Missionaries have labored among the Fuegians, but to very little good result. The first effort was made after the return of Admiral Fitzroy's expedition, which is described in Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle." Four Fuegians were taken to England, where one of them died, and the others remained for three years and were educated. One of these natives was named "Jemmy Button," in consequence of his having been bought from his parents for a button cut from an officer's coat; he was intelligent, and gave promise of future usefulness, and it was thought a good plan to send him to his native land accompanied by a missionary. Jemmy received many presents from kind-hearted people before starting for his old home, and when he arrived there he was cordially welcomed. The ship's carpenter built a house for the missionary and Jemmy; a garden was made and seeds were sown; the natives who flocked around the ship were well treated; and everything seemed to promise favorably. Hardly was the ship out of sight before the natives robbed Jemmy of all his treasures, and reduced him to his original condition of a savage. All his fine clothes were destroyed, and he was compelled to dress--or, rather, to undress--like his own people; it is probable that the missionary would have been killed had not the ship looked in again after a week's absence, to see how things were getting along. [Illustration: JEMMY BUTTON'S SOUND.] The next visitors to Tierra del Fuego found that the effect of civilization on Jemmy had not improved his morals. Captain Snow, who commanded a ship which touched at several places on the island, says Jemmy's tribe was the worst he saw, and had to be constantly watched to prevent thefts. They stole everything they could lay their hands on, and a few years later they massacred the crew of a ship that was sent there by the London Missionary Society, the very ship that Captain Snow formerly commanded. [Illustration: FUEGIANS VISITING A WAR STEAMER.] Most of the missionary work in Tierra del Fuego was through the efforts of Captain Allen Gardiner, formerly of the British navy. Captain Snow says "Gardiner was a brave and upright man, zealously religious, but wanting in wisdom and prudence. He deemed himself called upon to go about the world and bring a few of the heathen from darkness to light. Four times did he belt the earth, visiting the Zulus in South Africa, the islanders of the Pacific, the inhabitants of interior South America, and numerous other places. Twice he was in Patagonia and twice in Tierra del Fuego; the last time he went there was in a passing ship, taking two boats, a surgeon, a lay teacher, a carpenter, and four fishermen from Cornwall, with six months' provisions."