326 CAPTAIN CHEAP AND HIS PARTY. 17Al. 
were absent, some Indians had visited the wreck; and, about a 
fortnight after their return, they arrived a second time, in two 
canoes. Among them was an Indian Cacique of the Chonos 
tribe, who live in the neighbourhood of Childe. It was supposed 
that a report of the wreck had reached that place; and that 
this Cacique, and another Indian, had come to derive some 
advantage from it. As the Cacique spoke Spanish, the surgeon, 
Mr. Elliot, made himself so far understood, as to let him know 
that they wished to reach some of the Spanish settlements ; and 
eventually bargained to give him the barge, and every thing in 
it, if he would conduct them to Childe. The party consisted of 
Captain Cheap; Mr. Elliot, the surgeon ; Mr. Campbell, Mr. 
Hamilton, and Mr. Byron, midshipmen ; and eight men, be- 
sides the two Indians; in all fifteen. The first night they 
slept on an island, and the next laid upon their oars, to the 
westward of Montrose Island, not being able to land. 
They then pulled, “to the bottom of a great bay, where the 
Indian guide had left his family, a wife and two children.” 
There they staid two or three days; after which, taking on 
board the family, they proceeded to a river, ‘ the stream of 
which,” Byron says, “‘ was so rapid, that after our utmost 
efforts, from morning to evening, we gained little upon the 
current ; and, at last, were obliged to desist from our attempts, 
and return.” 
This was probably a river, or channel, to the westward of San 
Quintin Sound, which eluded our search; and, if so, it must 
communicate with channels north-eastward of the Peninsula 
of Tres Montes. The Indians, anxious to get the barge to the 
Chonos, had no other way to effect their purpose ; for the usual 
route was over the ‘ Desecho ;? to pass which, it was necessary 
to take a boat or canoe to pieces, and carry her, piecemeal, 
over a high mountain. 
After losing the barge, they crossed the Peninsula of Fore- 
lius, by hauling canoes over a narrow neck of land, and reached 
the water of San Quintin Sound; where they met another 
native family, with whom they proceeded to the River San 
Tadeo, “up which they rowed four or five leagues ; and then 
