94 
SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
an anxious passage under sail. On the 19th, in latitude 
62° 40' S. and longitude 6o° W. he thought he saw land. 
Night fell before he could make quite sure and he pru- 
dently hauled off to the north for the few hours of dark- 
ness of the southern summer night and stood south again 
next day when the land appeared to him to be unmistak- 
able. 
He happened to have a valuable cargo on board and 
being himself part owner of the ship he was afraid to run 
the risk of a storm descending upon him when off an un- 
known coast ; being afraid too that the underwriters might 
make trouble about his insurances if he were to convert 
a coasting trip into a voyage of discovery, he resumed 
his course and reached Valparaiso in due time. Smith 
spoke of his discovery to the English residents at the 
Chilean port, but was only laughed at for his pains, and 
it would appear that some of his ship's company thought 
that no land had been seen but merely icebergs. It was 
about mid-winter (June, 1819) before Smith obtained a 
return cargo, and although he ran south to 62° 12' he saw 
nothing of the land and nearly got caught in the sea-ice 
from which he was glad to escape even without con- 
firmation of his discovery. At Montevideo as at Val- 
paraiso incredulity and ridicule were all he received from 
his countrymen, but a party of Americans approached 
him desirous of further information and promising to 
charter his brig for a sealing voyage on very favourable 
terms if he would only tell them the exact position of 
the alleged new land. 
In order to understand the keenness of international 
rivalry at this period we must remember that three Amer- 
ican whale-ships went round Cape Horn for every one 
under the British flag. Reckless extermination was the 
