Jan. 1833. 



BEAGLE CHANNEL. 



239 



by a simple artifice point to their young women or little chil- 

 dren, as much as to say, ^'^ If you will not give it me, surely 

 you will to such as these 



At night we endeavoured in vain to find an uninhabited 

 cove ; and at last were obliged to bivouac not far from a party 

 of natives. They were very inoffensive as long as they were 

 few in numbers, but in the morning (21st) being joined by 

 others they showed symptoms of hostility. An European 

 labours under great disadvantages, when treating with 

 savages like these, who have not the least idea of the power 

 of fire-arms. In the very act of levelling his musket, he 

 appears to the savage far inferior to a man armed with a bow 

 and arrow, a spear, or even a sling. Nor is it easy to teach 

 them our superiority except by striking a fatal blow. Like 

 wild beasts they do not appear in all cases to compare num- 

 bers; for each individual if attacked, instead of retiring, 

 win endeavour to dash your brains out with a stone, as 

 certainly as a tiger under similar circumstances would tear 

 you. Captain FitzRoy on one occasion, being very anxious 

 from good reasons to frighten away a small party, twice fired 

 his pistol close by the side of a native. The man both times 

 looked astounded, and carefully but quickly rubbed his head ; 

 he then stared awhile, and gabbled to his companions ; but 

 he never seemed to think of running away. We can hardly put 

 ourselves in the position of these savages, to understand 

 their actions. In the case of the Fuegian, the possibility of 

 such a sound as the report of a gun close to his ear, could 

 never have entered his mind. He perhaps literally did not for 

 a second know whether it was a sound or a blow, and therefore 

 very naturally rubbed his head. In a similar manner, when a 

 savage sees a mark struck by a buUet, it may be some time be- 

 fore he is able at all to understand how it is effected ; for the 

 fact of a body being invisible from its velocity, would perhaps 

 be to him an idea totally inconceivable. Moreover, the extreme 

 force of a bullet, that penetrates a hard substance without 

 tearing it, may convince the savage that it has no force at all. 

 Certainly I believe that many savages of the lowest grade, 



