^16 FIRST MEETING AVITH FUEGIAKS. AprillS^O* 



and some people walking on the beach. 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. 



