In the extreme south of the American continent, separated from the mainland by the Straits of Magellan, is Tierra del Fuego, or—as the name implies— “The Land of Fire.” In the early part of the nineteenth century, the country was little known, but among the sailors who rounded Cape Horn on their voyages to and from California, the “Firelanders” bore a bad name, and were said to be cannibals. Many a shipwrecked crew they had plundered and massacred, and as a consequence, no ship ever touched the desolate shore. The country is almost covered with tangled weeds, impassable forests, and swampy moorlands, with mountains rising here and there in savage grandeur, their tops covered with perpetual snow. The inhabitants of this country have been described as “savages, the very lowest of the human race.” They live in the tangled forest, or along the seashore. They have no houses, only rude wigwams, built of a few branches fixed in the ground, with a thatch of rushes, which can be built in an hour. Wandering as they do from place to place in search of food, they more frequently live without a covering of any kind, lying on the cold wet ground, coiled up in snake-like fashion. Many of them live continually in canoes, made from the bark of trees. Their food consists of shellfish, sea eggs, with an occasional otter or whale. The climate is very changeable, great snowstorms bursting suddenly forth with awful severity on the ill-clad people who die in thousands from starvation. They present a wild and abject appearance, wear long shaggy hair half covering the face, which is usually painted red and white in transverse bars. The men wear skins thrown around their shoulders, fur inwards; the wives, of which each man has two or more, are generally almost naked. Their language is a hoarse guttural sound, somewhat like an animal clearing its throat. Their skins are always filthy, their hair in tangles, and their habits so degraded that one can scarcely think human beings could sink so low. Yet these degraded Fuegians are part of this “so loved” world, for which God gave up His only Son; their souls are of as much value in His sight as those of the most civilized and refined, and what is so often forgotten, the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, preached in the Holy Ghost, will, when, received by faith, transform these wild Fuegians into loving and devoted followers of the Lamb. Yes, men may scoff as they will at the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, but what can they say of the monuments of its saving power to be seen on the dark and dreary shores of Tierra del Fuego. Degraded savages once, in whose hands human life was unsafe; devoted disciples of Jesus Christ now, showing forth the praises of His peerless Name. What answer has the unbeliever to this? How can he account for it? We shall hear the testimony of one candid man at least, who had a full opportunity of judging of the nature of the change wrought by the Gospel’s power, for he saw the Fuegian, first in his natural state as a degraded heathen, and later, as a sinner saved by grace, through the power of the Gospel of Christ.
At the close of the year 1831, a ship named The Beable sailed from Devonport for South America under the command of Captain Fitzroy. On board was a young man named Charles Darwin, whose name was destined to become famous in connection with certain theories he afterward propagated concerning the “origin of man.” When the vessel reached the shores of Tierra del Fuego, and the low condition of its inhabitants became known, Darwin frequently expressed his conviction that it was “utterly useless to send missionaries to such a set of savages as the Fuegians, who probably are the very lowest of the human race.” Such was the opinion of the philosopher. But many years after, when the Gospel had been carried to the shores of Tierra del Fuego, and he had seen its effects in the changed condition of those who had received it, Mr. Darwin, in sending an annual subscription for the work of the mission, wrote: “The success of the Tierra del Fuego mission is most wonderful, and shames me, as I always prophesied utter failure.” Yes, and so might anyone who does not know the power of the Gospel, for apart from that glorious message which then and now is God’s power unto salvation, there is no power on earth can bring a sinner from the depths of dark heathendom, or from the more refined depths of Satan, as seen in the false religions of Christendom, to be an heir of glory, a saint of God, and a loving disciple of the Lord Jesus.
On January 7th, 1848, Captain Allen Gardiner, with five companions—four seamen and a carpenter—sailed in the Clymene form Cardiff, for the “Land of Fire,” and arrived at Picton Island amid a tempest of sleet and hail which drove the angry waves across the vessel’s bows every few minutes. They anchored the vessel in Banner Cove, and after they had fixed up their tent on the inhospitable shore, wading knee deep in mud to reach it, they saw a group of natives creeping cautiously along towards them. They appeared to be very shy, but after a while they came nearer, and exchanged some fish for needles, buttons, and articles of clothing. The next move of the mission party was to erect a storehouse, and bring a few things from the ship. This raised the curiosity of the natives, and evidently their avarice, for they not only asked from the missionaries the various articles they saw being landed, but helped themselves to whatever they thought fit, and even threatened the lives of the Lord’s servants. Writing home, Gardiner describes the Fuegians as follows— “Shameless greed and systematic thieving are universal vices. Nothing escapes their little glancing eyes, and but for the utmost vigilance, nothing would escape their active fingers. On the slightest provocation the roguish simper of the men changes to a scowl of fiendish ferocity and when exasperated or brought to bay, they fight with more fury than wild beasts.”