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

126 APPENDIX. passage was too low for him to enter otherwise. After having pro- ceeded a considerable way thus, he arrived at a spacious chamber ; but whether hollowed out by hands, or natural, he could not be positive. The light into this chamber was conveyed through a hole at the top ; in the midst was a kind of bier, made of sticks laid crossways, supported by props about five feet in height. Upon this bier, five or six bodies were extended, which, in appearance, had been deposited there a long time ; but had suffered no decay or diminu- tion. They were without covering, and the flesh of these bodies was become perfectly dry and hard ; which, whether done by any art or secret the savages may be possessed of, or occasioned by any drying virtue in the air of the cave, could not be guessed. Indeed, the sur- geon finding nothing there to eat, which was the chief inducement for his creeping into the hole, did not amuse himself with long dis- quisitions, or make that accurate examination which he would have done at another time ; but, crawling out as he came in, he went and told the first he met of what he had seen. Some had the curiosity to go in lilcevidse. I had forgot to mention that there was another range of bodies, deposited in the same manner, upon another plat- form under the bier. Probably this was the biurial-place of their great men, called caciques ; but from whence they could be brought, we were utterly at a loss to conceive, there being no traces of any Indian settlement hereabout. We liad seen no savage since we left the island, or observed any marks in the coves or bays to the north- ward, where we had touched, such as lire-places, or old wigwams, which they never fail of leaving behind them ; and it is very pro- bable, from the violent seas that are always beating upon this coast, its deformed aspect, and the very swampy soil that every where borders upon it, that it is little frequented." " A few days after our return, the mystery of the nailing up of the hut, and what had been doing by the Indians upon the island in our absence was partly explained to us ; for about the fifteenth day after there came a party of Indians to the island in two canoes, who were not a httle surprised to find us here again. Among these was an Indian of the tribe of the Chonos, who live in the neighbour- hood of Chiloe. He talked the Spanish language, but with that savage accent which renders it almost unintelhgible to any but those who are adepts in that language. He was likewise a cacique, or