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The Mission operated on Keppel between 1855 and 1898 (proposed by Captain Allen Francis Gardiner before his death in 1851). Transport between Patagonia and Keppel was made possible by their newly built 88 ton schooner Allen Gardiner. The Rev G Despard took charge of the new mission in 1856. The South American Missionary Society initially rented Keppel for £1 for one year then 160 acres were purchased and the rest of the island leased. A house for a bailiff, a chapel and dwellings were built. Yaghan Indians were brought from neighbouring Tierra Del Fuego to Keppel with the intention of persuading them into more civilised ways to take back to their hostile tribes. There was discontentment and in 1859 some families were taken back to Navarin Island where all but one of the party of men accompanying them were massacred by the Indians at Woollya. The Reverend Stirling replaced the disheartened Despard on Keppel in 1863. In 1868 the Mission was given a 60 year lease at a very favourable rent.
Yaghans were brought to ‘Cranmer Station’ where they were instructed in agricultural and gardening techniques, reading, writing and religion. Cows provided milk for butter and produce found a ready market in Stanley, with Keppel butter becoming renowned. An average of 20 pounds were made in a week. The learning worked both ways and Thomas Bridges, a brilliant young missionary working with the Yaghans was able to compile a dictionary of their language which was to prove invaluable. A similar mission was started at Ushuaia in 1869 and the Mission tried unsuccessfully to sell Keppel. The last Fuegians were moved back to the new mission on the South American mainland in 1898. |
