Arrival at the Falkland Isles.--Landing.--Perilous Situation of the
Author and some of his Companions.--Portrait of Captain
Thorn.--Cape Horn.--Navigation to the Sandwich Islands.
On the 4th (Dec.) in the morning, I was not the last to mount on deck,
to feast my eyes with the sight of land; for it is only those who have
been three or four months at sea, who know how to appreciate the
pleasure which one then feels even at sight of such barren and bristling
rocks as form the Falkland Isles. We drew near these rocks very soon,
and entered between two of the islands, where we anchored on a good
ground. The first mate being sent ashore to look for water, several of
our gentlemen accompanied him. They returned in the evening with the
disappointing intelligence that they had not been able to find fresh
water. They brought us, to compensate for this, a number of wild geese
and two seals.
The weather appearing to threaten, we weighed anchor and put out to sea.
The night was tempestuous, and in the morning of the 5th we had lost
sight of the first islands. The wind blowing off land, it was necessary
to beat up all that day; in the evening we found ourselves sufficiently
near the shore, and hove to for the night. The 6th brought us a clear
sky, and with a fresh breeze we succeeded in gaining a good anchorage,
which we took to be Port Egmont, and where we found good water.
On the 7th, we sent ashore the water casks, as well as the cooper to
superintend filling them, and the blacksmiths who were occupied in some
repairs required by the ship. For our part, having erected a tent near
the springs, we passed the time while they were taking in water, in
coursing over the isles: we had a boat for our accommodation, and killed
every day a great many wild geese and ducks. These birds differ in
plumage from those which are seen in Canada. We also killed a great
many seals. These animals ordinarily keep upon the rocks. We also saw
several foxes of the species called _Virginia_ fox: they were shy and
yet fierce, barking like dogs and then flying precipitately. Penguins
are also numerous on the Falkland Isles. These birds have a fine
plumage, and resemble the loon: but they do not fly, having only little
stumps of wings which they use to help themselves in waddling along. The
rocks were covered with them. It being their sitting season we found
them on their nests, from which they would not stir. They are not wild
or timid: far from flying at our approach, they attacked us with their
bill, which is very sharp, and with their short wings. The flesh of the
penguin is black and leathery, with a strong fishy taste, and one must
be very hungry to make up one's mind to eat it. We got a great quantity
of eggs by dislodging them from their nests.
As the French and English had both attempted to form establishments on
these rocks, we endeavored to find some vestige of them; the tracks
which we met everywhere made us hope to find goats also: but all our
researches were vain: all that we discovered was an old fishing cabin,
constructed of whale bone, and some seal-skin moccasins; for these rocks
offer not a single tree to the view, and are frequented solely by the
vessels which pursue the whale fishery in the southern seas. We found,
however, two head-boards with inscriptions in English, marking the spot
where two men had been interred: as the letters were nearly obliterated,
we carved new ones on fresh pieces of board procured from the ship. This
pious attention to two dead men nearly proved fatal to a greater number
of the living; for all the casks having been filled and sent on board,
the captain gave orders to re-embark, and without troubling himself to
inquire if this order had been executed or not, caused the anchor to be
weighed on the morning of the 11th, while I and some of my companions
were engaged in erecting the inscriptions of which I have spoken, others
were cutting grass for the hogs, and Messrs M'Dougall and D. Stuart had
gone to the south side of the isle to look for game. The roaring of the
sea against the rock-bound shore prevented them from hearing the gun,
and they did not rejoin us till the vessel was already at sea. We then
lost no time, but pushed off, being eight in number, with our little
boat, only twenty feet keel. We rowed with all our might, but gained
nothing upon the vessel. We were losing sight of the islands at last,
and our case seemed desperate. While we paused, and were debating what
course to pursue, as we had no compass, we observed the ship tacking and
standing toward us. In fine after rowing for three hours and a half, in
an excited state of feeling not easily described, we succeeded in
regaining the vessel, and were taken on board at about three o'clock
P.M.
Having related this trait of malice on the part of our captain, I shall
be permitted to make some remarks on his character. Jonathan Thorn was
brought up in the naval service of his country, and had distinguished
himself in a battle fought between the Americans and the Turks at
Tripoli, some years before: he held the rank of first lieutenant. He
was a strict disciplinarian, of a quick and passionate temper,
accustomed to exact obedience, considering nothing but duty, and giving
himself no trouble about the murmurs of his crew, taking counsel of
nobody, and following Mr. Astor's instructions to the letter. Such was
the man who had been selected to command our ship. His haughty manners,
his rough and overbearing disposition, had lost him the affection of
most of the crew and of all the passengers: he knew it, and in
consequence sought every opportunity to mortify us. It is true that the
passengers had some reason to reproach themselves; they were not free
from blame; but he had been the aggressor; and nothing could excuse the
act of cruelty and barbarity of which he was guilty, in intending to
leave us upon those barren rocks of the Falkland isles, where we must
inevitably have perished. This lot was reserved for us, but for the bold
interference of Mr. B. Stuart, whose uncle was of our party, and who,
seeing that the captain, far from waiting for us, coolly continued his
course, threatened to blow his brains out unless he hove to and took us
on board.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS
_Boat and five passengers pulling after Ship Tonquin._]
We pursued our course, bearing S.S.W., and on the 14th, in latitude 54°
1', longitude 64° 18', we found bottom at sixty-five fathoms, and saw a
sail to the south. On the 15th, in the morning, we discovered before us
the high mountains of _Terra del fuego_, which we continued to see till
evening: the weather then thickened, and we lost sight of them. We
encountered a furious storm which drove us to the 56th degree and 18' of
latitude. On the 18th, we were only fifteen leagues from Cape Horn. A
dead calm followed, but the current carried us within sight of the cape,
five or six leagues distant. This cape, which forms the southern
extremity of the American continent, has always been an object of terror
to the navigators who have to pass from one sea to the other; several of
whom to avoid doubling it, have exposed themselves to the long and
dangerous passage of the straits of Magellan, especially when about
entering the Pacific ocean. When we saw ourselves under the stupendous
rocks of the cape, we felt no other desire but to get away from them as
soon as possible, so little agreeable were those rocks to the view, even
in the case of people who had been some months at sea! And by the help
of a land breeze we succeeded in gaining an offing. While becalmed here,
we measured the velocity of the current setting east, which we found to
be about three miles an hour.
The wind soon changed again to the S.S.W., and blew a gale. We had to
beat. We passed in sight of the islands of Diego Ramirez, and saw a
large schooner under their lee. The distance that we had run from New
York, was about 9,165 miles. We had frightful weather till the 24th,
when we found ourselves in 58° 16' of south latitude. Although it was
the height of summer in that hemisphere, and the days as long as they
are at Quebec on the 21st of June (we could read on deck at midnight
without artificial light), the cold was nevertheless very great and the
air very humid: the mercury for several days was but fourteen degrees
above freezing point, by Fahrenheit's thermometer. If such is the
temperature in these latitudes at the end of December, corresponding to
our June, what must it be in the shortest days of the year, and where
can the Patagonians then take refuge, and the inhabitants of the islands
so improperly named the Land of Fire!
The wind, which till the 24th had been contrary, hauled round to the
south, and we ran westward. The next day being Christmas, we had the
satisfaction to learn by our noon-day observation that we had weathered
the cape, and were, consequently, now in the Pacific ocean. Up to that
date we had but one man attacked with scurvy, a malady to which those
who make long voyages are subject, and which is occasioned by the
constant use of salt provisions, by the humidity of the vessel, and the
inaction.
From the 25th of December till the 1st of January, we were favored with
a fair wind and ran eighteen degrees to the north in that short space of
time. Though cold yet, the weather was nevertheless very agreeable. On
the 17th, in latitude 10° S., and longitude 110° 50' W., we took
several _bonitas_, an excellent fish. We passed the equator on the 23d,
in 128° 14' of west longitude. A great many porpoises came round the
vessel. On the 25th arose a tempest which lasted till the 28th. The wind
then shifted to the E.S.E. and carried us two hundred and twenty-four
miles on our course in twenty-four hours. Then we had several days of
contrary winds; on the 8th of February it hauled to the S.E., and on the
11th we saw the peak of a mountain covered with snow, which the first
mate, who was familiar with these seas, told me was the summit of
_Mona-Roah_, a high mountain on the island of _Ohehy_, one of those
which the circumnavigator Cook named the Sandwich Isles, and where he
met his death in 1779. We headed to the land all day, and although we
made eight or nine knots an hour, it was not till evening that we were
near enough to distinguish the huts of the islanders: which is
sufficient to prove the prodigious elevation of _Mona Roah_ above the
level of the sea.