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

1835. CARMEN ERKOE WEATHER. 4b'9 site side. No time was then lost in galloping to Talcahuano, and going on board the Blonde, so that Captain Seymour's letter was delivered to Commodore Mason soon after ten. I found that the commodore had engaged an American schooner* to go in search of the crew of the Challenger ; and that Mr. Usborne had been sent in her, with the second master of the Blonde,-!- three seamen of that ship, my coxswain, and the whale-boat which I took from the Beagle ; she was a poor craft, and wretchedly found, though reputed to have sailed well, and to have been a fine vessel in her time. They left Talcahuano on the day after a gale from the north-west (on the 24th), which, by all accounts, was one of the severest that had been experienced during many years. The Blonde sailed from Concepcion Bay on the 27th, the morning after I arrived ; but unfortunately, during all that day, thick weather and half a gale of wind from the northward, prevented our having even one glimpse of the land, as we were running towards the entrance of the Leiibu. On the 28th, thick weather kept us in the offing. On the 29th, at daylight, the schooner Carmen was seen, and soon afterwards, through the haze, we made out Tucapel Head. At this time, neither Vogelborg (who was on board as local pilot) nor I, knew that the Heights of Tucapel Viejo were identical with the headland we recognized by the name of Tucapel Head. We both thought that Tucapel Viejo was in the bay where the river « Lebo' is placed in the old Spanish charts. This error appears almost unaccountable to me now ; though both he and I were then drawn into it by a variety of reasons unnecessary to detail here, and we therefore advised the commodore to run along-shore towards the supposed place of the Leiibu (or Lebo), which he did ; but the weather was so unfavourable, so thick and hazy, that nothing could be seen distinctly. Scarcely indeed could we discern the line of the surf, heavily as it was beating upon the shore ; and at noon we were obliged to haul off", on account of wind and rain. * The Carmen ; for which such exorhitant demands had been made in answer to Lieutenant Collins. f Mr. Biddleconibe.