The Fuegian man taken to England on HMS Beagle and later returned was Jemmy Button.
Jemmy Button was the English name given to Orundellico, a member of the Yaghan people from the Tierra del Fuego region. Captain Robert FitzRoy took him and three other Fuegians to England during the Beagle’s first voyage in 1830. The name reportedly came from the mother-of-pearl button exchanged for him.
The group attracted public attention in England and met King William IV. One companion, Boat Memory, died soon after arrival from smallpox. Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket, and York Minster later returned to Tierra del Fuego with FitzRoy’s second expedition, the voyage on which Charles Darwin served as naturalist.
Jemmy initially wore European clothing and had been expected to help communicate with local people, but he eventually resumed his Yaghan way of life. The episode is often presented as a benevolent educational project, yet the circumstances also involved coercion and abduction, making the story a complicated chapter in imperial exploration.