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 (remarkable in a man
apparently possessing little energy of character), determined
to stay with the Fuegians, who evinced no alarm for themselves;
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, and the men employed in their canoes
spearing fish. Captain Fitz Roy determined to send the
yawl and one whale-boat back to the ship; and to proceed
with the two other boats, one under his own command (in
which he most kindly allowed me to accompany him), and
one under Mr. Hammond, to survey the western parts of
the Beagle Channel, and afterwards to return and visit the
settlement. The day to our astonishment was overpoweringly
hot, so that our skins were scorched: with this beautiful
weather, the view in the middle of the Beagle Channel
was very remarkable. Looking towards either hand, no object
intercepted the vanishing points of this long canal between
the mountains. The circumstance of its being an arm
of the sea was rendered very evident by several huge whales [2]
spouting in different directions. On one occasion I saw two
of these monsters, probably male and female, slowly swimming
one after the other, within less than a stone's throw
of the shore, over which the beech-tree extended its branches.
We sailed on till it was dark, and then pitched our tents
in a quiet creek.
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