THE FUEGIANS. 



431 



and less intelligent, though in some things he could be quick. He became at- 

 tached to Fuegia, and as both were of the same tribe, they became man and 

 wife after their return to Tierra del Fuego. She was the most niteUigent of 

 the three, and quick in learning any thing, especially languages. 



Thus these semi-civilized savages were left among their barbarous country- 

 men, with the hope that they might become the means of improving their whole 

 tribe; but when Captain Fitzroy returned to the spot twelve months after, 

 he found the wigwams deserted and the gardens trampled underfoot. Jemmy 

 came paddling up in his canoe, but the dandy who had been left plump, clean, 

 and well-dressed, was now turned into a thin, haggard savage, witli long, disor- 

 dered hair, and naked, except a bit of a blanket round his waist. He could still 

 speak English, and said that he had enough to eat, that he was not cold, and 

 that his relations were very good people. He had a wife besides, who was de- 

 cidedly the best-looking female in the company. With his usual good feeling, 

 he brought two beautiful otter skins for two of his best friends, and some spear- 

 heads and arrows made with his own hands for the captain. He had lost all 

 his property. York Minster had built a large canoe, and with his wife Fuegia 

 had, several months since, gone to his own country, and had taken farewell by 

 an act of consummate villainy. He persuaded Jemmy and his mother to coma 

 with him, and then on the way deserted them by night, stealing every article 

 of their property. It was the opinion of all on board that the cunning rogue had 

 planned all this long before, and that with this end in view he had desired so 

 earnestly to remain with Jemmy's tribe rather than be landed on his own coun- 

 try. Eight years after an English vessel put into a bay in the Magellans for 

 water, and there was found a woman, without doubt Fuegia Basket, who said, 

 " How do ? I have been to Plymouth and London." York Minster was also 

 seen in 1851. From Captain Snow, commander of the mission yacht "Allen 

 Gardiner," we have the last accounts of Jemmy Button in 1855. Twenty-three 

 years had not obliterated his knowledge of the English language, but he was as 

 wild and shaggy as his untaught countrymen. In spite of his superior knowl- 

 edge, he was treated as a very inferior personage by the members of his tribe ; 

 yet he declared that though he loved England, he loved his country still better; 

 that nothing should induce him to leave it, and that he would never allow any 

 of his children to quit their native soil. 



Other efforts have been made to civilize the Fuegians. A Spanish vessel 

 having been shipwrecked on the eastern coast in 1767, its crew was hospitably 

 treated by the natives, who even assisted in saving the cargo. Out of gratitude, 

 the Governor of Buenos Ayres sent out some missionaries, who, however, totally 

 failed to make any impression on the savages. 



A no less unsuccessful attempt was made about the year 1835 by English mis- 

 sionaries ; and the expedition of Captain Gardiner, who, accompanied by a sur- 

 geon, a catechist, and four Cornish fishermen, sailed to Fuegia in 1851, with the 

 intention of converting the natives, proved equally fruitless, and had a far more 

 tragic end. His measures for securing the necessary supplies of food were so 

 ill calculated that the whole party died of hunger in Spaniards' Harbor, on the 

 southern coast. Captain Morshead, of the " Dido," had received orders on his 



