between twenty-eight and thirty-three fathoms, sandy bottom. The weather was clear and fine, and we were enabled to make observations, and take the bearings and angles, necessary for laying down the coast satisfactorily.
"At noon we were in latitude 50° 12′ south, and in the meridian of Cape Tres Puntas, between which and a cape bearing from us N. 13° E. (magnetic), distant eight miles, there was evidently an inlet: this cape is marked on the chart as Cape William. The character of the land is the same with that which we had hitherto passed, bare, rugged, rocky mountains, with peaks, and sharply serrated ridges. From daylight to noon we had run twenty-one miles along the coast; in that interval only one inlet was seen, which was in the latitude of 50° 27′ south, agreeing well with the 'West Channel' of the Spanish chart. It was four miles wide at its mouth, and appeared to follow a winding course to the eastward. The land of Cape Tres Puntas curved in to the eastward, until it closed with Cape William; at dusk we were abreast of Cape William, and two leagues off shore, where we lay-to till daylight, as I wished to examine the inlet between it and Cape Tres Puntas, which subsequently proved to be Sarmiento's Gulf of Trinidad. The old navigator thus describes its discovery:
"'At daylight, 17th of March, 1579, in the name of the most holy Trinity, we saw land, bearing E.S.E., ten leagues distant, towards which we steered to explore it. At mid-day, being near the land, we observed the latitude 49½°, but Hernando Alonzo made it 49° 9′. In approaching the shore we saw a great bay and gulf, which trended deeply into the land towards some snowy mountains. To the south there was a high mountain, with three peaks, wherefore Pedro Sarmiento named the bay 'Golfo de la Sanctisima Trenidad.' The highest land of the three peaks was named 'Cabo de Tres Puntas ó montes.' This island is bare of vegetation, and at the water-side is low and rugged, and lined with breakers; on the summit are many white, grey, and black-coloured portions of ground, or rock. Six leagues to the north of Cape Tres Puntas is the opposite side of the gulf, where it forms a large high mountain, backed
to the north by low land, and fronted by many islands. This high mountain, which appears to be an island from the offing, was called 'Cabo Primero.''[[106]]
"The following night was clear, and the wind moderate from S.E., but in the course of next morning it shifted to N.E., with squalls, rain, and thick weather; we worked into the inlet notwithstanding, and by noon had reached three miles within its S.W. head-land, Cape William, and were abreast of a bay, into which I sent a boat to look for anchorage. On her return we stood into it, and anchored in the excellent harbour, afterwards named Port Henry, where we remained from the 2d to the 5th of April, employed in making a correct survey of the harbour and its adjacencies, and determining the latitude and longitude.[[107]]
"The inner harbour, distinguished in the plan by the name of 'Aid Basin,' is perfectly land-locked, and sufficiently spacious to contain a numerous squadron of the largest ships in twenty fathoms water, over a mud bottom, and as completely sheltered from the effects of wind and sea as in wet-docks. At the south-west side of the basin is a fresh-water lake, which discharges itself by a small stream, whence casks might be conveniently filled by means of canvas hoses, and the shores around have wood for fuel in abundance; but, from the lofty surrounding mountains, some rising almost perpendicularly to an elevation of two thousand feet, the thick clouds with which this basin was generally overhung, and the dense exhalations that arose from it during the rare intervals of sunshine, together with the exceeding prevalence of heavy rain on this coast, this place must be disagreeable and unhealthy. Such objections do not apply to the outer harbour, for while its shores afford shelter, they do not obstruct a free circulation of air. It is sufficiently large to afford convenient and secure anchorage for five or six frigates.
"We hauled the seine with very poor success, as a few smelt only were taken; we had no better luck with our fishing-lines;
but the trial might have been more profitable at another season, judging from the number of seals we saw on the rocks off the Port, which live principally upon fish. Muscles, limpets, and sea-eggs abound here, and are good and wholesome of their kind. Birds are few in number, and of the species most common in these regions. No quadruped of any kind was seen; but the purser told me that he had observed, near the sandy beach, traces of a four-footed animal, resembling those of a tiger: he followed them to a cavern, and thence to the jungle. He also said that he had seen several humming-birds.
"With the exception of wild celery and the arbutus berry, I know not of any useful vegetable production that this place affords, unless the 'Winter's-bark tree' may be mentioned. Some coarse grass, fit perhaps for animals, may be there procured. The only signs of inhabitants were some wigwams on the western point, which seemed to have been long forsaken: in their construction they were precisely similar to those erected by the migratory tribes in the Straits of Magalhaens: and the shells of muscles, limpets, and sea-eggs, within and about them, showed that the former tenants of these hovels drew, like the Magalhaenic tribes, a principal part of their subsistence from shell-fish.
"Around the harbour are granite mountains, perfectly bare at their summits and north-western sides, but the lower parts are thickly covered in sheltered places and ravines, partly with trees, and partly with brushwood: among the trees growing here we observed, as usual, two kinds of beech, a tree like the cypress, but of small size, and the Winter's-bark. The underwood is composed of all the various shrubs we had met with in the Straits of Magalhaens; and this brushwood is so thickly spread over the lower parts of the shores of the harbour, that it is only by crawling over it that the distance of a few yards from the rocks can be gained; and being generally of insufficient strength to support a man's weight, it frequently gives way beneath him, and he is so completely buried, as to make it difficult for him to extricate himself.