a keen appetite and great seeming satisfaction.  Their complexion was the same as that of the people we had seen before, but they were low of stature, the tallest of them not being more than five foot six:  They appeared to be perishing with cold, and immediately kindled several fires.  How they subsist in winter, it is not perhaps easy to guess, for the weather was at this time so severe, that we had frequent falls of snow.  They were armed with bows, arrows, and javelins; the arrows and javelins were pointed with flint, which was wrought into the shape of a serpent’s tongue; and they discharged both with great force and dexterity, scarce ever failing to hit a mark at a considerable distance.  To kindle a fire they strike a pebble against a piece of mundic, holding under it, to catch the sparks, some moss or down, mixed with a whitish earth, which takes fire like tinder:  They then take some dry grass; of which there is every-where plenty, and, putting the lighted moss into it, wave it to and fro, and in about a minute it blazes.

When the boat returned she brought three of them on board the ship, but they seemed to regard nothing with any degree of curiosity, except our clothes and a looking-glass; the looking-glass afforded them as much diversion as it had done the Patagonians, and it seemed to surprise them more:  When they first peeped into it they started, back, first looking at us, and then at each other; they then took another peep, as it were by stealth, starting back as before; and then eagerly looking behind it:  When by degrees they became familiar with it, they smiled, and seeing the image smile in return, they were exceedingly delighted, and burst into fits of the most violent laughter.  They left this however, and every thing else, with perfect indifference, the little they possessed being to all appearance equal to their desires.  They eat whatever was given them, but would drink nothing but water.

When they left the ship I went on shore with them, and by this time several of their wives and children were come to the watering-place.  I distributed some trinkets among them, with which they seemed pleased for a moment, and they gave us same of their arms in return; they gave us also several pieces of mundic, such as is found in the tin mines of Cornwall:  They made us understand that they found it in the mountains, where there are probably mines of tin, and perhaps of more valuable metal.  When they left us and embarked in their canoes, they hoisted a sealskin for a sail, and steered for the southern shore, where we saw many of their hovels; and we remarked that not one of them looked behind, either at us or at the ship, so little impression had the wonders they had seen made upon their minds, and so much did they appear to be absorbed in the present, without any habitual exercise of their power to reflect upon the past.