8HAP.X.] FUEGIANS ON BOARD. 149 



they became good friends. This was shown by the old man patting 

 our breasts, and making a chuckling kind of noise, as people do when 

 feeding chickens. I walked with the old man, and this demonstration 

 of friendship was repeated several times; it was concluded by three 

 hard slaps, which were given me on the breast and back at the same 

 time. He then bared his bosom for me to return the compliment, 

 which being done, he seemed highly pleased. The language of these 

 people, according to our notions, scarcely deserves to be called articu- 

 late. Captain Cook has compared it to a man clearing his throat, 

 but certainly no European ever cleared his throat with so many hoarse, 

 guttural, and clicking sounds. 



They are excellent mimics : as often as we coughed or yawned, or 

 made any odd motion, they immediately imitated us. Some of our 

 party began to squint and look awry ; but one of the young Fuegians 

 (whose whole face was painted black, excepting a white band across 

 his eyes) succeeded in making far more hideous grimaces. They could 

 repeat with perfect correctness each word in any sentence we addressed 

 them, and they remembered such words for some time. Yet we 

 Europeans all know how difficult it is to distinguish apart the sounds 

 in a foreign language. Which of us, for instance, could follow an 

 American^ Indian through a sentence of more than three words ? All 

 savages appear to possess, to an uncommon degree, this power of 

 mimicry. I was told, almost in the same words, of the same ludicrous 

 habit among the Caffres: the Australians, likewise, have long been 

 notorious for being able to imitate and describe the gait of any man, 

 so that he may be recognized. How can this faculty be explained ? 

 Is it a consequence of the more practised habits of perception and 

 keener senses, common to all men in a savage state, as compared with 

 those long civilized ? 



When a song was struck up by our party I thought the Fuegians 

 would have fallen down with astonishment. With equal surprise 

 they viewed our dancing ; but one of the young men, when asked, had 

 no objection to a little waltzing. Little accustomed to Europeans as 

 they appeared to be, yet they knew and dreaded our firearms ; nothing 

 would tempt them to take a gun in their hands. They begged for 

 knives, calling them by the Spanish word " cuchilla." They explained 

 also what they wanted, by acting as if they had a piece of blubber 

 in their mouth, and then pretending to cut instead of tear it. 



I have not as yet noticed the Fuegians whom we had on board. 

 During the former voyage of the Adventure and Beagle in 1826 to 1830, 

 Captain Fitz Roy seized on a party of natives, as hostages for the 

 loss of a boat, which had been stolen, to the great jeopardy of a party 

 employed on the survey ; and some of these natives, as well as a child 

 whom he bought for a pearl-button, he took with him to England, 

 determining to educate them and instruct them in religion at his own 

 expense. To settle these natives in their own country, was one chief 

 inducement to Captain Fitz Roy to undertake our present voyage ; and 

 before the Admiralty had resolved to send out this expedition, Captain 

 Fitz Roy had generously chartered a vessel, and would himself have 



