Here and there scattered tufts of brown wiry grass are supported, and still more rarely, some low thorny bushes.

The weather is dry and pleasant, and the fine blue sky is but seldom obscured.

When standing in the middle of one of these desert plains and looking towards the interior, the view is generally bounded by the escarpment of another plain, rather higher, but equally level and desolate; and in every other direction the horizon is indistinct from the trembling mirage which seems to rise from the heated surface.
In such a country the fate of the Spanish settlement was soon decided; the dryness of the climate during the greater part of the year, and the occasional hostile attacks of the wandering Indians, compelled the colonists to desert their half-finished buildings.
The style, however, in which they were commenced shows the strong and liberal hand of Spain in the old time.

The result of all the attempts to colonise this side of America south of 41 degrees has been miserable.

Port Famine expresses by its name the lingering and extreme sufferings of several hundred wretched people, of whom one alone survived to relate their misfortunes.