CHARLES WILKES. 333 



their provisions and various other necessary stores ; 

 but, this duty being completed, Captain Wilkes 

 employed the opportunity to examine the city and 

 a portion of the interior. 



On the 6th of January, 1839, the squadron weighed 

 anchor in the port of Rio de Janeiro and sailed 

 southward. On the 18th of the month they passed 

 through the discolored water which flows into the 

 ocean from the Rio la Platte, seventy-eight miles 

 distant from its mouth. On the 25th they neared 

 the coast of Buenos Ayres, and passing on, reached 

 Terra del Fuego on the 13th of February. This 

 strange and barbarous land, inhabited by the most 

 abject and miserable of human beings, was never- 

 theless so situated as to be of great importance to 

 the purposes of the expedition. The squadron was 

 therefore here divided, and a portion sent to explore 

 westward as far as the ne plus ultra of Captain Cook. 

 Another portion was despatched southward to exa- 

 mine the southeast side of Palmer's Island. A third 

 portion was detailed to the Straits of Magellan. 

 The Yincennes, the flag-ship of the commander, re- 

 mained on the coast of Terra del Fuego. Captain 

 "Wilkes thus describes the inhabitants: "They are 

 not more than five feet high, of a light coffee-color, 

 which is much concealed by smut and dirt, particu- 

 larly on their faces, which they mark vertically with 



