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On the 9th of July we sailed from Monte Video,—on the
18th made the high land over the island of Santa Catalina, and
after dark anchored in the bay. My object in calling there
was to continue the chronometric chain, between Tierra del
Fuego and Rio de Janeiro, by as short intervals as possible:
and the results so obtained proved to be very satisfactory.
“ While in Monte Video I tried to have the Fuegians vaccinated,
but the virus did not take any effect on them. Little
Fuegia was living several days with an English family, who
were extremely kind to her; and the others were on shore at
different times with me. No one noticed them; being so very
like the Indians of the neighbourhood.
“ The apparent astonishment and curiosity excited by what
they saw, extraordinary to them as the whole scene must have
been, were much less than I had anticipated; yet their conduct
was interesting, and each day they became more communicative.
It was here that I first learned from them that
they made a practice of eating their enemies taken in war. The
women, they explained to me, eat the arms; and the men the
legs; the trunk and head were always thrown into the sea.
“ On the 23d we sailed from Santa Catalina; and on the
2d of August anchored in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro.”
Here the extracts from Captain Fitz Roy’s Journal end.
The Adventure and the Beagle sailed together from Rio de
Janeiro on the 6th of August, having left the Adelaide as a
tender to the flag-ship, but reimbarked her officers and crew ;
and, after a most tedious passage, anchored in Plymouth Sound
on the 14th of October. Both vessels were soon afterwards
paid off; the Beagle at Plymouth, and the Adventure at
Woolwich.
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