Patagonia Bookshelf

Tierra del Fuego: Of Sailors and Savages (1851—1900)
Contacts between ships and natives groups, as reported in the English-language press

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Introduction

Methodology

Conclusions

USHUAIA [1894]

Article title	Cape Horn aborigines	Ship	Ship, naval transport, Buenos Aires
Source	The Sun (New York), 16 September 1894	Date of event	1894
More info.		Location	Tierra del Fuego
Article	Transcript	Informant	John Randolph Spears, visiting journalist

Abstract: John Spears, commissioned by "The Sun" newspaper of New York, travelled by Argentine Navy ship from Buenos Aires, down the Atlantic coast of Patagonia, to Punta Arenas and the recently-established community of Ushuaia. During his two-month visit he interviewed many local people. His impressions, insightful and largely accurate, were serialized in the newspaper, and later published in book form (The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn). The fragments included here are taken from a much longer piece, dealing with the appearance and character of the Yahgan indigenous population.

Assessment: Spears gives a spirited defence of the noble savage, well-adapted to his natural environment untit the arrival of "the meddlesome white man", whose action has caused the disintegration of the race. Instead of congratulating himself on the work of civilization, the local missionary should "hide his head in shame, and every other one who sees it shed tears of pity."