244 



CHARLES DARWIN 



cated object, such as our ship. Bougainville has well re- 

 marked concerning these people, that they treat the " chefs- 

 d'oeuvre de l'industrie humaine, corame ils traitent les lob? 

 de la nature et ses phenomenes." 



On the 5th of March, we anchored in a cove at Woollya, 

 but we saw not a soul there. We were alarmed at this, for 

 the natives in Ponsonby Sound showed by gestures, that there 

 had been fighting; and we afterwards heard that the dreaded 

 Oens men had made a descent. Soon a canoe, with a little 

 flag flying, was seen approaching, with one of the men in it 

 washing the paint off his face. This man was poor Jemmy, 

 —now a thin, haggard savage, with long disordered hair, and 

 naked, except a bit of blanket round his waist. We did not 

 recognize him till he was close to us, for he was ashamed 

 of himself, and turned his back to the ship. We had left him 

 plump, fat, clean, and well-dressed; — I never saw so complete 

 and grievous a change. As soon, however, as he was clothed, 

 and the first flurry was over, things wore a good appear- 

 ance. He dined with Captain Fitz Roy, and ate his dinner 

 as tidily as formerly. He told us that he had " too much " 

 (meaning enough) to eat, that he was not cold, that his re- 

 lations were very good people, and that he did not wish to go 

 back to England: in the evening we found out the cause of 

 this great change in Jemmy's feelings, in the arrival of his 

 young and nice-looking wife. 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 said he had built a canoe for him- 

 self, and he boasted that he could talk a little of his own 

 language ! But it is a most singular fact, that he appears to 

 have taught all his tribe some English : an old man sponta- 

 neously announced " Jemmy Button's wife." Jemmy had lost 

 all his property. He told us that York Minster had built 

 a large canoe, and with his wife Fuegia, 8 had several months 

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

 act of consummate villainy; he persuaded Jemmy and his 



3 Captain Sulivan, who, since his voyage in the Beagle, has been em- 

 ployed on the survey of the Falkland Islands, heard from a sealer in (1842?)^ 

 that when in the western part of the Strait of Magellan, he was astonished 

 by a native woman coming on board, who could talk some English. With- 

 out doubt tins was Fuegia Basket. Sh» lived (I fear the term probably 

 bears a double interpretation) some days on board. 



