This proved to be impracticable, notwithstanding the extraordinary exertions that had been made, owing to the vexatious annoyances of the port authorities at Rio de Janeiro, who exacted such stringent regulations and created such difficulties, that the steamers were delayed fourteen days, where 48 hours would have sufficed. The fine harbour of Port Stanley, at the Falkland Islands, was not then known to possess the facilities it now does for such repairs, nor were there at the time the necessary means of effecting them; otherwise Captain Peacock, who has the highest opinion of that harbour, and has urged it as a port of call and for coaling on the captains of all sailing or steam-vessels coming home from Australia by Cape Horn, would have at once resorted to it, and so saved the almost ruinous delay and vast expense occasioned him at Rio. The consequence of this detention was, that the vessels did not arrive at Port Famine, the southern-most harbour claimed by the republic of Chili, until the 13th of September, whilst the privileges, already alluded to, expired on the first of that month.
By the 18th of September both ships were completed with wood and water, every man, from the captain downwards, assisting in sawing and splitting up drift-wood, found in abundance along the shores of the harbour, an American axe having been provided for each person on board, together with cross-cut saws and iron wedges, for such object, before leaving England. This day, being the ‘diesiocho,’ or great anniversary of the Chilian Independence, Captain Peacock caused a beacon, 30 feet high, with a large diamond-shaped head, to be erected on the heights of Santa Anna, the western point of the entrance; and, hoisting the Chilian flag upon it at noon, saluted the same from the guns of both ships, accompanied by three hearty British cheers; and having buried a parchment manuscript at the foot of the beacon, in a sealed jar, descriptive of this event and the particulars of the voyage, &c., together with a few new coins of the year 1840, the steamers proceeded into the Pacific, accomplishing the passage from ocean to ocean, a distance of 300 miles, in 30 hours’ steaming. Four years subsequently, the Chilian government sent a vessel of war, and took formal possession of this harbour, for a convict establishment, naming it Port Bulnes, after the President at that time in power, when a fort was built round the before mentioned beacon, the jar was dug up, and the manuscript, &c., taken to St. Jago, the capital, and there lodged in the government archives. Upon the arrival of the steamers at Valparaiso, by a representation to the government, the privileges of the company were immediately renewed for a period of ten years; and probably nothing has contributed so much to the advancement, welfare, and prosperity of the Chilian and Peruvian republics, as the successful establishment of steam navigation upon this coast, where the names of Don Guilliermo Wheelwright and Don Jorje Peacock, will perhaps never be forgotten, as they certainly ought not to be. The Chilian government, in the course of last year, (1853) renewed its relations with the Pacific Company for continuing steam communication with England, through the Straits, and also for extending steam intercourse to other parts of Europe, in connection with the vessels now rounding the Horn, granting liberal subsidies for that purpose. See end of chapter on Amazon.