Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/32

 Land. At four we perceived the "snow-topt" mountains of Terra del Fuego, rearing their majestic heads above the clouds, and surveying with cold indifference the conflict of the contending oceans that on all sides surround them. As we approached Cape Horn the weather moderated, and the captain ordered all the lighter masts and yards again to be rigged.

January 1st, 1812, at two, on this day, we bade adieu to the Atlantic, and sailed round the long-dreaded southern extremity of America, with a gentle breeze from the N.N.W., at the rate of one mile per hour, and under top-gallant studding-sails; a circumstance I believe unparalleled in the history of circumnavigation.

Toward evening the wind died away, and

Not a breeze disturb'd the wide serene.

Our entrance into the great Pacific was marked by none of those terrible concussions of the "vasty deep," the frequency of which have given such afearful celebrity to Cape Horn. It seemed as if the two mighty oceans had ceased for a period their dreadful warfare, and mingled their waters in the blessed calm of peace. On our right rose the wild inhospitable shores of Terra del Fuego; on the left lay the low desert islands