PREFACE. 
In this Work, the result of nine years’ voyaging, partly 
on coasts little known, an attempt has been made to combine 
giving general information with the paramount object—that of 
fulfilling a duty to the Admiralty, for the benefit of Seamen. 
Details, purely technical, have been avoided in the narrative 
more than I could have wished; but some are added in the 
Appendix to each volume: and in a nautical memoir, drawn 
up for the Admiralty, those which are here omitted will be 
found. 
There are a few words used frequently in the following 
pages, which may not at first sight be familiar to every reader, 
therefore I need hardly apologize for saying that, although 
the great Portuguese navigator’s name was Magalhaens—it is 
generally pronounced as if written Magellan:—that the 
natives of Tierra del Fuego are commonly called Fuegians ;— 
and that Childe is thus accented for reasons given in page 384 
of the second volume. 
In the absence of Captain King, who has entrusted to me 
the care of publishing his share of this work, I may have 
overlooked errors which he would have detected. Being 
hurried, and unwell, while attending to the printing of his 
volume, I was not able to do it justice. 
