72 



APPENDIX, No. I. 



SAN BLAS, ROUND CAPE HORN, TO RIO DE 

 JANEIRO. 



15th of June to 12th of September 1822. 

 (89 Daps.) 



The navigable distance of this passage, or that 

 over which a ship must run, without counting 

 casual deviations, is 7550 miles, and includes 

 every variety of climate and weather. 



An inspection of the track in the chart which 

 accompanied this Memoir, will give a better idea 

 of the extent and variety of this passage than any 

 description can do. A few general remarks, how- 

 ever, may have their use. We were recommended 

 by the oldest navigators at San Bias to get off the 

 coast as fast as possible, in order to avoid the very 

 unpleasant weather which belongs to it at this 

 season. This, it appears, is sometimes difficult to 

 accomplish, and ships are even driven as far as 

 Acapulco, before they can disentangle themselves 

 from the westerly and south-westerly breezes. 

 We, however, found no difficulty in running off 

 to the S.W. as far as 110° W. and 15° North. 

 From 8£° North, to 34° North, and longitude 

 105° W., we were much retarded by southerly 

 winds. We then got the trade-wind, which hung 

 far to the south at first, and obliged us to cross 

 the line in 110^° West. We kept the trade-wind 

 for fifteen days, that is, to the 23d of July, at 

 which time we had reached the latitude of 27° 

 South, having run by its means about two thou- 

 sand miles. The wind afterwards came to the 

 northward, and then to the N.W., whence, in 30^° 

 South, it shifted to South by east, and then to 

 South-west on the 29th of July. In 35^° South, 

 and 102° West, we had a hard gale from the 

 southward. 



The wind had been previously so fresh from the 

 S.W. and S.S.W., that we were obliged to close 

 reef at midnight of the 28th of July. It shortly 

 afterwards came on to rain hard, and fell calm for 

 an hour, at the end of which interval a gale sud- 

 denly came on from South, and blew with violence 

 all that day. This gale was followed by fresh 

 South- west- by- West winds, which came round to 

 N.W., and then to S.S. W. again, as far as latitude 

 46° South, and longitude 90° West, when the wind 

 hung for three days from the Southward. From 

 49£° South, and 82° West, to 55° South, and 78° 

 West, we had fresh N.N.E., N.N.W., and N.W. 

 winds. Just as we were about to haul up to 

 round the Cape on the 12th of August, the wind 

 came from N.E. (by compass, or about E.N.E. 

 true,) which obliged us to go as far as 57£° South, 

 before the wind shifted to west and north-west. 

 We passed out of sight of Cape Horn on the 

 night of the 14th of August, just two months 

 from San I Mas, strictly 60$ days, the navigable 

 distance being six thousand miles. From the 

 meridian of Cape Horn, to that of the Falkland 

 [glands, we retained the N.W. and latterly the 

 S.W. winds. It then full calm, after which we 

 had S.E. and S.S.E. breezes, with snow showers, 

 (the first we had seen,) nearly as far as latitude 

 40° South. In the Pacific, between 50° and 55°, 

 we had hard breezes, with rain, and a consider- 



able sea, but not such as to prevent our scudding 

 with ease. During all the passage off the Cape, 

 we had fine weather, with smooth water, and a 

 mild climate, that is to say, the thermometer was 

 not below 39°. Off the Falkland Islands, with an 

 E.S.E. wind, it fell to 35°. This temperature 

 seemed cold to persons recently come from a 

 residence of more than six months in one of the 

 hottest parts of the world, but upon the whole- 

 the season was finer than that of the corre, 

 spondent north latitude. 



When off the Cape in 57° South, and longitude 

 69° West, we fell in with four ice islands ; two of 

 these were very high and long ; the other two 

 were about twenty yards long, and as they floated 

 not more than ten or twelve feet out of the water 

 would, in all probability, not have been seen at 

 night till too near to be avoided. Next day an 

 immense island was seen, which could not have 

 been less than two or three hundred feet high, 

 and a quarter of a mile long. This was in 56^° 

 South, and longitude 65° West. Some days after- 

 wards, we fell in with an American whaler which 

 had passed more to the southward in 58°, where 

 he not only met with innumerable ice islands, 

 but with an extensive compact field, as far as 

 the eye could reach. He found himself in the 

 morning almost beset, and it cost him nearly 

 twenty-four hours beating among the floating 

 pieces and icebergs, before he was clear of them. 

 I examined his chart, on which his track was 

 laid down with every appearance of exactness ; 

 the ice and ice islands were sketched in a busi- 

 ness-like manner on the chart. The high island 

 which we saw on the morning of the 15th was 

 probably one of the same group, and the smaller 

 ones fragments. 



There are few things more dangerous in naviga- 

 tion than one of these low ice islands, in a dark 

 night, when blowing hard, and with a high sea ; 

 all circumstances which unfortunately are likely 

 enough to come together at this particular season, 

 when the ice is most frequently observed to be 

 floating about off Cape Horn. In bad weather it 

 might be prudent to lie-to. But in fine weather, 

 although dark, as it was with us, a leisurely course 

 may be followed, provided uncommon vigilance be 

 used. On this occasion I thought of a precaution, 

 which it may perhaps be worth while stating. 

 Having reefed the courses, that the officer of the 

 watch might have a free view, the yards were 

 braced sharp up, bowlines hauled, and everything 

 prepared for tacking, and always kept so at night, 

 from whatever direction the wind might blow. 

 On an ice island being seen a-head, and near us, 

 in the case of the ship being by the wind, the helm 

 being put down she would readily come about : if 

 off the wind, she would come to, with the sails so 

 trimmed as to allow her sailing past the danger ; 

 or if this could not be, still she would be more 

 ready to come about, and certainly be more man- 

 ageable in all respects, than if the yards had been 

 in any other position. 



The latter part of this passage between the lati- 

 tude of 40° and that of Rio, was rendered tedious 

 by frequent northerly winds. On the 24th of Au- 

 gust, in latitude 39° 45', the wind, which had been 

 gradually hauling from the S.E. to the North-east- 

 ward, came to N.N.E., then to North, N.N.W., 

 and latterly N.W., shifting gradually at the rate 



