and FitzRoy then had to decide what to do with the three men and a young girl, and
he wrote:
I began to think of various advantages which might result
to them and their countrymen, as well as to us, by taking
them to England, educating them there as far as might
be practicable, and then bringing them back to Tierra del
Fuego.In England, the Church Missionary Society provided
the Fuegians with accommodation and education at an
infant school which provided a rudimentary education
in English, Christianity, the use of common tools, care
of farm animals, and gardening. One of the men died
following his smallpox vaccination, but FitzRoy was
committed to his promise to return the remaining three
Fuegians to their native lands. It was FitzRoy’s hope
that these ‘civilized’ Fuegians whom he had named
Jemmy Button, York Minster and Fuegia Basket
would together with a young English missionary, Mr
Mathews, establish a mission and bring a civilizing
influence to the wilds of Patagonia. Here, the natives
lived on shellfish and what fish or seals they could
catch. Their bodies were naked although smeared with
grease and covered with guanaco cloaks or sealskins
to keep them warm. Darwin’s first sight of the wild
Fuegians shocked him immensely and he wrote that
viewing such men, their faces daubed with white paint,
their hair entangled, their skins filthy and greasy, he could hardly make himself believe
they were fellow creatures. This striking comparison would have given Darwin many
hours of thought about the ascent of man from savagery to civilization:
It was without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld. I could
not have believed how wide is the difference between savage and civilized man: it is greater
than between a wild and domesticated animal, in as much as in man there is a greater power
of improvement.The Fuegian, Yapoo Teekenika, from
the Narrative of the Voyage of the
Beagle, Wellcome Library72 Where Australia Collides with Asia
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