The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-01-03

by terrific wind, made it impossible to
stand upon the deck that was constantly
washed by sheets of spray. Ice hung upon
the rigging, and huge pillows, like moving
Alps with deep valleys tetween, came
laundering toward US in an unbroken line;
while screaming sea-birds swept round and
round in narrowing circles, as those birds
VIII when severe gale approaches. One
moment we were almost becalmed IN the
hollow of the seas; the next, we were on
their summit, caught by unseen hands that
seemed about to lift the tiny ship in mali
cious sport and dash it to destruct on. And
so, as discretion seemed to be by all odds
the
BETTER PART OF vALoR,
we turned our backs on the capricious cape
and sought the shelter of Christmas sound
till calmer weather. Nobody thought of
retiring on that terrible night, though
probably it was no worse than hundreds
upon hundreds of other voyagers have eX-
perienced in these waters; and when the
mysterious sea, with its dark masses and
snowy crests, yields up its dead, greater
company will arise from this locality than
from any other on the face of the earth.
Daylight found US in lyric sound, with
ice-bergs iostling one another on either
hand, all floating outward toward the sea.
Some days afterward we actually did
reach Hoorn Island, and went ashore,
though only for moment, Drawing
drenching in the raging surf for the salts
faction of having it to say that our feet
had touched the southern-most lands end,
the very iumping-off place of all creation.
l am yet too much oppressed by the horror
OF 1t, by feeling akin TO what one eXper-
fences after a nightmare, to give you
lucid description of the scene. My mind
retais only confused impression of bare
heights, desolate beyond the power of i'm
aginatlon TO conceive, terminating in awful
precipices, around whose SUBMITS sea-birds
shrieked for prey and at whose feet rest
less pillows dashed with deafening tumult;
the whole a detached link of the mighty
Andes, the last link, dropped off into an
unknown ocean, surging toward an undis
covered pole
We are now at Usuwaia, pronounced
90 hoo-ee-ah), a Protestant mission station
on the north bank of Beagle channel, which
separates King Charles South Land from
the southern-most islands. This celebrated
channel, which is, perhaps, better known
historically than any other portion of the
archipelago, not only from the accounts of
Fitzroy and Darwin, but because on
ALL PILoT's CHARTS
it is marked as the one place of safety
| which seamen should endeavor to reach
whose ships have been wrecked in round
ing the Horn, is only about one hundred
miles north of the cape, but with many
/ small islands intervening. It is a narrow
passage, hardly more than mile across in
the widest part, but very deep, running in
nearly straight line east and west l20
| miles, between mag HifcentaSanges of snow
capped mountains. Its course Is strewn
with outlying rocks and tiny islands, max
ing navigation Impossible except for the
| smallest steam-craft and useless for sailing
vessels. Besides what doubtful good the
missionaries may have accomplished fol
the souls Of the Indians, they have certainly
saved the lives of many mariners who
would otherwise have persisted on these
stormy coasts, and it has come to be mat
ter of course that whenever disabled shiI
must be abandoned in the nelghborhood Of
Hoorn Island, as numbers are every year
the great effort of the survivors is to fine
their way through the labyrinth sound:
and inlets to Ushuwaia.
Early in 1888, the Rev. Thomas Bridges
then in charge of the Protestant mission
reported marked change in the character
of the inhabitants, that the Yahgans, OF
! Indians of this part of TERRA del Fuego
instead Of numbering unfortunate wayfar
ers as formerly, might safely be trusted b,
strangers, either singly or in companies, t.
, pilot them to the mission station; and now
!, it is asserted with equal confidence that 81
the natives, from Hoorn Island away u
Breaknock peninsula, are friendly to tn
whites when fairly treated. The statemen
may be true, but if looks are an indication
of character, one wonld prefer to trust t
, Providence for plotting and steer clear o
these savSges as far as possible.
= The archipelago is peopled by three dis
tinct tribes of Indians, who speak three en-
tirely different languages. Near the cen
!. tire of the main island there is Catholi
mission, which also includes the Patagon
ian district of Punta Arenas, under charg
of the Jesuit Hermanas de Carload, (3roth
ers of Charity, from the order in Santiag
Z Z de Chile. We shall visit the station in
! few days and can then tell you more abou
1t. Before the coming of missionaries
these islands, the natives had
NO RELIGION AT ALL,
nor any idea of Supreme Being, only
a dark aud gloomy faith in evil spirits whic
came to do them harm and must be placate
2 and appeased. Hence the wind that nearl
S froze their naked bodies was believed to b
1 an evil spirit; smallpox, which sometime
e makes frightful havoc upon the island:
, was another: and white-skinned stranger:
d so different from themselves, were SUI
/ posed to be malicious powers in tangibl
forms which must be eXterminated q
Il once.
4 All the missionaries agree on Que poin
q that these Indians never were cannibal!
a and that they had considerable excuse fc
Il the cruelties they used to perpetrate upo
n | all foreigners who fell into their hands
o The conduct of many reckless sailors he
!. been such as to carry out the idea that the
e were bad spirits disguised in human form
{ for they thought no more of shooting a
d Indian child or woman in wanton sport tina
= OF killing a snake
v FANNIE B. WARD.