# Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III
RIO TO TERRA DEL FUEGO
Dec. 8, 1768—Jan. 30, 1769
Birds—Christmas—Insects floating at sea—"Baye sans fond"—Cancer gregarius—Fucus giganteus—Penguins—Terra del Fuego—Staten Island—Vegetation—Winter's bark, celery—Fuegians—Excursion inland—Great cold and snow-storm—Sufferings of the party—Death of two men from cold—Return to ship—Shells—Native huts—General appearance of the country—Animals—Plants—Scurvy grass, celery—Inhabitants and customs—Language—Food—Arms—Probable nomadic habits—Dogs—Climate.
8th December. Soon after daybreak a shark appeared, which took the bait very readily. While we were playing him under the cabin window he cast something out of his mouth which either was, or appeared very like, his stomach; this it threw out and drew in again many times. I have often heard from seamen that they can do it, but never before saw anything like it.
11th. This morning we took a shark, which cast up its stomach when hooked, or at least appeared to do so. It proved to be a female, and on being opened six young ones were taken out of her, five of which were alive, and swam briskly in a tub of water. The sixth was dead, and seemed to have been so for some time.
13th. At night a squall, with thunder and lightning, which made us hoist the lightning chain.
22nd. Shot one species of Mother Carey's chickens and two shearwaters; both proved new, Procellaria gigantea and sandalecta. The Carey was one but ill-described by Linnæus, Procellaria fregata. While we were shooting, the people were employed in bending the new set of sails for Cape Horn.
​23rd. Killed another new Procellaria (æquorea) and many of the sorts we had seen yesterday. Caught Holothuria angustata, and a species of floating Helix, much smaller than those under the line, and a very small Phyllodoce velella, sometimes not so large as a silver penny, yet I believe it was the common species. In the evening I went out again, and killed an albatross, Diomedea exulans, measuring nine feet one inch between the tips of his wings, and struck one turtle (Testudo caretta).
25th. Christmas Day: all good Christians, that is to say, all good hands, got abominably drunk, so that all through the night there was scarce a sober man in the ship. Weather, thank God, very moderate, or the Lord knows what would have become of us.
27th. The water has been discoloured all day, the depth being fifty fathoms. All this day I have noticed a singular smell from windward, though the people in the ship did not take notice of it; it was like rotten seaweed, and at times very strong.
During the whole of the gale which was blowing to-day we had many Procellariæ about the ship—at some times immense numbers. They seemed perfectly unconcerned at the weather, or the height of the sea, but continued, often flapping, near the surface of the water as if fishing.
29th. We observed now some feathers and pieces of reed floating by the ship, which made us get up the hoave-net to see what they were. Soon after some drowned Carabi and Phalænæ came past, which we took, as well as many other specimens, by means of the hoave. A large Sphinx was also taken (lat. 41° 48′).
30th. Water very white, almost of a clay colour: sounded forty-seven fathoms. Plenty of insects passed by this morning, many especially of the Carabi, alive, some Grylli, and one Phalæna. I stayed in the main chains from eight till twelve, dipping for them with the hoave, and took vast numbers. In the evening many Phalænæ and two Papiliones came flying about the ship: of the first we took about twenty, but the last would not come near enough, and at last flew away; they ​appeared large. Both yesterday and to-day we also took several ichneumons flying about the rigging. All the seamen say that we cannot be less than twenty leagues from the land, but I doubt Grylli, especially, coming so far alive, as they must float all the way upon the water. The sailors ground their opinion chiefly on the soundings, the bottom being continuously of sand of different colours, which, had we been nearer the land, would have been intermixed with shells. Their experience of this coast must, however, be slight.
Lat. 42° 31′. A sea-lion was entered in the log-book as being seen to-day, but I did not see it. I saw, however, a whale, covered with barnacles as the seamen told me. It appeared of a reddish colour, except the tail, which was black like those to the northward.
31st. No insects seen to-day; the water changed to a little better colour. On looking over the insects taken yesterday I find thirty-one land species, all so like in size and shape to those of England that they are scarcely distinguishable from the latter; probably some will turn out identically the same. We ran among them 160 miles by the log, without reckoning any part of last night, though they were seen till dark. We must be now nearly opposite to "Baye sans fond," near which place Mr. Dalrymple supposes that there is a passage quite through the continent of America. It would appear by what we have seen that there is at least a very large river, probably at this time much flooded, although it is doubtful whether even that could have so great an effect (supposing us to be twenty leagues from the land) as to render the water almost of a clay colour, and to bring insects such as Grylli and an Aranea, which never fly twenty yards. I lament much not having tasted the water at the time, which never occurred to me, but probably the difference of saltness would have been hardly perceptible to the taste, and my hydrostatic balance being broken I had no other method of trying it.
2nd January 1769. Met with some small shoals of red ​lobsters, which have been seen by almost every one passing through these seas; they were, however, so far from colouring the sea red, as Dampier and Cowley say they do, that I may affirm that we never saw more than a few hundreds of them at a time. We called them Cancer gregarius.
3rd. This evening many large bunches of seaweed floated by the ship, and we caught some of it with hooks. It was of immense size, every leaf four feet long, and the stalk about twelve. The footstalk of each leaf was swelled into a long air-vessel. Mr. Gore tells me that he has seen this weed grow quite to the top of the water in twelve fathoms; if so, the swelled footstalks are probably the trumpet-grass or weed of the Cape of Good Hope. We described it, however, as it appeared, and called it Fucus giganteus.
5th. In some of the water taken up we observed a small and very nimble insect of a conical figure, which moved with a kind of whorl of legs or tentacula round the base of the cone. We could not find any Nereides, or indeed any other insect than this, in the water, but were not able to prove that he was the cause of the lightness of the water, which was much observed hereabouts, so we deferred our observations on the animal until the morning.
7th. We now for the first time saw some of the birds called penguins by the southern navigators: they seem much of the size and not unlike Alca pica, but are easily known by streaks upon their faces and their remarkably shrill cry, different from that of any sea-bird I am acquainted with. We saw also several seals, but much smaller than those I have seen in Newfoundland, and black; they generally appeared in lively action, leaping out of the water like porpoises, so much so that some of our people were deceived by them, mistaking them for fish.
During a gale which had lasted yesterday and to-day we observed vast numbers of birds about us. Procellariæ of all kinds we have before mentioned; gray ones and another kind, all black, Procellaria æquinoctialis? Linn. We could not discern whether or not their beaks were yellow. ​There were also plenty of albatrosses. Indeed, I have observed a much greater quantity of birds upon the wing in gales than in moderate weather, owing perhaps to the tossing of the waves, which must render swimming very uneasy. They must be more often seen flying than when they sit upon the water.
The ship has been observed to go much better since her shaking in the last gale of wind; the seamen say that it is a general observation that ships go better for being, as they say, loosened in their joints, so much so that in a chase it is often customary to knock down stanchions, etc., to make the ship as loose as possible.
10th. Seals plentiful to-day, also a kind of bird, different from any we have before seen. It was black, and a little larger than a pigeon, plump like it, and easily known by its flapping its wings quickly as it flies, contrary to the custom of sea-birds in general. This evening a shoal of porpoises of a new species swam by the ship; they are spotted with large dabs of white, with white under the belly: in other respects, as swimming, etc., they are like common porpoises, only they leap rather more nimbly, sometimes lifting their whole bodies out of the water.
11th. This morning at daybreak we saw the land of Terra del Fuego. By eight o'clock we were well in with it. Its appearance was not nearly so barren as the writer of Lord Anson's voyage has represented it. We stood along shore, about two leagues off, and could see trees distinctly through our glasses. We observed several smokes, made probably by the natives as a signal to us.
The hills seemed to be high, and on them were many patches of snow, but the sea-coast appeared fertile, the trees especially being of a bright verdure, except in places exposed to the south-west wind, which were distinguishable by their brown appearance. The shore itself was sometimes beach and sometimes rock.
12th. We took Beroe incrassata, Medusa limpidissima, plicata and obliquata, Alcyonium anguillare (probably the thing that Shelvocke mentions in his Voyage Round the ​World, p. 60), and A. frustrum, Ulva intestinalis, and Corallina officinalis.
14th. Staten Land is much more craggy than Terra del Fuego, though the view of it in Lord Anson's voyage is exaggerated. The Captain stood into a bay just within Cape St. Vincent [Staten Island]; and while the ship stood off and on, Dr. Solander and I went ashore. I found about a hundred plants, though we were not ashore above four hours. Of these I may say every one was new, and entirely different from what either of us had before seen.
The country about this bay is, in general, flat. Here is, however, good wood, water, and great quantities of fowl. In the cod of the bay is a flat covered with grass, where much hay might be made. The bay itself is bad, affording but little shelter for shipping, and in many parts of it the bottom is rocky and foul. This, however, may be always known in these countries by the beds of Fucus giganteus, which constantly grow upon the rock, and are not seen upon sand or ooze. These weeds grow to an immense length. We sounded upon them, and found fourteen fathoms of water. As they seem to make a very acute angle with the bottom in their situation in the water, it is difficult to guess how long they may be, but probably they are not less than half as long again as the depth of the water, which makes their length 126 feet; a wonderful length for a stalk not thicker than a man's thumb.
Among other things the bay affords, there is plenty of Winter's bark, easily known by its broad leaf, like a laurel, of a light green colour, bluish underneath. The bark is easily stripped off with a bone or stick, as oaks are barked in England. Its virtues are so well known that of them I shall say little, except that it may be used as a spice even in culinary matters, and is found to be very wholesome. Here is also plenty of wild celery (Apium antiscorbuticum) and scurvy grass (Cardamine antiscor​butica), both which are as pleasant to the taste as any herbs of the kind found in Europe, and, I believe, possess as much virtue in curing the scurvy.
The trees here are chiefly of one sort, a kind of birch, Betula antarctica, with very small leaves. It has a light white wood, and cleaves very straight. The trees are sometimes between two and three feet in diameter, and run thirty or forty feet in the bole; possibly they might, in cases of necessity, supply top-masts. There are also great quantities of cranberries, both white and red (Arbutus rigida). Inhabitants I saw none, but found their huts in two places, once in a thick wood, and again close by the beach. They are most unartificially made, conical, but open on one side, where were marks of fire, which last probably served them instead of a door.
15th. By dinner we came to an anchor in the Bay of Good Success [Terra del Fuego]: several Indians were in sight near the shore.
After dinner, went ashore on the starboard side of the bay, near some rocks, which made the water smooth and the landing good. Before we had walked a hundred yards, many Indians made their appearance on the other side of the bay, at the end of a sandy beach which forms the bottom of the bay, but on seeing our numbers to be ten or twelve they retreated. Dr. Solander and I then walked forward a hundred yards before the rest, and two of the Indians advanced also, and sat down about fifty yards from their companions. As soon as we came up they rose, and each of them threw a stick he had in his hand away from him and us: a token, no doubt, of peace. They then walked briskly towards the others, and waved to us to follow, which we did, and were received with many uncouth signs of friendship. We distributed among them a number of beads and ribbons, which we had brought ashore for that purpose, ​and at which they seemed mightily pleased, so much so that when we embarked again on our boat three of them came with us and went aboard the ship. One seemed to be a priest or conjuror, at least we thought so by the noises he made, possibly exorcising every part of the ship he came into, for when anything new caught his attention, he shouted as loud as he could for some minutes, without directing his speech either to us or to any one of his countrymen. They ate bread and beef which we gave them, though not heartily, but carried the largest part away with them. They would not drink either wine or spirits, but returned the glass, though not before they had put it to their mouths and tasted a drop. We conducted them over the greater part of the ship, and they looked at everything without any remarks of extraordinary admiration, unless the noise which our conjuror did not fail to repeat at every new object he saw might be reckoned as such.
After having been aboard about two hours, they expressed a desire to go ashore, and a boat was ordered to carry them. I went with them, and landed them among their countrymen, but I cannot say that I observed either the one party curious to ask questions, or the other to relate what they had seen, or what usage they had met with; so after having stayed ashore about half an hour, I returned to the ship, and the Indians immediately marched off from the shore.
16th. This morning very early Dr. Solander and I, with our servants and two seamen to assist in carrying baggage, and accompanied by Messrs. Monkhouse and Green, set out from the ship to try to penetrate as far as we could into the country, and, if possible, gain the tops of the hills, which alone were not overgrown with trees. We entered the woods at a small sandy beach a little to the westward of the watering-place, and continued pressing through pathless thickets, always going uphill, until three o'clock, before we gained even a near view of the places we intended to go to. The weather had all this time been vastly fine, much like a sunshiny day in May, so that neither heat nor cold was troublesome to us, nor were there any insects to molest us, ​which made me think the travelling much better than what I had before met with in Newfoundland.
Soon after we saw the plains we arrived at them, but found to our great disappointment that what we took for swathe was no better than low bushes of birch reaching to about a man's middle. These were so stubborn that they could not be bent out of the way, but at every step the leg must be lifted over them; on being placed again on the ground it was almost sure to sink above the ankle in bog. No travelling could possibly be worse than this, which seemed to last about a mile, beyond which we expected to meet with bare rock, for such we had seen from the tops of the lower hills as we came. This I in particular was infinitely eager to arrive at, expecting there to find the alpine plants of a country so curious. Our people, though rather fatigued, were yet in good spirits, so we pushed on, intending to rest ourselves as soon as we should arrive on the level ground.
We proceeded two-thirds of the way without the least difficulty, and I confess that I thought, for my own part, that all difficulties were surmounted, when Mr. Buchan fell into a fit. A fire was immediately lit for him, and with him all those who were most tired remained behind, while Dr. Solander, Mr. Green, Mr. Monkhouse and myself advanced for the alp, which we reached almost immediately, and found, according to expectation, plants which answered to those we had found before, as in Europe alpine ones do to those which are found on the plains.
The air was very cold, and we had frequent snow-blasts. I had now given over all thought of reaching the ship that night, and thought of nothing but getting into the thick of the wood, and making a fire, which, as our road lay all downhill, seemed very easy to accomplish. So Messrs. Green and Monkhouse returned to the other people, and appointed a hill for our general rendezvous, from whence we should proceed and build our Wigwam. The cold now increased apace; it might be nearly eight o'clock, though the daylight was still exceedingly good, so we proceeded to the nearest valley, where the short birch, the only thing we now dreaded, ​could not be half a mile across. Our people seemed well, though cold, and Mr. Buchan was stronger than we could have expected. I undertook to bring up the rear and see that no one was left behind. We got about half-way very well, when the cold seemed to have at once an effect infinitely beyond what I have ever experienced. Dr. Solander was the first to feel it: he said he could not go any farther, but must lie down, though the ground was covered with snow, and down he lay, notwithstanding all I could say to the contrary. Richmond, a black servant, now also lay down, and was much in the same way as the Doctor. At this juncture I despatched five in advance, of whom Mr. Buchan was one, to make ready a fire at the very first convenient place they could find, while I myself, with four more, stayed behind to persuade the Doctor and Richmond to come on if possible. With much persuasion and entreaty we got through the greater part of the birch, when they both gave out. Richmond said that he could not go any farther, and when told that if he did not he must be frozen to death, only answered that there he would lie and die; the Doctor, on the contrary, said that he must sleep a little before he could go on, and actually did so for a full quarter of an hour, after which time we had the welcome news of a fire being lit about a quarter of a mile ahead. I then undertook to make the Doctor proceed to it, and, finding it impossible to make Richmond stir, left two hands with him who seemed the least affected by the cold, promising to send two to relieve them as soon as I should reach the fire. With much difficulty I got the Doctor to it, and as soon as two men were properly warmed sent them out in hopes that they would bring Richmond and the others. After staying about half an hour they returned, bringing word that they had been all round the place shouting and hallooing, but could not get any answer. We now guessed the cause of the mischief: a bottle of rum, the whole of our stock, was missing, and we soon concluded that it was in one of their knapsacks, and that the two who were left in health had drunk immoderately of it, and had slept like the other.
​For two hours now it had snowed almost incessantly, so that we had little hopes of seeing any of the three alive; about midnight, however, to our great joy, we heard a shouting, on which I and four more went out immediately, and found it to be the seaman, who had walked, almost starved to death, from where he lay. I sent him back to the fire and proceeded by his direction to find the other two. Richmond was upon his legs, but not able to walk; the other lay on the ground as insensible as a stone. We immediately called all hands from the fire, and attempted, by all the means we could contrive, to bring them down, but found it absolutely impossible. The road was so bad, and the night so dark, that we could scarcely ourselves get on, nor did we without many falls. We would then have lit a fire upon the spot, but the snow on the ground, as well as that which continually fell, rendered this plan as impracticable as the other, and to bring fire from the other place was also impossible from the quantity of snow which fell every moment from the branches of the trees. We were thus obliged to content ourselves with laying out our unfortunate companions upon a bed of boughs and covering them over with boughs as thickly as possible, and thus we left them, hopeless of ever seeing them again alive, which, indeed, we never did.
In this employment we had spent an hour and a half, exposed to the most penetrating cold I ever felt, as well as to continual snow. Peter Brisco, another servant of mine, began now to complain, and before we came to the fire became very ill, but got there at last almost dead with cold.
Now might our situation be called terrible: of twelve, our original number, two were already past all hopes, one more was so ill that, though he was with us, I had little hopes of his being able to walk in the morning, and another seemed very likely to relapse into his fits, either before we set out or in the course of our journey. We were distant from the ship, we did not know how far; we knew only that we had spent the greater part of a day in walking through pathless woods: provision we had none but one ​vulture, which had been shot on the way, and at the shortest allowance could not furnish half a meal; and, to complete our misfortunes, we were caught in a snowstorm in a climate we were utterly unacquainted with, but which we had reason to believe was as inhospitable as any in the world, not only from all the accounts we had heard or read, but from the quantity of snow which we saw falling, though it was very little after midsummer, a circumstance unheard of in Europe, for even in Norway or Lapland snow is never known to fall in the summer.
17th. The morning now dawned and showed us the earth as well as the tops of the trees covered with snow; nor were the snow squalls at all less frequent; we had no hopes now but of staying here as long as the snow lasted, and how long that would be God alone knew.
About six o'clock the sun came out a little, and we immediately thought of sending to see whether the poor wretches we had been so anxious about last night were yet alive; three of our people went, but soon returned with the melancholy news of their being both dead. The snow continued to fall, though not quite so thickly as before. About eight o'clock a small breeze of wind sprang up, and with the additional power of the sun began (to our great joy) to clear the air, and soon after the snow commenced to fall from the tops of the trees, a sure sign of an approaching thaw. Peter continued very ill, but said he thought himself able to walk; Mr. Buchan, thank God, was much better than I could have expected; so we agreed to dress our vulture, and prepare to set out for the ship as soon as the snow should be a little more melted. The vulture was skinned and cut into ten equal shares, every man cooking his own share, which furnished about three mouthfuls of hot meat, the only refreshment we had had since our cold dinner yesterday, and all we were to expect till we should reach the ship.
About ten we set out, and after a march of three hours, arrived at the beach fortunate in having met with much better roads on our return than in going out, as well as ​being nearer to the ship than we had any reason to hope for. From the ship we found that we had made a half-circle round the hills instead of penetrating, as we thought we had done, into the inner part of the country. With what pleasure we congratulated each other on our safety no one can tell who has not been in such circumstances.
18th. Peter was very ill to-day, and Mr. Buchan not at all well; the rest of us, thank God, in good health, though not yet recovered from our fatigue.
20th. This morning was very fine, so much so that we landed without any difficulty at the bottom of the bay and spent our time very much to our satisfaction in collecting shells and plants. Of the former we found some very scarce and fine, particularly limpets; of several species of these we observed (as well as the shortness of our time would permit) that the limpet with a longish hole at the top of his shell is inhabited by an animal very different from that which has no such hole. Here were also some fine whelks, one particularly with a long tooth, and an infinite variety of Lepades, Sertulariæ, Onisci, etc., in much greater variety than I have anywhere seen. But the shortness of our time would not allow us to examine them, so we were obliged to content ourselves with taking specimens of as many of them as we could in so short a time scrape together.
We returned on board to dinner, and afterwards went about two miles into the country to visit an Indian town, of which some of our people had given us news. We arrived there in about an hour, walking through a path which I suppose was their common road, though it was sometimes up to our knees in mud. The town itself was situated upon a dry knoll among the trees, which had not been at all cleared; it consisted of not more than twelve or fourteen huts or wigwams of the most unartificial construction imaginable; indeed, nothing bearing the name of a hut could possibly be built with less trouble. A hut consisted of a few poles set up and meeting together at the top in a conical figure, and covered on the weather side with a few boughs ​and a little grass; on the lee side about one-eighth part of the circle was left open, and against this opening a fire was made. Furniture, I may justly say, they had none; a little, a very little, dry grass laid round the edges of the circle furnished both beds and chairs, and for dressing the shellfish (the only provision I saw them make use of) they had no one contrivance but broiling them upon the coals. For drinking, I saw in a corner of one of their huts a bladder of some beast full of water; in one side of this near the top was a hole through which they drank by elevating a little the bottom, which made the water spring up into their mouths.
In these few huts, and with this small share, or rather none at all, of what we call the necessaries and conveniences of life, lived about fifty men, women, and children, to all appearance contented with what they had, not wishing for anything we could give them except beads. Of these they were very fond, preferring ornamental things to those which might be of real use, and giving more in exchange for a string of beads than they would for a knife or a hatchet.
Notwithstanding that almost all writers who have mentioned this island have imputed to it a want of wood, we plainly distinguished, even at the distance of some leagues, that the largest part of the country, particularly near the sea-coast, was covered with wood, which observation was verified in both the bays we put into. In either of these firing might be got close by the beach in any quantity, and also trees, which to all appearance might be fit for repairing a vessel, or even in cases of necessity for making masts.
The hills are high, though not to be called mountains; the tops of these, however, are quite bare, and on them patches of snow were frequently to be seen, yet the time of the year when we were there answered to the beginning of July in England. In the valleys between these, the soil has much the appearance of fruitfulness, and is in some places of considerable depth; at the bottom of almost every one of these runs a brook, the water of which in general has a reddish cast like that which runs through turf bogs in England; it is very well tasted.
​Quadrupeds I saw none in the island, unless the seals and sea-lions, which were often swimming about in the bay, might be called such; but Dr. Solander and I, when we were on the top of the highest hill reached by us, observed the footsteps of a large beast imprinted on the surface of a bog, but could not with any probability guess of what kind it might be.
Land birds were very few, I saw none larger than an English blackbird, except hawks and a vulture; but waterfowl are much more plentiful. In the first bay we were in I might have shot any quantity of ducks or geese, but would not spare the time from gathering plants; in the other we shot some, but the Indians in the neighbourhood had made them shy, as well as much less plentiful; at least so we found.
Fish we saw few, nor could we with our hooks take any fit to eat: shell-fish, however, are in the greatest abundance, limpets, mussels, clams, etc., but none of them delicate, yet such as they were we did not despise them.
Insects are very scarce, and not one species hurtful or troublesome: during the whole of our stay we saw neither gnat nor mosquito, a circumstance which few, if any, uncleared countries can boast of.
Of plants there are many species, and those truly the most extraordinary I can imagine; in stature and appearance they agree a good deal with the European ones, only in general are less specious, white flowers being much more common among them than any other colour; but, to speak of them botanically, probably no botanist has ever enjoyed more pleasure in the contemplation of his favourite pursuit than did Dr. Solander and I among these plants. We have not yet examined many of them, but what we have, have proved in general so entirely different from any before described, that we are never tired of wondering at the infinite variety of creation, and admiring the infinite care with which Providence has multiplied her productions, suiting them no doubt to the various climates for which they were designed. Trees are not numerous: a birch, ​(Betula antarctica), a beech (Fagus antarctica), and winter's bark (Winterana aromatica), are all worth mentioning, the two first for timber, the other for its excellent aromatic bark, so much valued by physicians. Of other plants we could not ascertain the virtues, not being able to converse with the Indians, who may have experienced them; but the scurvy grass, Cardamine antiscorbutica, and wild celery, Apium antarcticum, may easily be known to contain antiscorbutic properties, capable of being of great service to ships which may in future touch here. Of these two, therefore, I shall give a short description. Scurvy grass is found plentifully in damp places near springs, in general everywhere near the beach, especially at the watering-place in the Bay of Good Success. When young and in its greatest perfection it lies flat on the ground, having many bright green leaves standing in pairs opposite each other, with an odd one, in general the fifth, at the end. When older it shoots up in stalks sometimes two feet high, at the top of which are small white blossoms, which are succeeded by long pods. The whole plant much resembles what is called Lady's-smock in England, only that the flowers are much smaller. Wild celery greatly resembles the celery in our gardens, only that the leaves are of a deeper green; the flowers, as in ours, stand in small tufts at the top of the branches, and are white. It grows plentifully near the beach, generally on soil which is just above the spring tides, and is not easily mistaken, as the taste resembles celery or parsley, or rather is between both. These herbs we used plentifully while we stayed here, putting them in our soup, etc., and derived the benefit from them which seamen in general find from a vegetable diet after having been long deprived of it.
The inhabitants we saw here seemed to be one small tribe of Indians, consisting of not more than fifty of all ​ages and sexes. They are of a reddish colour, nearly resembling that of rust of iron mixed with oil; the men are largely built, but very clumsy, their height being from five feet eight inches to five feet ten inches, and all very much of the same size. The women are much smaller, seldom exceeding five feet. Their clothes are nothing more than a kind of cloak of guanaco or seal skin, thrown loosely over their shoulders, and reaching nearly to their knees; under this they have nothing at all, nor anything to cover their feet, except a few who had shoes of raw seal hide drawn loosely round their instep like a purse. In this dress there is no distinction between men and women, except that the latter have their cloak tied round their waist with a kind of belt or thong.
Their ornaments, of which they are extremely fond, consist of necklaces, or rather solitaires, of shells, and bracelets, which the women wear both on their wrists and legs, the men only on their wrists; but to compensate for this the men have a kind of wreath of brown worsted which they wear over their foreheads, so that in reality they are more ornamented than the women.
They paint their faces generally in horizontal lines, just under their eyes, and sometimes make the whole region round their eyes white, but these marks are so much varied that no two we saw were alike. Whether they were marks of distinction or mere ornaments I could not at all make out. They seem also to paint themselves with something like a mixture of grease and soot on particular occasions, for when we went to their town there came out to meet us two who were daubed with black lines in every direction, so as to form the most diabolical countenance imaginable. These two seemed to exorcise us, or at least make a loud and long harangue, which did not seem to be addressed to us or any of their countrymen.
Their language is guttural, especially in particular words, which they seem to express much as an Englishman when he hawks to clear his throat. But they have many words which sound soft enough. During our stay among them I could ​learn but two of their words: hallécá, which signifies beads, at least so they always said when they wanted them, instead of the ribbons or other trifles which I offered them; and ooudá, which signifies water, for so they said when we took them ashore from the ship and by signs asked where water was; they at the same time made the sign of drinking and pointed to our casks, as well as to the place where we put them ashore, where we found plenty of water.
Of civil government I saw no signs; no one seemed to be more respected than another; nor did I ever see the least appearance of quarrelling between any two of them. Religion also they seemed to be without, unless those people who made the strange noises I have mentioned before were priests or exorcists; but this is merely conjectural.
Their food, so far as we saw, was either seals or shell-fish. How they took the former we never knew, but the latter were collected by the women, whose business it seemed to be to attend at low water with a basket in one hand, a stick with a point and a barb in the other, and a satchel on their backs. They loosened the limpets with the stick, and put them into the basket, which, when full, was emptied into the satchel.
Their arms consisted of bows and arrows, the former neatly enough made, the latter more neatly than any I have seen, polished to the highest degree, and headed either with glass or flint; this was the only neat thing they had, and the only thing they seemed to take any pains about.
That these people have before had intercourse with Europeans was very plain from many instances, first, from the European commodities, of which we saw sail-cloth, brown woollen cloth, beads, nails, glass, etc., especially the last (which they used for pointing their arrows in considerable quantity), and also from the confidence they immediately put in us at our first meeting, though well acquainted with our superiority, and from the knowledge they had of the use of our guns, which they very soon showed by making signs to me to shoot a seal. They ​probably travel and stay but a short time at a place, so at least it would seem from the badness of their houses, which seem all built to stand but for a short time; from their having no kind of household furniture but what has a handle, adapted either to be carried in the hand or on the back; from the thinness of their clothing, which seems little calculated even to bear the summers of this country, much less the winters; from their food of shell-fish, which must soon be exhausted at any one spot; and from the deserted huts we saw in the first bay we came to, which had plainly been inhabited but a short time previously, probably this spring. Boats they had none with them, but as they were not sea-sick or particularly affected when they came on board our ship, possibly they might have been left at some bay or inlet, which passes partly, but not entirely, through this island from the Straits of Magellan, from which place I should be much inclined to believe these people have come, as so few ships before ours have anchored upon any part of Terra del Fuego.
Their dogs, which I forgot to mention before, seem also to indicate a commerce at some time or other with Europeans, they being all of the kind that bark, contrary to what has been observed of (I believe) all dogs natives of America.
The weather here has been very uncertain, though in general extremely bad; every day since the first more or less snow has fallen, and yet the thermometer has never been below 38°. Unseasonable as this weather seems to be in the middle of summer, I am inclined to think it is generally so here, for none of the plants appear at all affected by it, and the insects which hide themselves during a snow blast are, the instant it is fair again, as lively and nimble as the finest weather could make them.
* ↑ Probably the Gulf of San Mathias.
* ↑ Macrocystis pyrifera, Ag.
* ↑ Drimys Winteri, Forst.
* ↑ Apium prostratum, Thou. A variety of the European celery, and as wholesome.
* ↑ Closely allied to the common English weed, Cardamine hirsuta, Linn.
* ↑ The Betula of Banks is a species of beech, Fagus betuloides, Mirb.
* ↑ Pernettya mucronata, Gaudich.
* ↑ Banks constantly uses the term Indians to denote the natives of a country, throughout the "Journal."
* ↑ Both the beech and birch are species of beech (Fagus): one, F. betuloides, Mirb. (the birch of Banks), is an evergreen; the other, F. antarctica, Forst, is deciduous-leaved.
* ↑ Drimys Winteri, Forst.
* ↑ Here follows a list of 104 phanerogamic and 41 cryptogamic plants collected in Terra del Fuego.