Tierra del Fuego, 1830.
At the southern tip of America, where the continent breaks into hundreds of islands, lived the Yagán people. They were great navigators. They traveled in canoes between the islands and lived from the sea.
A boy of about fourteen lived there. His name was Orundellico.
In 1830, an English ship arrived in those waters: the Beagle. Its captain was named Robert FitzRoy. He was making maps of the coast when some Indigenous people stole a small boat from him. FitzRoy, furious, took hostages.
Some time later, in another place, the captain saw Orundellico in a canoe. He offered a man in the canoe a large, shiny mother-of-pearl button. And the boy climbed aboard the English ship. No one knows whether his family accepted the exchange or whether he had any other choice.
The sailors gave him a new name: Jemmy Button. "Button" means "botón" in Spanish.
Neither he nor his mother imagined that the ship would take him so far away.
Three other young Fuegians were traveling on the Beagle. The sailors gave them English names too: York Minster, Fuegia Basket and Boat Memory. FitzRoy had a plan: to educate them in England and then return them to their land, so that they could be friends and interpreters for the English.
Soon after arriving in England, Boat Memory caught smallpox and died.
The other three went to a school near London. Jemmy learned English quickly. He was cheerful, friendly and very affectionate.
In 1831 something incredible happened. The three were invited to meet King William IV and Queen Adelaide. The queen gave Fuegia one of her own bonnets, a ring and money to buy clothes.
At the end of 1831, the Beagle sailed south again. This time it was taking the three young people back home. And also a new passenger: a young scientist named Charles Darwin.
Darwin and Jemmy became friends. When the sea was rough, Darwin got seasick, and Jemmy would go to see him and say sadly, "Poor, poor fellow!"
In January 1833, after more than a year at sea, they reached Wulaia, Jemmy's homeland. Bad news was waiting for him there: his father had died. And something stranger: Jemmy could barely remember his own language.
The English left him with his family and continued their voyage.
A year later, in 1834, the Beagle came back to see how he was doing. Darwin barely recognized him. The elegant young man from London was now thin, with long hair and almost no clothes.
FitzRoy offered to take him back to England. Everyone expected him to say yes.
Jemmy said no.
That afternoon, a young woman came up in a canoe: she was his wife. Jemmy was happy. He gave his old friends gifts that were very valuable to his people: otter skins. Then he paddled away, happy, toward his island.
The most curious part came later: Jemmy did not forget his English. On the contrary, he taught it to his people. More than twenty years later, in 1855, some missionaries arrived in Wulaia… and Jemmy spoke to them in English.
He had met the King of England. But he chose to go back home.