150 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



Fiiegians. King mentions having seen a Fuegian in company 

 with one of the bands of Patagonians whom he encountered, 

 and Fitzroy states, apparently on the authority of Mr. Low, 

 captain of a sealer, whom he encountered in these regions, 

 " that there is every reason to conclude that the Canoe-men 

 of the south side of these waters have frequent and even 

 amicable intercourse with the horse-men of Patagonia. A 

 part of that amicable intercourse consists in selling their 

 children to Patagonians as slaves." That these nations may 

 have frequently met in former times when the islands of 

 Santa Magdalena, Santa Marta,and above all Elizabeth Island,* 

 were tenanted by Fuegians, appears not at all unlikely ; but 

 that they have done so for a long time back there is some 

 reason to doubt, as, though we landed on many parts of the 

 coast of N.E. Fuegia, we could never discover the slightest 

 vestiges of canoes or rafts of any description, and in fact, in 

 this part of Fuegia, with the exception of drift wood, no 

 material exists for their manufacture. To the westward, 

 where the Fuegians possess canoes, and are to be met with 

 on both sides of the Strait, the Patagonians do not occur, as 

 they inhabit exclusively the open plains, and do not enter the 

 wooded country, except occasionally for the purpose of trading 

 with the inhabitants of the Chilian colony. 



* The Fuegians seem to have disappeared from the first two islands at 

 a very early period, having been exterminated by the men of Oliver van 

 Noort's expedition, but Wood encountered them on Elizabeth Island as late 

 as 1670. 



