274 



COXSIDERATIONS PURCHASE. 



March 



that the most interesting part of her voyage — the carrying a 

 chain of meridian distances around the globe — must eventually 

 be sacrificed to the tedious, although not less useful, details of 

 coast surveying. 



Our working ground lay so far from ports at which supplies 

 could be obtained, that we were obliged to occupy whole 

 months in making passages merely to get provisions, and then 

 overload our little vessel to a most inconvenient degree, as may 

 be supposed, when I say that eight months'* provisions was our 

 usual stock at starting, and that we sailed twice with ten 

 months' supply on board.* 



I had often anxiously longed for a consort, adapted for car- 

 rying cargoes, rigged so as to be easily worked with few hands, 

 and able to keep company with the Beagle ; but when I saw 

 the Unicorn, and heard how well she had behaved as a sea- 

 boat, my wish to purchase her was unconquerable. A fitter 

 vessel I could hardly have met with, one hundred and seventy 

 tons burthen, oak built, and copper fastened throughout, very 

 roomy, a good sailer, extremely handy, and a first-rate sea- 

 boat ; her only deficiencies were such as I could supply, 

 namely, a few sheets of copper, and an outfit of canvas and 

 rope. A few days elapsed, in which she was surveyed very 

 carefully by Mr. May, and my mind fully made up, before I 

 decided to buy her, and I then agreed to give six thousand 

 dollars (nearly £] ,300) for immediate possession. Being part 

 owner, and authorized by the other owners to do as he thought 

 best with the vessel in case of failure, Mr. Low sold her to me, 

 payment to be made into his partners' hands at Monte Video. 

 Some of his crew being ' upon the lay,' that is, having agreed 

 to be paid for their work by a small proportion of the cargo 

 obtained, preferred remaining at the Falklands to seek for 

 employment in other vessels, others procured a passage in the 

 Rapid, and a few were engaged by me to serve in their own 

 vessel which, to keep up old associations, I named ' Adven- 

 ture.' Mr. Chaffers and others immediately volunteered to go 



* Excepting- water, of which we only carried six weeks. 



