Jemmy Button

In 1830, Captain Robert FitzRoy, at the command of the first expedition of HMS Beagle, took a group of hostages from the Fuegian people after one of his ship's whaleboats was stolen.

FitzRoy decided to take four of the young Fuegian hostages all the way to England "to become useful as interpreters, and be the means of establishing a friendly disposition towards Englishmen on the part of their countrymen.

The names given to the Fuegians by the crew were York Minster, Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket (a girl) and Boat Memory.

In The Descent of Man, he suggests that Button never understood the plan to convert Fuegians to Christianity and "with justifiable pride, stoutly maintained that there was no devil in his land.

[4] In 1863, the missionary Waite Stirling visited Tierra del Fuego and re-established contact with Jemmy; from then relations with the Yaghan improved.