90 
VOYAGE TO THE 
being sharply engaged. But their firing did not seem to 
do much execution; and we believe they left off, after some 
hours’ engagement, without loss on either side *. The 
Sandwich Island chiefs were extremely interested at the 
sight, and asked numerous very sensible questions as to the 
various operations of the day. Of course we did not at¬ 
tempt to go ashore here, and were therefore unable to see 
either the famous forts of Callao or the city of Lima. 
March 17.—We sailed from Callao and steered for the 
Gallapagos, where we intended to water and lay in a stock 
of terrapin or land-turtle for our voyage across the Pacific. 
Friday, March 25.—Early in the morning we made 
Charles’s Island, the southernmost of the Gallapagos; and 
though we had first intended to have cut wood there, yet 
fearing that we should not, in that case, reach the little har¬ 
bour in Albemarle Island before night, we passed it without 
landing, and shortly afterwards left the Isles of Hood and 
Chatham to leeward. Charles’s Island is about three miles 
in length and a thousand feet in height; the rocks seem to 
be covered with the prickly pear (Cactus ficus Indicus), 
and, as in all the others of the group, the mangrove adorns 
* Callao, so gallantly defended by Rodil, surrendered to the patriot force 
1826, and Chiloe, where Quintanella had held out 12 years, shortly after; 
these two spots were the last where the mother country retained any force on 
the continent of South America. 
