2 e o e g i a n s .
verv f ir indeed, were three of the number from deserving to
; r i « . . .in . p™ a of .1.0" j a o n c e
.™„„n civilized p e o p le - th o n g l. the o.l.er, nmned Yo.k
Minaer, w.s certainly » displea.ing .peeimen of unavil.zed
’’X i r o f e n n nW i» oee^dondl, eo „n ,i..ed by their
eountrymen, tve.-e evpl.ined to n,e in .uch term., and w.lh a» e ,
signs, tin.. I could not possibly i
more revolting account was given, tboug 1. m « less e z p t a t
manner, re sp .h in g the horrible fate of .be = 1 ^ . « J »f
their o»n tribes, «hen them is an unn.nal sca.'city of food.
T h is half-understood . t o r , 1 did not then "»*“
I could „0. believe i t . hut as, s in « that
with our lamruage has enabled the Fuegians to tell other per
sons, as well as myself, of this strange and diabolical atroci y ,
and as Mr Low (of whom mention will often be made in
? H ! ^ p a g e s ) was satisfied of the fact, from the concurrent
I S T i o n y o f w L Fuegians who had,
months on board his vessel, I no
firm belief in the most debasing trait oi their chaiacter wtiic
will he found in these pages. _
At the sea-ports which the Beagle visited in her way trom
Tierra del Fuego to England, animals, ships, and boats seemed
W eligage the notice of our copper-coloured friends ar njm
,he„ lum a u beings or houses. When . n , ^ “
attention pm-tieularly. they wonld a p F " . "
stupid and unohon-vant. b u t that th e , « “ ' 7 ' “
huge fish, a land animal, or the devil (of whom they have a
notion in their country), they could not decide ; neither could
they understand the attempted explanations of our sailors,
who tried to make them comprehend its nature : hut, indeed,
I think that no one who remembers standing, for the first time,
near a railway, and witnessing the rapid approach of a steam-
engine, w'ith its attached train of carriages, as it dashed along,
smoking and snorting, wall be surprised at the effect which a
large steam-ship, passing at full speed near the Beagle, in a
dark night, must have had on these ignorant, though rather
intelligent barbarians.
Before relating occurrences subsequent to our arrival in
England, I must ask permission to make the first of a few
nautical remarks that will be found in this volume, some of
which, I hope, may be useful to young sailors.
Our passage across the Atlantic, from Rio de Janeiro to
Falmouth, was unusually long. In order to sail within sight
of the Cape Verd Islands, for a particular purpose, we steered
eastward from the coast of Brazil, and crossed the equator far
east. This course, unavoidable in our case, carried us into that
tract of ocean, between the trade-winds, which in August and
September is subject to westerly winds—sometimes extremely
strong—and we encountered a very heavy gale, although so
near the equator. Afterwards, when close to our own shores, we
were unfortunate enough to be delayed by what seamen call a
hard-hearted easterly wind ; and not until the middle of October
were we moored in a British port.
As a remarkable contrast, a Falmouth packet, which sailed
from Rio de Janeiro some time after our departure, steered
northward, as soon as she had cleared the coast of Brazil,
crossed the line far to the west, and arrived in England a fortnight
before us.
My own humble opinion, with respect to crossing the equator,
is, that an outward-bound ship ought to cross near twentv-
five and that one homeward-bound may go even beyond
thirty degrees of west longitude—but should not attempt to
pass eastward of twenty-five. Ships crossing the line between
B 2
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