TERRA DEL FUEGO. 35 



however, soon convinced that we had not understood them, 

 for on showing them our knives they still kept crying out 

 " cuchillo." They also repeated the word when we showed 

 them a string of beads, or a looking-glass. In short, al- 

 though the word was kept up during the whole intercourse, 

 it was impossible to learn its meaning. They were admira- 

 ble mimics, and would repeat our own words with great 

 accuracy, and even appeared to understand some of them. 

 They seemed to attach great value to iron and steel, and 

 would readily exchange their bows and arrows for a piece 

 of an iron hoop, or a few rusty nails. 



The party consisted of fourteen men, and, with the excep- 

 tion of the headman, or chief, were all young, well- formed, 

 and good-looking. The two sons of the chief were partic- 

 ularly so ; they were full six feet in height, and had very 

 pleasing countenances. They all had their hair cut short on 

 the crown of the head, leaving a narrow border of hair hang- 

 ing down ; over this they wear a kind of a cap, or a band, 

 made from the skin of an albatross. The front teeth of &V 

 of them were very much worn, more apparent, however, i* 

 the old than in the young. Their faces were painted, or, 

 more properly speaking, smeared with red and white clay. 

 Their dress consisted of a single guanaco skin, which cov- 

 ered the body from the shoulders down to the knees. All 

 had sore eyes, which we attributed to their long winters. 

 None of their women or children were seen, but we thought 

 they had them concealed in a piece of wood not far distant, 

 as they objected to any of us going toward it, and showed 

 much alarm when fire-arms were pointed in that direction. 

 They appeared to have very little curiosity, and nothing 

 seemed to excite their surprise ; their principal characteris- 

 tic seemed to be jealousy. It would seem that they have 

 had intercourse with Europeans before. The report of our 



