"Whilst going on shore, we pulled alongside a canoe with 6 Fuegians. I never saw more miserable creatures; stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint & quite naked.— One full aged woman absolutely so, the rain & spray were dripping from her body; their red skins filthy & greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, their gesticulation violent & without any dignity. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow creatures placed in the same world. [Beagle Diary, February 25, 1834]
In this episode we are joined by our esteemed colleague Dr. Jeremy Paden to discuss Darwin, Fitzroy, and other early explorers views of the native peoples of Tierra del Fuego. As we outlined in episode 1 of this season, Fitzroy had kidnapped four native Tierra del Fuegians with the hopes of converting them to Christianity and ultimately returning them back to their native lands to nucleate the conversion of the "savages" to a live a civilized agrarian life of tubers, legumes, and bible verses.
Unfortunately, Boat Memory, one of the natives that Fitzroy had gang pressed into missionary service died from small pox in England but the other three - "Fuegia Basket", "Jemmy Button", and "York Minister" survived their journey to England, their education therein, and their ultimate return to tip of South America to rejoin their family and friends.
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| Sketches by Fitzroy of his kidnapped victims. Image from Darwin Online. |
On January 23rd, 1833 the HMS Beagle stopped by Wollya bay (later spelled Woolliah and then Wulaia] to build a outpost for Jemmy, Fuegia and York. Fitzroy and his crew, along with the help of Mr. Matthews, a missionary Englishman, planted crops, built a cabin, and transferred the useless accouterments of "civilization".
In Keith Thomson’s book HMS Beagle: The story of Darwin’s Ship he vividly describes the scene and foreshadows the failure of the settlement:
“Over the next week the party from the Beagle built a small outpost and finally unloaded all the incredible paraphernalia that had been sent from England by well-wishers, all the Victorian knickknackery that seemed so splendid in London but appeared ridiculously out of place at this remotest end of the world. A seemingly unending pile of soup tureens, chamber pots, wineglasses, and beaver hats was transferred from the boats, while more practical souls set about planting potatoes, beans, root vegetables, lettuce, and cabbage in the gardens”. [pg. 172]
[Correction] During our retelling the story of the return of the three Fuegians we mixed up the time scale of events. We stated that Mr. Matthwes survived a year at the outpost before he was picked up by Fitzroy but in actuality he only lasted about 2 weeks before he abandoned the missionary effort and left the HMS Beagle to join his brother in New Zealand.
The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh.
Interlude song - Missionary Man by the Eurythmics
