1833.] AMONG THE NATIVES. 221 



natives could ever have seen a white man ; certainly nothing 

 could exceed their astonishment at the apparition of the 

 four boats. Fires were lighted on every point (hence the 

 name of Tierra del Fuego, or the land of lire), both to 

 attract our attention and to spread far and wide the news. 

 Some of the men ran for miles along the shore. I shall 

 never forget how wild and savage one group appeared : 

 suddenly four or five men came to the edge of an over- 

 hanging cliff; they were absolutely naked, and their long 

 hair streamed about their faces ; they held rugged staffs 

 in their hands, and, springing from the ground, they waved 

 their arms round their hf ads, and sent forth the most 

 hideous yells. 



At dinner-time we landed among a party of Fuegians. 

 At first they were not inclined to be friendly ; for until the 

 Captain pulled in ahead of the other boats they kept their 

 slings in their hands. We soon, however, delighted them 

 by trifling presents, such as tying red tape round their 

 heads. They liked our biscuit; but one of the savages 

 touched with his finger some of the meat preserved in tin 

 cases which I was eating, and feeling it soft and cold, 

 showed as much disgust at it as I should have done at 

 putrid blubber. Jemmy was thoroughly ashamed of his 

 countrymen, and declared his own tribe were quite different, 

 in which he was woefully mistaken. It was as easy to 

 please as it was difficult to satisfy these savages. Young 

 and old, men and children, never ceased repeating the word 

 "yammerschooner," which means " give me." After point- 

 ing to almost every object, one after the other, even to the 

 buttons on our coats, and saying their favourite word in 

 as many intonations as possible, they would then use it in 

 a neuter sense, and vacantly repeat '* yammerschooner." 

 After yammerschoonering 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 uninhabited 

 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 

 ioined by others, they showed symptoms of hostility, and 



' thought that we should have come to a skirmish. An 



uropean labours under great disadvantages when treating 

 with savages like these, who have not the least idea of tiie 



