MAP OF THE CAPE HORN REGION.The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn
A STUDY OF LIFE IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO AND PATAGONIA
BY
John R. Spears
ILLUSTRATED
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK
27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
LONDON
24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
The Knickerbocker Press
1895
Copyright, 1895
BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
The Knickerbocker Press, New Rochelle, N.Y.
TO ALL WHO LOVE THE RED ABORIGINES OF THE AMERICAS
AS GOD MADE THEM.
PREFACE
I am impelled to say, by way of preface, that the readers will findherein such a collection of facts about the coasts of Tierra del Fuegoand Patagonia as an ordinary newspaper reporter might be expected togather while on the wing, and write when the journey was ended. It wasas a reporter of The Sun, of New York, that I visited the regiondescribed. And instead of giving these facts in the geographicalsequence in which they were gathered, I have grouped them according tothe subjects to which they relate. So it happens that the work is whatmay be properly called a collection of newspaper sketches rather thanthe conventional story of a traveller. I make this explanation the morefreely for the reason that book-buyers as a rule, so book publishershave repeatedly told me, do not take kindly to newspaper sketches boundin book form. They resent as an attempted imposition, it is said, themasking of such writings in the garb that belongs to literature, just asthey would resent the sale of cotton-seed oil under the name of lard.However this may be I am bound to avoid even the appearance of any suchdeceitful intent.
On the other hand there are people who depend almost entirely on thenewspapers for their reading matter. They[Pg vi] seem to prefer the style ofthe newspaper writers. Perhaps a book that is avowedly the work of areporter will meet their approval. At any rate I should be particularlysorry to have any of them think, when the book is offered to them by thebookseller, that it is anything different from what it is.
Then there is the pleading of the baby act in literature—the offeringof apologies for shortcomings and asking for the leniency of the reader.I do not think I ought to do it. It is as if a dairy farmer, whileasking full price for his butter, should say: "I've a realizin' sensethat the smell haint just right. The dinged cows was eatin' leeks aforeI know'd it, but I done my best at the churnin' an' I hope ye'll makeallowances." If a buyer is looking for a book with the odor of flowersand new-mown hay in it I do not think it is becoming to ask him to takeone flavored with garlic instead. Save for the matter manifestly frombooks and records I obtained the facts herein by observation andinterviews; and I am willing to abide by the press law that a blunder isinexcusable. It is, of course, the honest intent of the news-gatherer towrite his facts so that they