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. MORALEDA XOTICES OF CHONOS. 367 preters, and made them known by his chart,* I have scrupu- lously followed him.-|- 16th. Mr. Stokes set out, in a whale-boat, to work north- wards, as near the sea-coast as possible, and meet me at a har- bour in the Huaytecas group of islands, now called Port Low. He was accompanied by Mr. Low, Mr. May,J and four men.§ Moraleda, in his diary and chart, describes a channel which crosses the Chonos Archipelago, and is called by the natives * Ninualac.'ll Through this passage the Chonos Indians used to go once or twice a year to inspect the small herds of goats, or flocks of sheep which they then had upon those outlying is- lands I have already mentioned, namely Huamblin^ (Socorro), and Ipun (Narborough) ; as well as upon others, of which I be- lieve Lemu, a woody island on the north side of Vallenar Road, was one. Moraleda himself explored part of the continent, and some of the islands adjacent to it (between 1786 and 1796), but he saw nothing of the sea face of the Chonos. What few notices of it existed, prior to 1834, were obtained from the voyage of Ladrilleros in 1557 ; from the Anna Pink in 1741 from Machado in 1769 ; and from the Santa Barbara in 1792 which, when compared together, tended to confuse a hydro- grapher more than they assisted him. In Spanish charts of the coast from Cape Tres Montes northward to Taitaohao- huon (a name long enough to perplex more verbose men than sailors) from which all others, of that coast, were copied, that portion must have been originally laid down according to mag- • Now in my possession. t His Huamblin and Ipun I take to be Socono and Narborough Islands, but am not certain. X Having very little occupation on board, in his own particular line, just at that time, Mr. May volunteered to take an oar, as one of the boat's crew. § Orders in Appendix, No. 22. II " Gran Canal de Ninualac, que atraviese el Archipielago, per el in- forme del practice Hueiiupal que casi anualmente la transita con el motivo expresado en el Diario."— (Moraleda's MS. Chart, 1795.) 1[ Huamblin, if, as I suppose it, a corruption of Huampelen, means ' an watch,' * posted as a sentinel :' Ipun means ' swept off,' or ' swept away :' Lemu means ' wood :' names singularly applicable to each of those islands respectively.