Savage (35 page)

Early the next morning a boat was lowered and Ookoko and Pinoiense were rowed across the bay to Button Island, where it was intended they would set up a farm. Stirling came across a grim scene as he walked along the beach: the remains of a still smouldering funeral pyre on which the body of one of Macooallan's brothers had recently been incinerated. Nearby stood a feeble wigwam of wickerwork branches where the corpse had been kept until the pyre was ready. Ookoko whispered to the missionary that Jemmy Button had been interred, and had yet to be cremated. The Fuegians had waited for Macooallan and Threeboys to return before proceeding.

Stirling expressed no interest in seeing the body of the man who had done so much to change the relationships of white man and Fuegian, who had been half-way around the globe and had met the King and Queen of England. There was to be no special funeral for this once sought-after and good-natured man. The mission had moved on, and Jemmy Button had outlived his usefulness. When he died, the man for whom Allen Gardiner and his six companions had starved to death, and for whom eight men had later perished on Wulaia Cove, was no longer important to the Society's plans. The missionaries were conquering the Yamana language, and the bridge that FitzRoy's Fuegian had built between two worlds had been superseded. With his demands and occasional rages, and his probable involvement in the 1859 massacre, Jemmy was now considered something of a problem. He had died a heathen, unchristened and unwanted by the missionaries who had so exploited him. He would be cremated by his own people, but Stirling did not wait to watch. He returned to the boat and headed back to Wulaia Cove.

Here more chilling news awaited him. From the deck of the
Allen Gardiner
Lucca had pointed to the spot where the bodies of the massacred crew had been hidden. He had talked confidently about the burial, about when it had happened and how he had helped carry one of the corpses. He told how he and Ookoko had covered it with large stones to protect it from foxes. Ookoko confirmed the story and was left on the ship in a state of distress, as Stirling, Lucca and the new catechist, Jacob Rau, rowed out to the base of an overhanging cliff where smashed rocks lay in a huge pile. The three men scrambled ashore and found traces of the bodies scattered among the boulders. Stirling noted:

The remains of Mr Phillips and Captain Fell are unmistakable, Lucca tells us that Mr Phillips, and Captain Fell, were both cast into the same chasm of rocks. We can collect only a part of the remains. But I have no doubt now that six of the bodies of our beloved friends were placed where we sought them in their entirety, that they were placed there in their clothes, – (for the signs are unmistakable) – and that not even their pockets were rifled.

Stirling marvelled at Alfred Coles's failure to find the remains of the murdered men, especially considering how much time he had spent at Wulaia. He speculated that perhaps Coles had assumed that the cadavers had been flung into the sea, or perhaps he had been afraid of mentioning the massacre to the Fuegians who had been so kind him.

Next day, 11 March 1861, a funeral service was conducted, partly on board the
Allen Gardiner
and partly on the rocks under which the dead men lay buried. The flag was hung ‘half-mast high' and they sang the hymn

When our heads are bowed with woe

When our bitter tears o'erflow

When we mourn the lost, the dear,

Jesu, born of woman hear.

The ship's two guns fired a brief, but dramatic salute over Wulaia, signalling the end of the service. Then, the crew set to building a new home and goat house for Ookoko, on the cove itself near the dilapidated manse. The
Allen Gardiner
set sail a week later carrying a new party of eight Fuegians, plus Lucca and Threeboys. It was reported that the latter was in such deep grief at the loss of his father that he asked if he could live at Keppel Island for the rest of his life.

*   *   *

Over the next year more trips were made to Tierra del Fuego and more Indians transported in both directions. The experiment with Ookoko on Wulaia failed when, after months of harassment from fellow Fuegians, his house was burned down and most of his goats slaughtered. He was taken back to Keppel Island where Stirling debated whether he was ready to become the first Fuegian to be christened. It seems the missionary was torn between the desire to baptise Ookoko and the fear of being accused of doing it prematurely simply to gain kudos. For the moment he held off, though a letter from the Society's old adversary Charles Bull suggested that the young man was ready:

I think [Stirling] is a little impelled to delay Ookokko's baptism, because he does not wish for a single moment to be the instrument of doing that which might have the appearance of being only an empty show to parade results. I have seen many a catechumen not near so promising as all the natives I have mentioned baptized at the Cape of Good Hope …

On 10 June 1865 Stirling left for England on the
Allen Gardiner,
accompanied by four young Fuegian men: Threeboys and Uroopa, both in their late teens, Mamastugadegenes, an orphan, aged twelve, who went by the name Jack, and Sesoienges, an eleven-year-old. With hindsight, this episode raises the question of whether the lessons of the last thirty-five years had been learned. The removal of Jemmy, York, Boat and Fuegia to Walthamstow had not been successful, but Stirling was keen to impress both supporters and detractors of the Society at home. He was anxious to show the progress that had been made since the tragedy of November 1859. The aims of the exercise, as reported by the Society, had a familiar ring:

Care was taken to place them under the protection of those who could teach them to read and practise the holy lessons of the Bible, but they were shown, as opportunity offered, not only the sights which are most surprising to a stranger, but the arts and manufactures, the fruits of actual industry and trade, which render a civilized country such a startling contrast to a land wholly devoid of them.

On 11 August 1865 the
Allen Gardiner
sailed up the river Avon, under Brunel's new suspension bridge at Clifton, and then into Bristol, where it was met by Bishops Anderson and McCrae. At a thanksgiving service on board the singing was led by the four Fuegian boys.

The time these Fuegians spent in England was to be significantly more productive than the stay of their predecessors three decades earlier. There was less sense of abduction and the whole affair seemed freer. Each of the boys had been properly vaccinated, their understanding of English, English ways and culture was far greater than that of their predecessors. Moreover, the network of support awaiting them was more sophisticated, and their visit was longer, enabling them to acclimatise more satisfactorily.

They also travelled about more. In the years since the last visit by Fuegians to Britain the country had driven its way into the modern age on the back of nineteenth-century industrialisation. Roads were better, railways were swifter, steam ships no longer a novelty, and the Fuegian boys were taken the length and breadth of the country. In September they attended the annual conference of the British Association in Birmingham and one session on geology was interrupted so that the BA's president Sir Rodney Murchison, who had dined with Button, Basket and York back in 1831, could introduce them to the conference. The Fuegians saw the Crystal Palace, went to Ireland, had their photograph taken in York, attended discussions in private homes and participated in missionary meetings. They roamed around independently, finding their way around large cities and towns and even braving the country's steam locomotives, as one Society member noted:

The two eldest boys quickly accommodated themselves to the perplexing difficulties even of railway travelling, and if either of them failed, when travelling by himself, to understand which of several trains he was to enter, he contrived to make the porters understand his difficulty; or, if he gave up his ticket before his journey's end, he would settle that difficulty by ‘buying another ticket,' and travelling on.

On days without formal business they passed their mornings in lessons given by a friend of the Society, much of the time spent reading the Bible aloud, and their afternoons in the carpenter's shop. Dr John Beddoe, who was the ‘Foreign Associate' of the Anthropological Society, examined them and reported that the measurements of the two eldest boys' heads showed an intelligence that was ‘above the averages yielded by the population of Bristol and its neighbourhood'.

Their stay in Britain proved longer than anticipated. The
Allen Gardiner
was undergoing a complete refit, and the Society was embroiled in a legal dispute, which delayed their departure further. In January 1866 the organisation had renamed itself the South American Missionary Society, partly to deflect attention from its earlier notoriety but also to reflect its extended field of operations in other parts of the continent, and had moved its headquarters from Bristol to London. Some members were unhappy at this and fought the changes, most notably over ownership of the missionary schooner. In the meantime, the Fuegians charmed all who met them. At a big meeting in Ireland, Threeboys had made a brief speech in Fuegian and then sung the first verse of ‘How Sweet The Name Of Jesus Sounds' in English. The Bishop of Cork was moved:

Of the addresses which I have heard tonight [he wrote], the one which I shall longest remember is the address written on the face and form of this youth and in the tone of his voice ‘warbling his native wood-notes wild'. There is a softness and sweetness in it that shows that he can say with us, ‘God is my Father, Heaven is my home, and Eternity is my lifetime…'

The Society's annual general meeting in London, in February 1866, was presided over by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Rochester, who thirty-five years earlier had gone by the simpler title of the Reverend Joseph Wigram – one of the original sponsors of Jemmy Button and his colleagues. He was delighted to see that the work pioneered by Robert FitzRoy had continued. He told Threeboys that he had known his father, and shook hands with him vigorously.

Their stay became even more drawn-out as the dispute dividing the Society became more convoluted. In anticipation of an imminent departure in June 1866 the four Fuegians stepped up their speaking activities. A fragment from their appointment diary for a five-day period in that month shows a hectic schedule:

And this was only part of it. As it became increasingly obvious that they were not about to go home, they attended meetings and gave addresses and lectures in Redhill, Reigate, Putney, Spring Grove, Rochester, Blackheath, Cheltenham, Dover, Folkestone, Exeter, Sundridge, and Tunbridge Wells. Eventually the problems in the Society were resolved, Stirling was reappointed as missionary for Tierra del Fuego and, on 8 December 1866, sixteen months after they had arrived in England, the four boys began their journey home.

The visit had been a success, and the South American Missionary Society hoped that it represented the beginning of a new era, but the voyage back to the Falklands had lamentable consequences. Storms lashed the missionary ship and by the time they reached Monte Video, Uroopa, who had suffered constant sea-sickness, was racked with consumption. Nine days ashore did little to alleviate his agony. He was placed back on the ship, which was kept in port so that he did not have to suffer the rolling of waves. As his condition deteriorated he began to pray ‘like one verging on eternity' and handed out his few possessions to those around him. On 23 March, in the presence of the whole crew and a Reverend Mr Adams, Stirling baptised Uroopa, giving him the name John Allen Gardiner. The next day the ship pulled out of Monte Video for a dreadful passage to the Falklands. On the afternoon of 1 April the Fuegian called for the captain and Stirling in the belief that he was dying, but the pain eased temporarily. However, at just before one the next morning his body gave in. Three days later he was buried in the cemetery in Port Stanley.

In June, Stirling, Threeboys and Ookoko went to Tierra del Fuego with the dual purpose of scouting land for a possible settlement and of breaking the bad news to Uroopa's father. One day four canoes came alongside the
Allen Gardiner
and a man stood up, gesticulating with a spear, and shouting abuse at the missionary party. It was Uroopa's father. He had heard that they had murdered his son and he had come for revenge. Thomas Bridges placated him and persuaded him to come on board. In the captain's cabin Threeboys and Ookoko told him of his son's illness, and also of how he had become a Christian. Uroopa, they convinced him, had died happy. The father accepted their explanation.

Now, though, misfortune struck again. The seemingly healthy Threeboys came down with an excruciating kidney complaint. As the pain got worse, he became delirious and screamed and rambled for hours. Stirling ordered that the ship turn tail and make haste for Port Stanley. On 18 June, in a moment of lucidity, Threeboys agreed to be baptised and to take the name George, but he died three days later while the
Allen Gardiner
was still a full day's sailing from the Falklands' capital. A post-mortem carried out by a surgeon in the town diagnosed Bright's disease, a malady unknown among the Fuegian peoples.