Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'never saw [I] such a deception before, and I question much if the
oldest seaman breathing ever did . . .'
9
Byron had a hard job of it bringing his ships into the next haven,
Port Desire. He found his charts and rutters 'too deficient'. The
Dol-
phin,
lacking adequate ballast, was riding high in the water and very
prone to being driven onto a lee shore. To add to his problems the
weather in this region lived up to its reputation of unpredictability,
as the commodore colourfully recorded:
It is certainly the most disagreeable sailing in the world, forever
blowing and that with such violence that nothing can withstand it, and
the sea runs so high that it works and tears a ship to pieces . . . It con-
tinued to blow very hard till between 4 and 5 p.m. when the wind in
a minute or two went once or twice all round the compass and then
fell flat calm for about half an hour, the sea running very high, all in
heaps.
10
John Byron had a fine way with words, even when writing an
official log. Perhaps he possessed in lesser measure those gifts that
were bestowed so abundantly on his grandson, Lord Byron, the poet.
The captain also seems to have possessed something of the imagin-
ative powers of his famous descendant. This emerges clearly from
the bewildering episode of the Patagonian giants.
The south-east coastal region of South America was originally
populated by scattered Amerindian hunting communities. They
were well-built people rather above average European height.
Though theirs was basically a Stone Age culture, they had absorbed,
probably from Spanish settlers to the north, the use of horses and,
perhaps, some metal artefacts. Undoubtedly they welcomed the oc-
casional visits of white men to their shores and saw them as bringers
of prestigious and useful tools, weapons and decorative adornments.
Early European visitors, ever ready to astonish their countrymen
