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Captain Gibson, being anxious to get everything aboard as soon as possible, came early this morning, Thursday the 20th and took a boat load of the provisions, and returned a little before noon for another load. Most of my things being ready, they were taken to the boat with some more of the provisions and one or two of Captain Gardiner's boxes.

Captain Gardiner and myself being busy in the house did not observe that a squall had come on, almost as violent as that of the 23rd of last month, which had on that day upset us on the Rosalie's jolly boat when about to go aboard the vessel for the Sunday services. These squalls would not be so dangerous in the open sea but, meeting the tide in this bay, they raise such short, abrupt cross waves as are highly dangerous to small boats. It was another of these squalls that was nearly fatal to Captain Boyse and myself and the crew of the long boat at a later part of the same day on which I had been bathed by the swamping of the jolly boat. With these circumstances Captain Gibson was not acquainted and we, not knowing the state of things in the Bay, did not warn him; he therefore ventured, being ignorant of his danger, although he did not like the look of the sea. The consequence was that as soon as they got into the tide, she began to fill, they did their best to reach the Ganges but wind and tide not suffering them, they were driving fast out to sea, without being able to bale her out, the lading not allowing them to get at the water. There were nine souls in the boat, one of their oars was broken and they had been obliged to use the bayonets of the guns for thole pins, these latter having also broken: they were in fact about to sink. Captain Gibson therefore did, very reluctantly but very properly, the only thing likely to save them, he ordered the cargo to be thrown overboard, which enabled them to keep afloat and after three hours hard pulling, they contrived to reach the shore at a distant part of the Bay.

We knew nothing of this danger till late in the evening when Captain Gibson reached the Station, in order to explain and apologise. We heartily congratulated him on his escape and that of the crew and two boys, Henry and Robert Stevenson, passengers from Valparaiso to Edinburgh for their education. The safety of these nine souls was not to be compromised by any hopeless attempt to save the lading of the boat, however valuable: we therefore cheerfully and fully justified Captain Gibson in acting as the extremity demanded. Of the whole cargo nothing was saved but a chest of tea, a box of Captain Gardiner's and a saddle and a mattress of mine; while to the unthankful sea were thrown, among other things, my bedding, clothes, many books, sundry presents I had received as tokens of respect, my letters, memorandum books, testimonials, all my manuscripts, accumulated during the last fifteen years as several articles valued by me chiefly as heirlooms or mementoes of a large family circle and other friends of whom nothing substantial remains to me in this life. My private Journal of the Patagonian Mission I had retained on shore.

Aboard the Ganges this afternoon the greatest anxiety prevailed as we could see from their signalizing the Ancud; this feeling arose we afterwards heard from their uncertainty of the fate of the boat and crew, which they could not ascertain, the weather not allowing them to send a boat ashore till late in the evening; but as the gale relaxed its force, their glass enabled them to see the boat ashore some miles off which led them to conclude that she had upset at sea and been driven thither by the wind and waves. To find all the persons safe was an agreeable surprise to them and to those aboard the Ancud, for from both vessels the critical state of the boat and the efforts made to save her had been anxiously watched, till all was hidden from them by the waves. Immediately after Captain Gibson reached us in the evening, an officer from the Ancud came and informed me that a boat and crew belonging to the Ganges had been lost; had he arrived a little earlier, we should have mourned an unreal calamity: but now it was my pleasure to tell him the sequel of the tragedy, with this result that all the spectators in both vessels seemed as satisfied as the audience on shore.

During the day padre Domingo was busy among the Patagonians, over whom he seemed to have considerable influence; he had been in their neighbourhood many months and had acquired a short vocabulary of their language, which is extremely harsh and guttural especially from the mouths of the men, who seem to make an effort to speak not only through, but with their throats. Hearing them, the language seems neither copious nor fluent, but to consist of little more than a chain of consonants of which the gutturals seem to stick in their throats as if they were rooted in their bowels. In pronouncing the dentals, the tongue is retained upon the teeth by a forcible pressure and the passage of the breath through the larynx is prevented as in straining: which occasions a disagreeable pause, followed sometimes by the addition of another syllable to the end of the word, when the pressure is suddenly withdrawn. Thus my name was often pronounced Hunt.....er instead of Hunt; similarly as I think, the name of one of Wesail's sons became Ontea....chy for when no particular effort was made to pronounce the word, they would call him Onteach.

Owing to the unfavourable circumstances in which we were placed with regard to them, their friendly intercourse with us was exceedingly limited and therefore very little could be learnt from them or of them, but what we saw and experienced was far from making any favourable impressions of their character. They are by no means so ill looking as I had expected to find them; a large proportion of them were well made and the countenances of a few of the women very expressive of those feelings which become the sex in civilized society; the eyes of some of these would thank you very eloquently for giving their young child a bit of biscuit. Though clothed with nothing but a mantle they were scrupulously careful not to expose their persons, indeed most of them put on the appearance of maidenly modesty, though there were some enormous exceptions, chiefly among the older women.

They were all very anxious to secure some biscuits, as these were wheeled away towards the shore; the iron carriage was completely surrounded by the women, who with noisy mirth, pretended to assist the sailors to push but in reality they hindered them all they could and continued to cut a hole in one of the bags and help themselves. In this feat the prettiest of Wesail's wives had her foot hurt, one of the wheels passed over it but she made light of the wound. Wesail himself acted a very dishonest part, for he was the ringlead[er] in an attempt to steal a barrel of pork: in fact the attempt was successful, but we got it again with Mr Dunn's assistance. Wesail did not appear ashamed when he was detected, and when Captain Gardiner called him a thief (ladron) he merely walked away, somewhat out of humour; but this did not prevent his giving us a cold shake of the hand when he left this afternoon to go to Port Famine. In this movement he had been preceded by most of his people. I presume the people from the Ancud had persuaded them to this step for the note of preparation (largo) was given, and some took their departure early in the morning, before we could suppose that they anticipated our movements.

Wesail was also guilty of an act of treachery. He had harboured the deserter that was our enemy and whom I think he must have known to be such, and had given him to understand that he should be safe and fed; but two or three heads of tobacco induced him to entrap him and deliver the poor fellow up; he even detained him till the Chileans fetched him away in his own tent, as a prisoner, where he had previously treated him as a friend. The opinion that the Chileans entertained of the degree of confidence to be placed in the Patagonians was most obvious, for while trafficking with them for mantles and making them presents of scarlet cloth etc., Captain Gatica would never allow the men to come ashore without being well armed, and everyone was surprised that we should be easy in our defenceless state. The boats also of the Commodore and Ganges were supplied with fire arms.

The great body of the Patagonians left us about midday. To see these people who, if under the influence of pure and undefiled Christianity should doubtless become mentally and physically a fine race of men, abandon themselves to papal influence, could not be [other than] distressing to any Protestant Christian mind, but more especially to those who had hoped to show them a better way; my last look at them as they passed over the inhospitable plain towards Port Famine was therefore a sad one; following their track a few hundred yards to a sheltered hollow which had frequently been the House of God to me, I committed them to Him, Who judgeth the people righteously and governeth the people upon earth. I had been willing to risk everything to stay with then, indeed we had been nigh unto death and were willing to risk all again and again, if there had been hope; therefore this consolation was remaining. We had, as it were, been forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the Word to them. And shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Humanly speaking, that which satisfied the Committee will justify us. The attempt has been honestly made to the verge of possibility, I might almost say, and I trust that by everyone it has been done as unto the Lord and it has failed, at least so far as the Patagonians are concerned; but good is the Will of the Lord.

Two officers of the Ancud slept with us on the floor this night, our beds being gone aboard and their boat not being able to fetch them.