1834. 



CHILIAN GOVERNMENT. 



361 



and good rates for the chronometers were obtained, after 

 which we sailed (14!th July) for Valparaiso, and arrived there 

 together on the 22d. 



My first object would have been, after seeing the vessels 

 securely moored, to go to Santiago, present my instructions 

 in the proper quarter, and ask for the sanction of the Chilian 

 government, in prosecuting the survey of the coasts of Chile ; 

 but I was so much in arrear with respect to computations and 

 charts, that I could not venture to give even a week to an 

 excursion to that agreeable place, where a thousand attractive 

 novelties would inevitably have diverted my attention in some 

 measure from the dull routine of calculation, and attention 

 to the data accumulated by many months'* exertion of those 

 on board the Adventure, as well as in the Beagle; therefore I 

 sent Lieutenant Wickham, who spoke Spanish, and had been 

 at Santiago before, to show my instructions to the Authorities, 

 and request their approval of our examination of the shores 

 under their jurisdiction. Nothing could be more satisfactory 

 than the reply (Appendix No. 20), and from that time until 

 the Beagle left Chile she received every attention and assist- 

 ance which the Chilian officers could afford. 



As I proposed to remain at Valparaiso during the winter 

 months, Messrs. Stokes, King, Usborne, and myself, whose oc- 

 cupation would be sedentary and would require room, as well 

 as more light and quiet than we could always have on board, 

 took up our quarters on shore ; while those on board attended 

 to the refit and provisioning of our vessels. 



At this time I was made to feel and endure a bitter dis- 

 appointment ; the mortification it caused preyed deeply, and 

 the regret is still vivid. I found that it would be impossible 

 for me to maintain the Adventure much longer: my own 

 means had been taxed, even to involving myself in difficulties, 

 and as the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty did not 

 think it proper to give me any assistance, I saw that all my 

 cherished hopes of examining many groups of islands in the 

 Pacific, besides making a complete survey of the Chilian 

 and Peruvian shores, must utterly fail. I had asked to be 



