EXTRACTS FROM A JOURNAL 



WRITTEN 



ON THE COASTS OF CHILI, PERU, AND MEXICO, 



IN THE YEARS 1820, 1821, 1822. 



CHAPTER I. 



CHILI. 



Passage of Cape Horn.— Volcano.— Arrival at Valparaiso.— 

 Bull Fights — Chilian Music and Dances. — Visit to 

 Santiago, the Capital of Chili.— Effect of the Political 

 Changes on Public Opinion. 



His Majesty's ship, Conway, under my command, 

 sailed from England on the 10th of August, 1820; 

 and, having touched at Teneriffe, Rio de Janeiro, 

 and the River Plate, received orders to proceed to 

 Valparaiso, the principal sea-port on the coast of 

 Chili. 



The passage round Cape Horn has acquired such 

 celebrity in nautical history, from the difficulties 

 encountered by Anson, that no one acquainted 

 with the popular narrative of his voyage, can 

 approach the spot without some degree of interest. 

 The progress of improvement in navigation and 

 seamanship has, indeed, stripped the Cape of most 

 of its terrors ; and the passage, which formerly 

 cost so much labour and suffering, is now per- 

 formed with comparative ease and certainty. But 

 there is still left enough of romance about this 

 great promontory to excite no inconsiderable 

 curiosity : and, accordingly, on the evening of the 

 25th of November, all eyes were anxiously directed 

 towards the west, in which quarter the Cape was 

 situated. Several groups of the more curious 

 amongst the officers were perched at the mast- 

 heads, with telescopes and sketch-books in their 

 hands, ready to take advantage of the first glimpse 

 of the land. Others, whose energy did not equal 

 their curiosity, mounted a few steps of the rigging, 

 and came down again ; saying they would see it 

 quite as well in the morning without trouble. The 

 sailors in the meantime, habitually indifferent to 

 everything of this nature, amused themselves with 

 a noisy game of leap-frog along the deck. 



Meanwhile the sun set, and our anxiety lest we 

 should not discover land before night, increased 

 every moment ; but towards the end of the long 

 summer twilight, the looked-for Cape, to our great 

 joy, appeared in the western horizon ; where the 

 outline of the land, distant about fifty or sixty 



miles, was for a short time distinctly pencilled on 

 the sky, still lighted up by the last rays of the 

 setting sun ; but was soon lost sight of in the 

 darkness. 



The night had scarcely closed in, when a new 

 and unexpected object engaged our attention : a 

 brilliant light in the north-western quarter, shining 

 at regular intervals. At first of a bright red, it 

 became fainter and fainter, till it disappeared alto- 

 gether ; after the lapse of four or five minutes, 

 its brilliancy was suddenly restored, and it seemed 

 as if a column of burning materials had been pro- 

 jected into the air. This bright appearance lasted 

 from ten to twenty seconds, fading by degrees as 

 the column became lower, till at length only a dull 

 red mass was distinguishable for about a minute, 

 after which it again vanished. Many conjectures 

 were raised as to the cause of this intermitting 

 light. The seamen at once set it down as a re- 

 volving light-house, to which, certainly, it bore no 

 inconsiderable resemblance. Others insisted that 

 it must be a forest on fire; accounting for the 

 changes in brilliancy by flaws of wind fanning the 

 flames. But all who examined the light carefully 

 through a telescope agreed in considering it a 

 volcano like Stromboli, emitting from time to time 

 jets of flame and of red-hot stones, which, falling on 

 the sides of the mountain, retained for a short 

 space a visible redness. 



This singular light continued visible until morn- 

 ing, but faded away with the first appearance of 

 dawn ; and although during the night it seemed 

 not above eight or ten miles distant, to our surprise 

 no land was now distinguishable in the direction 

 of the volcano : and we found, by means of bear- 

 ings taken with the compass, that it actually was 

 upwards of a hundred miles from the ship, on the 

 main land of Tierra del Fuego. It is not impro- 

 bable, that this or a similar volcano may have led 

 Magellan to give the title Land of Fire to this 

 desolate region*. _____ 



* In the recently-published highly interesting and 

 important voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by Cap- 

 tain Robert Fitz-Roy, the following remarks occur. 



" When we landed to pass the night we found that the 



B 



