A S.aler's Yarn,
ÜÜ
I
and Inocentes Channels, always anchoring for the night, and
sometimes stopping for a day or two in order to examine some
new port.
At Latitude Cove a black-ncckcd swan {Cygmis nigricollis)_
besides which only one other was ever seen by us in the western
channels— was shot. It proved to be a male bird, weighing only
seven pounds, and was in poor condition, having strayed far from
its own happy hunting grounds among the lagoons of central
Patagonia.
We anchored at Sandy Point in the Strait of Magellan on the
2nd January, and remained there eleven days in order to provision
the ship, and to give the crew a change of air.
Here I made the acquaintance of the master of a sealing
schooner, an intelligent man named John Stole— a Norwegian by
birth from whom we obtained much interesting information
about the natives of Tierra del Fuego. At the time of our visit he
was laid up with a bad leg, on account of which he had had to
relinquish the command of his vessel the Rescue for this season’s
cruise. His favourite sealing ground was among the rocky islets
about the S. W. parts of Tierra del Fuego ; but in the course of
his wanderings he had visited most of the islets and coasts extending
from the mouth of the river Plate on the eastern coast to the
Gulf of Peñas in the westward. During his last cruise, he had the
misfortune to be attacked by a party of natives in the Beagle
Channel, at a place not far from the missionary station of Ushuwia.
He gave us a most graphic description of the affair. His schooner
had been lying quietly at anchor in a rather desolate part of the
channel, having at the time only five men, including himself, on
board, when a canoe containing ten Fuegians— eight men and two
women came alongside. Not suspecting any treachery, he went
below to have his tea, leaving one man on the forecastle to look
after the vessel. Presently hearing a scuffle on deck, he put up
his head through the small hatch of his cabin, when a native
standing above made a blow at him with a canoe paddle. The
Í I3
blow failed to take effect, as he had just time to duck his head
under the boom of the mainsail which was secured amidships over
the hatchway. He now retreated to his cabin, snatched up a
revolver which was lying ready loaded, and returning to the hatch
quietly shot the native who was waiting to strike another blow at
his head. Two others now followed up the attack, armed with
heavy stones, but they were shot in quick succession, one of them
falling overboard and capsizing the canoe. As Stole now raised
himself through the hatch, a fourth native attacked him from
behind, but he turned half round, rested the barrel of the revolver
on his left arm, and fired into his assailant’s eye, the entire charge
passing through the wretched creature’s head. In the meantime
the crew were successful in expelling the four natives who had
attacked the fore part of the vessel, and all of whom were killed.
The two women in the boat had been passing up stones as ammunition
for their male companions, and when the canoe capsized one
of them was drowned. When the fight was over, the deck presented
a ghastly sight, being sloppy all over with blood in which
were lying the bodies of the dead and dying savages, as well as
quantities of stones which before the attack began had been passed
up from the canoe to be expended in storming the hold of the
vessel. Of the ten natives, eight men had been killed, and one
woman drowned, the surviving woman being taken prisoner. The
sealers now got under way, and proceeded to the mission of Ushuwia,
where they reported the matter to xMr. Bridges, the manager of the’
station. He investigated the case, and on finding that the account
given by the sealers was corroborated by the evidence of the
surviving woman, exonerated the former of any misconduct in the
energetic measures which they had taken to defend their lives, and
to defeat the object of the natives, which of course was to obtain
the possession of the schooner.
The first of the small sealing fieet to arrive at Sandy Point
this season was the Fclis, of Stanley, a small rakish schooner,
commanded by an Irishman named Buckley. He had a cargo of
1
i ■it:
: ...
1 li