I :
under water, many fish wliich are left on the mud-banks as
the tide falls. They occasionally possess fowls, sheep, goats,
pigs, horses, and cattle; the order in which they are here
mentioned expressing their respective frequency. I never
saw any thing more oliliging and humble than the manners
of these people. They generally began with stating, that
they were poor natives of the place, and not Spaniards, and
that they were in sad want of tobacco and other comforts.
At Caylen, the most southern island, we bought with a stick
of tobacco of the value of three-halfpence, two fowls—one
of which, the Indian stated, had skin between its toes, and
turned out to be a fine duck; and with some cotton handkerchiefs,
worth three shillings, we procured three sheep,
and a large bunch of onions. The yawl at this place was
anchored some way from the shore, and we had fears for her
safety during the night. Our pilot, Mr. Douglas, accordingly
told the constable of the district, that we always placed
sentinels with loaded arms, and not understanding Spanish,
if we saw any person in the dark, we should assuredly
shoot him. The constable, with much humility, agreed
to the perfect propriety of this arrangement, and promised
us that no one should stir out of his house during that
night.
During the four succeeding days we continued sailing
southward. The general features of the country remained
the same, but it was much less thickly inhabited. On the
large island of Tanqui there was scarcely one cleared sp o t;
the trees on every side extending their branches over the
sea-beach. I one day noticed some very fine plants of the
jianke [Gunnera scabra), which somewhat resembles the rhubarb
on a gigantic scale, growing on the sandstone cliffs.
The inhalntants eat the stalks, which are subacid, and tan
leather with the roots, and prepare a Irlack die from them.
The leaf is nearly circular, but deeply indented on its margin :
I measured one which had a diameter of nearly eight feet,
and therefore a circumference of no less than twenty-four 1
'I’he stalk is rather more than a yard high, and each plant
f I
I )
, i
Ml
sends out four or live of these enormous leaves—presenting
together a very noble apjiearance.
D e c e m b e r 6 t i i .—We reached Caylen, called “ el fin del
Cristiandad.” In the morning we stopped for a few minutes
at a house on the northern end of Laylec, which was tlie
extreme point of South American Christendom, and a miserable
hovel it was. The latitude is 43° 1 0 ', which is tw-o
degrees further south than the Rio Negro on the Atlantic
coast. 'I’liese extreme Christians were very poor, and, under
the plea of their situation, begged some tobacco. As a proof
of the poverty of these Indians, I may mention that, shortly
before this, we had met a man who had travelled three days
and a half on foot, and had as many to return, for the sake of
recovering the value of a small axe, and a few fish. How
very difficult it must be to buy the smallest article, when
such trouble is taken to recover so small a debt !
In the evening we reached the island of S. Pedro, where
we found the Beagle at anchor. In doubling the point, two
of the officers landed to take a round of angles with the
theodolite. A fox, of a kind said to be peculiar to the
island, and very rare in it, and which is an undescribed
species, was sitting on the rocks. He was so intently absorbed
in watching their manoeuvres, that I was able, by
quietly walking up behind, to knock him on the head with
my geological hammer. This fox, more curious or more
scientific, but less wise, than the generality of his brethren,
is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological Society.
We staid three days in this harbour ; on one of which
Captain FitzRoy, with a party, attempted to ascend to the
summit of San Pedro. The woods here had rather a different
aspect from those on the northern parts of the island.
The rock also being micaceous slate, there was no beach, but
the steep sides dipped directly beneath the water, 'i'lie general
aspect in consequence was more like that of 'Fierra del
Fuego than of Chiloe. In vain we tried to gain the summit :
lie forest was so impenetrable that no one, who has not beheld
it, can imagine so entangled a mass of dying and dead
.
ill*