to comply, I made signs in return that I must go back to the ship; at this they expressed great concern, and sat down in their stations again.  During our pantomimical conference, an old man often laid his head down upon the stones, and shutting his eyes for about half a minute, afterwards pointed first to his mouth, and then to the hills, meaning, as I imagined, that if I would stay with them till the morning they would furnish me with some provisions, but this offer I was obliged to decline.  When I left them, not one of them offered to follow us, but as long as I could see them continued to sit quietly in their places.  I observed that they had with them a great number of dogs, with which I suppose they chase the wild animals which serve them for food.  The horses were not large, nor in good case, yet they appeared to be nimble and well broken.  The bridle was a leathern thong, with a small piece of wood that served for a bit, and the saddles resembled the pads that are in use among the country people in England.  The women rode astride, and both men and women without stirrups; yet they galloped fearlessly over the spit upon which we landed, the stones of which were large, loose, and slippery.

SECTION IV.

Passage up the Strait of Magellan to Port Famine; with some Account of that Harbour, and the adjacent Coast.

Soon after I returned on board I got under way, and worked up the strait, which is here about nine leagues broad, with the flood, not with a view to pass through it, but in search of some place where I might get a supply of wood and water, not chasing to trust wholly to the finding of Falkland’s Islands, which I determined afterwards to seek.  About eight in the evening, the tide of ebb beginning to make, I anchored in five-and-twenty fathoms.  Point Possession bore N.N.E. at about three miles distance, and some remarkable hummocks on the north, which Bulkeley, from their appearance, has called the Asses Ears, W. 1/2 N.

At three in the morning of the 22d we weighed with the wind at E. and steered S.W. by W. about twelve miles.  During this course we went over a bank, of which no notice has hitherto been taken:  At one time we had but six fathoms and a half, but in two or three casts we had thirteen.  When our water, was shallowest, the Asses Ears bore N.W. by W. 1/2 W. distant three leagues, and the north point of the first narrow W. by S. distant between five and six miles.  We then steered S.W. by S. near six miles to the entrance of the first narrow, and afterwards S.S.W. about six miles, which brought us through:  The tide here was so strong that the passage was very rapid.[19] During this course we saw a single Indian upon the south shore, who kept waving to us as long as we were in sight; we saw also some guanicoes upon the hills, though Wood, in the account of his voyage, says there were none upon that shore.  As soon as we had passed the first narrow we entered