_Tuesday, September 12th_.--The anchor was up, and we were already
beginning to steam away when I came on deck this morning, just in time
to see the first faint streaks of dawn appearing in the grey sky. The
River Plate here is over a hundred miles wide, and its banks are very
flat; so there was nothing to be seen, except the two little hills of
Cerro and Cerrito and the town of Monte Video, fast vanishing in the
distance. The channels are badly buoyed, and there are shoals and
wrecks on all sides. The lightships are simply old hulks, with no
special marks by which to distinguish them; and as they themselves
look exactly like wrecks, they are not of much assistance in the
navigation, which is very confusing, and sometimes perilous. Once we
very nearly ran aground, but discovered just in time that the vessel
we were steering for with confidence was only a wreck, on a dangerous
shoal, and that the lightship itself was further ahead. The yacht was
immediately put about, and we just skirted the bank in turning.

The weather improved during the day, and a fine sunset was followed
by a clear starlight night. At 10.30 p.m. we dropped our anchor
outside all the other vessels in the roads at Buenos Ayres, eight
miles from the shore. The lightship only carried an ordinary riding
light, like any other vessel, so that it was almost impossible, unless
you knew the port very well, to go in closer to the land at night.

_Wednesday, September 13th_.--Daylight did not enable us to
distinguish the town, for the river here is wide and the banks are
low, and we were lying a long way from the shore, outside a great many
fine-looking ships, at anchor in the roads. About nine o'clock a
German captain, in a large whale-boat, came alongside and told us we
were nearly eight miles from Buenos Ayres. Tom arranged with him to