MEKT NATIVES — VOLCANO. 203 



uniform width (overlooking minute details) for one hundred 

 and twenty miles. 



20th. We passed the clay cliffs, spoken of in the former 

 volume, first visited by Mr. Murray. They narrow the channel 

 to less than a mile, but, being low, were beneath the horizon 

 of our eye at Cutfinger Cove : — westward of them the chan- 

 nel widens again to its usual breadth of two miles. Several 

 natives were seen in this day's pull ; but as Jemmy told us they 

 were not his friends, and often made war upon his people, we 

 held very little intercourse with them. York laughed heartily 

 at the first we saw, calling them large monkeys ; and Jemmy 

 assured us they were not at all like his people, who were very 

 good and very clean. Fuegia was shocked and ashamed ; she 

 hid herself, and would not look at them a second time. It was 

 interesting to observe the change which three years only had 

 made in their ideas, and to notice how completely they had 

 forgotten the appearance and habits of their former associates ; 

 for it turned out that Jemmy's own tribe was as inferior in 

 every way as the worst of those whom he and York called 

 " monkeys — dirty — fools — not men." 



We gave these ' Yapoos,' as York called them, some pre- 

 sents, and crossed over to the north side of the channel to be 

 free from their importunities; but they followed us speedily, 

 and obliged us to go on further westward than was at all 

 agreeable, considering the labour required to make way against 

 a breeze and a tide of a mile an hour. When we at last landed 

 to pass the night, we found that the forests on the sides of the 

 mountains had been burned for many leagues ; and as we were 

 not far from the place where a volcano was supposed to exist, 

 in consequence of flames having been seen by a ship passing 

 Cape Horn, it occurred to me that some conflagration, like 

 that of which we found the signs, might have caused appear- 

 ances resembling the eruption of a distant volcano : and I have 

 since been confirmed in this idea, from having witnessed a 

 volcano in eruption ; and, not long afterwards, a conflagration, 

 devouring many miles of mountain forest ; both of which, at a 

 distance, shewed lines of fire, fitful flashes, and sudden gleams. 



