As captain of the Beagle, Robert FitzRoy wanted to bring the gospel to the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego. FitzRoy had encountered the Yaghan on the Beagle’s first voyage. He had gone back to England with three Yaghan youths he wanted to disciple then return to their home as missionaries. Darwin was on the second voyage of the Beagle when FitzRoy left the Yaghan back in their homeland. These youths did not, however, establish the desired mission. 

That mantle fell to Allen Gardiner. Gardiner had abandoned the faith of his childhood and become a godless mocker. God answered the prayers of Gardiner’s mother when Gardiner furtively sneaked into a shop (so no one would see him) and purchased a Bible. By the time Gardiner was left in Patagonia to establish a mission, he was a man of prayer. This is the prayer recorded in his journal shortly before he died of starvation in Patagonia: “Grant, O Lord, that we may be instrumental in commencing this great and blessed work; but shouldest Thou see fit in Thy providence to hedge up our way, and that we should even languish and die here, I beseech Thee to raise up others, and send forth labourers into this harvest.” 

God answered Gardiner’s prayer when George Despard, secretary of the Patagonian Missionary Society, moved his family to Patagonia to bring the gospel to the Yaghan people. Despard’s family included a son named Thomas Bridges. As the story goes, the boy was found in London. Since it was St. Thomas’ Day, he was given the name Thomas. Since he was found between two bridges, he was given the surname Bridges. 

Following an attack by the local people, Despard took most of his family back to England, but seventeen-year-old Thomas Bridges stayed behind. On a later voyage, Darwin was impressed by the transformation the gospel worked among the Yaghan people. Darwin, who had been adamant that it was useless to send missionaries to such “savages,” later wrote: 

The success of the Tierra del Fuego Mission is most wonderful, and charms 

[or shames] me, as I had always prophesied utter failure. It is a grand success. 

I shall feel proud if your Committee think fit to elect me an honorary member 

of your [missionary] society.

…

I certainly should have predicted that not all the Missionaries in the world could 

have done what has been done. 

That’s because the missionaries didn’t accomplish this wonder; God did, by the overspilling might and mercy of the Holy Spirit. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses . . . to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).