182 



RETURN TO PORT FAMINE. 



Aug. 1828. 



Leaving Port Otway, she steered along the coast with, strange 

 to say, easterly winds and fine weather, which enabled Lieut. 

 Skyring to add much to the survey of the coast of Madre de 

 Dios. Captain Stokes now began to show symptoms of a malady, 

 that had evidently been brought on by the dreadful state of 

 anxiety he had gone through during the survey of the Gulf 

 of Penas. He shut himself up in. his cabin, becoming quite 

 listless, and inattentive to what was going on ; and after entering 

 the Strait of Magalhaens, on his return to Port Famine, he 

 delayed at several places without any apparent reason ; conduct 

 quite opposite to what his would naturally have been, had he 

 then been of sound mind. At last, want of provisions obliged 

 him to hasten to Port Famine ; and the day on which he arrived 

 every article of food was expended. 



The fatal event, which had cast an additional gloom over 

 every one, decided our quitting the Strait. Both ships were 

 immediately prepared, and we sailed on the 16th August ; 

 but previously, I appointed Lieutenant Skyring to act as com- 

 mander of the Beagle ; Mr. Flinn to be master of the Adven- 

 ture; and Mr. Millar, second master of the Adventure, to act 

 as master of the Beagle. The day we sailed, Mr. Flinn was 

 taken ill ; and. Lieutenant Wickham being on the sick list, I 

 was the only commissioned officer able to keep the deck. As the 

 wind was from the N.W., we were obliged to beat to wind- 

 ward all night, and the next morning were off Sandy Point ; 

 but it blew so very strong from the westward, and the wea- 

 ther was so thick from snow-squalls, which passed in rapid suc- 

 cession, that we bore up, and anchored in Freshwater Bay, 

 where the ships were detained by northerly winds until the 

 21st, when we proceeded; the wind, however, again opposing, 

 we anchored about half a mile from the shore, in a bight, 

 seven miles southward of Sandy Point. The following day we 

 were underweigh early, and reached Gregory Bay. When off 

 Elizabeth Island, I despatched the Beagle to Peckefs Harbour 

 to recall the Adelaide, in which Lieutenant Graves had been 

 sent to procure guanaco meat. The Beagle worked through, 

 between Elizabeth Island and Cape Negro, and was seen by 



