JAN. 1769 INHABITANTS 59 ages and sexes. They are of a reddish colour, nearly resembling that of rust of iron mixed with oil; the men are largely built, but very clumsy, their height being from five feet eight inches to five feet ten inches, and all very much of the same size. The women are much smaller, seldom exceeding five feet. Their clothes are nothing more than a kind of cloak of guanaco or seal skin, thrown loosely over their shoulders, and reaching nearly to their knees; under this they have nothing at all, nor anything to cover their feet, except a few who had shoes of raw seal hide drawn loosely round their instep like a purse. In this dress there is no distinction between men and women, except that the latter have their cloak tied round their waist with a kind of belt or thong. Their ornaments, of which they are extremely fond, consist of necklaces, or rather solitaires, of shells, and bracelets, which the women wear both on their wrists and legs, the men only on their wrists; but to compensate for this the men have a kind of wreath of brown worsted which they wear over their foreheads, so that in reality they are more ornamented than the women. They paint their faces generally in horizontal lines, just under their eyes, and sometimes make the whole region round their eyes white, but these marks are so much varied that no two we saw were alike. Whether they were marks of distinction or mere ornaments I could not at all make out. They seem also to paint themselves with something like a mixture of grease and soot on particular occasions, for when we went to their town there came out to meet us two who were daubed with black lines in every direction, so as to form the most diabolical countenance imaginable. These two seemed to exorcise us, or at least make a loud and long harangue, which did not seem to be addressed to us or any of their countrymen. Their language is guttural, especially in particular words, which they seem to express much as an Englishman when he hawks to clear his throat. But they have many words which sound soft enough. During our stay among them I could learn but two of their words: hallécá, which signifies beads, at least so they always said when they wanted them, instead of the ribbons or other trifles which I offered them; and ooudá, which signifies water, for so they said when we took them ashore from the ship and by signs asked where water was; they at the same time made the sign of drinking and pointed to our casks, as well as to the place where we put them ashore, where we found plenty of water. Of civil government I saw no signs; no one seemed to be more respected than another; nor did I ever see the least appearance of quarrelling between any two of them. Religion also they seemed to be without, unless those people who made the strange noises I have mentioned before were priests or exorcists; but this is merely conjectural. Their food, so far as we saw, was either seals or shellfish. How they took the former we never knew, but the latter were collected by the women, whose business it seemed to be to attend at low water with a basket in one hand, a stick with a point and a barb in the other, and a satchel on their backs. They loosened the limpets with the stick, and put them into the basket, which, when full, was emptied into the satchel. Their arms consisted of bows and arrows, the former neatly enough made, the latter more neatly than any I have seen, polished to the highest degree, and headed either with glass or flint; this was the only neat thing they had, and the only thing they seemed to take any pains about. That these people have before had intercourse with Europeans was very plain from many instances, first, from the European commodities, of which we saw sail-cloth, brown woollen cloth, beads, nails, glass, etc., especially the last (which they used for pointing their arrows in considerable quantity), and also from the confidence they immediately put in us at our first meeting, though well acquainted with our superiority, and from the knowledge they had of the use of our guns, which they very soon showed by making signs to me to shoot a seal. They JAN. 1769 INHABITANTS 61 probably travel and stay but a short time at a place, so at least it would seem from the badness of their houses, which seem all built to stand but for a short time; from their having no kind of household furniture but what has a handle, adapted either to be carried in the hand or on the back; from the thinness of their clothing, which seems little calculated even to bear the summers of this country, much less the winters; from their food of shell-fish, which must soon be exhausted at any one spot; and from the deserted huts we saw in the first bay we came to, which had plainly been inhabited but a short time previously, probably this spring. Boats they had none with them, but as they were not sea-sick or particularly affected when they came on board our ship, possibly they might have been left at some bay or inlet, which passes partly, but not entirely, through this island from the Straits of Magellan, from which place I should be much inclined to believe these people have come, as so few ships before ours have anchored upon any part of Terra del Fuego. Their dogs, which I forgot to mention before, seem also to indicate a commerce at some time or other with Europeans, they being all of the kind that bark, contrary to what has been observed of (I believe) all dogs natives of America. The weather here has been very uncertain, though in general extremely bad; every day since the first more or less snow has fallen, and yet the thermometer has never been below 38°. Unseasonable as this weather seems to be in the middle of summer, I am inclined to think it is generally so here, for none of the plants appear at all affected by it, and the insects which hide themselves during a snow blast are, the instant it is fair again, as lively and nimble as the finest weather could make them.1 1 Here follows a list of 104 phanerogamic and 41 cryptogamic plants collected in Terra del Fuego. CHAPTER IV TERRA DEL FUEGO TO OTAHITE JAN. 21-APRIL 12, 1769 Leave Terra del Fuego-Cape Horn-Albatross and other birds, etc.-Multiplication of Dagysa-Cuttlefish-Cross the line drawn by the Royal Society between the South Sea and the Pacific Ocean-Tropic birdsOccultation of Saturn-Freshness of the water taken on board at Terra del Fuego-Speculations respecting a southern continent-Marine animals —Suicide of a marine-Scurvy-Lemon juice-Lagoon Island-King George III. Island-Means adopted for preventing the scurvy-Preserved cabbage. 21st January 1769. Sailed this morning, the wind foul; but our keeping-boxes being full of new plants, we little regarded any wind, provided it was but moderate enough to let the draughtsmen work, who, to do them justice, are now so used to the sea that it must blow a gale of wind before they leave off. 25th. Wind to-day north-west; stood in with some large islands, but we could not tell for certain whether we saw any part of the mainland. At some distance the land formed a bluff head, within which another appeared, though but faintly, farther to the southward. Possibly that might be Cape Horn, but a fog which overcast it almost immediately after we saw it, hindered our making any material observations upon it; so that all we can say is, that it was the southernmost land we saw, and does not answer badly to the description of Cape Horn given by the French, who place it upon an island, and say that it is two bluff headlands (vide Histoire des Navigat. aux terres australes, tom. i. p. 356). FEB. 1769 1st February. lugens and turtur. Killed Diomedea antarctica, Procellaria Procellaria lugens, the common kind in being like the common one, but differs in being scarcely half as large, and having a bill entirely black. southern shearwater, differs from the smaller and of a darker colour on the back, but is easily distinguished by the flight, which is heavy, and by two fascia or streaks of white, which are very conspicuous when it flies, under its wings. Procellaria turtur, Mother Carey's dove, is of the petrel kind, about the size of a Barbary dove, of a light silvery blue upon the back, which shines beautifully as the bird flies. Its flight is very swift and it remains generally near the surface of the water. More or less of these birds have been seen very often since we left the latitude of Falkland's Island, where in a gale of wind we saw immense quantities of them. 3rd. Shot Diomedea exulans, an albatross, or alcatrace, much larger than those seen to the northward of the Straits of Le Maire, and often quite white on the back between the wings, though certainly the same species; D. antarctica, lesser black-billed albatross; D. profuga, lesser albatross, with a party-coloured bill differing from the last in few things except the bill, the sides of which were yellow, with black between them. 4th. I had been unwell these three or four days, and to-day was obliged to keep the cabin with a bilious attack, which, although quite slight, alarmed me a good deal, as Captain Wallis had such an attack in the Straits of Magellan, which he never got the better of throughout the whole voyage. 5th. I was well enough to eat part of the albatrosses shot on the 3rd; they were so good that everybody commended and ate heartily of them, although there was fresh pork upon the table. To dress them, they are skinned overnight, and the carcases soaked in salt water until morning, then parboiled, and, the water being thrown away, stewed well with very little water, and when sufficiently tender served up with savoury sauce. |