222 IGNORANCE OF FIREARMS. [chap. x. 



power of firearms. In the very act of levelling his musket 

 he appears to the savage far inferior to a man armed with 

 a bow and arrow, a spear, or even a sling. Nor is it easy 

 to teach them our superiority except by striking a fatal 

 blow. Like wild beasts, they do not appear to compare 

 numbers ; for each individual, if attacked, instead of 

 retiring, will endeavour to dash your brains out with a 

 stone, as certainly as a tiger under similar circumstances 

 would tear you. Captain Fitz Roy on one occasion being 

 very anxious, from good reasons, to frighten away a small 

 party, first flourished a cutlass near them, at which they 

 only laughed ; he then twice fired his pistol close to a 

 native. The man both times looked astounded, and care- 

 fully but quickly rubbed his head; he then* stared awhile, 

 and gabbled to his companions, but he never seemed to 

 think of running away. We can hardly put ourselves in 

 the position of these savages and understand their actions. 

 In the case of this Fuegian, the possibility of such a sound 

 as the report of a gun close to his ear could never have 

 entered his mind. He perhaps literally did not for a second 

 know whether it was a sound or a blow, and therefore very 

 naturally rubbed his head. In a similar manner, when a 

 savage sees a mark struck by a bullet, it may be some time 

 before he is able at all to understand how it is effected ; 

 for the fact of a body being invisible from its velocity would 

 perhaps be to him an idea totally inconceivable. Moreover, 

 the extreme force of a bullet that penetrates a hard substance 

 without tearing it, may convince the savage that it has no 

 force at all. Certainly I believe that many savages of the 

 lowest grade, such as these of Tierra del Fuego, have seen 

 objects struck, and even small animals killed by the musket, 

 without being in the least aware how deadly an instrument 

 it is. 



January 22nd. — After having passed an unmolested night, 

 in what would appear to be neutral territory between 

 Jemmy's tribe and the people whom we saw yesterday, we 

 sailed pleasantly along. I do not know anything which 

 shows more clearly the hostile state of the different tribes 

 than these wide border or neutral tracts. Although Jemmy 

 Button well knew the force of our party, he was, at first, 

 unwilling to land amidst the hostile tribe nearest to his 

 own. He often told us how the savage Oens men * ' when 

 the leaf red," crossed the mountains from the eastern coast 

 of Tierra del Fuego, and made inroads on the natives of 



