J 833. 



FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



although in the month corresponding to September of our 

 hemisphere ; and while working to windward into Berkeley 

 Sound, the gusts of wind were sometimes strong enough to 

 oblige us to shorten all sail. I did not then know of Port 



o 



William — so close to us, and so easy of access. 



The aspect of the Falklands rather surprised me : instead of 

 a low, level, barren country, like Patagonia, or a high woody 

 region, like Tierra del Fuego, we saw ridges of rocky hills, 

 about a thousand feet in height, traversing extensive tracts of 

 sombre-looking moorland, unenlivened by a tree. A black, 

 low, and rocky coast, on which the surf raged violently, and 

 the strong wind against which we were contending, did not 

 tend to improve our first impressions of those unfortunate 

 islands — scene of feud and assassination, and the cause of angry 

 discussion among nations. 



In a cove (called Johnson Harbour) at the north side of 

 Berkeley Sound, was a wrecked ship, with her masts standing, 

 and in other places were the remains of two more wrecks. We 

 anchored near the beach on which Freycinet ran the Uranie, 

 after she struck on a rock off Volunteer Point, at the entrance 

 of Berkeley Sound; and from a French boat which came 

 alongside learned that the Magellan, French whaler, had been 

 driven from her anchors during the tremendous storm of 

 January 12-13; that her crew were living on shore under 

 tents, having saved every thing ; that tnere were only a few 

 colonists left at the almost ruined settlement of Port Louis ; 

 and that the British flag had been re-hoisted on the islands by 

 H.M.S. Tyne and Clio. 



VOL. II. 



