92 PATAGONIAN FNCAMPMENT. May 1827. 
According to my promise, I sent on board for some tobacco, 
and my servant brought a larger quantity than I thought 
necessary for the occasion, which he injudiciously exposed to 
view. Maria, having seen the treasure, made up her mind to 
have the whole, and upon my selecting three or four pounds of 
it, and presenting them to her, looked very much disappointed, 
and grumbled forth her discontent: I taxed her with greedi- 
ness, and spoke rather sharply, which had a good effect, for 
she went away and returned with a guanaco mantle, which 
she presented to me. 
During this day’s barter we procured guanaco meat, suffi- 
cient for two days’ supply of all hands, for a few pounds of 
tobacco. It had been killed in the morning, and was brought 
on horseback cut up into large pieces, for each of which we 
had to bargain. Directly an animal is killed, it is skinned and 
cut up, or torn asunder, for the convenience of carrying. ‘The 
operation is done in haste, and therefore the meat looks bad ; 
but it is well tasted, excellent food, and although never fat, 
yields abundance of gravy, which compensates for its leanness. 
It improves very much by keeping, and proved to be valuable 
and wholesome meat. 
Captain Stokes, and several of the officers, upon our first 
reaching the beach, had obtained horses, and rode to their 
‘ toldos,’ or principal encampment. On their return, I learned 
that, at a short distance from the dwellings, they had seen the 
tomb of the child who had lately died. As soon, therefore, as 
Maria returned, I procured a horse from her, and, accompa- 
nied by her husband and brother, the father of the deceased, 
and herself, visited these toldos, situated in a valley extending 
north and south between two ridges of hills, through which ran 
a stream, falling into the Strait within the Second Narrow, 
about a mile to the westward of Cape Gregory. 
We found eight or ten huts arranged in a row; the sides 
and backs were covered with skins, but the fronts, which faced 
the east, were open; even these, however, were very much 
screened from wind by the ridge of hills eastward of the 
plain. Near them the ground was rather bare, but a little 
