Chapter XVII: Later Efforts for Patagonia

Let us now return and take a rapid glance at Patagonia to see some of the things which under God our faithful English brethren have done for those benighted tribes since our sojourn among them:

“While the station on Keppel Island was being formed, voyages were also made to the coast of Patagonia every year. The wandering habits of the Patagonians, however, rendered visits to their coasts very unsatisfactory.... Mr. Schmid volunteered to go alone and travel with some one of the Patagonian tribes, hoping that in this way something might be done towards acquiring the language.”[1]

[1] See “Story of Allen Gardiner,” page 1.

There was then a Chilian penal settlement at Sandy Point near Port Famine. In March, 1859, Mr. Despard and Mr. Schmid visited this colony and made arrangements with the Chilian Governor and an Indian chief that Mr. Schmid should travel into the interior under the guidance and protection of said chief, whose name was Ascaik, visiting the roaming clans, becoming acquainted with their habits of life, and learning their language. As a reward for this service, provided it were executed in good faith, Ascaik was to receive, on their return to Sandy Point, one barrel each of bread and flour, half a barrel of sugar, and a quantity of tobacco, with presents to all the Indians.

This contract being written and deposited with the Governor, Schmid set out with his Indian guide and his clan, travelling to the east along the Gregory hills, where Mr. Arms and I roamed, to the eastern entrance of Magellan Strait, where they found a wrecked bark, the Anne Baker, of Liverpool. Here the natives found intoxicants, got drunk, had an awful night, fought, killed two men, and wounded others.

This was an early experience of trouble. The clan then travelled northward and met a troop coming down from the vicinity of the Rio Negro. The Schmid party returned to the wreck after travelling six days, and here another drunken brawl occurred.

At length Schmid returned to Sandy Point; his chief, Ascaik, died suddenly; the Allen Gardiner had not arrived with his supplies and presents for the Indians (she was detained by the massacre and troubles at Tierra del Fuego); and finding an opportunity he sailed for Valparaiso, and thence to England.

In June, 1861, he came again with Mr. Hunziker to Sandy Point. With this fellow-laborer he set out under the guidance of Casimero and other Patagonians, and travelled eastward once more until they reached the main camp of the Indians at the river Gallegos.

Presents were given to the chiefs and they seemed pleased.

The missionaries then travelled from place to place with the Indians until late in the autumn, when they returned to the colony at Sandy Point, and soon took passage for the Falkland Islands to arrange for a permanent station somewhere in Patagonia. The roaming mission helped to acquire the language, but it failed to instruct the savages in the principles, duties, and privileges of Christianity and civilization. “Accordingly in May, 1862, the rudiments of a station were formed at Weddell’s Bluff.” This was ten miles within the entrance of the river Santa Cruz, in lat. 50° S.

Mr. Schmid and Mr. Hunziker occupied this station, but it was not till after about three months that they saw any Indians. Thus their residence was lonely and dreary, and the time seemed to be spent in vain.

Mr. Schmid resolved to travel south in search of natives. He journeyed wearily for sixteen days, and did not return until December, bringing with him only one Indian, an old acquaintance, Casimero, of Sandy Point. This chief promised that his tribe would visit Santa Cruz in two months. The brethren were greatly disheartened by their long solitude, but at length, after waiting eleven months for letters, the Allen Gardiner on her way from England to the Falklands came into port on the 1st of January, 1863. The vessel remained twenty-eight days in the Santa Cruz River, but during all that time no Indians appeared. During the following May the Allen Gardiner came again to this station, but no natives had yet arrived, and the missionaries were sad and discouraged. On the very next day, however, they were made glad by the arrival of a large clan. From Monday to Thursday it was estimated that four hundred had arrived from the south or from the Magellan Strait. These were led by the young chief Gemoki, son of Ascaik. With the chiefs of this tribe Mr. Stirling labored to secure the promise that they would favor a school for their children at Santa Cruz, leaving them with the missionaries, while the fathers hunted, and returning periodically to visit them, to bring them guanaco meat, robes, etc. But the chiefs were jealous of such teachings, offered many objections to the proposed plan, and would make no promises.

By travelling much among the Indians Mr. Schmid had gained considerable knowledge of their language. He had prepared a vocabulary in alphabetical order, and an outline of grammar, and he was able to converse with some facility in the Patagonian tongue. This was a great achievement, and a very essential step towards Christianizing the savages.

Mr. Hunziker also had made good progress in the same direction, while the missionaries of the southern tribes of Tierra del Fuego were fast mastering that strange and savage tongue through the help of their pupils on Keppel Island. Thus some of the greatest obstacles in the way of intelligent communication with the tribes were removed.

The Allen Gardiner, on her way out from England in December, 1862, visited the Rio Negro, and left two young missionaries at Patagones to study the Spanish and the Patagonian languages, with a view to establish a missionary base there in order to carry the Gospel to the tribes in the near vicinity and on the north, south, and west.

Patagones is a Spanish settlement, built on both sides of the Rio Negro, the north side being called El Carmen, and the south El Merced. It is said that for about half the year the Indians from all parts come to this settlement to trade. Even those that hunt along the Strait of Magellan often travel as far north as the Rio Grande to trade, or to steal horses, sheep, and horned cattle. It is also said that on one occasion the Indians made a raid and drove off 10,000 sheep from the ranch of one man not far from Patagones. Such forays embitter the Spaniards against the natives, and the Government of the Argentine Confederation keeps a guard of regular troops, supplemented by 200 or 300 tamed Indians, along the frontiers, to protect the settlements from the independent tribes.

In July, 1863, the superintendent of the Patagonian mission visited the Rio Negro again, and obtained a promise from the Government of Buenos Ayres, through the Minister of the Interior, of “all the moral support in its power.”

At first a padre at Patagones opposed this mission earnestly, forbidding all the people under his influence to listen to the heretical English teachers or to read the Bible. But this priest sickened and died. In his last sickness he was attended by the Rev. George Humble, M.D., who commenced his missionary work at Patagones in October, 1864. The superintendent writes: “We are glad to record that for many months before the padre’s decease there was a softening down of his hostility to the Protestant missionaries.”

It has been remarked that the station at Santa Cruz was abandoned. Messrs. Schmid and Hunziker visited England and Germany, were married, and returned to their work in South America; the former being stationed at Bahia Blanca, in Buenos Ayres, and Mr. Hunziker with Dr. Humble at Patagones. From this Northern Patagonia mission I have been able to collect no information since August, 1865. It was then hopeful.

From the Fuegian mission my latest knowledge is of January 25th, 1867. I trust its “winter is past, the rain over and gone, the flowers appearing, and the time of singing come.” I long to hear the present state of these missions, and hope and pray that after such severe and repeated trials, such painful sufferings and sore disappointments, and after such undying patience, such unyielding faith, and such indomitable perseverance, the toils, the tears, the hunger, the bloody sacrifices, the prayers of agony, the “hopes deferred,” and the love which cannot die, have all been rewarded.

I hope to hear that the “Light which is to lighten the gentiles,” and which is to “enlighten every man,” has penetrated the gloomy realms of Patagonia, and brought “life and immortality” to the debased Fuegian. If the disciples of the “Man of Sorrows” are to “go into all the world,” then surely they are to go into Patagonia; and if the first great Missionary to this lost race did not withhold His “face from shame and spitting, or His soul from death,” that He might save man from ruin, why then should His redeemed ones count their mortal lives dear to them in this terrible struggle with “the god of this world”? “The disciple is not above his Master,” and to all the faithful the word of promise is, “In due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not.”

It is true, as millions now in glory can testify, that “they who sow in tears shall reap in joy,” and that “he who goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

THE END.

A LIST OF WRITINGS RELATING TO PATAGONIA

+Pigafetta, Antonio.+ Primo viaggio intorno al globo (1519-1522). Milan, 1800.

+Byron, John.+ Narrative of sufferings in Patagonia. London, 1768. 8vo.

+Falkner, T.+ Description of Patagonia. London, 1774. 4to.

+Burney, James.+ Voyages in the Pacific Ocean. London, 1817. 5 vols. 4to. (Vol. 5, Chap. V.)

+Macdonall, J.+ Voyage to Patagonia, 1826-1827.

+Reid, A.+ Human remains from Patagonia. 1832(?).

+Morrell+, Capt. +Benjamin+. Four voyages to the South Sea, etc., 1822-1831. New York, 1832. 8vo.

+D’Orbigny, Alcide.+ Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, 1826-1833. Paris, 1835-1839. 7 tomes 4to. et 2 tomes atlas.

+King+, Capt. P. P. Observations on the southern extremity of South America in 1826-1830 (Journal Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. 32; 1831).

---- and +R. Fitzroy+. Voyage of H.M.S. “Adventure” and “Beagle” 1824-1833. London, 1839.

+Darwin, Charles.+ The “Beagle” journal. London, 1839.

---- The same. Am. reprint, New York, 1878. 12mo.

---- Zoology of the voyage of the “Beagle.” London, 1840-1848.

+Villarius+, Don +Basilio+. The River Negro of Patagonia (Journal Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. 6).

+Bourne, B. F.+ The captive in Patagonia. Boston, 1853. 12mo.

+Williams, Richard.+ The martyr of Patagonia. New York, 1854.

+Snow.+ A cruise among the Patagonians. London, 1857. 2 vols.

+Despard+, Rev. +George P.+ Hope deferred: A narrative of mission to Patagonia, London, 1854.

+Jones+, ----. Notes on two maps of Patagonia (Journal Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. 31, 1861).

+Hutcheson, P. C.+ Southern martyrs. London, 1863.

+Guinnard.+ Trois ans d’esclavage chez les Patagons. Paris, 1864.

---- Three years of slavery among the Patagonians. London, 1871.

+Marsh, John W.+ The story of Allen Gardiner. London, 1867.

+Schmid+, ----. Patagonian vocabulary. 1870.

+Pourtales+, Count. Patagonia. London, 1873.

+Musters+, Lieut. +George Chaworth+. At home with the Patagonians. London, 1871.

+Agassiz+, Mrs. E. C. In the straits of Magellan (Atlantic Monthly, Jan., 1873).

+Moreno, Francisco.+ Description des cimetières et paraderos de la Patagonie (Revue d’Anthropologie, vol. 3, 1874).

---- Relation d’une exploration en Patagonie. 1876.

+Daireaux, Émile.+ Les dernières explorations dans la Pampa et la Patagonie. (An article in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ for 15th April, 1877.)

+Beerbohm, Julius.+ Wanderings in Patagonia. New York, 1879. 16mo.

THE END

Transcriber’s Notes

For possible printer’s errors and inconsistencies in punctuation, spelling, hyphenation and similar fields, only the changes mentioned below were made.

_Italics_, +Small Caps+, +ALL SMALL CAPS+, and ~Spaced Out Text~ were converted as so.

The repeatedly quoted text, “Lo, I am with you alway.” is from the final verse of Matthew.

In the text of the book, many of the hyphens used to connect the parts of a word across a line break were missing. Instead of noting down every instance, those line-break hyphenation errors were silently corrected.

The odd page numbering in the front matter, table of contents, and introduction--switching between normal and Roman numerals--was retained.

The wrong page numbers in the Table of Contents were retained.

In the Table of Contents, punctuation was silently standardized and “R. N.” was standardized to “R.N.” to match the text elsewhere.

Alternative text was added to the captionless Map of Patagonia.

On page vi, “Where-ever” was standardized to “Wherever” to match Field’s introduction elsewhere.

On page 31, a missing period was added to “vision of the night”.

On page 68, “full-speed” was standardized to “full speed” to match the text elsewhere.

On page 110, “riden” was corrected to “ridden” to match the text elsewhere.

On page 114, “spend” was corrected to “spent” in the sentence “So we spent the day in preparing our baggage for decamping.”

On page 142, “god-send” was standardized to “God-send” to match the text elsewhere.

On page 157, “A” was corrected to “At” in order to make the sentence “At the time Mr. Arms visited her”.

On page 165, “breafast” was corrected to “breakfast”.

On page 171, 2 instances of “Terra del Fuego” were standardized to “Tierra del Fuego” to match the text elsewhere.

On page 184 and on page 256, 3 instances of “P. M.” and “A. M.” were standardized to “P.M.” and “A.M.” to match the text elsewhere.

On page 199 and on page 212, “good-by” was standardized to “good-bye” to match the text elsewhere.

On page 210, “Jan” was corrected to “Jan.” as in “January.”

On page 210, “hour s” was corrected to “hour’s” to make “about an hour’s rest.”.

On page 227, a repeated “has” was removed from the sentence “We hear that there has been a massacre at Port Louis of late.”.

On page 227, “governer” was corrected to “governor” in the sentence, “This port was formerly under a governor”.

On page 260, a space was added to make “Mr. ----”.

On page 274, an extra semi-colon was removed from the end of “90 feet” to make the clause, “The lowest plain is 90 feet high,”.

On page 275, a missing quotation mark was added to the beginning of the paragraph that begins “Of the lakes existing in the interior”. The text is found in the work cited, “The American cyclopaedia.”

On page 276, “decended” was corrected to “descended”.

On page 303, a missing period was added to the end of “M.A.”.

On page 305, “Fuegian” was corrected to “Fuegians” in “these nine Fuegians were put on board”.

On page 309, a final comma was corrected to a final period in the sentence that ends “and they returned to the Falklands”.

On page 311, a footnote was renumbered and moved to the end of its respective paragraph.

On page 318, a beginning single quotation mark was corrected to a beginning double quotation mark in “life and immortality”.

On page 321, “D’Orbigny, Alcide d’.” was corrected to “D’Orbigny, Alcide.”

On page 321, under “Bourne”, a period was added to end “12mo” for consistency.

On page 322, under “Daireaux”, “dermères” was corrected to “dernières” to match the original article’s title.