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

158 ouLF OF TRINIDAD. April 1828. between twenty-eight and thirty-three fathoms, sandy bottom. The weather was clear and fine, and we were enabled to make observations, and take the bearings and angles, necessary for laying down the coast satisfactorily. " At noon we were in latitude 50° 12' south, and in the meridian of Cape Tres Puntas, between which and a cape bearing from us N. 13° E. (magnetic), distant eight miles, there was evidently an inlet : this cape is marked on the chart as Cape WiUiam. The character of the land is the same with that which we had hitherto passed, bare, rugged, rocky moun- tains, with peaks, and sharply serrated ridges. From daylight to noon we had run twenty-one miles along the coast ; in that interval only one inlet was seen, which was in the latitude of 50° 27' south, af^reeins: well with the ' West Channel' of the Spanish chart. It was four miles wide at its mouth, and appeared to follow a winding course to the eastward. The land of Cape Tres Puntas curved in to the eastward, until it closed with Cape William ; at dusk we were abreast of Cape William, and two leagues off shore, where we lay-to till daylight, as I wished to examine the inlet between it and Cape Tres Puntas, which subsequently proved to be Sarmiento's Gulf of Trinidad. The old navigator thus describes its discovery : " ' At dayhght, 17th of March, 1579, in the name of the most holy Trinity, we saw land, bearing E.S.E., ten leagues distant, towards which we steered to explore it. At mid-day, being near the land, we observed the latitude 49 2°? but Her- nando Alonzo made it 49° 9'. In approaching the shore we saw a great bay and gulf, which trended deeply into the land towards some snowy mountains. To the south there was a high mountain, with three peaks, wherefore Pedro Sanniento named the bay ' Golfo de la Sanctisima Trenidad.' The highest land of the three peaks was named ' Cabo de Tres Puntas 6 montes.' This island is bare of vegetation, and at the water-side is low and rugged, and lined with breakers ; on the summit are many white, grey, and black-coloured portions of ground, or rock. Six leagues to the north of Cape Tres Puntas is the opposite side of the gulf, where it forms a large high mountain, backed