228 



TIERRA DEL FUEGO. 



Dec. 1832. 



began to shout most vehemently^ wishing to direct us where 

 to land. When we were on shore the party looked rather 

 alarmed^ but continued talking and making gestures with 

 great rapidity. It was without exception the most curious 

 and interesting spectacle I had ever beheld. I could not 

 have believed how wide was the difference, between savage 

 and civilized man. It is greater than between a wild and 

 domesticated animal, in as much as in man there is a greater 

 power of improvement. The chief spokesman was old, and 

 appeared to be the head of the family; the three others 

 were pov/erful young men, about six feet high. The women 

 and children had been sent away. These Fuegians are a 

 very different race from the stunted miserable wretches 

 further to the westward. They are much superior in person, 

 and seem closely allied to the famous Patagonians of the 

 Strait of Magellan. Their only garment consists of a mantle 

 made of guanaco skin, with the wool outside ; this they wear 

 j ist thrown over their shoulders, as often leaving their per- 

 sons exposed as covered. Their skin is of a dirty coppery 

 red colour. 



The old man had a fillet of white feathers tied round his 

 head, which partly confined his black, coarse, and entangled 

 hair. His face was crossed by two broad transverse bars ; 

 one painted bright red reached from ear to ear, and included 

 the upper lip ; the other, white like chalk, extended parallel 

 and above the first, so that even his eyelids were thus 

 coloured. Some of the other men were ornamented by 

 streaks of black powder, made of charcoal. The party 

 altogether closely resembled the devils v/hich come on the 

 stage in such plays as Der Freischutz. 



Their very attitudes were abject, and the expression of 

 their countenances distrustful, surprised, and startled. After 

 we had presented them with some scarlet cloth, which they 

 immediately tied round their necks, they became good 

 friends. This was shown by the old man patting our 

 breasts, and making a chuckling kind of noise, as people do 

 when feeding chickens. I walked with the old man, and 



