354 JOURNAL. 
though we are now near Cape Horn. My poor invalid is very ill, 
and confined to his bed. 
Tuesday, February 11th. — This day, we came early in sight of the 
land about Cape Horn, which we doubled about sunset. There were 
mists and clouds overhanging the land; now and then we had fine 
sunshine, but oftener cold misty breezes. The coast is high and re- 
markable, especially about False Cape Horn, where there are several 
large conical hills ; but we were not near enough to distinguish them 
very clearly. Lord Cochrane had landed here on his passage to 
Chile; and tells me he walked some hours in a delightful valley, in 
the month of November, full of beautiful evergreens and flowers. 
Very high mountains come near the sea, and even now, in autumn, 
the highest are covered with snow. The near hills are bold and 
precipitous : the cliffs of Cape Horn itself are white as chalk, and rise 
in fantastic spiry points, like the ruins of some old castle; and as 
the sun went down through the hazy air, they took fine glowing tints 
of gold and purple. The light just served us to see the inhospitable 
naked peaks of Barneveldt’s Isles, or rather rocks : beyond which high 
mountain-tops peeped through heavy clouds. The names of Horne 
and Barneveldt preserve to the Dutch their seniority in the discovery 
of this easy passage into the Pacific. It was in 1616 that Le Maire, 
a native of Horne in Holland, first doubled this Cape, and by naming 
it after his birth-place, gave to that little town one of the most re- 
markable monuments in the known world. I am very well pleased 
to have seen the Cape; but I wished rather to have come through 
the Straights of Magellan, for the sake of the early navigators, Drake, 
