POWERS OF MIMICRY OF THE NATIVES. 20') 



instance, co-ulJ follow an American Indian tlirongh 

 a sentence of more than three words'? All savages 

 appear to possess, to an uncommon degree, this 

 power of mimicry. I was told, almost in the same 

 words, of the same ludicrous habit among the Caf- 

 fres : the Austi'alians, likewise, have long been no- 

 torious for being able to imitate and describe the 

 gait of any man, so that he may be recognised. 

 How can this faculty be explained 1 Is it a conse- 

 quence of the more practised habits of perception 

 and keener senses, common to all men in a savage 

 state, as compared with those long civilized 1 



When a song was sti'uck up by our party, I 

 thought the Fuegians would have fallen down with 

 astonishment. With equal surprise they viewed 

 our dancing ; but one of the young men, when ask- 

 ed, had no objection to a little waltzing. Little 

 accustomed to Europeans as they appeared to be, 

 yet they knew and dreaded our fire-arms ; nothing 

 wovild tempt them to take a gun in their hands. 

 They begged for knives, calling them by the Span- 

 ish word " cuchilla." They explained also what 

 they wanted, by acting as if they had a piece of 

 blubber in their mouth, and then pretending to cut 

 instead of tear it. 



I have not as yet noticed the Fuegians whom we 

 had on board. During the fonner voyage of the 

 Adventure and Beagle in 1826 to 1830, Captain 

 Fitz Roy seized on a party of natives as hostages 

 for the loss of a boat, which had been stolen, to the 

 great jeopardy of a party employed on the survey ; 

 and some of these natives, as well as a child whom 

 he bought for a pearl button, he took with him to 

 England, determining to educate them and instruct 

 them in religion at his own expense. To settle 

 these natives in their own country was one chief 

 inducement to Captain Fitz Rov to undertake our 

 Z 



