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

1585. SARMIENTo"'s COLONY. SL ships were blown away to sea, leaving the colonists very desti- tute ; fortunately, however, they were enabled to return, but were four times, afterwards, obliged to put to sea, from stress of weather. On the last return, one of the ships. La Trinidad, was run on shore. The ardour of Ribera being damped by repeated misfortunes, he returned to Spain, without the know- ledge or consent of Sarmiento, leaving, for the use of the colony, only one ship, the Maria. While unloading the Trinidad, the Spaniards were attacked by Indians, whom they dispersed. Sarmiento, after making the necessary arrangements at Jesus, set out by land with one hundred men, to go to Point St. Anna,* the ship Maria being ordered to follow. On the journey, the sufferings of the party were very great, as well from the fatiguing nature of the march, as from their being harassed by the natives, with whom they had an engagement, in which one was killed, and ten men were wounded. A mutiny among his people then broke out, which was quelled by assistance from the ship. At last they reached their desti- nation, and founded, with the usual solemnities, the city of King Philip (or San Felipe). At the latter end of March, while preparing habitations, the winter set in so suddenly, that for fifteen days it did not cease to snow. Sarmiento, then, after quelling a mutiny which had broken out afresh among the soldiers, embarked with thirty men to visit the first encampment at Jesus, and to superintend the erection of forts in the Narrow ; but upon reaching the anchorage, a gale of wind forced him to sea, and, lasting twenty days, obliged him (with his people blinded and frost-bitten) to bear up for Rio de Janeiro. Here his ship was stranded; upon which he chartered a vessel to convey flour to the Strait, and went himself to Per- nambuco, to procure large boats for carrying supplies to his Valle, where some peaked elevations, dividing vallies near the coast line, are conspicuous. The Beagle anchored there, and found plenty of fresh water. * Close to Port Famine.