Possessed With This
Feeling, I Was Much Interested By Finding, On A Wild Part Of
The Coast, A Bed Made Of Grass Beneath A Ledge Of Rock.
Close
by it there had been a fire, and the man had used an axe.
The fire, bed, and
Situation showed the dexterity of an Indian;
but he could scarcely have been an Indian, for the race is
in this part extinct, owing to the Catholic desire of making
at one blow Christians and Slaves. I had at the time some
misgivings that the solitary man who had made his bed on
this wild spot, must have been some poor shipwrecked sailor,
who, in trying to travel up the coast, had here laid himself
down for his dreary night.
December 28th. - The weather continued very bad, but it
at last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time
hung heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were
delayed from day to day by successive gales of wind. In
the evening another harbour was discovered, where we
anchored. Directly afterwards a man was seen waving a
shirt, and a boat was sent which brought back two seamen.
A party of six had run away from an American whaling
vessel, and had landed a little to the southward in a boat,
which was shortly afterwards knocked to pieces by the surf.
They had now been wandering up and down the coast for
fifteen months, without knowing which way to go, or where
they were. What a singular piece of good fortune it was
that this harbour was now discovered! Had it not been for
this one chance, they might have wandered till they had
grown old men, and at last have perished on this wild coast.
Their sufferings had been very great, and one of their party
had lost his life by falling from the cliffs. They were
sometimes obliged to separate in search of food, and this
explained the bed of the solitary man. Considering what they
had undergone, I think they had kept a very good reckoning of
time, for they had lost only four days.
December 30th. - We anchored in a snug little cove at the
foot of some high hills, near the northern extremity of Tres
Montes. After breakfast the next morning, a party ascended
one of these mountains, which was 2400 feet high. The
scenery was remarkable The chief part of the range was
composed of grand, solid, abrupt masses of granite, which
appeared as if they had been coeval with the beginning of
the world. The granite was capped with mica-slate, and this
in the lapse of ages had been worn into strange finger-
shaped points. These two formations, thus differing in their
outlines, agree in being almost destitute of vegetation. This
barrenness had to our eyes a strange appearance, from having
been so long accustomed to the sight of an almost universal
forest of dark-green trees. I took much delight in examining
the structure of these mountains.
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