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

OF THE HUMAN RACE. 653 of land by current or wind, or by both, and taken into a steady trade, or lasting westerly wind, it would be impossible for her to struggle against it for many days ; she must even- tually run before it as the last expedient, with the hope, often forlorn, of falling in with some land to leeward. When we reflect on the tedious coasting voyages undertaken formerly, even in historical times; and on the quantities of provision embarked for those long passages ; may we not infer that the earliest explorers would take as much food with them as their ,rafts or^vessels could carry ; and therefore, that if driven out to sea, they were capable, in some instances at least, of holding out for a considerable length of time without having: recourse to the last alternative. If a vessel were drifted from Easter Island* by a north- west wind (occasional in July, August, or September,) she Avould be carried towards the coast of Chile; she might be drifted directly there, or she might be driven eastward for a time, and then, in consequence of wind changing, drifted towards the north ; so that it would be uncertain whether Chile, Peru, the Galapagos Islands, Mexico, or the wide ocean would receive the lost wanderers. It is also possible that a vessel may have been driven to South Ame- rica from the neighbourhood of New Zealand ; but this does not appear nearly so probable as the former conjecture. That the Araucanians about Valdivia originally arrived in that country by water, from the west, is I think indicated by what is stated in page 400 of this volume. But while man was thus spreading eastward across the Pa- cific, are we to suppose that no vessel was ever blown off" the coast of Africa, or that of Spain, and drifted by easterly winds across the Atlantic ? How easy is the voyage, before a steady trade wind, from the Canary or Cape Verde Islands to the West Indies or Brazil ; from the west coast of Africa to the * At Easter Island in 1722, Rog-gewein found idolaters and fire- worshippers, and he says that one of the chief idols was called Dago. In 1774, people differently disposed, were found there by Cook ; the idols still remained, but no traces were observed of fire-worship.