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CHAPTER 7

An Unquiet Trip from Monte Video to Buenos Aires

At nine o’clock in the morning on 5 July the Beagle sailed out of the harbour at Rio on a gentle breeze, hailed by a salute of hearty cheers from the crews of HMS Warspite and HMS Samarang. FitzRoy noted with some satisfaction that ‘Strict etiquette might have been offended at such a compliment to a little ten-gun brig, or indeed to any vessel unless she were going out to meet an enemy, or were returning into port victorious: but although not about to encounter a foe, our lonely vessel was going to undertake a task laborious, and often dangerous, to the zealous execution of which the encouragement of our brother-seamen was no trifling enducement.’

For the next three weeks the Beagle sailed on to the south, sometimes in light winds when progress was disappointingly slow, sometimes in gales when even the sight of a whale possessed little interest to Charles’s jaundiced eyes, but best when the studding sails were ‘alow & aloft – that is wind abaft the beam & favourable’. On the morning of 14 July Charles noted:

I was much interested by watching a large herd of Grampuses, which followed the ship for some time. They were about 15 feet in length, & generally rose together, cutting & splashing the water with great violence. In the distance some whales were seen blowing. All these have been the black whale. The Spermaceti is the sort which the Southern Whalers pursue.

The grampuses, which on this occasion were genuine ones, were probably a group of juvenile pilot whales, totally black in colour, with bulging foreheads full of sperm oil.

Four days later, Charles wrote:

A wonderful shoal of Porpoises, at least many hundreds in number, crossed the bows of our vessel. The whole sea in places was furrowed by them. They proceeded by jumps in which the whole body was exposed, & as hundreds thus cut the water it presented a most extraordinary spectacle. When the ship was running 9 knots these animals could with the greatest ease cross & recross our bows & then dash away right ahead, thus showing off to us their great strength & activity.

The Beagle sailed on in the variable weather characteristic of the entrance to the Rio Plata. Close to the mouth of the river on a particularly dirty night, the ship was surrounded by penguins and seals which made such curious noises that the Master reported to the First Lieutenant that he had heard cattle lowing on the shore. On the morning of 26 July, the Beagle’s anchoring at Monte Video was, according to Charles, quickly followed by the arrival alongside of six heavily-armed boats from the frigate HMS Druid, containing forty marines and a hundred sailors. The frigate’s Captain Hamilton explained that the current military government had just seized four hundred horses belonging to a British subject, and that he aimed to provide sufficient visible support for the opposition party to bring about a restitution of the horses.^* It seemed that such disputes were usually won without bloodshed by the side that succeeded in looking the stronger. This episode was an eye-opener for Charles on the vagaries of South American politics, but FitzRoy did not regard the incident as worthy of mention in his account of the day, merely recording that he was occupied with observations for his chronometers, and preparing for surveying the coasts south of the Rio Plata.

On the following morning, FitzRoy and Charles landed on Rat Island, where one of them took sights, while the other found, but did not preserve, a species of legless lizard known as a skink. On 28 July Charles visited the Mount, the little hill 450 feet high that dominated the district and gave Monte Video its name. He decided that the view from the summit was the most uninteresting that he had ever seen – like Cambridgeshire but without even any trees.

Two days later, FitzRoy got wind of the remains of some hydrographical information collected by Spain that was preserved in the archives of Buenos Aires, and on 2 August the Beagle sailed to the south bank of the Rio Plata in search of it. As explained by Charles, they had a disconcerting reception:

We certainly are a most unquiet ship; peace flies before our steps. On entering the outer roadstead, we passed a Buenos Ayres guard-ship. When abreast of her she fired an empty gun, we not understanding this sailed on, & in a few minutes another discharge was accompanied by the whistling of a shot over our rigging. Before she could get another gun ready we had passed her range. When we arrived at our anchorage, which is more than three miles distant from the landing place, two boats were lowered, & a large party started in order to stay some days in the city. Wickham went with us, & intended immediately going to Mr Fox, the English minister, to inform him of the insult offered to the British flag. When close to the shore, we were met by a Quarantine boat which said we must all return on board, to have our bill of health inspected, from fears of the Cholera. Nothing which we could say about being a man of war, having left England 7 months & lying in an open roadstead, had any effect. They said we ought to have waited for a boat from the guard-ship & that we must pull the whole distance back to the vessel, with the wind dead on end against us & a strong tide running in. During our absence, a boat had come with an officer whom the Captain soon dispatched with a message to his Commander to say ‘He was sorry he was not aware he was entering an uncivilized port, or he would have had his broardside ready for anwering his shot’. When our boats & the health one came alongside, the Captain immediately gave orders to get under weigh & return to M Video. At the same time sending to the Governor, through the Spanish officer, the same messuages [sic] which he had sent to the Guard-ship, adding that the case should be throughily [sic] investigated in other quarters. We then loaded & pointed all the guns on one broadside, & ran down close alongside the guard-ship. Hailed her & said that when we again entered the port, we would be prepared as at present & if she dared to fire a shot we would send our whole broardside into her rotten hulk.^* We are now sailing quietly down the river. From M Video the Captain intends writing to Mr Fox & to the Admiral, so that they may take effective steps to prevent our Flag being again insulted in so unprovoked a manner.

The following day, after another tricky passage along the muddy and winding channel of the Rio Plata, with banks often marked by old wrecks – ‘it is an ill wind which blows nobody any good’ said Charles – the Beagle arrived at Monte Video after sunset, and the Captain immediately went on board the Druid. He returned with the news that the Druid would next morning sail for Buenos Aires, and demand an apology for the guard-ship’s conduct. Charles noted belligerently, ‘Oh I hope the Guard-ship will fire a gun at the frigate; if she does, it will be her last day above water.’

A fortnight later the Druid returned from Buenos Aires with a long apology from the government for the insult offered to the Beagle. The captain of the guard-ship had immediately been arrested, and it was left to the British Consul whether he should any longer retain his commission. It seemed nevertheless that the Argentinians had voiced some complaint against FitzRoy’s undiplomatic language, for reporting later to the Hydrographer in London on his conduct of the affair, FitzRoy wrote:

With reference to the expressions which have offended the Buenos Airean Government, I beg to inform you, and I request that you will make it known, if necessary, that I did not say, that ‘I should go to some other country where the government was more civilized’, but that my expression to the health officer was, ‘Say to your government that I shall return to a more civilized country where boats are sent more frequently than balls.’ In hailing the guard vessel I did not in any way allude to the government and my words to her commander were ‘If you dare to fire another shot at a British man-of-war you may expect to have your hulk sunk, and if you fire at this vessel, I will return a broadside for every shot!’.⁶⁷

In the meantime, further trouble of a different kind had arisen in Monte Video. On 5 August, Charles wrote in his journal:

This has been an eventful day in the history of the Beagle. At 10 oclock in the morning the Minister for the present military government came on board & begged for assistance against a serious insurrection of some black troops. Cap FitzRoy immediately went ashore to ascertain whether it was a party affair, or that the inhabitants were really in danger of having their houses ransacked. The head of the Police (Damas) has continued to power through both governments, & is considered as entirely neutral; being applied to, he gave it as his opinion that it would be doing a service to the state to land our force. Whilst this was going on ashore, the Americans landed their boats & occupied the Custom House. Immediately the Captain arrived at the mole, he made us the signal to hoist out & man our boats. In a very few minutes, the Yawl, Cutter, Whaleboat & Gig were ready with 52 men heavily armed with Muskets, Cutlasses & Pistols. After waiting some time on the pier Signor Dumas arrived & we marched to a central fort, the seat of government. During this time the insurgents had planted artillery to command some of the streets, but otherwise remained quiet. They had previously broken open the Prison & armed the prisoners. The chief cause of apprehension was owing to their being in possession of the citadel which contains all the ammunition. It is suspected that all this disturbance is owing to the mæneuvring of the former constitutional government. But the politicks of the place are quite unintelligible: it has always been said that the interests of the soldiers & the present government are identical, & now it would seem to be the reverse. Capt. FitzRoy would have nothing to do with all this: he would only remain to see that private property was not attacked. If the National band were not rank cowards, they might at once seize the citadel & finish the business; instead of this, they prefer protecting themselves in the fortress of St. Lucia. Whilst the different parties were trying to negociate matters, we remained at our station & amused ourselves by cooking beefsteaks in the Courtyard. At sun-set the boats were sent on board & one returned with warm clothing for the men to bivouac during the night. As I had a bad headache, I also came & remained on board. The few left in the Ship under the command of M^r Chaffers [the Master] have been the most busily engaged of the whole crew. They have triced up the Boarding netting, loaded & pointed the guns, & cleared for action. We are now at night in a high state of preparation so as to make the best defence possible, if the Beagle should be attacked. To obtain ammunition could be the only possible motive. 6^th. The boats have returned. Affairs in the city now more decidedly show a party spirit, & as the black troops are enclosed in the citadel by double the number of armed citizens, Capt FitzRoy deemed it advisable to withdraw his force. It is probable in a very short time the two adverse sides will come to an encounter under such circumstances. Capt FitzRoy being in possession of the central fort would have found it very difficult to have preserved his character of neutrality. There certainly is a great deal of pleasure in the excitement of this sort of work – quite sufficient to explain the reckless gayety with which sailors undertake even the most hazardous attacks. Yet as time flies, it is evil to waste so much in empty parade.

FitzRoy’s withdrawal was followed by a fair amount of skirmishing and continued disorder. The military governor, Juan Antonio Lavalleja, was the man who had first established the independence of Uruguay in 1828. When he entered the town of Monte Video, he was said by Charles to have been well received by everybody except for his own black troops. He threatened to expel them from the citadel, and planted some guns to command the gate. During the night the blacks then made a sally, volleys of musketry were heard in the city, and it seemed on the Beagle that there might have been heavy fighting. But in fact not a single person was wounded, because according to Charles both parties were determined not to come within musket range either of one another or of the black troops. The next day, support for Lavalleja quickly evaporated, and he made a strategic retreat from the scene, leaving the field to his rival the former president, Don Fructuoso Rivera. Fierce party quarrels continued to take place in the town, and until 12 August the shops were all shut and the inhabitants were obliged to keep within their houses. Don Fructuoso then reappeared, and restoration of the constitutional government was proclaimed. Two days later the President made his formal re-entry into the town, and his government was considered to be in office once again. It was reported to Charles, perhaps by the merchant Mr Parry with whom he had earlier dined, that the spectacle was a magnificent one, with 1800 wild gaucho (Argentinian cowboy) cavalry in support, many of whom were curiously-dressed Indians with splendid horses.

FitzRoy was pleased to be told by the principal persons whose lives and property were threatened that the presence of the Beagle’s crewmen had certainly prevented bloodshed. Charles concluded that ‘One is shocked at the bloody revolutions in Europe, but after seeing to what an extent such imbecile changes can proceed, it is hard to determine which of the two is most to be dreaded.’ Considering that like patriots in neighbouring countries, Lavalleja and his predecessors had had a severe struggle against the Spanish overlords, followed by fights against both Portuguese and Brazilian forces trying to take advantage of the weakness of the small Republica Oriental del Uruguay, Charles was perhaps being rather severe. And Uruguay remained for some years to come in a state of intermittent civil war between Lavalleja’s supporters, named the Blancos because they carried white flags, and the Colorados once led by Don Fructuoso, with red ones.

In his general notes on what wildlife he had seen in Monte Video, Charles recorded that:

Birds are abundant on the plains & are brilliantly coloured. Starlings, thrushes, shrikes, larks & partridges are the commonest. Snipes here frequently rise & fly up in great circles; in their flight, as they descend, they make that peculiar buzzing noise, which few which breed in England are known to do. On the sand-banks on the coast are large flocks of Rhynchops [scissor-beaks]; these birds are generally supposed to be the inhabitants of the Tropics. Every evening they fly out in flocks to the sea & return to the beach in the morning. I have seen them at night, especially at Bahia Blanca, flying round a boat in a wild rapid irregular manner, something in same manner as Caprimulgus [nightjar] does. I cannot imagine what animals they catch with their singular bills.

When next he encountered Rhyncops he had more to say about the function of their beaks.

During the last few days before departing on the Beagle’s first cruise, Charles’s most notable achievement was, after a long chase among the rocks at the Mount, to shoot through the head a large female capybara, in structure a huge guinea-pig, in habits a water rat. She weighed ninety-eight pounds, and could not readily be preserved apart from a tick crawling on her skin. He also found two more new species of turbellarian worm under dry stones on the Mount, collected some elegant snakes and frogs, and as usual captured a host of spiders and beetles.