Chapter Eleven Mission to Patagonia Mr. Darwin has often expressed to me his conviction that it was utterly useless to send Missionaries to such a set of savages as the Fuegians, probably the very lowest of the human race. Bartholomew James Sulivan, 1885 r.Darwin was witness to what was no doubt the first attempt to actually send a missionary to such a set of Msavages as the Fuegians. Yet the idea itself was not new, for when Francis Drake passed this way in 1578, his chaplain Francis Fletcher made the following observation: Neither is anything more lamentable (in my judgement) than that so goodly a people, and so lively creatures of God, should bee ignorant of the true and living God. And so much the more is this to be lamented, by how much they are more tractable, and easie to be brought to the sheepfold of Christ: having in truth a land sufficient to recompence any Christian Prince in the world, for the whole travell and labour, cost and charges bestowed on their behalf: 213 214 Here be Giants with a wonderfull enlarging of a kingdome, besides the glory of God by encreasing the Church of Christ. And now, two and a half centuries after the Reverend Mr. Fletcher spoke of forcing his religion upon this land, perhaps the time had come at last to put such actions to the test. Or perhaps not, for as we already know from the incident with Richard Matthews, Jemmy Button’s people were in no mood for instruction in the error of their heathen ways. For the bruised and battered missionary, the return of HMS Beagle was a life-saver. Literally. For FitzRoy, the event was a learning experience, and so too for Darwin who, despite a cordial relationship with Fuegians at sea, soon discovered that Fuegians on shore were quite another matter. It’s not too surprising that his opinion of the locals was not much different than his pre- decessors, some of whom were quoted in the last chapter. Later in the voyage he would be favorably impressed with the work of missionaries in the western Pacific and, recall- ing the failure at Wulaia, he formed his opinion that further attempts there would be useless—utterly useless. He would change his opinion later in life though. Even in the years following the voyage of HMS Beagle, the natives in this part of the world remained in low regard by some observers, although not all observations were made at first hand. The Patagonians were a race of stalwart giants, in the lowest depths of barbarism, inhospitable in their manners. No attempts to spread a knowledge of Christianity among these savages had ever been made. Mission to Patagonia 215 This bit of intelligence comes to us in a fifteen-page inser- tion found in the 1853 British edition of Captain Bourne’s account of his misadventures amongst the giants of Patagonia. We met the captain—who was not really a captain—in an earlier chapter, where we learned that his British editor sacrificed the final three chapters of his story to make room for … The Painfully inTeresTing narraTive of The faTe of The PaTagonian socieTy’s Mission in Terra del fuego. The quotation about stalwart giants comes from that Narrative (which may be more painful than interesting) and was per- haps written by a person who didn’t know that the society’s mission was not dealing with giants, stalwart or otherwise. This Narrative brings us into the strange world of Captain Allen Francis Gardiner who, un- like Bourne, actually was a captain in His Majesty’s Royal Navy. While still a midship- man on HMS Phoebe, he participated in the 1814 battle off Valparaiso with the United States Frigate Essex. Gardiner was made Acting Lieutenant and part of the prize crew that brought the captured Essex round the Horn and back to England. Notwithstanding an active career on several other British warships, he found time to marry, to father five children, and to write a series of “sacred meditations” which give his readers some insight into the workings of his mind, as in this entry for Sunday, June 29, 1834: Within the last twelve months the Lord in His wisdom has seen fit to take from me a beloved child and a tender and affectionate wife. Blessed be God! … He has prepared her for the enjoyment of His love. 216 Here be Giants Given all that heavenly love, Gardiner knew what he must do and, according to his biographers, “From this time he devoted himself afresh to the service of God, and with all the force of his strong character, set himself upon a new course.” He left the navy and thought for a time of taking holy orders. But then he thought against it, in favor of a mis- sionary life where he might better take comfort in pain. For he had a positive gift—if one may call such a gift positive— for placing himself and those mad enough to follow him in pain’s way even if it might kill him (and them), which eventually it did. His new course was not smooth sailing, as he first tried his hand in Africa, then New Guinea, and later from one island to another in the Indian Archipelago. He went “from gover- nor to magistrate, and from magistrate to governor, but all his efforts were baffled.” Another man might have gotten the heavenly message that his services were not required at present, but not Gardiner. Eventually he found South America, there “to record the triumph of faith on the shore of Tierra del Fuego.” But even here the captain’s was no overnight success story, for it was no trivial task to deliver enlightenment to those who did not care to be enlightened. Soon enough, Gardiner realized another course change was in order. From what I have now seen, it is my decided opinion that until the character of the natives has undergone some considerable change, a Fuegian mission must of necessity be afloat—in other words, a mission vessel, moored in the stream, must be substituted for a mission-house erected on the shore. Mission to Patagonia 217 Apparently the missionary really believed that putting a bit of water between himself and his inhospitable disciples would be just the thing to bring them around to accept his beliefs in place of their own. In search of support he re- turned to England, where he would explain that his recent work had been nothing more than “a voyage of observation, showing what further means were required.” The leading missionary societies heard his appeal, and reacted with one voice: silence. But Gardiner didn’t hear the message and kept at it “… till a lady at Cheltenham, being assured that the want of money alone hindered the enterprise, gener- ously gave £700 at one time, and afterwards £300 more that it might immediately be prosecuted.” And then, according to Gardiner’s biographers, In 1844, a special Society was formed for South America alone, and it took its name from the country destined to be the scene of its earliest effort. The biographers do not identify the country, which was Chile, nor do they identify the new society, which actual- ly took its name not from the country, but from the area where it would begin its work. For Gardiner had named it the “Patagonian Missionary Society” and he would serve as its first secretary. Along the way, Gardiner had the extraordinary good for- tune to meet the Reverend George Pakenham Despard. Soon enough, Reverend Despard would steer his own course to Tierra del Fuego, but for now he agreed to serve as honorary secretary to the organization, whose first order of business was to collect a party to accompany the captain back to South America. First in that party was Dr. Richard Williams, whose path from surgeon to catechist is a book of its own, and in fact 218 Here be Giants that book has been written. In 1854, the Reverend James Hamilton published his Memoir of Richard Williams, Surgeon: Catechist to the Patagonian Missionary Society in Terra [sic] del Fuego. Hamilton tells us that, despite Dr. William’s excellent character, at first “there was no religion in his virtue.” But that would change, and Hamilton gives us the doctor’s own description of a night unlike any other in his life. After see- ing the last of his patients, I went up-stairs, and threw myself on my bed. In a few minutes I felt inexpressibly ill. The first sensation was an amazing weight on the chest, with difficulty of respiration; the carotids of my throat striking like hammers on my head, and a feeling as though torrents of air were rushing into my brain, and the head were itself expanding. Meanwhile my mind acquired a wonderful vivacity. Unnumbered sins sprang up before my astonished conscience; Death in his terror rose up to my gaze. The thought of an offended God pierced my soul with madness. One of God’s servants—Williams identifies him only as a “Mr. M., senior”—entered the room and bid him “look to Jesus.” Williams “felt an infinite joy in so doing.” My darkness was turned into light, and in a short time I felt a sweet sense of the pardoning mercy of God. After this I grew better and better, and all my symptoms remitted. And then, a relapse. Mission to Patagonia 219 I felt the most extraordinary sense of the bodily presence of the Power of Darkness standing by the side of my bed.