At last, on 8th May, the European mail came in, but failed to bring the letters we expected, giving us instead only news
of several months back, our bag having been sent to Lima instead of Valparaiso. However, the news received direct from Europe left no doubt that a war was imminent between France and Austria, and this circumstance at once determined our commander, like a true patriot, to return immediately home, so as to make his own services as well as those of his subordinates available in protecting our native land from the dangers impending over it. The original plan of sailing to Lima, and thence, after visiting the Galipagos, to Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, was under the prevailing circumstances totally abandoned. In a few days more the vessel was to sail for Gibraltar direct round Cape Horn.
As this decision involved a sea-voyage of some 10,000 miles, which must naturally be almost barren of ethnographic or statistical interest, and as the arrival of the Novara at Gibraltar could scarcely be expected under from 80 to 90 days, the author of this narrative requested permission of the commander of the Expedition to devote the time required for the frigate to make her voyage, in prosecuting a journey overland to Lima and Panama, with the intention of catching at Aspinwall the next British royal mail steamer to Europe, and thus again fall in with the Novara at Gibraltar about the beginning of August. The paramount motive for this proposal was the wish expressed to dedicate all this time to visit Lima, Panama, and the intermediate ports, and thus to forward to the utmost the objects of the Imperial Expedition, even when it was in fact
homeward bound. It was also his intention to institute certain inquiries while residing in the capital of Peru, respecting the actual condition of those Tyrolese families, who, misled by alluring prospects of all sorts, had resolved on emigrating to Peru in 1851, and had since then sunk into a most wretched state, according to indirect accounts received of their unhappy case. Commodore Wüllerstorf, always ready to assist, whenever it is in his power, in promoting and advancing scientific aims, at once acceded to this request, conceiving that it was a deviation quite within the scope of his instructions for the Expedition, and compatible with the objects aimed at by its illustrious projector.
Before the departure of the Novara, the Austrian Consul-General gave a splendid entertainment. This had been repeatedly postponed, as, under existing circumstances, it was not certain whether Chilean society could well be present. The intelligence, however, which a few days previous had been received from the Northern provinces as to the attitude of Government, the suppression of the insurrection, and the flight of the leaders, had produced a vehement reaction in the public mind, and, at least among governmental circles, had given hope of a happy solution.
Accordingly the ball came off, and very gay it was. The spacious and elegant residence of M. Flemmich (the head of the distinguished English firm of Huth, Grüning, & Co.) was richly adorned with flowers in every apartment, and the whole brilliantly lit up, while a bevy of graceful ladies swept
through the salons, whose natural charms were enhanced by their agreeable geniality, not less than by an elegance of toilette such as Parisian salons themselves could not have surpassed.
A few days before the Novara sailed, a merchantman dropped anchor in the roads, which on her voyage from Melbourne to Europe had, while running 11 miles an hour, come into collision with an iceberg in 60° S. and 149° E., by which she had lost bowsprit, foremast, and all her topmasts, besides carrying away her cutwater and figurehead, and damaging the hull, and, sad to relate, sacrificing the lives of sixteen persons! The spectacle presented by this mere ruin of a ship, as she ran in half dismasted under jury-rig, created profound emotion even among the seafaring portion of the community, which was still further deepened, when the full particulars of their sufferings were detailed by the passengers. The captain, fully expecting that a ship so seriously damaged must go to the bottom, formed the unworthy resolution of escaping in a boat with fifteen of the men. The whole perished, it is supposed, as nothing was ever heard of them, while the vessel, which owed her truly marvellous preservation to the fact that, having struck stem on, she had sprung no leak, though so terribly injured, was enabled to pursue her voyage to Valparaiso, where she arrived, the wind proving favourable, after a passage of 55 days.
On the 11th May all was ready for the departure of the Novara, and the officer on duty only waited a favourable
breeze to weigh anchor and set sail. Unfortunately, however, none such sprung up, and when towards 7 A.M. a gentle breeze at last rippled the water, it did not last long enough to enable the vessel to clear the roads. The captain of H.M.S. Ganges (80), who, as also Admiral Baines, the venerable Commander-in-chief of the British naval forces on the Pacific station, had already in a variety of ways cordially coöperated with and aided the Austrian Expedition, sent some of his boats to tow the frigate out of the roads, in which the French corvette Constantine, which had arrived the day before, politely assisted. Thus towed along by no less than 14 boats, the Novara succeeded in getting into the open ocean. Favoured with a gentle breeze from the northward, she was soon able to lie her course, and towards evening, when a rather fresh S.W. sprang up, she was rapidly leaving the hospitable shores of Chile.