194: TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP, x. 



CHAPTER X. 



Tievra del Fuego, fiist arrival Good Success Bay An Account of the 

 Fucgiaus on board Interview with the Savages Scenery of the Forests 

 Cape Horn Wigwam Cove Miserable Condition of the Savages 

 Famines Cannibals Matricide Religions Feelings Great Gale 

 Beagle Channel Ponsonby Sound Build Wigwams and settle the 

 Fuegians Bifurcation of the Beagle Channel Glaciers Return to 

 the Ship Second Visit in the Ship to the Settlement Equality of 

 Condition amongst the Natives-. 



TIERKA DEL FUEGO. 



December TTth, 1832. Having now finished with Patagonia and 

 the Falkland Islands, I will describe our first arrival in Tierra 

 del Fuego. A little after noon we doubled Cape St. Diego, and 

 entered the famous strait of Le Maire. We kept close to the 

 Fuegian shore, but the outline of the rugged, inhospitable Staten- 

 land was visible amidst the clouds. In the afternoon we anchored 

 in the Bay of Good Success. While entering we were saluted in a 

 manner becoming the inhabitants of this savage land. A group of 

 Fuegians partly concealed by the entangled forest, were perched 

 on a wild point overhanging the sea ; and as we passed by, they 

 sprang up and waving their tattered cloaks sent forth a loud and 

 sonorous shout. The savages followed the ship, and just before 

 dark we saw their fire, and again heard their wild cry. The 

 harbour consists of a fine piece of water half surrounded by low 

 rounded mountains of clay-slate, which are covered to the water's 

 edge by one dense gloomy forest. A single glance at the landscape 

 was sufficient to show me how widely different it was from anything 

 I had ever beheld. At night it blew a gale of wind, and heavy 

 squalls from the mountains swept past us. It would have been 

 a bad time out at sea, and we, as well as others, may call this Good 

 Success Bay. 

 In the morning the Captain sent a party to communicate with 



