jio CIVILIZED FUEGIANS. [chap. x. 



expedition, Captain Fitz Roy had generously chartered a 

 vessel, and would himself have taken them back. The 

 natives were accompanied by a missionary, R. Matthews ; 

 of whom and of the natives, Captain Fitz Roy has published 

 a full and excellent account. Two men, one of whom died 

 in England of the small-pox, a boy and a little girl, were 

 originally taken ; and we had now on board York Minster, 

 Jemmy Button (whose name expresses his purchase-money), 

 and Fuegia Basket. York Minster was a full-grown, short, 

 thick, powerful man ; his disposition was reserved, taciturn, 

 morose, and when excited violently passionate ; his affec- 

 tions were very strong towards a few friends on board ; 

 his intellect good. Jemmy Button was a universal favourite, 

 but likewise passionate ; the expression of his face at once 

 showed his nice disposition. He was merry and often 

 laughed, and was remarkably sympathetic with any one 

 in pain ; when the water was rough, I was often a little 

 sea-sick, and he used to come to me and say in a plaintive 

 voice, " Poor, poor fellow ! " but the notion, after his aquatic 

 life, of a man being sea-sick, was too ludicrous, and he was 

 generally obliged to turn on one side to hide a smile or 

 laugh, and then he would repeat his **Poor, poor fellow!" 

 He was of a patriotic disposition ; and he liked to praise 

 his own tribe and country, in which he truly said there were 

 "plenty of trees," and he abused all the other tribes; he 

 stoutly declared that there was no devil in his land. Jemmy 

 was short, thick, and fat, but vain of his personal appear- 

 ance ; he used always to wear gloves, his hair was neatly 

 cut, and he was distressed if his well-polished shoes were 

 dirtied. He was fond of admiring himself in a looking- 

 glass ; and a merry-faced little Indian boy from the Rio 

 Negro, whom we had for some months on board, soon 

 perceived this, and used to mock him ; Jemmy, who was 

 always rather jealous of the attention paid to this little 

 boy, did not at all like this, and used to say, with rather 

 a contemptuous twist of his head, **Too much skylark." 

 It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his 

 many good qualities, that he should have been of the 

 same race, and doubtless partakers of the same character, 

 with the miserable, degraded savages whom we first met 

 here- Lastly, Fuegia Basket was a nice, modest, reserved 

 young girl, with a rather pleasing but sometimes sullen 

 expression, and very quick in learning anything, especially 

 languages. This she showed in picking up some Portuguese 



