302 JUAN FERNANDEZ. Jan. Feb. 1830. 
received, by offering him and all his family a passage in 
the Adventure, which he accepted ; and on the 17th we left 
Childe. In our way we touched at Concepcion, and anchored 
at Valparaiso on the 2d of January. 
We remained there until the 11th of February, and then 
sailed on our return to Rio de Janeiro, with the intention of 
passing though the Strait of Magalhaens, and taking that 
opportunity of completing some few parts, which our former 
surveys had left unfinished. As the breeze, which, on this 
coast, blows with the constancy of a trade wind, would carry 
us close to the island of Juan Fernandez, I determined upon 
visiting it, for a few days; and then proceeding again to Con- 
cepcion. 
We reached Cumberland Bay, on the north side of Juan 
Fernandez, on the 16th, and anchored, within two cables lengths 
of the beach, in ten fathoms. 
I have seldom seen a more remarkable and picturesque view, 
than is presented by the approach to Juan Fernandez. When 
seen from a distance, the mountain of the ‘ Yungue’ (Anvil), 
so called from its resemblance to a blacksmith’s anvil, appears 
conspicuously placed in the midst of a range of precipitous 
mountains, and is alone an object of interest. It rises three 
thousand feet above a shore, which is formed by an abrupt 
wall of dark-coloured bare rock, eight or nine hundred feet in 
height, through whose wild ravines, broken by the mountain 
torrents, views are caught of verdant glades, surrounded by 
luxuriant woodland. 
The higher parts of the island are in general thickly-wooded ; 
but in some places there are grassy plains of considerable extent, 
whose lively colour contrasts agreeably with the dark foliage 
of myrtle-trees, which abound on the island. 
The Yungue is wooded, nearly from the summit to its base ; 
whence an extensive and fertile valley extends to the shore, and 
is watered by two streams, which take their rise in the heights, 
and. fall into the sea. 
This valley appears to have been formerly cleared and culti- 
vated by the Spaniards, who had a colony here ; for the stone 
