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142 SOUTHERN ABORIGINES.
The tribe mentioned in a following page, which was met
by Mr. Low at the north side of Fitz-Roy Passage, must
have been chiefly composed of slaves (zapallos). The Huemul
tribe is not numerous, and having plenty of land, with abundance
of food, would hardly quit their own territory to submit
to a Patagonian Cacique. These natives are neither inclined
to serve a master, nor to learn new hahits: besides, being
separated from the Horse Indians by a little channel, they
could not easily be caught, and obliged to remain with the
Patagonians, as some persons have supposed.
The Chonos, who live on the western shores and islands of
Patagonia, are rather like the Alikhoolip, hut not quite so stout
or so daring. In general they are less savage than the Fuegians;
and though their habits of life are similar, traces are visible
of former intercourse with the Spaniards, which doubtless
has tended to improve their character.
Prior to the Spanish conquest, the Chonos Indians inhabited
Childe and the Chonos Archipelago; hut that now they are
all south of Cape Tres Montes, there is good reason to suppose,
though certainly no positive proof. The canoes of these
Chonos Indians are made of planks, sewed together; and they
are rowed with oars. Generally there is a cross at one end of
the canoe, or rather boat. Their wigwams are like those
already mentioned of the bee-hive form.
The climate of Western Patagonia is so disagreeable that the
country is almost uninhabitable. Clouds, wind, and rain are
continual in their annoyance. Perhaps there are not ten days
in the year on which rain does not fall; and not thirty on
which the wind does not blow strongly; yet the air is mild,
and the temperature surprisingly uniform throughout the year.
The country is like the worst part of Tierra del Fuego—a
range of mountains, half sunk in ocean; barren to seaward,
impenetrably wooded towards the mainland, and always
drenched with the waters of frequent rain, which are never dried
up by evaporation before fresh showers fall.
Plaving thus endeavoured to give a slight general idea of the
more obvious peculiarities of these, the most southern abori-
SOUTHERN ABORIGINES. 143
gineson the globe, I will enter into rather more detail, even at
the risk of being prolix. As there is much similarity in the
habits of all the tribes above-mentioned who use canoes, and we
know little of the Yacana, I shall speak of the Horse Indians,
generally, in the first place; and of the Canoe Indians, as
one body, in the second.
N o t e 1 .— Tliere is s o much difficulty in deciding upon the orthography
of words whose sounds are variously given by individuals even of the
same tribe, and which, caught by ears of varying acuteness, are written
down according to the pronunciation of different languages, th a t one may
trace some connexion between the names Key-es, Key-yus; Keyuhues^
or K eyuhue; Kekenica, or Tekeenica, and Kenneka. This la st term
is taken from Van Noort. (Burney, vol ii. p. 215.) Perhaps tbe country
there called ‘ Coin’ m ay b e th a t inhabited by Jemmy Button’s Oens-men.
2. Molina’s description of the Huemul is said by naturalists to he u n satisfactory
and inconclusive ; therefore, ivhether it is an animal hitherto
unnoticed (except by him), or the ‘ kind of roebuck,’ mentioned in page
132, remains to be decided. See Molina, vol. i. p. 364.
3. Pennant, in his ‘ Literary L ife,’ quotes Cavendish’s as well as Bro u wer’s
measurement of footsteps eighteen inches long! As Pennant was
personally acquainted with Falkuer, and collected much in foma tio n
respecting the Patagonians from other sources likewise, I have inserted
a short extract from his work in the Appendix to this volume. The
original hook is now becoming scarce, and some of the notices contained
in it are very interesting in connexion with this subject.
While I was revising my manuscript journal, Sir Woodbine P a rish
had the kindness to lend me ‘ Viedma’s Diary,’ with permission to make
use of i t : and, finding some interesting notices of the Patagonians which
were quite new to me, 1 have added to the appendix of this volume a
verbatim extract from Viedma, which 1 think will repay the curious
reader, especially where their ideas of the transmigration of souls are
mentioned.
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