Allen Gardiner. 1
THE story of the life and death of Captain Allen Gardiner and his companions is a very beautiful one, from which we may learn lessons of courage and endurance, and. confidence in God. It may be that as we read it we shall count it a sad story; but we need to remember that things are not what they seem, and that the servants of Christ have ever found joy and peace unspeakable even in the last extremity of danger braved in His service, and distress borne for His sake.
Allen Gardiner was born near the close of the last century, at Combe, in Berkshire. Like many English boys, he had a great desire to be a sailor, and so, although his parents would have been glad if their boy had chosen almost any other profession, they allowed him to enter the navy.
Allen had been carefully trained at home, and when he went to study at the Naval College he found a friend who was most anxious to lead him to the knowledge of Christ; but it was not until some years later, when he was far away from parents and friends, that the many prayers of those who loved him were answered. God spoke to his heart and conscience in a heathen temple in China, as he watched the Chinese at their idol-worship; and from the time of his own conversion he had a great desire to be used by God to open the way for the messengers of His gospel among the nations who knew Him not.
“One who leads the way in a path of danger, who clears the road before an army, or first enters some unknown region, whither others may follow in the track which he has left, is called a pioneer. Captain Gardiner was a missionary pioneer: he does not seem to have thought of being an evangelist himself; but he greatly longed to clear the way for others who should preach the gospel in places where its glad sound had never been heard.
His first work as a missionary pioneer was in Zululand, whither he went in 1834, hoping that he might be the means of opening a way into those benighted regions for ministers of the gospel. After spending some time in South Africa, Captain Gardiner returned to England, published an account of his "Journey to the Zulu Country," and then, having been joined by some missionaries, set out again for Africa, intending to spend the rest of his life among the Zulus.
In the year 1837, however, when a war broke out between the Zulus and the Dutch, and all missionaries were obliged to leave the country, Captain Gardiner's thoughts again turned to the people among whom he had wished to labor, when the hope of being a missionary first sprang up in his heart. These people were the Patagonians, a race of very tall Indians, living, as you know, at the extreme south of America. As Captain Gardiner was at that time on board H.M.S. Dauntless, cruising along the western coast of South America, he often went ashore, and became acquainted with the customs of the Araucanian Indians, as the native inhabitants of that coast are called. These Indians are a warlike people, who ride magnificent horses, which were first brought into their country by the Spaniards. Their outer dress is a poncho, which is a blanket with a hole in the middle; the wearer thrusts his head through this hole, and his toilet is made. Both men and women paint curious patterns upon their bodies with red and black paint; the children are tied up in little cradles, and thus travel behind their mothers on horseback, or are hung upon the pole of the hut when the family is at home.
These Indians live in tents, or in miserable huts made of wickerwork, plastered with clay, such as may have been seen in our own land long years ago. They are very bold riders, and all, even the children, are wonderfully clever in using two hunting weapons which were introduced by the Spaniards, the bolas and the lazo, or lasso. The bolas is a rope of hide, with a ball of iron or copper, about the size of a cricket ball, attached to it; this is slung with such force, and such true aim, that it becomes a very deadly weapon in skillful hands. The lasso, which means "noose," is a very long rope of hide with a slip-knot at one end. It is very difficult to learn to throw the lasso in such a manner as to ensure this knot falling so as to entangle the animal at which it is thrown; children begin to practice throwing the lasso when very young, and soon become so expert as to be able to catch wild birds with it.
But had the Spaniards merely taught these Indians to be bold riders and hunters? They had had some care for their souls; and not only in the interior of South America, but along this Araucanian coast, Roman Catholic priests had rescued many of the native inhabitants from heathenism. Unhappily, however, they had taught them, along with the profession of Christianity, many things not found in the scriptures of truth. Their plan was to "make Christians" of the heathen by baptizing them, and while they compelled them to give up their idol worship they taught them to pray to saints and angels, to adore images of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and to believe in the doctrine of purgatory.
The more Captain Gardiner saw of the Araucanian tribes in Bolivia, Chili, and LaPlata, the more hopeless it seemed to him to attempt any missionary work amongst them, and the more strongly did he desire to open the way for the messengers of the gospel in a country where no false teaching had been forced upon the people. Such a country he believed he had found in Patagonia, for there no Romish priests had penetrated, and his slight acquaintance with the people led him to believe that they were intelligent and willing to be taught.
The Patagonians do not worship idols, but believe in a good spirit which they say dwells in the sun, and a bad spirit which dwells in the moon; they believe that the souls of the good go to the sun after death, and those of the wicked to the moon.
Like most heathen people, they have curious customs with regard to the burial of the dead. Everything belonging to the dead man—his tent, his clothes, and skins—is burnt; and spears, knives, and such things as cannot be consumed by fire are buried with him. It is the custom to blow with the mouth over the grave, and the relations cut themselves in token of mourning, and cast the blood which flows from their self-inflicted wounds upward to the sun, as they kneel around the grave and call upon the good spirit.
Upon the grave a heap of stones is then raised, and the great desire of the survivors seems to be to forget the dead, and to destroy every memorial which might bring them to their recollection.
When Magellan, the Portuguese voyager, first saw the inhabitants of this wide-stretching country, more than three hundred years ago, he thought them "larger and taller than the stoutest men of Castile," and they are very much taller than their neighbors the Fuegians, but not such a gigantic race as the old navigators described them to be.
The Spaniards first called them "Patagones," or "large feet," from their wearing huge boots made of rough hides, and the name has remained to this day.
The country is bare and rocky, covered with clumps of thistles; dwarf oaks and stunted bushes grow here and there, but there is very little vegetation even in summer, and in winter the whole land is one vast sheet of, snow. The native huts, called toldos, are made of the hides of the timid and swift guanaco, stretched upon poles. The chief animals of the country are the guanaco, a kind of lama, and the ostrich. Like the Araucanians, the Patagonian Indians use the bolas and lasso, and are very wary and skillful hunters. They are very suspicious of strangers, and although honest in their dealings one with another, will take anything, upon which they can lay hands, belonging to a stranger, and their word can never be trusted.
South of the Patagonia, on the other side of the Straits of Magellan, lie a number of islands, barren and rocky, one of which forms the famous Cape Horn. When Magellan passed by that desolate coast, he called the land "Tierra del Fuego," Land of Fire, from the number of fires which were lit upon the shore, but a less appropriate name could hardly be found for a country which is swept by piercing winds, and where rain or snow falls almost every day.
Unlike their tall neighbors, the inhabitants of this bleak land are very short; they wear little clothing except their own long matted hair, and a piece of seal skin; their bodies are painted with earth, white, black, or red, and around their necks hang strings of seals' teeth.
As their barren country affords them no means of living, they spend much of their time in catching fish, and have even trained their dogs to dive and fish for them. Their language is not the same as that spoken by the Patagonians, and they are not only the most miserable, but also the most savage race in South America. They have murdered the crews of several vessels which have been driven upon their coasts, and it is believed that in times of scarcity cannibalism is not uncommon among them. Captain Gardiner had visited them and attempted to gain their confidence, but without success.
It was when he returned to England, after his three years' stay among the Zulus, that Captain Gardiner wrote a letter, entitled "An earnest Appeal on behalf of the Indians of Patagonia," in the hope of awakening an interest in the minds of his friends with regard to this neglected people.
“Where is there," he asked, "a nobler work, or one of higher importance, to which we can set our hands and devote our energies than the endeavor, on the ground of that love which has bestowed so freely upon us the inestimable blessings of salvation by Jesus Christ, to convey the same message of peace and joy to those dark places of the earth, where multitudes of our fellow-sinners are sitting in the shadow of death, with no man caring for their souls? " P.