226 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [chap, x 



another day a whole party came armed with stones and stakes, 

 and some of the younger men and Jemmy's brother were crying: 

 Matthews met them with presents. Another party showed by 

 signs that they wished to strip him naked and pluck all the hairs 

 out of his face and body. I think we arrived just in time to save 

 his life. Jemmy's relatives had been so vain and foolish, that 

 they had showed to strangers their plunder, and their manner of 

 obtaining it. It was quite melancholy leaving the three Fue- 

 gians with their savage countrymen ; but it was a great comfort 

 that they had no personal fears. York, being a powerful resolute 

 man, was pretty sure to get on well, together with his wife P'ue- 

 gia. 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, 

 i 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 11th, 

 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 en- 

 trance 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 settlement at Woollya. We did not see many 

 natives until we were near Ponsonby Sound, where we were fol- 

 lowed by ten or twelve canoes. The natives did not at all un- 



