The Boy Travellers in South America: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and ChiliKnox, Thomas Wallace
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The Boy Travellers in South America: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Chili
Knox, Thomas Wallace
South America -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Sandy Point has not been without its tragedy, in spite of its youth as a
colony. In November, 1877, the convicts and soldiers mutinied, and for
two days the place was a scene of bloodshed and robbery. About sixty of
the officers, soldiers, and colonists were killed and many others were
wounded; the arrival of a Chilian gunboat, on the third day, put an end
to the revolt and restored order. The mutineers fled to the pampas,
where many of them died of starvation and exposure, and the remnant of
the band was captured near the mouth of the Santa Cruz River. Many of
the buildings in the town were burned, and the destruction of property
was estimated at half a million dollars.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN SMILEY.]
Dr. Bronson inquired for Captain Smiley, an American who was once famous
in this part of the world; he learned that the captain died some years
before, but not until he had reached very nearly the hundredth year of
his age. An officer of the United States steamer _Wateree_ described the
captain as known to everybody from Uruguay round to Chili, and says he
rendered numerous and invaluable services to vessels shipwrecked
anywhere within a thousand miles of the strait. One sea-captain who was
wrecked on the eastern coast of Patagonia declared that Smiley scented
the disaster six hundred miles away, and came to his assistance. He
once rounded Cape Horn alone in a fifty-ton schooner, and his life was
full of extraordinary experiences in the southern hemisphere.
[Illustration: MOUNTAINS AND GLACIERS IN MAGELLAN'S STRAIT.]
As the Doctor and his nephew returned to the steamer they met a
boat-load of Fuegians on their way to Sandy Point, from the other side
of the strait. Fred had considered the Patagonians very low in the scale
of humanity, but on seeing the Fuegians he was inclined to rank the
Patagonians among the _crême de la crême_. Though the weather was cold,
they were not more than half clad, and the few garments among them were
the merest apologies for clothing. The boat was a frame of wood covered
with seal-skins sewn together, and was far more attractive to the eye of
the stranger than were its occupants.
The inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego are of the same race as the
Patagonians, but smaller; they live near the sea-coast, as the most of
their food is obtained from the water in the shape of shell or other
fish, seals, aquatic birds, and a certain edible weed that is thrown up
by the waves. They are reputed to be cannibals, and the crews of ships
wrecked on their coast have been killed and eaten by these savages. They
do not confine their cannibalism to shipwrecked mariners, if all stories
are true; Captain Smiley said he once visited a Fuegian chief, with whom
he was on friendly terms, and found him superintending the cooking of
one of his wives!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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