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(Note: Text dealing with natives is displayed with a contrasting background colour.)

THE FALKLAND ISLAND MISSIONARIES.

Some remarks worthy the attention of missionary societies are made by Colonel D'Arcy, late Governor of the Falkland Islands, in a despatch dated March 14, 1876, to Lord Carnarvon, just printed with other papers relating to her Majesty's colonial possessions. The safety of the South American Mission at Ooseyia, [Ushuaia, Ed.] in Tierra del Fuego, is, says the Governor, precarious; and such apparently is the opinion of the committee in London, for in one of their reports the following sentence appears :— "It is obvious that the tragic experience of the past adds to the grave responsibility of the committee to maintain frequent communication between these missionary outposts so long as their position is precarious." Yet in 1874-75 Ooseyia was left for ten months unvisited. The Rev. Thomas Bridges and his family live there in charge of a store, paying the natives in kind for their labour. They (the natives) are the most ignorant and wretched human beings in existence; in the winter they are starving, and consequently very dangerous, crowding towards the settlement for employment or food. Only a short time ago a tribe of Fish Indians, without the least provocation, attacked, when on shore, the master and crew of an American sealing schooner. Fortunately the master was armed with a breach loader with which he fought his way through crowds of natives to the beach, losing, however, two of his men. It seems really (adds Governor D'Arcy) as if missionaries courted martyrdom by leaving so many valuable lives perfectly unprotected to the impulsive action of starving savages, when the common precaution of a stockade would afford shelter till relief arrived.