CHAPTER VII. 



Leave Rio de Janeiro— Santos— St. Catherine's— Monte Video— Pur- 

 chase the Adelaide schooner, for a Tender to the Adventure — Leave 

 Monte Video— Beag-le goes to Port Desire — Shoals off Cape Blanco 

 ■ — Bellaco Rock — Cape Virgins — Possession Bay — First Narrow — 

 Race — Gregory Bay — View — Tomb — Traffic with Natives — Cordial 

 meeting — Maria goes on board — Natives intoxicated — Laredo Bay — 

 Port Famine. 



We were ready to resume our voyage early in September 

 (1827) ; but not having received any communication by the 

 packet, from the Admiralty, relative to the purchase of a 

 tender, I determined to await the arrival of the next, early in 

 October. I was again disappointed, and very reluctantly left 

 Rio de Janeiro, on the 16th, for Monte Video; but that I 

 might still benefit by the orders which were sure to be in the 

 following packet, I determined upon calling at Santos, and 

 St. Catherine's, for chronometrical observations; leaving the 

 Beagle to wait for letters conveying the decision of his Royal 

 Highness the Lord High Admiral. 



We reached Santos on the ISth, and staid there until the 

 28th. In this interval I paid a short visit to St. PauPs, for the 

 purpose of making barometrical observations.* At St. Cathe- 



* On our passage from Santos to St. Catherine's, in latitude 28° south, 

 we caught a ' dolphin ' (Cor?/p^m«), the maw of which I found filled 

 with shells, of Argonauta tuberculosa, and all containing the ' Octopus 

 Ocythbe ' that has been always found as its inhabitant. Most of the 

 specimens were crushed by the narrow passage into the stomach, but the 

 smaller ones were quite perfect, and had been so recently swallowed that 

 I was enabled to preserve several of various sizes containing the animal. 

 To some of them was attached a nidus of eggs, w^hich was deposited be- 

 tween the animal and the spire. The shells varied in size from two-thirds 

 of an inch to two and a half inches in length ; each contained an octopus, 

 the bulk and shape of which was so completely adapted to that of the 



shell. 



