183-1.] BOAT-WRECKED SAILORS. 283 



who had made his bed on this wild spot, must have been some 

 poor shipwrecked sailor, who, in trying- to travel up the coast> 

 had here laid himself down for his dreary night. 



December 28th. — The weather continued very bad, but it at 

 last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time hung 

 heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were delayed from 

 day to day by successive gales of wind. In the evening another 

 harbour was discovered, where we anchored. Directly after- 

 wards a man Mas seen waving his shirt, and a boat was sent 

 which brought back two seamen. A party of six had run away 

 from an American whaling vessel, and had landed a little to the 

 southward in a boat, which was shortly afterwards knocked to 

 pieces by the surf. They had now been wandering up and down 

 the coast for fifteen months, without knowing which way to go, 

 or where they were. What a singular piece of good fortune it 

 was that this harbour was now discovered ! Had it not been for 

 this one chance, they might have wandered till they had grown 

 old men, and at last have perished on this wild coast. Their suf- 

 ferings had been very great, and one of their party had lost his 

 life by falling from the cliffs. They were sometimes obliged to 

 separate in search of food, and this explained the bed of the soli- 

 tary man. Considering what they had undergone, I think they 

 had kept a very good reckoning of time, for they had lost only 

 four days. 



December 30th. — We anchored in a snug little cove at the 

 foot of some high hills, near the northern extremity of Tres 

 Montes. After breakfast the next morning, a party ascende I 

 one of these mountains, which was 2400 feet high. The scenery 

 was remarkable. The chief part of the range was composed oi 

 grand, solid, abrupt masses of granite, which appeared as if they 

 had been coeval with the beginning of the world. The granite 

 was capped with mica-slate, and this in the lapse of ages had been 

 worn into strange finger-shaped points. These two formations, 

 thus differing in their outlines, agree in being almost destitute oi 

 vegetation. This barrenness had to our eyes a strange appear- 

 ance, from having been so long accustomed to the sight of an 

 almost universal forest of dark -green trees. I took much delight 

 in examining the structure of these mountains. The compli- 

 cated and lofty ranges bore a noble aspect of durability — equally 



