape Froward, and the next day (17th) passed round the Cape, carrying a heavy press of sail against a dead foul wind. Captain Stokes's account of this day's beat to windward will give the reader an idea of the sort of navigation. " Our little bay had screened us so completely from the wind, that though, when (at five a.m.) we weighed, the breeze was so light as scarcely to enable us, with all sail set, to clear its entrance ; no sooner were we outside, than we were obliged to treble reef the topsails. We continued to beat to wind- ward under a heavy press of sail ; our object being to double Cape Froward, and secure, if possible, an anchorage ere night- fall under Cape Holland, six leagues further to the westward. At first we made ' boards ' right across the Straits to within a third of a mile of each sliore, gaining, however, but little. We then tried whether, by confining our tacks to either coast, we could discover a tide by which we might profit ; and for that purpose I began with the nortli shore, for though we v/ei'e there more exposed to violent squalls which came down the valleys, I thought it advisable to avoid the indraught of various channels intersecting the Fuegian coast; but having made several boards without any perceptible advantage, we tried the south shore, with such success that I was induced to keep on that side during the remainder of the day. " And here let me remark, that in consequence of the Avesterly winds which blow through the western parts of the Straits of Magalhaens, with almost the constancy (as regards * Bougainville Harbour, better known to Sealers by the name of ' Jack's Harbour.'