1 6 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



no future and no hope. You can only look back miserably and 

 long for lost companionship and 



AH dear scenes to which the soul 

 Turns, as the lodestone seeks the pole. 



It is a time when romance fades out, and nothing is left save the 

 grey fact of recent partings and the misery of unaccustomed 

 quarters. 



First night out — when one renews acquaintance with the 

 thin cold sheets and those extraordinary coverlets whose 

 single habitat in the world appears to be upon the bunks of 

 steamers. Our fellow passengers also seemed very much under 

 the same influence of greyness. They had packed themselves 

 round the saloon-table, and were keeping the stewards busy with 

 orders. 



There were not only a good many people, but peoples, on 

 board ; all nations in ragged ponchos with round fur caps or those 

 pointed sombreros that one associates with pictures of elves in a 

 wood. As wild-looking a crew were gathered for'ard as ever 

 sailed Southward Ho ! Germans, Danes, Poles, and heaven knows 

 what other races besides ; each little party formed laagers of their 

 possessions and resented intrusion with volley-firing of oaths. 

 There was one laager in which I found myself taking a particular 

 interest ; it was made up of two men, a woman, and her brood of 

 children. Their only belongings appeared to consist of four 

 ponchos, a matd pot and kettle, and a huge basket of cauliflowers. 

 They crept in and entrenched themselves between the cauliflowers 

 and the port bulwark in the waist of the ship. From there they 

 did not move, but sat swaying their bodies during the entire 

 voyage. Was Patagonia an Eldorado to which those people were 

 journeying ? On that dark night, as the ship slid groaning and 

 creaking over the brown waters, the dark scene, lit by stray blurs of 

 light, called up a memory of Leighton's picture, " The Sea shall 

 give up its Dead." 



Among the passengers was the Governor of Santa Cruz, Sehor 

 Don Matias McKinlay Tapiola, who speaks English very well. 

 There were also one or two gentlemen interested in sheep-farming 



