262 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



with certainty by buds, layers, and grafts, which by 

 seminal proi^agation never or only casually reap- 

 pear. 



CHAPTER X. * 



Tierra del Fuego, first arrival — Good Success Bay — An Account 

 of the Fuegians on board — Interview with the Savages — Scen- 

 ery of the Forests — Cape Horn — Wig^vam 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 11th, 1832. — Having now finished with 

 Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, I will describe 

 our first arrival in TieiTa del Fuego. A little after 

 noon we doubled Cape St. Diego, and entered the 

 famous strait of Le Maire. We kept close to the 

 Fuegian shore, but the outline of the rugged, in- 

 hospitable Staten-land was visible amidst the clouds. 

 In the afternoon we anchored in the bay of Good 

 Success. Wliile entering, we were saluted in a 

 manner becoming the inhabitants of this savage 

 land. A group of Fuegians, partly concealed by 

 the entangled forest, were perched on a wild point 

 ovei'hanging the sea ; and as we passed by, they 

 sprang up, and waving their tattered cloaks, sent 

 forth a loud and sonorous shout. The savages fol- 

 lowed 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 suf- 

 ficient to show me how widely different it was from 



