CHAPTER X

TIERRA DEL FUEGO

Tierra del Fuego, first arrival -- Good Success Bay -- An
Account of the Fuegians on board -- Interview With the
Savages -- Scenery of the Forests -- Cape Horn -- Wigwam
Cove -- Miserable Condition of the Savages -- Famines --
Cannibals -- Matricide -- Religious Feelings -- Great
Gale -- Beagle Channel -- Ponsonby Sound -- Build Wigwams
and settle the Fuegians -- Bifurcation of the Beagle
Channel -- Glaciers -- Return to the Ship -- Second Visit
in the Ship to the Settlement -- Equality of Condition
amongst the Natives.


DECEMBER 17th, 1832. -- Having now finished with
Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, I will describe
our first arrival in Tierra del Fuego. A little after
noon we doubled Cape St. Diego, and entered the famous
strait of Le Maire. We kept close to the Fuegian shore, but
the outline of the rugged, inhospitable Statenland was visible
amidst the clouds. In the afternoon we anchored in the Bay
of Good Success. While entering we were saluted in a manner
becoming the inhabitants of this savage land. A group
of Fuegians partly concealed by the entangled forest, were
perched on a wild point overhanging the sea; and as we
passed by, they sprang up and waving their tattered cloaks
sent forth a loud and sonorous shout. The savages followed