COOPER J BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TRIBES OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO 61 



These practically closed the cycle of Yahgan studies. Since then 

 no important new developments have taken place. All three depart- 

 ments of Yahgan anthropology are as well known as we could reason- 

 ably expect, although there is of course probably a good deal that 

 may yet be discovered about this passing race. 



ALACALUF 



The fires seen by Magellan's expedition in 1520 were from Onan 

 or Alacaluf an camps, but the Alacaluf themselves were first observed 

 not until six years later by the Loaysa expedition, nearly a century 

 prior to the first discovery of the Yahgans. 



The first detailed accounts of the Patagonian channel Alacaluf, 

 brief though these accounts are, are contained in the narratives of 

 Ladrillero's and Cortes Hojea's expedition in 1557-58. A few new 

 data came to light around the middle of the eighteenth century 

 subsequent to the shipwreck of the Wager and to Father Garcia' s 

 missionary journey to the Guaianecos Islands. Some 70 years after 

 the Garcia expedition, the results of Admiral Fitz-Roy's studies were 

 published. 



In the field of culture little has been added to our knowledge since 

 the days of Admiral Fitz-Roy, although excellent original accounts 

 have been published following Dr. Coppinger's investigations in 

 1879-80 and Dr. Skottsberg's recent expedition in 1908. 



All of the above accounts are based on casual meetings or on 

 series of such meetings. A thorough detailed study of these people, 

 based on extensive investigation covering a period of at least a year, 

 is a great desideratum. 



Some scores of explorers and travelers have personally observed 

 and described the Alacaluf of the Strait of Magellan, but hardly more 

 than casually. An exhaustive study of them by investigators cog- 

 nizant of their language and living among them in their native chan- 

 nels has yet to be made. 



The accounts of Drake's expedition in 1578, of de Weert's, de 

 Cordes', and van Noort's in 1599-1600, and of Beauchesne's in 1698 

 furnish some data on the more obvious phases of culture, and to 

 La Guilbaudiere (1688-1696) we are indebted for the earliest vocabu- 

 lary. Between 1764 and 1768 the Alacaluf of the Strait were studied 

 successively by Byron, Duclos-Guyot, WaUis and Bougainville, and 

 in 1786 and 1788-89 by de Cordoba. The most satisfactory of all 

 the older accounts of the Alacaluf are those of Bougainville, Duclos- 

 Guyot, and especially of de Cordoba.^ 



Further studies were made by the Beagle expeditions in 1826-1832 

 by Dr. Coppinger in 1879-80 and by a number of later explorers. 



1 See, however, Vargas Ponce's original narratives rather tlian the translations. 



