464 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



tion at the time of the wreck, was, I believe, a missionary 

 from Chiloe. 



After receiving our living freight, we parted company 

 with the schooner and provision-brig, the former of which 

 proceeded westward, while the latter followed us to the east 

 with the intention of going round the Horn. Leaving Borja 

 Bay, we went on under steam all night, and arrived at Sandy 

 Point between five and six a.m. on the morning of the 27th. 

 Three hours later we got under way, and proceeding east- 

 wards under sail and steam, cleared the eastern entrance of 

 the Strait late in the evening. 



I need not enlarge on the details of our daily life during the 

 voyage northward, which was made entirely under steam, as we 

 had light head-winds nearly all the way, though fortunately 

 steadily fine weather, a rare occurrence between the Plate and 

 Strait. I will leave to the imagination of the reader the 

 amount of dirt, and heat, and squalor, produced by so many 

 human beings so closely cooped up, with breakfast going on 

 all the early part of the day, and an uninterrupted stream of 

 dinner proceeding throughout the afternoon. It was fortu- 

 nate that we had fiUed up with provisions before this unex- 

 pected accession to our numbers took place, else we would 

 have been badly off for food. We entered the mouth of the 

 Plate on the morning of the 4th of February, but made very 

 slow progress for some hours, as a strong tide was running 

 against us. In the evening of the preceding day a sad 

 event had taken place — a man who had been dismissed from 

 the English hospital at Valparaiso on account of incurable 

 heart-disease, having died suddenly, and this morning he 

 was buried at the mouth of the river. The early part of the 

 night was characterised by a marvellous display of sheet- 

 lightning, and early next morning we reached Monte Video, 



