The people were the ugliest I had ever seen, being more like baboons than men and women.

They were dwarfish in stature, the tallest of the party not exceeding five feet in height, and the majority of the others quite a foot shorter.

I noticed also, as the skipper had told me, that their apparel was of the very scantiest possible, consisting only of a piece of sealskin, which was movable, so that it could be placed on the most convenient side for protecting them against the weather.
They were not able to help us much, looking miserably off; but they were hospitable enough, offering us some mussels and fish, and berries similar to those we had seen on the arbutus trees on our own island.
If they could not assist us materially, they put us up to one thing, and that was how to catch fish; for, although we had seen many of them jumping in the water, and swimming about the beach in front of our encampment, we had been unable to capture any, owing to there not being a single hook brought in the boats; and, sailors not being accustomed to use pins about their garments, we could not make use of these for a substitute.
The Tierra del Fuegans had a rare dodge to supply the deficiency.

They fastened a limpet to the end of their lines, and, heaving it into deep water, the fish readily gorges it; when, before he can bring it up again, they pull him out, and thus they get their fish without losing their mussel.
"They're just like Turks!" cried Captain Billings, with a broad grin on his face.
"Why ?" asked I, knowing that something funny was coming.
"Because they're regular musselmen!" said the skipper, laughing out loudly at the old joke, Jorrocks and I, of course, joining in.
The natives spoke some sort of gibberish of a language which we could not understand; nor could we make them comprehend what we wished to learn with reference to the sealing schooners, although the skipper shouted out the word "ship" to them as loudly as he could bawl, thinking thereby to make himself more intelligible.
Seeing, therefore, that we could do no good by remaining here, we started back for Herschel Island to rejoin our companions, getting there before it was dark--much to our own relief and to that of Mr Macdougall, who was anxiously looking out for us.
For another fortnight we remained here, experiencing the utmost privation, for our stock of provisions gradually dwindled down, our two- biscuit ration being reduced to one, then to half-a-one a day, and then to none at all, when all of us had to eat berries with the little piece of salt pork served out to us, and an occasional fish that we sometimes succeeded in catching in the native fashion.
At last, at the beginning of September, the skipper determined that all hands should put to sea again in the two boats, in order to make our way across the intervening gulf of water to Good Success Bay, at the extreme south-east point of Tierra del Fuego, opposite to Staten Island, on the other side of the Strait of Le Maire.
This plan was adopted, and we launched the boats, now much lighter than when they originally had left the poor _Esmeralda_, for they had nothing now to carry but ourselves, save water, our provisions being all exhausted.
For three days and nights we suffered terribly from hunger, besides being buffeted about by adverse winds; but, happily, the fourth morning brought us relief, although we had not yet got in sight of Staten Island.
Far away on the horizon, on our starboard hand, Jorrocks saw a ship standing to the westward; so, rigging up the long-boat's sails again-- for the wind was contrary to the course we had been trying to fetch, and we had hauled them down in despair, allowing the boats to drift about on the ocean without heart or energy--we made a board to the south, so as to cut off the vessel as she steered towards Cape Horn, taking the jolly-boat in tow behind us, for she spread such little canvas that she could not keep up with the larger boat.
Fortunately, the wind held, and the ship did not change her course; so, about mid-day, we came up with her.
She was a London vessel, the _Iolanthe_, bound to Valparaiso; so her captain, seeing that we were shipwrecked mariners in distress, took us on board at once, and treated us like brothers, without waiting even to hear our story about the loss of the _Esmeralda_.
In thirty days more we were landed at Valparaiso.
Here, by rights, I ought to finish my yarn, for I said when I began that I was only going to give a full, fair, and truthful statement as to how I came to go to sea, and of my escape, just by "the skin of my teeth," as the saying goes, from the perils of the ocean off Cape Horn on this first voyage; and now, as the _Esmeralda_ got burnt and her keel and bottom timbers are lying beneath the waves--the catastrophe terminating, of course, my voyage in her, to which this story only refers--what relates to myself further on is of no concern to any one! However, not to leave you in suspense, I'll tell you how I got back home again to old England, although it was by a terribly roundabout route.
When we arrived at the _Iolanthe's_ port, Captain Billings took passage home in the mail-steamer for Mr Macdougall and himself, as well as for three of the hands who wished to return to their native country; but the rest preferred to run the risk of picking up a ship and working their way back in that way, so as to have some little money on the landing, the wages due to them from the _Esmeralda_ ceasing from the day of her loss.
The men of the mercantile marine have to put up with some hardship in this respect, for, when a vessel in which they may have shipped comes to an untimely end, like our unfortunate barque, they not only lose all their traps and personal belongings, but their wages as well--that is, beyond the period at which they actually assisted in working the ship, although they may have signed articles for a three years' voyage.
The skipper offered to take me home, too, but I was of the same opinion as the majority of my late shipmates.

I did not desire to go back on Sam Pengelly's hands, like a bad penny, especially as I liked what I had seen of the sea in spite of its perils; so, when I mentioned this to Captain Billings, he said that although he would prefer my coming back to England with him and waiting till he got a fresh ship, he would not interfere with my wishes as to finding another berth at once.