Show IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO Territories not Marked on any Map JOURNALS OF DYING MEN A PilcrlniRga to the Placo Where the First Foreign Residents Died of Starvation Ji UsnuwAiA Tierra del Fuego Jan 11S92 iSpcclrl correspondence of THE Hair ALDYe have been making a rather melancholy mel-ancholy excursion to Picton island away b down in the neighborhood of Cape Horn where at a point appropriately named Starvation Beach the first party of Protestant missionaries who came to this part of tho world met a cruel and lingering I death Probably you have heard of Captain Cap-tain Allen Gardiner a gallunt officer of the I British navy who gave his best years his fortune and finally his life in fruitless endeavors en-deavors to improve the social and moral condition of tho degraded Fuegoans and Patagonians Being a zealously religious man bo conceived tho idea that he was called upon to go about the world preaching preach-ing tho gospel to over creature and rescuing heathen brands from the burning In pursuance of this notion he four times circumnavigated the globe visited tho Zulus in Southern Africa THE CANNIBALS of far islands and the fiercest tribes of other remote places At one time with a singlo companion ho spent a year in the Patagonian desert near Gregory Cay at another bent on some errand he took his family to reside in tho Faulkland islands I which were then uncolonized except as a convict station and later be devoted himself him-self to this inhospitable archipelago vainly attempting to establish friendly relations with the natives His iirststation in Tierra del Fuego was at Bonner Cove Picton island but the unappreciative savages whose welfare ho had so much at heart sq plundered him of everything and he was compelled to leave to save his life Returning Return-ing to England with pious ardor unabated though he had spent all his own fortune I without apparently accomplishing a particle i I of good he went about the country lecturing lectur-ing to obtain money enough to make another an-other trialwhich HESULTED IN HIS DEATH Tho ninth and last time he loft England on L missionary work he brought six compan ions to Tierra del Fuego all of whom were us heathen crazed as himself There were Dr Richard Williams a London surgeon who gave up n good practice to follow out his pious convictions Mr John Maidment a teacher of Liverpool Joseph Erwin a mechanic and three Cornish boatmen Settling on Pinion island near Spaniards harbor they experienced a series of mis fortunes which soon reduced them to eating eat-ing mice decayed fish and sea weeds to sustain life Meanwhile the London mission mis-sion under whose auspices they came paid no attention to their necessities and failed to send the promised supplies and after a year of horrible suffering during which tno little party displayed a degree of pious heroism worthy the martyrs of old they s died one by one from SLOW STARVATION I Years later curiously enough wo visited the scone of the tragedyunder the auspices I of the same society that allowed its first missionaries to starve in the schooner which they have named the Allen Gardiner Gardi-ner Every hour of the journey was de 1ghtfdl in spito of snow squalls sudden gales I and frosty weather Slowly threading thread-ing narrow channels that wind in every direction between innumerable small islands most of them unnamed and tin L known bits of volcanic soil not marked on any map or chart the scene was awe I inspiring and yet so peaceful that it was diflicult to realize that we were but a few niLes removed from that dreadful waste of waters where two mighty oceans rush together in ceaseless conflict This portion of Tierra del Fuego is unknown L un-known to the world at large end cntirelj unvisited except by a few venturesome I scalers who confine their operations to the edges of the outer islands Here are bits of scenery compared to which the Thousand C Thou-sand Islands of the St Laurence dwindle to insignificance Huge precipices meet the eye and mountains covered with snow that have XEVEK BORNE TilE IlirilESS OF A HUMAN FOOT Some of the islands have a mottlod appearance appear-ance owing to Indian fires that have burned the foliage off in places somo aro of a clayey formation others aro covered with black lava but most of them aro green velvety and undulating Narrow passages fit only for canoes though ocean deep lead off in labyrinthine fashion nobody no-body knows whore butween dark rocks and ragged peaks Anon we como upon sheltered coves that are dreams of beauty within sight of silvery lakes and dancing streams and parklike stretches of greenest green-est verdureall backed by magnificent snowcapped ranges What charming places hero for picnic partiesbarring the necessity of furs and overcoats and the L daily likelihood of snow squalls But how unutterably lonesome Not a sign of human habitation appears NOT A SOUND TO BREAK THE ETEUNAL STILLNESS STILL-NESS or a curling spire of smoke never the song of a bird or the traces of animal life or anything to indicate that man or beast has ever penetrated these solitudes since the world began But it is a land of paradoxes V para-doxes and sharp contradictions for notwithstanding not-withstanding the wild flowers and perpetual perpet-ual verdure tempests of hail and snow may come at any moment or gales of hurricane hur-ricane fury There are dangers too on every band hidden rocks outlaying the shores tider ourrentseddies and treacherous treacher-ous shoals and despite the appearance of total unoccupancy a canoe DOW and then shoots forth from some sequestered inlet filled with naked savages who invariably follow the ship as fast as they can paddle abbering arid gesticulating like so many lunatics Should we happen to strike ono of these hidden rocks or be wrecked by an unexpected gale or find ourselves FAST ON SOME TREACHEROUS SHOAL scores of canoes now unseen but doubtless doubt-less lurking like snakes under shelter of the bushes would flock to our undoing The Fuegoans would probably not eat us for most authorities agree that these queer people never were cannibals though that famous AmericanCaptain Smiley declares that ho once visited a chief of ono of these islands with whom ho was on friendly terms and found him superintending the cooking of his oldest wife but they would certainly rob us of every tiring even the clothes upon our backs and leave us to perish like the illfated Gardiner party if they did not more mercifully murder us in some quicker manner It was a fine mild morning for this latitude when we found ourselves in the western arm of Spaniards harbor and cast anchor near a sandy beach upon which heavy surf was breaking with sullen roar Before us were grassy plains and a winding river beyond wore low hills covered with trees and to tho left n dense forest This is Starvation Be > ch THE MECCA OF ALL ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE PEO-PLE who find themselves in these waters We notice a dark mass of rock close by loom ing up from the waters edge fifty feet or more dotted on top with scanty shrubs and instantly recognize it as the entrance to that gloomy cavern so minutely described de-scribed in the missionary annals within which Gardiner and his friends tried to make a home a la Robinson Crusoe in his castle Just beyond reach of the surf a mound of stones marks a gravo and on the flat surface of the upper rock Captain Gar diners name is painted and the year of his death the oxaot date not being known Hero this rudo cairn grows a giant beech tree to which a board has been firmly lashed which bears upon it the names of j all the party and asserts that they doted par do-ted this life after much fatigue and privation from want of food and that I their remains are buried beneath A little further up the beach one can yet I plainly see where there tho Pioneer had I ROTTED IN THE SAND It seems that while the seven Englishmen were perishing by inches they kept a daily record ofv their thoughts and doings and months after they were dead a tardy rescu ing party found the journals which had been preserved in an almost miraculous manner from winds and rains and thieving II natives Halfsheets of paper written with lead pencils containing intelligible sentences though completely saturated I with water torn and otherwise defaced I have been permitted to read a printed copy of those words traced by dying men anent d I wish I could transcribe them for you an-ent ireso full of cheerful faith and even I happiness are they down to the last moment mo-ment Space will permit but few extracts hero and there as follows Dr Williamsw says saysWe We all feel the want of food and sometimes some-times the cravings of hunger are distressing distress-ing After eating mussels for a fortnight I was obliged to give them up My food io now wild celery and broth made from tho soft part of limpets when they can be obtained ob-tained Today we dined on part of a shag which was killed while sleeping on the beach by Mr Maidment ten days ago It was dug up this morning and proved to be quite tender having lost Its fishy flavor Captain Gardiner writes We managed to TRAP A FOX and found in its stomach feathers fish and mice Ho was a fine animal with a splendid splen-did brush albeit the odium attached to a fox our party have already so overcome any such natural fastidiousness that this morning they made a hearty breakfast of his pluck the legs and quarters having been cut up and kept in reserve It was not the first extraordinary baune bou ho our worthy caterer has set upon the spit or made into soup for us We are still confined con-fined to bed varying much as to our sensi bie condition at different times Sometimes we are apparently well but tho least exertion exer-tion in talking or otherivisehas a prostrat ing influence that takes days to rally from About two months ago I picked up some weed from tho rocks which was boiled as an experiment in tho event of our requir in c it for food It became tolerably soft and was easily masticated We thought no more of it till a few days ago when Mr Maidment unable to procure either limpets lim-pets or musselsand the old stalks of celery laving become very unpalatable added a little of it to the broth By practice in the cooking of this weed we have found it to boA bo-A PROVIDENTIAL SUPPLY It will boil to a gluten and must be very nutrItious It is now my chief diet since lie pets can only be found at particular periods The weed prows in small ounches on tho rocks and has a thin crimped semitransparent transparent leaf resembling pickled cab bage though of an olive green color This I jelly weed as we now call it was provi lentially brought to our notice by some leaves of it adhering to the tin of a mussel in the sauce pan which were found to dissolve dis-solve into solt pulp I desire to thank my Heavenly Father for directing us to it and for so mercifully providing a palatable diet I in our present necessity It was tho American Captain Smiley who first appeared ou the scene of the tragedy His log book says Went on shore in Spaniards harbor and found a boat on the beach with ono person dead inside supposed sup-posed to be Pearce as we cut tho name off his frock We found another body on the beach completely washed to piece which we have every reason to believe is poor Dr Williams Another buried which is John Badcock The sight was awful in the extreme ex-treme and the two hardy seacaptains with mo cried like children Books papers I cl thing medicine and tools were strewn all along the beach and on the boats deck but there was on sign of any edgo tools whatever The person in the boat had a large scar on his neck and another in his head and I suppose that AN INDIAN MIGHT HAVE KILLED HIM as they wero too weak to offer resistance I find they had long been out of provisions and died miserable deaths of starvation and scurvy but though Christians Captain Gardiners remains were found beside his boat tho stranded Pioneer Had had put on three suits of clothes one over another and over all his arms wire thrust into woolen stockings Mr Maidment emaciated body was found in a cave and upon them all birds and fishes had been feeding Prom time to time other missionaries mission-aries have labored among the Fuegoans in different parts of the archipelago but in I every case results have been very meager Perhaps the most notable effort was made soon after the return of Admiral Fitzroys expedition which is described in Darwin Voyage of the Beagle Four Fuegoans i were taken to England where ono of them died and the others remained for three years and were educated One of these was called Jimmy Button because his mother sold him to the Europeans for a brass button cut from an officers coat Ho was fairly intelligent and gave promise of future usefulness so it was decided to send him back to his native land as a sort of assistant as-sistant missionary Before starting for his former home Jimmy received a great many substantial gifts from charitable English people which rendered his welcome wel-come tho more cordial when he arrived at his native island The ships carpenter built a comfortable house for the missionary mission-ary and Jimmy a garden was made am seeds were sown tire natives who flocked around the ship were well treated and all i went swimmingly as long as superior force remained on the side of the whites Bu hardly was tho ship out of sight before THE NATIVES JIOBBED JIMMY of all his treasures and forcibly reduced him to his original condition of a savagi like themselves They buried up his fin clothes and compelled him to dress or rather undress like his own people and tho missionary would doubtless have been > murdered had not the ship looked in again after a few days absenceto see how thing were getting along and took him away Tho next visitors to Tierra del Fuego found that his tasto of civilization had only mad I Jimmy Button a cuter rascal than before His tribe was tho worst on tho islands w ho I stole everything they could lay their hand on the same vho < a few years later massacred I mas-sacred the crew of a ship sent out by a London Missionary society Affairs are now in a much more peaceable condition I For many years Bishop btorling of the Church of England has had charge of missionary mis-sionary work in South America with headquarters head-quarters on the Faulkland Islands has won tho friendship of the islandersfar and near by presents ad libitum of beads twine blankets and clothing and tho schooner in which he sails around thor archipelago is another Allen tho-r named in honor of the first unfortunate missionary FANNIE B WARD |