Dec. 1832. 



SAN BLAS WRECKS. 



S97 



' Any quantity of fresh water may be obtained in San Bias 

 Bay, by digging wells six or eight feet deep ; and fish are 

 abundant : but it is no place for a ship to enter unless under 

 favourable circumstances of weather, wind, and tide ; and de- 

 cidedly dangerous with a south-easter, because there is then a 

 sea on the banks outside which confuses the pilot's eye, and 

 prevents his distinguishing the proper channel ; besides which, 

 thick weather, if not rain, is the general accompaniment to that 

 wind. 



On the 3d of December the Beagle anchored off San Bias 

 (as formerly mentioned). Both schooners went out to her, and 

 in returning at night into San Bias Bay, working to windward 

 with a strong flood tide, they passed close to an unknown rock 

 which would have made an end of their cruise had they touched 

 it. The least water they had, however, was eight feet ;* but 

 both vessels were close to it, while the tide was running four 

 or five knots. This rock is in the middle of the entrance to 

 San Bias Bay. At midnight they reached their anchorage, 

 without a dry article in either vessel. 



On the 6th, Lieutenant Wickham remarked, while at anchor 

 between San Bias and the River Negro, off* Point Basa, that 

 the stream of tide began to set northward at half flood, and 

 continued to run in that direction until half ebb, by the shore. 

 " It is not at all uncommon on this coast,**"* he says, " to see 

 wrecks of vessels above high- water mark, and spars streM^ed 

 along the beach where the sea does not touch them." These 

 wrecks took place during south-east gales, when the sea was 

 raised above its usual level in fine weather : and were the 

 vessels spoken of in the previous chapter, as having been 

 entrusted to ignorant or careless prize-masters, who ran for San 

 Bias or the River Negro, not then knowing that so fine a 

 port as Blanco Bay existed. Strong tides, shoals, a low coast, 

 and bad weather would have perplexed professed seamen ; 

 but those difficulties were insurmountable to such unpractised 

 craftsmen as those who were in charge of them, and most of 

 the prizes were lost. One large ship of four or five hundred 



* The Paz drew five feet and a half, the Liebre four feet. 



