Chapter XVI: “the Story of Captain Allen Francis Gardiner, R.n.”

I now propose to add a few facts bearing on the subject of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego taken from a very interesting little volume prepared by J. W. Marsh, M.A., and W. H. Stirling, B.A. (London, 1867), with the above title.

Having an earnest desire for the evangelization of the heathen, Captain Gardiner relinquished the naval service and devoted his life to missionary work. He was three years in the Zulu country in South Africa, exploring and establishing a missionary station at Port Natal.

“A few years later he attempted to obtain entrance into New Guinea. He went from island to island of the Indian Archipelago, and from governor to magistrate, but all his efforts were baffled.” He then turned his attention to South America, exploring extensively both among the Spanish states and the aboriginal tribes. He made an earnest effort to establish a Christian mission among the unconquered Araucanians on the south of Chili; but here he was foiled by the opposition, as he believed, of the Spanish priests.

In 1841 Captain Gardiner attempted to organize an expedition from the island of Chiloe to travel eastward, cross a pass in the Cordilleras, and to communicate with the natives residing on the eastern side. This plan also failed, and he returned to Valparaiso, whence he sailed for the Falkland Islands, and arrived at Port Louis in Berkley Sound December 23d, 1841. These islands he now selected as the base of missionary operations, purposing to bring over a few of the Fuegians or Patagonians to the islands to be instructed in English, and also to assist the missionaries in acquiring the language of the Patagonians. The seat of government was then at Port Louis, but it was afterwards established at Port William, where the town of Stanley has since been built, and where the English have planted a small colony.

In March, 1842, Captain Gardiner entered the Strait of Magellan in a schooner, and made an attempt to persuade some of the Fuegians on the south side of the Strait to go with him to the Falklands. Failing in this, he went over to the north shore and anchored in Gregory Bay, where we first landed. Finding no Indians here, he proceeded westward twelve miles to Oazy Harbor, where he found a clan headed by a chief called Wissale, with whom he made an engagement to establish a mission to be under the protection of this chief. He then returned with his family to England, made efforts to interest Christians in the South American enterprise, and brought out a Mr. Hunt to labor with the tribe just named. This was in February, 1845. Captain Gardiner found all things changed. Most of the tribe were absent; they were also divided, and Wissale was sullen and unfriendly.

So this effort failed, and Captain Gardiner and Mr. Hunt returned to England. In due time Captain Gardiner came back with a Mr. Gonzales, a Spanish Protestant, to South America, where he travelled heroically to find aboriginal tribes to whom the Gospel could be preached. He finally settled Gonzales in Bolivia, and in February, 1846, we find him again in England, full of zeal in his South American enterprise.

But he had not yet given up his purpose to make another effort for Tierra del Fuego. He travelled and lectured in England and Scotland, but with small pecuniary success. For want of money he proposed to the committee to take a one-decked boat, a dingey, a whaleboat, two small wigwams, four sailors, and one ship-carpenter, and sail for Staten Island, which lies due east from Tierra del Fuego. All things ready, they sailed in the bark Clymene, bound to Peru, on the 7th of January, 1848. On the 15th of March they made Staten Island, and from this time till the first of April they struggled hard and with incredible suffering to establish a station on Picton Island, at Banner Cove; but being thwarted by the thieving habits of the savages, they sailed for Payta in Peru.

From Peru the indefatigable Captain Gardiner returned again to England, with irrepressible zeal urging the Patagonian Missionary Society to go forward, and striving, almost against hope, to collect funds for the purpose. Mr. Ritchie, the honorable secretary of the society, had resigned and gone to Liverpool, and no member of the committee was willing to take his place. At length Captain Gardiner persuaded the Rev. Geo. Packenham Despard to come to the rescue.

Again he travelled over England and Scotland in search of funds, but with little success, until a generous lady gave him £700, and afterwards £300 more. Two launches 26 by 8½ feet were purchased, and two small tenders, and provisions for six months.

Mr. Williams (surgeon), Mr. Maidment, Joseph Erwin, and three Cornish fishermen--viz., John Pearce, John Badcock, and John Bryant--were appointed to go to Tierra del Fuego on this expedition. With this party Captain Gardiner sailed from Liverpool in the bark Ocean Queen, bound for San Francisco, on the 7th of September, 1850, and on the 5th of the following December arrived at Picton Island, and the Ocean Queen anchored in Banner Cove. Hence he writes: “On Friday, the 6th, we erected our tents, and slept on shore. On the 7th we constructed a strong fence of trunks of trees, etc., round our position, leaving only one small opening. This night and during Sunday the number of natives increased.... Their rudeness and pertinacious endeavor to force a way into the tents, and to purloin our things, at length became so systematic and resolute that it was not possible to retain our position without resorting to force, from which, of course, we refrained. For the present we must keep the stores and everything in the boats. As soon as the Ocean Queen leaves us I purpose going to Button Island and endeavoring to find out Jemmy, in the hope of persuading him or some of his relatives to locate here.”

The Ocean Queen sailed on the 19th of December. An attempt was then made to go to Woollya in search of Jemmy Button, but in this their two small boats and one launch were lost. They were in distress, and the expedition to Woollya failed.

On the 2d of February, 1851, Mr. Williams writes: “How evident that we were not in a position to commence, with such slight means, so arduous an undertaking! We are now all agreed that nothing short of a brigantine or schooner of eighty or a hundred tons can answer our ends, and to procure this ultimately the captain has fully determined to use every effort. A short acquaintance with the natives confirmed the unfavorable reports which such writers as Fitz Roy, King, and Darwin had given.”

Fearing the savages at Banner Cove, the whole company had removed to Spaniard Harbor, where they watched for the arrival of a vessel to bring them supplies of provisions that never came.

They made one more trip to Banner Cove, on Picton Island, to bring away provisions they had concealed, and to leave notices to show where they were gone, in case of any vessel searching for them in Banner Cove.

The provisions of the missionaries were getting reduced day by day, their powder and shot were being exhausted, their fishing-net gave out; Mr. Williams and Mr. Badcock were sick; the scurvy began to attack some of their number; no vessel appeared for their relief, and their condition was truly forlorn.

In view of death by starvation, nothing but the all-sufficient grace of God, in hope of eternal life, sustained them. But faith anchored their souls to the “Rock of Ages.”

On the night of the 28th of July, 1851, Mr. Badcock departed in triumph to his heavenly home. He had suffered with fears that he was not accepted by the Beloved; but all these clouds of doubt fled away before the visions of a strong faith, and just before he expired he sang with a loud voice:

“Arise, my soul, arise,
Shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears.
Before the throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.”

A part of the company slept in the Speedwell, their only remaining boat, and the other part occupied a cavern about one mile and a half distant on the shore. On the rocks at the entrance of this cave were afterwards found the words of the 62d Psalm, verses 5-8, painted with this date, July 5th, 1851.

On the 25th of August Joseph Erwin went to his rest, deeply lamented. Captain Gardiner writes of him, “Twice has he accompanied me to Tierra del Fuego, and on all occasions proved himself worthy of my highest confidence and esteem.” John Bryant died on the 27th of August. Maidment labored to the end of life to help and comfort his sick and dying comrades. “On September 2d he left the boat, but was unable to return, and his remains were found in Pioneer Cavern.”

Captain Gardiner was fast growing weaker and weaker. On the 27th August he wrote his last letter of affectionate counsel to his son; on the 28th he wrote a tender farewell to his daughter; and on the 29th he penned his final letter to his beloved wife. I quote a brief extract: “I am passing through the furnace, but blessed be my heavenly Shepherd, He is with me, and I shall not want. He has kept me in perfect peace, and my soul rests and waits on Him only.... I trust poor Fuegia and South America will not be abandoned.”

On the 30th he made an unsuccessful effort to join the suffering party at Cook’s River, the place where the launch was anchored. On the 2d of September we find this entry in his diary: “Hope deferred, not lost.” His last entry in his journal is on September 5th. On the 6th he wrote his last words in a note to Mr. Williams:

“+My Dear Mr. Williams+:

“The Lord has seen fit to call home another of our little company.
Our dear departed brother left the boat on Tuesday at noon, and has
not since returned; doubtless he is in the presence of his Redeemer
whom he served so faithfully. Yet a little while, and through grace
we may join that blessed throng to sing the praises of Christ
throughout eternity. I neither hunger nor thirst, though five days
without food! Marvellous loving-kindness to me a sinner!

“Your affectionate brother in Christ,

“+Allen F. Gardiner+.”

The sad narrative tells us that on the 22d of October, 1851, the schooner John Davison, sent from Montevideo by Mr. Lafone to look after this missionary party, anchored in Banner Cove, where the master, Captain Smyley, read the directions of Captain Gardiner painted on the rocks, “Gone to Spaniard Harbor,” dug up the buried bottles, read the enclosed letters, and ran to Spaniard Harbor. Here he found one dead body in the boat, another on the beach, and one buried. These he supposed to be Pearce, Williams, and Badcock. “The sight,” says Captain Smyley, “was awful in the extreme. The two captains who went with me in the boat cried like children. Books, papers, medicine, clothing, and tools were strewed along the beach and on the boat’s deck and cuddy.”

A gale coming on, Captain Smyley was driven out to sea with only time to bury the corpses without making further search.

On the 19th of January, 1852, H.M.S. Dido, Captain Morshead, arrived at Banner Cove from the Falkland Islands. The bottles and letters were gone, but the notice on the rocks remained, and directed the ship to Spaniard Harbor. Here they found the bodies of Captain Gardiner and Mr. Maidment.

Captain Morshead writes: “On one of the papers was written, ‘If you will walk along the beach for a mile and a half you will find us in the other boat, hauled up in the mouth of a river at the head of the harbor on the south side. Delay not, we are starving.’ At this sad intelligence it was impossible to leave that night, though the weather looked very threatening. I landed the next morning, January 2d, and went to the head of the harbor with Lieutenant Gaussen, Mr. Roberts, and Mr. Evans. We found there the wreck of a boat with part of her gear and stores, with quantities of clothing, with the remains of two bodies which I conclude to be Mr. Williams (surgeon) and John Pearce.... Their remains were collected together, and buried close to the spot, and the funeral service read by Lieutenant Underwood, and three volleys of musketry were the only tribute I could pay to this lofty-minded man and his devoted companions, ... and before noon the Dido was proceeding safely on her voyage.”

When the tidings of this mournful calamity reached England sceptics censured and scoffers scoffed, and the friends of Patagonia mourned over crushed hopes. But they were soon reassured by the bold and unconquered zeal of Mr. Despard, the secretary, who published widely his determination that “with the help of God, the mission shall be maintained.”

The bugle-blast aroused the friends of missions to renewed efforts, and in 1854 a schooner named Allen Gardiner was launched at Dartmouth, and sailed from Bristol with a newly appointed company of missionaries to establish a station on the Falkland Islands, to which some Fuegians might be brought for instruction in English, and from whom the missionaries might learn the Fuegian tongue.

The Allen Gardiner sailed on the 24th of October, 1854, under the command of Captain Parker Snow, with Mr. G. Phillips as catechist and Mr. Ellis as surgeon, for Keppel Island near West Falkland, where the station was established on the 5th of February, 1855.

The Allen Gardiner soon made a voyage to Tierra del Fuego, where Jemmy Button was found living with his family.

On the 2d of June, 1856, Secretary Despard sailed from Plymouth for the Falkland Islands as superintendent of the mission. He was accompanied by the Rev. J. F. Ogle, M.A., Mr. Allen W. Gardiner, son of the lamented Captain Gardiner; by Mr. C. Turpin and Mr. W. Bartlett, as missionaries and helpers. They arrived August 30th.

Secretary Despard soon made a trip to Patagonia in the Allen Gardiner, and also to Tierra del Fuego, where young Gardiner visited the grave of his devoted father and the awful mementoes of the deaths of that forlorn hope of soldiers of the cross. In June, 1858, Mr. Gardiner visited Tierra del Fuego again with Mr. Turpin. They went to Woollya, found Jemmy Button and his wife with three children, and they all went to the Falklands to spend six months with the missionaries. They were overjoyed to see this Fuegian family, and on hearing that they were on board the Allen Gardiner as she came into Keppel Island harbor, Mrs. Despard writes, “then arose a shout of joy and praise among us.”

Jemmy and family remained with the missionaries until November, when Mr. Despard took them back to Woollya in the Allen Gardiner, on which occasion Mrs. Despard writes: “My husband left us on the 16th, accompanied by Messrs. Phillips and Turpin and the Button family for Tierra del Fuego. I cannot tell you how we miss our late guests. During their stay here they behaved extremely well, never doing anything to offend or annoy us. As to Jemmy, his politeness was extreme, and I ever found him most grateful. For any little trifle I gave him he would go and pick me a beautiful bouquet of wild flowers or spear me some fish. He was always clean. He quickly recovered his English, and understood us better than we understood him. He knows that there is a God who has created all things. He also knows about our blessed Saviour.”

Did not Admiral Fitz Roy rejoice to hear this, and feel that his generous efforts to educate this dark heathen boy were not in vain?

Mr. Despard with two catechists remained a month at Woollya with the Button family, built a house in English style for them, and then returned to the Falkland station with three Fuegians and their wives, two boys, and a little child.

Under date of October 4th, 1859, Mr. Despard writes: “These Fuegians are just returning to their own home.... They are greatly changed in manners. The two lads Lucca-enges and Okokko-enges are quite polite. ‘If you please,’ ‘Thank you,’ ‘Good-morning’ are ever heard in the right time and place. They give thanks at their meals, and pray at their bedside.... The men are also much improved--coming to daily worship, and generally twice on Sunday. They are now decent in their habits, tidily dressed, and as far as our imperfect medium of communication goes they have been taught the knowledge of God.”

On the 6th of October these nine Fuegians were put on board the Allen Gardiner, under the charge of Mr. Phillips, to be returned to Woollya with specific instructions from Superintendent Despard to Mr. Phillips.

After the time for the return of the vessel from Fuegia had passed Mr. Despard and the missionaries became anxious for her safety, and Mr. Despard went to Stanley and despatched the schooner Nancy, Captain Smyley, to Woollya. Captain Smyley returned with these heart-rending tidings: “Mr. Phillips, Captain Fell, the two mates of the schooner, and four seamen have all been massacred by the natives in Woollya, and the schooner plundered.” The news was awful, and the missionaries were stunned with amazement. They groaned and wept and prayed. They wept and prayed for the crushed widows, the mothers and fathers and children of the murdered, and for the poor, deluded, wretched savages of Fuego, whose cupidity and brutality had led them to imbrue their hands in the blood of those who had come to seek and to save them.

The following are the facts in brief of this terrible massacre. The Allen Gardiner arrived at Woollya November 1st, and the missionaries held friendly intercourse with the natives for several days. Meanwhile many canoes arrived from neighboring islands, but no harm was suspected. On Sunday, the 6th, all hands except the cook came on shore for public worship. While engaged in divine service the savages fell upon them and slaughtered the whole company. The cook, on seeing from the deck the awful work on shore, escaped around a point in a boat, and hid in the woods, until hunger and cold compelled him to reveal himself to the natives, who stripped and plundered him but spared his life. He was afterwards taken into the Button family and well treated until Captain Smyley arrived and took him on board the Nancy.

Captain Smyley went a second time to Woollya and brought away the wreck of the Allen Gardiner, which had not been burned. On this occasion Okokko begged to be taken back to Keppel Island with his wife Camilenna, and for a long time they were the only Fuegian residents on the Falklands.

Mr. and Mrs. Despard returned to England early in 1862, leaving the farm and property under the care of Mr. Bartlett, and the natives under the charge of Mr. Bridges.

On reaching England, the Allen Gardiner was repaired and increased in length and efficiency, and in August of the same year she returned to the South Atlantic with a new reinforcement of missionaries, and with Mr. Sterling as superintendent. They spent three weeks in the River Plata, while Mr. Sterling visited Montevideo and Buenos Ayres on missionary business. Thence they sailed for the Falklands, touching at the Rio Negro and Santa Cruz in Patagonia, and arriving at Keppel Island on the 30th of January, 1863. Only two adult Fuegians, Okokko and wife, and their two little children remained.

It was now determined to reopen communication with Tierra del Fuego, as all intercourse with those savage tribes had ceased since the massacre in 1859. So taking on board the tamed Okokko, the Allen Gardiner sailed once more for Fuego in March, touching at Banner Cove, Packsaddle Bay, and Woollya. Through the agency of Okokko the natives became friendly. He went on shore with his wife and children at Woollya, and spent a Sabbath in speaking to the people, numbers of whom were desirous to go to Keppel Island. Seven new natives were taken, making with the Okokkos eleven in all. Soon after this three Patagonian Indians were brought over from Santa Cruz, where a mission station had been commenced.

In February, 1864, the Allen Gardiner sailed again for Tierra del Fuego, taking the Okokko family to settle them in Woollya, where he and his wife were to act as Christian teachers. Touching at Wollaston Island and other places on the way, and having communication with the natives, they reached Woollya on the 7th of March. Here they learned that a malignant sickness had swept off a large number of the people of all ages, and that Jemmy Button and many of his kindred were dead, and there was great mourning among the survivors.

On this visit the place was found where the bodies of the massacred company were buried under a large heap of stones. The funeral service was read over the rocky tomb, while the flag of the schooner hung at half mast and the ship’s company bowed their heads in sorrow.

This mournful yet successful visit to Woollya ended on the 21st of March, and they returned to the Falklands. On a subsequent visit it was found that Okokko’s house, goats, and all his property had been destroyed by natives, and that his life had been threatened because he told the people of God, whom they could not see, and of a hell where the wicked would be punished.

In view of this outburst of insane violence Okokko was much distressed, and it was determined that he and his family should return to the Falklands for further instruction. Another company of Fuegians, also, went over to attend the school at Keppel Island.

Again the Allen Gardiner sailed for England, having on board Mr. Stirling and four Fuegians. Early in the year 1867 she returned to the mission station on Keppel Island, taking back the four young Fuegians to the school established there, and this is the latest information I have been able to obtain of that heroic, that mournfully tragic, that patient and persistent effort to Christianize and to civilize the wretched inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego.

Those who have no sympathy with the command of Him who died to save our race, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” may pity the weakness or sneer at the fanaticism of men who sacrificed life with all its comforts in an effort to save the abject savages of Tierra del Fuego; while others will admire their zeal, their patience, and their unconquerable faith, thus leaving them in the hands of Him in whose name they went forth among the gentiles with the assurance that “their record is on high.”