68 



BEAGLE S 



PKOCEEDINGS. 



Jan. 1827. 



minster Hall, and the Islands of Direction, at the western 

 entrance of the Strait. 



For the first night Captain Stokes anchored in San Nicc?las 

 Bay, and in the evening examined a harbour* behind Nassau 

 Island, which Bougainville, in the year 1765, visited for the 

 purpose of procuring wood for the French settlement at the 

 Falkland Islands. 



On the second night, after a day nearly calm, the Beagle 

 was anchored in a cove to the eastward of Cape Froward, and 

 the next day (17th) passed round the Cape, carrying a heavy 

 press of sail against a dead foul wind. Captain Stokes's account 

 of this day's beat to windward will give the reader an idea of 

 the sort of navigation. 



" Our little bay had screened us so completely from the 

 wind, that though, when (at five a.m.) we weighed, the breeze 

 was so light as scarcely to enable us, with all sail set, to clear 

 its entrance ; no sooner were we outside, than we were obliged 

 to treble reef the topsails. We continued to beat to wind- 

 ward under a heavy press of sail ; our object being to double 

 Cape Froward, and secure, if possible, an anchorage ere night- 

 fall under Cape Holland, six leagues further to the westward. 

 At first we made ' boards ' right across the Straits to within a 

 third of a mile of each shore, gaining, however, but little. 

 We then tried whether, by confining our tacks to either coast, 

 we could discover a tide by which we might profit; and for 

 that purpose I began with the north shore, for though we were 

 there more exposed to violent squalls which came down the 

 valleys, I thought it advisable to avoid the indraught of 

 various channels intersecting the Fuegian coast ; but having 

 made several boards without any perceptible advantage, we 

 tried the south shore, with such success that I was induced to 

 keep on that side during the remainder of the day. 



" And here let me remark, that in consequence of the 

 westerly winds which blow through the western parts of the 

 Straits of Magalhaens, with almost the constancy (as regards 



* Bougainville Harbour, better known to Sealers by the name of ' Jack's 

 Harbour.' 



