PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
11 
The cape mistaken for Cape Horn by Lord Anson bore N. 49° E., and CHAP, 
the promontory designated York Minster by Captain Cook, W. by N. 
The coast was bold, rocky, and much broken, and every here and there Sept, 
deeply indented, as if purposely to afford a refuge from the pitiless gales 
which occasionally beat upon it. The general appearance of the land- 
scape was any thing but exhilarating to persons recently removed from 
the delightful scenery of Rio Janeiro ; and we were particularly struck 
with the contrast between the romantic and luxurious scenery of that 
place and the bleak coast before us, where the snow, filling the valleys 
and fissures, gave the barren projections a darker hue and a more rugged 
outline than they in reality possessed. 
'^ith the land, the water became discoloured, and 
speci ca y ighter than that in the offing, whence it was concluded that 
some rivers emptied themselves into the sea in the vicinity. In the even- 
ing it became necessary to stand off the coast ; and we experienced the 
disadvantages of the offing, by getting into the stream of the easterly 
current, and by the increase of both wind and sea *. ^Ve stood to the 
westward again as soon as it could be done ; and on the 26th were fifty 
leagues due west of Cape Pillar, a situation from which there is no dif- 
ficulty in making the remainder of the passage. 
We now, for a time at least, bade adieu to the shores of Tierra del 
Fuego, whose coast and climate we quitted with far more favourable im- 
pressions than those under which they were approached. This, I think, 
e the case with every man-of-war that passes it, excepting the 
ew t at may be particularly unfortunate in their weather ; for early 
navij^ation has stamped it with a character which will ever be coupled 
wit 1 its name, notwithstanding its terrors are gradually disappearing 
before the progressive improvement in navigation. It must be admitted 
we were much favoured ; few persons, probably, who effect the passage, 
will have it in their power to say they were only a week from the 
* It is a curious fact, that on this day, at a distance of only fifty leagues from where we 
were, it blew a strong gale of wind, with a high sea, which washed away the bulwark of a fine 
brig, the Hellespont, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Parker, R. N., to whom I am in- 
debted for this and other interesting information on the winds and currents encountered 
by lum in his passage. 
