Their skill in some respects may be compared to the instinct of animals; for it is not improved by experience: the canoe, their most ingenious work, poor as it is, has remained the same, as we know from Drake, for the last two hundred and fifty years.
Whilst beholding these savages, one asks, Whence have they come?
What could have tempted, or what change compelled, a tribe of men, to leave the fine regions of the north, to travel down the Cordillera or backbone of America, to invent and build canoes, which are not used by the tribes of Chile, Peru, and Brazil, and then to enter on one of the most inhospitable countries within the limits of the globe?
Although such reflections must at first seize on the mind, yet we may feel sure that they are partly erroneous.
There is no reason to believe that the Fuegians decrease in number; therefore we must suppose that they enjoy a sufficient share of happiness, of whatever kind it may be, to render life worth having.
Nature by making habit omnipotent, and its effects hereditary, has fitted the Fuegian to the climate and the productions of his miserable country.
(PLATE 47.

BAD WEATHER, MAGELLAN STRAITS.) After having been detained six days in Wigwam Cove by very bad weather, we put to sea on the 30th of December.

Captain Fitz Roy wished to get westward to land York and Fuegia in their own country.

When at sea we had a constant succession of gales, and the current was against us: we drifted to 57 degrees 23' south.

On the 11th of January, 1833, by carrying a press of sail, we fetched within a few miles of the great rugged mountain of York Minster (so called by Captain Cook, and the origin of the name of the elder Fuegian), when a violent squall compelled us to shorten sail and stand out to sea.