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

1834. VIEDMA — MAGALHAENS — DRAKE. 321 his tents some leagues inland, near a spring frequented by the Indians, but their doubtful friendship, the progress of scurvy among his own people, their discontent at such a situation, and other reasons, inclined the "Spanish viceroy to withdraw the settlement. This dreary port, difficult of access and in- hospitable even when the stranger is within its entrance, is well known to readers of early voyages as the place where Magalhaens so summarily quelled a serious mutiny, and con- spiracy against his own life, by causing the two principal offenders, captains of ships in the squadron, to be put to death :* and as the scene of the unfortunate Doughtie's mock trial and unjust execution. -^ That two such remarkable expe- ditions as those of Magalhaens and Drake should have win- tered at Port San Julian, and that two such tragedies should have occurred there is remarkable. In the plan of that port we now see Execution Island, Isle of True Justice, (in- justice ?) and Tomb Point : the two former being names given by Drake.J One naturally asks how their ships ob- tained water, and the answers occurring to me are, — that they were there in the winter season, when the rain which falls is not soon dried up ; and that they may have dug wells, which we did not think it worth while to do, having no time to spare. 15th. A French whaler came in over the bar, at high water, without having sounded it, or knowing what depth she would find. The only instance of similar folly I have witnessed was that of a sealing schooner which I met near Port Famine, whose master had taken her through Possession Bay and both Narrows, without knowing that the tide rose and fell there more than six or seven feet, and without a chart of the Strait. When I told this man that the tide rose six or seven fathoms at the First Narrow, he certainly did not believe me. The bar of San Julian is shingle (or gravel), and often altered in form by south-east gales or unusual tides. Under ordinary circumstances the tide rises thirty feet at full moon. * 1520. + Drake's Voyage, 1578. t And the latter a memento of Lieut. Sholl, of the Beag-le, (vol. I.) VOL. II. Y