Patagonia Bookshelf

Abstract: According to the anonymous reviewer, Tierra del Fuego is a land "not fit for human occupation". Its occupants are repulsive, in some ways more animals than humans. Women are treated as drudges, children are unprotected from the elements. In times of hunger, old woman are eaten.

Assessment: Under the pretext of reviewing a recent publication about the canoe natives, the writer assembles a mass of pejorative descriptions made by earlier visitors to the region. The refeence to suffocating old women can be traced back to Fitzroy, who heard it from the pilot Low. Going further, for humorous effect, the article suggests that it would be in the natives' best interests for some well-meaning scientist to annihilate them. To complete the ridicule, he justifies their hypothetical extinction on the novel grounds that their language is too complex. Plainly, the writer took more pleasure in refining his vitriolic prose than in conserving objectivity and producing a critical assessment of the original publication.