PLAN OF VOYAGE. 



25 



" With this view, the run to Rio de Janeiro may be con- 

 veniently divided into four parts : — 



1st. Touching at Madeira, the exact position of which 

 has been admitted by all parties. Having obtained a four days' 

 rate there, or, if the weather and the exposed anchorage will 

 not permit, at TenerifFe, the Beagle should, 2dly, proceed with 

 the least possible delay to Port Praya, in the Cape de Verde 

 Islands, not only to establish a fresh four days'* rate ; but that 

 point being the pivot on which all Captain Owen'*s longitudes 

 turn, no pains should be spared in verifying the position he 

 has assumed for it. From thence, 3dly, she should make the 

 best of her way across the Line to Fernando Noronha. This 

 island, indeed, lies somewhat to the westward of her track, and 

 may retard her progress a little ; yet a series of chronometric 

 observations there is essential to the object in view, because it 

 forms the third nearly equal division of the whole run, and 

 because it v/as the point of junction of Commander Foster's 

 double line of longitudes. If two or three days' delay at either 

 of these two last stations will enable him to obtain satisfactory 

 occultations, and moon culminating observations, which are 

 likely to be seen in this country, the increased certainty of the 

 results will well atone for that loss of time. The Commander 

 will, of course, be careful to adopt, in all those stations, the 

 precise spot of the former observations, v/ith which his are to 

 be compared. The Governor of Fernando Noronha was pecu- 

 liarly obliging to Commander Foster, and gave up part of his 

 own house for the pendulum experiments. There v/ill be no 

 occasion now for trespassing so heavily on his kindness ; but 

 the diiference of longitude between that station and Comman- 

 der Fitz-Roy's must be well measured. 



" However desirable it may be that the Beagle should reach 

 Rio de Janeiro as soon as possible, yet the great importance of 

 knowing the true position of the Abrolhos Banks, and the 

 certainty that they extend much further out than the limits 

 assigned to them by Baron Roussin, will warrant the sacrifice 

 of a few days, if other circumstances should enable her to 

 beat down about the meridian of 36° W. from the latitude of 



