358 



ADVENTURE — EORT FAMINE. 



May, J une. 



ployed in sounding in the neighbourhood of Cape Virgins, 

 Point Catherine, Lomas Bay, and Possession Bay. 



On the 23d, at day-light, we saw the Adventure coming 

 from the Falklands. After communicating with us, she w^nt 

 on to survey the portion of coast extending from Sweepstakes 

 Foreland to Cape Monmouth ; and we remained to complete 

 our own task of sounding the banks about the First Narrow, 

 and examining the south shore of St. Philip Bay. On the 3d 

 of June both vessels were moored in Port Famine, preparing 

 for their passage to San Carlos in Chiloe. 



The next chapter will take the Beagle into the Pacific by a route not 

 hitherto used, except by sealing vessels : although it possesses many 

 advantages over either the passage round Cape Horn, or that through 

 the western reaches of the Strait of Magalhaens. Mr. Low is said to 

 be the first discoverer of it, and he certainly was the first to pass through 

 in a ship ; but I think one of the Saxe Cobourg's boats had passed 

 through it previously, and 1 much question whether Sir Francis Drake's 

 shallop did not go by that opening into the Strait of Magalhaens in 

 1578.* 



Before T finally leave Tierra del Fuego, a remark or two may here 

 be made respecting the language of the natives. ' Pichi,' in the Huilli- 

 che or Araucanian language, means 'small ' or ' a little,' and * re ' sig- 

 nifies ' only,' ' but,' ' purely,' or * simply.' Hence, Pecheray, always 

 uttered in a begging, or whining tone, may have some such signification. 

 Tn Beauchesne's voyage it is said, that the natives in the Eastern parts 

 of Magalhaens Strait were called * Laguedi-che,' and those westward, 

 ' Haveguedi-che.'t These words are to me very interesting, because I 

 suppose the first to be a corruption of Laque-che, which means, in Arau- 

 canian, ' People with balls ' (bolas), and the second is not far removed 

 from Huapi-gulu-che, which means * people of mountainous islands 

 heaped together,' terms respectively most appropriate for natives of 

 eastern and western Tierra <lel Fuego. 



* See Burney, vol. i. p. 368 and p. 327, where he shows that Drake 

 discovered Cape Horn, and anchored near it (in or near St. Martin 

 Cove?) in 1578. Another early southern discovery is mentioned in 

 vol. ii. p. 198, where it is stated that Dirck Gherritz discovered land 

 in 64°. S. in 1599, (part of or near South Shetland ?) 



t Voyage of Beauchesue, in Burney's History, vol. iv. p. 378. 



