during his continuance for the
necessary repairs and getting supplies, which took him up till the end
of December, and would in all probability have consumed more time, had
not the labours of the Etoile, his present consort, when here before,
facilitated his operations. This residence, it was expected, would allow
opportunity for examining the straits in this part, besides occupying
the astronomer and botanist, and the useful pursuits of hunting and
fowling. Their success, however, was not very considerable in any of
these respects. The sky was exceedingly unfavourable for observation;
many obstacles impeded those who searched for plants; the only animal
seen was a fox, which was killed amongst the workmen; and the attempt to
explore the coast of the continent was fruitless, as the weather became
so very tempestuous, as to force those who were engaged in it to return
to the vessel with all possible celerity, after being thoroughly
drenched in rain, and almost starved to death by cold, though in the
middle of summer. Some days after this uncomfortable expedition, another
was planned to the Terra del Fuego side, and succeeded better. On the
27th, the party intended for it, consisting among others of Bougainville
himself, Messrs de Bournand, and d'Oraison, and the Prince of Nassau,
well armed with swivel-guns and muskets, sailed in the Boudeuse's
long-boat, and the Etoile's barge, across the straits, and landed at the
mouth of a little river, on the banks of which they dined beneath the
shade of a pleasant wood, where they discovered several huts belonging
to the natives. After dinner, they rowed along the coast of Terra del
Fuego in a hollow sea, and with the wind somewhat westerly, which was
unfavourable. It carried them, however, across a great inlet, of which
they could not see the end, and which, indeed, they believed, from the
circumstances of the high rolling sea, and the numbers of whales they
observed, to have a communication with the ocean at Cape Horn. On the
farther side of this inlet, they saw several fires, which were
afterwards extinguished and again lighted, when some savages made their
appearance on the low point of a bay where it was intended to touch.
They were recognized by Bougainville, as the same people he had seen in
his first voyage in the straits, and then denominated _Pecherais_, from
the word which they pronounced so often to their visitants. They are
described as most disgustingly filthy, and ex