Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

10 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

SEVEN MEN STARVED TO DEATH…

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SEVEN MEN STARVED TO DEATH 1-THE '•I* In PATAGON1AN MISSION. s ber p ^e*r 'he readers of the MEIILIN may remem- bef* 8ion» 'ant'er A. Gardiner, R.N., Mr. Maidmeot, a mis- ei A c'ry' ^'H'ams, suioeno and miss onary John Pearce, n»0> Cor sailor; John Eiwin, a carpenter John Bryan, a we&t ^Sherman »nd J. Badcock, another Cornish fisherman, he'' Islai-d"' UDt^er "ie Patagonian Missionary Society, to Picton vef* i»v» 6 ,oulhe'n extremity of AmericB, to convert i!• e tl>* Chrf^' wl't' aQC' Dnc'v'ze(' regions to the truths of d i Or. Ihe ilxth of September, 1851, after witnessing the slow si ob deaths, one by one, almost under his immediate 'if died"0"' °f 1)18 8'1t cotDPitQ'on'» Corninander Gardiner aiso V^t1''6'*1 'ta,va,ion having swept them ali away. ff du T ^u?°* t,le French novelist, in cue of the dramas pro- n$fJh naS'oai'vt brain, places in ilie mouth of a criminal, if hu i°* 0""e^ t0 die on a certain day, records his feelings hour a of friol ?U|r' en his condemnation and hi* execution), the fpn U)U r^V1!D^S 8 man "lo '•oows his destiny. But the 6ad ntf j 18 eo^oor Gardiner and his companions—lecoids j *,U:e0 day by d iy. 8S 'he frightful work of slow Starvation went ,t 8m°a" 'hat 1,11,6 baQd of eoduriog men—have more hJ T„ :Z«1- p0Wer 10 ll'e,r Daked simplicity, then all the wild crav- h IOg8 Of Vlclor Hlloo's climinaL so Tha story is soon old. Captain Mofshead, R.N., was di- .j, b.V >«>e A Imualty to ascertain, on his way to the Pacific, >j,.9 'ile Gommander Gaidiner and his missionary par'y, in affl ,.ler'a del Fuego. His inquirits, previously to sailing, were J greeted to the Rev. G. P. D.spard, of Redland, Bristol, ponorory secretary to the Pataguniao Missionary Societv, who ,f?_t°"ned hicn that ihe party went out io September, 1850, in the J'l V0* .9 '?eri slores had been forwarded Io tliem Lsi sei its! ti'^ Islands; and tha! directions had also bee» '» £ Isl .i 'hey were uoalile to maia/aio 'heir station at Prct»o j m'hey would fall back ou Stateo Island, being provided ht s 'l 'la""c'tc's boats for that emergency. Captaio Morshead if ar,i*ed at Pictoo Island found no satisfactory response ei aft 'l1(lu rleS 5 hut a' length, when scruring thecoasi.and eD °i e' 'naoy hours of fruitless research, when they were ulcut to V8. 'P '^despair, some writmg was seen c>n a rock across a ii»er, I, i(, tfr anr-Rh' Captain Muis'iead, "we instantly made for, r 't tdl"id written, Go to Spaniard Harbour and on another ,>F in^' adj 'ir'inp' Ae 'ounc' 'he words written, Y JU wili fiod U* 0 «e ''4Q5a"' Ha< hour.' Here was a clue to the objects of their inar°I'' heY hastened io the spot indicated, and on the morn- fd be^ ° 'le '^I't °f J'tou uy, tiiis vear, saw the boat lyiog on the 'o winch they found so-ne books and pasers, wiih the f4 poor Gardiner and Maidment lying unburied on the J °|0Uad' Oa one of the papers was writien—"If you walk tit b°n^ l'#e ^eac^ for 8 roi!e and l)a!f, you will fiod us in the other a", hitn'ed up in the rootrth of a river at the head of the harbour, a, Q 11 e lontli side. Delay not-we are starving." Long ex- ill ?eif''n^ sui'plies aod perishing for want of them, no doubt the IP °'iiin lie men wrote these sad instruciions, intending to pass J" ,*>e i comrades ahead, when death overtook them in the el t "r their misery.—Captain Morshead followed the di- aj scitoo^ jtid touod tlie other boat, or its wreck, containing the of pm,u08 of two bodies, supposed to be those of the su'geon and 1,0 ea' e, the pa; ersshowing that the three others had been buried p J(| P'ev.ous y, altci their deaths by starvation. 10 I nm the pap rs fjund it appeared that the unfortunate party i* at the island on the 5th of December, 1850; that et .avi!,8 Pi'ched their tenia, they were compelled to re embark by g the miive* whom they went to convert; that they proceeded to CDP<>^ite shore, on the south oast of'J'ietra del Fuego that ie ,nd wave» »l«nost wrecked their boats; that they sailed 18 l! 'lom SP0' experiencing many vicissitudes, and be|R.-driveo away by the natives, that at leogih,the scurvy over- <akic^ one or two of them, they resolved to return, in March, to 1' "icto i's Island, to await the arrival of stores, which were ex- pect^d theie that the natives again dtove them away; and f( painted notices on the rocks, to direct those who might > Come after them, they removed to another place. Then com. 0 the work of slow starvation their stores were diminish- '< ik^ "le daily allowance was shortened sickness came upoD „ her aj^iavated by want of food, of shelter, and of hope ever rescued from their dreadful position and then—death. J About the middle of April, 1851, Captain Gaidiner begiDS to re- rn his diary, which has been pre«ervtd to us, that "they half provisions enough to last for two months, but some are 1 'ow*" They have but a flask and a half of powder; their I shiug net is washed away. They shoot an occasional fox, |! ge'*6s them for food and, besides, if they did notdesiroy be <aimal, he would do his best to steal the remainder of their nltt- giock of provisions. The scurvy breaks out among the part v. They ars druen to take refuge in a cavern but the tide in, and Captain G<rdiner and Mr Maidment, the caiechist, •re obliged to swim out for their lives, and take refuge upon a «IuT.p of rock, round the (use of which the waves of the South AtUaiic are breaking. Upon this rock the two poor creatures oed down to prayer. John Badcock, a Cornish fisherman, lea. By July 4, the party hive been seven weeks or. short al Owsnce; their only hope is in the expected ship from the Falk- and Islands but no ship comes. They greedily eat a penguin, a half-devoured fijh, washed upon the shore. Six mice *'8 spoken of in the journal as dainties. The garden-seeds have Bee = used for broth, and are all spent. Muscles and limpets Ire rhe next resource-and then rock-weed is boiled down to a jelly. Erwio, a carpenter, and Badcock, a Cornish fisher- eke I die. Two of the party, Mr Williams, the surgeon, and a third Cornishman, had gone away from the main body of tne party, for some object or other, probably for the disco- *e,.v of food. Their dead bodies were discovered at Cook's River, some distance off. The presumption is they must have Tied about the same time as Captain Gardiner himself, who 'i probably expired on the 6th of September. The last entry in niscury is on the 5th of September, and in this be mentions that he had not tasted food or water for four days. Mr Maid- tnent, the catecbist, had dit-d a few days before, U^ion this fearful calamity, the Timet indignantly observes:— Neither reverence for the cause ID which they were engaged, nor ( sdmitation of the lofty qualities of the leader of the party, can bnn f our eyes to the unutterable folly of the enterprise as it was conducted, or smother the expression of Ditmal indignation agaiast those who could wantonly risk io many valuable lives on •o hopeless an expedition. Surely there is distress and agony enough at home-surety there is ignorance and vice enough within the boundaries of the four eeae. When this distress shall have been alleviated-ithen this ignorance shall have beeo en- ,a, lightened-when this vice shall have been extirpated, will it not be time enough to think of dispatching missions to Cape Holt) 1 There is such a thing ai subordination even among act* of dii ty. What are we to think of that charity which disregards the claims of the suffering thousands who speak with English tongues, but -can had sympathy and money enough when there is a question of affordiog assistance to a parcel of scarcely human savages, separated from us, we may almost say, by the diameter of the globe 1 True, they may be living in the midst of savagery and brutality of the wildest kind, but at least they are not afflicted with that worst species of suffering—conscious degradation. They have not present before their eyes at every moment of the day a standard of comparison which adds intensity to every pang they suffer. We should be perfectly willing to accept the argument bgainst the promoters of these wild schemes, from their own point of view. We should be prepared to show them in our own large towns, and in the very centre of Biitish civiliza- tion, persons as ignorant of therudiments of Christianity, as the wretched stvages who persecuttd Captain Gardiner and III- companions amidst the lempes's of Cape Horo. The reports of the various commissioners connected will, the Associations for the Promotion of Christianity by various means in Ihe populous distncis of English towns, will supply them with ..11 requisite information. Let them go to the Bi*hop of London—let them go to Lord Shaftesburj—let ihem go to the neaiest inspector 01 police, and they can soon supply themselves with facts sufficient to quicken their missionary z.-al. We, who maybe supposed lo entertain the queslion rather in the spirit of statesmen or polinciuns, would say, Why do not you, who are blessed with abundant means, rather pluck a few hundreds or thousands of your suffering countrymen from certain dts-ruction. than wlllte your energits upon a horde of savages separated from you by every line of dematcat)onwh)t.hProvtdericeCinsHtbtt<€en human beings 1 What would you say to the wild Pntagomao who would, with a dry eye, abandon his unfortunate country- men to their ignorance, iheir brutality, and the r storms, and devote his hie to the purpose "f procuring pointed glass for the windows of St. Barnabas in Belgravia, or subscriptions for the erection of district churches in Bolton or in Sheffield ] Is it not io your power, by a slight exercise of your superior intelligence, = nd a slight expenditure of your abundant means, to remove ""aoy an English family to Australia or the Canadas, to lands here they will grow up without the awful temptations to which ey must inevitably be exposed at home, and where iheir child- en will meet with all profiiable instruction and teaching 1 Your mpafhies are not with them. Their sufferings are a common d everyday matter. It requires almost the pungency of a ro irvinceto lash your sluggish zeal into activity. The Pataoonian I ai d the negro are your brolhelS-Dot so your poor English low-country men." Strange as it n,ay appear, this is a lament ",t.de truth, and the result is neglect at home, and misdirected energy abroad.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FROM FRIDAY'S LOND()\ (JAZETTE,…

BRIBERY AND THE A I ING AT…

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HOUSE OF LORDS—FRIDAY, APRIL…

———-<-——— HOUSE OF COMMONS—FKIDAY,…

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TRIUMPHANT RECEPTION OF MR.…