30th July to 8th July 1834

[Conrad Martens' Sketchbooks]*

Chiloe
I staid in the town of S. Carlos three days, during the greater part of this time the weather was very fine; the inhabitants themselves wondering at such an event. — I do not suppose any part of the world is so rainy as the Island of Chiloe. — The Cordilleras are very rarely in sight; one morning before sun-rise we had a very fine view of the Volcano of Osorno; it stood out in dark relief; it was curious to see as the sun rose, the outline gradually lost in the glare of the Eastern sky. —1 During the fine weather I enjoyed some very pleasant walks about the town & examined the structure of the rocks. — This island like the plains of Patagonia is only an appendage to the Andes; it is formed of the debris of its rocks & of streams of Lava. — These submarine beds have been elevated into dry land only in a very recent period. — The soil resulting from the decomposition of these rocks is very fertile; but agriculture is as yet in its rudest forms; to this the structure of the mills & boats & their method of spinning quite correspond. — The inhabitants, judging from their complexions & low stature, have ¾s of Fuegian or Boat Indian blood in their veins; they are all dressed in coarse strong woollen garments, which each family makes for themselves & dyes with Indigo of a dark blue color.

Although with plenty to eat, they are excessively poor; there is little demand for labor, & from the scarcity of money nearly all payments are made with goods. — Men carry on their backs from long distances, bags of charcoal, (the only fuel used in the town) to obtain the most trifling luxuries: the joy which the sight of a few Rests gave to these poor men was quite surprising; after making them a present, they always insisted on having your hand to shake it as a sign of their gratitude. — One day I walked a few miles on the road to Castro. This place was the former Capital & is now the second town in the island. The road is the only one which goes directly through the interior of the country. About two miles from S. Carlos it enters the forest, which covers the whole country & has only been rendered passable by the aid of the axe.2 For its whole length there are not more than two or three houses; the road itself was made in the time of the old Spaniards & is entirely formed of trunks of trees squared & placed side by side. From the gloomy damp nature of the climate, the wood had a dreary aspect; in the Tropics such a scene is delightful from the contrast it affords with the brilliancy & glare of every open spot. The country generally is only inhabited round the shores of the creeks & Bays, & in this respect it resembles T. del Fuego; the road by the coast is in some places so bad that many houses have scarcely any communication with others excepting by boats.

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The capital itself is worthy of the island, it is a small straggling dirty village; the houses are singular from being entirely built sides, roofs, partitions &c of plank.3 The Alerce or cedar from which these planks are made grows on the sides of the Andes; they possess the curious property of splitting so evenly that by planning the planks are nearly as well-formed as if sawed. — These planks are the staple export of the Islands, to which may be added potatoes & hams.

*The main feature, standing in the left and left centre of the picture, is a timber frame thatched single storey building, with six somewhat irregularly spaced wooden uprights, a small barred window between the third and fourth uprights from the left, and a veranda at the right end. The thatched roof is `anvil'-shaped, i.e., the lower part pitched inwards and the upper part back outwards. The walls appear to be of horizontal timber boarding. In the foreground there are two treestumps, the left-hand one below the window, sawn off, the right-hand one closer to the viewer, leaning and broken, with new foliage beginning to sprout. To the left of both stumps there are tall tufts of grass. To the right of the building, two human figures stand close to the veranda, at the upper end of ground which slopes downwards from the centre to the right centre of the picture to lower rough level ground in the right of the picture, marked with more tufts of grass. At the left-hand edge of the lower level ground and at the right-hand edge of the picture are two more sawn or broken treestumps; new foliage is sprouting to the right of the first of these. Behind the building a verdant slope, falling from left to right and also just visible to the left of the roof, appears behind the right-hand side of the roof, covered with much shrubby vegetation and about nine trees, all but one of which are tall enough to rise against the blank sky. The trees are shown in leaf, and thus are evergreens, given the midwinter date of the sketch. Lower on the right, more distant ground stretches in front of an expanse of water. The upper rigging of a boat (the Beagle?) is just visible behind the lowest point of the verdant slope. On the far side of the water we can see the very vague indication of a far shoreline backed by low rounded hills. [Remarking on the vegetation of Chiloé, Charles Darwin comments in his diary for 29 June 1834: "This resemblance to Tropical scenery is chiefly to be attributed to a sort of arborescent grass or Bamboo, which twines amongst the trees to the height of 30 or 40 feet & renders the woods quite impervious.-- to this may be added some large ferns, the trees also are all evergreens, & the stems are variously coloured white, & red &c.--" (from Keynes, R. D., Charles Darwin's Beagle diary, p. 245)]

29th June 1834

[from: Conrad Martens' Sketchbooks]*

Chiloe
In the morning, many of the poor people who had houses on the point, rowed off to us in their little boats; it was quite pleasing to see the unaffected joy with which they welcomed the Ship & those who were formerly in her. They told us that the money they gained from cutting wood &c &c had enabled them to buy sheep & that they had ever since been much better off. They all appear to have a great mixture of Indian blood & widely differ from almost every other set of Spaniards in not being Gauchos. The country is so thickly wooded that neither horses or cattle seem to increase much. Potatoes & pigs & fish are the main articles of food; the obtaining these requires labor, & has consequently induced a different set of manners from what is found in other parts of S. America. — In the middle of the day I took a short walk, following up one of the winding creeks: Seen from a considerable distance the country bears a very close resemblance to T. del Fuego; the country is hilly & entirely clothed in thick wood, excepting a few scattered green patches which have been cleared near to the Cottages. — The woods are incomparably more beautiful than those of T. del Fuego, instead of the dusky uniformity of that country we have the variety of Tropical scenery; excepting in Brazil I have never seen such an abundance of elegant forms. — Chiloe, situated on the West coast, enjoys a very uniform temperature, & an atmosphere saturated with moisture; the soil resulting from Volcanic ashes appears very fertile; hence arises the teeming luxuriance of the forests. — The high thatched roofs of the cottages with the little railed paddocks of grass surrounded by lofty evergreens, reminded me of some drawings of the houses in the S. Sea Islands. — This resemblance to Tropical scenery is chiefly to be attributed to a sort of arborescent grass or Bamboo, which twines amongst the trees to the height of 30 or 40 feet & renders the woods quite impervious. — to this may be added some large ferns, the trees also are all evergreens, & the stems are variously coloured white, & red &c. — This walk called to my mind all the delights of the sublime scenery of Brazil.

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* The background is occupied by dense leafy woodland, with tree tops of even height in the left and centre of the picture. The trees are not so tall in the centre right and right, and one is apparently broken off. There is a taller clump to the right. In the left midground, the right-hand half of a thatched and probably timber-and-straw single storey building is depicted, with a human figure squatting at its right-hand end facing the viewer. Further to the right a pig is scavenging in the shadow cast by the building. In the foreground the ground slopes gently from left to centre, with a scattering of grass clumps. In front of the building there are two possibly dead thin treetrunks with no remaining branches or foliage. The annotation reads: "this cottage -- new and of a light brown", and below that: "The houses have no chimneys, and the smoke issues from all parts of the roof --". In the centre midground, to the right of the building and behind the human figure and the pig, there is some indication of fencing installed in front of the woodland, to the right of which stands a second single-storey building, apparently constructed with timber uprights, with a somewhat `anvil'-shaped roof as in 18a. The right-hand half of this building is obscured by a rectangular open-fronted stockade of upright tree stems of uneven heights. There are clumps of grass in the foreground below the second building and the stockade, below which the annotation reads: "black with smoke".

28th June 1834

['Peace - Burial at Sea' - Turner (1842)]

In the Pacific
... on the following day the funeral service was read on the quarter-deck, & his body lowered into the sea; it is an aweful & solemn sound, that splash of the waters over the body of an old ship-mate.

Early in the night we came to an anchor in the port of S. Carlos1 in the island of Chiloe. It had been the Captains original intention to have gone direct to Coquimbo, but a constant succession of Northerly gales compelled him first to think of Concepcion & ultimately to come in here. Never has the Beagle had such ill luck; night after night, furious gales from the North put us under our close-reefed main top-sail, fore try-sail & stay-sail; when the wind ceased, the great sea prevented us making any way. Such weather utterly destroys for every good end the precious time during which it lasts.

On leaving Tierra del Fuego, we congratulated ourselves too soon, in having escaped the usual course of its storms.

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
The following day we committed the body of our deceased companion to the seaman's grave, that "ever-changing and mysterious main." In the evening we were near the north-west end of Chilóe, and at midnight an anchor was let go in our former berth, off Point Arena.

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Syms Covington Journal:
Midnight anchored off Chiloé IN beautiful moonlight. San Carlos, now the capital, is situated in a valley, with a small fort, and forty Chileno soldiers. There are several forts in the harbour. The houses are entirely built of wood (viz. the lercy, or pine cedar); the planks when cut for use serve for bartering, or in place or money, OF which they have but very little in the island. The natives are of a low stature, and comely in general; they are also honest and good natured. They principally subsist on potatoes, which they grow in prodigious quantities, corn, oxen and sheep. Pigs and apples they also have in abundance. On this island it is rare that ten or fourteen days pass throughout the year, without rain. On our first arrival here, we had scarcely one fine day during three weeks.

27th June 1834

[Divine Service on the Beagle]

In the Pacific
On the 27th the purser of the Beagle, Mr Rowlett expired; he had been for some time gradually sinking under a complication of diseases; the fatal termination of which were only a little hastened by the bad weather of the Southern countries. Mr Rowlett was in his 38th year; the oldest officer on board; he had been on the former voyage in the Adventure; & was in consequence an old friend to many in this ship; by whom & everyone else he was warmly respected.

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
On the 27th we witnessed the last moments of Mr. Rowlett's existence in this world. He had long been sinking under an internal complaint of which it was impossible to cure him, except by a vigorous and uniform mode of treatment to which he was not willing to conform until too late: but his illness had no relation whatever to the service in which he had been employed. He was much regretted by all of us, having been a kind, honourable friend.

26th June 1834

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
On the 26th we were still together, in latitude 43° and longitude 75°, although gales had occasionally separated us for a few hours. After passing the latitude of 45° we had a succession of bad weather, and adverse (N.W.) winds. Trusting too much to our usual good fortune I had steered in too direct a line towards Chilóe, and in consequence all these north-west winds were against us. Had I shaped a course which would have taken us farther from the land, while we had the wind southward of west, we might have made a fair wind of these provoking north-westers, and arrived at Chilóe at least a week sooner.

12th to 26th June 1834

Darwin made no entry in his Diary until the 27th June. Captain Fitzroy too made no entries until the 26th. The Beagle was in an extentive and dangerous gale which meant they had to 'beat' against the wind up the coast of Chile. No doubt, as a bad sailor, Darwin was laid low most of this time with sea-sickness.

11th June 1834

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
When the day at last broke on the 11th, we saw the Adventure coming out to us from the cove where she had passed the night, and then both vessels sailed out of the Channel, past Mount Skyring and all the Furies, as fast as sails could urge them. At sunset we were near the Tower Rocks, and with a fresh north-west wind stood out into the Pacific, with every inch of canvas set which we could carry.

10th June 1834

Straits of Magellan
In the morning, in company with the Adventure, we made the best of our way into the open ocean. The Western coast generally consists of low, rounded, quite barren hills of Granite. Sir J. Narborough called one part of it South Desolation, "because it is so desolate a land to behold", well indeed might he say so, outside the main islands, there are numberless rocks & breakers on which the long swell of the open Pacific incessantly rages. We passed out between the "East & West Furies"; a little further to the North, the Captain from the number of breakers called the sea the "Milky way". The sight of such a coast is enough to make a landsman dream for a week about death, peril, & shipwreck.

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
We beat to windward through the Cockburn Channel, and would have anchored at night had a safe place offered in time, but as the only cove near us at dusk was a very small one, I preferred leaving that unoccupied for the Adventure, and remaining under way in the Beagle. The night was long and very dark, small rain fell nearly all the time, and squalls from the westward were frequent. There were but four square miles in which it was safe to sail to and fro after dark, and for fourteen hours we traversed that area in every direction. It was necessary to keep under a reasonable press of sail part of the time, to hold our ground against the lee tide; but with the ebb we had often to bear up and run to leeward, when we got too near the islets westward of us. In a case of this kind a ship is so much more manageable while going through the water than she is while hove-to, and those on board are in general so much more on the alert than when the vessel herself seems half asleep, that I have always been an advocate for short tacks under manageable sail, so as to keep as much as possible near the same place, in preference to heaving-to and drifting.

9th June 1834

Straits of Magellan
We were delighted in the morning by seeing the veil of mist gradually rise from & display Sarmiento. — I cannot describe the pleasure of viewing these enormous, still, & hence sublime masses of snow which never melt & seem doomed to last as long as this world holds together. The field of snow extended from the very summit to within 1/8th of the total height, to the base, this part was dusky wood. — Every outline of snow was most admirably clear & defined; or rather I suppose the truth is, that from the absence of shadow, no outlines, but those against the sky, are perceptible & hence such stand out so strongly marked. — Several glaciers descended in a winding course from the pile of snow to the sea, they may be likened to great frozen Niagaras, & perhaps these cataracts of ice are as fully beautiful as the moving ones of water.

By night we reached the Western parts of the Channel; in vain we tried to find anchoring ground, these islands are so truly only the summits of steep submarine mountains. We had in consequence to stand off & on during a long, pitch-dark night of 14 hours, & this in a narrow channel. — Once we got very near the rocks; The night was sufficiently anxious to the Captain & officers.

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
Good equal altitudes having been obtained, after an interval of time sufficient for rating our chronometers, we sailed from Port Famine, went down the Magdalen Channel, enjoying some fine scenery, among which Sarmiento was pre-eminent, and anchored in a cove under Cape Turn.

Syms Covington Journal:
Sailed from Port Famine for the last time, accompanied by the schooner ADVENTURE. Going before the wind, with a fine breeze, had a fine view each side, as we ran up the straits; "The highland is totally covered with snow. Its dense forests, with Sarmiento towering above all, and to appearance, like an immense mass of ice, had altogether a most beautiful and grand effect".

8th June 1834

Port Famine
We weighed very early in the morning: The Captain intended to leave the St.s of Magellan by the Magdalen channel, which has only lately been discovered & very seldom travelled by Ships. The wind was fair, but the atmosphere very thick, so that we missed much very curious scenery. The dark ragged clouds were rapidly driven over the mountains, nearly to their base; the glimpses which we had caught through the dusky mass were highly interesting; jagged points, cones of snow, blue glaciers, strong outlines marked on a lurid sky, were seen at different distances & heights. — In the midst of such scenery, we anchored at C. Turn, close to Mount Saimiento, which was then hidden in the clouds. At the base of the lofty & almost perpendicular sides of our little cove there was one deserted wigwam, and it alone reminded us that man sometimes wandered amongst these desolate regions; imagination could scarcely paint a scene where he seemed to have less claims or less authority; the inanimate works of nature here alone reign with overpowering force. —

3rd June 1834

Captain Fitzroy’s Journal:
On the 3d of June both vessels were moored in Port Famine, preparing for their passage to San Carlos in Chilóe.

2nd to 8th June 1834

[A modern view of the entrance to the Straits]

Port Famine
The Adventure rejoined us, after having examined the East side of this part of the Straits.

The weather has during the greater part of the time been very foggy & cold; but we were in high luck in having two clear days for observations. On one of these the view of Sarmiento was most imposing: I have not ceased to wonder, in the scenery of Tierra del Fuego, at the apparent little elevation of mountains really very high. — I believe it is owing to a cause which one would be last to suspect, it is the sea washing their base & the whole mountain being in view. I recollect in Ponsonby Sound, after having seen a mountain down the Beagle Channel, I had another view of it across many ridges, one behind the other. — This immediately made one aware of its distance, & with its distance it was curious how its apparent height rose. The Fuegians twice came & plagued us. — As there were many instruments, clothese &c & men on shore, the Captain thought it necessary to frighten them away. — The one time, we fired a great gun, when they were a long way off; it was very amusing to see through a glass their bold defiance, for as the shot splashed up the water, they picked up stones in return & threw them towards the ship which was then about a mile & a half off. — This not being sufficient, a boat was sent with orders to fire musket balls wide of them. — The Fuegians hid themselves behind the trees, but for every discharge of a musket they fired an arrow. These fell short of the boat; & the officer pointing to them & laughing made the Fuegians frantic with rage (as they well might be at so unprovoked an attack); they shook their very mantles with passion. — At last seeing the balls strike & cut the trees, they ran away; their final decampement was effected by the boat pretending to go in chase of their canoes & women. Another party having entered the bay was easily driven to a little creek to the north of it: the next day two boats were sent to drive them still further; it was admirable to see the determination with which four or five men came forward to defend themselves against three times that number.

As soon as they saw the boats they advanced a 100 yards towards us, prepared a barricade of rotten trees & busily picked up piles of stones for their slings. — Every time a musket was pointed towards them, they in return pointed an arrow. — I feel sure they would not have moved till more than one had been wounded. This being the case we retreated. We filled up our wood & water; the latter is here excellent. The water we have lately been drinking contained so much salt that brackish is almost too mild a term to call it. — Amongst trifling discomforts there is none so bad as water with salts in it: when you drink a glass of water, like Physic, & then it does not satisfy the thirst. Mere impure, stinking water is of little consequence: especially as boiling it & making tea generally renders it scarcely perceptible.

1st June 1834

[Mount Sarmiento as seen from Port Famine by telescope distant 49 miles from Conrad Martens' Sketchbooks]

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S. Cruz to Port Famine
Arrived at Port Famine. I never saw a more cheer-less prospect; the dusky woods, pie-bald with snow, were only indistinctly to be seen through an atmosphere composed of two thirds rain & one of fog; the rest, as an Irishman would say, was very cold unpleasant air. Yesterday, when passing to the S. of C. Negro, two men hailed us & ran after the ship; a boat was lowered & picked them up. They turned out to be two seamen who had run away from a Sealer & had joined the Patagonians. They had been treated by these Indians with their usual disinterested noble hospitality. They parted company from them by accident & were walking down the coast to this place to look out for some vessel. I dare say they were worthless vagabonds, but I never saw more miserable ones; they had for some days been living on Muscles &c & berries & had been exposed night & day to all the late constant rain & snow. What will not man endure!

Syms Covington Journal:
June 1st am anchored Port Famine. During our stay here, we caught an immense quantity of very fine smelt with A seine, which if home, WE supposed to be worth a hundred pounds. Yet this was caught in one day. Near here is the River Sedger, the largest freshwater river in Tierra del Fuego. I went with others upstream a considerable way; the water became very shallow a short distance up, not deep enough for a boat; to walk on its banks was very bad (that is, difficult), by reason of the numberless fallen trees, deep mud, and thickets. The latter is impenetrable in many places, which obliged us frequently to go into the woods to seek for better roads. To water ship in this port, is to send boats at high water, as the water is at the very bottom of the Bay; at ebb tide the bay IS very shallow.