Le Guide Impossibili
5549 Fuegia
o Terra del Fuoco e altri territori circonvicini della Magellania
Edited by Gianni Guadalupi. Texts by Charles Darwin, Giacomo Bove, Mario Appelius, Armando Braun Menéndez
1986 / 324 PAGES.
Language: Two editions: Italian, French
Tierra del Fuego: natives more similar to animals than to people, the gold rush, the sheep invasion and the inescapable triumph of the White Man.
Until the 1840s, the southernmost tip of the South American continent seemed fated to be left abandoned. The frequent shipwrecks that occurred on the reefs and promontories of the insular maze, the sailors’ stories about the terrible Cape Horn storms, the icy rains, the vast inland deserts, the snow and glaciers of the coastal mountains… all this had given it a fearsome reputation. Throughout the 19th century, Chile and Argentina disputed possession of the land. This controversy on marking the boundary of their respective properties led to a better knowledge of the area, especially its interior. Giacomo Bove, a lieutenant of the Royal Italian Navy, was charged by the Argentinian government with leading an important expedition in 1881; excerpts from his memoirs provide the most interesting parts in this volume.