, 1886-07-15

snarled and shifted at him suspiciously.
The tribe appeared to consist Of be-
tween 100 and POO and there were sew
eral rude huts formed of trees cut down
and stuck close together in the ground.
while their branches and foliage were
tied together and formed an inefficient
roof.
Fuegans appear to be insensible to
cold, for though the climate is as cold OF
colder than the extreme north of
Scotland, they do not attempt to make
comfortable huts for themselves, and
they wear nothing but the light clothing
which I have described. At night, how
ever, most of them slept by the fires,
like dogs on a winters night.
All that night long Thomas Thorold
lay bound upon the beach, trembling
with cold and terror, and praying, Lord.
now let me die"
In the early morning he felt that his
hour had come, for two or three OF the
Fuegans came towards him. and m oil
them had a knife in his hand. But e
the they cut the fiber ropes that bound
him they left him alone again, standing
on the beach, free to do what he liked.
II was useless to think of flight, for
their eyes were always upon him, and
besides, one man could have done
nothing with a boat in the sea outside
the bay. So after a while he obeyed the
cravings of nature, and collected muscles
and clans on the shore, as he h. d seen
the natives do; and on this cold food he
made a wretched breakfast.
Thus he spent all hat day and all the
next thirty-seven days, for he kept a
count of the time. He ate only
the miserable shell-fish that he found on
the beach, drank water from a torrent
that flowed down tn mountain side, and
slept by one of the fires, which heboldly
approached the first night after they had
unbound him, for he had experienced
the cold of one wintry night and that
was enough.
They were neither kind nor unkind to
him, but took no notice of him what
ever; they never attempted to speak to
him, even by signs, except on one oc-
casion when he wandered too far from
them, and one of them ran after him
and made signs to him to go back.
During the leaden-footed days he
necessarily observed how the natives
the slightest interest, and was unable
to relate many details about them. Most
of the work, such as hewing wood and
drawing water, was done by the women;
the men did very little, but spent their
time mostly in lying about their huts.
Sometimes a few of them went off in
their Inc seal hunting, and always re-
turned with one or two seals; sometimes
they vent hunting inland, and always
returned with n guanaco-a species Of
llama: then they all Immediately fell
upon it, tore it to pieces. and ate it raw.
Ii a dead seal was washed ashore, they
ate it in the same way, gorging them
OF the putrid blubber and flesh.
After these disgusting feeds they lay
on the ground in n torpor, and Thorold
could easily have stabbed them as they lay
but that some of the weaker ones,
been unable TO secure much of
the food, were awake and ready to cast
spears at him. Moreover, if he had
them all he would have been no
oil.
All these weeks he was in a horrible
state of suspense as to why he was being
kept alive and what torture was prepar-
ing for him, SO much so that he was I'M
able to sleep for terror, until forced into
Inconsistencies by fatigue.
But on the thirty-eighth day an event
occurred which, although in itself
gruesome and terrifying, put into his
heart a hope that he might some1lay rS-
turn to the outer world again, and gave
nim a clue as to what was his captors'
only conceivable object in preserving him
alive.
II was about noon, on a fine cold day,
when Thorold, standing on the beach
and looking ont TO sea, saw two whalers'
boats pull round the headland to a dis
tant part of the shore, where they pro-
ceeded to land and get fresh water. The
hut7 of the Fuegans We're between Thor
old and the newcomers, who apparently
did not perceive the natives, and were
quietly filling their water casks at a
stream.
AS Thorold was following his natural
impulse to run to them, get into one OF
their boats, and make them row away.
he was pinioned by three or four strong
natives. Then n few canoes put out tc
oil the boats, should they attempt tc
escape, and all the rest of the fighting
men, and many of the women, caught
up their long spears and ran towards
their victims.
To Thorolds surprise, he was made to
run along with them. The whalers'
men were intercepted before they got OIL,
and then it was the old CHASTITY tale re-
peated: they were shot down to a mar
with the poisoned spears. IN the while
the Fuegans who were holding Thorold
made him understand that they wished
him to watch what was going on, by
g%esticulating and pointing towards the
slaughter. After it was owe they pill.
aged the dead bodies and the boats of
everything they had, and then threw the
corpses into the sea.
While Thorold was lying awake that
night, and brooding over the horrible
event, n sudden inspiration came to him
that the object of the Fuegans in keep
ing him alive was to send him back to
his people that he might tell them how
they would be treated if they came to
the land Of the Fucgans-to declare I'M
ending war between themselves and the
white world; and though, of course, he
never knew for II certainty, yet the way
in which they made him watch the
slaughter of the whalers' men, and every.
thing that happened before and after,
pointed to this explanation of their con.
duct. From that night his great feaI
and suspense Were mingled with this
grain of hope.
The ncxt morning the Fuegans col
lected their belongings, which consisted
of nothing but spears and knives, a few