A voyage round the world

by comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

Some days after I undertook a new course, more successfully, for visiting part of Terra del Fuego, and to look for a port there, opposite Cape Forward; I then intended to cross the straits to Cape Holland, and to view the coasts from thence till we came to Bay Françoise, which was what we could not do on our first attempt. I armed the long boat of the Boudeuse, and the Etoile’s barge, with swivel guns and muskets, and on the 27th, at four o’clock in the morning, I went from on board with Messrs. de Bournand, d’Oraison, and the prince of Nassau. We set sail at the west point of Bay Françoise, in order to cross the straits to Terra del Fuego, where we landed about ten o’clock, at the mouth of a little river, in a sandy creek, which is inconvenient even for boats. However, in a case of necessity, the boats might go up the river at high water, where they would find shelter. We dined on its banks, in a pleasant wood, under the shade of which were several huts of the savages. From this station, the western point of Bay Françoise bore N. W. by W. ½W. and we reckoned ourselves five leagues distant from it.

After dinner we proceeded by rowing along the coast of Terra del Fuego; it did not blow much from the westward, but there was a hollow sea. We crossed a great inlet, of which we could not see the end. Its entrance, which is about two leagues wide, is barred in the middle by a very high island. The great number of whales which we saw in this part, and the great rolling sea, inclined us to imagine that this might well be a strait leading into the sea pretty near Cape Horn. |Meeting with savages.| Being almost come to the other side, we saw several fires appear, and become extinct; afterwards they remained lighted, and we distinguished some savages upon the low point of a bay, where I intended to touch. We went immediately to their fires, and I knew again the same troop of savages which I had already seen on my first voyage in the straits. We then called them Pécherais, because that was the first word which they pronounced when they came to us, and which they repeated to us incessantly, as the Patagonians did their shawa. For this reason we gave them that name again this time. I shall hereafter have an opportunity to describe these inhabitants of the wooded parts of the strait. The day being upon the decline, we could not now stay long with them. They were in number about forty, men, women, and children; and they had ten or a dozen canoes in a neighbouring creek. We left them in order to cross the bay, and enter into an inlet, which, the night coming on, prevented us from executing. We passed the night on the banks of a pretty considerable river, where we made a great fire, and where the sails of our boats, which were pretty large, served us as tents; the weather was very fine, although a little cold.

Bay and port of Beaubassin.

The next morning we saw that this inlet was actually a port, and we took the soundings of it, and of the bay. |Its description.| The anchorage is very good in the bay, from forty to twelve fathoms, bottom of sand, small gravel and shells. It shelters you against all dangerous winds. Its easterly point may be known by a very large cape, which we called the Dome. To the westward is a little isle, between which and the shore, no ship can go out of the bay; you come into the port by a very narrow pass, and in it you find ten, eight, six, five, and four fathoms, oozy bottom; you must keep in the middle, or rather come nearer the east side, where the greatest depth is. The beauty of this anchoring place determined us to give it the name of bay and port of Beaubassin. If a ship waits for a fair wind, she need anchor only in the bay. If she wants to wood and water, or even careen, no properer place for these operations can be thought of than the port of Beaubassin.

I left here the chevalier de Bournand, who commanded the long boat, in order to take down as minutely as possible all the information relative to this important place, and then to return to the ships. For my part, I went on board the Etoile’s barge with Mr. Landais, one of the officers of that store-ship, who commanded her, and I continued my survey. We proceeded to the westward, and first viewed an island, round which we went, and found that a ship may anchor all round it, in twenty-five, twenty-one, and eighteen fathoms, sand and small gravel. On this isle there were some savages fishing. As we went along the coast, we reached a bay before sun-set, which affords excellent anchorage for three or four ships. |Bay de la Cormorandiere.| I named it bay de la Cormorandiere, on account of an apparent rock, which is about a mile to E. S. E. of it. At the entrance of the bay we had fifteen fathoms of water, and in the anchoring place eight or nine; here we passed the night.

On the 29th at day break we left bay de la Cormorandiere, and went to the westward by the assistance of a very strong tide. We passed between two isles of unequal size, which I named the two Sisters (les deux Soeurs). They bear N. N. E. and S. S. W. with the middle of Cape Forward, from which they are about three leagues distant. A little farther we gave the name of Sugar-loaf (Pain de sucre) to a mountain of this shape, which is very easy to be distinguished, and bears N. N. E. and S. S. W. with the southern point of the same cape; and about five leagues from the Cormorandiere we discovered a fine bay, with an amazing fine port at the bottom of it; a remarkable water-fall in the interior part of the port, determined me to call them Bay and Port of the Cascade. |Bay and Port of the Cascade.| The middle of this bay bears N. E. and S. W. with Cape Forward. The safe and convenient anchorage, and the facility of taking in wood and water, shew that there is nothing wanting in it.

|Description of the country.|

The cascade is formed by the waters of a little river, which runs between several high mountains; and its fall measures about fifty or sixty toises, (i. e. 300 or 360 feet French measure): I have gone to the top of it. The land is here and there covered with thickets, and has some little plains of a short spungy moss; I have here been in search of vestiges of men, but found none, for the savages of this part seldom or never quit the sea-shores, where they get their subsistence. Upon the whole, all that part of Terra del Fuego, reckoning from opposite Elizabeth island, seems to me, to be a mere cluster of great, unequal, high and mountainous islands, whose tops are covered with eternal snow. I make no doubt but there are many channels between them into the sea. The trees and the plants are the same here as on the coast of Patagonia; and, the trees excepted, the country much resembles the Malouines.

Usefulness of the three ports before described.

I here add a particular chart which I have made of this interesting part of the coast of Terra del Fuego. Till now, no anchoring place was known on it, and ships were careful to avoid it. The discovery of the three ports which I have just described on it, will facilitate the navigation of this part of the straits of Magalhaens. Cape Forward has always been a point very much dreaded by navigators. It happens but too frequently, that a contrary and boisterous wind prevents the doubling of it, and has obliged many to put back to Bay Famine. Now, even the prevailing winds may be turned to account, by keeping the shore of Terra del Fuego on board, and putting into one of the above-mentioned anchoring places, which can be done almost at any time, by plying in a channel where there is never a high sea for ships. From thence all the boards are advantageous, and if one takes care to make the best of the tides, which here begin to have more effect again, it will no longer be difficult to get to Port Galant.