Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

CANNIBALISM. 183 From the concurring testimony of the three Fuegians above- mentioned, obtained from them at various times and by many different persons, it is proved that they eat human flesh upon particular occasions, namely, when excited by revenge or extremely pressed by hunger. Almost always at war with adjoining tribes, they seldom meet but a hostile encounter is the result ; and then those who are vanquished and taken, if not already dead, are killed and eaten by the conquerors. The arms and breast are eaten by the women ; the men eat the legs ; and the trunk is thrown into the sea. During a severe winter, when hard frost and deep snow prevent their obtaining food as usual, and famine is staring them in the face, extreme hun- ger impels them to lay violent hands on the oldest woman of their party, hold her head over a thick smoke, made by burn- ing green wood, and pinching her throat, choke her. They then devour every particle of the flesh, not excepting the trunk, as in the former case. Jemmy Button, in telling this horrible story as a great secret, seemed to be much ashamed of his coun- trymen, and said, he never would do so — he would rather eat his own hands. When asked why the dogs were not eaten, he said " Dog catch iappo" (iappo means otter). York told me that they always eat enemies whom they killed in battle ; and I have no doubt that he told me the truth. When the Dutch fleet were in Nassau Bay (1624), a boat's crew were attacked by the natives, murdered and partly eaten. But previous to this (in 1599), Oliver Van Noort had attacked some Fuegians in a cave near a cape, then called Nassau, where he killed several men, and took four boys and two girls pri- soners. Jemmy Button told me that there are two tribes of Te- keenica, differing only in situation, who go to war sometimes with one another, though usually at peace; they live east and west, respectively, of some islets in the Beagle Channel, a short distance north-eastward of Woollya. With these two tribes or subdivisions of the Tekeenica there is constant war made by the Yacana, called by Jemmy ' Oens-men ;'' but they (the Tekeenica) are sometimes at peace with the AlikhooHp.