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

368 ULLOA LADllILLEROS. DeC. netic, instead of true bearing; and the fragments of know- ledge acquired, about the latitude of 46° S., from the master of the Anna Pink, the pilot Machado, and the officers of the Santa Barbara frigate, clashed so much that their result was what we see in the charts hitherto used, a dotted line, and a few straggling islands, totally unlike the truth, leading one to expect a comparatively open space, whereas there is a succes- sion of high and considerable islands, so near one another, that from the offing they ' make ' like a solid unbroken coast. While on this subject I may remind the reader that besides the expeditions above-mentioned, the missionary voyages des- cribed by Agueros (Appendix, No. 23), the important under- taking of Sarmiento, and the disastrous voyage of the Wager, there have been other visitors to the west coast of Patagonia, part of whose acquired information, though slight, is upon record. In 1552, two ships, commanded by Don Francisco de UUoa, were sent by Valdivia to gain some knowledge of the Strait of Magalhaens.* The journal of their voyage is not extant. Five years afterwards (in 1557), Don Garcia Hurtado, Viceroy of Peru, sent two vessels to examine the southern part of the coast of Chile, as far as the Strait of Magalhaens. The commander was Juan Ladrilleros, and with him were two pilots, named Hernan Gallego and Pedro Gallego. A mutiny took place, and one ship deserted, but with the other Ladrilleros persevered, passed four months in the Strait at anchor during the winter, then reconnoitred the eastern entrance, and afterwards sailed back to Chile, where he at last arrived with only one seaman and a negro, the rest of his people having perished by expo- sure to hardships, by scurvy, or by famine. The principal geographical information obtained at so high a price, was some slight knowledge of Childe, and the archipelago of islands near it. — (Burney, vol. i. p. 246-9.) Sarmiento's expedition in 1579-1580, has already been often quoted in the first volume of this narrative. In 1675 Antonio de Vea was sent from Peru in a ship, • Pastene, a Genoese, was, I believe, in this expedition. His MS. Journal is said to exist in the archives of Barcelona.