“Impressing the Locals” by Charles Darwin, 1832
“Washing my face in the morning caused much speculation at the village of Las Minas.”
In July of 1832, during his around the world voyage aboard the Beagle, Charles Darwin leaves Monte Video for Maldonado, Uruguay.
I stayed ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly perfect collection of the animals, birds, and reptiles was procured. Before making any observations respecting them, I will give an account of a little excursion I made as far as the river Polanco, which is about seventy miles distant, in a northerly direction. I may mention, as a proof how cheap everything is in this country, that I paid only two dollars a day or eight shillings for two men, together with a troop of about a dozen riding-horses. My companions were well armed with pistols and sabres; a precaution which I thought rather unnecessary; but the first piece of news we heard was that, the day before, a traveller from Monte Video had been found dead on the road, with his throat cut. This happened close to a cross, the record of a former murder.
On the first night we slept at a retired little country-house; and there I soon found out that I possessed two or three articles, especially a pocket compass, which created unbounded astonishment. In every house I was asked to show the compass, and by its aid, together with a map, to point out the direction of various places. It excited the liveliest admiration that I, a perfect stranger, should know the road (for direction and road are synonymous in this open country) to places where I had never been. At one house a young woman who was ill in bed sent to entreat me to come and show her the compass. If their surprise was great, mine was greater to find such ignorance among people who possessed their thousands of cattle and “estancias” of great extent. It can only be accounted for by the circumstance that this retired part of the country is seldom visited by foreigners.
I was asked whether the earth or sun moved; whether it was hotter or colder to the north; where Spain was, and many other such questions. The greater number of the inhabitants had an indistinct idea that England, London, and North America were different names for the same place; but the better informed well knew that London and North America were separate countries close together, and that England was a large town in London!
I carried with me some promethean matches, which I ignited by biting; it was thought so wonderful that a man should strike fire with his teeth that it was usual to collect the whole family to see it: I was once offered a dollar for a single one. Washing my face in the morning caused much speculation at the village of Las Minas; a superior tradesman closely cross-questioned me about so singular a practice; and likewise why on board we wore our beards, for he had heard from my guide that we did so. He eyed me with much suspicion, perhaps he had heard of ablutions in the Mahomedan religion, and knowing me to be a heretic, probably he came to the conclusion that all heretics were Turks.
It is the general custom in this country to ask for a night’s lodging at the first convenient house. The astonishment at the compass, and my other feats of jugglery, was to a certain degree advantageous, as with that, and the long stories my guides told of my breaking stones, knowing venomous from harmless snakes, collecting insects, etc., I repaid them for their hospitality. I am writing as if I had been among the inhabitants of Central Africa: Banda Oriental would not be flattered by the comparison, but such were my feelings at the time.
From A Naturalist’s Voyage Round the World: The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin, 1839, available on Amazon*
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Image: Charles Robert Darwin by John Collier, 1883, National Portrait Gallery, London