164 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. x. 



leaving the three Fuegians with their savage countrymen ; but it was 

 a great comfort that they had no personal fears. York, being a power- 

 ful resolute man, was pretty sure to get on well, together with his wife 

 Fuegia. Poor Jemmy looked rather disconsolate, and would then, 

 I have little doubt, have been glad to have returned with us. His own 

 brother had stolen many things from him ; and as he remarked, " What 

 fashion call that;" he abused his countrymen, "all bad men, no sabe 

 (know) nothing," and, though I never heard him swear before, " damned 

 fools." Our three Fuegians, though they had been only three years 

 with civilized men, would, I am sure, have been glad to have retained 

 their new habits ; but this was obviously impossible. I fear it is more 

 than doubtful, whether their visit will have been of any use to them. 

 In the evening, with Matthews on board, we made sail back to the 

 ship, not by the Beagle Channel, but by the southern coast. The 

 boats were heavily laden and the sea rough, and we had a dangerous 

 passage. By the evening of the 7th we were on board the Beagle 

 after an absence of twenty days, during which time we had gone three 

 hundred miles in the open boats. On the nth, Captain Fitz Roy paid 

 a visit by himself to the Fuegians, and found them going on well ; and 

 that they had lost very few more things. 



On the last day of February in the succeeding year (1834), the 

 Beagle anchored in a beautiful little cove at the eastern entrance of 

 the Beagle Channel. Captain Fitz Roy determined on the bold, and 

 as it proved successful, attempt to beat against the westerly winds 

 by the same route, which we had followed in the boats to the settle- 

 ment at Woollya. We did not see many natives until we were near 

 Ponsonby Sound, where we were followed by ten or twelve canoes. 

 The natives did not at all understand the reason of our tacking, and, 

 instead of meeting us at each tack, vainly strove to follow us in our 

 zig-zag course. I was amused at finding what a difference the circum- 

 stance of being quite superior in force made, in the interest of beholding 

 these savages. While in the boats I got to hate the very sound of 

 their voices, so much trouble did they give us. The first and last 

 word was " yammerschooner." When, entering some quiet, little cove 

 we have looked round, and thought to pass a quiet night, the odious 

 word " yammerschooner " has shrilly sounded from some gloomy nook, 

 and then the little signal-smoke has curled up to spread the news far 

 and wide. On leaving some place we have said to each other, " Thank 

 Heaven, we have at last fairly left these wretches I " when one more 

 faint halloo from an all-powerful voice, heard at a prodigious distance, 

 would reach our ears, and clearly could we distinguish "yammer- 

 schooner." But now, the more Fuegians the merrier ; and very merry 

 work it was. Both parties laughing, wondering, gaping at each other ; 

 we pitying them for giving us good fish and crabs for rags, etc. ; they 

 grasping at the chance of finding people so foolish as to exchange such 

 splendid ornaments for a good supper. It was most amusing to see 

 the undisguised smile of satisfaction with which one young woman 

 with her face painted black, tied several bits of scarlet cloth round her 



