1832.] ACUTE SIGHT OF FUEGIANS. 211 



and Spanish, when left on shore for only a short time at 

 Rio de Janeiro and Monte Video, and in her knowledge 

 of English. York Minster was very jealous of any attention 

 paid to her ; for it was clear he determined to marry her as 

 soon as they were settled on shore. 



Although all three could both speak and understand a 

 good deal of English, it was singularly difficult to obtain 

 much information from them concerning the habits of their 

 countrymen; this was partly owing to their apparent 

 difficulty in understanding the simplest alternative. Every 

 one accustomed to very young children, knows how seldom 

 one can get an answer even to so simple a question as 

 whether a thing is black or white ; the idea of black or 

 white seems alternately to fill their minds. So it was with 

 these Fuegians, and hence it was generally impossible to find 

 out, by cross-questioning, whether one had rightly under- 

 stood anything which they had asserted. Their sight was 

 remarkably acute ; it is well known that sailors, from long 

 practice, can make out a distant object much better than a 

 landsman ; but both York and Jemmy were much superior to 

 any sailor on board ; several times they have declared what 

 some distant object has been, and though doubted by every 

 one, they have proved right, when it has been examined 

 through a telescope. They were quite conscious of this power ; 

 and Jemmy, when he had any little quarrel with the officer 

 on watch, would say, ** Me see ship, me no tell." 



It was interesting to watch the conduct of the savages, 

 when we landed, towards Jemmy Button ; they immediately 

 perceived the difference between him and ourselves, and held 

 much conversation one with another on the subject. The 

 old man addressed a long harangue to Jemmy, which it 

 seems was to invite him to stay with them. But Jemmy 

 understood very little of their language, and was, moreover, 

 thoroughly ashamed of his countrymen. When York 

 Minster afterwards came on shore, they noticed him in the 

 same way, and told him he ought to shave ; yet he had not 

 twenty dwarf hairs on his face, whilst we all wore our un- 

 trimmed beards. They examined the colour of his skin, and 

 compared it with ours. One of our arms being bared, they 

 expressed the liveliest surprise and admiration at its white- 

 ness, just in the same way in which I have seen the ourang- 

 outang do at the Zoological Gardens. We thought tliat they 

 mistook two or three of the officers, who were rather shorter 

 and fairer, though adorned with large beards, for the ladies of 



