When We Reached Lemuy We Had Much Difficulty In
Finding Any Place To Pitch Our Tents, For It Was Spring-Tide,
And The Land Was Wooded Down To The Water's Edge.
In a
short time we were surrounded by a large group of the nearly
pure Indian inhabitants.
They were much surprised at our
arrival, and said one to the other, "This is the reason we
have seen so many parrots lately; the cheucau (an odd red-
breasted little bird, which inhabits the thick forest, and utters
very peculiar noises) has not cried 'beware' for nothing."
They were soon anxious for barter. Money was scarcely
worth anything, but their eagerness for tobacco was something
quite extraordinary. After tobacco, indigo came next
in value; then capsicum, old clothes, and gunpowder. The
latter article was required for a very innocent purpose: each
parish has a public musket, and the gunpowder was wanted
for making a noise on their saint or feast days.
The people here live chiefly on shell-fish and potatoes. At
certain seasons they catch also, in "corrales," or hedges
under water, many fish which are left on the mud-banks as
the tide falls. They occasionally possess fowls, sheep, goats,
pigs, horses, and cattle; the order in which they are here
mentioned, expressing their respective numbers. I never
saw anything more obliging and humble than the manners
of these people. They generally began with stating that
they were poor natives of the place, and not Spaniards
and that they were in sad want of tobacco and other comforts.
At Caylen, the most southern island, the sailors
bought with a stick of tobacco, of the value of three-halfpence,
two fowls, one of which, the Indian stated, had skin
between its toes, and turned out to be a fine duck; and with
some cotton handkerchiefs, worth three shillings, three sheep
and a large bunch of onions were procured. The yawl at
this place was anchored some way from the shore, and we
had fears for her safety from robbers during the night. Our
pilot, Mr. Douglas, accordingly told the constable of the
district that we always placed sentinels with loaded arms
and not understanding Spanish, if we saw any person in the
dark, we should assuredly shoot him. The constable, with
much humility, agreed to the perfect propriety of this
arrangement, and promised us that no one should stir out
of his house during that night.
During the four succeeding days we continued sailing
southward. The general features of the country remained
the same, but it was much less thickly inhabited. On the
large island of Tanqui there was scarcely one cleared spot,
the trees on every side extending their branches over the
sea-beach. I one day noticed, growing on the sandstone
cliffs, some very fine plants of the panke (Gunnera scabra),
which somewhat resembles the rhubarb on a gigantic scale.
The inhabitants eat the stalks, which are subacid, and tan
leather with the roots, and prepare a black dye from them.
The leaf is nearly circular, but deeply indented on its margin.
I measured one which was nearly eight feet in diameter,
and therefore no less than twenty-four in circumference!
The stalk is rather more than a yard high, and each
plant sends out four or five of these enormous leaves,
presenting together a very noble appearance.
December 6th. - We reached Caylen, called "el fin del
Cristiandad." In the morning we stopped for a few minutes
at a house on the northern end of Laylec, which was the
extreme point of South American Christendom, and a miserable
hovel it was. The latitude is 43 degs. 10', which is two
degrees farther south than the Rio Negro on the Atlantic
coast. These extreme Christians were very poor, and, under
the plea of their situation, begged for some tobacco. As a
proof of the poverty of these Indians, I may mention that
shortly before this, we had met a man, who had travelled
three days and a half on foot, and had as many to return,
for the sake of recovering the value of a small axe and a few
fish. How very difficult it must be to buy the smallest article,
when such trouble is taken to recover so small a debt.
In the evening we reached the island of San Pedro, where
we found the Beagle at anchor. In doubling the point, two
of the officers landed to take a round of angles with the
theodolite. A fox (Canis fulvipes), of a kind said to be
peculiar to the island, and very rare in it, and which is a new
species, was sitting on the rocks. He was so intently absorbed
in watching the work of the officers, that I was able,
by quietly walking up behind, to knock him on the head
with my geological hammer. This fox, more curious or
more scientific, but less wise, than the generality of his
brethren, is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological
Society.
We stayed three days in this harbour, on one of which
Captain Fitz Roy, with a party, attempted to ascend to the
summit of San Pedro. The woods here had rather a different
appearance from those on the northern part of the island.
The rock, also, being micaceous slate, there was no beach,
but the steep sides dipped directly beneath the water. The
general aspect in consequence was more like that of Tierra
del Fuego than of Chiloe. In vain we tried to gain the
summit: the forest was so impenetrable, that no one who
has not beheld it can imagine so entangled a mass of dying
and dead trunks. I am sure that often, for more than ten
minutes together, our feet never touched the ground, and
we were frequently ten or fifteen feet above it, so that the
seamen as a joke called out the soundings. At other times
we crept one after another on our hands and knees, under
the rotten trunks.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 114 of 205
Words from 115024 to 116024
of 208183
