CHAP. x.j ASTONISHMENT OP NA TIVES A T FIREARMS. t$9 



beasts, they do not appear to compare numbers ; for each individual, if 

 attacked, instead of retiring, will endeavour to dash your brains out 

 with a stone, as certainly as a tiger under similar circumstances would 

 tear you. Captain Fitz Roy on one occasion being very anxious, from 

 good reasons, to frighten away a small party, first flourished a cutlass 

 near them, at which they only laughed ; he then twice fired his pistol 

 close to a native. The man both times looked astounded, and care- 

 fully but quickly rubbed his head ; he then stared awhile, and gabbled 

 to his companions, but he never seemed to think of running away. 

 We can hardly put ourselves in the position of these savages, and 

 understand their actions. In the case of this Fuegian, the possibility 

 of such a sound as the report of a gun close to his ear could never 

 have entered his mind. He perhaps literally did not for a second 

 know whether it was a sound or a blow, and therefore very naturally 

 rubbed his head. In a similar manner, when a savage sees a mark 

 struck by a bullet, it may be some time before he is able at all to under- 

 stand how it is effected ; for the fact of a body being invisible from its 

 velocity would perhaps be to him an idea totally inconceivable. More- 

 over, the extreme force of a bullet that penetrates a hard substance 

 without tearing it, may convince the savage that it has no force at all. 

 Certainly I believe that many savages of the lowest grade, such as these 

 of Tierra del Fuego, have seen objects struck, and even small animals 

 killed by the musket, without being in the least aware how deadly an 

 instrument it is. 



Jamiary 22nd. After having passed an unmolested night, in what 

 would appear to be neutral territory between Jemmy's tribe and the 

 people whom we saw yesterday, we sailed pleasantly along. I do not 

 know anything which shows more clearly the hostile state of the 

 different tribes, than these wide border or neutral tracts. Although 

 Jemmy Button well knew the force of our party, he was, at first, 

 unwilling to land amidst the hostile tribe nearest to his own. He often 

 told us how the savage Oens men "when the leaf red," crossed the 

 mountains from the eastern coast of Tierra del Fuego, and made inroads 

 on the natives of this part of the country. It was most curious to watch 

 him when thus talking, and see his eyes gleaming, and his whole face 

 assume a new and wild expression. As we proceeded along the Beagle 

 Channel, the scenery assumed a peculiar and very magnificent 

 character ; but the effect was much lessened from the lowness of the 

 point of view in a boat, and from looking along the valley, and thus 

 losing all the beauty of a succession of ridges. The mountains were 

 here about three thousand feet high, and terminated in sharp and jagged 

 points. They rose in one unbroken sweep from the water's edge, and 

 were covered to the height of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet by the 

 dusky-coloured forest. It was most curious to observe, as far as the 

 eye could range, how level and truly horizontal the line on the mountain 

 side was, at which trees ceased to grow; it precisely resembled the 

 high-water mark of drift-weed on a sea-beach. 



At night we slept close to the junction of Ponsonby Sound with the 

 Beagle Channel. A small family of Fuegians, who were living in the 



