200 
SOUTH SEA 
in want of the common necessaries of life, they seem 
to possess spirits of considerable buoyancy, as the few 
which he had the good fortune to meet with (for they are 
hut rarely seen) in one of his excursions along the coast 
evinced much sensible and lively good-nature ; he also 
states that, although their language, as we naturally an- 
ticipate, is totally different to our own, still they possess a 
remarkable capability of imitating our sounds, of which 
he gives a ludicrous example; for, he continues, “like most 
other persons in their condition, they are not very honest ; 
and one of them, having taken a fancy to a culinary 
vessel belonging to one of the sailors, endeavoured to 
secrete it, but not without being observed by the seaman, 
who soon demanded it in a very peremptory manner, by 
ejaculating, c you copper-coloured rascal, give me back 
my tin pot/ The Fuegian smiled in the sailor’s face, 
and imitated his words so accurately that every one pre- 
sent was astonished, and at first thought him well ac- 
quainted with our language ; but they had many indu- 
bitable proofs that these were the first Europeans they 
had ever met with.” With all their wants, not knowing 
that which is really within their intellectual or physical 
reach, those Fuegians, in their wretched condition, when 
compared with our own, seem to possess a consi- 
derable share of that inestimable blessing— happiness : 
although the dark damp atmosphere robs them of genial 
light and warmth— although the howling tempest rages 
over their uncovered heads with awful violence, and the 
rolling billows of the Western main shake their native 
land to its foundation, wdiile the iron hand of winter re- 
