perfect correctness each word in any sentence we addressed them, and
they remembered such words for some time. Yet we Europeans all know
how difficult it is to distinguish apart the sounds in a foreign
language. Which of us, for instance, could follow an American Indian
through a sentence of more than three words? All savages appear to
possess, to an uncommon degree, this power of mimicry. I was told,
almost in the same words, of the same ludicrous habit among the
Caffres; the Australians, likewise, have long been notorious for being
able to imitate and describe the gait of any man, so that he may be
recognized. How can this faculty be explained? is it a consequence of
the more practised habits of perception and keener senses, common to
all men in a savage state, as compared with those long civilized?
When a song was struck up by our party, I thought the Fuegians would
have fallen down with astonishment. With equal surprise they viewed
our dancing; but one of the young men, when asked, had no objection to
a little waltzing. Little accustomed to Europeans as they appeared to
be, yet they knew and dreaded our fire-arms; nothing would tempt them
to take a gun in their hands. They begged for knives, calling them by
the Spanish word "cuchilla." They explained also what they wanted, by
acting as if they had a piece of blubber in their mouth, and then
pretending to cut instead of tear it.
I have not as yet noticed the Fuegians whom we had on board. 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 these 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 chief inducement 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. York Minster was a full-grown,
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