SARMIENTO MODERN SURVEYS. 



565 



Strait oF Magalhaens) to the island of Childe, may be said to 

 have been wholly unknown ; for since the time of Sarmiento de 

 Gamboa nothing in the least descriptive of it had been pub- 

 lishedj with the exception of the brief notices of two missionary 

 voyages in piraguas, from Chiloe to the Guiateca and Guaianeco 

 islands. 



Every person conversant with South American geography, must 

 be acquainted with the voyage of Sarmiento. From the deter- 

 mined perseverance shown by that excellent and skilful navigator, 

 through difficulties of no ordinary nature, we are possessed of 

 the details of a voyage down the western coast, and through the 

 Strait of Magalhaens, that has never been surpassed. His journal 

 has furnished us with the description of a coast more difficult and 

 dangerous to explore than any which could readily be selected — for 

 it was at that time perfectly unknown, and is exposed to a climate 

 of perpetual storms and rain : yet the account is written with such 

 minute care and correctness, that we have been enabled to detect 

 upon our charts almost every place described in the Gulf of 

 Trinidad, and the channels to the south of it, particularly their 

 termination at his Ancon sin Salida. 



It would be irrelevant to enter here into the history of Sar- 

 miento's voyage, or indeed of any other connected with these 

 coasts. Modern surveys are made so much more in detail than 

 those of former years, that little use can be made of the charts 

 and plans that have been hitherto formed ; but the accounts of the 

 voyages connected with them are replete^ with interesting and 

 useful matter, and much amusement as well as information may be 

 derived from their perusal, particularly Sir John Narborough's 

 journal, and Byron's romantic and pathetic narrative of the loss of 

 the Wager. 



The Cordillera of the Andes, which is known to extend from 

 the northern part of the continent almost to its southern extremity, 

 decreases in elevation near the higher southern latitudes. In the 

 neighbourhood of Quito, Chimborazo and Pinchincha rear their 

 summits to the height of nearly twenty-two thousand feet above 

 the level of the sea ; near Santiago de Chile the highest land is 

 supposed to be fourteen thousand feet ; farther south, near Con- 

 cepcion, it is lower ; and near Childe there are few parts of the 

 range exceeding seven thousand feet. Between Childe and the 



