HIS THREE CRUISES 23 



then doubled Cape Horn, and arrived at Valparaiso the 

 last of October. The Falmouth remained on this station 

 for about a year, and Maury renewed his former ac- 

 quaintances and enjoyed the hospitality of Chilean 

 society at dances and dinners without number. The 

 vessel then cruised further north along the coast, visiting 

 various ports and remaining several months at Callao. 



One of Maury's shipmates on this cruise has left some 

 reminiscences which throw considerable light upon his 

 young friend's qualities as an officer. *T encountered 

 some ridicule", wrote Captain Whiting, "from my mess- 

 mates for predicting that Maury would be a dis- 

 tinguished man. I asserted that there was that in him 

 which could not be kept down. . . . In a survey of 

 San Lorenzo Island while attached to the Falmouth I 

 was an assistant to Maury, and he displayed that per- 

 severance and energy undismayed by difficulty when he 

 had once determined upon accomplishing a result, which 

 ever marked his career. In prosecuting the survey of the 

 Boca del Diables he scaled rocks and crept around the 

 corners of cliffs when I was almost afraid to follow him, 

 but the attainment of his object seemed to be with him 

 the only subject of his thoughts. He landed on the 

 Labos Rocks to the westward of San Lorenzo to make 

 some astronomical and trigonometrical observations 

 while I remained in the boat. When he landed it was 

 almost a dead calm, and the sea comparatively smooth; 

 but by the time he had finished his observations a fresh 

 wind had sprung up from the southwards, the tide had 

 risen, and the sea was raging so as to forbid the near ap- 

 proach of the boat, one minute receding from the rock so 

 as to leave a yawning gulf of twenty or thirty feet depth, 

 then rushing up again with appalling and irresistible 



