CHAPTER VII. 
Leave Rio de Janeiro—Santos—St, Catherine’s—Monte Video—Pur- 
chase the Adelaide schooner, for a Tender to the Adventure—Leave 
Monte Video—Beagle goes to Port Desire—Shoals off Cape Blanco 
—Bellaco Rock—Cape Virgins—Possession Bay—First Narrow— 
Race—Gregory Bay—View—Tomb—Traffic with Natives—Cordial 
meeting—Maria goes on board—Natives intoxicated—Laredo Bay— 
Port Famine. 
We were ready to resume our voyage early in September 
(1827) ; but not having received any communication by the 
packet, from the Admiralty, relative to the purchase of a 
tender, I determined to await the arrival of the next, early in 
October. I was again disappointed, and very reluctantly left 
Rio de Janeiro, on the 16th, for Monte Video; but that I 
might still benefit by the orders which were sure to be in the 
following packet, I determined upon calling at Santos, and 
St. Catherine’s, for chronometrical observations; leaving the 
Beagle to wait for letters conveying the decision of his Royal 
Highness the Lord High Admiral. 
We reached Santos on the 18th, and staid there until the 
28th. In this interval I paid a short visit to St. Paul’s, for the 
purpose of making barometrical observations.* At St. Cathe- 
* On our passage from Santos to St. Catherine’s, in latitude 28° south, 
we caught a ‘dolphin’ (Coryphena), the maw of which I found filled 
with shells, of Argonauta tuberculosa, and all containing the ‘ Octopus 
Ocythée’ that has been always found as its inhabitant. Most of the 
specimens were crushed by the narrow passage into the stomach, but the 
smaller ones were quite perfect, and had been so recently swallowed that 
I was enabled to preserve several of various sizes containing the animal. 
To some of them was attached a nidus of eggs, which was deposited be- 
tween the animal and the spire. The shells varied in size from two-thirds 
of an inch to two and a half inches in length ; each contained an octopus, 
the bulk and shape of which was so completely adapted to that of the 
shell, 
