between its toes, and turned out to be a fine duck; and with some
cotton handkerchiefs, worth three shillings, three sheep and a large
bunch of onions were procured. The yawl at this place was anchored
some way from the shore, and we had fears for her safety from robbers
during the night. Our pilot, Mr. Douglas, accordingly told the
constable of the district that we always placed sentinels with loaded
arms and not understanding Spanish, if we saw any person in the dark,
we should assuredly shoot him. The constable, with much humility,
agreed to the perfect propriety of this arrangement, and promised us
that no one should stir out of his house during that night.
During the four succeeding days we continued sailing southward. The
general features of the country remained the same, but it was much less
thickly inhabited. On the large island of Tanqui there was scarcely
one cleared spot, the trees on every side extending their branches over
the sea-beach. I one day noticed, growing on the sandstone cliffs,
some very fine plants of the panke (Gunnera scabra), which somewhat
resembles the rhubarb on a gigantic scale. The inhabitants eat the
stalks, which are subacid, and tan leather with the roots, and prepare
a black dye from them. The leaf is nearly circular, but deeply indented
on its margin. I measured one which was nearly eight feet in diameter,
and therefore no less than twenty-four in circumference! The stalk is
rather more than a yard high, and each plant sends out four or five of
these enormous leaves, presenting together a very noble appearance.
December 6th.--We reached Caylen, called "el fin del Cristiandad." In
the morning we stopped for a few minutes at a house on the northern end
of Laylec, which was the extreme point of South American Christendom,
and a miserable hovel it was. The latitude is 43 degs. 10', which is
two degrees farther south than the Rio Negro on the Atlantic coast.
These extreme Christians were very poor, and, under the plea of their
situation, begged for some tobacco. As a proof of the poverty of these
Indians, I may mention that shortly before this, we had met a man, who
had travelled three days and a half on foot, and had as many to return,
for the sake of recovering the value of a small axe and a few fish. How
very difficult it must be to buy the smallest article, when such
trouble is taken to recover so small a debt.
In the evening we reached the island of San Pedro, where we found the
Beagle at anchor. In doubling the point, two of the officers landed to
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