1835. 



CONSTITUCION — PLAN EXPLANATION. 



483 



her, and at once set on foot an examination of the coast of 

 Peru, similar to that which Mr. Sulivan had completed of the 

 coast of Chile. Don Francisco Vascunan had authorized the 

 sale of his vessel at Callao : she was purchased by me for £4:00, 

 and immediately fitted out afresh. 



I could not spare Lieutenant Sulivan to remain on the coast 

 of Peru, while the Beagle would be crossing the Pacific, on 

 her return to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope ; but 

 there was Mr. Usborne, able and willing to undertake the task, 

 who, from his station, could be spared without prejudice to 

 the duties yet remaining to be executed on board the Beagle, 

 and a better man for the purpose I could not have desired. 

 With him Mr. Forsyth volunteered to go, and Commodore 

 Mason was prevailed upon to allow Mr. E. Davis, a master's 

 assistant of the Blonde, to join the little expedition ; who, with 

 seven good seamen, and a boy, volunteers from the Beagle, 

 completed Mr. Usborne's party. 



A stranger might well smile at the idea of such a boat affair 

 being started to survey, in eight or at most ten months, the 

 whole coast of Peru, from Paposo, near Atacama, to the River 

 Guayaquil ; but the task was completed ; the charts are now en- 

 graved; and very soon seamen will be able to test their accuracy. 



Most people are aware that the coast of Peru is free from 

 storms ; that the wind blows moderately along the land or from 

 it ; and that there is little or no rain. Consequently, as the 

 sea is seldom much disturbed (except by a south-west swell), 

 and there are neither ' races ' nor dangerous streams of tide, an 

 open boat might undertake such a task, if safety alone were to 

 be considered, provided that she did not try to land in a surf. 

 The real impediments to surveying that coast are — the surf 

 caused on those steep rocky shores by an occasional heavy 

 swell, almost amounting to rollers, from the south-westward ; 

 the delays and doubts created by prevalent fogs ; and the loss 

 of positions, as well as time, consequent upon being drifted by 

 currents during a calm. Mr. Usborne had also to prepare for, 

 and provide against, as much as possible, difficulties of a 

 very different nature — those arising out of the disturbed state 



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