to ensure all safety 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 extremely wretched as to provisions, and every accommodation that renders life desirable; in short, as the poorest and most miserable of all that bear the name of savages.  Meanly, however, as they are spoken of, it is admitted, that they have some social virtues; but, perhaps, it is a doubtful article in the short catalogue of their commendation, that they are superstitions enough to put implicit confidence in the efficacy of their physicians and priests.  The number of this forlorn tribe is too inconsiderable to render their history important,