THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Details of mutiny at Chilean convict colony published

The News Letter columns of the 1800s were often filled with fascinating news stories from around the world.

One such story, which had appeared in the Southern Cross, was published on this day in 1878.

It read: “The Chilean colony of Punta Arenas, in the Straits of Magellan, has been the scene of the greatest horrors. Punta Arenas is a penal colony. On November 12 the garrison mutinied, headed by a sergeant, who set at liberty all the convicts, and the mutineers murdered the officer in command. The mutineers have given themselves up to murdering and plundering and setting properties on fire. The captain of the port and the custom house official managed to escape in a boat and succeeded in boarding the steamer Memphis until they met an American man-of-war Adams which ship had gone to suppress the mutiny. The Memphis was fired at by the mutineers on passing Punta Arenas but fortunately without effect.”

It was not the first time that a mutiny had occurred in the area, the report added, some 25 years previously as similar revolt had occurred under the leadership of a rebel named Cambiaro.

On that occasion the governor Senor Menoz Gamero, who was noted as “a distinguished Chilean naval officer”, had been murdered. Cambiaro and some of his men were later captured by the Chilean authorities and executed at Valparaiso.