270 CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO. [CHAP. xnr. 



reaching the summit of this hill. It was a laborious undertaking, 

 for the sides were so steep that in some parts it was necessary to 

 use the trees as ladders. There were also several extensive brakes 

 of the Fuchsia, covered with its beautiful drooping flowers, but 

 very difficult to crawl through. In these wild countries it gives 

 much delight to gain the summit of any mountain. There is an 

 indefinite expectation of seeing something very strange, which, 

 however often it may be balked, never failed with me to recur oil 

 each successive attempt. Every one must know the feeling of 

 triumph and pride which a grand view from a height communicates 

 to the mind. In these little frequented countries there is also joined 

 to it some vanity, that you perhaps are the first man who ever stood 

 on this pinnacle or admired this view. 



A strong desire is always felt to ascertain whether any human 

 being has previously visited an unfrequented spot. A bit of wood 

 with a nail in it, is picked up and studied as if it were covered 

 with hieroglyphics. Possessed with this feeling, I was much 

 interested by finding, on a wild part of the coast, a bed made of 

 grass beneath a ledge of rock. Close by it there had been a fire, 

 and the man had used an axe. The fire, bed, and situation showed 

 the dexterity of an Indian ; but he could scarcely have been an 

 Indian, for the race is in this part extinct, owing to the Catholic 

 desire of making at one blow Christians and Slaves. I had at the 

 time some misgivings that the solitary man 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 28tf/;. 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 afterwards a man 

 was 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 



