APPENDIX, No. I. 



MEMOIR ON THE NAVIGATION OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN 



STATION. 



So little has been published respecting the navi- 

 gation of South America, and especially of that 

 part which lies beyond Cape Horn, that ships first 

 going to that station are often at a loss to discover, 

 which is the best mode of making the different 

 passages from place to place. 



Having experienced this difficulty myself on 

 many occasions, and having lost much time in 

 guessing my way in the dark, I endeavoured to 

 collect as much information on the subject as 

 possible, with the view to the formation of some 

 general sailing directions for the whole of those 

 coasts. But, upon revising the materials in my 

 possession, I find they are very far from being 

 sufficiently copious and exact for such a purpose. 

 My time and attention, indeed, were so much 

 occupied by matters in no respect favourable to 

 such inquiries, that I was often under the mortify- 

 ing necessity of letting occasions pass, when, if I 

 could have devoted sufficient leisure to the subject, 

 much useful information might have been collected. 

 I do not think it right, however, on this account 

 to abandon altogether the intention I had first 

 formed. Our opportunities, in fact, were so very 

 extensive, that I think a simple description of each 

 passage, together with such collateral remarks as 

 circumstances suggested, cannot be otherwise than 

 useful to future navigators similarly circumstanced 

 with ourselves. And there can be no doubt, that 

 if every one who has equal means, will, in like 

 manner, record and bring forward merely his own 

 information, we shall soon possess all the know- 

 ledge we can desire upon the subject. 



Officers are too apt to undervalue the nautical 

 knowledge which they acquire in the ordinary 

 course of service ; and to forget, that every piece 

 of correct information which they obtain, especially 

 on distant stations, is essentially valuable. If it 

 be new, it is a clear gain to the stock already ac- 

 cumulated ; if not, it is still useful as a corrobora- 

 tion : and this costs very little trouble, for a few 

 practical observations, made during or at the end 

 of a voyage, give immense additional value to the 

 dry details of a log-book. 



I have arranged the accounts of the different 

 passages in the order in which they occurred, and 

 have confined myself strictly to the nautical 

 details. 



A list of the latitudes and longitudes of the dif- 

 ferent places visited by the Conway is given at the 

 end of these notices. It has been extracted from 

 a Hydrographical Memoir drawn up by Mr. Henry 

 Foster, then master's mate of the Conway, and 

 transmitted by me to the Admiralty. That Memoir 

 contains minute directions for every port which 

 we entered, together with a detailed Account of 

 all the Nautical, Hydrographical, and Astronomical 

 Observations, during the Voyages which we made 

 along the vast range of coast washed by the 

 Pacific. It would have given me much satisfaction 

 to have printed the whole of this work of Mr. 

 Foster's, had its nature not been exclusively pro- 

 fessional. But I take this public opportunity of 

 bearing the strongest testimony to the merits of 

 this rising young officer, to whose assistance and 

 companionship, in every pursuit connected with 

 nautical science, I stand essentially indebted. 



It is with real satisfaction, therefore, on public 

 as well as private grounds, that I mention his pro- 

 motion to the rank of Lieutenant, his admission 

 into the Royal Society, and his appointment as 

 Astronomer and Assistant Surveyor to the North- 

 Western Expedition which sailed in the spring of 

 1824, and returned in October 1825. 



The chart published in the former editions of 

 this work was drawn up under my directions, and 

 from Mr. Foster's observations, by Lieutenant A. 

 B. Becher, of the Conway, from whose practical 

 skill in hydrography, as well as other branches of 

 his profession, I derived much valuable assistance. 



I owe my acknowledgments also to Lieutenant 

 (now Captain) Charles Drinkwater Bethune, mid- 

 shipman of H. M. S. Creole, for his assistance in 

 our endeavours to bring the higher branches of 

 nautical astronomy into practical use. His zeal, 

 his talents, and his intimate knowledge of the 

 subject in all its stages, rendered his simultaneous 

 co-operation, in another ship, at stations distant 

 from ours, of the highest utility. 



LIST OF THE PASSAGES MADE BY HIS MAJESTY'S 

 SHIP CONWAY. 



NO. PAGE 



I. Passage from Rio de Janeiro to River 

 Plate 64 



II. 



from Monte Video to Valparaiso 64 ! 



