278 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



petrated than that witnessed on the west coast by 

 Byron, who saw a wretched mother pick up her 

 bleeding, dying infant-boy, whom her husband had 

 mercilessly dashed on the stones for dropping a 

 basket of sea-eggs ! How little can the higher 

 powers of the mind be brought into play : what is 

 there for imagination to picture, for reason to com- 

 pare, for judgment to decide upon ] to knock a 

 limpet from the rock does not require even cunning, 

 that lowest power of the mind. Their skill in some 

 respects may be compared to the instinct of ani- 

 mals, for it is not improved by experience : the 

 canoe, their most ingenious work, poor as it is, has 

 remained the same, as we know from Drake, for 

 the last two hundred and fifty years. 



Whilst beholding these savages, one asks, Whence 

 have they come? W^hat could have tempted, or 

 what change compelled a tribe of men to leave the 

 fine regions of the north, to travel down the Cor- 

 dillera or backbone of America, to invent and build 

 canoes, which are not used by the tribes of Chile, 

 Peru, and Brazil, and then to enter on one of the 

 most inhospitable countries within the limits of the 

 globe ] Although such reflections must at first 

 seize on the mind, yet we may feel sure that they 

 are partly erroneous. There is no reason to believe 

 that the Fuegians decrease in number ; therefore 

 we must suppose that they enjoy a suflftcient share 

 of happiness, of whatever kind it may be, to render 

 life worth having. Nature, by making habit omnip- 

 otent, and its effects hereditary, has fitted the Fue- 

 gian to the climate and the productions of his mis- 

 erable country. 



After having been detained six days in Wigwam 

 Cove by very bad weather, we put to sea on the 

 30th of December. Captain Fitz Roy wished to 



