360 



DEATH OF MR. ROWLETT. 



June 



When the day at last broke on the 11th, we saw the Adven- 

 ture coming out to us from the cove where she had passed the 

 night, and then both vessels sailed out of the Channel, past 

 Mount Sky ring and all the Furies, as fast as sails could urge 

 them. At sunset we were near the Tower Rocks,* and with 

 a fresh north-west wind stood out into the Pacific, with every 

 inch of canvas set which we could carry. 



On the 26th we were still together, in latitude 43° and lon- 

 gitude 75^, although gales had occasionally separated us for a 

 few hours. After passing the latitude of 45° we had a succes- 

 sion of bad weather, and adverse (N.W.) winds. Trusting 

 too much to our usual good fortune I had steered in too direct 

 a line towards Childe, and in consequence all these north-west 

 winds were against us. Had I shaped a course which would have 

 taken us farther from the land, while we had the wind south- 

 ward of west, we might have made a fair wind of these pro- 

 voking north-westers, and arrived at Chiloe at least a week 

 sooner. A few remarks upon the wind and weather, between 

 the parallels of forty and forty-seven, off Childe and the 

 Chonos Archipelago, will be found in the Appendix (No. 19). 



On the 27th we witnessed the last moments of Mr. Row- 

 lett's existence in this world. He had long been sinking under 

 an internal complaint of which it was impossible to cure him, 

 except by a vigorous and uniform mode of treatment to which 

 he was not willing to conform until too late : but his illness had 

 no relation whatever to the service in which he had been em- 

 ployed. He was much regretted by all of us, having been a 

 kind, honourable friend. The following day we committed the 

 body of our deceased companion to the seaman's grave, that 

 " ever-changing and mysterious main." In the evening we 

 were near the north-west end of Childe, and at midnight an 

 anchor was let go in our former berth, off Point Arena. The 

 Adventure arrived two days afterwards, her main-boom having 

 broken in a heavy squall on the 27th, in consequence of which 

 she got to leeward, and was prevented from sooner weathering 

 the north end of the island. A supply of fresh provisions 

 * Not far from Cape Noir, on Noir Island. 



