364 



ISLAND OF SOCORRO — INDIANS. 



Dec. 



of provisions in the boat as soon as possible, in order that they 

 might be obliged to return without going far. But Low was 

 too much inured to hardship to be so easily diverted from his 

 plan ; he went on, directly south, even after his provisions 

 were consumed ; obliging them to live for fourteen days upon 

 shell-fish and sea-weed. After exploring much of the Chonos 

 Archipelago, sufficiently to facilitate our survey materially, he 

 returned with his hungry crew to Caylin. 



24th. Lieutenant Sulivan set out with the yawl and a whale- 

 boat, to survey the east side of Chiloe and the islets in the 

 Gulf of Ancud.* With him were Messrs. Darwin, Usborne, 

 Stew^art and Kent ; Douglas as a pilot, and ten men. Two days 

 afterwards, the Beagle sailed, to examine the western coast of 

 Childe, and the Chonos Archipelago. 



Dec. 2d. While standing towards distant mountainous land, 

 about the latitude of 45°, we saw a comparatively low and level 

 island ;-f' considerably detached from those which seemed like 

 Tierra del Fuego, being a range of irregular mountains and 

 hills, forming apparently a continuous coast. This level island 

 I have since ascertained to be that formerly called Nuestra 

 Senora del Socorro, where Narborough anchored and landed, in 

 1670. It was selected in 1740, by Anson, as a rendezvous for 

 his squadron ; but no one seemed to know where to look for it : 

 the Anna Pink having made the land in 45°. 35', and the unfor- 

 tunate Wager in 47°, near Cape Tres Montes. Narborough 

 mentions seeing ' an old Indian hut' on this island ; and in a 

 MS. journal, written by MoraledaJ (now in my possession) 

 it is said that the former natives of the Chonos used to make 

 annual excursions to that as well as other outlying islands. 

 After witnessing the distance to which savages venture in such 

 frail canoes as those of Tierra del Fuego, it does not surprise 

 one to find them going fifteen or twenty miles across an open 

 * Orders in Appendix, No. 21. 



t About three or four hundred feet in height, excepting one hill, which 

 is seven hundred feet. 



X MS. Diary of Moraleda's examination of Chiloe and part of the 

 Chonos Islands in 1787-93, given to me at Lima, by a friend to whom I 

 am much indebted for valuable information. 



