20£ TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [chap. x. 



CHAPTER X. 



Tierra del Fuego, f.rst arrival— Good Success Bay— An account of the 

 Fuegians on board — Interview -with the savages — Scenery of the forests— 

 Cape Horn— Wigwam Cove — Miserable condition of the savages — Famines 

 — Cannibals — Matricide—Religious feelings— Great gale— Beagle Channel 

 — Ponsonby Sound — Build wigwams and settle the Fuegians— Bifurcation 

 of the Beagle Channel — Glaciers— Return to the ship— Second visit in 

 the Ship to the Settlement — Equality of condition amongst the natives. 



TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



December 17th, 1832. — Having now finished with Patagonia 

 and the Falkland Islands, I will describe our first arrival in 

 Tierra del Fuego. A little after noon we doubled Cape St. 

 Diego, and entered the famous strait of Le Maire. We kept 

 2lose to the Fuegian shore, but the outline of the rugged, inhos- 

 pitable Staten-land was visible amidst the clouds. In the after- 

 noon 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 en- 

 tangled 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 any thing I had 

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

 from 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 <o receive us, and began te 



