THE ANTARCTIC SEAL FISHERIES. 463 



No Spaniards were there, and the fur-seals were very tempting. We held a council of war and determined to 

 take them. The anchorage was bad and some distance from the island, it being also rather an open roadstead, but 

 having started on a voyage of hazard it would not do to be checked by trifles. We therefore ran into a bay, about 4 

 leagues from the island, and anchored in latitude 47 43', moored the ship, struck yards and topmasts, and got our guns 

 on deck and loaded them for the first time ; sent a boat up in the night to reconnoiter the garrison, and found there 

 was no vessel of war there, after which we commenced sealing on a point of the harbor where we lay. Soon after four 

 men were seen on shore abreast of the ship. I landed with the boat, as it would not do for the captain of the ship to 

 show himself. They proved to be the commandant of the garrison with three armed soldiers, who with much import- 

 ance demanded what wo were doing there. I plead ignorance of the country, having come in by accident in distress. 

 He gave us ten days to repair and depart. He told me of the sloop having been there, naming the two captains that 

 were in her, and that he had treated them in a very friendly manner, accompanied with many other falsehoods on the 

 subject : also that Captain Farmer from New York had touched there a few days before. I endeavored to persuade 

 him to allow us to continue sealing with part of the crow while the remainder were getting the ship in order. He 

 said it was not in his power to allow it, his instructions from his King would not permit it. I then told him that I 

 would make him some compensation, after which he said no more about his instructions, but that he would go up to 

 the garrison and consult with his commissary, who was the head man of the sealing party that had been taking 

 them on the island. The next day he sent us a pilot, with an invitation to come up with the ship to the garrison, 

 which we declined, but sent him some stores with an invitation to make us a visit on board. A couple of days after- 

 wards he made his appearance in a launch, and we were prepared to receive him ; the captain and such men as had 

 been here before in the sloop secreting themselves between decks. We now had the commandant and commissary 

 both on board. After considerable negotiations they agreed that we might take all the seal we would for two 

 months, for which indulgence we agreed to give them our shallop. As soon as the contract was signed (I having 

 occasionally had my secret conferences with the captain between decks), the captain of the ship made his appearance 

 in the cabin, and made his entree in the most perfect good nature, that somewhat allayed the feelings of the com- 

 mandant, but he was very much astonished and frightened. We, however, soon made him more at his ease, although 

 the lies he had told me must have been fresh on his mind ; but we never reminded him of that. The com- 

 missary, who had opposed our men's being made prisoners, and who was friendly when they were so, was much 

 pleased with our finesse. We could have but little objeption to giving them our shallop, as she would he no longer 

 useful to us, and it was important for us to go into the river with the ship, where we should have a good harbor. 



Having obtained permission we ran the ship np and moored her alongside the fort, and as we had a crew of forty 

 men, which was more than they could muster, we had nothing to fear from them, and had now a written contract 

 which the commandant would not like to have known to his Government. Towards evening, having unbent our sails 

 and got all snug, the sailors were allowed to go on shore. There were about thirty Patagonian Indians, each of 

 whom had a horse to let for a biscuit apiece. Our men soon verified the old adage " set a sailor on horseback and he 

 will ride to the devil." Up hill and down the speed was the same a full gallop. The horses were luckily good and 

 very sure footed, yet two or three men got thrown. One horse fell, but the sailor was soon on and started again, 

 saying it was only a lee lurch. None got hurt. The Indians appeared to enjoy it as much as the sailors. As they 

 have plenty of horses, they do not value them much. A few biscuits would have purchased any of them. 



Mr. Townsend next records the visits of the Spaniards to the vessel and describes the 

 appearance of the Patagonians. 



They are a wandering people and live by hunting, moving with ease as they take their houses with them. 

 These houses are made of light poles with guanaco skins for covering. The guanaco is a kind of deer, more fleet 

 than their horses. They endeavor to surround them and when sufficiently near to entangle them by very dexter- 

 ously heaving a line, with a stone at each end, round their legs. The line is about 4 feet long. One of the stones 

 is held in the hand, giving the other stone a very quick velocity round their head while the horse is at full speed. 

 It is from this animal that they get ' Bazaar Stone,' once so highly valued for its medicinal properties, but at present 

 thought little of. We got a number of them about the size of a duck's egg. They are formed in concentric coat, 

 and their color is dark green. The Indians kept us well supplied with wild meat, such as gnanaco, hares and 

 ostrich, tiger, and wi'd cat, and we bought from them blankets made from the guanaco skins sewed together, such 

 as they nso for clothing. They are covered with wool, or something between wool and fur. We caught plenty of 

 fish. There are also mussel beds, as at the Falkland Islands, but no other shell-fish, although the Spaniards say 

 that there were formerly plenty of oysters. 



The garrison is a stockade about 9 feet high, inside of which are the barracks and a block house of two stories 

 about 30 feet square, also a chnrch and a bake-house. They mount seven six-pounders and four swivels, and had about 

 thirty men at that time, some having recently left them and gone home to the river La Plata. At the principal en- 

 trance gate they had a poorly carved female figure-head of some ship that had been cast away. They called it the 

 Virgin Mary and never passed it without a bow and crossing themselves. 



The commandant had a tolerable garden, in. a valley, the only spot which I saw where the vegetation was not 

 very much parched. The hills which surrounded it protected it very much from the sun, and it was watered from a 

 well about 30 feet deep. It required great attention, but they had little else to do. It seldom rains here in the sum- 

 mer ; did not rain a drop during our visit, but there is some dew. The whole country appeared as if suffering under 

 a severe drought. There are no woods, and it is surprising how their horses are kept in such good order. It is only 

 in the valleys they can get anything. Even water is difficult to be had, and what there is is brackish. I rode several 



