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

444 PASSAGES — STEAM — JEMMY BUTTON. May 1830. necessary to ply to windward all day, and every day, making half-mile boards in defiance of squalls strong enough to cap- size a vessel. A steam-vessel might answer in this region, as there is plenty of wood every where. Directly the noon obser- vations were finished, and the instruments safely stowed, we began our return, and as a fx'esh breeze sprung up from the westward, we dashed along with a favouring tide at a great rate. " 11th. Next day we landed, for dinner and rest, near the Murray Narrow, and close to a wigwam, whose inmates ran away ; but soon returned, on seeing us seated quietly by their fire. We bought fish from them for beads, buttons, &c., and gave a knife for a very fine dog, which they were extremely reluctant to part with ; but the knife was too great a temp- tation to be resisted, though dogs seemed very scarce and proportionably valuable. .A.fterwards we continued our route, but were stopped when in sight of the Narrow by three canoes full of natives, anxious for barter. We gave them a few beads and buttons, for some fish ; and, without any previous inten- tion, I told one of the boys in a canoe to come into our boat, and gave the man who was with him a large shining mother-of- pearl button. The boy got into my boat directly, and sat down. Seeing him and his friends seem quite contented, I pulled onwards, and, a light breeze springing up, made sail. Thinking that this accidental occurrence might prove useful to the natives, as well as to ourselves, I determined to take advantage of it. The canoe, from which the boy came, paddled towards the shore ; but the others still paddled after us, hold- ing up fish and skins to tempt us to trade with them. The breeze freshening in our favour, and a strong tide, soon car- ried us through the Narrow, and half an hour after dark we stopped in a cove, where we had passed the second night of this excursion. ' Jemmy Button,' as the boat's crew called him, on account of his price, seemed to be pleased at his change, and fancied he was going to kill guanaco, or wanakaye, as he called them — as they were to be found near that place. " 12th. We continued our course with a fresh and favouring