Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-24
SAVING THE SAVAGE,
When the Home Agitators Neglect
to Send Food, Isn't Any Fun.
A TERRA DEL FUEGO TRAGEDY.
Enthusiastic Missionaries Who Fed On
Weeds and Then Died.
JOURNALS LEFT BY THE DYING MEN
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE p1spArcH.I

ZA-We have been making rather melan-
choly excursion to Picton Island, away down
in the neighborhood of Cape Horn, where,
at point appropriately named Starvation
Beach, the first party of Protestant mission.
aries who came to this part of the world
met cruel and lingering death. Probably
you have heard of Captain Allen Gardiner,
gallant officer of the British navy, who
gave his best years, his fortune and finally
his life, in fruitless endeavors to improve
the social and moral condition Of the de-
graded Fuegians and Patagonians
Being zealously religious man, he con-
ceived the idea that he was called upon to
go about the world preaching the gospel to
every creature" and rescuing heather
brands from the burning. In pursuance of
this notion, he four times circumnavigated
the globe; visited the Zulus in Southern
Africa, the cannibals of far islands and the
dercest tribes of other remote places. AT
one time, with a single companion, he spent
. year in the Patagonian desert, near Gre
CORY Bay; at another, bent on the same er-
rand, he took his family to reside in the
Falkland Islands, which were then uncolo-
nized, except at convict station; and later
he devoted himself to this inhospitable
archipelago, vainly attempting to establish
friendly relations with the natives.
The Savages Didn't Appreciate Him.
His first station in Terra del Fuego was
at Banner Cove, Picton Island, but the un-
appreciative savages whose welfare he had
so much at heart, plundered him of every
thing, and he vas compelled to leave to save
his life. Returning to England, with pious
ardor unabated, though he had spent all his
own fortune without apparently accomplish
ing particle of good, he went about the
country lecturing to obtain money enough
to make another trial-which resulted in his
death.
The ninth and last time he left England
on missionary work he brought his COM
panions to Terra del Fuego, all of whom
were as heathen-crazed as himself They
were DR.. Richard Williams, a London
surgeon, who gave up good practice to fol-
low out his pious convictions; Mr.. John
Maidment, teacher, of Liverpool; Joseph
Erwin, mechanic, and three Cornish boat
men. Settling on Picton Island near
Spaniards Harbor, they experienced a series
of mistortunes which soon reduced them to
eating mice, decayed fish and sea-weed to
sion under whose auspices they came paid
no attention to their necessities and failed
to send the promised supplies; and after
year of horrible suffering, during which the
little party displayeda degree ofpious hero
ism worthy the martyrs of old, they died,
one by one, from slow starvation.
Beautiful Scenery of the Southland.
Years later, curiouslv enough, we visited
the scene of the tragedy, under the auspices
of the same society that allowed its mission
aries to starve, in the schooner which they
have named the Allen Gardiner. There
are bits of scenery compared to which
the Thousand Islands of the st. Lawrence
fade into insignifcance. Precipices meet
the eve. and mountains covered with snow
that have never borne the impress of
human foot. Some of the islands have q
mottled appearance, owing to Indian fires
that have burned the foliage off in places;
some are of clayey formation, others are
covered with black lava; but most of them
are green, velvety and undulating.
Anon we come upon sheltered coves that
are dreams of beauty, within sight of sill
very lakes and dancing streams, and park
like stretches of greenest verdure-all
backed by magnificent, snow-capped ranges.
What charming places here for picnic par
the necessity of furs and
overcoats and the daily likelihood of snow
squalls.
But it is alandof paradoxes and sharp con-
for notwithstanding the wild
flowers and perpetual verdure, tempests of
hail and snow may come at any moment,
or gales of hurricane fury. There are dan
gers, too, on every hand-hidden rocks out
laying the shores, currents, eddies and
treacherous shoals; and despite the appear
ance of total unoccupancy, a canoe now and
then shoots forth from some sequestered
inlet, filled with naked savages, who in
follow the ship as fast as they can
paddle, jabbering and gesticulating like SO
many lunatics.
Savages Ready to P1under.
Should we happen to strike one of those
hidden rocks, or be wrecked by an unex-
pected gale, or find ourselves fast on some
treacherous shoal, scores of canoes-now
unseen. but doubtless lurking, like snakes,
under shelter of the bushes-would flock to
our undoing. The Fuegians would probably
not eat us, for most authorities agree that
these queer people never were cannibals
(though that famous American, Captain
Smiley, declare that he once visited chief
of one of these islands with whom be was
on friendly terms, and found him superin-
tending the cooking of his Oldest wife); but
they would certainly rob us of everything,
even the clothes upon our backs, and leave
us to perish like the ill-fated Gardiner
party, if they did not more mercifully mur-
der us in some quicker manner.
1t was fine, mild morning for this lati-
tude when we found ourselves in the west
ern arm of Spaniards Harbor, and cast
anchor near a sandy beach upon which
heavy surf was breaking with sullen roar
DE- 1o.r
river, beyond were low hills covered with
trees, and to the left dense forest. This
is Starvation Beach, the Mecca of all En-
glish speaking people who find themselves
in these waters.
Record of the Lost Missionaries.
We notice dark mass of rock close by,
looming up from the waters edge 80 feet or
more, dotted on top with scanty shrubs,
aud instantly recognize it as the entrance to
that gloomy cavern SO minutely described
in the missionary annals, within which
Gardiner and his friends tried to make
home, la Robinson Crusoe in his castle.
Just beyond reach of surf mound of stones
marks grave, and on the flat surface of the |
upper rock Captain GARDENERS name is |
painted and the year of his death, the exact
date not being known. Near this rude
cairn grows a giant beech tree, to which a
board has been firmly lashed. which bears
upon it the names of all the party and as
serts that they departed this life after much
fatigue and privation from want of food"
and that their remains are buried beneath.
1t seems that while the seven Englishmen
were perishing by inches, they kept a daily
record of their thoughts and doings; and
months after they were dead, tardy rescu-
ing party found the journals, which had
been preserved in an almost miraculous