Oct. 1832. ABSURD ALARMS. 113 



our officers, instruments and guns — to which an answer had 

 been immediately returned, desiring the commandant to afford 

 us every facility in his power, and checking the old major 

 rather sharply for his officious and unnecessary caution. Had 

 we not been hastily treated in the roads of Buenos Ayres, 

 when I went there to communicate with the Government, and 

 obtain information, I should doubtless have carried with me 

 orders, or a letter, to this commandant, which would have 

 prevented a moment's suspicion : but, as it happened, no real 

 delay was occasioned, and no person was much disturbed 

 except the major, who fancied that our brass guns were dis- 

 guised field-pieces, our instruments lately invented engines of 

 extraordinary power, our numerous boats intended expressly 

 for disembarking troops ; and an assertion of mine, that any 

 number of line-of-battle ships might enter the port, a sure 

 indication that the Beagle was sent to find a passage for large 

 ships : which would soon appear, and take possession of the 

 country. Such was the substance of his communication to the 

 Government at Buenos Ayres, and as he acted as secretary — 

 (Rodriguez being a man of action rather than words) — he had 

 free scope for his disturbed imagination. I shall not easily 

 forget his countenance, when I first told him — thinking he 

 would be glad to hear it — that there was a deep channel leading 

 from Blanco Bay to the Guardia near Argentina, and that a 

 hne-of-battle ship could approach within gunshot of the place 

 where I first met the commandant. He certainly thought 

 himself almost taken prisoner ; and I really believe that if he 

 had been commanding officer, we should have been sent 

 in chains to Buenos Ayres, or perhaps stiU worse treated. 

 Fortunately, Rodriguez the commandant, being a brave man, 

 and a gentleman, contemplated no such measures. 



VOL. II. 



