iS32.] 207 



CHAPTER X. 



TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



Tierra del Fuegfo, First Arrival — Good Success Bay — An 

 Account of the Fuegians on Board — Interview with the 

 Savages — Scenery of the Forests — Cape Horn — Wigwam 

 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. 



December lyth, 1832. — Having now finished with Patagonia 

 and the Falkland Islands, I will describe our first arrival in 

 Tierra 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, inhospitable Statenland was visible amidst the 

 clouds. In the afternoon we anchored in the Baj^ of 

 Good Success. Vhile 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 overhanging the sea; and 

 as we passed by, they sprang up and waving their tattered 

 cloaks sent forth a loud and sonorous shout. The savages 

 followed 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 

 mountams of clay-slate, which are covered to the water's 

 edge by one dense gloomy forest. A single glance at 

 the landscape was sufficient to show me how widely 

 different it was from anything I had ever beheld. At 

 night it blew a gale of wind, and heavy "squalls from 

 the mountains swept past us. It would have been a bad 

 time out at sea, and we, as well as others, may call this 

 Good Success Bay. 



In the morning the captain sent a party to communicate 

 with the Fuegians. When we came within hail, one of 

 the four natives who were present advanced to receive us, 

 and began to shout most vehemently, wishing to direct 

 us where to land. When we were on shore the party 



