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

May 1828. port xavieu — yoxACio bay. ITT " The following day (27th) a grave was dug, and we dis- charged the last sad duties to our departed shipmate. A wooden cross was erected at the head of his grave, on which was an inscription to his memory : we also named the south point of the bay after him. About noon we left Port Xavier, and coasted the island, at the mean distance of a mile, examining it for anchorages, until, after a run of eight miles, we reached its south point. For the first four or five miles of that distance, the coast of the island consisted of a high steep cliff, having at its base a narrow beach, composed of various-sized masses of rock. In the interior there were heights, rising twelve or four- teen hundred feet, wooded nearly to the summits, with many streams of water descending from them ; but for the remainder of the distance the coast was low, and the wood stunted and scanty. All along the shore rolled a heavy surf, that would have rendered any attempt to land exceedingly hazardous ; there was no place fit for anchorage, except a small bight, near the extreme south point, into which we stood, and with some difficulty succeeded in anchoring at a cable's length from the shore. The bay proved to be that called by the Spanish mis- sionary voyagers ' Ygnacio Bay.' Over the south point, — a nar- row tongue of land, about five hundred yards across, with rocks and breakers stretching off shore, to the distance of two miles, — we took bearings and angles to various fixed points in the northern part of the gulf. The latitude, chronometric dif- ferences of longitude, and magnetic variation, were determined on shore at this southern point. " Our observations being completed, we left this anchorage ; and as it is little hkely to be visited again, it will be enough to say that it is exceedingly dangerous. Nothing would have induced me to enter it, but the duty of examining the coast for anchorage, and the danger of remaining under sail close to an unexplored shore. " Under an impression that the island of St. Xavier* was the • Xavier's Island is certainly the Montrose Island of Byron's Narra- tive. The Wager was lost, as will be seen, more to the southward, on the Guaianeco Islands. vol. I. N