1 M. de Bougainville, who, in January 1768, juft 1769. one year before us, had been on fhore upon this coaft January. in latitude 530 43'41", had, among other things, given glafs to the people whom he found here; for he fays, that a boy about twelve years old took it into his head to eat fome of it: by this unhappy accident he died in great mifery; but the endeavours of the good father, the French Aumonier, were more fuccessful than thofe of the Surgeon; for though the Surgeon could not fave his life, the charitable Prieft found means to steal a Chriftian baptifm upon him fo fecretly, that none of his Pagan relations knew any thing of the matter. These people might probably have fome of the very glafs which Bougainville left behind him, either from other natives, or perhaps from himfelf; for they appeared rather to be a travelling horde, than to have any fixed habitation. Their houses are built to ftand but for a fhort time; they have no utenfil or furniture but the basket and fatchel, which have been mentioned before, and which have handles adapted to the carrying them about, in the hand and upon the back; the only cloathing they had here was fcarcely fufficient to prevent their perishing with cold in the fammer of this country, much less in the extreme feverity of winter; the fhell-fifh which feems to be their only food muft foon be exhaufted at any one place; and we had feen houfes upon what appeared to be a deferted ftation in St. Vincent's bay. It is alfo probable that the place where we found them was only a temporary refidence, from their having here nothing like a boat or canoe, of which it can fcarcely be fuppofed that they were wholly deftitute, efpecially as they were not fea-sick, or particularly affected, either in our boat or on board the fhip. We conjectured that there might be a freight or inlet, running from the fea through great part of this island, from the Streight of Magellan, whence thefe people might come, leaving their canoes where fuch inlet terminated. They did not appear to have among them any government or fubordination: none was more refpected than another; yet they feemed to live together in the utmost harmony and good fellowship. Neither did 1769. did we difcover any appearance of religion among them, January. except the noifes which have been mentioned, and which we fuppofed to be a fuperftitious ceremony, merely because we could refer them to nothing else: they were used only by one of those who came on board the ship, and the two who conducted Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to the town, whom we therefore conjectured to be priests. Upon the whole, these people appeared to be the most deftitute and forlorn, as well as the most stupid of all human beings; the outcasts of Nature, who spent their lives in wandering about the dreary waftes, where two of our people perished with cold in the midst of fummer; with no dwelling but a wretched hovel of sticks and grafs, which would not only admit the wind, but the fnow and the rain; almost naked, and destitute of every convenience that is furnished by the rudeft art, having no implement even to dress their food: yet they were content. They seemed to have no wish for any thing more than they poffeffed, nor did any thing that we offered them appear acceptable but beads, as an ornamental fuperfluity of life. What bodily pain they might fuffer from the feverities of their winter we could not know but it is certain, that they fuffered nothing from the want of the innumerable articles which we confider not as the luxuries and conveniences only, but the neceffaries of life as their defires are few, they probably enjoy them all; and how much they may be gainers by an exemption from the care, labour and folicitude, which arife from a perpetual and unsuccessful effort to gratify that infinite variety of defires, which the refinements of artificial life have produced among us, is not very eafy to determine: poffibly this may counterbalance all the real difadvantages of their fituation in comparifon with ours, and make the fcales by which good and evil are distributed to man, hang even be tween us. In this place we faw no quadruped except feals, fealions, and dogs; of the dogs it is remarkable that they bark, which thofe that are originally bred in America do not. And this is a further proof, that the people we faw here had, either immediately or remotely, communicated with the inhabitants of Europe. There There are, however, other quadrupeds in this part of 1769. January. the country; for when Mr. Banks was at the top of. the highest hill that he afcended in his expedition through the woods, he faw the footsteps of a large beast imprinted upon the furface of a bog, though he could not with any probability guefs of what kind it might be. Of land birds there are but few; Mr. Banks faw none larger than an English blackbird, except fome hawks and a vulture; but of water fowl there is great plenty, particularly ducks. Of fish we saw scarce any, and with our hooks could catch none that was fit to eat; but shell-fish, limpets, clams, and muscles were to be found in abundance. Among the infects, which were not numerous, there was neither gnat or mufquito, nor any other fpecies that was either hurtful or troublefome, which perhaps is more than can be faid of any other uncleared country. During the fnow-blafts, which happened every day while we were here, they hide themselves; and the moment it is fair they appear again, as nimble and vigorous as the warmest weather could make them. Of plants, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found a vast variety; the far greater part wholly different from any that have been hitherto defcribed. Befides the birch, and winter's bark, which have been mentioned already, there is the beach, Fagus antarcticus, which, as well as the birch, may be used for timber. The plants cannot be enumerated here; but as the fcurvy-grafs, Cardamine antifcorbutica, and the wild celery, Apium antareticum, probably contain antifcorbutic qualities, which may be of great benefit to the crews of fuch fhips as may hereafter touch at this place, the following short description is inferted: The fcurvy-grafs will be found in plenty in damp places, near springs of water, and in general in all places that lie near the beach, especially at the watering-place in the Bay of Good Succefs: when it is young, the state of its greatest perfection, it lies flat upon the ground, having many leaves of a bright green, ftanding in pairs oppofite to each other, with a single one at the end, which generally makes the fifth upon a foot 1769. foot ftalk; the plant, paffing from this ftate, shoots January. up in ftalks that are fometimes two feet high, at the Sunday 22: top of which are fmall white bloffoms, and these are fucceeded by long pods; the whole plant greatly refembles that which in England is called Lady's-fmock, or Cuckoo-flower. The wild celery is very like the celery in our gardens, the flowers are white, and ftand in the fame manner, in fmall tufts at the top of the branches, but the leaves are of a deeper green. It grows in great abundance near the beach, and générally upon the foil that lies next above the spring tides. It may indeed easily be known by the tafte, which is between that of celery and parsley. We used the celery in large quantities, particularly in our foup, which, thus medicated, produced the fame good effects which feamen generally derive from a vegetable diet, after having been long confined to falt provifions. On Sunday, the 22d of January, about two o'clock in the morning, having got our wood and water on board, we failed out of the Bay, and continued our courfe through the Streight. CHA P. VI. A general Defcription of the S. E. part of Terrà del A LMOST all writers who have mentioned the ifland of Terra del Fuego, defcribe it as deftitute of wood, and covered with fnow. In the winter it may poffibly be covered with fnow, and those who faw it at that season might perhaps be easily deceived, by its appearance, into an opinion that it was deftitute of wood. Lord Anfon was there in the beginning of March, which anfwers to our September; and we were there in the beginning of January, which anfwers to our July, which may account for the difference of his defcription of it from ours. We fell in with it about twenty-one leagues to the westward of the Streight of of Le Maire, and from the time that we first faw it, 1769. trees were plainly to be distinguished with our glaffes January. and as we came nearer, tho' here and there, we difcovered patches of fnow, the fides of the hills and the fea coaft appeared to be covered with a beautiful verdure. The hills are lofty, but not mountainous, though the fummits of them are quite naked. The foil in the valleys is rich, and of a confiderable depth; and at the foot of almost every hill there is a brook, the water of which has a reddish hue, like that which runs through our turf bogs in England, but it is by no means ill tafted, and upon the whole proved to be the best that we took in during our voyage. We ranged the coaft to the Streight, and had foundings all the way from 40 to 20 fathoms, upon a gravelly and fandy bottom The most remarkable land on Terra del Fuego is a hill in the form of a fugar-loaf, which stands on the weft fide not far from the fea; and the three hills, called the Three Brothers, about nine miles to the weftward of Cape St. Diego, the low point that forms the north entrance of the Streight of Le Maire. It is faid in the account of Lord Anson's Voyage,that it is difficult to determine exactly where the Streight lies, though the appearance of Terra del Fuego be well known, without knowing alfo the appearance of Staten Land; and that some navigators have been deceived by three hills on Staten Land, which have been miftaken for the Three Brothers on Terra del Fuego, and fo overfhot the Streight. But no fhip can poffibly mifs the Streight that coafts Terra del Fuego within fight of land, for it will then, of itself, be fufficiently confpicuous; and Staten Land, which forms the east fide, will be still more manifeftly diftinguished, for there is no land on Terra del Fuego like it. Streight of Le Maire can be miffed only by ftanding too far to the eastward, without keeping the land of Terra del Fuego in fight: if this is done, it may be miffed, however accurately the appearance of the coaft of Staten Land may have been exhibited; and if this is not done, it cannot be miffed, tho' the appearance of that coaft cannot be known. The entrance of the Streight should not be attempted but with a fair wind and moderate weather, and upon the very beginning The of |