216 FIRST MEETING WITH FUEGIANS. April 1829° 
and some people walking on the heach. While the ship was 
standing off, I went to them, being the first savages I had ever 
met. In the canoe were an old woman, her daughter, and a 
child, and on shore were two Fuegian men with several dogs. 
Their figures reminded me of drawings of the Esquimaux, 
being rather below the middle size, wrapped in rough skins, 
with their hair hanging down on all sides, like old thatch, and 
their skins of a reddish brown colour, smeared over with oil, 
and very dirty. Their features were bad, but peculiar; and, if 
physiognomy can be trusted, indicated cunning, indolence, 
passive fortitude, deficient intellect, and want of energy. I 
observed that the forehead was very small and ill-shaped ; the 
nose was long, narrow between the eyes, and wide at the point ; 
and the upper lip, long and protruding. They had small, re- 
treating chins; bad teeth; high cheek-bones; small Chinese 
eyes, at an oblique angle with the nose; coarse hair; wide 
ill-formed mouths, and a laugh as if the upper lip were im- 
moveable. ‘The head was very small, especially at the top and 
back ; there were very few bumps for a craniologist. They 
asked earnestly for ‘ tabac, tabac,’ but seemed very timid. We 
bartered some biscuit and old knives for a few of their arrows, 
skins, spears, &c. 
“* Their canoes, twenty-two feet long, and about three wide, 
were curiously made of the branches of trees, covered with 
pieces of beech-tree bark, sewed together with intestines of 
seals. A fire was burning in the middle, upon some earth, and 
all their property, consisting of a few skins and bone-headed 
lances, was stowed at the ends. 
“The young woman would not have been ill-looking, had 
she been well scrubbed, and all the yellow clay with which she 
was bedaubed, washed away. I think they use the clayey mix- 
ture for warmth rather than for show, as it stops the pores of 
the skin, preventing evaporation and keeping out the cold air. 
Their only clothing was a skin, thrown loosely about them ; 
and their hair was much like a horse’s mane, that has never 
been combed. 
“ April 14th. Anchored in Port Famine. 
