72 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Departure — Voyage round Cape Horn — Cape Pig-eons. 



Two weeks were happily spent at Rio, which will be long 

 remembered by the writer, and many of his companions, who 

 shared the elegant hospitalities of our countrymen and others 

 there. To Mr. Brown, our Charge d' Affaires, and Mr. Wright, 

 our Consul, we were indebted for many civilities, and great 

 kindness. 



At daylight, on the 10th of September, 1831, being ready 

 for sea, we got underway, with a light land breeze, and fan- 

 ned" out of the magnificently picturesque harbor of Rio Ja- 

 neiro, and again tossed on the Atlantic, towards the boisterous 

 regions ruled by the Cape Spirit ! 



** Farewell to the land where the clouds love to rest, 

 Like the shroud of the dead on the mountain's cold breast j 

 To the cataract's roar, where the eagles reply. 

 And the lake her lone bosom expands to the sky !" 



Before sunset, Cape Frio was lost sight of, and we only 

 thought of the storms we might encounter in passing into " Le 

 Grand Ocean," as the French most emphatically term the 

 Pacific. 



Cape Horn appears to be truly the patria nimborum. Very 

 few days of the year, summer or winter, are cloudless ; they 

 are all the same, cold and stormy. I have passed it four times ; 

 once in summer, once in winter, once in spring, and once in 

 the autumn. In all these passages, the thermometer sank as 

 low as 32° F., and was, on no one day, above fifty. I have 

 conversed with sealers, who have spent whole years on the 

 cape ; with whalemen, who have doubled it in every month in 

 the year j with the masters of merchant vessels, trading to the 

 Pacific j and they all concur in giving a stormy character to 

 this region. I have also examined the log-books of many ves- 



