THE 



National Geographic Magazine 



Vol. VIII MAY, 1897 N,,. 5 



A WINTER VOYAGE THROUGH THE STRAITS OF 

 MAGELLAN* 



By the late Admiral R. \V. Meade, U. S. X. 



Some twenty-six years ago I received peremptory orders to 

 assume command of the Narrm/dnsett and sail fortliwith to the 

 Pacific station. We left Sand}^ Hook on the iirst blast of a 

 nor'wester which followed on the heels of a March equinoctial, 

 being the first steamer of the navy to leave the port of New York 

 with stunsails set alow and aloft and no steam up. Whether it 

 was this trilnite to Boreas that brought us good fortune I do not 

 know, but we made a famous run to the Line, where, Neptune 

 having come on board and dul}' shaved and ducked several score 

 greenhorns, our luck for the time deserted us, and for the next 

 two or three weeks the ship fanned along with light airs and 

 tedious calms, until the fortieth day out saw us safely in the 

 beautiful harbor of Rio de Janeiro, tinkering away at a wretched 

 old pair of engines which had broken down when we tried to use 

 them to steam into harbor. 



Resuming our cruise, we were favored l)y a sea as smooth as 

 glass and Avith the most charming weather imaginable. But 

 there is a cry of " Land ho ! " from aloft, and what we see proves 

 to be Mount Wood, a solitary peak of moderate elevation on the 

 coast of Patagonia, and in the vicinity of the very Port San Ju- 

 lian where >Ligellan wintered his ships, about 2(11) miles north 

 of the straits. As we ap[)roach the laud it seems a pleasanter- 

 looking coast than many I have seen ; and though, no doubt, we 



♦Abstract of a leoture delivered before the Nationnl Geograpbic Society, December 

 4, 1890. 



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