Chapter II: Preface

The following notes of a visit to Patagonia and the Falkland Islands are offered to the public in response to the call of many friends who desire to see the simple narrative in print.

These sketches of daily life at sea and among the wild savages of Patagonia were written for friends, and to assist personal recollections, and are now offered with diffidence simply as a plain record of facts and experiences.

The Supplement is added because the published narratives of visitors and missionary toilers among the Patagonian and Fuegian tribes have furnished new facts concerning those dark realms since the earlier part of the book was written. I have therefore taken the liberty to quote from the voyages of Admiral Fitzroy, Prof. Charles Darwin, Mr. Bourne, and from “The Story of Allen Gardiner,” to all of which I am indebted for important information, as I am also to very many shipmasters, officers, and private friends, whose sympathy, unaffected courtesy, and generous aid were so liberally extended to my companion and to myself during that memorable year of our lives.

May Heaven’s blessings rest upon them all in this life and throughout the future; and may the day be hastened when from every mountain-top and from the shining hills of heaven no “dark places shall be seen on earth” and no “habitations of cruelty”!

T. C.

+Hilo, Hawaii+, 1879.

MISSION TO PATAGONIA.