THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 291 



appear to have three-fourths of Indian blood in their veins. 

 They are an humble, quiet, industrious set of men. Although 

 the fertile soil, resulting from the decomposition of the vol- 

 canic rocks, supports a rank vegetation, yet the climate is not 

 favourable to any production which requires much sunshine 

 to ripen it. There is very little pasture for the larger quad- 

 rupeds ; and in consequence, the staple articles of food are 

 pigs, potatoes, and fish. The people all dress in strong 

 woollen garments, which each family makes for itself, and 

 dyes with indigo of a dark blue colour. The arts, however, 

 are in the rudest state; as may be seen in their strange 

 fashion of ploughing, their method of spinning, grinding 

 corn, and in the construction of their boats. The forests are 

 so impenetrable, that the land is nowhere cultivated except 

 near the coast and on the adjoining islets. Even where paths 

 exist, they are scarcely passable from the soft and swampy 

 state of the soil. The inhabitants, like those of Tierra del 

 Fuego, move about chiefly on the beach or in boats. Although 

 with plenty to eat, the people are very poor: there is no 

 demand for labour, and consequently the lower orders cannot 

 scrape together money sufficient to purchase even the smallest 

 luxuries. There is also a great deficiency of a circulating 

 medium. I have seen a man bringing on his back a bag of 

 charcoal, with which to buy some trifle, and another carrying 

 a plank to exchange for a bottle of wine. Hence every trades- 

 man must also be a merchant, and again sell the goods which 

 he takes in exchange. 



November 24th. The yawl and whale-boat were sent under 

 the command of Mr. (now Captain) Sulivan, to survey the 

 eastern or inland coast of Chiloe ; and with orders to meet 

 the Beagle at the southern extremity of the island ; to which 

 point she would proceed by the outside, so as thus to cir- 

 cumnavigate the whole. I accompanied this expedition, but 

 instead of going in the boats the first day, I hired horses to 

 take me to Chacao, at the northern extremity of the island. 

 The road followed the coast; every now and then crossing 

 promontories covered by fine forests. In these shaded paths 

 it is absolutely necessary that the whole road should be made 

 of logs of wood, which are squared and placed by the side of 

 each other. From the rays of the sun never penetrating the 



