Allen Francis Gardiner: Founder of SAMS
How do you measure success? By most standards the efforts of the Victorian Royal Navy Captain and missionary Allen Gardiner to evangelize indigenous peoples of South America was a miserable failure. His last unsuccessful missionary journey (1850-1851) was an attempt to reach the Yaghans of Tierra del Fuego who were then known as a violent people. Gardiner was accompanied by only 3 Cornish fishermen, a doctor, a ship-carpenter and a catechist. From a base in the Falkland Islands they were landed at Picton Island with enough supplies for 6 months. A combination of mistakes, logistical problems, dreadful weather and Yaghan hostility led to the disease and death of the whole party. No replenishment supplies arrived due to lack of a ship. One by one they died of starvation. Gardiner was the last to die. He wrote his final diary entry on 6 September 1851. When the group of bodies were found a few weeks later, Gardiner's diary was in his hand. It includes the words, "let not t...