Incidents at Safidy Point. 37 



Chilians as an article of food, has naturally become distrustful 

 of the ways of man, and is difficult to approach. On returning 

 to the settlement, we found some excitement prevailing, for two 

 of the inhabitants had just been drowned by the capsizing of 

 a boat near the landing-place. With southerly winds, heavy 

 rollers break along the beach ; and as there is no protection in 

 the shape of a breakwater (for boats), communication with the 

 shore is dangerous while these winds continue. It appeared 

 that a party of five were returning from a hulk in the roadstead, 

 where an auction was being held, and on nearing the shore 

 the boat got broadside on to the rollers, and capsized. Two 

 were drowned. The other three narrowly escaped a similar fate, 

 and owed their preservation to the gallant conduct of two of 

 our bluejackets, who, happening to be on shore near the scene 

 of the disaster, plunged boldly in at the risk of their lives, and 

 brought the survivors to land. 



On the following day two of us rode along the shore to the 

 southward of the town for a distance of about six miles, when 

 we struck into the woods, following a cart track which led us to 

 a sawmill in the heart of the forest, belonging to Mr. Dunsmuir, 

 the British Vice-consul. Here we shot a small owl, speci- 

 mens of the Magellan thrush, and a diminutive bird of a general 

 black colour, with a rusty-red collar, the Centrites niger. The 

 beach was in places covered with dense clusters of mussels, and 

 strewn with the dead shells of Volutes, Areas, and Patellas, the 

 tests of crabs, and the calcareous remains of a small Cidaris. 

 We were greatly struck with the sagacity of our little horses — 

 requiring little or no management, going for the most part at 

 an easy canter, and climbing over logs, trunks of fallen trees, and 

 banks, with the agility of goats. On our dismounting, and leaving 

 the bridles trailing on the ground, they remained quite patiently, 

 without showing the least inclination to make off, although we 

 several times discharged our guns close to their heads. 



We left Sandy Point on the afternoon of the 4th, and pro- 



