204 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [chap. x. 



CHAPTER X. 



Tierra del Fuego, first arrival Good Success Bay An account of the 

 Fuegians on board Interview with the savages Scenery of the forests 

 Cape Horn Wigwam Cove Miserable condition of the savages Famines 

 Cannibals Matricide Religious feelings Great gale Beagle Channel 

 Ponsonby Sound Build wigwams and settle the Fuegians Bifurcation 

 of the Beagle Channel Glaciers Return to the ship Second visit in 

 the Ship to the Settlement Equality of condition amongst the natives. 



TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



December 17th, 1832. Having now finished with Patagonia 

 and the Falkland Islands, I will describe our first arrival in 

 Tierra del Fuego. A little after noon we doubled Cape St. 

 Diego, and entered the famous strait of Le Maire. We kept 

 close to the Fuegian shore, but the outline of the rugged, inhos- 

 pitable Stat en -land was visible amidst the clouds. In the after- 

 noon we anchored in the Bay of Good Success. While entering 

 we were saluted in a manner becoming the inhabitants of this 

 savage land. A group of Fuegians partly concealed by the en- 

 tangled forest, were perched on a wild point overhanging the 

 sea ; and as we passed by, they sprang up and waving their 

 tattered cloaks sent forth a loud and sonorous shout. The 

 savages followed the ship, and just before dark we saw their fire, 

 and again heard their wild cry. The harbour consists of a fine 

 piece of water half surrounded by low rounded mountains of 

 clay-slate, which are covered to the water's edge by one dense 

 gloomy forest. A single glance at the landscape was sufficient 

 to show me how widely different it was from any thing I had 

 ever beheld. At night it blew a gale of wind, and heavy squalls 

 from the mountains swept past us. It would have been a bad 

 time out at sea, and we, as well as others, may call this Good 

 Success Bay. 



In the morning the Captain sent a party to communicate with 

 the Fuegians. When we came within hail, one of the four 

 natives who were present advanced to receive us, and began to 



