CHAP, x.] FUEGIANS. . 215 



with stones and stakes, and some of the younger men and Jemmy's 

 brother were crying : Matthews met them with -presents. Another 

 party showed by signs that they wished to strip him naked and 

 pluck all the hairs out of his face and body. I think we arrived 

 just in time to save his life. Jemmy's relatives had been so vain 

 and foolish, that they had showed to strangers their plunder, and 

 their manner of obtaining it. It was quite melancholy leaving the 

 three Fuegians with their savage countrymen; but it was a great 

 comfort that they had no personal fears. York, being a powerful 

 resolute man, was pretty sure to get ou well, together with his 

 wife Fuegia. Poor Jemmy looked rather disconsolate, and would 

 then, I have little doubt, have been glad to have returned with us. 

 His own brother had stolen many things from him; and as he 

 remarked, " What fashion call that : " he abused his countrymen, 

 " all bad men, no sabe (know) nothing," and, though I never heard 

 him swear before, "damned fools." Our three Fuegians, though 

 they had been only three years with civilized men, would, I am 

 sure, have been glad to have retained their new habits; but this 

 was obviously impossible. I fear it is more than doubtful, whether 

 their visit will have been of any use to them. 



In the evening, with Matthews on board, we made sail 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 llth, 

 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 benutiful little cove at the eastern entrance 

 of the Beagle Channel. Captain Fitz Eoy 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 

 lacking, and, instead of meeting us at each tack, vainly strove to 

 follow us in our zigzag course. I was amused at finding what a 



