‘ ROGR E S S
OF S A V
A G E S .
into this belief, from the ftate in which we found the inhabitants
of Tierra del Fuego and New Zeeland, and by comparing
their fituation, with that o f their neighbours.
T h e people-on T i e r r a d e l F u e g o , about Chriftfnas. Bay,
were not numerous ; and i f we are to judge from the general appearance
of the country, and from the numbers feen by other navigators,"
there cannot be a great population in thefe inhofpitable c limates.
Thefe were the Sputhernmoft lands, wherein we found
human creatures, who not only appeared to us to be wretched,
but to be. themfelves confcious o f their own mifery, and forlorn
fituation :; feverai boats, with natives, came to our ihip, and none
o f them had any other garment than a piece o f Sealikin, which did
not reach io far as to cover half their buttocks,- and came barely
•over the fhoulders; their head and feet, and whole body, were ex-
pofed to a degree o f cold' in the midft o f fummer, which appeared
to us {harp, though we were well clad, having found the temperature
of the air generally from 46° to 50° of Fahrenheits thermometer
; neither the men nor the women, had any thing to cover
their- privities; their bodies fmelled highly offenfive from the rancid
train oil which they frequently ufe, and the rotten feals flefh which
they eat; and I am o f opinion, their whole frame o f body is
thoroughly penetrated with this difagreeable fmell. Their habitations
.confi.lt of a few flicks, tied together, lb as to form a kind of
lhell,
lhell, fo ra low, open, roundilh hut ; they join-the.neighbouring . p r o g r e s s
OF S A -
Ihrubs together, and cover the whole with fome wifps o f dry grafs, vAGES,
and here and there 'a few pieces o f feals-lkin are tied over ; one
fifth or fixth of the whole circumference, is left open for a door,
and the lire place ; their utenfils and furniture, which we had an
opportunity of obferving, confifted of a balket, a kind o f mat-fatchel,
a bone-hook, fixed to a long Hide o f a "light kind o f wood, for
difengaging the fhell-filh from the rocks, a rude bow and fome arrows.
Their canoes are made o f bark, which is-doubled round a pliant
piece o f wood, by way o f gunwale, and a few Hicks, o f about the
thicknefs o f half an inch, are bent on the whole infide o f the canoe,
clofe to one another, fo as to form a kind of llrong deck, both
for expanding the whole frame of the canoe, and preventing its bottom
from being broken by walking on it; in one part of thefe poor
embarkations, they lay up a little heap o f foil, and on it they keep
a confiant fire, even in fummer. Their food, befides the above-
mentioned feals, are fhell-filh, which they broil and devour ; they
were Ihivering, and appeared much affefted with' the cold : they
looked at the Ihip and all its parts with a ftupidity and indolence,
which we had not hitherto obferved in any o f the nations in the
South Seas, had all an empty Hare in their countenances, and ex-
prefled hardly any defires or whiles to poflefs any thing which we
offered, and thought it might become defirable to them; they were
P P deffitute
I\