On April 28, 1822, His Britannic Majesty's ship Doris, outward bound from Portsmouth, by way of Rio de Janeiro, entered the bay of Valparaíso in Chile with her flag halfmast. Aboard was the body of her captain, Thomas Graham, who had died as the vessel rounded Cape Horn. His widow Maria, looking out at the town that Sunday night, wrote in her journal:
Many days have passed, and I have been unable and unwilling to resume my journal. To-day, the newness of the place, and all the other circumstances of our arrival, have drawn my thoughts to take some interest in the things around me. I can conceive nothing more glorious than the sight of the Andes this morning, on approaching the land at daybreak; starting, as it were, from the ocean itself, their summits of eternal snow shone in all the majesty of light long before the lower earth was illuminated, when suddenly the sun appeared from behind them and they were lost; and we sailed on for hours before we descried the land.