The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-12-20

rum crazed Indians and rowing bands of
mutinoos seameu. Besides the owners
house. which is built of brick, with tiled
roof, are several cottages tenanted by en-
ployees, each surrounded by q garden,
where corn and vegetables struggle for an
existence. There is also an almacen, or
storehouse of general merchandise, stocked
with supplies for the residents and articles
for barter with the Patagonians. The rest
OF the island is overgrown with small,
round 'spikethorn' thistles and stunt
ed shrubs, twisted by ceaseless
winds into strange and ghostly shapes.
One end Of 1t used to be frequently over
flowed, until a deep drain was cut across,
and now the latter serves double purpose
being the best kind of an irrigeting ditch
A horse or two for immediate use, and a
few cows, sheep and pigs are kept on the
island, but the fiocks and herds are
relegated to the mainland to deep ravine
called Portrero, where coarse grass grows
in rank luxuriance. The deep sea ford
furnishes a moat to this estate which a
baron Of We olden time would have envied,
and row boats, moored On the island beach,
answer well for drawbridges, whenever a
retainer must attend to affairs ashore, or
an Indian wants to come over and swap a
lew furs or feathers for tobacco, ammuni-
ton, sugar, beads, or-more likely-rum
| Close by the Potrero is an extensive salt
overlooked by the Beagle expedition, for
Mr.. Darwin fixes the southernmost limits
of salinas" at Port ST. Julian, some two
hundred miles above. Lying less than half
mile from the beach are apparently
INExHAUsTIBLE BEDS OF EXCELLENT SALT,
but as yet they have been worked only for
use on the island and in the nearby fish
cries; except as now and then the Falk-
land-lslanders send over for q ships load.
Almost within sight of the island is the
port of Santa Cruz, where splendid bay
is formed by the confluence Of that river
with Its tributary, Of easy access to the
ocean and capable of affording shelter to
any number OF ships, there being fifty feet
Of water over the bar at high tide. Here
the Argentine government maintains a
small garrison-for the same reason, prob
ably, that Uncle Samuel sends soldiers to
diverse unnecessary places, merely to fur
nlsh the blue-coats with some semblance Of
employment. There are also two or three
sheep farms within radius Of fifty miles !;
! but in reality this station of Pabon is the
only one worth name in all central Pata-
gonia, and this is maintained merely for a
Tehulche trading-p post. American and Eng
lish missionaries have come here from time
tie time, but never accomplished much
toward ciyilizlng the aborigines. In 1868
Messrs. schmid and Hart brought their
families and settled at point called Wad-
dell Bluff, about ten miles up the river, in
a valley which the good Bishop Sterling
| (who saw it only in summer time) de-
scribed in most glowing terms, but which
during nine months Of the year is as cold
and cherries as the rest of Patagonia.
The plan of these gentlemen was to
establish trade at the port of Santa
Cruz. in order to insure regular visits from
the nomadic Indians; but the mission man
ayers did not approve the scheme, and they
were soon compelled to abandon the field
Missionaries stand no chance in Patagonia
against the counter attractions of any ras
cally trader who has rum to sell, for every
blessed Indian will travel scores of miles to
expend all the spoils of b is hunting for
tre-water, but has no time nor disposition
to parley with white men who will not fur
nish it. Messrs. Hart and Schmid spoke
often in their journals, in terms of warm
est affection, about the "bright-faced Pata-
gonian children" whom they hoped to
ChristianiEe in time, If they could not make
much impression upon their elders. To