CHAPTER XXX.

MUTINY AT SANDY POINT.--TIERRA DEL FUEGO.--MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES THERE.--CAPTAIN GARDINER.--CRUISE OF THE "WATEREE."--SIDE-WHEEL DUCKS.--UP THE PACIFIC COAST.--THE MEETING AT VALPARAISO.--THE END.

Sandy Point has not been without its tragedy, in spite of its youth as a colony. In November, 1877, the convicts and soldiers mutinied, and for two days the place was a scene of bloodshed and robbery. About sixty of the officers, soldiers, and colonists were killed and many others were wounded; the arrival of a Chilian gunboat, on the third day, put an end to the revolt and restored order. The mutineers fled to the pampas, where many of them died of starvation and exposure, and the remnant of the band was captured near the mouth of the Santa Cruz River. Many of the buildings in the town were burned, and the destruction of property was estimated at half a million dollars.

Dr. Bronson inquired for Captain Smiley, an American who was once famous in this part of the world; he learned that the captain died some years before, but not until he had reached very nearly the hundredth year of his age. An officer of the United States steamer _Wateree_ described the captain as known to everybody from Uruguay round to Chili, and says he rendered numerous and invaluable services to vessels shipwrecked anywhere within a thousand miles of the strait. One sea-captain who was wrecked on the eastern coast of Patagonia declared that Smiley scented the disaster six hundred miles away, and came to his assistance. He once rounded Cape Horn alone in a fifty-ton schooner, and his life was full of extraordinary experiences in the southern hemisphere.

As the Doctor and his nephew returned to the steamer they met a boat-load of Fuegians on their way to Sandy Point, from the other side of the strait. Fred had considered the Patagonians very low in the scale of humanity, but on seeing the Fuegians he was inclined to rank the Patagonians among the _creme de la creme_. Though the weather was cold, they were not more than half clad, and the few garments among them were the merest apologies for clothing. The boat was a frame of wood covered with seal-skins sewn together, and was far more attractive to the eye of the stranger than were its occupants.

The inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego are of the same race as the Patagonians, but smaller; they live near the sea-coast, as the most of their food is obtained from the water in the shape of shell or other fish, seals, aquatic birds, and a certain edible weed that is thrown up by the waves. They are reputed to be cannibals, and the crews of ships wrecked on their coast have been killed and eaten by these savages. They do not confine their cannibalism to shipwrecked mariners, if all stories are true; Captain Smiley said he once visited a Fuegian chief, with whom he was on friendly terms, and found him superintending the cooking of one of his wives!

Missionaries have labored among the Fuegians, but to very little good result. The first effort was made after the return of Admiral Fitzroy's expedition, which is described in Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle." Four Fuegians were taken to England, where one of them died, and the others remained for three years and were educated. One of these natives was named "Jemmy Button," in consequence of his having been bought from his parents for a button cut from an officer's coat; he was intelligent, and gave promise of future usefulness, and it was thought a good plan to send him to his native land accompanied by a missionary.

Jemmy received many presents from kind-hearted people before starting for his old home, and when he arrived there he was cordially welcomed. The ship's carpenter built a house for the missionary and Jemmy; a garden was made and seeds were sown; the natives who flocked around the ship were well treated; and everything seemed to promise favorably.

Hardly was the ship out of sight before the natives robbed Jemmy of all his treasures, and reduced him to his original condition of a savage. All his fine clothes were destroyed, and he was compelled to dress--or, rather, to undress--like his own people; it is probable that the missionary would have been killed had not the ship looked in again after a week's absence, to see how things were getting along.

The next visitors to Tierra del Fuego found that the effect of civilization on Jemmy had not improved his morals. Captain Snow, who commanded a ship which touched at several places on the island, says Jemmy's tribe was the worst he saw, and had to be constantly watched to prevent thefts. They stole everything they could lay their hands on, and a few years later they massacred the crew of a ship that was sent there by the London Missionary Society, the very ship that Captain Snow formerly commanded.

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.

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.

The Fuegian is about as inhospitable as his country and climate can well make him. The region is subject to heavy rains and severe cold; the snow-line on the mountains is only four thousand feet above the sea, and Mr. Darwin says it is difficult to find an acre of level ground in the whole country. The lowland is covered with peat swamps and forests of beeches, and some of the scenery is quite pretty, but the general aspect is forbidding and desolate. There are glaciers along the sides of the mountains, and there are fresh-water lakes in the interior, frequented by great flocks of ducks and other aquatic birds. Along the coast are islands which are the resort of fur seals, and occasionally a rich haul is made by enterprising sealers.

The natives live in conical huts or wigwams built from the branches of trees over holes dug in the ground. In addition to shell-fish and other sea products, they live on a fungus that grows on the beech-trees. A picture of a Fuegian and his food is given on the next page. The reader will observe the fungus growing in a cluster a few feet above the base of the tree and just where the limbs diverge. It is an article of food not adapted to the European palate, but the natives seem to be fond of it--perhaps because they are obliged to be.

"Why was the country named Tierra del Fuego?" Fred inquired, as he watched the coast of that forbidding region while the ship was steaming away from Sandy Point.

"It was so named by Magellan," replied the Doctor, "in consequence of the numerous fires he saw along the coast."

"But we have seen no fires there," said the youth; "and I wonder if there were more inhabitants then than now."

"I cannot say as to that," Dr. Bronson answered. "No census has ever been taken in Tierra del Fuego, and from present appearances none is likely to be. Nobody wants the country, as it is absolutely worthless for all practical purposes. It would be a dear purchase at ten cents a square mile.

"Captain Snow and others who have visited the country estimate the inhabitants at not more than two thousand. They are the lowest in the scale of barbarism of all the people of the world; they live in small tribes, and among them might makes right. If one native gets more property than another he is quickly relieved of his superfluous possessions and reduced to the common level. You have a good illustration of this state of things in the case of Jemmy Button. His friends in England had loaded him with presents previous to his return, but he was not allowed to keep them twenty-four hours after the ship which brought him had departed. The same treatment is visited upon the missionaries, and upon every one else who falls into their power. They have no Vanderbilts among them, and possess no ideas concerning the foundations of fortunes and families.

"Mr. Darwin says their greatest idea of happiness is to have the carcass of a whale drift upon the coast where they can secure it. They remove the blubber in large pieces; then they cut holes in the centre of these pieces and thrust their heads through them, as a guacho puts on his poncho, in order to carry the stuff away; men, women, and children join in the labor of securing this supply of food, and they have an abundance to eat as long as it lasts. Unlike the natives of the Aleutian Islands, they have no means of catching whales, as their inventive genius has not been equal to devising anything useful."

Three hours after leaving Sandy Point the steamer passed Port Famine, which owes its name to a melancholy incident in its history. In 1584 a Spanish colony was founded there by Sarmiento; out of three hundred men who formed the colony all but two died of starvation within four years. In the early part of this century the Chilian government made a convict settlement there; the convicts revolted, killed their guards, and then seized a trading schooner and sailed away, after killing its crew. They were afterwards captured and properly punished by the government authorities.

One of the officers of the steamer called Fred's attention to a "side-wheel" duck, whose performance in the water resembled that of the steamer from which it takes its name. This bird is said to be found only in Patagonia; it does not use its wings for flying nor its feet for paddling, but when pursued it rushes through the water with great speed by means of its wings. The officer said he had never seen one of these ducks attempt to fly; an examination of its wings showed a cartilaginous projection at the elbow, but when in motion its movements were so rapid that the mode of propulsion could not be distinctly defined. The feet could be seen trailing behind; and there was a sort of mist at the side of the bird, while the wake in his rear was exactly like that left by a paddle steamer.

Mountain peaks were visible on both sides of the strait. In many places the cliffs were almost perpendicular, and hundreds of feet in height. There were many little harbors opening out from the strait, but Fred was informed, by the officer who had called his attention to the ducks, that many of the harbors were useless, as the water was too deep to permit ships to anchor. But where anchorage is possible the shelter is perfect, the surrounding mountains completely shutting out the winds. The geologists say these harbors are probably the craters of volcanoes that were extinguished ages and ages ago.

They passed near Port Gallant, Borgia Bay, and other harbors which are marked on the chart, but without making a pause at any of them. Before the days of regular steam navigation it was the custom for those passing through the strait to leave the names of their ships, with short records of their cruises, at the different anchorages. A favorite place for thus informing those who followed them was at Borgia Bay, where sometimes dozens of boards could be seen fastened to the trees. The historian of the cruise of the _Wateree_ says that one captain recorded his vessel as a "whaling skuner."

The _Wateree_ explored many of the channels between the mainland and the islands along the west coast of Patagonia, and continued that work up to the Bay of Castro, where she was the first steam-vessel of war ever seen. One of the bays along this route bears her name, and is distinguished by a curious mark on a cliff in the form of the letter "H."

During her explorations the _Wateree_ ran short of coal and was obliged to take wood from the forests along the shore. This was tedious and discouraging work, especially as the wood was either green or water-soaked, and required a great deal of coaxing to make it burn. Imagine the surprise and delight of the officers when they were visited at a little Chilian village by an enterprising Yankee, who said he had a hundred cords of perfectly seasoned wood a few miles away, which he would sell at a low price. They went there at once and bought his wood, which helped them to the next port, where coal could be obtained.

There is an abundance of bituminous coal along the western coast of Chili, and as far down as the strait. There are veins of coal at Port Famine, and others near Sandy Point, but the quality is poor. The best of the Chilian coal-mines are at Lota, where many thousands of tons are mined every month. The Chilian coal is sold in all the ports of the west coast of South America as far north as Panama; the veins are large, the mines are easily operated, and the supply may be considered inexhaustible.

Passing from the Strait of Magellan to the Pacific Ocean, the steamer headed northward towards her destination at Valparaiso. Fred had occasional glimpses of the coasts of Patagonia and Chili, but for the greater part of the way they were generally out of sight of land. In some seasons of the year the steamers follow the sheltered route among the islands--it affords inland navigation for nearly three hundred miles--but when fogs prevail the captains consider it safer to take the open ocean.

The lofty peaks of the Andes were almost continuously visible on the eastern horizon, after the steamer passed the latitude of the volcano of Corcovado. Towards the strait the mountains are less elevated than farther to the north, few of the peaks of the last hundred miles of the chain reaching above ten thousand feet in height. Aconcagua, the highest mountain of the Andean range, was in full view on the last day of the voyage, and formed a magnificent landmark, which directed the mariners to their destination in the harbor of Valparaiso.

As the steamer came to anchor, Fred peered anxiously over the rail at the many boats that were dancing on the waves. From one to another he turned his gaze, and was about giving up the search for a familiar face when he saw a handkerchief waving in the stern of one of the approaching craft.

Another glance, and then another, and the youthful face was radiant with smiles. Out came Fred's handkerchief to wave a response to Frank, who had come to meet him. As soon as the latter was permitted to board the steamer he sprang up the gangway, and the three friends were once more together.

THE END.

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