At 4, P.M., on the 19th of July, we made the island of Mas a Fuera, on the coast of Chili, seventy miles from us, and at midnight, passed close to it. At day-light, Juan Fernandes, was in sight, fifty miles off. We passed it a little after meridian. It is very mountainous, but well covered with trees. The interesting fable of Robinson Crusoe's adventures, has given it a lasting fame, and rendered it an object of curiosity to all who visit this part of the Pacific Ocean. It is very fertile, and has been tolerably well cultivated. The Spanish captain-general of Chili, formerly made it a place of banishment, and after the revolution took place in that country, it was appropriated to the same purpose, by the patriots and royalists, as they alternately came into power. A considerable town was built by the exiles, who were sent there at different times, and the finest fruits of Chili are produced in great abundance. The cattle that have been left upon the island, are running wild in large herds, and several persons have found it profitable to send parties there to kill them for their hides. The island produces some sandal-wood, but it is small, and has never been collected in large quantities.
Fish, that very much resemble our codfish, and a variety of other kinds are taken in the greatest abundance around Juan Fernandez and Mas a Fuera. It is believed that if a fishery were established there by some of our enterprising countrymen, it would be found a source of great emolument. The privileges that might be considered necessary for the prosperity of a company formed with this object, could easily be obtained from the government of Chili, and there is no apparent cause why the most successful results should not be realized. It seems only necessary to call the attention of our capitalists to this subject, to have all its advantages secured to our country. It has a fine harbour for the prevailing winds of summer, but in the winter season, when the winds set in from the northward, it is exposed. It lies a little more than three hundred miles from the coast of Chili, and in the summer months I have known open boats to pass between it and Valparaiso.
On the 23d of July, we anchored in the harbour of Valparaiso, a little before day-light, to the gratification of our friends, who were becoming very much alarmed for our safety, no information of us having been received during the whole period of our absence. Thus, in a vessel of 180 tons burthen, poorly fitted, and having on board only about four months' provisions, when we sailed from the coast of Peru, we performed a cruise of upwards of eleven months in an unfrequented Ocean, rendering to our countrymen, and many of the people whom we visited, important benefits, besides realizing the most successful results in the primary object of our cruise. Its beneficial effects will long be felt by our countrymen, who are engaged in the whale-fishery; and, although we suffered many hardships, privations, and dangers, we were happy in being the instruments, in the hands of Providence and our government, of proving that crime cannot go unpunished in the remotest part of the earth, and that no situation is so perilous as to justify despair.
[[1]] A tree that resembles the locust. It bears a pod, like that of a bean, which is given by the Peruvians to their horses.
[[2]] A retail grocery and tippling shop.
[[3]] Spirits distilled from the grape.
[[4]] Mattee, mattee—Very bad.
[[5]] Very good, or very well.
[[6]] Don't you want a wife?
[[7]] Com. Porter.