Gardiner, Capt. Allen Francis

A Few Particulars Relating to a Proposed Mission to the Indians in the Straits of Magelhaen [manuscript title]

Rio de Janeiro: February 16, 1844. [7]pp., written in a secretarial hand, but signed and dated by Gardiner. Folio. Gathered bifolia, stitched. Minor dust-soiling. Thin strip of paper running along the spine of the last page with paper remnants. Very good. Item #3827

A manuscript report composed by Capt. Allen Francis Gardiner (1794-1851), a British Royal Navy officer and missionary. Gardiner spent some time in Zululand where he tried to establish a mission near Port Natal, and according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, from "1838 to 1843 he worked among the Indians of Chile, and went from island to island in the South American archipelago, but his efforts were foiled by the opposition of the various governments.... His first visit to Tierra del Fuego took place on 22 March 1842, when, coming from the Falkland Islands in the schooner Montgomery, he landed in Oazy harbour. The Church Missionary Society was now under pressure to send out missionaries to Patagonia but declined on the ground of shortage of money. Similar proposals were unsuccessfully made to the Wesleyan and London Missionary societies. Eventually in 1844 a special society was formed for South America - the Patagonian Missionary Society - and Robert Hunt, a schoolmaster, was sent out as the first missionary, accompanied by Gardiner. This attempt to establish a mission failed, however, and they returned to England in June 1845."

The present document is Gardiner's proposal for that first mission, based on his deep firsthand experience the previous five years. Gardiner writes here: "My attention for some years has been turned towards the aborigines of the Southern Section of South America, more particularly to the Tribes on the borders of Chile, commonly known by the name of Aracecarcians." Gardiner also notes that between 1838 and 1842 several journeys were made to the Straits of Magellan where "communications with the Indians were opened, and access was obtained to some of their favourite locations." As he notes here, Gardiner was well aware that one of the greatest obstacles to the mission's success was the "very natural prejudice entertained by the Indians to all Foreigners whom they indiscriminately identify with their former Oppressors." However, he was surprised by the efforts of the "Friars on the frontier, who were not slow in manifesting their determination to impede my progress and exert all their influence with the chiefs to frustrate my intentions."

Gardiner was "particularly fortunate in finding among the Tribe at Oazy Harbour a very good Interpreter in the person of a North American Black, who had resided among them three years...." His employment made Gardiner's efforts much easier. Gardiner also recommends Oazy Harbour "as possessing peculiar advantages for the establishment of the first Missionary Station." Importantly, Gardiner notes, the harbour was the point where migratory Patagonians were frequently found, supplies could be obtained there, and communications relayed via the sealing vessels which occasionally visited there. Sealing vessels were a mixed blessing, and Gardiner attributes the "antipathy of the Fuegans on the North Coast to the White Man" to the misconduct of sealing crews. Like many missionaries before him, Gardiner emphasizes that the success of the mission is dependent on learning the local language, which he discusses here.

Due to a lack of funding, Gardiner's mission seemed doomed to die before it started. The British chaplain at Montevideo, James Birch, however, expressed much interest in the idea and suggested subscriptions could be raised with the assistance of the chaplains of Buenos Aires, Valparaiso, and Rio de Janeiro. Indeed, an annual pledge of £35 was received from the congregation at Montevideo. Such a generous contribution went a long way to reaching Gardiner's estimated sum of £200 that he would need annually, after the initial £500 to establish the mission, both of which are enumerated in the present report. Gardiner entrusted the selection of the Catechists, and control of the mission to the Church Missionary Society. In the end, though, due to funding challenges and resistance from various governments and the Catholic Church in the region, Gardiner failed to establish his mission. He returned to England in June 1845. Despite his ultimate failure to create a mission in Chile, Gardiner's present report remains a vital document in the long-controversial practices of western missionaries with regard to indigenous peoples in the Americas.

Price: $7,500.00