30th December 1833

Port Desire
We got underweigh at four o’clock & reached Guanaco Island by midday, as the weather was cold & wet, I determined to walk to the ship. It turned out to be a very long one, from the number of inlets & creeks: The geology well repaid me for my trouble, & I found likewise a small pool of quite fresh water.

29th December 1833

Port Desire
By the middle of the day the Yawl could not get any higher, from the shoalness of the water & the number of mud-banks. One of the party happening to taste the water found it only brackish. Mr Chaffers, directly after dinner started in the dingy, & after proceeding two or three miles found himself in a small fresh water river. Small as it is, it appears to me probable, that it flows from the Cordilleras, the water is muddy as if flooded, & this is the time of year for the snow freshes of the Colorado, Sauce &c. — Mr Chaffers saw in a little valley a lame horse, with his back marked by the saddle; so that the Indians must have left him there or were then in the neighbourhead. The views here were very fine & rude; the red porphyry rock rises from the water in perpendicular cliffs, or forms spires & pinnacles in its very course. Excepting in this respect the country is the same. At night we were all well pleased at our discovery of the little river; which, however, was no discovery as a Sealer had said some years ago that he had been up it.

28th December 1833

Port Desire
The Yawl, under the command of Mr Chaffers with three days provisions, was sent to survey the head of the creek. In the morning we searched for some watering places mentioned in an old Chart of the Spaniards. We found one creek, at the head of which there was a small rill of brackish water. Here the tide compelled us to stay some hours. I, in the interval, walked several miles into the interior.

The plain, as is universally the case, is formed of sandy chalk, & gravel; from the softness of these materials it is worn & cut up by very many vallies. There is not a tree, &, excepting the Guanaco, who stands on some hill top a watchful sentinel over his herd, scarcely an animal or a bird. All is stillness & desolation. One reflects how many centuries it has thus been & how many more it will thus remain. Yet in this scene without one bright object, there is a high pleasure, which I can neither explain or comprehend. In the evening, we sailed a few miles further & then pitched the tents for the night.

27th December 1833

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
While the Liebre was absent, Mr. Stokes, in the Paz, surveyed many miles of the river, as well as the bar. No vessel drawing more than eleven feet water can enter without much danger: if at a favourable time any person should be induced to risk crossing the bar with a ship of greater draught, he should bear in mind that it is much more difficult to get to sea than it is to enter, because wind which is fair for approaching, raises the water; and the reverse. Although ships drawing fourteen feet have passed the bar, at unusually favourable times, others of only ten feet draught have been detained forty days in the river.

26th December 1833

Port Desire
The Beagle is anchored opposite to a fort erected by the old Spaniards. It was formerly attempted to make a settlement here; but it quite failed from the want of water in the summer, & the Indians in the winter. The buildings were begun in very good style, & remain a proof of the strong hand of old Spain. Some of the enclosures & some cherry trees may yet be seen. The fate of all the Spanish establishments on the coast of Patagonia, with the exception of the R. Negro, has been miserable. Port Famine, as it is well known, expresses the sufferings of the settlers. At St Josephs, every man, excepting two, was massacred by the Indians on a Sunday when in church. The two were prisoners some years with the Indians; one of them, now in extreme old age, I conversed with at R. Negro.

I walked this day to some fine cliffs, five miles to the South: here the usual geological story, of the same great oyster bed being upheaved in modern days was very evident. In the evening weather very cold, & a Tierra del Fuego gale of wind.

Christmas Day 1833

Port Desire
After dining in the Gun-room, the officers & almost every man in the ship went on shore. The Captain distributed prizes to the best runners, leapers, wrestlers. These Olympic games were very amusing; it was quite delightful to see with what school-boy eagerness the seamen enjoyed them: old men with long beards & young men without any were playing like so many children. Certainly a much better way of passing Christmas day than the usual one, of every seaman getting as drunk as he possibly can.
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Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
His (Corporal Williams – see previous post) body was found, about three miles down the river, at sun-set the next evening (Christmas day). The governor (though a Roman catholic) allowed the burial to take place in the consecrated ground of the church, and the curate himself was present.
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Syms Covington’s Journal:
Here we spent our Christmas; THE ships company went on shore. The Captain put prizes up for wrestling, jumping in sacks, running,etc.

24th December 1833

Port Desire
Took a long walk on the North side: after ascending some rocks there is a great level plain, which extends in every direction but is divided by vallies. I thought I had seen some desert looking country near B. Bianca; but the land in this neighbourhood so far exceeds it in sterility, that this alone deserves the name of a desert. The plain is composed of gravel with very little vegetation & not a drop of water. In the vallies there is some little, but it is very brackish. It is remarkable that on the surface of this plain there are shells of the same sort which now exist & the muscles even with their usual blue colour. It is therefore certain, that within no great number of centuries all this country has been beneath the sea. Wretched looking as the country is, it supports very many Guanacoes. By great good luck I shot one; it weighed without its entrails &c 170 pounds: so that we shall have fresh meat for all hands on Christmas day.

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
At daylight on the 24th, Corporal Williams was missed, supposed to have fallen overboard in the night, while asleep. He slept on deck sometimes, when tormented by musquitoes; and as the Liebre's weather-cloth rail was but a few inches above the deck, he might possibly have rolled overboard into the stream, which would immediately have carried him away.

Syms Covington’s Journal:
This Port Desire is much the same as other parts of Patagonia, viz. sandy hills with very bad brackish water, and that obliged to dig for; but some of the valleys are very pleasant: in season there are plenty of wild cherries. They were nearly ripe at this time; I ate some which were rather tart, but tasted pleasant. Birds are not so numerous nor so splendid here as in many other parts of South America, but of course they are less well known. About this part no deer were seen, but immense quantities of guanacos, also lions, foxes, ostriches and aperea or guinea pig. The cliffs are full of fossil shells.

23rd December 1833

Port Desire (Puerto Deseado)
Arrived at Port Desire. Our passage has been a very long one of seventeen days; the winds generally being light & foul, with the exception of a fresh gale or two.

The Adventure delayed us: she is found not to sail well on a wind; & at this place her sails will be altered. The harbour of Port Desire, is a creek which runs up the country in the form of a river: the entrance is very narrow; but with a fine breeze, the Beagle entered in good style.

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
… the Liebre entered the river again, and anchored near Carmen.

Syms Covington’s Journal:
Coast of Patagonia, Port Desire. Arrived at Port Desire December 23rd; went upriver to water the same day. The river is about three quarters of a mile wide. On the North side stands the remains of a small Spanish settlement that formerly was there: several houses with small citadel large enough, I should think for a hundred people. The buildings are all of stone, but the inhabitants were found missing (some years since), and have never since been heard of. It is supposed they were massacred by the Indians; the Indians appear to have a mortal hatred of the Spaniards.

18th December 1833

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
A south-east gale on the 18th drove her into the Colorado, where Lieutenant Wickham found a strong outset, owing to the 'freshes,' even during the flood-tide.

16th December 1833

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
Mr. Wickham arrived at Argentina on the 16th, and left it on the following day. In sailing out of Blanco Bay, along the south shore, while it was dark, the Liebre grounded frequently; but her crew got overboard, and hauled her over the banks as often as she was stopped by them, and at midnight she was at sea.

13th December 1833

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
Off the banks in Anegada Bay there was too much sea (during a S.W. gale) for the Liebre to keep on her course any longer, having run as long as was prudent, and already shipped several seas. When hove-to, under a balance-reefed foresail, with the tiller unshipped, she was dry and easy, and lay about five points from the wind.

12th December 1833

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
On the 12th, Lieutenant Wickham sailed for Blanco Bay, to deliver some letters from me (which I had received from Buenos Ayres) to the commandant Rodriguez.

7th December 1833

M: Video to Port Desire
With a fair wind stood out of the river & by the evening were in clear water; never I trust again to enter the muddy water of the Plata. The Adventure kept ahead of us, which rejoiced us all, as there were strong fears about her sailing, it is a great amusement having a companion to gaze at. The following changes have taken place amongst the officers. Mr Wickham commands the Adventure; he has with him Mrs Johnstone & Forsyth & Mr Usborne as under-surveyor. Mr Kent from the Pylades has joined us as surgeon. Mr Martens is on board the Beagle filling the place which Mr Earle is obliged to vacate from ill health.
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Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
Running up the River Negro (on the 7th December), Lieut. Wickham found the 'freshes' strongly against him. The banks of the river afforded a pleasing contrast, by their verdure, to the arid desert around Anegada Bay. Most part of these banks was cultivated, and great quantities of fine corn was seen growing. Here and there were country houses (quintas) surrounded by gardens, in which apple, fig, walnut, cherry, quince, and peach trees, vines, and vegetables of most kinds were abundantly plentiful.

Although the banks of the river are so fit for cultivation, it is only in consequence of floods, which take place twice a-year—once during the rainy season of the interior, and once at the time when the snow melts on the Cordillera. These floods swell the river several feet above its banks, bringing a deposit of mud and decayed vegetable matter, which enriches the soil and keeps it moist even during the long droughts of that climate.

The plough used there is wooden, and generally worked by oxen, but it does not cut deeply. Manure is never used, the soil being so fattened by alluvial deposits.

The town of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, is about six leagues up the river, on its northern bank, upon a slightly-rising ground about forty feet above the water. It is irregularly built: the houses are small, one only having two stories; and glass windows are seldom seen: each house has a large oven. A square enclosure of some extent, formed by walls of unbaked bricks (adobes), is called the fort, and within it are the church, the governor's house, lodgings for the officers, and public stores. This fort commands the neighbourhood, as well as the houses (or cottages) surrounding it; and of the hundred buildings which compose the town of Carmen, exclusive of about thirty huts on the south bank of the river, the fort is the oldest. It was built about 1763. Some houses, forty years old, are as fresh in outward appearance, as if built only a few years ago. In a population of 1,400, there are about 500 negroes. Altogether there may be in the town about two thousand inhabitants, but many of the poorer families and negroes live in caves, which were dug out of cliffs on the river's bank by the first Spanish settlers. It is said that they served the Spaniards as a secure refuge from the Indians, who could only approach them by one path, easily secured. These caves, dug out of earthy clay, are not despicable dwellings, while there is a fire in them to expel damp.

About a league from the entrance of the river are the ruins of a large house, which was the "Estancia del Rey." In former days 100,000 head of cattle were attached to that establishment, now there is not even a calf.
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Some of the first settlers were living at Carmen in 1833, staunch royalists, every one looking back with regret to former times. One of them belonged to the crew of the Spanish launch that first entered the river. He said, that the Indians were then living in detached tribes along both banks of the river, and were very friendly to the Spaniards. This same old man afterwards made one of the exploring party, under Villarino, in 1786, when the natives were not only inoffensive, but gave them assistance. How different from the present day! when if a Christian is seen by the natives, he is immediately hunted, and his safety depends upon the fleetness of his horse. It has sometimes happened, that persons riding along near this river, have been surprized by a marauding party of Indians, and obliged, as their only resource, to leap off the banks (barrancas), whether high or low, and swim across to the other side. The Indians have never followed; hence this, though requiring resolution, is a sure mode of escape.

Prior to the conclusion of the war between Brazil and Buenos Ayres (1828), the settlers at Carmen lived tranquilly—undisturbed by Indian aggression (retaliation?) but since that time, they have been kept in continual alarm. Prisoners are often brought to Carmen to be ransomed, whom the Indians have taken from other places. They are generally women or children; and as the Indians often find out who their prisoners are, the ransoms asked are proportionably exorbitant. Men are usually put to death, if they do not die of their wounds. There is a tribe of friendly Indians living near Carmen, at the outskirts of the town, who do much hard work for the inhabitants for very trifling remuneration; but they are shamefully abused, cheated in every way by shopkeepers and liquor-venders, and harshly treated by other persons, who seem to consider them inferior beings—unworthy of any kind or humàne consideration. Should one of these poor creatures fall by the knife of a passionate white man, no notice is taken of it by the authorities; the murderer boasts of his deed, and the poor relations suffer patiently the loss and the insult, which they dare not avenge. Having quitted the free tribes, seduced by promises never fulfilled, they would not be received among them again; and their own numbers, originally small, are reduced daily by disease and abominable drugs, which the publicans sell them in what is said to be spirituous liquor (agua ardiente). Mr. Wickham saw a poor Indian woman, between forty and fifty years of age, almost killed by a blow on the head from an ox's skull (with the horns), given by a wretch, who had drawn his knife upon her husband for preventing his kissing a pretty girl, their daughter, who was walking with her. This scoundrel was seen by Mr. Wickham, a few days afterwards, betting at the race-course with the principal people of the place.

Thanks to the influence of Harris and Roberts, and their connections (both being married to daughters of Spanish settlers), our officers and men were exceedingly well treated. Every door was open to them; and the fruit in every garden was freely, as well as sincerely offered. Letters had been forwarded to the commandant or governor, from Buenos Ayres, desiring that we might have every facility and freedom in our operations; but the disposition towards us was such, that those letters were not required.

From the remains of former buildings, and accounts of the old men, Lieutenant Wickham thought that the Spanish settlers must have been far more industrious and ingenious than their creole descendants, who are idle, indolent, and ignorant. The height of their ambition is to make a show at the Sunday races, where they deceive, drink, wrangle, gamble, and quarrel. These Sabbath occupations are always attended by the female part of the population, who take that opportunity of displaying their finery; and though seated upon handkerchiefs on the sandy ground, without any defence from sun, wind, dust, or rain, every damsel displays silk stockings and a gaudy dress upon these occasions. The men do not go near them, notwithstanding their attire: they can beat a poor woman almost to death, upon occasion; but they cannot defer a bet, or risk losing a dollar, for the sake of female society.
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The climate is so healthy, that illness of any kind is scarcely known; and the inhabitants, in general, live to a good old age. There is a stirring trade carried on in small vessels, between Buenos Ayres and this place. Salt, of excellent quality, hides, peltry, seal or sea-elephant oil, and skins, are the principal exports, in return for which are received manufactures, sugar, spirits, tobacco, &c.

The Indians, who live at the outskirts of the town in 'toldos,' which are neither wind nor water-tight, load vessels with salt; but the price of their labour is usually spent in some kind of spirituous liquor, which is made and drugged expressly for them—the publicans often saying, "that it is a sin to give an Indian good spirits." When drunk, the howling of these poor wretches is quite frightful. Some of them are almost skeletons—the result, probably, of drinking.

Some leagues up the river coal is obtained, I was informed, but I did not see a specimen myself. Probably Mr. Darwin had an opportunity of examining its quality.

6th December 1833

M: Video to Port Desire
The Beagle got underweigh at 4 o’clock in the morning & ran up the river to take in fresh water. We are now becalmed within sight of the Mount. The Adventure is at anchor close to us. May kind fortune for once favor us with fine weather & prosperous breezes.

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
On the 6th, Lieutenant Wickham remarked, while at anchor between San Blas and the River Negro, off Point Rasa, that the stream of tide began to set northward at half flood, and continued to run in that direction until half ebb, by the shore. "It is not at all uncommon on this coast," he says, "to see wrecks of vessels above high-water mark, and spars strewed along the beach where the sea does not touch them." These wrecks took place during south-east gales, when the sea was raised above its usual level in fine weather: and were the vessels spoken of in the previous chapter, as having been entrusted to ignorant or careless prize-masters, who ran for San Blas or the River Negro, not then knowing that so fine a port as Blanco Bay existed. Strong tides, shoals, a low coast, and bad weather would have perplexed professed seamen; but those difficulties were insurmountable to such unpractised craftsmen as those who were in charge of them, and most of the prizes were lost. One large ship of four or five hundred tons was taken, by a wiser master, to Port Melo, and there her cargo was discharged into small craft, which landed it safely in the River Negro. Many of these ill-fated vessels were never afterwards heard of; but from the numerous wrecks seen along the coast between the Colorado and the Negro, it may be inferred that they and their unfortunate crews perished in the surf occasioned by south-east gales, or were capsized by sudden pamperoes.

5th December 1833

M: Video to Port Desire
Took a farewell of the shore & went on board.

4th December 1833

Montevideo

At the Colorado, men who keep the lowest little shops used to dine with General Rosas. — A son of a Major at B. Bianca gains a livelihood by making paper cigars; he wished to come as Vaqueano with me to B. Ayres; but his father was afraid. — Many in the army can neither read or write; yet all meet on perfect terms of equality. — In Entre Rios the Sala contains 6 members. — One of these was a sort of shopman in a store, & evidently by no means degraded by such an employment. — This is all what might be expected in a new country; nevertheless the abscence of Gentlemen par excellence strikes one as a novelty.

My time at M. Video was spent in getting ready for our long cruize in Tierra del Fuego. — It was a pleasant employment preparing to leave for ever the uninteresting plains of the R. de La Plata.

The Beagle & Adventure are both ready for sea, with a fine stock of provisions & excellent crews. — The other day, there was an instance of the unaccountable manner in which seamen sometimes run away from a ship. Two men, petty officers in good favour & with 2 or 3 years pay owing them, ran away & the design must have been made sometime previously. — These men were allowed repeatedly to go on shore & held the first stations on board. — There is a degree of infatuation & childish want of steadiness in seamen, which to a landsman is quite incomprehensible & hardly to be credited. —

I called one day on Mr Hood, the Consul General, in order to see his house which had been a short time previously struck by lightning. — The effects were curious: the bell wires were melted & the red hot globules dropping on the furniture drilled small holes in a line beneath them — when falling on glass vessels, they melted & adhered to them. — Yet the room was at least 15 feet high & the wire close to the ceiling. — In one of the walls the electric fluid exploded like gunpowder, & shot fragments of bricks with such force as to dent the wall on the opposite side. Where the bell wire ran, the paper was blackened by the oxide of the metal for nearly a foot on each side; in a like manner the frame of a looking glass was blackened; the gilding must have been volatilized, for a smelling bottle which stood near was firmly coated with some of it. The windows were all broken & everything hanging up fell down by the Jar. It happened very early in the morning. When I was at B: Ayres a short time previous to this, the church was much shattered & a vessel lost her main-mast.

I ought not to conclude my few remarks on the Inhabitants of the Provinces of the R. de La Plata, without adding that a most perfect & spirited outline of their manners & customs will be found in "Heads rough notes".1 — I do not think that his picture is at all more exaggerated, than every good one must be-that is by taking strong examples & neglecting those of less interest. I cannot however agree with him "in the ten thousand beauties of the Pampas". But I grant that the rapid galloping & the feeding on "beef & water" is exhilarating to the highest pitch.

1 Head, Sir Francis Bond, Rough notes taken during some rapid journeys across the Pampas and among the Andes. London: John Murray, 1826.

3rd December 1833

[Image: Google Earth]

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
On the 3d of December the Beagle anchored off San Blas (as formerly mentioned). Both schooners went out to her, and in returning at night into San Blas Bay, working to windward with a strong flood tide, they passed close to an unknown rock which would have made an end of their cruise had they touched it. The least water they had, however, was eight feet;* but both vessels were close to it, while the tide was running four or five knots. This rock is in the middle of the entrance to San Blas Bay. At midnight they reached their anchorage, without a dry article in either vessel.

· The Paz drew five feet and a half, the Liebre four feet.