more squalid than it really is. Thirty or forty toldos form a migratory village, or tolderia. Though the dreadful small-pox epidemic from 1809 to 1812 destroyed whole tribes of Patagonians, their present number may still be estimated at from eight to ten thousand; a small one, when compared with the size of the country, yet large enough when we consider the sterile nature of its soil and the vast space of desert needed to feed a sufficient number of guanacos and horses for the wants of even a scanty population. Each tolderia appears to have its territory limited by the hunting-grounds of its neighbors, but commercial transactions take place between the various tribes, and occasion longer journeys. One of the chief trading routes runs along the eastern foot of the Andes from the Strait of Magellan to the Rio Negro, as water is here everywhere found; another, leading parallel with the coast from the Rio Negro to Port St. Julian and Port Desire, is only frequented in the rainy season, and even then there are wide spaces without any sweet water, and where it is necessary to travel night and day so as to avoid the danger of dying of thirst.

Every year the various Patagonian tribes wander to the sources of the Rio Negro, where they provide themselves with araucaria seeds, which serve them as food, or with apples, which have multiplied on the eastern spurs of the Andes in the same astonishing manner as the peach-trees near the mouths of the La Plata. The apple-tree was introduced by the first Spaniards who inhabited the Chilian Andes soon after the conquest; and when later the intruders were expelled by the victorious Araucanians, the natives found their country enriched by this valuable acquisition.

One of the chief bartering rendezvous is the island Cholechel, which is formed by two arms of the Rio Negro, about eighty leagues from the mouth of the river. Here the Patagonian exchanges his guanaco skins for the articles which the Puelches, his northern neighbors, either fabricate themselves or procure in a more easy manner by stealing them from the white settlers in their neighborhood. This bartering trade is very ancient, and has always existed excepting in times of war. In this manner the Patagonians were provided with horses soon after the introduction of this valuable animal into the New World, and thus also articles of Spanish manufacture soon found their way as far as the Strait of Magellan.

At present there seems to be peace among all the Patagonian tribes, which consider themselves as brothers, though frequently separated several hundred leagues from each other.

is confined to his own tribe. He t

Their system, of government is very simple. The whole nation has a chief, or great cacique, whom they call carasken, and whose authority is very limited. In war he presides in the assembly of the minor chiefs, and has the supreme command in battle. In peace his sway is as poor as his subjects, and, far from enjoying a copious civil list, is obliged to hunt for his subsistence like every other Patagonian; the only advantage he owes to his exalted station being a somewhat larger share of the products of the chase; and this he is obliged to distribute among the more needy of his followers, to maintain his influence. The dignity of carasken is not always hereditary. To succeed his father, the son must first prove by his eloquence, his

courage, and his liberality that he is worthy to succeed him; and if he is found. wanting, the Indian most distinguished by his moral and intellectual qualities is elected in his place.

The Patagonians are very awkward fishermen; they merely catch what chance throws into their hands, and are unacquainted with nets or any other piscatorial artifice. In this respect they are totally different from the Fuegians, who derive their chief subsistence from the sea. They have ever been a nation of hunters, and before the introduction of the horse, they pursued their game on foot, using their bolas with great dexterity for the destruction of the guanaco and the ostrich. Their dogs afforded them a valuable assistance, and since they have become accomplished horsemen, their fleet coursers enable them to overtake with ease all the animals of the wilderness. In times of scarcity they dig for a small root, which is either eaten fresh or preserved dry. Horse-flesh is their favorite food.

The Patagonian toldos and their weapons are very rudely made, but their skin mantles are not untastefully ornamented with rectilinear figures. In their war-dress they have a very hideous appearance, and it would be difficult to imagine a more diabolical figure than that of a tall Patagonian ready for a fight, his broad face painted scarlet, with black or blue stripes under the eyes, and his coarse features distorted with fury. Their arms are bows and arrows, with points of flint loosely attached with sinews, so as to remain sticking in the wound. They are excellent archers, and use with skill the sling, the javelin, and above all their formidable bolas, which serve them both for bringing the guanaco to the ground or for breaking the skull of an enemy. When not engaged in war or in the chase, the men, like most savages, pass their time in absolute idleness, leaving all the household work to the women. Amusements they have but few. The use of dice they have learned from the Spaniards. They are said to be a false and deceitful people, but their hospitality and goodnature have been frequently extolled by travellers.

Their miserable Condition.-Degradation of Body and Mind.-Powers of Mimicry.-Notions of Barter. Causes of their low State of Cultivation.-Their Food.-Limpets.-Cyttaria Darwini.—Constant Migrations.—The Fuegian Wigwam.-Weapons.-Their probable Origin.-Their Number, and various Tribes.-Constant Feuds.-Cannibalism.-Language.-Adventures of Fuegia Basket, Jemmy Button, and York Minster.-Missionary Labors.-Captain Gardiner.-His lamentable End.

THE

HE wilds of Tierra del Fuego are inhabited by a race of men generally supposed to occupy the lowest grade in the scale of humanity. In a far more rigorous climate, the Esquimaux, their northern antipodes, exhibit skill in their snow huts, their kayaks, their weapons, and their dress; but the wretched Fuegians are ignorant of every useful art that could better their condition, and contrive scarcely any defense against either rain or wind.

But even among the Fuegians there are various grades of civilization—or rather barbarism. The eastern tribes, which inhabit the extensive plains of King Charles's South Land, seem closely allied to the Patagonians, and are a very different race from the undersized wretches farther westward. A mantle of guanaco skin, with the wool outside-the usual Patagonian garmentloosely thrown over their shoulders, and leaving their persons as often exposed as covered, affords them some protection against the piercing wind. The condition of the central tribes inhabiting the south-western bays and inlets of this dreary country is much more miserable. Those farther to the west possess seal-skins, but here the men are satisfied with an otter skin or some other covering scarcely larger than a pocket-handkerchief. It is laced across the breast by strings, and according as the wind blows it is shifted from side to side.

But all have not even this wretched garment, for near Wollaston Island Mr. Darwin saw a canoe with six Fuegians, one of whom was a woman, naked. It was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down their bodies. In another harbor not far distant, a woman, who was suckling a recently-born child, came one day alongside the vessel, and remained there out of mere curiosity, whilst the sleet fell and thawed on her naked bosom and on the skin of her naked baby! These poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their faces bedaubed with white paint, their skins filthy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, and their gestures violent.

The Fuegians whom Cook met with in Christmas Sound were equally wretched. Their canoes were made of the bark of trees stretched over a framework of sticks, and the paddles which served to propel these miserable boats were small, and of an equally miserable workmanship. In each canoe sat from. five to eight persons; but instead of greeting the strangers with the joyful shouts of the South Sea Islanders, they rowed along in perfect silence; and even when quite close to the vessel, they only uttered from time to time the word "Pescheräh!" After repeated invitations some of these savages came on board, but without exhibiting the least sign of astonishment or curiosity. None were above five feet four inches high; they had large heads, broad faces, with prominent cheek-bones, flat noses, small and lack-lustre eyes; and their black hair, smeared with fat, hung in matted locks over their shoulders. Instead of a beard, their chin exhibited a few straggling bristles, and their whole appearance afforded a striking picture of abject misery. Their shoulders and breast were broad and strongly built, but the extremities of the body so meagre and shrivelled that one could hardly realize the fact that they belonged to the upper part. The legs were crooked, the knees disproportionately thick. Their sole garment consisted of a small piece of seal-skin, attached to the neck by means of a cord, otherwise they were quite naked; but even these miserable creatures had made an attempt to decorate their olive-brown skin with some stripes of ochre. The women were as ugly as the men. Their food consisted of raw, half-putrid seal's flesh, which made them smell so horribly, that it was impossible to remain long near them. Their intelligence was on a par with the filth of their bodies. The most expressive signs were here of no avail. Gestures which the most dull-headed native of any South Sea island immediately understood, these savages either did not, or would not give themselves the trouble to comprehend. Of the superiority of the Europeans they appeared to have no idea, never expressing by the slightest sign any astonishment at the sight of the ship and the various objects on board. It would however be doing the Fuegians injustice to suppose them all on a level with these wretches. According to Forster, they were most likely outcasts from the neighboring tribes.

Mr. Darwin, as well as Sir James Ross, describes the Fuegians whom they met with in the Bay of Good Success and on Hermit Island as excellent mimics. "As often as we coughed or yawned," says the former, " or made any odd motion, they immediately imitated us. Some of our party began to squint and look awry, but one of the young Fuegians (whose whole face was painted

black, excepting a white band across his eyes) succeeded in making far more hideous grimaces. They could repeat with perfect correctness each word in any sentence we addressed them, and they remembered such words for some time. Yet we all know how difficult it is to distinguish apart the sounds in a foreign language."

Close to the junction of Ponsonby Sound with the Beagle Channel, where Mr. Darwin and his party spent the night, a small family of Fuegians soon joined the strangers round a blazing fire. They seemed well pleased, and all joined in the chorus of the seamen's songs. During the night the news had spread, and early in the morning other Fuegians arrived. Several of these had run so fast that their noses were bleeding, and their mouths frothed from the rapidity with which they talked; and with their naked bodies all bedaubed with black, white, and red, they looked like so many demons.

These people plainly showed that they had a fair notion of barter. Mr. Darwin gave one man a large nail (a most valuable present) without making any signs for a return; but he immediately picked out two fish, and handed them up on the point of his spear. Here at least we see signs of a mental activity favorably contrasting with the stolid indifference of the Fuegians seen by Forster at Christmas Harbor; and Mr. Darwin is even of opinion that in general these people rise above the Australians in mental power, although their actual acquirements may be less.

The reason why the Fuegians are so little advanced in the arts of life,