Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
But the city had its hazards. One was the local version of the
press gang:
. . . as the Portuguese carry on a great trade from hence, they
make it their business to attend every boat's landing in order to entice
away some of the crew. By this means I lost five seamen, who were
made drunk and immediately sent away into the country, and care
enough taken they should not return till after I sailed. The Tamar had
lost 8 or 9 of her people, but by great good luck heard where they was
detained and in the night sent and surprised them and got them every
one back.
8
Despite such setbacks, the six weeks' respite in Rio proved be-
neficial to Byron's men though doubtless they would have made
greater use of it had they realised that it was to be their last
Europeanised port of call for over a year and that they were bound
for some of the world's emptiest and most inhospitable regions. Cer-
tainly they would not have sold their warm clothes and spare bed-
ding to buy liquor and trinkets, as many now did (they were later is-
sued with extra clothing - 'slops' - from the ships' stores).
The two frigates stood out from Rio on 21 October and set a
southerly course through the squally, fog-laden waters off Patagonia.
Around 43°S the entire ships' companies fell prey to a rare group
hallucination. At 4 o'clock on a stormy afternoon the cry 'Land ho!'
went up. On the lee bow a long projection from the coast with two
hills clearly appeared, contrary to the charts. Not wanting to find
himself embayed, Byron altered course several points to the south-
east. As they neared the supposed shore, officers and crew clearly
discerned trees and waves breaking on the beach. Then, suddenly,
the sea was empty. What must, in reality, have been a fog bank dis-
persed. 'Though I have been at sea now 27 years,' Byron recorded,
