BEAUTIES OF RIO--MONTE VIDEO--STRAITS OF MAGELLAN--
TIERRA DEL FUEGO--ARRIVAL AT SANDY POINT--PREPARATIONS
FOR THE START--OUR OUTFIT--OUR GUIDES.
I could not repress a pang of regret as we steamed slowly out of Rio
Harbour. There may be scenes more impressively sublime; there are,
without doubt, landscapes fashioned on a more gigantic scale; by the
side of the Himalayas or the Alps, the mountains around Rio are
insignificant enough, and one need not go out of England in search for
charming and romantic scenery. But nowhere have the rugged and the
tender, the wild and the soft, been blended into such exquisite
_union_ as at Rio, and it is this quality of unrivalled contrasts,
that, to my mind, gives to that scenery its charm of unsurpassed
loveliness. Nowhere else is there such audacity, such fierceness even
of outline, coupled with such multiform splendour of colour, such
fairy-like delicacy of detail. As a precious jewel is encrusted by the
coarse rock, the smiling bay lies encircled by frowning mountains of
colossal proportions and the most capricious shapes. In the production
of this work the most opposite powers of nature have been laid under
contribution. The awful work of the volcano; the immense boulders of
rock which lie piled up to the clouds in irregular masses, have been
clothed in a brilliant web of tropical vegetation, spun from sunshine
and mist. Here nature revels in manifold creation, life multiplies
itself a million fold, the soil bursts with exuberance of fertility,
and the profusion of vegetable and animal life beggars description.
Every tree is clothed with a thousand luxuriant creepers, purple and
scarlet-blossomed; they in their turn support myriads of lichens and
other verdant parasites. The plants shoot up with marvellous rapidity,
and glitter with flowers of the rarest hues and shapes, or bear
quantities of luscious fruit, pleasant to the eye and sweet to the
taste. The air resounds with the hum of insect-life; through the
bright green leaves of the banana skim the sparkling humming-birds,
and gorgeous butterflies of enormous size float, glowing with every
colour of the rainbow on the flower-scented breezes. But over all this
beauty, over the luxuriance of vegetation, over the softness of the
tropical air, over the splendour of the sunshine, over the perfume of
the flowers, Pestilence has cast her fatal miasmas, and, like the
sword of Damocles, the yellow fever hangs threateningly over the head
of those who dwell among these lovely scenes. Nature, however, is not
to be blamed for this drawback to one of her most charming creations.
With better drainage and cleanlier habits amongst its population,
there is no reason why Rio should not be a perfectly healthy place. To
exorcise the demon who annually scourges its people, no acquaintance
with the black art is necessary. The scrubbing-brush and Windsor
soap--"this only is the witchcraft need be used." Four days after
leaving Rio we arrived at Monte Video, but as we came from an infected
port we were put into quarantine, much to our disgust, and were of
course unable to go on shore. After we had discharged what cargo we
carried for Monte Video, we proceeded to a little island, where we
were to land the quarantine passengers, amongst whom was my brother
Queensberry, who wanted to stop in Monte Video for a fortnight,
following us by the next steamer. The quarantine island, which was a
bare rocky little place, did not look at all inviting, and I certainly
did not envy my brother his three-days' stay on it. He told me
afterwards that he had never passed such a miserable time in all his
life, the internal domestic arrangements being most primitive.
The days after leaving Monte Video passed swiftly enough, as it had
got comparatively cool, and we were able to have all kinds of games on
deck. After seven days at sea, early one morning we sighted Cape
Virgins, which commands the north-eastern entrance to the Straits of
Magellan. The south-eastern point is called Cape Espiritu Santo; the
distance between the two capes being about twenty-two miles. Whilst we
were threading the intricate passage of the First Narrows, which are
not more than two miles broad, I scanned with interest the land I had
come so many thousand miles to see--Patagonia at last! Desolate and
dreary enough it looked, a succession of bare plateaus, not a tree nor
a shrub visible anywhere; a grey, shadowy country, which seemed hardly
of this world; such a landscape, in fact, as one might expect to find
on reaching some other planet. Much as I had been astonished by the
glow and exuberance of tropical life at Rio, the impression it had
made on my mind had to yield in intensity to the vague feelings of awe
and wonder produced by the sight of the huge barren solitudes now
before me.
After passing the Second Narrows, Elizabeth Island, so named by Sir
Francis Drake, came in sight. Its shores were covered with wild fowl
and sea-birds, chiefly shag. Flocks of these birds kept flying round
the ship, and the water itself, through which we passed, literally
teemed with gulls and every imaginable kind of sea-fowl. We were soon
abreast of Cape Negro, about fourteen miles from Sandy Point. Here the
character of the country suddenly changes, for Cape Negro is the point
of the last southerly spur of the Cordilleras, which runs along the
coast, joining the main ridge beyond Sandy Point. All these spurs,
like the Cordilleras themselves, are clothed with beech forests and
thick underwood of the magnolia species, a vegetation, however, which
ends as abruptly as the spurs, from the thickly-wooded sides of which,
to the completely bare plains, there is no graduation whatever.
As we went along we passed a couple of canoes containing Fuegians, the
inhabitants of the Tierra del Fuego, but they were too far off to
enable me to judge of their appearance, though I should have liked to
have had a good look at them. They are reputed to be cannibals, and no
doubt justly so. I have even been told that in winter, when other food
is scarce, they kill off their own old men and women, though of
course they prefer a white man if obtainable.
At one o'clock we cast anchor off Sandy Point. This settlement is
called officially by the Chileans, to whom it belongs, "La Colonia de
Magellanes." It was formerly only a penal colony, but in consequence
of the great increase of traffic through the Straits, the attention of
the Chilian Government was drawn to the importance the place might
ultimately assume, and, accordingly, grants of land and other
inducements were offered to emigrants. But the colony up to the
present has never flourished as was expected, and during a mutiny
which took place there in 1877, many of the houses were burned down,
and a great deal of property destroyed. As the steamer was to leave in
two hours, we began preparations for landing, but meantime the breeze,
which had sprung up shortly after our arrival, freshened into a gale,
and the sea grew so rough that it was impossible to lower a boat, and
the lighters that had come off shore to fetch away cargo dared not go
back. The gale lasted all day and the greater part of the night,
calming down a little towards three o'clock in the morning. Every
effort was accordingly made to get us on shore, the alternative being
that we should have to go on with the steamer to Valparaiso, the
Company's regulations not allowing more than a certain length of time
to be spent at Sandy Point. As may be imagined, we by no means liked
the idea of such a possible consummation, and the weather was eagerly
scanned, whilst our luggage and traps were being hurried over the
sides, as a fresh increase in the strength of the wind would have been
fatal.
At last all was ready; we said good-bye to the captain and officers,
to whose kindness during the voyage we were so much indebted for our
enjoyment of our trip on board the "Britannia"--and climbing down the
gangway took our seats in the boat which was to carry us ashore. I
felt quite sad as we rowed away, leaving behind us the good ship which
we had come to look upon as a home, and for which I at least felt
almost a personal affection.
After a long pull, during which the contrary wind and tide bade fair
to set at nought the efforts of the four strong sailors who rowed us
ashore, we at last came alongside the old tumble-down wooden pier,
which forms the landing stage at Sandy Point. We succeeded in reaching
its end without incurring any mishap, though we ran considerable risk
from the many dangers with which it bristled, in the shape of sudden
yawning holes, and treacherously shifting planks. This pier, however,
had the merit--a questionable one it is true--of being in keeping with
the appearance and condition of the whole colony to which it served as
a warning introduction. I suppose there possibly may be drearier
looking places than the town of Sandy Point, but I do not think it is
probable; and as we walked over the sand-covered beach in front of the
settlement, and surveyed the gloomy rows of miserable wooden huts, the
silent, solitary streets, where, at that moment, not a single living
being was to be seen, save some hungry-looking ostrich-hound, we all
agreed that the epithet of "God-forsaken hole" was the only
description that did justice to the merits of this desolate
place,--nor did subsequent and fuller acquaintance with it by any
means induce us to alter this unfavourable opinion.
Proceeding under the guidance of Mr. Dunsmuir, the English Consul, we
halted about two hundred yards from the pier, at a house which, we
were informed, was the principal shop and inn in the place. It was not
an ambitious establishment. Its interior consisted of a ground-floor
containing two rooms, of which one served as a shop, and the other as
a sitting room. This last apartment we secured as a storeroom for our
luggage and equipments, and there also we ate our meals during our
sojourn in Sandy Point. The upper portion of this magnificent dwelling
was a kind of loft, in one corner of which was a small compartment,
which my brother and Mr. B. used as a bedroom. Through the kindness of
Mr. Dunsmuir my husband and myself were lodged very comfortably in his
own house.
Our first experience of "roughing it," in the shape of the breakfast
with which Pedro the innkeeper supplied us, being over, we sauntered
up through the grass-grown streets of the colony to the house of Mr.
Dunsmuir, from which, as it stands on high ground, we obtained a good
view of the Straits and the opposite shores of the Tierra del Fuego.
The "Britannia" had already weighed anchor, and for a long time we
watched her steaming away through the Straits, till, growing gradually
smaller and smaller, she at last disappeared in the haze of the
distant horizon. And now that the last link, as it were, of the chain
which bound me to old England was gone, for the first time I began to
fully _realise_ the fact that we were ten thousand miles away from our
home and our friends, alone amidst strange faces and wild scenes; and
it required almost an effort to banish the impression that the whole
thing was a dream, from which I was presently to awaken and find
myself back in England again.
Our anxiety to leave Sandy Point as soon as possible hastened
preparations we had to make before starting; but even with every wish
to get away, there was so much to be done that we calculated we should
not be ready to start for at least four days. There were guides to be
found, good dogs to be bought, and, above all, suitable horses to be
hired or purchased. Numbers of these latter animals were brought for
our inspection, from among which we selected about fifty, of whose
merits and failings I shall have to speak at a later occasion. We
found the charges for everything ridiculously high, and though no
doubt we were cheated on all sides, there was nothing to be done but
to accept the prices and conditions demanded, as guides were not
plentiful, and the other necessities procurable nowhere else.
A whole day was spent in unpacking the provisions and equipments we
had brought from England, and in putting them into canvas bags, so as
to be conveniently portable on horseback. For the benefit of those who
may contemplate an expedition similar to ours, I give the following
list of the articles and provisions we took with us. We limited
ourselves, I may say _en passant_, to such things as were absolutely
indispensable, the disadvantages arising from being burdened with
unnecessary luggage on such a trip being self-evident:--Two small
tents (_tentes d'abri_), 2 hatchets, 1 pail, 1 iron pot for cooking, 1
frying-pan, 1 saucepan, biscuits, coffee, tea, sugar, flour, oatmeal,
preserved milk, and a few tins of butter, 2 kegs of whisky.
To the above we added a sack of yerba maté, of which herb we all grew
so fond that we ultimately used it to the complete exclusion of tea
and coffee, although at first we by no means agreed with the
enthusiastic description of its merits given by Mr. B., at whose
recommendation we had taken it.
Our personal outfit consisted, in addition to a few changes of woollen
underclothing, in a guanaco-fur mantle, a rug or two, a sheath-knife
and revolver; besides, of course, the guns and rifles we had brought
for sporting purposes. The cartridges for the latter, of which
we had a great number, formed the heaviest item of weight; but
notwithstanding the care we had used in our calculations, so as not to
take more provisions than we wanted, the goodly pile which was formed
when all our luggage was heaped together was rather alarming, and we
found that twelve horses at least would be required to carry it.
Fortunately we were able to procure three mules, who, between them,
carried more than six horses could have done, without, moreover,
suffering half as much as the latter in condition from fatigue, or the
severe heat which we occasionally encountered.
We selected our guides from among a number who offered their services.
We chose four; two Frenchmen, an Argentine gaucho, and a nondescript
creature, an inhabitant of Sandy Point, I'Aria by name, who had
accompanied Captain Musters on his expedition. This I'Aria was a
dried-up-looking being of over sixty, but he proved a useful servant,
notwithstanding his age. He was a beautiful rider; and, considering
his years, wonderfully active and enduring. As long as we remained in
Sandy Point, however, he was of little use to us, as he was never by
any chance sober, though, strange to say, when once we left the
settlement, he became a total abstainer, and stoutly refused, during
the whole of the trip, to take any liquor that was offered to him. His
face, the skin of which, from long exposure to wind and weather, had
acquired the consistency of parchment, was one mass of wrinkles, and
burnt almost black by the sun, while the watchful, cunning expression
of his twinkling bead-like eyes added to his wild appearance, the
Mephistophelian character of which earned for him the sobriquet of
"The devil's agent for Patagonia." He had passed more than forty years
of his life on the pampa, and was, therefore, well qualified to act as
guide. Of the others, Gregorio gave us most satisfaction, and served
us all through the trip with untiring zeal and fidelity. He was a
good-looking man, of about forty, and added to the other
accomplishments of his craft as gaucho, a slight knowledge of English.
His ordinary occupation was that of an Indian trader, and at one time
of his career he had owned a small schooner, with which he used to go
seal-hunting in the season. One of the Frenchmen, François, whose
original profession had been that of a cook, proved most useful to us
in that capacity, and played the changes on what would otherwise have
been a slightly monotonous diet of guanaco and ostrich meat, in a
marvellous manner. His career, like Gregorio's, had been a chequered
one. After having served during the Franco-Prussian war as a Chasseur
d'Afrique, he left his country with three companions to start some
business in South America, on the failure of which he turned his
attention to ostrich-hunting. He was a cheery, handsome little fellow,
and was possessed, moreover, of an excellent voice, and whether at
work by the camp-fire, or riding on the march, was always to be heard
singing merrily. He owned two very good ostrich-dogs; one, a handsome
Scotch deer hound called "Leona," the other a black wiry dog called
"Loca," a cross between an African greyhound and an English lurcher.
Gregorio had only one dog, but it was the best of the lot, often
managing to run down an ostrich singly, a feat which requires immense
stamina and gameness, and which none of the other dogs were able to
perform.
As to Guillaume I need say nothing, except that all our party disliked
him very much.
After four days' hard work our preparations for departure were nearly
completed, though a little yet remained to be done. Anxious, however,
to get out of Sandy Point, we resolved to start off with the greater
part of the packs and horses, and to await the coming of the remainder
in the beech-wood at Cabo Negro, some fifteen miles away from the
colony.