X 
FUE GIANS 
239 
of obtaining it. It was quite melancholy leaving the three 
Fuegians with their savage countrymen ; but it was a great 
comfort that they had no personal fears. York, being a powerful 
resolute man, was pretty sure to get on well, together with his 
wife Fuegia. Poor Jemmy looked rather disconsolate, and would 
then, I have little doubt, have been glad to have returned with 
us. His own brother had stolen many things from him ; and as 
he remarked, “What fashion call that he abused his countrymen, 
“ All bad men, no sabe (know) nothing/’ and, though I never 
heard him swear before, “ damned fools.” Our three Fuegians, 
though they had been only three years with civilised men, would, 
I am sure, have been glad to have retained their new habits ; but 
this was obviously impossible. I fear it is more than doubtful 
whether their visit will have been of any use to them. 
In the evening, with Matthews on board, we made sail back 
to the ship, not by the Beagle Channel, but by the southern coast. 
The boats were heavily laden and the sea rough, and we had a 
dangerous passage. By the evening of the 7th we were on board 
the Beagle after an absence of twenty days, during which time 
we had gone three hundred miles in the open boats. On the 
1 ith Captain Fitz Roy paid a visit by himself to the Fuegians 
and found them going on well ; and that they had lost very few 
more things. 
On the last day of February in the succeeding year (1834), 
the Beagle anchored in a beautiful little cove at the eastern 
entrance of the Beagle Channel. Captain Fitz Roy determined 
on the bold, and as it proved successful, attempt to beat against 
the westerly winds by the same route which we had followed in 
the boats to the settlement at Woollya. We did not see many 
natives until we were near Ponsonby Sound, where we were 
followed by ten or twelve canoes. The natives did not at all 
understand the reason of our tacking, and, instead of meeting us 
at each tack, vainly strove to follow us in our zigzag course. I 
was amused at finding what a difference the circumstance of 
being quite superior in force made, in the interest of beholding 
these savages. While in the boats I got to hate the very sound 
of their voices, so much trouble did they give us. The first and 
last word was “ yammerschooner.” When, entering some quiet 
little cove, we have looked round and thought to pass a quiet 
