PREFACE. 



In this Work, the result of nine years'* voyaging, partly 

 on coasts little known, an attempt has been made to combine 

 giving general information with the paramount object — that of 

 fulfilling a duty to the Admiralty, for the benefit of Seamen. 



Details, purely technical, have been avoided in the narrative 

 more than I could have wished ; but some are added in the 

 Appendix to each volume : and in a nautical memoir, drawn 

 up for the Admiralty, those which are here omitted will be 

 found. 



There are a few words used frequently in the following 

 pages, which may not at first sight be familiar to every reader, 

 therefore I need hardly apologize for saying that, although 

 the great Portuguese navigator^s name was Magalhaens — it is 

 generally pronounced as if written Magellan : — that the 

 natives of Tierra del Fuego are commonly called Fuegians; — 

 and that Childe is thus accented for reasons given in page 384 

 of the second volume. 



In the absence of Captain King, who has entrusted to me 

 the care of publishing his share of this work, I may have 

 overlooked errors which he would have detected. Being 

 hurried, and unwell, while attending to the printing of his 

 volume, I was not able to do it j ustice. 



