536 THE FUEGIANS. 



The Fuegians. 



The inhabitants of Tierra Del Fuego are even more de- 

 graded than those of the mainland : in fact, they have been 

 regarded by many travellers as being the lowest of mankind.* 

 Adolph Decker, who visited Polynesia and Australasia under 

 Jaques le Hermite in 1624, describes them as "rather beasts 

 than men ; for they tear human bodies to pieces, and eat the 

 flesh raw and bloody as it is. There is not the least spark 

 of religion or policy to be observed among them : on the 

 contrary, they are in every respect brutal" of which he 

 proceeds to give evidence so convincing, that I refrain from 

 quoting it.-f The men go altogether naked, and the women 



have only a bit of skin about their middles Their huts 



are made of trees, in the shape of tents, with a hole at the top 

 to let out the smoke. Within they are sunk two or three 

 feet under the earth ; and the mould is thrown upon the 

 outside. Their fishing-tackle is very curious, and their stone 

 hooks very nearly the same shape as ours. They are differently 

 armed, some having bows, and arrows headed with stone; 

 others have long javelins, pointed with bone; some, again, 

 have great wooden clubs ; and some have slings, with stone- 

 knives, which are very sharp/' Their arrows are of hard wood, 

 straight and well polished. They are about two feet long, 

 and are tipped with a piece of agate, obsidian, or glass. The 

 bows are from three to four feet long, and quite plain. The 

 string is made of twisted sinews. 



Forster J found them " remarkably stupid, being incapable 

 of understanding any of our signs, which, however, were very 

 intelligible to the nations of the South Sea." Wallis, in his 



* Byron's Voyage round the 



World, p. 80 ; Wallis's Voyage t Calender's Voyages, vol. ii. 

 round the World, p. 392; Cook's p. 307. 

 Voyage to the South Pole, vol. ii. \ I.e. p. 251. 



p. 187; Darwin's Journal, p. 235. 



