PORTER 'S JOURNAL, 



93 



Struck, her boarding-nettings triced up, and in appearance 

 prepared for defence. A large and clumsj-looking Eng- 

 lish brig was also lying there with her sails uiibent, her crew 

 employed in tarring down her rigging. Being very hght, 

 I concluded she was a whaler repairing her damages after 

 her passage around Cape Horn ; and calculating that she 

 might put to sea in a few days, I determined on running 

 some distance to the northward, and then beating up, be- 

 lieving my chance of intercepting her, as Well as of obtain- 

 ing a knowledge of the departure of the Spanish ships, would 

 be more likely by pursuing this plan than any other. I con- 

 sequently stood to the northward ; and as soon as we took 

 the bree2;e again, made ail sail, and in four hours w^e were 

 thirty miles from Valparaiso. The wind now dying away, 

 and believing my distance sufficiently great to avoid being 

 seen, I hauled on a wind to the westward. In the course 

 of this run, in which w^e made a north course from the 

 point of Angels, wx perceived two reefs of rocks, that lay 

 a considerable distance from the shore ; the first, three 

 leagues from Valparaiso, and one mile from the coast; the 

 second,, of greater extent, twenty miles from Valparaiso, 

 and two miles from the coast. On both these reefs the 

 sea breaks with great violence, and several of the rocks 

 show themselves out of ^vater. These were the only dan- 

 gers that we discovered ; the rest of the coast appeared 

 safe and bold, and had the same dismal appearance as that 

 we had seen to the southward, with the exception of nu- 

 merous herds of cattle, which w^ere grazing on the sun- 

 burnt hills. 



On the morning of the 15th, we succeeded in getting off 

 the point of Angels, which 1 ranged at two cables' length 

 from a few scattering rocks which lay at the distance of 

 about a cable's length from the shore. We had been run- 

 rtiufy in with a good breeze, but it died av/ay calm off the 

 point, when we furled all sails, and put our drags into ope- 

 ration to get into the harbour ; but in the mean time de- 

 spatched lieutenant Downes to inform the governor that we 

 were an American frigate greatly in need of supplies of 

 every kind, that our wants were greatly augmented by the 

 loss of our store-ship off Cape Florn ; and that we threw^ 

 ourselves on his hospitahty* I was induced to use this iif~ 

 tie artifice from a knowledge of the unaccommodating dis- 



