Allen Gardiner was born on June 28, 1794, at Basildon, Berks, England. His parents were pious Christians.
He decided as a very young lad to become a sailor, and would try to prepare himself for the life he planned to lead. He sailed the world and attained the rank of captain. But all along, his heart burned with missionary zeal for the various peoples of foreign lands.
After becoming ill in 1822, he wrote: “After years of ingratitude, unbelief, blasphemy and rebellion, have I at last been melted? Alas, how slow, how reluctant I have been to admit the heavenly guest who stood knocking without!”
After his wife died, although he still applied to captain ships, his heart was in missionary activity and what he personally could do about it. He tried to stir up interest in England and Scotland, among the Moravians, etc., but to no avail. His failed attempts were followed by his own missionary activities in various lands, but government interference and inter-tribal warfare would force him back home.
In 1844, he established the Patagonian Missionary Society. He left for South America for a third time, determined to get a mission started among the aborigines there, but was repelled by the intertribal fighting and government interference. He returned to England and recruited six missionaries, obtained some funding from a private source, and set out again. Unfortunately, the natives came and took all their supplies, and left them to die. All seven died of disease, starvation, and exposure on Picton Island.
Gardiner was the last to die and wrote in his journal on September 5, 1851, just before dying: “Good and marvelous are the loving kindnesses of my gracious God unto me. He has preserved me hitherto and for four days, although without bodily food, without any feelings of hunger or thirst.”
Later, the bodies of the missionaries were found, and buried. The story of their determination and deaths spurred missionary activity back home, and the formation of the South American Missionary Society.
Sources
Stanley Frodsham. “Allen Gardiner, Saint, Sailor, Martyr.” http://www.victory-cruises.com/graphics/Gardiner.jpg
Morgan, R.J. On This Day. electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, c1997. September 5.
More Real Stories for the Soul. electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000.
