74 



CAPTAIN STOKEs's EOAT-CRUIZE. Feb. 1827- 



Captain Stokes says, " Our discomfort in an open boat was 

 very great, since we were all constantly wet to the skin. In 

 trying to double the various headlands, we were repeatedly 

 obliged (after hours of ineffectual struggle against sea and 

 wind) to desist from useless labour, and take refuge in the 

 nearest cove which lay to leeward." 



From the Harbour of Mercy, Captain Stokes attempted to 

 cross the Strait, on his return to the Beagle ; but the sea ran 

 too high, and obliged him to defer his daring purpose until 

 the weather was more favourable. 



During his absence. Lieutenant Skyring surveyed Tamar 

 Bay and its vicinity. 



Again the Beagle weighed, and tried hard to make some 

 progress to the westward, but was obliged a third time to 

 return to Tamar Bay. After another delay she just reached 

 Sholl Bay, under Cape Phillip, and remained there one day, to 

 make a plan of the anchorage, and take observations to fix its 

 position. 



The Beagle reached the Harbour of Mercy (Separation 

 Harbour of Wallis and Carteret),* after a thirty days' passage 

 from Port Famine, on the 15th, having visited several ancho- 

 rages on the south shore in her way. But tedious and haras- 

 sing as her progress had been, the accounts of Byron, Wallis, 

 Carteret, and Bougainville show that they found more difficulty, 

 and took more time, in their passages from Port Famine to the 

 western entrance of the Strait. Byron, in 1764, was forty-two 

 days ; Wallis, in 1766, eighty-two ; Carteret, in the same 

 year, eighty-four ; and Bougainville, in 1768, forty days, in 

 going that short distance. 



Five days were passed at this place, during which they com- 

 municated with a few natives, of whom Captain Stokes remarks; 

 " As might be expected from the unkindly climate in which 

 they dwell, the personal appearance of these Indians does not 



* It was here that Commodore Wallis and Captain Carteret separated, 

 the Dolphin going round the world ; the Swallow returning to England. 

 Sarraiento's name of Puerto de !a Misericordia, or ' Harbour of Mercy,' 

 being of prior date, ought doubtless to be retained. 



