68 BEAGLE’S PROCEEDINGS. Jan. 1827. 
minster Hall, and the Islands of Direction, at the western 
entrance of the Strait. 
For the first night Captain Stokes anchored, in San Nicolas 
Bay, and in the evening examined a harbour* behind Nassau 
Island, which Bougainville, in the year 1765, visited for the 
purpose of procuring wood for the French settlement at the 
Falkland Islands. 
On the second night, after a day nearly calm, the Beagle 
was anchored in a cove to the eastward of Cape Froward, and 
the next day (17th) passed round the Cape, carrying a heavy 
press of sail against a dead foul wind. Captain Stokes’s account 
of this day’s beat to windward will give the reader an idea of 
the sort of navigation. 
‘“‘ Our little bay had screened us so completely from the 
wind, that though, when (at five a.m.) we weighed, the breeze 
was so light as scarcely to enable us, with all sail set, to clear 
its entrance; no sooner were we outside, than we were obliged 
to treble reef the topsails. We continued to beat to wind- 
ward under a heavy press of sail; our object being to double 
Cape Froward, and secure, if possible, an anchorage ere night- 
fall under Cape Holland, six leagues further to the westward. 
At first we made ‘ boards’ right across the Straits to within a 
third of a mile of each shore, gaining, however, but little. 
We then tried whether, by confining our tacks to either coast, 
we could discover a tide by which we might profit; and for 
that purpose I began with the north shore, for though we were 
there more exposed to violent squalls which came down the 
valleys, I thought it advisable to avoid the indraught of 
various channels intersecting the Fuegian coast; but having 
made several boards without any perceptible advantage, we 
tried the south shore, with such success that I was induced to 
keep on that side during the remainder of the day. 
*¢ And here let me remark, that in consequence of the 
westerly winds which blow through the western parts of the 
Straits of Magalhaens, with almost the constancy (as regards 
* Bougainville Harbour, better known to Sealers by the name of ‘ Jack’s 
Harbour.’ 
