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

188 LANGUAGE — CAUTIONS. usually obtained, I do not know ; but it cannot be plentiful in the Tekeenica country, since every woman keeps small pieces by her, in the basket which holds their paint and ornaments, and will not easily be prevailed upon to part with them. Some of the sealers have fancied these pieces of pyrites were silver or gold ore, and have eagerly sought for the mines whence they came. One person finding a large quantity in a rock some- where near the Gulf of Trinidad, employed his crew and him- self for many days in loading his ship with it, being quite sure it was gold. Of the Fuegian language we know but little, although three of the natives were so many months with us. f found great difficulty in obtaining words, excepting names for things which could be shown to them, and which they had in their own country ; liowever, the few which I have collected are given in the Appendix to this volume, and I can assure the reader that the utmost pains were taken to spell each word so as to ensure having the correct sound when pronounced by other persons ; and to place the marks of accent, as well as quantity, with precision. All the Fuegian sounds are imitable by using our letters, excepting one, a curious sort of ' cluck,"* meaning ' no.' Many of their words are exceedingly guttural in their pronunciation, yet I have twice heard their women sing, and not disagreeably. Weddell, in his narrative (p. 173), gives some Fuegian words, and endeavours to trace a simila- rity to the Hebrew language. Molina also, in his vocabulary of the Araucanian language, which appears to be related to the Fuegian, traces some singular correspondences. Mr. Low, who has had more intercourse with the Fuegians than perhaps any other individual, gave me much information about them. He says that, generally speaking, they appear to be friendly when meeting strangers, but that theur subsequent conduct depends entirely upon their relative numbers. They ought never to be trusted, however, as they have hasty tempers, and are extremely revengeful. They show much hardiness and daring, being always ready to defend their own property, or resent any ill treatment; and the}/ are enterprising thieves.