Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

274 coNsiDKK,\TioNS — PURCHASE. March that the most interesting part of her voyage — the carrying a chain of meridian distances around the globe — must eventually be sacrificed to the tedious, although not less useful, details of coast surveying. Our working ground lay so far from ports at which supplies could be obtained, that we were obliged to occupy whole months in making passages merely to get provisions, and then overload our little vessel to a most inconvenient degree, as may be supposed, when I say that eight months"' provisions was our usual stock at starting, and that we sailed twice with ten months' supply on board.* I had often anxiously longed for a consort, adapted for car- rying cargoes, rigged so as to be easily worked with few hands, and able to keep company with the Beagle ; but when I saw the Unicorn, and heard how well she had behaved as a sea- boat, my wish to purchase her was unconquerable. A fitter vessel I could hardly have met with, one hundred and seventy tons burthen, oak built, and copper fastened throughout, very roomy, a good sailer, extremely handy, and a first-rate sea- boat ; her only deficiencies were such as I could supply, namely, a few sheets of copper, and an outfit of canvas and rope. A few days elapsed, in which she was surveyed very carefully by Mr. May, and my mind fully made up, before I decided to buy her, and I then agreed to give six thousand dollars (nearly £] ,300) for immediate possession. Being part owner, and authorized by the other owners to do as he thought best with the vessel in case of failure, Mr. Low sold her to me, payment to be made into his partners'" hands at Monte Video. ' Some of his crew being ' upon the lay,' that is, having agreed to be paid for their work by a small proportion of the cargo obtained, preferred remaining at the Falklands to seek for employment in other vessels, others procured a passage in the Rapid, and a few were engaged by me to serve in their own vessel which, to keep up old associations, I named ' Adven- ture.' Mr. Chaffers and others immediately volunteered to go * Excepting water, of which we only carried six weeks.