X FUEGIANS 239 



of obtaining it. It was quite melancholy leaving the three 

 Fuegians 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 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 countr}men, 

 " All bad men, no sabe (know) nothing," and, though I never 

 heard him swear before, " damned fools." Our three Fuegians, 

 though the}' had been only three years with civilised 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 

 I I th 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 \ear (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 settlement 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 zigzag course. I 

 was amused at finding what a difference the circumstance of 

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

 these savages. While in the boats I got tohate 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 



