84 
VOYAGE TO THE 
and is at the head of civil and military affairs. According 
to the very favourable accounts which have been given by 
Kotzebue and other visitants, I expected to have been much 
pleased with the beauty and grandeur of the place. It did 
not, however, appear to me at all equal to the majestic 
views I had been so lately in the habit of contemplating at 
Rio. Among the hills and woods of the mainland, the huts 
of the inhabitants are interspersed. We collected our fowls 
and ducks from them, and did not find the article of poultry 
so cheap as we had expected. This may be attributed to 
the recent arrival of two Russian ships, which had anchored 
here for a month, and which sailed only the week before our 
arrival, having pretty well drained the country of live stock. 
Bananas, grapes, and other fruits, were exceedingly cheap; 
ripe oranges 1000 per dollar, and potatoes small but very 
good. 
Jan. 1st, 1825. Having completed our provisions, and 
prepared our rigging for the stormy latitudes of Cape Horn, 
we sailed on New Year’s Hay from 8t. Catherine’s, and with 
little interruption, except being becalmed for three days 
under the bleak heights of Statenland, we reached our 
southernmost latitude, 58° 52', on the 20th; the thermo¬ 
meter never having sunk below 39°. On our passage 
j 
