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

1830. rUKGIANS — PLANK CANOES — PECHERAY. 313 men and two women, came out to us ; but we did not delay long, and at five the anchor was dropped in Fortescue Bay. As it did not appear that the Adelaide had preceded us, I determined upon remaining, to make a chronometric measure- ment from Port Gallant to Port Famine ; and the next morn- ing Lieutenant Graves landed, and obtained a set of sights for time. In the early part of the day, two canoes, containing eight or ten Fuegians, entered the bay. They came from the west- ward ; but we did not recognize among them any of those who visited the ship as we passed Bachelor's River. Several had red baize shirts, and some had ' Union caps,' such as are supplied to our men-of-war ; which they must have procured from the Beagle or Adelaide, or from the Chanticleer, at Cape Horn. ( A') After hanging about us all day, they landed at sunset, and took up their quarters in some old wigwams in the inner harbour. The canoes of these natives were very different in their con- struction from any we had seen to the eastward. Instead of being paddled, they were pulled Avith oars ; one of which was an ash oar, probably obtained from some sealing-vessel. The canoes were large ; at the bottom was a plank, twenty inches wide, to which were sewn the sides, in the manner of the pira- guas, and they were caulked with bark, in a similar way. We did not remark any thing peculiar among these people which we had not perceived in other natives of Tierra del Fuego, except that they frequently used the word ' pecheray,' a word particularly noticed by Bougainville, who thought that it meant the name of the tribe ; and, in consequence, the Fue- gians have been often called Pecherays. On one of the officers cutting a lock of hair from a woman's head, the men became angry, and one of them taking it away, threw half of it into the fire, and, rolling up the other portion between the palms of his hands, swallowed it. Immediately (X) I believe that the natives who have canoes of the kind described above, do not go near the Herinitc Islands, on wliich Cape Horn is situated.— R. F.