of his home. I doubt if regular missionary work will improve the hard lot of this noble band of human strugglers. The efforts thus far made have certainly had the contrary effect, and altogether they do not need a new system of morals as badly as we do ourselves. I do not mean to infer that missionary work, in general, is hurtful to aborigines. There is a legitimate field for such efforts, but it is not among Onas, unless the work is conducted in a new manner by a thoroughly practical man. They need to be placed in a position where they may follow their wild habits without the infectious degeneration of higher life. Individually and collectively they have fewer sins than New Yorkers. It is true that there are among them no faultless characters, but there are also no great criminals. There are some good and others bad, but the worst and the best are found side by side. The bitter and the sweet of human life among them, flows in the same stream. It has the same origin, and the same termination. The lesson of ages to untutored man has impressed upon him a prescription of moral direction, which is quite as good as and far more appropriate for him than the white man’s code of ethics. CHAPTER IX DISCOVERIES IN A NEW WORLD OF ICE On January 3, 1898, we started eastward through Beagle Channel, intending to push southward at once, but an incident happened which changed our progress and also disturbed our ease of mind. This incident proved to be the _Belgica’s_ first geographical discovery. While trying to find Harbourton, a missionary station on the south-eastern shore of the main island of Tierra del Fuego, she struck a reef.