Chapter XIV

MR. DARWIN’S EXPLORATIONS AND EXPERIENCES.

_Hilo, Hawaii, Dec. 1, 1876._ Since our visit to Patagonia I have been much interested in several recent accounts of visitors to that savage land, as also to Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands.

From the published journals of some of these intelligent and observant travellers I take the liberty to make some extracts which will be of interest to readers.

The distinguished naturalist Charles Darwin, in his “Voyage Round the World” in H.M.S. Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N., during the years 1832-1836, visited the Falkland Islands, North and Eastern Patagonia, the Strait of Magellan, Tierra del Fuego, and the western shores of Patagonia. (See new edition, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1873.) The Beagle visited the Rio Negro, a river on the northern boundary of Patagonia; also Port Desire, Port St. Julian, and Santa Cruz on the Atlantic coast, where our then young and enthusiastic scientist had great opportunities to examine the flora, the fauna, and the geology of that wild country.

On the northern boundaries he saw the Spanish settlements and numbers of the half-tamed Indians. The country is described as barren and uninviting. South of this he saw very few Indians, and everywhere the face of the country was comparatively level, dry, sandy, and sterile. His description of an expedition with three boats and twenty-five men, one hundred and forty miles up the river Santa Cruz to the foot-hills of the Cordilleras, and within sixty miles of the Pacific Ocean, is very interesting. But it is remarkable that in all this distance, and during an absence from the Beagle of twenty-one days, they met no Indians, though they occasionally saw their tracks and the tracks of their horses and dogs.

It seems that the Beagle was at Port Desire and Port St. Julian in December, 1833, and January, 1834, while we at the same time were travelling in the region of the Strait of Magellan, surrounded by large clans of savages.

A Spanish colony once attempted a settlement at Port Desire, where they built a fort and many dwelling-houses; but the sterility of the soil, the lack of rain and of water, together with the fierce hostility of the inhabitants, led the settlers to abandon the enterprise.

Another settlement was commenced far to the north at Port St. Joseph. On a Sunday every soul except two men of this little colony was massacred by the savages.

Since then a considerable colony was settled at Port Famine on the Strait of Magellan. All but one of this colony perished of starvation, and hence the name which commemorates the painful tale of suffering. Connected with this sad history is the story of a visitation of the small-pox, which cut off many of the settlers. During this scourge the savages came to the colony and gathered up old waste papers which had been thrown away, and these papers conveyed the disease to them, so that a large number died. This fact filled them with fear of books and papers, and this, as I have been assured, was the reason why they were so disturbed by our writing and reading. And this may also help to explain another phenomenon which at the time was a mystery to us, viz., the rush of the savages and the circle formed around our tent in the night. This circle, I have been told, was the death-ring. It signifies the capture of a prisoner or prisoners. Then comes the consultation, and the decision for life or for death. If the former, the ring breaks up and the enclosed live; if the latter, death follows.

Mr. Darwin says, regarding the geology of Patagonia: “Differently from Europe, where the tertiary formations appear to have accumulated in bays, here along hundreds of miles of coast we have one great deposit, including many tertiary shells, all apparently extinct. The most common shell is a massive gigantic oyster, sometimes over a foot in diameter. These beds are covered by others of a peculiar white stone including much gypsum, and resembling chalk, but really of a pumiceous nature. It is highly remarkable from being composed, to at least one third part of its bulk, of infusoria. Professor Ehrenberg has already ascertained in it thirty oceanic forms.

“This bed extends for 500 miles along the coast, and probably for a considerably greater distance. At Port St. Julian its thickness is more than 800 feet. These white beds are everywhere capped by a mass of gravel, forming probably one of the largest beds of shingle in the world; it certainly extends from near the Rio Colorado to between 600 and 700 nautical miles southward; at Santa Cruz (a river a little south of St. Julian) it reaches to the foot of the Cordilleras; half way up the river its thickness is more than 200 feet; it probably everywhere extends to this great chain, whence the well-rounded pebbles of porphyry have been derived; we may consider its average breadth as 200 miles, and its average thickness as about 50 feet.

“When we consider that all these pebbles, countless as the grains of sand in the desert, have been derived from the slow falling of masses of rock on the old coast lines and banks of rivers; and that these fragments have been dashed into smaller pieces; and that each of them has been slowly rolled, rounded, and far transported, the mind is stupefied in thinking over the long, absolutely necessary lapse of years. Yet all this gravel has been transported, and probably rounded, subsequently to the deposition of the white beds, and long subsequently to the underlying beds with the tertiary shells.

“Everything in this southern continent has been effected on a grand scale: the land, from the Rio Plata to Tierra del Fuego, a distance of 1200 miles, has been raised in mass (and in Patagonia to a height of between 300 and 400 feet) within the period of the now existing sea-shells.

“The old and weathered shells left on the surface of the upraised plain still partially retain their colors. The uprising movement has been interrupted by at least eight long periods of rest, during which the sea ate deeply back into the land, forming at successive levels the long lines of cliffs or escarpments which separate the different plains as they rise like steps one behind the other. The elevatory movements and the eating-back power of the sea during the periods of rest have been equable over long lines of coast; for I was astonished to find that the step-like plains stand at nearly corresponding heights at far distant points. The lowest plain is 90 feet high, and the highest which I ascended near the coast is 950 feet; and of this only relics are left in the form of flat gravel-capped hills. The upper plain of Santa Cruz slopes up to a height of 3000 feet at the foot of the Cordilleras. I have said that within the period of existing sea-shells Patagonia has been upraised 300 to 400 feet. I may add that within the period when icebergs transported boulders over the upper plain of Santa Cruz, the elevation has been at least 1500 feet. Nor has Patagonia been affected only by upward movements: the extensive tertiary shells from Port St. Julian and Santa Cruz cannot have lived, according to Prof. E. Forbes, in a greater depth of water than from 40 to 250 feet; but they are now covered with a sea-deposited strata from 800 to 1000 feet in thickness: hence the bed of the sea on which these shells once lived must have sunk downwards several hundred feet to allow of the accumulation of the superincumbent strata. What a history of geological changes does the simply constructed coast of Patagonia reveal!”

In Appletons’ Cyclopedia, under “Patagonia,” will be found an interesting account of the survey of the river Santa Cruz and the lake Viedma, through which this river flows.

“The Santa Cruz, after the Negro by far the most important, as it is navigable throughout at all seasons, the depth being nowhere less than 9 feet, forms the eastern outlet of Lake Viedma (lat. 49° 30′ S.), whence by a gentle curve S.E. it flows to its estuary, into which it discharges through a mouth three miles wide. The tide here rises 35 to 50 feet twice in the twenty-four hours.

“Of the lakes existing in the interior, Viedma only is thoroughly known; it was explored in October, 1874, by Lieutenant Feilberg, of the Argentine navy, who found it to be 27 miles long and 100 miles in circumference, with a western drainage to the Pacific, 32 miles distant. The explorer reached it by the Santa Cruz, and in his return descended the river (which has a current of 6 miles an hour) to Port Santa Cruz at the mouth in twenty six hours.”

Passing over Professor Darwin’s interesting remarks on the Falkland Islands, I will quote briefly from his “Journal on Tierra del Fuego.”

“In the afternoon we anchored in the Bay of Good Success. While entering we were saluted in a manner becoming the inhabitants of this savage land. A group of Fuegians, partly concealed by the entangled forest, were perched on a wild point overhanging the sea; and as we passed by, they sprang up and, waving their tattered cloaks, sent forth a loud and sonorous shout. The savages followed the ship, and just before dark we saw their fire and again heard their wild cry....

“In the morning the captain sent a party to communicate with the Fuegians.... When we were on shore the party looked rather alarmed, but continued talking and making gestures with great rapidity. It was without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilized man.... The party altogether closely resembled the devils which come on the stage in plays like _Der Freischütz_. Their very attitudes were abject, and the expression of their countenances distrustful, surprised, and startled....

“During the former voyage of the Adventure and Beagle in 1826 to 1830, Captain Fitz Roy seized on a party of natives as hostages for the loss of a boat, which had been stolen to the great jeopardy of a party employed on the survey; and some of the natives as well as a child whom he bought for a pearl-button, he took with him to England, determining to educate them and instruct them in religion at his own expense. To settle these natives in their own country was one of the chief inducements to Captain Fitz Roy to undertake our present voyage; and before the Admiralty had resolved to send out this expedition, Captain Fitz Roy had generously chartered a vessel, and would himself have taken them back. The natives were accompanied by a missionary, R. Matthews, of whom and of the natives Captain Fitz Roy has published a full and excellent account. Two men, one of whom died in England of the small-pox, a boy and a little girl were originally taken; and we had now on board York Minster, Jemmy Button (whose name expresses his purchase-money) and Fuegia Basket.”

Here Professor Darwin gives a lively sketch of the personal appearance and characteristics of the three Fuegians, after which he relates the efforts made by Captain Fitz Roy to find their friends and relatives, and to leave them in their native land. The mother and brothers of Jemmy were, after a long cruise, found in a little place called Woollya on the shore of Ponsonby Sound, among the mountains of Southern Fuego, and here he and York Minster and the girl Fuegia Basket were all left.

Touching this subject the Journal says: “Captain Fitz Roy having resolved to settle the Fuegians, according to their wishes, in Ponsonby Sound, four boats were equipped to carry them through the Beagle Channel. This channel, which was discovered by Captain Fitz Roy during the last voyage, is a most remarkable feature in the geography of this or indeed of any other country; it may be compared to the valley of Lochness, in Scotland, with its chain of lakes and friths. It is about 120 miles long, with an average breadth, not subject to any very great variation, of about two miles; and is throughout the greater part so perfectly straight that the view, bounded on each side by a line of mountains, gradually becomes indistinct in the long distance. It crosses the southern part of Tierra del Fuego in an east and west line, and in the middle is joined at right angles on the south side by an irregular channel, which has been called Ponsonby Sound. This is the residence of Jemmy Button’s tribe and family.”

This little fleet of four boats with twenty-eight men, headed by Captain Fitz Roy, left the Beagle on the 19th of January, 1833, and arrived at Woollya on the 23d of January. On their way through Beagle Channel Professor Darwin remarks: “As we proceeded the scenery assumed a peculiar and very magnificent character. The mountains were here about 3000 feet high, and terminated in sharp and jagged points. They rose in one unbroken sweep from the water’s edge, and were covered to the height of 1400 or 1500 feet by the dusky-colored forest....

“At night we slept close to the junction of Ponsonby Sound with the Beagle Channel. A small family of Fuegians who were living in the cove soon joined our party round a blazing fire. We were well clothed, and though sitting close to the fire were far from too warm; yet these naked savages, though further off, were observed, to our surprise, to be steaming with perspiration at undergoing such a roasting.

“During the night the news had spread, and early in the morning (23d) a fresh party arrived, belonging to the Tekenika, or Jemmy’s tribe. Several of them had run so fast that their noses were bleeding; and their mouths frothed from the rapidity with which they talked; and with their naked bodies all bedaubed with black, white, and red, they looked like so many demoniacs who had been fighting.

“We then proceeded (accompanied by twelve canoes, each holding four or five people) down Ponsonby Sound to the spot where poor Jemmy expected to find his mother and relatives.... We found here a family of Jemmy’s tribe, but not his relations; we made friends with them, and in the evening they sent a canoe to inform Jemmy’s mother and brothers. The cove was bordered by some acres of good, sloping land not covered, as elsewhere, either by peat or by forest-trees ... and as the spot was singularly favorable, Captain Fitz Roy determined to settle here the whole party, including Matthews, the missionary. Five days were spent in building for them three large wigwams, in landing their goods, in digging two gardens, and in sowing seeds. The next morning after our arrival the Fuegians began to pour in, and Jemmy’s mother and brother arrived.

“The meeting was less interesting than that between a horse turned out into a field when he joins an old companion. There was no demonstration of affection; they simply stared for a short time at each other, and the mother immediately went to look after her canoe....

“The women took much notice of and were very kind to Fuegia. We had already perceived that Jemmy had almost forgotten his own language.

“It was laughable, but almost pitiable, to hear him speak to his wild brother in English, and then ask him in Spanish, “No sabe?” whether he did not understand. Everything went on peaceably during the three next days, whilst the gardens were digging and the wigwams building. Suddenly, however, on the 27th every woman and child disappeared. We were all uneasy at this, as neither York nor Jemmy could make out the cause. It was thought by some that they had been frightened by our cleaning and firing off our muskets on the previous evening; by others that it was owing to offence taken by an old savage who, when told to keep further off, had coolly spit in the sentry’s face, and had then, by gestures acted over a sleeping Fuegian, plainly showed, as it was said, that he should like to cut up and eat our man.

“Captain Fitz Roy, to avoid the chance of an encounter, which would have been fatal to so many of the Fuegians, thought it advisable for us to sleep at a cove a few miles distant.

“Matthews, with his usual quiet fortitude, determined to stay with the Fuegians, and so we left them to pass their first awful night. On our return in the morning (28th) we were delighted to find all quiet.... Captain Fitz Roy determined to send the yawl and one whaleboat back to the ship, and to proceed with the other two boats to survey the western parts of the Beagle Channel, and afterwards to return and visit the settlement.

“_Feb. 6._ We arrived at Woollya. Matthews gave so bad an account of the conduct of the Fuegians that Captain Fitz Roy determined to take him back to the Beagle; and ultimately he was left at New Zealand, where his brother was a missionary. From the time of our leaving a regular system of plunder commenced--York and Jemmy lost many things, and Matthews almost everything which had not been concealed underground. He described the watch he was obliged to keep as most harassing. One day an old man whom Matthews asked to leave his wigwam immediately returned with a large stone in his hand. Another day a whole party came armed with stones and stakes, and some of the younger men and Jemmy’s brother were crying. Matthews met them with presents. Another party showed by signs that they wished to strip him naked and pluck all the hairs out of his face and body. I think we arrived just in time to save his life.... It was melancholy leaving the three Fuegians with their savage countrymen, but it was a great comfort that they had no personal fears.

“On the 5th of March, 1834, we anchored in the cove at Woollya, but we saw not a soul there. We were alarmed at this, for the natives in Ponsonby Sound showed by gestures that there had been fighting, and we afterwards heard that the dreaded Oens men had made a descent. Soon a canoe, with a little flag flying, was seen approaching, with one of the men in it washing the paint off his face. This man was poor Jemmy, now a thin, haggard savage, with long disordered hair, and naked except a bit of blanket round his waist. We did not recognize him until he was close to us; for he was ashamed of himself, and turned his back to the ship. We had left him plump, fat, clean, and well dressed; I never saw so complete and grievous a change. As soon, however, as he was clothed, and the first flurry was over, things wore a good appearance. He dined with Captain Fitz Roy, and ate his dinner as tidily as formerly. He told us he had ‘too much’ (meaning enough) to eat, that he was not cold, that his relations were very good people, and that he did not wish to go back to England. In the evening we found out the cause of this great change in Jemmy’s feelings, in the arrival of his young and nice-looking wife. He brought two beautiful otter-skins, and some spear-heads and arrows made with his own hands, for the captain. He said he had built a canoe for himself, and he boasted that he could talk a little of his own language. But it is a singular fact that he appears to have taught all his tribe some English. An old man spontaneously announced “Jemmy Button’s wife.” Jemmy had lost all his property. He told us that York Minster had built a large canoe, and with his wife Fuegia had several months since gone to his own country, and had taken farewell by an act of consummate villainy; he persuaded Jemmy and his mother to come with him, and then on the way deserted them by night, stealing every article of their property.

“Jemmy remained on board till the ship got under weigh, which frightened his wife, who continued crying violently till he got into his canoe. He returned loaded with valuable property. Every soul on board was sorry to shake hands with him for the last time.

“Every one must sincerely hope that Captain Fitz Roy’s noble hope may be fulfilled, of being rewarded for the many generous sacrifices which he made for these Fuegians, by some shipwrecked sailors being protected by the descendants of Jemmy Button and his tribe. When Jemmy reached the shore he lighted a signal-fire, and the smoke curled up, bidding a last and long farewell, as the ship stood on her course into the open sea.”

Who will not admire the generous, patient, and persistent efforts of Captain Fitz Roy in trying to plant the germs of Christianity and civilization in the heart of the wild, dreary, and savage land of Tierra del Fuego? And who will not mourn that he felt compelled by the feelings of humanity to remove the missionary Matthews from scenes so sickening and dangers so appalling as were met among these wretched savages?

Professor Darwin thinks he has sufficient proof from the testimony of Captain Low, a sealing-master, from Jemmy Button and others, that the Fuegians are cannibals. He says, “The different tribes, when at war, are cannibals. It is certainly true that, when pressed in winter by hunger, they kill and devour their old women before they kill their dogs. The boy being asked by Mr. Low why they did this, answered, ‘Doggies catch otters; old women no.’ This boy described the way in which they are killed by being held over smoke, and thus choked. He imitated their screams as a joke, and described the parts of their bodies which are considered best to eat.”