438 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



Atlantic and discovered a group of islands, of which he took 

 possession for King George III. by the name of the Falkland 

 Islands. Here the seals and penguins were so numerous that it 

 was impossible to walk upon the beach without first driving them 

 awaj. Ttie men were also compelled to do battle and fight hand- 

 to-hand encounters with enormous and formidable sea-lions, and 

 with animals as large as a mastiff and as fierce as a wolf. On 

 returning to Port Desire, in February, 17G5, the whales about 

 the ship rendered the navigation dangerous, and one of them 

 blew a jet of water over the quarterdeck. The Florida arrived 

 about the same time, and the Dolphin and Tamar took from her 

 all the provisions they could store. They then entered the Strait, 

 and, for seven weeks and two days, struggled with the terrible 

 weather which at the period of the spring equinox prevails in 

 that tempestuous region. They made Cape Deseado on the 

 8th of April, and soon after entered the South Sea. 



Turning to the north as far as Juan Fernandez, and then 

 making a long stretch to the west, Byron discovered, on the 7th 

 of June, in 14° 5' south latitude and in 145° west longitude, a 

 group of islands covered with delightful groves and evidently 

 producing cocoanuts and bananas in abundance. Turtles were 

 seen upon the shore ; and the whole aspect of the island was 

 tropical and attractive in the extreme. But a violent surge 

 broke upon every point of the coast, and the steep coral rocks 

 which formed the shore rendered it unsafe to anchor. The 

 sailors, prostrated with scurvy, stood gazing at this little para- 

 dise with sensations of bitter regret ; and Byron accordingly 

 named the group the Islands of Disappointment. Two days 

 later, however, he discovered another group, to which he gave the 

 name of King George's Islands. Here the savages, in attempt- 

 ing to repel an invasion of their domain, provoked reprisals, and 

 two or three of them were killed : one, being pierced by threo 

 balls which went quite through his body, took up a large stone 

 and died in the act of throwing it. Byron obtained several boat- 



