South American Mission Society

, Founded in 1844 as the Patagonian Missionary Society ( PMS) of Allen Gardiner, a former officer in the British Navy for the conversion of the Indian tribes of Patagonia. The company was renamed in 1864 in South American Missionary Society ( SAMS ) and is still active in Latin America.

The idea of ​​establishing this company goes back to the explorations by Fitz Roy in 1830 and 1833, in which four Indians had been deported from Tierra del Fuego to England (see also Jemmy Button ). Your stay in England had caused great public interest.

Gardiner himself undertook along the Strait of Magellan several unsuccessful attempts at proselytizing (1842, 1844/45 and 1848 ) and died on his last attempt at settlement in Tierra del Fuego in 1851, as well as his six companions, malnutrition and scurvy. The news of the death of the men, however, stimulated the generosity of English society, so that the PMS could soon afterwards equip a ship with the name Allen Gardiner under Reverend George Packenham Despard, which was under the command of William Parker Snow. The Falkland Islands should be used as a base for missionary efforts. At Keppel Iceland (sp. Isla Vigia ) is the first mission station was established in 1855 where Indians are moved out of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia to missionary purposes. These missionary attempts, the PMS of the now again returned to Tierra del Fuego group serves to Jemmy Button. Nevertheless, this mission was accompanied by a severe setback. After founding a new mission station on Wulaia (sp. Isla Navarino ) 1859 9 crew members and missionaries of the Allen Gardiner were killed after a confrontation with local groups.

It was not until around 1864, there is renewed missionary attempts, the now renamed the South American Missionary Society society.

• Missionary Society
• Anglican organization
• Established in 1844