Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836. Volume I. Proceedings of the First Expedition, 1826-1830King, Philip Parker
History
Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836. Volume I. Proceedings of the First Expedition, 1826-1830
King, Philip Parker
Adventure and Beagle expedition (1826-1830); Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Fuegians; Indians of South America -- Patagonia (Argentina and Chile); Natural history -- South America; Patagonia (Argentina and Chile) -- Description and travel; South America -- Description and travel
"13th. Whether the men belonging to the tribe had returned during our
absence, was uncertain, as we could not, {398} without risk of discovery,
get near enough to ascertain: but, in case we should find them, we went
armed, each with a pistol or gun, a cutlass, and a piece of rope to secure
a prisoner. We landed at some distance from the cove, and, leaving two men
with our boat, crept quietly through the bushes for a long distance round,
until we were quite at the back of the new wigwams; then closing gradually
in a circle, we reached almost to the spot undiscovered; but their dogs
winded us, and all at once ran towards us barking loudly. Further
concealment was impossible, so we rushed on as fast as we could through the
bushes. At first the Indians began to run away; but hearing us shout on
both sides, some tried to hide themselves, by squatting under the banks of
a stream of water. The foremost of our party, Elsmore by name, in jumping
across this stream, slipped, and fell in just where two men and a woman
were concealed: they instantly attacked him, trying to hold him down and
beat out his brains with stones; and before any one could assist him, he
had received several severe blows, and one eye was almost destroyed, by a
dangerous stroke near the temple. Mr. Murray, seeing the man's danger,
fired at one of the Fuegians, who staggered back and let Elsmore escape;
but immediately recovering himself, picked up stones from the bed of the
stream, or was supplied with them by those who stood close to him, and
threw them from each hand with astonishing force and precision. His first
stone struck the master with much force, broke a powder-horn hung round his
neck, and nearly knocked him backwards: and two others were thrown so truly
at the heads of those nearest him, that they barely saved themselves by
dropping down. All this passed in a few seconds, so quick was he with each
hand: but, poor fellow, it was his last struggle; unfortunately he was
mortally wounded, and, throwing one more stone, he fell against the bank
and expired. After some struggling, and a few hard blows, those who tried
to secrete themselves were taken, but several who ran away along the beach
escaped: so strong and stout were the females, that I, for one, had no idea
that it was a woman, whose arms I and my coxswain endeavoured to pinion,
until I heard some {399} one say so. The oldest woman of the tribe was so
powerful, that two of the strongest men of our party could scarcely pull
her out from under the bank of the stream. The man who was shot was one of
those whom we had taken in the boat as a guide, and the other was among our
prisoners. Mr. Murray's coats were found in the wigwams divided into
wrappers to throw over the shoulders. We embarked the Indians (two men,
three women, and six children), and returned to the spot where we had
passed the preceding night. One man who escaped was a one-eyed man we had
seen before; he was more active than any, and soon out of our reach.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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