ADVENTURES
IN
~PATAGONIA~
A
Missionary’s Exploring Trip
BY THE
REV. TITUS COAN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
REV. HENRY M. FIELD, D.D.
NEW YORK
~DODD, MEAD & COMPANY~
+Publishers.+
+Copyright, 1880, by+ DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction. i
Preface. 7
CHAPTER I.
The Preparation. 9
CHAPTER II.
The Decision. 21
CHAPTER III.
The Embarkation. 30
CHAPTER IV.
Arrival at our Landing Place. 46
CHAPTER V.
Visiting the Indian Camp. 65
CHAPTER VI.
A Squall. 90
CHAPTER VII.
Chief Congo and his Clan. 124
CHAPTER VIII.
Arrival of the “Queen.” 148
CHAPTER IX.
Sail ho! 160
CHAPTER X.
Camp Life. 190
CHAPTER XI.
Farewell to Patagonia. 210
CHAPTER XII.
Life at the Falkland Islands. 221
CHAPTER XIII.
Homeward Bound. 254
CHAPTER XIV.
Mr. Darwin’s Explorations. 269
CHAPTER XV.
The Captive in Patagonia. 287
CHAPTER XVI.
The Story of Capt. Gardiner, R.N. 291
CHAPTER XVII.
Later Efforts for Patagonia. 311
List of Writings Relating to Patagonia. 320
INTRODUCTION.
The writer of the following narrative is one of the most venerable of
living missionaries, and a noble type of the “high caste” to which he
belongs. With the strong religious conviction which comes from Puritan
birth and training, with a faith that never doubts, and a zeal that
inspires courage and devotion, he unites a practical turn of mind, a
natural sagacity, and a quickness of adaptation to all vicissitudes of
experience which may come to him in strange lands and among strange
peoples--qualities which, combined, have made the American missionary
a marked character in many parts of the world, and given him great
success.
The Rev. Titus Coan is a native of New England, born in Killingworth,
Conn., where his life began with the century, February 1st, 1801.
He was the son of a farmer, and had no advantages but such as were
afforded by the common schools. He developed a stalwart and rugged
frame, and became noted for his physical strength. In manly sports
he was an athlete, performing with ease the feat of lifting a barrel
of flour to his shoulders. He joined a military company, in which
his strength and courage gave him precedence, and he soon rose to
be a captain. This military training was not lost upon him, and the
endurance thus developed did him good service in the privations,
hardships, and exposures of his after-life.
One could not live in Connecticut in those days without having his
religious impressions and experiences. The famous evangelist, Asahel
Nettleton, a native of Killingworth, was then setting New England
aflame by his fervid eloquence. Wherever he went he was followed by
crowds, to whom he preached with an earnestness and solemnity that
filled them with awe. Young Coan was a cousin of Nettleton, and could
not but be moved by the tide of religious feeling that swept over the
country, though it was not till he had grown to manhood that he took
the decided stand implied in making a “profession” of his faith. When
religion takes hold of a strong character, it takes the stamp of the
man, and stands out pronounced and positive. One who had been the
athlete of his native town, foremost among his comrades, was not likely
to be afraid of letting them see the new stand that he had taken.
Prompt and bold in everything he did, no sooner had he come out on
the Lord’s side, than he “wheeled into line” with the precision of a
soldier, and taking Christ for his Captain, marched in the van under
his great Leader.
Hardly had he taken this stand, before his thoughts turned to the
profession of the ministry. He was then living in Western New York,
near Rochester, and the nearness of Auburn Seminary offered him a place
for theological study. Preparing himself with such opportunities as
he had (without the delay of going through college), he entered the
Seminary in the fall of 1831. Looking forward to his future career, he
had already decided to devote himself to the work of foreign missions,
when the American Board (being assured by a sea captain lately returned
from South America that a hopeful field might be found among the tribes
of Patagonia) was looking around for a couple of intrepid soldiers of
the Cross, to undertake an exploring expedition, and fixed upon young
Coan, who had at once the physical strength and the fervent spirit.
Reports were conflicting about the country and its people, and the
expedition promised to be one of a good deal of adventure, if not
of personal danger. It might be too much to say that the adventure
and the danger were an attraction to the late captain of the militia
but they certainly did not intimidate him. After due deliberation,
taking counsel with his teachers, and with one whose voice might be
more potent still, since she was to share his life and his fortunes
in any quarter of the globe, he accepted the appointment, and with a
fellow-student set out for the extreme point of the continent. The
following pages contain the narrative of his adventures in Patagonia,
which were certainly full enough of excitement and of danger to satisfy
the most ardent spirit. A few months’ experience of the wild country
and its untamable inhabitants showed him that the field was not so
promising as he had been told, and he returned to the United States
for further orders. He then married, and accompanied by his bride, set
sail for the Hawaiian Islands, which through the voyages of whaling
ships had become somewhat known to the American public. There was then
no overland route, nor short cut across the Isthmus of Panama. They
took the long course around Cape Horn, and were just six months on the
voyage, when they came in sight of the beautiful islands which were to
be their home for the rest of their days.
Then began that long course of service which has few parallels in
the annals of missionary life--few in the display of fidelity and
devotion, “enduring hardship as a good soldier,” and fewer still in
its marvellous successes. Cast almost like a shipwrecked voyager on
a distant shore, among a strange people, with whom at first he could
only communicate through signs or by an interpreter, he set himself
at once to master the language, and so quickly did he catch the words
and inflections, that in three months he preached his first sermon to
the natives in their own tongue. In his intercourse with this simple
people, of whom he sought to gain the affection and confidence, he
showed a tact which was his birthright as a son of New England. He
had a great deal of mother wit and natural shrewdness and pleasant
humor, which gave a charm to his conversation even with these untutored
children of nature, while his overflowing kindness soon opened to him
the door of every native’s hut and heart. Desiring only to do them
good, he tried to aid them in every way. He was a little of a doctor,
knowing the remedies for the more common diseases, and, having a chest
of medicines, prescribed for the poor people who were suffering. Often
the natives stood in great numbers on the porch of his dwelling, with
dusky arms outstretched, waiting for vaccination, or for his lancet
to open a vein, that by bleeding they might be relieved of a burning
fever. He even performed graver surgical operations. Those who had
domestics troubles of any kind--wives who had shiftless husbands, or
husbands who had termagant wives--alike sought the counsel of Father
Coan, who was the general peacemaker. Thus he seemed to unite in
himself the duties of preacher, pastor, and magistrate, and to be at
once the teacher, guide, and friend of the whole population.
Nor were his labors confined to the spot where he lived. He made
missionary tours to other parts of the island, now sailing in a canoe
along the coast, and landing at the different places where he had made
appointments to preach, and now climbing the slopes, which ascend in
a series of ridges towards the mountains which make the centre of the
island. In these journeys he encountered every sort of hardship. The
tropical rains often came down in floods, converting in a few hours a
rocky gorge into a foaming torrent, which no boat could cross and no
swimmer could stem. But here his ready contrivance did not desert him.
Calling to the natives on the other bank to throw him a rope, such as
they make of the bark of the hibiscus, he seized it with his strong
hands, and tying it around his body, was dragged across.
Thus the fame of this man of God spread abroad, and wherever he went
the people “thronged him.” When he could not go to them they came to
him. From all parts of the island they flocked to Hilo. “Whole villages
gathered from many miles away, and made their homes near the mission
house. Within the radius of a mile the little cabins clustered thick as
they could stand. Hilo, the village of ten hundred, saw its population
suddenly swelled to ten thousand, and here was held, literally, a camp
meeting of two years. At any hour of the day or night a tap of the bell
would bring together a congregation of from three to six thousand.
Meetings for prayer and preaching were held daily.”
Congregations so vast and so long continued have not often been
assembled since Apostolic times, and the Spirit came down upon them
as on the day of Pentecost. The preacher himself was thrilled by the
scene, and catching an inspiration from the thousands of eager eyes and
listening ears, felt lifted up with a strange power. “There was a fire
in his bones.” Were the congregation ever so large and tumultuous, it
hushed at the sound of his voice. He said: “I would rise before the
restless, noisy crowd and begin. It wasn’t long before I felt that I
had got hold of them. There seemed to be a chord of electricity binding
them to me. I knew that I had them, that they would not go away. The
Spirit would hush them by the truth till they would sob and cry ‘What
shall we do?’ and the noise of the weeping would be so great that I
could not go on.”
As the fruit of these remarkable scenes a large part of the population
abandoned heathenism, and professed to be converted to the Christian
faith, insomuch, that when they came to be baptized, the good man was
obliged to perform the sacred rite for them _en masse_. Seizing a brush
like an _aspersarium_, and passing to and fro among the crowded rows of
the candidates, he sprinkled them by scores and hundreds, pronouncing
over them the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Strange
as it may seem to us, the service did not thereby lose any of its
solemnity, but was rather more impressive from being done in this
grand, majestic way, whereas on a smaller scale it might have lost by
the endless repetition. By these immense additions the church at Hilo
grew till it numbered over five thousand members, making the largest
Protestant church in the world.
Mr. Coan and his wife remained on the islands thirty-five years before
revisiting their native country. When they came back in 1870, they
found another world than that which they had left. All things had
become new. They had made their outward voyage in a small sailing
vessel. They returned in a steamship. When they landed in San
Francisco they had scarcely seen a railroad. Now they were whirled in
fire-drawn cars up the mountains and over the plains, across the whole
breadth of the continent. The fame of the missionary had gone before
him, and wherever he came among the churches he was welcomed with an
enthusiasm such as had not been manifested since the heroic Judson came
back from Burmah, years before. When they visited New York they were
guests in the house of the writer, where we were charmed alike by the
intelligence, sprightliness, and animation of the veteran missionary,
and the sweetness of her who had been his faithful companion during
his long exile. It was then that, as we sat in the library, he talked
freely, though very simply and modestly, of all the way in which God
had led him. Among other things he related his early experiences in
Patagonia, and it was perhaps in response to our suggestion and that of
others that he prepared the narrative which follows.
They returned the following year, and when they reached the Islands
were received by the natives with great demonstrations. Here was to be
their home for the rest of their days. Two years after the wife and
mother died, while the father still lives in his eightieth year--a hale
and hearty old man, happy in the recollection of the past, happy in
the good which he has done to the people to whom he has given his life,
and happy in their tender and affectionate veneration. He cannot be
expected to continue long. In a few more years he will be laid beside
her whom he so much loved. Though they sleep far from their native
land, it is not unmeet that they should be laid to rest in the island
for which they had done so much; on those beautiful shores where the
waters of the Pacific come rippling and murmuring up the beach. Nor
will their memory depart. As long as the generation that knew them
shall remain, the simple natives will often visit their graves, and
recall their virtues with tears of love and gratitude.
H. M. F.
+New York+, March, 1880.
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.
[Illustration: Labeled Map of Patagonia, including the Falkland Islands]
MISSION TO PATAGONIA.
CHAPTER I.
PREPARATION TO SEND A MISSIONARY EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO PATAGONIA.
While in the Theological Seminary at Auburn, N. Y., the following
letter came to me one day in June, 1833:
“+Missionary Rooms, Boston+, June 19, 1833.
“+Mr. Titus Coan+,
“_Theological Seminary, Auburn_.
“+My dear Sir+: An exploring mission has been resolved upon by the
Committee, Providence permitting, on the western coast of Patagonia.
The vessel in which the mission must go, if it goes during the
present year, is expected to sail on the last of July, and two
missionaries can have a free passage. Two men ought by all means to
go, and not one alone. One--Mr. Arms, of the Theological Seminary of
Andover--has been engaged for the enterprise, and another is wanted.
It occurred to us that perhaps you were the man. We received your
testimonials, and made inquiries, and the result is that the question
has been brought before the Committee, and they have unanimously
appointed you a missionary of the Board, with special reference to
this important expedition. Mr. Arms, the bearer of this letter, will
explain to you the nature of the mission.
“The plan is, in brief, that two men, willing to endure hardship,
be landed on the coast, at a place which is resorted to by sealing
vessels, and spend a suitable time, probably a year or more, in
travelling among the tribes of that coast; that they shall ascertain
what can be done for them--where a mission had better be located,
what should be the nature of the mission, etc.--and at the same time
make arrangements for a mission, and then come home and report to the
Committee. As this subject comes before you unawares, and you have
but little time to reflect upon it, we do not ask you to decide now
whether you will ultimately be a member of the Patagonian mission.
“The Committee will cheerfully leave this question to be determined
at a future time, in view of Providential indications. The question
now before you is, whether you will accompany Mr. Arms to the
Patagonian coast and spend a couple of years, if necessary, among
the Indian tribes of that coast? Of course you will both have to
go unmarried. Mr. Arms leaves an intended wife behind him, and we
understand that your circumstances are similar to his. The expedition
now proposed to you is one full of privations; but it opens a
prospect of bringing the Gospel to the minds and hearts of the poor
degraded natives of Patagonia.
“Should you consent to go, you will come on to Boston by the 15th
or 20th of July with all the necessary credentials for ordination,
unless the Presbytery with which you are connected prefer to ordain
you themselves, and can do it in season for you to be here at the
time mentioned.
“I beg you to take this important subject into immediate and
prayerful consideration. Let me hear from you as soon as possible. I
earnestly hope you will go. If you do not, I see not how the mission
can go during the present year.
“On your arrival in Boston we will confer with you fully on the
subject. The Lord be with you, my dear brother.
“Most truly yours,
“+R. Anderson+,
“_Sec. A. B. C. F. M._”
In connection with the foregoing earnest letter, Secretary Anderson
sent me copies of a correspondence with Captain Benjamin Morrell, then
in the city of New York. Captain Morrell had recently published a very
attractive narrative of a cruise along the eastern coast of Patagonia,
also through the Magellan Strait and up the Pacific coast as far as the
island of Chiloe. In this journal he had given a glowing description of
the harbors, the forests, the climate, soil, clover-meadows, and the
numerous and peaceful inhabitants of the western coast of Patagonia. He
had also taken occasion to hint that this coast would be a favorable
field for missionary enterprise.
On reading this fascinating narrative, the Secretary opened a
correspondence with Captain Morrell in order to elicit more definitely
the important facts which would warrant sending an expedition with the
view of establishing a mission on that coast.
The following is a copy of two letters of Captain Morrell to Secretary
Anderson in answer to letters of inquiry from the Secretary.
“+New York+, Jan. 24, 1833.
“+R. Anderson+, Esq.
“+Dear Sir+: Your favor of the 17th inst. is now before me, and it is
with no ordinary degree of pleasure that I hasten to answer it.
“The interest you have taken in the temporal and eternal welfare of
the now wretched and degraded natives of an unexplored region on the
western coast of South America, between the Strait of Magellan and
the Archipelago of Chiloe, has been highly gratifying to my feelings;
and not the less so, I assure you, from your having derived the
idea from the humble narrative I have just laid before the public.
The harmless and inoffensive race of beings here alluded to are
the migratory inhabitants of a country which is blessed with the
most temperate climate, the richest soil, and the finest harbors
on the face of the globe. It is true that at present these natives
are more ignorant and debased than any other I have ever visited;
but it is equally true that they are entirely free from many of
the sensualities of the more enlightened, and are characterized by
a mildness of disposition and a child-like simplicity of manners
which in my humble opinion renders them fit subjects for missionary
labor. They are ignorant of the simplest rudiments of agriculture,
never dreaming that the luxuriant soil of their beautiful country
would grant new favors to their slightest solicitation. Should
heaven so far sanction the benevolent feelings which originated this
correspondence as to enable your Society to establish a Christian
mission among these children of nature, I have no hesitation in
saying that a very few years would change their idle habits and
wretched condition to those of comparative usefulness and happiness;
while such a result would richly and amply reward me for all the
time, labor, and personal hazards I have encountered in collecting
the information I have published respecting them.
“In answering the series of questions you have done me the honor to
propose, I shall beg leave to take them up in my own homely way and
dispatch them in numerical order.
“The peninsula of Très Montes, in my opinion, is not the most
eligible location on this coast for the establishment of a Protestant
mission, on account of its proximity to the Catholic missions further
north.
“For reasons which will presently appear, I would in preference
designate the Guanaco Islands, or that section of the continent near
which they lie, say lat. 47° south.
“The locating a similar establishment in any part of Magellan’s
Strait ought to depend on the success or failure of the project under
consideration.
“I think that the Spanish States of South America would rather
protect than seek to disturb a mission at the Guanaco Islands,
because neither they nor the mother-country have ever conquered or
asserted any claim to territories south of Chiloe.
“The natives I believe would treat the missionaries with the greatest
kindness and respect.
“The Guanaco Islands, you are aware, are situated a short distance
from the mainland, the northern island being in lat. 47° 31′ S., lon.
75° 4′ W. The most of these islands are of considerable extent, with
spacious harbors between them. Their surface is low and level, partly
covered with heavy timber, and on many of them there are beautiful
plains of sufficient extent to raise produce the first season for
several thousand natives; nothing more being required than to run
a plough through a rich, mellow soil and cover the seed with the
furrows. These plains are now covered with fine long grass, heavy
clover, and extensive patches of celery, surrounded by lofty forests
of various kinds of excellent ship timber.
“The waters abound with a great variety of the finest scale-fish,
which may be taken in any quantities either with a seine or hook and
line. Numerous kinds of shell-fish are found on the shores, as well
as sea-otters and seals.
“The forests are teeming with a great variety of beautiful birds, and
the mainland abounds in lions, guanacos, deer, hare, foxes, otter and
many other valuable animals. Minerals, drugs, etc., are doubtless to
be found in the interior.
“A few black cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, and poultry, turned out on
those islands that were not to be immediately devoted to tillage,
would increase and multiply and soon replenish them.
“The natives that inhabit the sea-coast are all travelling tribes,
subsisting entirely on fish and such wild animals as they can
procure, having no substitute for bread.
“Yours truly,
“+Benj. Morrell+.”
“+New York+, Feb. 25, 1833.
“+R. Anderson+, Esq.
“+Dear Sir+: Yours of the 21st inst. came duly to hand and is now
before me.
“In reply to your first question, I can state from my own personal
and frequent experience that the climate south of the equator in any
given degree of latitude between 30° and 55° is neither so cold in
winter nor so warm in summer as in the same degrees of N. lat. In
lat. 47° there is seldom any snow in the valleys. The storms are not
more frequent nor more severe than in New England.
“The number of natives between lat. 47° and 50° I take to be about
20,000. They sojourn in one place till they have exhausted the
shell-fish, and then remove to another. They have no tame animals
except dogs. Interpreters can be obtained at Chiloe who understand
their language and will translate it into Spanish.
“The natives are honest and will respect private property. The coast
can be traversed with safety in canoes; but to penetrate into the
interior horses will be necessary, which must be taken from the
United States.
“In closing this hasty communication I beg leave to express the
satisfaction I feel in your having taken this interesting subject
into consideration, and trust that your exertions in behalf of the
benighted heathen will meet a due reward. Under such a hope, I
subscribe myself,
“Yours truly,
“+Benj. Morrell+.”
It will be seen that these letters of Captain Morrell embrace answers
to many specific questions addressed to him by the Secretary of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
In order to increase information on the subject which now engaged
the earnest attention of the Prudential Committee of the Board, the
Secretary addressed a letter of inquiry to Silas E. Burrows, Esq.,
of New York City, as Mr. Burrows was the owner of several vessels
engaged in sealing along the coasts of Patagonia and among the islands
of Tierra del Fuego, and as Captain Morrell had been engaged in his
service. Mr. Burrows had also been on the Pacific coast as far as
Chili, and it was hoped that he might know something of the country
and tribes described by Captain Morrell. This letter Mr. Burrows
answered promptly, and with characteristic enthusiasm; and although
he was unable to add any information to that of his Captain, yet he
fully endorsed his high character and assured the Secretary that the
Missionary Board might place implicit confidence in his statements.
Mr. Burrows furthermore stated that he was then fitting out a sealing
schooner, the Mary Jane, to sail from New York City in July, and that
he would be most happy to give a free passage in said schooner to two
young gentlemen who might desire to explore on the western coast of
Patagonia. He also stated that he would instruct the master of the Mary
Jane, Captain William Clift, to look well to the missionaries, to land
them at any points on the coast where they desired to explore, and to
return them to the United States at the end of the voyage.
Up to this point all things looked favorable, and the voice of
Providence seemed to say, “_Go forward_.” With these letters and
testimonials Mr. Arms was sent by the Committee from Boston to Auburn,
to converse with me, and to urge, if necessary, my acceptance of the
appointment as an exploring missionary to Patagonia.
I had just returned from Rochester, where I had supplied the pulpit of
one of the pastors during vacation. About nine o’clock in the morning
these communications were put into my hands for consideration. I was
then entering on my last term in the Theological Seminary. At its close
I was engaged to marry Miss Fidelia Church, and I hoped to go with her
as a missionary to some foreign land. We had been betrothed for years,
and this call, if accepted, would throw a cloud over the prospects of
our union for a long time at least, perhaps forever.
But the question must be met, and met _immediately_. It was now late in
June, and the vessel bound to Patagonia was to sail before the close of
July; and if I failed, the expedition must fail for that year at least,
as it was deemed impossible to find another man to take the place in
due season.