Patagonia Bookshelf

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MIRACLE-WORKING CHRISTIANITY.
(Pall Mall Gazette.)
THE RELIGIOUS PHENOMENON OF THE FAR SOUTH.

[…] The history of the South American Mission would furnish forth books of adventure as exciting as any boy could wish for. Its success has won the astonished praises of men of all religions and of no religion, as an instance of miracle-working Christianity. It is a religious phenomenon of the highest interest from the standpoint of humanism and civilisation. Accordingly we have taken the opportunity of the visit lo England of Mr. Aspinall, a member of the Y.M.C.A., who went out to Tierra del Fuego two years ago, to learn something of the present and past of this remarkable enterprise. Accompanied by a native Christian, the companion of his voyage, Mr. Aspinall called at the office of the Pall Mall Gazette.

[…] the remarkable thing is the spread of good influences radiating from the mission centre. It would be easy to quote blood-curdling stories of the fate of ships wrecked on the Fuegian coasts in the past; how the sailors were hacked in pieces by native Amazons, and how crews preferred to blow themselves up in a stockade rather than try the clemency of the Fuegians. During the last few years this has entirely ceased; terrified sailors have found themselves to their astonishment treated with gentleness and generosity. An exploring expedition sent out by the Argentine Government (which divides Fuegia with Chili) probably to spy out the land of the always suspected English missionaries, was succoured in bad weather by the civilised natives, and went back to bless. Recognition followed from the two Governments, and similar experiences some way from the mission district have made the Admiralty mark the coast as safe on the official chart.

The feeling that the natural ferocity of the natives must have been exaggerated seems to be shared by Mr. Aspinall, who, of course, came in on the crest of the wave of civilisation. The horror with which they told him of the discovery of a starved crew, one of whom, as was plain from the mutilated corpse, had been preyed on by his surviving comrades, makes Mr. Aspinall doubt if the Fuegians were ever really cannibals; and he lays stress on the sanctity of the family relationship among them, which forbids even the marriage of second cousins. The savagery he thinks was by way of reprisal for the unspeakable cruelties they have always suffered from the Argentines and Chilians. […] The missionaries tell stories of lawless cruelty and immorality […] The sealers think nothing of kidnapping a Fuegian woman, imprisoning her on board for the whole sealing season, and then landing her on an island, whence, by swimming from one to another, she may perhaps get back to her own people, loaded with disease, and a source of horrible poison among the natives. "The other day," said Mr. Aspinall, "I sewed up the cheek of a native, which was torn right across with a frightful wound. I thought it had been done fighting, but no — a sailor in a passing ship, sighting him on shore, had just put up his gun and shot at him, as one might at a bird or beast. A while ago the crew of a ship which touched and was surrounded by the curious natives in canoes, invited them on board and then enticed the women down into the fo'csle. Presently one of the husbands left on deck went to the hatchway, where he was promptly brained by the captain. His comrades rushed forward and were all killed by the captain's revolver. After hideous outrage there escaped out of twenty-five men and women only one woman and one boy, who jumped overboard."

"But surely such a fiendish wrong would be righted by the Argentine Government?" — "They simply lay the blame on the natives" said Mr, Aspinall, sadly, "whom they admittedly are anxious to supplant altogether by settlers. And as for international influence, they are still sore about England's seizure of the Falkland Islands."

It is a ticklish subject, no doubt (concludes our representative), but surely in face of these intolerable outrages pressure might be brought to bear to give civilisation a fair chance in Tierra del Fuego.