212 TIERRA DEL FUEGO. [CHAP. x. 



negro-cook to a sealing vessel, did so more effectually ; and the 

 poor fellow was so mobbed and shouted at that he would never go 

 on shore again. Everything went on so quietly, that some of the 

 officers and myself took long walks in the surrounding hills and 

 woods. Suddenly, however, on the 27th, every woman and child 

 disappeared. We were all uneasy at this, as neither York nor 

 Jemmy could make out the cause. It was thought by some that 

 they had been frightened by our cleaning and firing off our 

 muskets on the previous evening; by others, that it was owing to 

 offence taken by an old savage, who, when told to keep further off, 

 had coolly spit in the sentry's face, and had then, by gestures acted 

 over a sleeping Fuegian, plainly showed, as it was said, that he 

 should like to cut up and eat our man. Captain Fitz Eoy, to 

 avoid the chance of an encounter, which would have been fatal to 

 so many of the Fuegians, thought it advisable for us to sleep at a 

 cove a few miles distant. Matthews, with his usual quiet fortitude 

 (remarkable in a man apparently possessing little energy of 

 character), determined to stay with the Fuegians, who evinced no 

 alarm for themselves ; and so we left them to pass their first awful 

 night. 



On our return in the morning (23th) we were delighted to find 

 all quiet, and the men employed in their canoes spearing fish. 

 Captain Fitz Eoy determined to send the yawl and one whale-boat 

 back to the ship; and to proceed with the two other boats, one 

 under his own command (in which he most kindly allowed me to 

 accompany him), and one under Mr. Hammond, to survey the 

 western parts of the Beagle Channel, and afterwards to return and 

 visit the settlement. The day to our astonishment was over- 

 poweringly hot, so that our skins were; scorched : with this beauti- 

 ful weather, the view in the middle of the Beagle Channel was 

 very remarkable. Looking towards either hand, no object inter- 

 cepted the vanishing points of this long canal between the moun- 

 tains. The circumstance of its being an arm of the sea was 

 rendered very evident by several huge whales * spouting in 

 different directions. On one occasion I saw two of these monsters, 

 probably male and female, slowly swimming one after the other, 



* One day, off the East coast of Tierra del Fuego, we saw a grand 

 sight in several spermaceti whales jumping upright quite out of the 

 water, with the exception of their tail-fins. As they fell down sideways, 

 they splashed the water high up, and the sound reverberated like a 

 distant broadside. 



