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)

9781108062053, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 2013

388 pages, 3 colour illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.49 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 2 includes an account of meeting 'Jemmy Button', the Fuegian who had been taken to Britain on the Beagle. It also charts the series of difficulties Snow faced as captain, which culminated in his dismissal and abandonment on the Falklands. First published in 1857, the narrative met with some success. Snow, however, wasted the proceeds on a fruitless action against his former employers.

26. The Beagle channel
27. Calm in the Beagle channel
28. Meeting Jemmy Button and his people
29. natives visit the ship at sunrise
30. Very heavy weather
31. Description of Cape Horn
32. Discover that all the Fuegians have left the place
33. News from home
34. Mission plan most unwise
35. Interview with the governor
36. Proceed with refitting the ship
37. Many difficulties
38. Again, depart for Monte Video
39. General description of Monte Video
40. Arrival of the French brig of war
41. Revisit the mission station
42. A missionary's mode of treating a donor
43. Paralysing effect of the sudden change
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]