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Abstract: The sailing barque Roseneath attempted to round Cape Horn eastbound, heading for Britain. Four days of stormy weather caused an unstoppable leak, forcing all aboard to abandon her on the open ocean, and take to the boats. The captain, his wife and child, and five other survivors in the first boat were picked up a week later. The mate and four other sailors were in a second boat, which quickly made landfall; they were pursued and attacked by natives, and only one person spared. On two other occasions, single shipwrecked prisoners were brought in, the remainder of their parties having been killed in similar fashion. The natives were reported to habitually smoke tobacco using pipes made of local materials. The narrator spent a long period of captivity. After two months or so, he made his escape with another group of natives, ultimately being picked up in the Magellan Strait by the passing steamer Aconcagua.

Assessment: The officer's description of the native canoes (three pieces of wood fastened together) corresponds to the Kaweskar native group. The sailors were killed in a surprise attack, following an hour of "friendly" contact, in which they received gifts of food and tobacco. The natives had a special desire for western clothing, stripping them from the corpses and forcing the survivor to remove most of his own. It is noteworthy that the ship's boat was preserved, and eventually provided the narrator's means of escape.

[For Rev. Thomas Bridges's reaction to news reports of these events,
see http://patlibros.org/tdf/doc.php#samson]