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

358 ADVENTURE — FORT FAMINE. May, June. ployed in sounding in the neighbourhood of Cape Virgins, Point Catherine, Lomas Bay, and Possession Bay. On the 23d, at day-light, we saw the Adventure coming from the Falklands. After communicating with us, she went on to survey the portion of coast extending from Sweepstakes Foreland to Cape Monmouth ; and we remained to complete our own task of sounding the banks about the First Narrow, and examining the south shore of St. Philip Bay. On the 3d of June both vessels were moored in Port Famine, preparing for their passage to San Carlos in Chiloe. The next chapter will take the Beag-le into the Pacific by a route not hitherto used, except by sealing vessels : although it possesses many advantages over either the passage round Cape Horn, or that through the western reaches of the Strait of Magalhaens. Mr. Low is said to be the first discoverer of it, and he certainly was the first to pass through in a ship ; but I think one of the Saxe Cobourg's boats had passed through it previously, and 1 much question whether Sir Francis Drake's shallop did not go by that opening into the Strait of Magalhaens in 1578.* Before I finally leave Tierra del Fuego, a remark or two may here be made respecting the language of the natives. ' Pichi,' in the Huilli- che or Araucanian language, means 'small ' or ' a little,' and 're' sig- nifies ' only,' ' but,' ' purely,' or ' simply.' Hence, Pecheray, always uttered in a begging, or whining tone, may have some such signification. In Beauchesne's voyage it is said, that the natives in the Eastern parts of Magalhaens Strait were called ' Laguedi-che,' and those westward, ' Haveguedi-che.'t These words are to me very interesting, because I suppose the first to be a corruption of Laque-che, which means, in Arau- canian, ' People with balls ' (bolas), and the second is not far removed from Huapi-gulu-che, which means ' people of mountainous islands heaped together,' terms respectively most appropriate for natives of eastern and western Tierra del Fuego. * See Burney, vol. i. p. 368 and p. 327, where he shows that Drake discovered Cape Horn, and anchored near it (in or near St. Martin Cove?) in 1578. Another early southern discovery is mentioned in vol. ii. p. 198, where it is stated that Dirck Gherritz discovered land in 64°. S. in 1591), (part of or near South Shetland?) t Voyage of Beauchesne, in Burney's History, vol. iv. p. 378.