Tierra del Fuegian, 1832
To avoid offending Victorian sensibilities the Beagle's artist depicted the Tierra del Fuegians wearing considerably more clothing than was customary. Charles Darwin was taken aback at the crude savagery of the natives, in stark contrast to the civilised behaviour of the three Fuegians they were returning as missionaries (from the first voyage). He described his first meeting with the native Fuegians as being without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilised man: it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of improvement. Four decades later, in The Descent of Man, he would use his impressions from this period as evidence that man had evolved civilization from a more primitive state
