vanity, that you perhaps are the first man who ever stood on this
pinnacle or admired this view.
A strong desire is always felt to ascertain whether any human being has
previously visited an unfrequented spot. A bit of wood with a nail in
it, is picked up and studied as if it were covered with hieroglyphics.
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,
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