FUEGIANS VISITING A WAR STEAMER.
Most of the missionary work in Tierra del Fuego was through the efforts of Captain Allen Gardiner, formerly of the British navy. Captain Snow says "Gardiner was a brave and upright man, zealously religious, but wanting in wisdom and prudence. He deemed himself called upon to go about the world and bring a few of the heathen from darkness to light. Four times did he belt the earth, visiting the Zulus in South Africa, the islanders of the Pacific, the inhabitants of interior South America, and numerous other places. Twice he was in Patagonia and twice in Tierra del Fuego; the last time he went there was in a passing ship, taking two boats, a surgeon, a lay teacher, a carpenter, and four fishermen from Cornwall, with six months' provisions."
Captain Gardiner's first effort in Tierra del Fuego was at Banner Cove, Picton Island, where he tried to establish a station. The natives plundered him of everything, and he left in order to save his life; he returned to England, where he lectured, and obtained sufficient money to make another trial of the inhospitable land, under the circumstances narrated in the preceding paragraph.
Here is what he writes concerning his arrival at Banner Cove:
"On Friday, the 6th of December, 1850, we erected our tents, and on the 7th we constructed a strong fence of trees around our position, leaving only one small opening. This night and the next day the number of natives increased. Their rudeness and pertinacious endeavor to force a way into our tents, and to purloin our things, became so systematic and resolute that it was not possible to retain our position without resorting to force, from which, of course, we refrained."
The natives became so hostile that Captain Gardiner and his party abandoned the place, and attempted to go along the coast to a more favorable spot. Three of their boats were lost in this journey, together with a considerable part of their stores, and they were in great distress. One by one the members of the party died of hunger and exposure, some of them at Banner Cove, and others at a point which has since been known as Starvation Beach.
THE "ALLEN GARDINER" IN BANNER COVE.
A few years later a ship was built in England for missionary work in Tierra del Fuego, and named the Allen Gardiner, in honor of the lamented missionary. This was the ship which the natives plundered, after murdering her crew; she was recovered by Captain Smiley and taken to the Falkland Islands for repairs, and afterwards made several voyages to the "Land of Fire," but without advancing the condition of the natives to any noticeable extent.