Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/345

] but we may now hope that the day is not far distant when the blessings of civilisation and the joyful tidings of the Gospel may be extended to these most degraded of human beings, for I have heard that at this moment some pious missionaries are about to commence their labours among the Patagonian Indians who live along the southern coast of the American continent.

They do not entertain that objection to having their hair cut, which Captain King mentions of the Fuegians in Fortescue Bay. After reading that anecdote I thought it right to proceed with caution to induce them to let my coxswain cut a lock from off some of our visitors; on presenting each of them with some hair they had seen him cut off my head, they did not make the least objection to his cutting theirs and giving it to me; and before we left the harbour, nearly all of them had their long dirty hair removed, and expressed much satisfaction at their short crop, which greatly improved their appearance.

We were prevented by the unsettled state of the weather from extending our researches to the neighbouring harbours or islands; but the able and detailed survey and description of them by Captains King and Fitzroy leave us nothing to regret on that account, beyond the gratification of our own curiosity. The suddenness and violence of the "williwaws" from off the high lands render navigation in open boats too dangerous to be hazarded, except there had been any object of sufficient