282 TIEilKA DEL FUEGO. 



their favourite word in as many intonations as pos- 

 sible, they would then use it in a neuter sense, 

 and vacantly repeat " yammerschooner." After 

 yammerschooncring for any article very eagerly, 

 they would by a simple artifice point to their young- 

 women or little children, as much as to say, " If 

 you will not give it me, surely you will to such as 

 these." 



At night we endeavoured in vain to find an un- 

 inhabited cove, and at last were obliged to bivouac 

 not far from a party of natives. They were very 

 inoffensive as long as they were few in numbers, 

 but in the morning (21st), being joined by others, 

 they showed symptoms of hostility, and we thought 

 that we should have come to a skirmish. A Euro- 

 pean labours under great disadvantages when treat- 

 ing with savages like these, who have not the least 

 idea of the power of fire-arms. In the very act of 

 levelling his musket he appears to the savage far 

 inferior to a man arined with a bow and arrow, a 

 spear, or even a sling. Nor is it easy to teach them 

 our superiority except by striking a fatal blow. 

 Like wild beasts, they do not appear to compare 

 numbers ; for each individual, if attacked, instead 

 of retiring, will endeavour to dash your brains out 

 with a stone, as certainly as a tiger under similar 

 circumstances would tear you. Captain Fitz Roy, 

 on one occasion, being very anxious, from good 

 reasons, to frighten away a small party, first flour- 

 ished a cutlass near them, at which they only laugh- 

 ed ; he then twice fired his pistol close to a native. 

 The man both times looked astounded, and care- 

 fully but quickly rubbed his head ; he then stared 

 a while, and gabbled to his companions, but he 

 never seemed to think of running away. We can 

 hardly put oui'selves in the position of these sav- 

 ages, and understand their actions. In the case of 



