August. BUENOS AYRES MONTE VIDEO. 95 



returning forthwith to Monte Video; and commissioning a 

 capable person to procure for me copies of some original charts, 

 which I thought would be exceedingly useful, and which 

 could only be obtained from the remains of hydrographical in- 

 formation, collected by Spain, but kept in the archives of 

 Buenos Ayres. The Beagle anchored again off Monte Video, 

 on the Sd of August, and as soon as the circumstances which 

 occasioned her return were made known to Captain G. W. 

 Hamilton, commanding the Druid frigate, that ship sailed for 

 Buenos Ayres. 



Scarcely had the Druid disappeared beneath the horizon, 

 when the chief of the Monte Video police and the captain of 

 the port came on board the Beagle to request assistance in 

 preserving order in the town, and in preventing the aggres- 

 sions of some mutinous negro soldiers. I was also requested 

 by the Consul-general to afford the British residents any pro- 

 tection in my power ; and understanding that their lives, as 

 well as property, were endangered by the turbulent mutineers, 

 who were more than a match for the few well-disposed soldiers 

 left in the town, I landed with fifty well-armed men, and 

 remained on shore, garrisoning the principal fort, and thus 

 holding the mutineers in check, until more troops were brought 

 in from the neighbouring country, by whom they were sur- 

 rounded and reduced to subordination. The Beagle's crew 

 were not on shore more than twenty-four hours, and were not 

 called upon to act in any way ; but I was told by the principal 

 persons whose lives and property were threatened, that the 

 presence of those seamen certainly prevented bloodshed. 



Some days after this little interruption to our usual avo- 

 cations, we sailed across the river to Point Piedras, anchored 

 there for some hours to determine its position, then went to 

 Cape San Antonio, and from that point (rather than cape) 

 began our survey of the outer coast. To relate many details of 

 so slow and monotonous an occupation as examining any shore^ 

 of which the more interesting features have long been known, 

 could answer no good purpose, and would be very tiresome to 



