Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.1): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

May 1827. falkner's account. 87 of the inhabitants of the countries south of the River Plata, and he describes those who inhabit the borders of the Strait and sea-coast to be, " Yacana-cunnees, which signifies foot- people, for they have no horses in their country ; to the north they border on the Sehuau-cunnees, to the west on the Key- yus, or Key-yuhues, from whom they are divided by a ridge of mountains ; to the east they are bovmded by the ocean ; and to the south by the islands of Tierra del Fuego, or the South Sea. These Indians live near the sea on both sides of the Strait, and often make war with one another. They make use of light floats, like those of Childe, in order to pass the Straits, and are sometimes attacked by the Huilliches and other Tehuelhets, who carry them away for slaves, as they have nothing to lose but their liberty and their Uves. They subsist chiefly on fish, which they catch either by diving, or striking them with their darts. They are very nimble afoot, and catch guanacoes and ostriches with their bowls. Their stature is much the same as that of the other Tehuelhets, rarely exceed- ing seven feet, and oftentimes not six feet. I'hey are an inno- cent, harmless people." * To the north of this race, Falkner describes " the Sehuau- cunnees, the most southern Indians who travel on horseback ; Sehuau signifies in the Tehuel dialect a species of black rab- bit, about the size of a field rat ; and as their country abounds in these animals, their name may be derived from thence : cunnee signifying ' people.' With the exception of their mode of killing the guanaco by bowls, or balls, the description of the Key-yus would apply better to the Fuegian Indians ; and if so, they have been driven across the Strait, and confined to the Fuegian shores by the Sehuau-cunnees, who must be no other than Maria's tribe. The Key-yus, who are described to inhabit the northern shore of the Strait, between Peckett's Harbour and Madre de Dios, are probably the tribe found about the south-western islands, and now called Alikhoolip ; whilst the eastern Fuegians, or Yacana-cunnees, who have also been turned off" the conti- * Falkner's Patag-onia, pp. 110, 111.