LATER EFFORTS FOR PATAGONIA.
Let us now return and take a rapid glance at Patagonia to see some of
the things which under God our faithful English brethren have done for
those benighted tribes since our sojourn among them:
“While the station on Keppel Island was being formed, voyages were
also made to the coast of Patagonia every year. The wandering habits
of the Patagonians, however, rendered visits to their coasts very
unsatisfactory.... Mr. Schmid volunteered to go alone and travel with
some one of the Patagonian tribes, hoping that in this way something
might be done towards acquiring the language.”[1]
[1] See “Story of Allen Gardiner,” page 1.
There was then a Chilian penal settlement at Sandy Point near Port
Famine. In March, 1859, Mr. Despard and Mr. Schmid visited this colony
and made arrangements with the Chilian Governor and an Indian chief
that Mr. Schmid should travel into the interior under the guidance and
protection of said chief, whose name was Ascaik, visiting the roaming
clans, becoming acquainted with their habits of life, and learning
their language. As a reward for this service, provided it were executed
in good faith, Ascaik was to receive, on their return to Sandy Point,
one barrel each of bread and flour, half a barrel of sugar, and a
quantity of tobacco, with presents to all the Indians.
This contract being written and deposited with the Governor, Schmid set
out with his Indian guide and his clan, travelling to the east along
the Gregory hills, where Mr. Arms and I roamed, to the eastern entrance
of Magellan Strait, where they found a wrecked bark, the Anne Baker, of
Liverpool. Here the natives found intoxicants, got drunk, had an awful
night, fought, killed two men, and wounded others.
This was an early experience of trouble. The clan then travelled
northward and met a troop coming down from the vicinity of the Rio
Negro. The Schmid party returned to the wreck after travelling six
days, and here another drunken brawl occurred.
At length Schmid returned to Sandy Point; his chief, Ascaik, died
suddenly; the Allen Gardiner had not arrived with his supplies and
presents for the Indians (she was detained by the massacre and troubles
at Tierra del Fuego); and finding an opportunity he sailed for
Valparaiso, and thence to England.
In June, 1861, he came again with Mr. Hunziker to Sandy Point. With
this fellow-laborer he set out under the guidance of Casimero and other
Patagonians, and travelled eastward once more until they reached the
main camp of the Indians at the river Gallegos.
Presents were given to the chiefs and they seemed pleased.
The missionaries then travelled from place to place with the Indians
until late in the autumn, when they returned to the colony at Sandy
Point, and soon took passage for the Falkland Islands to arrange for a
permanent station somewhere in Patagonia. The roaming mission helped
to acquire the language, but it failed to instruct the savages in the
principles, duties, and privileges of Christianity and civilization.
“Accordingly in May, 1862, the rudiments of a station were formed at
Weddell’s Bluff.” This was ten miles within the entrance of the river
Santa Cruz, in lat. 50° S.
Mr. Schmid and Mr. Hunziker occupied this station, but it was not
till after about three months that they saw any Indians. Thus their
residence was lonely and dreary, and the time seemed to be spent in
vain.
Mr. Schmid resolved to travel south in search of natives. He journeyed
wearily for sixteen days, and did not return until December, bringing
with him only one Indian, an old acquaintance, Casimero, of Sandy
Point. This chief promised that his tribe would visit Santa Cruz in two
months. The brethren were greatly disheartened by their long solitude,
but at length, after waiting eleven months for letters, the Allen
Gardiner on her way from England to the Falklands came into port on
the 1st of January, 1863. The vessel remained twenty-eight days in the
Santa Cruz River, but during all that time no Indians appeared. During
the following May the Allen Gardiner came again to this station, but no
natives had yet arrived, and the missionaries were sad and discouraged.
On the very next day, however, they were made glad by the arrival of
a large clan. From Monday to Thursday it was estimated that four
hundred had arrived from the south or from the Magellan Strait. These
were led by the young chief Gemoki, son of Ascaik. With the chiefs of
this tribe Mr. Stirling labored to secure the promise that they would
favor a school for their children at Santa Cruz, leaving them with the
missionaries, while the fathers hunted, and returning periodically to
visit them, to bring them guanaco meat, robes, etc. But the chiefs were
jealous of such teachings, offered many objections to the proposed
plan, and would make no promises.
By travelling much among the Indians Mr. Schmid had gained considerable
knowledge of their language. He had prepared a vocabulary in
alphabetical order, and an outline of grammar, and he was able to
converse with some facility in the Patagonian tongue. This was a great
achievement, and a very essential step towards Christianizing the
savages.
Mr. Hunziker also had made good progress in the same direction, while
the missionaries of the southern tribes of Tierra del Fuego were fast
mastering that strange and savage tongue through the help of their
pupils on Keppel Island. Thus some of the greatest obstacles in the way
of intelligent communication with the tribes were removed.
The Allen Gardiner, on her way out from England in December, 1862,
visited the Rio Negro, and left two young missionaries at Patagones
to study the Spanish and the Patagonian languages, with a view to
establish a missionary base there in order to carry the Gospel to the
tribes in the near vicinity and on the north, south, and west.
Patagones is a Spanish settlement, built on both sides of the Rio
Negro, the north side being called El Carmen, and the south El Merced.
It is said that for about half the year the Indians from all parts come
to this settlement to trade. Even those that hunt along the Strait
of Magellan often travel as far north as the Rio Grande to trade, or
to steal horses, sheep, and horned cattle. It is also said that on
one occasion the Indians made a raid and drove off 10,000 sheep from
the ranch of one man not far from Patagones. Such forays embitter the
Spaniards against the natives, and the Government of the Argentine
Confederation keeps a guard of regular troops, supplemented by 200 or
300 tamed Indians, along the frontiers, to protect the settlements from
the independent tribes.
In July, 1863, the superintendent of the Patagonian mission visited the
Rio Negro again, and obtained a promise from the Government of Buenos
Ayres, through the Minister of the Interior, of “all the moral support
in its power.”
At first a padre at Patagones opposed this mission earnestly,
forbidding all the people under his influence to listen to the
heretical English teachers or to read the Bible. But this priest
sickened and died. In his last sickness he was attended by the Rev.
George Humble, M.D., who commenced his missionary work at Patagones in
October, 1864. The superintendent writes: “We are glad to record that
for many months before the padre’s decease there was a softening down
of his hostility to the Protestant missionaries.”
It has been remarked that the station at Santa Cruz was abandoned.
Messrs. Schmid and Hunziker visited England and Germany, were married,
and returned to their work in South America; the former being stationed
at Bahia Blanca, in Buenos Ayres, and Mr. Hunziker with Dr. Humble at
Patagones. From this Northern Patagonia mission I have been able to
collect no information since August, 1865. It was then hopeful.
From the Fuegian mission my latest knowledge is of January 25th,
1867. I trust its “winter is past, the rain over and gone, the flowers
appearing, and the time of singing come.” I long to hear the present
state of these missions, and hope and pray that after such severe and
repeated trials, such painful sufferings and sore disappointments,
and after such undying patience, such unyielding faith, and such
indomitable perseverance, the toils, the tears, the hunger, the bloody
sacrifices, the prayers of agony, the “hopes deferred,” and the love
which cannot die, have all been rewarded.
I hope to hear that the “Light which is to lighten the gentiles,” and
which is to “enlighten every man,” has penetrated the gloomy realms of
Patagonia, and brought “life and immortality” to the debased Fuegian.
If the disciples of the “Man of Sorrows” are to “go into all the
world,” then surely they are to go into Patagonia; and if the first
great Missionary to this lost race did not withhold His “face from
shame and spitting, or His soul from death,” that He might save man
from ruin, why then should His redeemed ones count their mortal lives
dear to them in this terrible struggle with “the god of this world”?
“The disciple is not above his Master,” and to all the faithful the
word of promise is, “In due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not.”
It is true, as millions now in glory can testify, that “they who sow
in tears shall reap in joy,” and that “he who goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.”
THE END.
A LIST OF WRITINGS RELATING TO PATAGONIA
+Pigafetta, Antonio.+ Primo viaggio intorno al globo (1519-1522).
Milan, 1800.
+Byron, John.+ Narrative of sufferings in Patagonia. London, 1768. 8vo.
+Falkner, T.+ Description of Patagonia. London, 1774. 4to.
+Burney, James.+ Voyages in the Pacific Ocean. London, 1817. 5 vols.
4to. (Vol. 5, Chap. V.)
+Macdonall, J.+ Voyage to Patagonia, 1826-1827.
+Reid, A.+ Human remains from Patagonia. 1832(?).
+Morrell+, Capt. +Benjamin+. Four voyages to the South Sea, etc.,
1822-1831. New York, 1832. 8vo.
+D’Orbigny, Alcide.+ Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, 1826-1833.
Paris, 1835-1839. 7 tomes 4to. et 2 tomes atlas.
+King+, Capt. P. P. Observations on the southern extremity of South
America in 1826-1830 (Journal Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. 32; 1831).
---- and +R. Fitzroy+. Voyage of H.M.S. “Adventure” and “Beagle”
1824-1833. London, 1839.
+Darwin, Charles.+ The “Beagle” journal. London, 1839.
---- The same. Am. reprint, New York, 1878. 12mo.
---- Zoology of the voyage of the “Beagle.” London, 1840-1848.
+Villarius+, Don +Basilio+. The River Negro of Patagonia (Journal Roy.
Geog. Soc., vol. 6).
+Bourne, B. F.+ The captive in Patagonia. Boston, 1853. 12mo.
+Williams, Richard.+ The martyr of Patagonia. New York, 1854.
+Snow.+ A cruise among the Patagonians. London, 1857. 2 vols.
+Despard+, Rev. +George P.+ Hope deferred: A narrative of mission to
Patagonia, London, 1854.
+Jones+, ----. Notes on two maps of Patagonia (Journal Roy. Geog. Soc.,
vol. 31, 1861).
+Hutcheson, P. C.+ Southern martyrs. London, 1863.
+Guinnard.+ Trois ans d’esclavage chez les Patagons. Paris, 1864.
---- Three years of slavery among the Patagonians. London, 1871.
+Marsh, John W.+ The story of Allen Gardiner. London, 1867.
+Schmid+, ----. Patagonian vocabulary. 1870.
+Pourtales+, Count. Patagonia. London, 1873.
+Musters+, Lieut. +George Chaworth+. At home with the Patagonians.
London, 1871.
+Agassiz+, Mrs. E. C. In the straits of Magellan (Atlantic Monthly,
Jan., 1873).
+Moreno, Francisco.+ Description des cimetières et paraderos de la
Patagonie (Revue d’Anthropologie, vol. 3, 1874).
---- Relation d’une exploration en Patagonie. 1876.
+Daireaux, Émile.+ Les dernières explorations dans la Pampa et la
Patagonie. (An article in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ for 15th April,
1877.)
+Beerbohm, Julius.+ Wanderings in Patagonia. New York, 1879. 16mo.
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes
For possible printer’s errors and inconsistencies in punctuation,
spelling, hyphenation and similar fields, only the changes mentioned
below were made.
_Italics_, +Small Caps+, +ALL SMALL CAPS+, and ~Spaced Out Text~ were
converted as so.
The repeatedly quoted text, “Lo, I am with you alway.” is from the
final verse of Matthew.
In the text of the book, many of the hyphens used to connect the parts
of a word across a line break were missing. Instead of noting down
every instance, those line-break hyphenation errors were silently
corrected.
The odd page numbering in the front matter, table of contents, and
introduction--switching between normal and Roman numerals--was retained.
The wrong page numbers in the Table of Contents were retained.
In the Table of Contents, punctuation was silently standardized and “R.
N.” was standardized to “R.N.” to match the text elsewhere.
Alternative text was added to the captionless Map of Patagonia.
On page vi, “Where-ever” was standardized to “Wherever” to match
Field’s introduction elsewhere.
On page 31, a missing period was added to “vision of the night”.
On page 68, “full-speed” was standardized to “full speed” to match the
text elsewhere.
On page 110, “riden” was corrected to “ridden” to match the text
elsewhere.
On page 114, “spend” was corrected to “spent” in the sentence “So we
spent the day in preparing our baggage for decamping.”
On page 142, “god-send” was standardized to “God-send” to match the text
elsewhere.
On page 157, “A” was corrected to “At” in order to make the sentence
“At the time Mr. Arms visited her”.
On page 165, “breafast” was corrected to “breakfast”.
On page 171, 2 instances of “Terra del Fuego” were standardized to
“Tierra del Fuego” to match the text elsewhere.
On page 184 and on page 256, 3 instances of “P. M.” and “A. M.” were
standardized to “P.M.” and “A.M.” to match the text elsewhere.
On page 199 and on page 212, “good-by” was standardized to “good-bye”
to match the text elsewhere.
On page 210, “Jan” was corrected to “Jan.” as in “January.”
On page 210, “hour s” was corrected to “hour’s” to make “about an
hour’s rest.”.
On page 227, a repeated “has” was removed from the sentence “We hear
that there has been a massacre at Port Louis of late.”.
On page 227, “governer” was corrected to “governor” in the sentence,
“This port was formerly under a governor”.
On page 260, a space was added to make “Mr. ----”.
On page 274, an extra semi-colon was removed from the end of “90 feet”
to make the clause, “The lowest plain is 90 feet high,”.
On page 275, a missing quotation mark was added to the beginning of the
paragraph that begins “Of the lakes existing in the interior”. The text
is found in the work cited, “The American cyclopaedia.”
On page 276, “decended” was corrected to “descended”.
On page 303, a missing period was added to the end of “M.A.”.
On page 305, “Fuegian” was corrected to “Fuegians” in “these nine
Fuegians were put on board”.
On page 309, a final comma was corrected to a final period in the
sentence that ends “and they returned to the Falklands”.
On page 311, a footnote was renumbered and moved to the end of its
respective paragraph.
On page 318, a beginning single quotation mark was corrected to a
beginning double quotation mark in “life and immortality”.
On page 321, “D’Orbigny, Alcide d’.” was corrected to “D’Orbigny,
Alcide.”
On page 321, under “Bourne”, a period was added to end “12mo” for
consistency.
On page 322, under “Daireaux”, “dermères” was corrected to “dernières”
to match the original article’s title.