Our First Meeting with the Fuegians. 43 



ship, displaying a green branch in the bows of the boat, while 

 one individual standing up waved a small white cloth, no doubt 

 intended as a flag of truce. Our people on board made amicable 

 demonstrations in response, by waving handkerchiefs and so forth, 

 and then slowly and warily the natives approached. This was 

 our first experience of representatives of the Channel tribe of 

 Fuegians. There were altogether eight of them. But I must not 

 omit to mention the dogs, five in number, as the latter formed 

 by far the most respectable portion of the community ; for it 

 would indeed be difficult to imagine a more diabolical cast of 

 countenance than that presented by these savages. Their clothing 

 consisted of a squarish scrap of sealskin looped round the neck, 

 sometimes hanging over the back, sometimes resting on the 

 shoulders, but apparently worn more by way of ornament than 

 for any protection which it afforded ; and a very narrow waist- 

 cloth, which simple garment was sometimes deemed superfluous. 

 An elderly lady of a saturnine cast of countenance sat on a wisp 

 of grass in the stern of the canoe, and manoeuvred the steering 

 oar. They could not be induced to come on board the ship, 

 and from their guarded demeanour would seem to have had 

 rather unfavourable experiences of civilized man. After bartering 

 their bits of seal and other skins, and getting some biscuit, 

 tobacco, and knives, they paddled away, and established them- 

 selves on an islet about half a mile from the ship, where we saw 

 that the skeleton frameworks of some old huts were standing. 



On the following day a small party, consisting of North (the 

 paymaster), three seamen, and myself, pulled over to the native 

 camp. We were received on landing by four men with bludgeons 

 in their hands, who did not seem at all glad to see us, and who 

 seemed apprehensive of our approaching the hut, where the 

 women had been jealously shut up. However, by a few presents 

 of tobacco and biscuit, we established tolerably amicable relations, 

 and were permitted to examine the canoe, which lay hauled 

 half out of the water. It was composed of five planks, of which 



