CAPE HORN 



Mediterranean and the Atlantic had never encountered 

 such dangers as those described, in the following narra- 

 tive, just after the excitements were over. 



TO ROBERT BAKEWELL 



The Perils of Cape Horn 



" OFF TIERRA DEL FUEGO, March 24, 1839. 



" We left Nassau Bay on the 2/th ult., expecting in 

 the course of two or three days to be within the Straits, 

 scarcely two hundred miles to the westward. Nineteen 

 days elapsed, and we had run more than fifteen hundred 

 miles ; yet were no nearer the passage than on the day we 

 started. We had experienced a succession of violent 

 gales, rendering it hazardous to approach within sight of 

 the coast. In one attempt to reach the entrance of the 

 channel, we just made the land, when a gale set in which 

 compelled us to leave it again with all possible haste. 

 On Saturday evening, the I5th inst., we put about again 

 for the straits, having reached longitude 77 30' W., and 

 thus made westing enough to run in with the prevalent 

 westerly breezes. On Monday morning the wind con- 

 tinued fair, and we promised ourselves, before the close 

 of another day, fine sport among the guanacos, birds, 

 and fish of the Straits, and an agreeable change in our 

 bill of fare, long since reduced to the ship's allowance of 

 salt beef and pork. As the morning advanced the wind 

 freshened; and towards noon it increased to a gale far 

 exceeding anything before experienced. The winds 

 howled through the rigging with almost deafening vio- 

 lence, and the waves were already lashed into foam by the 

 raging tempest. The cold wintry blasts were accom- 

 panied with a driving sleet or hail, and the gloominess of 

 the scene was still further enhanced by a dense haze which 

 confined our prospect to the mountain waves immediately 

 about us. We dashed on, plunging through the waves 

 or staggering over them, and occasionally enveloped by 

 their foaming tops, with no change except such as pro- 

 ceeded from the increasing intensity of the gale, till 3 

 P.M., when we were alarmed by the cry of ' Breakers 

 under the bows! ' A short distance ahead stood majes- 



99 



