THE STORY: In 1831, Captain James Fitzroy of the HMS Beagle, the ship that took Charles Darwin to South America, became obsessed with what he saw as a philanthropic mission. He took aboard three young Indians, from a primitive tribe in Tierra del Fuego, and transported them to England to be Christianized. At first, every charitable organization refused to help Fitzroy with what they considered a group of cannibals. Then King William IV became intrigued and had them presented at court. Suddenly everyone wanted to meet Fitzroy’s “Fuegians.” But after barely more than a year, just when the Indians were starting to fancy themselves English ladies and gentlemen, they were abruptly returned to their native land, with trunks full of English finery—to disastrous consequences. Told from the point of view of the Indians, LAND O’FIRE is an insightful and often humorous examination of life interfered with and forever changed by association with a “superior” culture.
