l$8 TIERRA DEL FVEGO, [CHAP, x 



afternoon we entered the eastern mouth of the channel, and shortly 

 afterwards found a snug little cove concealed by some surrounding 

 islets. Here we pitched our tents and lighted our fires. Nothing could 

 look more comfortable than this scene. The glassy water of the little 

 harbour, with the branches of the trees hanging over the rocky beach, 

 the boats at anchor, the tents supported by the crossed oars, and the 

 smoke curling up the wooded valley, formed a picture of quiet retire- 

 ment. The next day (2oth) we smoothly glided onwards in our little 

 fleet, and came to a more inhabited district. Few if any oi these 

 natives could ever have seen a white man ; certainly nothing could 

 exceed their astonishment at the apparition of the four boats. Fires 

 were lighted on every point (hence the name of Tierra del Fuego, or 

 the land of fire), both to attract our attention and to spread far and 

 wide the news. Some of the men ran for miles along the shore. I 

 shall never forget how wild and savage one group appeared : suddenly 

 four or five men came to the edge of an overhanging cliff; they were 

 absolutely naked, and their long hair streamed about their faces ; they 

 held rugged staffs in their hands, and, springing from the ground, they 

 waved their arms round then- heads, and sent forth the most hideou 

 yells. 



At dinner-time we landed among a party of Fuegians. At first they 

 were not inclined to be friendly ; for until the Captain pulled in ahead 

 of the other boats, they kept their slings in their hands. We soon, 

 however, delighted them by trifling presents, such as tying red tape 

 round their heads. They liked our biscuit; but one of the savages 

 touched with his finger some of the meat preserved in tin cases which 

 I was eating, and feeling it soft and cold, showed as much disgust al 

 it as I should have done at putrid blubber. Jemmy was thoroughly 

 ashamed of his countrymen, and declared his own tribe were quite differ- 

 ent, in which he was wofully mistaken. It was as easy to please as it was 

 difficult to satisfy these savages. Young and old, men and children, 

 never ceased repeating the word "yammerschooner," which means 

 41 give me." After pointing to almost every object, one after the other, 

 even to the buttons on our coats, and saying their favourite word in as 

 many intonations as possible, they would then use it in a neuter sense, 

 and vacantly repeat " yammerschooner." After yammerschoonering for 

 any article very eagerly, they would by a simple artifice point to their 

 young women or little children, as much as to say, " If you will not give 

 it me, surely you will to such as these." 



At night we endeavoured in vain to find an uninhabited cove ; and at 

 last were obliged to bivouac not far from a party of natives. They 

 were very inoffensive as long as they were few in numbers, but in the 

 morning (2ist), being joined by others, they showed symptoms of hostility, 

 and we thought that we should have come to a skirmish. An European 

 labours under great disadvantages when treating with savages like these, 

 who have not the leasl idea of the power of firearms. In the very act 

 of levelling his musket he appears to the savage far inferior to a man 

 armed with a bow and arrow, a spear, or even a sling. Nor is it easy 

 to teach them our superiority except by striking a fatal blow. Like wild 



