122 



SUPPOSED SAN SEBASTIAN CHANNEL. 1828. 



was sent for them, and we found they were deserters from the 

 Uxbridge, who had come to volunteer for our ships. 



The following day the Adeona and Uxbridge arrived, on 

 their way to Port San Antonio, to boil their oil ; but I recom- 

 mended Bougainville, or (as the sealers call it) Jack"'s Harbour, 

 as more convenient for their purpose, and more secure from 

 storms, as well as from troublesome visits of the natives. 



Upon my offering to restore the three deserters to the Ux- 

 bridge, Mr. Low requested me to keep them, and another, also, 

 who was anxious to join the Adventure, to which I consented, 

 as the Adelaide wanted men. 



A few days after Mr. Low's departure, he returned in a 

 whale-boat to ask assistance in repairing the Uxbridge's rudder. 

 By our help it was soon made serviceable, and she was enabled 

 to prosecute her voyage, which could not otherwise have been 

 continued. 



The Adelaide being ready for sea : her first service was to be 

 an examination of the St. Sebastian Channel, which, from its 

 delineation on the old charts, would seem to penetrate through 

 the large eastern island of Tierra del Fuego. In the voyage of 

 the Nodales (in the year 1618), an opening on the eastern coast, 

 supposed to be the mouth of a channel, communicating with 

 the Strait of Magalhaens, was discovered. After describing the 

 coast to the south of Cape Espiritu Santo, the journal of that 

 voyage states : " We found, in the channel of St. Sebastian, 

 twenty fathoms clear ground. The north shore is a beach of 

 white sand, five leagues in extent, stretching out from the high 

 land that terminates at Cape Espiritu Santo, and giving the 

 coast here the appearance of a deep bay ; but, on a nearer 

 approach, a projecting tract of low shore is observed. The 

 south extremity of this low beach is a sandy point, round which 

 the channel trends ; the mouth is a league and a half wide. 

 The south shore is higher than the land to the northward, and 

 in the middle of the bay the depth is from fifteen to twenty 

 fathoms clear ground, and a good bottom ; but from mid- 

 channel to the south shore the bottom is stony, and the water, 

 of little depth, there being only six and seven fathoms. From 



