SEARCHING BOTANICAL SPECIMENS. 



465 



allow Mr. Banks to collect plants upon the shore. He could not 

 understand the transit of Venus over the sun, which he was told 

 was an astronomical phenomenon of great importance, — having 

 gathered the idea from his interpreter that it was the passage of 

 the North Star through the South Pole. On Wednesday, the 

 7th of December, they again weighed anchor, and left the Ameri- 

 can dominions of the King of Portugal, the air at the time being 

 laden with butterflies, and several thousands of them hovering 

 playfully about the mast-head. 



Towards the 1st of January, 1769, the sailors began to com- 

 plain of cold, and each of them received a Magellanic jacket. 

 On the 11th, in the midst of penguins, albatrosses, sheer-waters, 

 seals, whales, and porpoises, they descried the Falkland Islands, 

 and, soon after, the coast of Terra del Fuego. On the 15th, ten 

 or twelve of the company went on shore, and were met by 

 thirty or forty of the natives. Each of the latter had a small 

 stick in his hand, which he threw away, seeming to indicate by 

 this pantomime a renunciation of weapons in token of peace. 

 Acquaintance was then speedily made : beads and ribbons were 

 distributed, and a mutual confidence and good-will produced. 

 Conversation ensued, — if speaking without conveying a meaning, 

 and listening without comprehending, can be called so. Three 

 Indians accompanied the strangers back to the ship. One of 

 them, apparently a priest, performed a ceremony of exorcism, 

 vociferating with all his force at each new portion of the vessel 

 which met his gaze, seemingly for the purpose of dispelling the 

 influence of magic which he supposed to prevail there. 



A botanical party under Solander and Banks attempted an 

 excursion into the interior, for the purpose of obtaining speci- 

 mens of the plants of the country. The snow lay deep upon 

 the ground, and the weather was very severe. An accident 

 rendered it impossible for them to return to the ship ; and they 

 were compelled to pass the night, without shelter, among the 



mountains. Solander well knew that extreme cold, when joined 

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