148 TIERRA DSL FVEGO. [CHAP, x, 



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, inhospitable Staten-land was visible amidst the clouds. 

 In the afternoon 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 entangled 

 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 anything I 

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

 irom 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 shout most 

 vehemently, wishing to direct us where to land. When we were 

 on shore the party looked rather alarmed, but continued talking and 

 making gestures with great rapidity. It was without exception the 

 most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld : I could not 

 have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civi- 

 lized man ; it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, 

 inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of improvement. The 

 chief spokesman was old, and appeared to be the head of the family ; 

 the three others were powerful young men, about six feet high. The 

 women and children had been sent away. These Fuegians are a 

 very different race from the stunted, miserable wretches farther west- 

 ward ; and they seem closely allied to the famous Patagonians of the 

 Strait of Magellan. Their only garment consists of a mantle made 

 of guanaco skin, with the wool outside ; this they wear just thrown 

 over their shoulders, leaving their persons as often exposed as covered. 

 Their skin is of a dirty coppery-red colour. 



The old man had a fillet of white feathers tied round his head, 

 which partly confined his black, coarse, and entangled hair. His face 

 was crossed by two broad transverse bars ; one, painted bright red, 

 reached from ear to ear and included the upper lip ; the other, white 

 like chalk, extended above and parallel to the first, so that even his 

 eyelids were thus coloured. The other two men were ornamented by 

 streaks of black powder, made of charcoal. The party altogether 

 closely resembled the devils which come on the stage in plays like 

 Der Freischutz. 



Their very attitudes were abject, and the expression of their counte- 

 nanos distrustful, surprised, and startled. After we had presented them 

 with some scarlet cloth, which they immediately tied round iheir necks, 



