3-021-035 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Patagonian wigwam, 1869. Engraving of a sketch by '...Mr. F. L. Bedwell, of the Admiralty Surveying Department, who was lately engaged in the exploration of these parts by H. M. S. Nassau...The Patagonians, a wandering race of Indians...live in tents [or toldos] composed of the hides of guanacos, or llamas...As a race they are tall...Their present average stature is about six feet. They are intelligent and polite to strangers, and do not appear to feel any dislike towards the white race. Their colour is a sallow brown, and they have a mass of long, thick, black hair, which the men confine with a white band tied round the head; the women have theirs parted in the middle, hanging loose over their shoulders. Their dress is a mantle, composed generally of eleven or thirteen skins...They wear also moccasins made of the skin of a horse's hind leg, stripped off, and used to cover the leg of a man from the knees to the feet; and formidable spurs made of two pieces of wood, in which nails are fixed with projecting points. Their chief occupation is hunting; the skins of the ostrich and guanaco are either sewn into clothing for their own use by the hands of their squaws, or bartered with their civilised neighbours for spirits, tobacco, and firearms'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.