thumb|right|Two views of Jemmy Button from FitzRoy's Narrative (1839)

thumb|right|A Yagan family inside a canoe

Orundellico, known as "Jeremy Button" or "Jemmy Button" or "Jimmy Button" (c. 1815–1864), was a member of the Yahgan (or Yámana) people from islands around Tierra del Fuego in modern Chile and Argentina. He was taken to England by Captain FitzRoy in HMS Beagle and became a celebrity there for a period.

HMS Beagle

thumb|right|HMS Beagle (centre), watercolor by Owen Stanley (1841)

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. He seems to have shown great concern for the four, feeding them before his own officers and crew and intending them to be educated and Christianised so that they could improve the conditions of their kin.

The names given to the Fuegians by the crew were York Minster, Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket (a girl) and Boat Memory. It appears that he and the others had taught their families some English.

Wulaia Bay massacre

thumb|right|Fuegians going to trade in Zapallos with the Patagonians from FitzRoy's Narrative (1839)

In 1855, a group of Christian missionaries from the Patagonian Missionary Society visited Wulaia Bay on Navarino Island to find that Jemmy still had a remarkable grasp of English. Some time later in 1859, another group of missionaries was killed at Wulaia Bay by the Yaghan, supposedly led by Jemmy and his family. In early 1860, Jemmy visited Keppel Island and gave evidence at the enquiry held in Stanley into the massacre. He denied responsibility.

Death

In 1863, the missionary Waite Stirling visited Tierra del Fuego and re-established contact with Jemmy; from then relations with the Yaghan improved. In 1866, after Jemmy's death, Stirling took one of Jemmy's sons, known as Threeboy, to England.

  • Several episodes of the 1978 serial The Voyage of Charles Darwin dramatize the Fuegians' capture and their later return to Tierra del Fuego.

Literature

  • According to Julia Voss, the German children's book, Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer by Michael Ende, translated into English as Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, was based on Jemmy Button. Ende, who grew up in Nazi Germany, wanted to write a story that provided a contrast to Adolf Hitler's racist ideology and misuse of Darwin's theories of evolution. Ende's 1960 novel became one of the most successful children's books in postwar Germany

Music

  • A song entitled Jemmy Button is featured on the 2009 Darwin Song Project.

Podcast

  • Is mentioned as an analogy in Case 63, Episode 7 "Jemmy Button" 2022, Gimlet

Bibliography

  • The Uttermost Part of the Earth by E L Bridges (1948) was republished in 2008 by Overlook Press ().
  • In Patagonia (1977) by Bruce Chatwin includes a fictionalised version of Orundellico's capture.
  • The novel Jemmy Button by the Chilean writer Benjamin Subercaseaux was published in the 1950s and translated from Spanish by Mary and Fred del Villar (New York: The Macmilllan Company, 1954).
  • La Tierra del Fuego by Sylvia Iparraguirre is another fictionalised version of the story. Winner of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize. Translated into English by Hardie St. Martin (2000) Willamantic, CT, Curbstone Press 2000.
  • Harry Thompson's This Thing of Darkness (2005) contains a fictionalised account of Jemmy's time in HMS Beagle and in England, as well as the massacre at Wulaia Bay ().
  • Savage: The Life and Times of Jemmy Button, a full account of Jemmy's life by English writer Nick Hazlewood was published in 2000 ().
  • Three Men of the Beagle by Richard Lee Marks ()
  • Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman & Valerio Vidali (Words by Alix Barzelay, a children's picturebook version of the story of Jemmy Button's time in England.

References

  • The civilization experience of Jeremy Button by Geraldo Salgado-Neto & Aquilea Salgado
  • H2G2 biography