Yaghan People - European Contact

European Contact

The Yahgan left strong impressions on all who encountered them, including Ferdinand Magellan, Charles Darwin, Francis Drake, James Cook, and James Weddell. In "Sailing Alone Around the World" Joshua Slocum was warned they would rob and possibly kill him if he moored in a particular area, so he sprinkled tacks on the deck of his boat, the Spray.

The area around Tierra del Fuego became known to Europeans in the early sixteenth century, but it was not until the 19th century that Europeans started to be interested in the zone and its peoples. When Robert FitzRoy became captain of the HMS Beagle in the middle of her first voyage, he captured four Fuegians after a boat was stolen. As it was not possible to put them ashore conveniently, he decided to "civilise the savages," teaching them "English..the plainer truths of Christianity..and the use of common tools" before returning them as missionaries. One died, but the others became "civilised" enough to be presented at court in the summer of 1831. On the famous second voyage of HMS Beagle, the three Fuegians were returned along with a trainee missionary, and impressed Charles Darwin with their "civilised" behaviour, in startling contrast to the "primitive" tribes he saw once the ship reached Patagonia. He described his first meeting with the native Fuegians as being "without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilised man: it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, in as much as in man there is a greater power of improvement." In contrast, he said of Jemmy Button that "It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his many good qualities, that he should have been of the same race, and doubtless partaken of the same character, with the miserable, degraded savages whom we first met here." The mission was set up for the three Fuegians, but when the Beagle returned a year later only Jemmy was found, and he had returned to his tribal ways, speaking English as well as ever and assuring them that he "had not the least wish to return to England" and was "happy and contented" to live in what they thought a shockingly primitive manner with his wife.