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

564 FORMER CHARTS AND PLANS. 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 naviga- tion. The Strait of Magalhaens has been explored by several navi- gators ; 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 entitled '' Ultimo Viage al Estrecho de Magallane?." 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, 1 found great difficulty in pro- curing 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 affiards 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 hai-bours 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, Avhich is very intricate, extending from Cape Victory (the north-west entrance of the