CHAPTER IX. 



Death of Governor Mayer ; Voyage to Tierra del Fuego ; Forests of Vil- 

 larino Bay ; Beagle Channel; Ushuaia ; Lapataia ; Wreck of the 

 ''Esmeralda " ; St. John s ; Giant Kelp ; Return to Buenos Aires ; Sail 

 for New York; Arrival at Princeton. 



BEFORE our arrival at Gallegos we had learned of the death of our 

 friend, Governor Mayer. His death was universally regarded as a 

 loss, not only to the Territory of Santa Cruz, but to the Argen- 

 tine Republic. On our arrival at Gallegos we received our first letters 

 from relatives and friends at home, whom we had left fourteen months 

 earlier. They brought news of the sad death, on the eighteenth of the 

 preceding November, of my youngest son, a little boy just entering 

 upon his fourth year, to whom both myself and his uncle, Mr. Peterson, 

 were naturally much attached by many tender remembrances. 



At Gallegos we learned that there was no steamer south of us, but that 

 one was expected at any time from the north. After a tedious delay of 

 some two weeks the "Villarino" arrived on her way south. Since there 

 would be no opportunity for us to go north until her return, we decided 

 to make the trip through the Straits of Magellan and around Tierra del 

 Fuego, rather than to await in Gallegos her return from the south. We 

 left Gallegos on the twentieth of May and at about noon of the following 

 day anchored in the harbor at Sandy Point, where we remained until 

 the morning of the twenty-second, when the vessel again resumed her 

 journey through the Straits. At about ten o'clock on the following morn- 

 ing the weather forced us to come to anchor in a land-locked harbor, 

 known as Villarino Bay on the coast of a small island a little to the 

 southwest of Tierra del Fuego. We were forced to remain here for a 

 couple of days, until the weather improved sufficiently to make it pos- 

 sible to navigate the narrow and difficult channels through which we 

 were to pass, and which extend almost continuously along the south 

 coast of the island. 



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