of their being dashed to pieces was evident. One of the seamen just
caught hold of the bows, as the curling breaker reached it: he was
knocked over and over, but not hurt, and the boats though thrice lifted
on high and let fall again, received no damage. This was most
fortunate for us, for we were a hundred miles distant from the ship,
and we should have been left without provisions or fire-arms. I had
previously observed that some large fragments of rock on the beach had
been lately displaced; but until seeing this wave, I did not understand
the cause. One side of the creek was formed by a spur of mica-slate;
the head by a cliff of ice about forty feet high; and the other side by
a promontory fifty feet high, built up of huge rounded fragments of
granite and mica-slate, out of which old trees were growing. This
promontory was evidently a moraine, heaped up at a period when the
glacier had greater dimensions.
When we reached the western mouth of this northern branch of the Beagle
Channel, we sailed amongst many unknown desolate islands, and the
weather was wretchedly bad. We met with no natives. The coast was
almost everywhere so steep, that we had several times to pull many
miles before we could find space enough to pitch our two tents: one
night we slept on large round boulders, with putrefying sea-weed
between them; and when the tide rose, we had to get up and move our
blanket-bags. The farthest point westward which we reached was Stewart
Island, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles from our ship.
We returned into the Beagle Channel by the southern arm, and thence
proceeded, with no adventure, back to Ponsonby Sound.
February 6th.--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; fresh parties of the natives kept
arriving: York and Jemmy lost many things, and Matthews almost
everything which had not been concealed underground. Every article
seemed to have been torn up and divided by the natives. Matthews
described the watch he was obliged always to keep as most harassing;
night and day he was surrounded by the natives, who tried to tire him
out by making an incessant noise close to his head. 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
212