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Circulation of details in the Irish newspapers relating to the Patagonian Missionary Society (PMS) began in the autumn of 1844, only four months after the first committee meeting was held in Brighton, England. But before we reach 1844, it is worth noting several earlier articles relating to the Society’s founder, Captain Allen Francis Gardiner (1794-1851), in the Irish papers.
The details of A.F. Gardiner’s life will be well-known to many readers. This article, therefore, does not intend to go through the biography in any great detail but to introduce some of his experiences to the reader who may not be aware of them; to bring the voice of his second wife, Elizabeth Gardiner, into the conversation; and to link the first publications in Irish newspapers to the broader context of their lives. A select bibliography for further more detailed reading can be found at the end.
![[Captain Allen Gardiner. Illustration for Conquests of the Cross, A Record of Missionary Work throughout the World, edited by Edwin Hodder (Cassell, c 1890). Credit: Look and Learn]](https://livingarchive.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AF-Gardiner.jpg)
The Gardiner and Family in Port Natal: 1834-1838
In 1838 the Statesman and Dublin Christian Record (25 June), the Belfast Commercial Chronicle (27 August), and the Achill Missionary Herald and Western Witness (20 December) all featured accounts relating to Port Natal, South Africa, and the missionary experience of the increasing violence of the Zulu-Boer War (1837-1840). The Achill Missionary Witness noted that,
“Captain Gardiner, an officer in the royal navy […] succeeded in obtaining from Dingarn permission for the entrance of any Christian Missionaries into his dominions, whom he might bring with him from Europe; and, having returned with these tidings to England, he induced the Church Missionary Society to establish a mission among the Zooloos, where the Rev. Francis Owen, with his wife and sister, besides some other assistants, opened his divine commission to the king and people. […] Dingarn had moreover presented Captain Gardiner with a tract of land at the southern extremity of his kingdom, on which he had established himself with his family.” (20 December 1838)
A.F. Gardiner had arrived in Port Natal in December 1834 after the death of his first wife, Julia Susanna (née Reade), in June 1834. Her death, in addition to that of one of their children and an aunt all in the one year, resulted in a deep spiritual awakening and decision to commit his life to reaching ‘the most abandoned heathens’ in any region with the gospel. His first focus fell on opening up possibilities for mission in South Africa, north of Port Natal. His brother-in-law, John Marsh, described Gardiner’s life from 1834 onwards as one of ‘incessant action’ [A Memoir, p. 48].
As noted in the Achill Missionary Herald quote above, in 1835 he returned to England to apply to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) to support the work he had begun among the Zulus and the settlers. Despite some initial hesitation, the Society committed to the venture. In 1836, Gardiner returned to Port Natal with his second wife, Elizabeth Lydia (née Marsh) and his three surviving children from his first marriage, only to be forced, along with other missionaries, to leave in 1838 due to the worsening violence of the war. The Achill Missionary Herald reports that the family had fled to Algoa Bay by the end of March 1838, and the Owens who had travelled from England with them also as CMS missionaries moved to Natal Bay. In June 1838 the Gardiner family were in Rio de Janeiro, although by this stage there were only two surviving children; the eldest daughter, aged twelve, had died in 1837. His son, Allen Weare Gardiner, would later travel to the South America in the 1850s in the company of the first Irish man to serve as catechist for the PMS/SAMS.
We pick up the story of the Gardiners again in 1843 through the Achill Missionary Herald, in a reference to a young couple waiting for passage to Patagonia. These few lines, however, fail to convey the ‘incessant activity’ of the intervening six years since leaving Port Natal. The 1838-43 travels in South America were not A.F. Gardinder’s first experience of the continent, he had many years of visiting different ports and cities, particularly in the 1820s in Chile and Peru, through his service on the Dauntless in the Royal Navy.
The Gardiner family in South America: 1838-1843
After arriving in Rio de Janeiro, the small family group had travelled from Brazil to Buenos Aires and on to Mendoza, Argentina, to improve their Spanish and gain more information on an indigenous group on the southern frontier of Chile. They crossed the Argentine pampas – some 900 miles – in a galera, before tackling the cordillera to Santiago, Chile, in ten days.
![[A ‘galera’ would have been similar to these ‘carretas’. This photo was part of a series for an illustrated edition of the Argentine epic poem by José Hernández, El Gaucho Martín Fierro. "Estancia San Juan", property of Leonardo Pereyra, the other founding member of Sociedad Fotográfica Argentina de Aficionados. Photo in the Public Domain]](https://livingarchive.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Galera.jpg)
The galera, pulled by five horses, was suffificiently large to allow them to sleep in it if needed, but they generally found post houses each night for resting, taking in their own matteresses and bedding. A courier ran ahead each day to make arrangements and find fresh horses for the next stage of the journey. Elizabeth Gardiner remembered that in the mornings they had drinking chocolate, made Spanish style, or Paraguayan mate ‘made tea fashion for tea’, along with bread. In the evenings there was a ‘fowl stewed’ that was eaten cold the next day. [‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner’, p. 35]
Of the mountain crossing, she later recounted to her grandson (most likely William Reade Gardiner) that,
“We had five horses, each of which was hooked by his rider to the poles of the carriage. Thus far we followed the customs of the country. Crossing the mountains wanted more contrivance, and your Grandfather’s ingenuity found scope for exercise. The usual way of carrying a child was for a man to place him on a pillow in front of him as he sat on his horse. This was not to be permitted, so panniers were made, each being a sort of long box made of a framework of wood covered with hides and lined with some of the wagon cushions which your Grandfather’s prudence had brought from Africa. All our baggage had to be restowed in hide trunks of the country the proper size for conveyance on pack saddles. The panniers answered perfectly and, with a few small books and toys, the children were quite happy and able to change their posture whenever they liked.” [‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner’, p. 35]
Because it was still early in the season with significant amounts of snow, these paniers then became palanquins to carry Elizabeth and children at the top of the pass – much to the dismay of those carrying them. The impact of the mountain experience was clearly overwhelming. She later wrote that, “I must admit, that a great part of the journey was too sublime for me, the vastness and grandeur were overpowering, some sign of the presence of man or beast would have been a relief.” (p. 35)
![[The cordillera. Vista del Cordón del Plata en la provincia de Mendoza. Leandro Kibisz, CC BY-SA 4.0 ]](https://livingarchive.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/cordillera.jpg)
Then southwards to Concepción, Valdivia, and Valparaíso (1838-1839) in repeated but unsuccessful attempts to find a location for a missionary station among indigenous communities. After these failed attempts, in 1839, Gardiner turned his attention to Papua, New Guinea, taking his family with him once more (via Sydney, Australia; Timor, Ambon, and Ternate islands, Indonesia). Not meeting with success there, they returned to Rio de Janeiro after one year (via Java – Cape Town – St Helena), whence they once again travelled via Cape Horn to Valparaíso, Quinchilca, Arique, and Chiloe (1841).
Education on the move
During all these travels the children’s care and education was one of Elizabeth Gardiner’s main concerns. She confesses somewhat ruefully to her grandson that on occasion when Gardiner felt there was a greater than normal need for prayer in relation to a decision to be made,
“I was afraid of the discourses being rather too long for the children’s attention, but of course did not hint that to them and they always behaved perfectly, which I think quite in accordance with child nature.” [‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner’, p. 36]
What the children thought remains unknown. That they engaged with the world around them and had an education that encouraged understanding of all they were experiencing is clear,
“ … a plan was started for adding to the children’s stores of knowledge in an original and interesting way, thus: The father and children were to commence a correspondence. Each was to ask a question and to answer one. The letters were to be placed in an amateur letterbag, labelled Postoffice, generally placed stealthily and discovered triumphantly. Many of the youthful questions showed observing minds readily interested in general knowledge. We had also various games – one was called only Describing things, and began ‘I have thought of something’. Another was called Earth, air and water. But their great delight was in pet animals or birds. Of these we had a succession – dogs, cats, parrots and goats…” [‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner’, p. 38]
Move to the Falkland Islands
The continued lack of success in finding a location for a mission in Chile (sometimes due to political or religious tensions, sometimes because the indigenous leaders did not want a European settling in their territories) led Gardiner to consider the Falkland Islands as a base from which he could travel to Patagonia. Enquiries on his return to Valparaíso indicated the difficulties in finding suitable housing for his family. As a result, they formulated a plan to bring a house in sections and rebuild it on arrival. Anchoring at Port Louis, Berkeley Sound, 23 December 1841, which according to Marsh presented ‘a very dreary aspect’, the crew of the Sparrow helped them build their little wooden house. There they had to wait a considerable period during which time the Erebus and Terror wintered in the harbour, as did Captain Bartholomew Sulivan who would come to play an important role in the PMS/SAMS, on the Philomel.
![[Charles Darwin, 1890, Journal of Researches Into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage Round the World of H. M. S. 'Beagle' Under the Command of Captain Fitz Roy, New York City, NY: D. Appleton and Company. Public domain license]](https://livingarchive.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Berkely-Sound-1.jpg)
It is at this point that the Achill Missionary Herald picks up the Gardiners’ story in an extract from correspondence by an unnamed Naval officer stationed in the Falkland Islands on 4 June 1842. Although the letter concerns missionaries in New Zealand, toward the end the author remarks that,
“Since our arrival here we have fallen in with an enthusiastic couple, a Commander in the Navy, and his wife. Five years have they been from England amongst Indians, and are now waiting here to get a passage to Patagonia, then to make his way and prepare an opening for the Church Mission. He is not in orders or in connexion with any Society, but certainly devoted to his work. She is really a very nice young person, and has two fine children. We shall be, I hope, of service to them during their stay, as they are but poorly provided in a small wooden house, and only a few wet turf to burn, and the snow pretty thick on the ground.” (Achill Missionary Herald, 25 May 1843)
These few lines convey some of challenges facing Elizabeth Gardiner, who was only c. 24 years old and the children roughly 7-9 years old, while her husband engaged in his further explorations. In her account of this period, the only indication of a desire for a less ‘mobile’ existence appears before their travel to pursue the openings in Papua New Guinea. She states,
“I should not have been sorry if he had then taken up Bible and Tract distribution – so many people could read, and there were so few books, and he so much regretted that the Bible Society had no agent in the whole continent. But he did not look at this in the same light and considered his own life as dedicated to God’s work among those of the heathen nations to whom He was yet an unknown God.” [‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner’, p. 36]
That the house in the Port Louis was basic was nothing new for the family. During one of their previous stays in Valparaíso their house,
“was utterly without furniture so it was necessary to get bedsteads and chairs and tables – of course of the plainest description – a side table was contribued thus – two piles of brick supporting two long planks covered with red calico – bookcases in like manner of plank slung with rope, and each shelf covered with red calico […] each of us had a corner or a shelf or a box in which to put away his things.” [‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner’, p. 38]
![[Port Louis, taken from Reclamación del Gobierno de las Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata, contra el de su Majestad Británica sobre la soberanía y posesión de las Islas Malvinas (Falkland). Manuel Moreno, London 1841. Copyright Public Domain]](https://livingarchive.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/port-luis-malvinas-1841.jpg)
Contact with Patagonia
Eventually, Gardiner was able to charter the Montgomery, an ‘old, scaly schooner’, to take him to Gregory Bay , Patagonia, in March 1842. Here he encountered a native of Montevideo, San Leon, who had been living there for 12 years and acted as translator for him with the indigenous people near Oazy Harbour. Gardiner’s journal records that they gave him freedom to remain and build in that area. He also entered into discussions with Chief Wissale, who had recently returned from El Carmen settlement on the Río Negro, Argentina, with over one hundred newly purchased horses. In his party, he encountered an African American man named Isaac who had been living in Patagonia for three years and had greater mastery of the language than San Leon, and who acted as his translator.
Elizabeth Gardiner noted that,
“He came back quite happy and sanguine having had agreeable interviews with a Patagonian Chief called Wissale, and received his sanction to bring us to live on the
coast. So he left his tent under the chief’s charge, and if he could have engaged some whaler or passing ship to convey us, we should have gone at once. He did not like a second time to take the crazy Montgomery. […] Letters at last came from England which convinced your Grandfather that even if we were what he called ‘holding the ground’ in Patagonia it would be hopeless to expect the C.M.S. to send a missionary to prosecute the work, as they were retrenching on all hands. This decided him to return to England, and as the children had very much improved in health and were of an age to profit by advantages in education unattainable in our wandering life it came to pass that his subsequent journeys were made alone.” [‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner’, p. 39]
These friendly encounters seemed to forge the possibility for successfully establishing a mission base in the area. They are important to note in relation to Gardiner’s eventual return to the region in 1845 to find a very different set of circumstances. By February 1943, the family were once again back in England. Our story continues in the Achill Missionary Herald in 1844, by which time Gardiner had already completed another voyage to South America (September 1843-April 1844). Click here for the next article on ‘Announcing a new Missionary Society’
‘Captain Allen F. Gardiner: A memoir written by his wife, written for his grandson’, Natalia, 4, (1974), 28-41
Despard, G.P., Hope Deferred, not Lost: A Narrative of Missionary Effort (James Nibet & Co., 1852, also HardPress Publishing, 2019)
Leśniewski, Michał, The Zulu-Boer War 1837-1840 (Brill, 2021)
Marsh, John, A memoir of Allen F. Gardiner, Commander, R.N. (James Nisbet and Co., 1857)
Marsh, John, and Waite H. Stirling, The story of Commander Allen Gardiner, R.N., 4th ed. (James Nisbet and Co., 1877)
Thompson, Phyllis, An unquenchable flame. The story of Captain Allen Gardiner founder of the South American Missionary Society (Hodder and Stoughton, 1983)
Young, Robert, From Cape Horn to Panama. A Narrative of Missionary Enterprise Among the Neglected Races of South America, 2nd edn. (South American Missionary Society, 1905)
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