Savage Read Free

consternation. The arrival of the foreigner opened up opportunities for the bartering of dogs and dried fish, sparkling stones, metal objects, and the lengths of cloth they craved.
    Alerted that a large boat bearing Europeans was plying the area, Orundellico’s family boarded three canoes and went in chase. They carried fish and skins to trade. Alongside Orundellico were several men he would have known as his uncles. Each would have been anxious to intercept the foreigners before any other group could get to them. That way the spoils of trade were greater. It would, therefore, have been with some satisfaction that, within sight of the coast, they encountered the large boat alone and hailed it with their offerings, waving their arms and banging their chests with clenched fists. All seemed normal, the white men expressed interest, the fish were being examined, trinkets were being received and then something unexpected happened. The basic facts are clear: over the course of the next few minutes Orundellico was removed from his canoe and carried on board the foreigners’ boat. A large button was thrown to an uncle as payment. Then the white men sailed away with Orundellico. What is less clear is the level of coercion, the degree of willingness on the Fuegians’ part to trade one of their own and how far they understood the transaction. The only account we have of this moment is that of Robert FitzRoy, commander of the Beagle, and in charge of the whale-boat in question. His report of 11 May 1830 reads:
    â€¦ we continued our route, but were stopped when in sight of the Narrows by three canoes full of natives, anxious for barter. We gave them a few beads and buttons, for some fish; and, without any previous intention, I told one of the boys in a canoe to come into our boat, and gave the man who was with him a large shining mother-of-pearl button. The boy got into my boat directly, and sat down. Seeing him and his friends seem quite contented, I pulled onwards, and, a light breeze springing up made sail. Thinking that this accidental occurrence might prove useful to the natives, as well as to ourselves, I determined to take advantage of it. The canoe, from which the boy came, paddled towards the shore …
    There is no way of testing the account’s reliability, no means of knowing whether Orundellico was happy to climb into the large boat, or if he was torn kicking and screaming from his uncle. FitzRoy knew no Yamana, and the Fuegians could neither speak nor understand English. It is highly unlikely that they understood what was about to befall Orundellico – and had they known would they really have sold him for a cast-off button? But however the abduction was achieved, FitzRoy was only too aware that if, indeed, he had ordered his men to seize the young boy and hold him against his will on the boat, he had committed an act of kidnap, for which he could expect to be severely reprimanded. If this was so he was unlikely to admit to it in his official report. In further elaboration and justification of his conduct, FitzRoy wrote that his new captive ‘seemed to be pleased at his change and fancied he was going to kill guanaco, or wãnãkäye as he called them – as they were to be found near that place’.
    The boat sailed swiftly to a beach where camp was made for the night. Orundellico must have soon realised that it was no guanaco hunt he was engaged in. Whether willingly traded by his parents, or seized by the English barterers, the consequence for him was the same: he had been abducted. And in that critical moment, when Orundellico passed from one boat into the other, he crossed an invisible frontier. In his new existence he would begin to shed his Fuegian identity – his clothes, his habits and his language. But first his captors took his name. As the Fuegian child was hauled into the boat, Orundellico became Jemmy Button.

Chapter 2
    By May 1830 Robert FitzRoy had been with the