1835. 



HERRADURA — COQUIMBO. 



to the land until the 6th of June : and all her crew were 

 encamped on shore near the ship, while she was thoroughly 

 cleared out, re-stowed, and painted. At Coquimbo (or Serena) 

 we always met with a hearty welcome whenever duty required 

 that we should go there, or when we went for our own amuse- 

 ment. The Yntendente, Yrrisarte, the kind-hearted Mr. Ed- 

 wards and his family, and others, will not easily be forgotten 

 by the Beagle's officers. 



As another real benefactor to the public service, I may be 

 allowed to mention Don Francisco Vascunan, who lent me a 

 vessel of thirty-five tons, called the Constitucion, to be em- 

 ployed in forwarding the survey. This craft was built in the 

 River Maule, and bore a very high character as a sea boat. 

 Lieutenant Sulivan, Mr. King, Mr. Stewart, and Mr. Forsyth 

 volunteered to go in her ; so giving them a boat's crew, a small 

 boat, a native pilot with his balsa, and as good an outfit as my 

 means would allow, I despatched this new tender to examine 

 a portion of coast near Coquimbo, which the Beagle had not 

 seen sufficiently, and directed Lieut. Sulivan, if he found the 

 vessel efficient, to continue afterwards surveying along the coast 

 of Chile, as far as Paposo, whence he was to repair to Callao.* 



On the 6th of June, the Beagle left Herradura, and sailed 

 towards Valparaiso. Anxious, however, to communicate with 

 Don Diego Portales,-)- who was staying at his country-house, 

 near Papudo, I touched there in my way ; arrived at Valparaiso 

 on the 14th of June, and immediately began the arrangements 

 necessary for our preparations to quit Chile. The liberal assis- 

 tance rendered by Don Francisco Vascunan, in lending me his 

 own vessel, without any kind of agreement or remuneration 

 whatever, had enabled me to look forward to adding much of 

 the coast of Chile to our gleanings in hydrography ; for I well 

 knew that Lieutenant Sulivan would not only make despatch, 

 but extremely correct work. 



Here I may remark, that if little is said henceforth about 



* Orders in Appendix. 



t Don Diego Portales, one of the ablest men in South America, was 

 murdered, in 1837, by some of his ungrateful countrymen. 



