CHAP, x.] FUEGIANS. 



the " cliefs-d'oeuvre de 1'industrie humaine, comme ils traitcnt les 

 loix de la nature et ses phenomenes." 



On the 5th of March, we anchored in the cove at Woollya, but 

 we saw not a soul there. We were alarmed at this, for the natives 

 in Ponsonby Sound showed by gestures, that there had been 

 fighting ; and we afterwards heard that the dreaded Oens men had 

 made a descent. Soon a canoe, with a little flag flying, was seen 

 approaching, with one of the men in it washing the paint off his 

 face. This man was poor Jemmy, now a thin, haggard savage, 

 with long disordered hair, and naked, except a bit of a blanket 

 round his waist. We did not recognize him till he was close to us, 

 for he was ashamed of himself, and turned his back to the ship. 

 We had left him plump, fat, clean, and well-dressed; I never saw 

 so complete and grievous a change. As soon however as he was 

 clothed, and the first flurry was over, things wore a good appear- 

 ance. He dined with Captain Fitz Roy, and ate his dinner as 

 tidily as formerly. He told us he had ' too much ' (meaning 

 enough) to eat, that he was not cold, that his relations were very 

 good people, and that hs did not wish to go back to England : in 

 the evening we found out the cause of this great change in Jemmy's 

 feelings, in the arrival of his young and nice-lookiug wife. With 

 his usual good feeling, he brought two beautiful otter-skins for two 

 of his best friends, and some spear-heads and arrows made with 

 his own hands for the Captain. He said he had built a canoe for 

 himself, and he boasted that he could talk a little of his own lan- 

 guage ! But it is a most singular fact, that he appears to have 

 taught all his iribe some English : an old man spontaneously an- 

 nounced ' Jemmy Button's wife,' Jemmy had lost all his property. 

 He told us that York Minster had built a large canoe, and with 

 his wife Fuegia,* had several months since gone to his own country, 

 and had taken farewell by an act of consummate villainy; he 

 persuaded Jemmy and his mother to come with him, and then 

 on the way deserted them by night, stealing every article of their 

 property. 



Jemmy went to sleep on shore, and in the morning returned, 



* Captain Sullivan, who, since his voyage in the Beagle, has been em- 

 ployed on the survey of the Falkland Islands, heard from a sealer iu (1842?), 

 that when in the western part of the Strait of Magellan, he was astonished 

 Ly a native woman coming on board, who could talk some English. AViih- 

 out doubt this was Fuegia Basket. She lived (I fear the term probably 

 bt-i.rs a double interpretation) gome days on board. 



