A Two Years' Cruise Off Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, Patagonia, and in the River Plate
A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas

This two-volume work of 1857 is a first-hand account of wide-ranging service for the South American Missionary Society.

William Parker Snow (Author)

9781108062046, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 2013

404 pages, 3 colour illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 2.3 cm, 0.51 kg

Following participation in the Arctic search for Sir John Franklin, the mariner and author William Parker Snow (1817–95) volunteered in 1854 to command the schooner Allen Gardiner, named after the man whose work for the South American Missionary Society was to be resumed. Although conceived as 'merely a simple narrative of daily life in the Southern Seas', this illustrated two-volume work becomes simultaneously a first-hand account of a sailor's experiences and observations, and a self-justification against those by whom he felt disappointed, frustrated and deceived. Volume 1 recounts the history of the Falkland Islands and the circumstances of this mission, covering the voyage to Patagonia, the establishment of a station on Keppel Island and the first friendly meetings with 'dreaded savages'. First published in 1857, the book met with some success. Snow, however, wasted the proceeds on a fruitless action against his former employers.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. Commencement of the voyage
3. The interpreter and his family
4. Commencement of a new year
5. Mission plans
6. Missionary character
7. Attempt to moor the vessel
8. Abundance of wild game
9. Reconsideration of plans
10. Description of the mission schooner
11. Description of Port Egremont
12. Examination of White-Rock Harbour
13. Stanley Harbour
14. The trip back to Keppel Island
15. Monte Video
16. Examine the cove
17. Evidence gathered respecting the fire
18. Arrival of Monte Video
19. Departure for Tierra del Fuego
20. Starvation Beach
21. Examination of Pioneer cave
22. Approach to Picton island
23. Banner cove described
24. Our stay at Banner cove
25. Departure from Banner cove.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]