1834.] YAMMERSCHOONER. 229 



In the evening, with Matthews on board, we made sai) 

 back to the ship, not by the Beagle Channel, but by the 

 southern coast. The boats were heavily laden and the sea 

 rough, and we had a dangerous passage. By the evening 

 of the 7th we were on board the Beagle after an absence of 

 twenty days, during which time we had gone three hundred 

 miles in the open boats. On the nth, Captain Fitz Roy 

 paid a visit by himself to the Fuegians, and found them 

 going on well ; and that they had lost very few more things. 



On the last day of February in the succeeding year (1834), 

 the Beagle anchored in a beautiful little cove at tihe 

 eastern entrance of the Beagle Channel. Captain Fitz 

 Roy determined on the bold, and as it proved successful, 

 attempt to beat against the westerly winds by the same 

 route which we had followed in the boats to the settlement 

 at Woollya. We did not see many natives until we were 

 near Ponsonby Sound, where we were followed by ten or 

 twelve canoes. The natives did not at all understand the 

 reason of our tacking, and, instead of meeting us at each 

 tack, vainly strove to follow us in our zig-zag course. I 

 was amused at finding what a difference the circumstance 

 of being quite superior in force made, in the interest of be- 

 holding these savages. While in the boats I got to hate 

 the very sound of their voices, so much trouble did they 

 give us. The first and last word was * ' yammerschooner. " 

 When, entering some quiet little cove we have looked 

 round, and thought to pass a quiet night, the odious word 

 "yammerschooner" has shrilly sounded from some gloomy 

 nook, and then the little signal-smoke has curled up to 

 spread the news far and wide. On leaving some place we 

 have said to each other, ** Thank Heaven, we have at last 

 fairly left these wretches ! " when one more faint halloo 

 from an all-powerful voice, heard at a prodigious distance, 

 would reach our ears, and clearly could we distinguish — 

 "yammerschooner." But now, the more Fuegians the 

 merrier ; and very merry work it was. Both parties 

 laughing, wondering, gaping at each other; we pitying 

 them for giving us good fish and crabs for rags, etc. ; they 

 grasping at the chance of finding people so foolish as to 

 exchange such splendid ornaments for a good supper. It 

 was most amusing to see the undisguised smile of satis- 

 faction with which one young woman, with her face painted 

 black, tied several bits of scarlet cloth round her head with 



