FAREWELL VISIT TO WOOLLYA. 295 



some English : an old man spontaneously an- 

 nounced " Jemmy Button's wife." Jemmy bad lost 

 all his property. He told us that York Minster 

 had built a large canoe, and with his wife Fuegia,* 

 had several months since gone to his own country, 

 and had taken farewell by an act of consummate 

 villany : he persuaded Jemmy and his mother to 

 come with him, and then on the way deserted them 

 by night, stealing every article of their property. 



Jemmy went to sleep on shore, and in the morn- 

 ing returned, and remained on board till the ship 

 got under weigh, which frightened his wife, who 

 continued crying violently till he got into his canoe. 

 He returned loaded with valuable property. Ev- 

 ery soul on board was heartily sorry to shake hands 

 with him for the last time. I do not now doubt 

 that he will be as hajipy as, perhaps happier than, 

 if he had never left his own country. Every one 

 inust sincerely hope that Captain Fitz Roy's noble 

 hope may be fulhlled, of being rewarded for the 

 many generous sacrifices which he made for these 

 Fuegians by some shipwi'ecked sailor being pro- 

 tected by the descendants of Jemmy Button and 

 his tribe ! When Jemmy reached the shore, he 

 lighted a signal fire, and the smoke curled up, bid- 

 ding us a last and long farewell, as the ship stood 

 on her course into the open sea. 



The perfect equality among the individuals com- 

 posing the Fuegian tribes must for a long time re- 

 tard their civilization. As we see those animals, 



* 'Captain Sulivan, who, since his voyage in the Beagle, has 

 been employed on the survey of the Falkland Islands, heard from 

 a sealer in (1842 '.), that when in the western part of the Strait of 

 Magellan, he was astonished by a native woman coming on board 

 who could talk some English. Without doubt this was Fuegia 

 Basket. She lived (I fear the term probably bears a double inter- 

 pretation) some days on board. 



