Tierra del Fuego is a large island on the southernmost tip of South America. It lies on the south side of the Strait of Magellan. It is shared by Argentina and Chile. Its name means "Land of Fire," due to the fires spotted by Magellan during the expedition, lit by the Selk'nam natives.
Its northern part is grassy, cold, and windswept, as you move south towards the Andes open forests appear and then, in the mountain range, dense, tangled Andean woods. Snowcapped mountains and glaciers line its southern flank. Freezing in winter, slightly less cold during summer.
However, the Dutch depicted it differently during their expeditions that took place in the early 1600s. They were seeking a way to the East Indies that didn't go through the Strait of Magellan, which was zealously claimed by Spain, or along the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. They explored Staten Island and found a way around the south side of the Island
The map below (online and zoomable) shows the ships of Joris van Spilbergen's expedition that navigated the Strait of Magellan in 1615. It depicts different scenes that took place in Tierra del Fuego.
The image shows a penguin (marked with a letter "H") that is captioned in the text as follows: "H. Is a penguin, which are to be seen in great numbers there." Notice that it looks scaly rather than feathery! Then there is a tree that oddly resembles a palm tree (in the icy fireland!), further right there is a large bird being shot at by some Dutch sailors (caption reads "I. Are some sailors shooting birds on land.") The size of the birds is interesting. The penguin is as large as the natives. Is it some kind of giant penguin? If so, it became extinct.
The land bird to the right may be a ñandú or rhea, a flightless bird that inhabits southern South America and Patagonia, but nowadays is not found in Tierra del Fuego. Its size -as tall as the sailors- suggestss it was a rhea.
The Fuegian natives had a myth about the rhea, which they called "Ohi," indicating that it lived in the Island before it was hunted to extinction (read about this myth: the intriguing Ohi)
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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