1829. 



DESE'CHO OSOlllO SAN TADEO. 



327 



took to a branch of it that ran first to the eastward, and then 

 to the north ward/** There they landed, took the canoes to pieces, 

 and carried them over the isthmus ; then putting them toge- 

 ther again, re-embarked, and proceeded through the Chonos 

 Archipelago to Chiloe. 



When at Chiloe, I saw an old man, Pedro Osorio, who had 

 been in two of the last missionary voyages (in 1769 and 1778), 

 to the Guaineco Islands ; where the Wager was wrecked. He 

 related to me the particulars of these voyages, and gave me an 

 account of the ' Desecho,' over which the missionaries trans- 

 ported their piraguas. He also remembered Byron and his 

 companions ; and described them by the following names : — 

 Don David (Captain David Cheap) ; Don Juan (J ohn Byron) ; 

 Hamerton (Hamilton) ; and Plasta. The name Plasta is not 

 once mentioned in Byron's Narrative ; but on referring to 

 Bulkeley's and Cumming's account, one Plastow is described as 

 the captain's servant ; and perhaps he was one of the number 

 who remained with Captain Cheap, (z) Pedro Osorio must have 

 been upwards of ninety years of age, in ]829.(«) A detailed 

 account of these voyages is given in Agiieros's Historical Descrip- 

 tion of the province of Chiloe, p. 205. 



Captain Stokes's ' Dead-tr^^e Island,' in the entrance of San 

 Estevan Gulf, is near the 'Cirujano Island ' (Surgeon Island) of 

 those voyages. Pedro Osorio told me that it was so called, 

 because the surgeon of the Wager died there. From Byron's 

 Narrative it would appear, that the surgeon died, and was 

 buried, just before they embarked to cross the sound. — See 

 Byron, p. 147. 



As the examination of the River San Tadeo, and the dis- 

 covery of the ' Desecho,' formed a part of Lieutenant Skyring's 

 instructions, he proceeded up it, in a whale-boat, accompanied 

 by Mr. Kirke. The entrance of the river is blocked up by a 

 bar of sand and stones, which, at low spring-tide, must be 

 nearly dry ; and a heavy swell breaks upon its whole length, 

 joining the surf of the beach, on each side ; so that there is 



fzj Could ' Plasta' refer to Alexander Campbell ?— R. F. 

 raj Pi^dro Osorio died at San Carlos in 1832.— R. F. 



