Adventures Among the Red Indians: Romantic Incidents and Perils Amongst the Indians of North and South AmericaWright, Sidney Harry
History
Adventures Among the Red Indians: Romantic Incidents and Perils Amongst the Indians of North and South America
Wright, Sidney Harry
Indians of North America; Indians of South America
Not wishing to lose the boat, and deeming it advisable to give the
natives a lesson, Commander Fitzroy took another pinnace ashore and,
with half a dozen bluejackets, made a descent on the nearest
encampment, captured the first family he could lay hands on, and took
them back to the brig to be held in pawn for the stolen boat. This
move, of course, answered its purpose; the boat was restored and the
hostages liberated. But of these there were three to whom the
commander had taken a special fancy: a stalwart young fellow of
nineteen whom (from the adjacent mountain which Cook had so named) he
had dubbed "York Minster," and a boy and girl of about fourteen. York
and the girl, Fuegia, on being asked if they would like to come to
England, joyfully accepted the offer; and the other boy was readily
exchanged by his father for a pearl shirt-button.
The enthusiastic young commander brought these three home with him,
endeavoured to teach them English, and dressed them respectably; and
after he had been ashore for about two years, decided to take them
back to their country as a pattern to their friends and relations. He
engaged a missionary--a Mr. Matthews--and was on the point of
chartering a small vessel and taking the natives back at his own
expense, when, to his joy, he heard that his old brig was to be sent a
second time to the Horn and that he, now gazetted post-captain, was to
have command of her. It was on this voyage that he took with him, as
naturalist, Charles Darwin, a young fellow not long down from
Cambridge.
In December, 1832, the brig anchored in the Bay of Good Success, and
her arrival was hailed by a tatterdemalion group of Fuegians who piled
their fires high and frantically waved their scanty garments as though
to scare off the intruders. These people of the eastern side of the
island were a far more robust set than the typical Fuegians of farther
west; many of them were over six feet high, and all boasted some sort
of clothing--usually a mantle of guanaco (llama) skin. Fitzroy and
other officers went ashore, bearing presents, at sight of which the
savages abandoned their distrustful and defensive bearing and showed
every willingness to be friendly. Their chief had his hair confined by
a rough head-dress of feathers, and his coppery face was painted with
transverse bars, after the fashion of the Indians of the North.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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