Sure enough, the problem that Colonel Fitzroy couldn’t solve was imdiately handled by Eld upon his arrival.
Eld took so red cloth from the ship and gifted it to them. The natives wrapped the red cloth around their necks right away, and then they beca friends. The Tierra del Fuego people express friendliness by patting each other’s chests and making a clucking sound, like when soone feeds chickens.
The elder first patted Eld, then walked over to . After repeating this friendly gesture several tis, he ended the ritual by vigorously patting my chest and back three tis. Then he exposed his own chest, indicating for to reciprocate. I mimicked the gesture, and he seed particularly pleased.
According to our perspective, their language is not exactly articulated. When Captain Cook first arrived here, he compared this language to soone clearing their throat, but certainly without the hoarseness, gruff, and creaky sounds often made by Europeans. If I had to describe which European language it resembles most, I’d say it’s a more muddled form of Dutch — literally a double Dutch.
These natives are especially good at mimicry. Whether we cough, yawn, or make any strange gestures, they instantly mimic it. Seeing this, Eld deliberately made exaggerated facial expressions, thinking others couldn’t imitate him. But one young Tierra del Fuego person pulled off the grimace so vividly that he looked exactly like Eld.
Moreover, while we couldn’t learn their language, they could accurately repeat each word in our sentences, even rembering it days later when asked. We Europeans all understand how difficult it is to discern the phonetics of a foreign language. For instance, who among us can understand more than three words in a sentence spoken by Arican Indians?
But for these natives, learning a foreign language seems to take no effort at all. I had heard before that the indigenous Kaffir people of South Africa also have this habit, as well as the natives of Australia, who are known for imitating anyone’s walking posture, making it instantly recognizable who they’re mimicking.
That night, we lit a bonfire among the tribe, and the crew started singing. Eld wanted to show off, so he perford his waltz steps, which he had practiced for years for London’s social gatherings. But to everyone’s surprise, a local young man, upon seeing Eld’s dance, also mimicked a brief segnt.
Although his dance was quite clumsy, I assure you, even with a week’s ti for Eld to learn a new dance, he couldn’t perform it as well as that young man.
Oh, and I nearly forgot to ntion. We actually have three Tierra del Fuego natives on our ship, but they aren’t from this island. Their connection to the scientific exploration traces back to our captain Colonel Fitzroy’s previous expedition.
Colonel Fitzroy visited Tierra del Fuego in 1826, as part of the Beagle and the Adventure’s voyage. At that ti, the Tierra del Fuego people stole a ship from the exploration team and clashed with the crew. As a result, Colonel Fitzroy captured so natives as hostages to reclaim the stolen ship.
Later, he took a few of the natives and a child he had bought with pearl buttons back to Britain, where he personally financed their education and gave them religious enlightennt. According to the Colonel, returning these Tierra del Fuego people ho was one of his main motivations for applying for this mariti expedition.
Originally, Fitzroy took four Tierra del Fuego people back to Britain, but one unfortunately died of smallpox. The three currently on the ship are York Cathedral, Jamie Button, and Fuegia Basket.
York Cathedral is a mature man, not tall but robust and strong. He has a reserved, taciturn nature, generally gloomy, yet becos frenzied when agitated. However, he has close relationships with several friends on the ship and is not lacking in intelligence, certainly smarter than Eld, who has never won cards against him.
Jamie Button is the most beloved by everyone. His expression is filled with kindness, always cheerful, and he is extrely empathetic to others’ suffering. When the waves are high, I often feel a bit seasick, and he always cos by to check on , sympathetically comforting by saying, "Poor thing! Poor thing!"
But growing up in the water makes him find other people’s seasickness amusing, so he has to turn around and laugh heartily, then turn back to continue saying, "Poor thing! Poor thing!"
Additionally, Jamie is very patriotic and enjoys boasting about his tribe and country. He proudly pats his chest while saying they have many trees there. He disparages all other tribes, just as Eld belittles France. Another thing he shares with Eld is that despite Jamie’s small stature and portliness, he deeply appreciates his appearance. He often wears white gloves, keeps his hair neatly cut, and feels very upset if his ticulously polished shoes get dirty.
Recently, an Indian boy from the Negro River arrived on the ship, and everyone liked the cheerful, cute little guy. This boy quickly discovered Jamie’s vanity and mocked him. Jamie was envious of the attention garnered by the boy, disliked being mocked, but couldn’t abandon his gentlemanly deanor, so he could only turn his head with disdain and say condescendingly, "That’s just ridiculous."
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