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

Dec. 1834. de vea — shakp — cone creek. 369 accompanied by small barks, as tenders, to reconnoitre the Gulf of Trinidad, and the western entrance of Magalhaens Strait. De Vea made an examination of those places, and was convinced, from the poverty of the land, that no settlement of Europeans could be maintained there. One of the Spanish barks, with a crew of sixteen men, was wrecked on the small islands called Evangelists, at the west entrance of the Strait. De Vea returned to Callao in 1767. — (Burney, iv. 76.) In 1681, the notorious Sharp anchored in a gulf, surrounded by craggy mountains, whose tops were covered with snow, in 50°. 40'. south latitude ; where " the difference of the rise and fall of the tide was seven feet perpendicular."" Sharp named the anchorage ShergalFs Harbour, the sound he called English Gulf; and the islands adjacent ''Duke of York's Islands." The account of this buccaneer's visit is sufficiently connected with the object of this volume, to warrant my inserting it in the Appendix, copied verbatim from that interesting work, invaluable to seamen and hydrogTaphers, Burney 's History of the Discoveries in the South Sea.* 18th Dec. The Beagle weighed and sailed out of Vallenar Road, after experiencing the shelter afforded by that anchor- age, during a heavy gale from the south-west and southward. At day-light on the 20th we were off Cape Tres Montes : having a fine day and smooth water, we surveyed the coast between that promontory and San Andres Bay, but it became dark before an anchorage could be gained. Next morning we anchored in a narrow creek,-|- close by a singular cone (1,300 feet high), an unfaihng landmark. Finding it a place difficult to get out of, and not to be recommended, unless in distress, we did not stay there long, but moved to a cove at the south- west part of the bay.:|: While under sail for this purpose, advan- * In this extract from Burney (Appendix No. 23), there is a criticism upon a hydrographical error, made by some copyist, which is interest- ing to me from its correspondence with what I suspect to have taken place in the old charts of Nassau Bay and Cape Horn (See pages 122, 123.) + Cone Creek. + Christmas Cove. VOL. II, O jj