After three hours’ calm, we got a breeze at S. E. by E. and having made a short trip to south, stood in for the land; the most advanced point of which, that we had in sight, bore E., distant ten leagues. This is a lofty promontory, lying E. S. E. nineteen leagues from Gilbert Isle, and situated in latitude 55° 26ʹ S. longitude 70° 25ʹ W. Viewed from the situation we now were in, it terminated in two high towers; and within them a hill shaped like a sugar-loaf. This wild rock therefore obtained the name of York Minster. Two leagues to the westward of this head appeared a large inlet, the west point of which we fetched in with, by nine o’clock, when we tacked in forty-one fathoms water, half a league from the shore: to the westward of this inlet was another, with several islands lying in the entrance.
During the night between the 19th and 20th, we had little wind easterly, which in the morning veered to N. E. and N. N. E., but it was too faint to be of use; and at ten, we had a calm, when we observed the ship to drive from off the shore out to sea. We had made the same observation the day before. This must have been occasioned by a current; and the melting of the snow increasing, the inland waters will cause a stream to run out of most of these inlets. At noon, we observed in latitude 55° 39ʹ 30ʺ S. York Minster, then bearing N. 15° E., distant five leagues; and Round-hill, just peeping above the horizon, which we judged to belong to the isles of Saint Ildefonso, E. 25° S., ten or eleven leagues distant. At ten o’clock, a breeze springing up at E. by S., I took this opportunity to stand in for the land, being desirous of going into one of the many ports which seemed open to receive us, in order to take a view of the country, and to recruit our stock of wood and water.
In standing in for an opening, which appeared on the east side of York Minster, we had forty, thirty-seven, fifty, and sixty fathoms water, a bottom of small stones and shells. When we had the last soundings we were nearly in the middle between the two points that form the entrance to the inlet, which we observed to branch into two arms, both of them lying in nearly N., and disjoined by a high rocky point. We stood for the eastern branch as being clear of islets; and after passing a black rocky one, lying without the point just mentioned, we sounded and found no bottom with a line of an hundred and seventy fathoms. This was altogether unexpected, and a circumstance that would not have been regarded, if the breeze had continued; but, at this time, it fell calm, so that it was not possible to extricate ourselves from this disagreeable situation. Two boats were hoisted out, and sent a-head to tow; but they would have availed little, had not a breeze sprung up about eight o’clock, at S. W. which put it in my power either to stand out to sea, or up the inlet. Prudence seemed to point out the former; but the desire of finding a good port, and of learning something of the country, getting the better of every other consideration, I resolved to stand in; and as night was approaching, our safety depended on getting to an anchor. With this view we continued to sound, but always had an unfathomable depth.
Hauling up under the east side of the land which divided the two arms, and seeing a small cove a-head, I sent a boat to sound; and we kept as near the shore as the flurries from the land would permit, in order to be able to get into this place, if there should be anchorage. The boat soon returned, and informed us that there was thirty and twenty-five fathoms water, a full cable’s length from the shore. Here we anchored in thirty fathoms, the bottom sand and broken shells; and carried out a kedge and hawser, to steady the ship for the night.
CHAP. II.
TRANSACTIONS IN CHRISTMAS SOUND, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY AND ITS INHABITANTS.
The morning of the 21st was calm and pleasant. After breakfast, I set out with two boats to look for a more secure station. We no sooner got round, or above the point, under which the ship lay, than we found a cove in which was anchorage in thirty, twenty, and fifteen fathoms, the bottom stones and sand. At the head of the cove was a stony beach, a valley covered with wood, and a stream of fresh water; so that there was every thing we could expect to find in such a place, or rather more; for we shot three geese out of four that we saw, and caught some young ones, which we afterwards let go.
After discovering and sounding this cove, I sent lieutenant Clerke, who commanded the other boat, on board, with orders to remove the ship into this place, while I proceeded farther up the inlet. I presently saw that the land we were under, which disjoined the two arms, as mentioned before, was an island, at the north end of which the two channels united. After this I hastened on board, and found every thing in readiness to weigh; which was accordingly done, and all the boats sent a-head to tow the ship round the point. But, at that moment, a light breeze came in from the sea too scant to fill our sails; so that we were obliged to drop the anchor again, for fear of falling upon the point, and to carry out a kedge to windward. That being done, we hove up the anchor, warped up to, and weighed the kedge, and proceeding round the point under our stay-sails, there anchored with the best bower, in twenty fathoms; and moored with the other bower, which lay to the north, in thirteen fathoms. In this position we were shut in from the sea by the point above mentioned, which was in one with the extremity of the inlet to the east. Some islets, off the next point above us, covered us from the N. W., from which quarter the wind had the greatest fetch; and our distance from the shore was about one-third of a mile.
Thus situated, we went to work, to clear a place to fill water, to cut wood, and to set up a tent for the reception of a guard, which was thought necessary; as we had already discovered, that, barren as this country is, it was not without people, though we had not yet seen any. Mr. Wales also got his observatory and instruments on shore; but it was with the greatest difficulty he could find a place of sufficient stability, and clear of the mountains, which every where surrounded us, to set them up in; and at last he was obliged to content himself with the top of a rock, not more than nine feet over.
Next day I sent lieutenants Clerke and Pickersgill, accompanied by some of the other officers, to examine and draw a sketch of the channel on the other side of the island; and I went myself in another boat, accompanied by the botanists, to survey the northern parts of the sound. In my way, I landed on the point of a low isle covered with herbage, part of which had been lately burnt; we likewise saw a hut; signs sufficient that people were in the neighbourhood. After I had taken the necessary bearings, we proceeded round the east end of Burnt Island, and over to what we judged to be the main of Terra del Fuego, where we found a very fine harbour encompassed by steep rocks of vast height, down which ran many limpid streams of water; and at the foot of the rocks, some tufts of trees, fit for little else but fuel.
This harbour, which I shall distinguish by the name of the Devil’s Bason, is divided, as it were, into two, an inner and an outer one; and the communication between them is by a narrow channel five fathoms deep. In the outer bason, I found thirteen and seventeen fathoms water, and in the inner, seventeen and twenty-three. This last is as secure a place as can be, but nothing can be more gloomy. The vast height of the savage rocks which encompass it, deprived great part of it, even on this day, of the meridian sun. The outer harbour is not quite free from this inconvenience, but far more so than the other; it is also rather more commodious, and equally safe. It lies in the direction of north, a mile and an half distant from the east end of Burnt Island. I likewise found a good anchoring-place a little to the west of this harbour, before a stream of water that comes out of a lake or large reservoir, which is continually supplied by a cascade falling into it.