Savage (25 page)

Christmas Day fell on a Saturday and, with rain teeming down, the crew joined fifty-one Fuegians in the recently finished house. Despard and Fell ranked all the men down one side of the building, the women down the other. On a table in the middle were placed four huge plum puddings and a can of treacle. The chief missionary opened the proceedings with a prayer for the Fuegians then led the hymn ‘His Praise Who Is Our God'. When that was over, Fell took out a knife and divided up the puddings, giving everyone a piece. Some were unable to finish their portions, others came back for a second, one or two even managed a third.

When the food was gone, buckets of water were brought in so that all could wash their hands and faces. The moment of selection had arrived. Despard read out a list of names the mission party had compiled and Jemmy shouted, ‘
Oh-he
Keppel Island?' which meant, ‘Will you go to Keppel Island?' Everyone named replied,
‘Ow-a'
– yes. Despard had his party of Fuegians. Delighted, he told the chosen ones to board the ship on Monday morning when they would be ‘purified and dressed'.

The preceding events and those that were about to happen are crucial to defining and understanding the nature of Anglo-Fuegian relations and their deterioration. In 1860 and 1861 accusations flew around Port Stanley, and even reached London, that the Patagonian Missionary Society, under the stewardship of the Reverend Despard, had kidnapped Fuegians from Wulaia and taken them against their will to Keppel Island. Was this true? It is unlikely that the missionaries could have abducted them by force – there were simply not enough of them: it had been reported that as many as 170 Fuegians were encamped at Wulaia, there were probably no more than ten of the missionary party on board the ship and they had few firearms to back them up.

A more likely proposition is that the Fuegians who agreed to go to Keppel did so without fully understanding what this meant. Events over the next few days point to confusion between the Indians and the ship. They do not wholly exonerate the Yamana, and neither do they entirely damn the missionaries, but they do show that when Despard stood in the house and announced that on Monday he would be purifying and dressing his elect Fuegians, he had not grasped the complete picture.

Relations remained cordial the next day, Sunday 26 December, when just after ten o'clock in the morning, two canoes bearing those who were going to Keppel Island and a few of their friends arrived alongside the
Allen Gardiner.
The wind had shifted earlier that morning and Fell had moved the ship. Despard was unable to work out why they had come, but thought it was because they had feared the
Allen Gardiner
was leaving. Tellon made a long, earnest speech, and Macooallan seconded it with a shorter calmer address. They were each given food and told not to return until Monday.

Early on 27 December the ‘Firelanders elect' boarded the
Allen Gardiner
and, as promised, were washed and dressed. The wives were missing, so shortly after lunch Fell took the ship's gig to find them. As he stepped off the boat, Lassaweea, Mrs Button, assailed him with abuse, and Macooallan jumped on him, ripping open his vest to his shirt, and shouted that he had expected better presents and, in particular, better clothes. Jemmy Button joined in: Captain FitzRoy had been generous to a fault, but Captain Fell? ‘What do you call this?' he shouted, tugging at the clothes he had been given. Fell talked gently, promised them more biscuits, more clothes, and gave Macooallan a blanket. A potentially explosive situation was defused. Fell returned to the ship with the women, and where decent had them washed by one of the ship's crew and where not by their husbands.

Soon after, a canoe came alongside and, quick as a flash, Congorenches jumped into it from the ship wearing the fine clothes he had been given for his journey to Keppel Island. Luccaenches shouted after him that he was a bad man, and Schwaiamugunjiz hurled abuse from the stern of the ship. It was not over yet, though. After prayers Lucca's father, Tellon, paddled up to the ship and without a moment's hesitation Lucca, too, was over the side and away. Despard was exasperated. When Threeboys tried to come on board he was instructed to get off the ship. Then, under cover of darkness, one of Jemmy Button's daughters paddled stealthily to the
Allen Gardiner.
She made no noise, but was spotted by Charles Turpin who raised the alarm, whereupon the crew found the whole Fuegian party preparing to make their escape, complete with blankets, clothes and a handful of the ship's tools. Despard ordered that they all be arrested, detained and stripped of everything they carried. One by one Macooallan, Schwaiamugunjiz, their two wives and Ookokowenche were released naked into the night, the message resounding in their ears that they could only have the clothes if they agreed to go to Keppel Island. As Despard wrote in his journal,

This business has
disappointed our expectations very much
and makes us fear that this trip we shall return to Cranmer without any visitors, God knows best, what is best. Some think JB on the dog in the manger principle is at the bottom of this, others that Threeboys has been the inventor of the plot, others again that Dr Button is the inventor – it is certain Satan will interpose every obstacle he
can
in the way of delivering these poor people from their degradation.

Two days later Lucca and Tellon returned to the ship as if nothing had happened. Tellon had had a terrible row with a brother and was worried for his safety; they had been forced to bivouac in an old wigwam nearby. That evening Macooallan, Threeboys and Schwaiamugunjiz climbed on board. It was getting late, they were unexpected and many things were lying about. Despard demanded they leave the ship, but they refused, saying they were going to sleep on board. Schwaiamugunjiz made a very angry speech and having signed that the missionaries were ‘no good' he climbed over the side of the ship. Threeboys followed, promising never to come again, and finally Macooallan left after being bribed with biscuits by the captain.

It was against this backdrop that 30 December brought surprising news. Jemmy Button breakfasted with Despard and told him that, so long as he agreed to bring them back as he had been brought back, the original party was still willing to go to Keppel Island – not only that, but his other brother Macalwense and wife were willing to join them too. Next day he delivered on his promise.

The final party, when complete, consisted of nine Fuegians:

Macooallan aged 36

Wendoogyappa, wife of Macooallan

Macalwense aged 32

Wyeenagowlkippin, wife of Macalwense

Schwaiamugunjiz aged 24

Wyruggelkeepa, wife of Schwaiamugunjiz and their 2 year old daughter Kyattegattemowlkeepa

Ookokowenche aged 16

Luccaenche aged 12

On New Year's Day 1859 a large gathering of Yamana assembled on the beach at Wulaia to see off the
Allen Gardiner.
Despard handed out clothing, tools, beads, biscuits and sugar. Jemmy Button was given a barrel of biscuits, a few pieces of pork and twelve pounds of sugar for himself. He shouted, ‘Goodbye, Mr Despard; goodbye, Mr Phillips; goodbye, Mr Turpin, goodbye, Captain.'

When the
Allen Gardiner
was well out of Wulaia, Garland Phillips arranged the washing and dressing of all the native guests, and afterwards fed them with as much biscuit and pork as they could consume. The weather closed in on the little ship and a storm crashed waves over its bow. Even the Fuegians became seasick.

From his point of view Despard's first visit to Wulaia had finished as nothing short of a success. Five Fuegians had been taken back to their homes safely; a house of worship had been built; and now, most importantly of all, he was returning to Cranmer with nine Fuegians on board. Not that his attitude towards them had changed: ‘These people are self-willed and capricious as grown spoiled children, and require, to manage them, great patience and firmness, as well as undaunted spirit,' he noted in his journal. What was more the missionaries had spent four weeks among the Yamana, and had ‘gone in and out among them without fear or hesitation, we have gone singly into their woods, have left our boat upon their shores – have left our vessel for hours with only one man on board, and have never had reason to regret our confidence. I need hardly say, that we never took any weapon with us ashore for defence.'

Chapter 19

The
Allen Gardiner
arrived in Committee Bay on the morning of 5 January 1859 and by the afternoon the Fuegians had been billeted in the house that had formerly played home to Jemmy and family, each couple receiving a corner to themselves. They had never before seen anything like the settlement at Cranmer or even a house, with the exception of the manse recently built on Wulaia Cove, so during those first days there was great adjustment and no little misunderstanding. On 6 January, while the Fuegian women were washed and dressed by the ladies of the settlement, their men were shown the livestock. Cows, horses, pigs and goats were all greeted with a lick of the lips and a declaration that here there was good food. Later that same day the native men discovered the mission's carefully nurtured penguin eggery and slaughtered more than a dozen of the birds.

There were fundamental differences between this party and the previous visitors to Cranmer. Not one of the Fuegians on board the returning
Allen Gardiner
had ever been to England – not one, in fact, had ever strayed further than the Yahgashaga. They had no understanding of British expectations, sensibilities or culture, they had little knowledge of English, even less affinity with their hosts, and no sense of the allegiance or obligation that, for whatever reason, Jemmy Button had felt. It was also a bigger party, more diverse than the Buttons. Whereas Jemmy had had some authority over those who came with him, this group consisted of separate families, adults, teenagers and children. If things went badly, an ‘us against them' attitude might develop. Dealing with them otherwise might prove equally difficult, owing to the variety of opinions, tempers and characters.

The Fuegians came on the understanding that they would be back home for the start of ‘wild bird egg season', one of the most important dates in their calendar when the harvesting of eggs from the cliffs and shores around the Yahgashaga heralded a period of general feasting and celebration. The season began in September, which meant that they would be on Keppel Island for nine months, significantly longer than the Buttons had spent there and sufficient time for the mission party to carry out the next stage of its work.

Five days after their arrival a large fire was seen spreading swiftly across the island. Memories flashed back to the near disaster of 1855, and those who had been there then recalled how quickly the flames had flared up. Then the settlement had been new – there were no buildings and little livestock. A blaze on the same scale now would have far more damaging consequences: all hands were put to digging a trench and into damping down the fire. Within a few hot and anxious hours the crisis was past, the fire dwindling.

When the danger was over, the cause was sought and, a little way off, just beyond a group of lakes that speckled the island, the Fuegians were found cooking mollimauks over an open campfire. Despard berated them for their lack of caution. ‘In their own country they are not at all particular in lighting fires wherever they encamp,' he later wrote. ‘Their practice there is to carry a lighted stick with them … they were clearly made to understand that they must not carry fire about with them, and the great injury it would do to the island.'

The warning, however, had little effect: just three days later Garland Phillips, concerned at the early-morning disappearance of Schwaiamugunjiz and Luccaenches, climbed on a horse and went with Ookoko and Macalwense in search of them. They found them a little way off, sitting round an open fire on which seal flesh was ‘hissing and browning'. Phillips ordered them back to Cranmer and doused the fire.

More consternation arose when, in their first week at Cranmer, Ookoko and Macooallan wandered into the mission house and rummaged around. The English ladies who were there at the time were troubled and frightened by the sudden appearance of the two Fuegians, and Despard was called. He instructed them to leave. The time was not yet right for such intrusion: ‘Their habits as yet are too gross to allow of their coming in and out, ad libitum, as Jemmy Button and his family did.'

It was imperative to the success of this second stage in Fuegian-missionary relations that a routine was quickly established. It was also crucial that a pattern of work and education, aimed at knocking out the habits of a lifetime, was firmly imposed. Within ten days of the party arriving, Garland Phillips could happily describe such a daily routine. At seven each morning he went to the Fuegian house, woke its occupants and detailed one man to sweep the house clean. The Fuegians, who had been taught how to use soap for washing and had also learned to comb their hair, would perform their ablutions. At eight o'clock the breakfast bell rang and each was given ship's biscuits and a dab of treacle. Jemmy Button had been given more than this but, the argument went, he knew how to eat pork and bread and butter. Besides, it was thought advisable ‘for their own diversion and amusement, that they should seek the bulk of their living in the mode usual in Tierra del Fuego'. That is, they should gather shellfish off the beach and could kill as many of the abundant supply of birds on the island as they wanted. This had the added advantage that they were not ‘a heavy expense to the Mission'.

After breakfast Phillips said a prayer, wherever possible using Fuegian words, then led a hymn. At half past nine Mrs Phillips took away the wives and children, a signal to the men that it was time for work. At eleven o'clock there was break for biscuits and treacle.

Despite claims to the contrary, it seems that the men were worked hard. They were not natural labourers and there are many comments in the documents of the Patagonian Missionary Society about laziness, the ease with which fatigue overcame them and their tendency to wander away from jobs. Nevertheless, over the next nine months the mission had little reason to complain. The Fuegian men riddled and dug peat for fuel, painted window-frames, carried paving slabs. They tended the gardens and dug trenches, built bridges across streams, carried poles from the beach and took rudimentary lessons in carpentry. The women made baskets and table mats, and helped with chores around the house. If this was not the slavery that William Parker Snow was alleging back in Britain, then it was moderately gruelling labour, carried out by a workforce that had not signed up for such exertions and who were unable to leave of their own accord. When they downed tools and relaxed on the grass saying, ‘Enough work done for money,' as they did from time to time, it is easy to sympathise with them.