PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 329 



ports of Valparaiso and of Callao, where the dews 

 alone irrigate the ground, it seems to partake of the 

 advantages of the climates of each, without the incon- 

 veniences of the rainy season of the one, or of the 

 heat and enervating qualities of the other. 



On the 3d June all the specie was embarked, and 

 we put to sea on our way to Brazil ; passed the meri- 

 dian of Cape Horn on the 30th, in very thick snow- 

 showers, and after much bad weather arrived at Rio 

 Janeiro on the 21st July. Here we received on board 

 the Right Plon. Robert Gordon, ambassador to the 

 court of Brazil, and after a passage of forty-nine days 

 arrived at Spithead, and on the I2th October paid the 

 ship off at Woolwich. 



In this voyage, which occupied three years and a 

 half, we sailed seventy-three thousand miles, and ex- 

 perienced every vicissitude of climate. It cannot 

 be supposed that a service of such duration, and of 

 such an arduous nature, has been performed without 

 the loss of lives, particularly as our ship's company 

 was, from the commencement, far from robust ; and I 

 have to lament the loss of eight by sickness, of four 

 by shipwreck, of one missing, of one drowned in a 

 lake, and of one by falling overboard in a gale of wind; 

 in all fifteen persons. To individuals nothing pro- 

 bably can compensate for the selosses ; but to the 

 community, considering the uncertainty of life under 

 the most ordinary circumstances, the mortality which 

 has attended the present undertaking will, I hope, 

 be considered compensated by the services which have 

 been performed by the expedition. 



In closing this narrative I feel it my duty to the 



VOL. II. z 



