1830. FUKGIANS PLANK CANOES PECHERAY. 



313 



men and two women, came out to us ; but we did not delay 

 long, and at five the anchor was dropped in Fortescue Bay. 



As it did not appear that the Adelaide had preceded us, I 

 determined upon remaining, to make a chronometric measure- 

 ment from Port Gallant to Port Famine ; and the next morn- 

 ing Lieutenant Graves landed, and obtained a set of sights for 

 time. 



In the early part of the day, two canoes, containing eight 

 or ten Fuegians, entered the bay. They came from the west- 

 ward; but we did not recognize among them any of those 

 who visited the ship as we passed Bachelor''s River. Several 

 had red baize shirts, and some had ' Union caps,** such as are 

 supplied to our men-of-war; which they must have procured 

 from the Beagle or Adelaide, or from the Chanticleer, at Cape 

 Horn, (ci^) After hanging about us all day, they landed at 

 sunset, and took up their quarters in some old wigwams in the 

 inner harbour. 



The canoes of these natives were very different in their con- 

 struction from any we had seen to the eastward. Instead of 

 being paddled, they were pulled with oars ; one of which was 

 an ash oar, probably obtained from some sealing-vessel. The 

 canoes were large ; at the bottom was a plank, twenty inches 

 wide, to which were sewn the sides, in the manner of the pira- 

 guas, and they were caulked with bark, in a similar way. 



We did not remark any thing peculiar among these people 

 which we had not perceived in other natives of Tierra del 

 Fuego, except that they frequently used the word ' pecheray,' a 

 word particularly noticed by Bougainville, who thought that 

 it meant the name of the tribe ; and, in consequence, the Fue- 

 gians have been often called Pecherays. 



On one of the officers cutting a lock of hair from a woman'^s 

 head, the men became angry, and one of them taking it away, 

 threw half of it into the fire, and, rolling up the other portion 

 between the palms of his hands, swallowed it. Immediately 



(acj I believe that the natives who have canoes of the kind described 

 above, do not go near the Hermite Islands, on which Cape Horn is 

 situated. — R. F. 



