initial commit of ebook 4952HEADmain

1 files changed, 28074 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/4952.txt b/4952.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be8d89c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/4952.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,28074 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Life of John Coleridge Patteson, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life of John Coleridge Patteson
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4952]
+Last Updated: April 21, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sandra Laythorpe and Others
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIFE OF JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON:
+
+MISSIONARY BISHOP OF THE MELANESIAN ISLANDS
+
+
+By Charlotte Mary Yonge
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note: This Etext of the Life of John Coleridge Patteson:
+Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands, by Charlotte Mary Yonge
+was prepared by Sandra Laythorpe and others. More information about the
+history of the Anglican Church may be found at Project Canterbury A web
+page for Charlotte M Yonge may be found at www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm.
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+
+There are of course peculiar advantages as well as disadvantages in
+endeavouring to write the life of one recently departed. On the
+one hand, the remembrances connected with him are far fresher; his
+contemporaries can he consulted, and much can be made matter of
+certainty, for which a few years would have made it necessary to trust
+to hearsay or probable conjecture. On the other, there is necessarily
+much more reserve; nor are the results of the actions, nor even their
+comparative importance, so clearly discernible as when there has been
+time to ripen the fruit.
+
+These latter drawbacks are doubled when the subject of the biography has
+passed away in comparatively early life: when the persons with whom his
+life is chiefly interwoven are still in full activity; and when he has
+only lived to sow his seed in many waters, and has barely gathered any
+portion of his harvest.
+
+Thus what I have written of Bishop Patteson, far more what I have
+copied of his letters, is necessarily only partial, although his nearest
+relations and closest friends have most kindly permitted the full use
+of all that could build up a complete idea of the man as he was. Many
+letters relate to home and family matters, such as it would be useless
+and impertinent to divulge; and yet it is necessary to mention that
+these exist, because without them we might not know how deep was the
+lonely man's interest and sympathy in all that concerned his kindred
+and friends. Other letters only repeat the narrative or the reflections
+given elsewhere; and of these, it has seemed best only to print that
+which appeared to have the fullest or the clearest expression. In
+general, the story is best told in letters to the home party; while
+thoughts are generally best expressed in the correspondence with Sir
+John Taylor Coleridge, to whom the Nephew seems to have written with
+a kind of unconscious carefulness of diction. There is as voluminous
+a correspondence with the Brother, and letters to many Cousins; but as
+these either repeat the same adventures or else are purely domestic,
+they have been little brought forward, except where any gap occurred in
+the correspondence which has formed the staple material.
+
+Letters upon the unhappy Maori war have been purposely omitted; and, as
+far as possible, such criticisms on living personages as it seemed fair
+towards the writer to omit. Criticisms upon their publications are of
+course a different thing. My desire has been to give enough expression
+of Bishop Patteson's opinions upon Church and State affairs, to
+represent his manner of thinking, without transcribing every detail of
+remarks, which were often made upon an imperfect report, and were,
+in fact, only written down, instead of spoken and forgotten, because
+correspondence served him instead of conversation.
+
+I think I have represented fairly, for I have done my best faithfully
+to select passages giving his mind even where it does not coincide
+completely with my own opinions; being quite convinced that not only
+should a biographer never attempt either to twist or conceal the
+sentiments of the subject, but that either to apologise for, or as it
+were to argue with them, is vain in both senses of the word.
+
+The real disadvantage of the work is my own very slight personal
+acquaintance with the externals of the man, and my ignorance of the
+scenes in which the chief part of his life was passed. There are those
+who would have been far more qualified in these respects than myself,
+and, above all, in that full and sympathetic masculine grasp of a man's
+powerful mind, which is necessarily denied to me. But these fittest of
+all being withheld by causes which are too well known to need mention,
+I could only endeavour to fulfil the work as best I might; trusting
+that these unavoidable deficiencies may be supplied, partly by Coleridge
+Patteson's own habit of writing unreservedly, so that he speaks for
+himself, and partly by the very full notes and records with which his
+friends have kindly supplied me, portraying him from their point of
+view; so that I could really trust that little more was needed than
+ordinary judgment in connecting and selecting. Nor until the work is
+less fresh from my hand will it be possible to judge whether I have
+in any way been allowed to succeed in my earnest hope and endeavour to
+bring the statue out of the block, and as it were to carve the figure of
+the Saint for his niche among those who have given themselves soul and
+body to God's Work.
+
+It has been an almost solemn work of anxiety, as well as one of love.
+May I only have succeeded in causing these letters and descriptions to
+leave a true and definite impression of the man and of his example!
+
+Let me here record my obligations for materials--I need hardly say to
+the immediate family and relations--for, in truth, I act chiefly as
+their amanuensis; but likewise to the Bishop of Lichfield, Bishop
+Abraham.
+
+Lady Martin, the Rev. B. T. Dudley, the Rev. E. Codrington, and Captain
+Tilly, for their valuable aid--the two first mentioned by correction and
+revision, the others by contributions such as could only be supplied by
+eye-witnesses and fellow-workers. Many others I must thank for kindly
+supplying me with letters.
+
+
+CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE. ELDERFIELD, September 19, 1873.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL, 1827-1838.
+
+
+
+So much of a man's cast of character depends upon his home and
+parentage, that no biography can be complete which does not look back
+at least as far as the lives of the father and mother, from whom the
+disposition is sure to be in part inherited, and by whom it must often
+be formed. Indeed, the happiest natures are generally those which have
+enjoyed the full benefit of parental training without dictation, and
+have been led, but not forced, into the way in which they should go.
+
+Therefore it will not be irrelevant to dwell on the career of the father
+whose name, though still of great weight in his own profession, may not
+be equally known to the younger generation who have grown up since the
+words 'Mr. Justice Patteson' were of frequent occurrence in law reports.
+
+John Patteson, father of the subject of the present memoir, was son to a
+clergyman of a Norfolk family, and was born at Coney Weston, on February
+11, 1790. He was educated at Eton, and there formed more than one
+friendship, which not only lasted throughout his life, but extended
+beyond his own generation. Sport and study flourished alike among such
+lads as these; and while they were taught by Dr. Groodall to delight
+in the peculiarly elegant and accurate scholarship which was the
+characteristic of the highest education of their day, their boyhood
+and youth were full of the unstained mirth that gives such radiance to
+recollections of the past, and often causes the loyalty of affectionate
+association to be handed on to succeeding generations. The thorough
+Etonian impress, with all that it involved, was of no small account in
+his life, as well as in that of his son.
+
+The elder John Patteson was a colleger, and passed on to King's College,
+Cambridge, whence, in 1813, he came to London to study law. In 1816 he
+opened his chambers as a special pleader, and on February 23, 1818, was
+married to his cousin, Elizabeth Lee, after a long engagement. The
+next year, 1819, he was called to the Bar, and began to go the Northern
+circuit. On April 3, 1820, Mrs. Patteson died, leaving one daughter,
+Joanna Elizabeth. Four years later, on April 22, 1824, Mr.
+Patteson married Frances Duke Coleridge, sister of his friend and
+fellow-barrister, John Taylor Coleridge. This lady, whose name to all
+who remember her calls up a fair and sweet memory of all that was good,
+bright, and beloved, was the daughter of James Coleridge, of Heath's
+Court, Ottery St. Mary, Devon, Colonel of the South Devon Volunteers. He
+was the eldest of the numerous family of the Rev. John Coleridge, Master
+of Ottery St. Mary School, and the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was
+the youngest.
+
+The strong family affection that existed between all Colonel Coleridge's
+children, and concentrated itself upon the only sister among them,
+made marriage with her an adoption into a group that could not fail to
+exercise a strong influence on all connected with it, and the ties of
+kindred will be found throughout this memoir to have had peculiar force.
+
+John Coleridge Patteson, his mother's second child and eldest son, was
+born at No. 9, Grower Street, Bedford Square, on the 1st of April,
+1827, and baptized on the 8th. Besides the elder half-sister already
+mentioned, another sister, Frances Sophia Coleridge, a year older than,
+and one brother, James Henry, nearly two years younger than Coleridge,
+made up the family.
+
+Three years later, in 1830, Mr. Patteson was raised to the Bench, at the
+unusually early age of forty.
+
+It is probable that there never was a period when the Judicial Bench
+could reckon a larger number of men distinguished not only for legal
+ability but for the highest culture and for the substantial qualities
+that command confidence and respect. The middle of the nineteenth
+century was a time when England might well be proud of her Judges.
+
+There was much in the habits of the Bench and Bar to lead to close and
+friendly intimacy, especially on the circuits. When legal etiquette
+forbade the use of any public conveyance, and junior barristers shared
+post-chaises, while the leaders travelled in their own carriages, all
+spent a good deal of time together, and it was not unusual for ladies to
+go a great part of the circuit with their husbands, especially when it
+lay in the direction of their own neighbourhood. The Judges' families
+often accompanied them, especially at the summer assize, and thus there
+grew up close associations between their children, which made their
+intimacy almost like that of relationship. Almost all, too, lived in
+near neighbourhood in those parts of London that now are comparatively
+deserted, but which were then the especial abodes of lawyers, namely,
+those adjacent to Bedford Square, where the gardens were the daily
+resort of their children, all playing together and knowing one another
+with that familiarity that childhood only gives.
+
+'Sir John Patteson's contemporaries have nearly all, one by one, passed
+away,' writes one of them, Sir John Taylor Coleridge. 'He has left few,
+if any, literary monuments to record what his intellectual powers were;
+and even in our common profession the ordinary course and practice are
+so changed, that I doubt whether many lawyers are now familiar with his
+masterly judgments; but I feel that I speak the truth when I describe
+him as a man of singularly strong common sense, of great acuteness,
+truthfulness, and integrity of judgment. These were great judicial
+qualities, and to these he added much simplicity and geniality of temper
+and manners; and all these were crowned by a firm, unhesitating, devout
+belief in the doctrines of our faith, which issued in strictness to
+himself and the warmest, gentlest charity to his fellow-creatures. The
+result was what you might expect. Altogether it would be hard to
+say whether you would characterise him as a man unusually popular or
+unusually respected.'
+
+Such was the character of Mr. Justice Patteson, a character built upon
+the deep, solid groundwork of religion, such as would now be called that
+of a sound Churchman of the old school, thoroughly devout and scrupulous
+in observance, ruling his family and household on a principle felt
+throughout, making a conscience of all his and their ways, though
+promoting to the utmost all innocent enjoyment of pleasure, mirth, or
+gaiety. Indeed, all who can look back on him or on his home remember
+an unusual amount of kindly genial cheerfulness, fun, merriment, and
+freedom, i.e. that obedient freedom which is the most perfect kind of
+liberty.
+
+Though this was in great part the effect of having such a head of the
+family, the details of management could not but chiefly depend upon
+the mother, and Lady Patteson was equally loved for her tenderness and
+respected for her firmness. 'She was, indeed,' writes her brother, 'a
+sweet and pious person, of the most affectionate, loving disposition,
+without a grain of selfishness, and of the stoutest adherence to
+principle and duty. Her tendency was to deal with her children fondly,
+but this never interfered with good training and discipline. What she
+felt right, she insisted on, at whatever pain to herself.'
+
+She had to deal with strong characters. Coleridge, or Coley, to give him
+the abbreviation by which he was known not only through childhood but
+through life, was a fair little fellow, with bright deep-blue eyes,
+inheriting much of his nature from her and her family, but not by any
+means a model boy. He was, indeed, deeply and warmly affectionate,
+but troublesome through outbreaks of will and temper, showing all the
+ordinary instinct of trying how far the authorities for the time
+being will endure resistance; sufficiently indolent of mind to use his
+excellent abilities to save exertion of intellect; passionate to kicking
+and screaming pitch, and at times showing the doggedness which is such
+a trial of patience to the parent. To this Lady Patteson 'never yielded;
+the thing was to be done, the point given up, the temper subdued, the
+mother to be obeyed, and all this upon a principle sooner understood
+than parents suppose.'
+
+There were countless instances of the little boy's sharp, stormy gusts
+of passion, and his mother's steady refusal to listen to his 'I will be
+good' until she saw that he was really sorry for the scratch or pinch
+which he had given, or the angry word he had spoken; and she never
+waited in vain, for the sorrow was very real, and generally ended in
+'Do you think God can forgive me?' When Fanny's love of teasing had
+exasperated Coley into stabbing her arm with a pencil, their mother
+had resolution enough to decree that no provocation could excuse 'such
+unmanliness' in a boy, and inflicted a whipping which cost the girl more
+tears than her brother, who was full of the utmost grief a child
+could feel for the offence. No fault was lightly passed over; not that
+punishment was inflicted for every misdemeanour, but it was always
+noticed, and the children were shown with grave gentleness where they
+were wrong; or when there was a squabble among them, the mother's
+question, 'Who will give up?' generally produced a chorus of 'I! I! I!'
+Withal 'mamma' was the very life of all the fun, and play, and jokes,
+enjoying all with spirits and merriment like the little ones' own,
+and delighting in the exchange of caresses and tender epithets. Thus
+affection and generosity grew up almost spontaneously towards one
+another and all the world.
+
+On this disposition was grafted that which was the one leading
+characteristic of Coley's life, namely, a reverent and religious spirit,
+which seems from the first to have been at work, slowly and surely
+subduing inherent defects, and raising him, step by step, from grace to
+grace.
+
+Five years old is in many cases an age of a good deal of thought. The
+intelligence is free from the misapprehensions and misty perceptions of
+infancy; the first course of physical experiments is over, freedom of
+speech and motion have been attained, and yet there has not set in that
+burst of animal growth and spirits that often seems to swamp the deeper
+nature throughout boyhood. By this age Coley was able to read, and on
+his birthday he received from his father the Bible which was used at his
+consecration as Bishop twenty-seven years later.
+
+He had an earnest wish to be a clergyman, because he thought saying the
+Absolution to people must make them so happy, 'a belief he must have
+gleaned from his Prayer-book for himself, since the doctrine was not in
+those days made prominent.' The purpose was fostered by his mother. 'She
+delighted in it, and encouraged it in him. No thought of a family being
+to be made, and of Coley being the eldest son, ever interfered for a
+moment. That he should be a good servant at God's altar was to her above
+all price.'
+
+Of course, however, this was without pressing the thought on him. He
+grew on, with the purpose accepted but not discussed, except from time
+to time a half-playful, half-grave reference to himself as a future
+clergyman.
+
+Reverence was strongly implanted in him. His old nurse (still his
+sister's valued servant) remembers the little seven years old boy, after
+saying his own prayers at her knee, standing opposite to his little
+brother, admonishing him to attention with 'Think, Jemmy; think.' In
+fact, devoutness seems to have been natural to him. It appears to have
+been the first strongly traceable feature in him, and to have gradually
+subdued his faults one by one.
+
+Who can tell how far this was fostered by those old-fashioned habits
+of strictness which it is the present habit to view as repellent? Every
+morning, immediately after breakfast, Lady Patteson read the Psalms and
+Lessons for the day with the four children, and after these a portion
+of some book of religious instruction, such as 'Horne on the Psalms' or
+'Daubeny on the Catechism.' The ensuing studies were in charge of Miss
+Neill, the governess, and the life-long friend of her pupils; but the
+mother made the religious instruction her individual care, and thus
+upheld its pre-eminence. Sunday was likewise kept distinct in reading,
+teaching, employment, and whole tone of conversation, and the effect was
+assuredly not that weariness which such observance is often supposed to
+produce, but rather lasting benefit and happy associations. Coley really
+enjoyed Bible-reading, and entered into explanations, and even
+then often picked up a passage in the sermons he heard at St.
+Giles's-in-the-Fields from the Rev. J. Endell Tyler, and would give
+his home-oracles no peace till they had made it as clear to his
+comprehension as was possible.
+
+The love of his home may be gathered from the fact that his letters have
+been preserved in an unbroken series, beginning from a country visit in
+1834, after a slight attack of scarlet fever, written in the round-hand
+of a boy of seven years old, and finished off with the big Roman
+capitals FINIS, AMEN, and ending with the uncompleted sheets, bearing as
+their last date September 19, 1871.
+
+The boy's first school was at Ottery St. Mary, in Devonshire, of which
+his great-grandfather and great-uncle had both been head-masters.
+
+There was much to make Ottery homelike to Coley, for his grandparents
+lived at Heath's Court, close to the church, and in the manor-house near
+at hand their third son, Francis George Coleridge, a solicitor, whose
+three boys were near contemporaries of Coley, and two of them already in
+the school.
+
+From first to last his letters to his parents show no symptom of
+carelessness; they are full of ease and confidence, outpourings of
+whatever interested him, whether small or great, but always respectful
+as well as affectionate, and written with care and pains, being
+evidently his very best; nor does the good old formula, 'Your
+affectionate and dutiful son,' ever fail or ever produce stiffness.
+
+The shrinking from rough companions, and the desire to be with the
+homelike relatives around, proved a temptation, and the little boy was
+guilty of making false excuses to obtain leave of absence. We cannot
+refrain from giving his letter of penitence, chiefly for the sake of the
+good sense and kindness of his uncle's treatment:--
+
+
+'April 26, 1836.
+
+'My dear Papa,--I am very sorry for having told so many falsehoods,
+which Uncle Frank has told mamma of. I am very sorry for having done so
+many bad things, I mean falsehoods, and I heartily beg your pardon;
+and Uncle Frank says that he thinks, if I stay, in a month's time Mr.
+Cornish will begin to trust me again. Uncle Frank to-day had me into his
+house and told me to reflect upon what I had done. He also lectured me
+in the Bible, and asked me different questions about it. He told me that
+if I ever told another falsehood he should that instant march into the
+school and ask Mr. Cornish to strip and birch me; and if I followed the
+same course I did now and did not amend it, if the birching did not do,
+he should not let me go home for the holidays; but I will not catch the
+birching...
+
+'So believe me your dear Son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+On the flap of the letter 'Uncle Frank' writes to the mother:--
+
+
+'My dear Fanny,--I had Coley in my room to-day, and talked to him
+seriously about his misdeeds, and I hope good has been done. But I
+could scarcely keep my countenance grave when he began to reduce by
+calculation the exact number of fibs he had told. He did not think it
+was more than two or three at the utmost: and when I brought him to
+book, I had much to do to prevent the feeling that the sin consisted
+in telling many lies. However the dear boy's confession was as free
+as could be expected, and I have impressed on his mind the meanness,
+cowardice, and wickedness of the habit, and what it will end in here and
+hereafter. He has promised that he will never offend in future in like
+manner, and I really believe that his desire to be away from the school
+and at ease among his friends induced him to trump up the invitations,
+&c., to Mr. Cornish, in which consisted his first fibs. I shall watch
+him closely, as I would my own child; and Cornish has done wisely,
+I think, by giving the proper punishment of confining him to the
+school-court, &c., and not letting him go to his friends for some time.
+The dear boy is so affectionate, and has so much to work on, that there
+is no fear of him; only these things must be looked after promptly, and
+he must learn practically (before his reason and religion operate) that
+he gains nothing by a lie... He is very well, and wins one's heart in a
+moment...
+
+'Ever your affectionate Brother,
+
+'F. G. C.'
+
+
+The management was effectual, and the penitence real, for this fault
+never recurred, nor is the boy's conduct ever again censured, though the
+half-yearly reports often lament his want of zeal and exertion. Coley
+was sufficiently forward to begin Greek on his first arrival at Ottery,
+and always held a fair place for his years, but throughout his school
+career his character was not that of an idle but of an uninterested
+boy, who preferred play to work, needed all his conscience to make
+him industrious, and then was easily satisfied with his performances;
+naturally comparing them with those of other boys, instead of doing his
+own utmost, and giving himself full credit for the diligence he thought
+he had used. For it must be remembered that it was a real, not an ideal
+nature; not a perfect character, but one full of the elements of growth.
+
+A childish, childlike boy, he was now, and for many years longer,
+intensely fond of all kinds of games and sports, in which his light
+active form, great agility, and high spirit made him excel. Cricket,
+riding, running-races, all the school amusements were his delight;
+fireworks for the 5th of November sparkle with ecstasy through his
+letters, and he was a capital dancer in the Christmas parties at his
+London home. He had likewise the courage and patience sure to be needed
+by an active lad. While at Ottery he silently bore the pain of a broken
+collar-bone for three weeks, and when the accident was brought to light
+by his mother's embrace, he only said that 'he did not like to make a
+fuss.'
+
+Consideration for others, kindness, and sweetness of nature were
+always his leading characteristics, making him much beloved by all his
+companions, and an excellent guardian and example to his little brother,
+who soon joined him at Ottery. Indeed, the love between these two
+brothers was so deep, quiet, and fervid, that it is hard to dwell on
+it while 'one is taken and the other left.' It was at this time a rough
+buffeting, boyish affection, but it was also a love that made separation
+pain and grief, and on the part of the elder, it showed itself in
+careful protection from all harm or bullying, and there was a strong
+underlying current of tenderness, most endearing to all concerned with
+the boys, whether masters, relations, friends, or servants.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD AT ETON. 1838--1845.
+
+
+
+After the Christmas holidays of 1837-8, when Coley Patteson was nearly
+eleven years old, he was sent to Eton, that most beautifully situated
+of public schools, whose delightful playing fields, noble trees, broad
+river, and exquisite view of Windsor Castle give it a peculiar charm,
+joining the venerable grandeur of age to the freshness and life of
+youth, so as to rivet the affections in no common degree.
+
+It was during the head-mastership of Dr. Hawtrey that Patteson became,
+in schoolboy phrase, an Eton fellow, being boarded in the house of his
+uncle, the Rev. Edward Coleridge, one of the most popular and successful
+Eton masters. Several of his cousins were also in this house, with other
+boys who became friends of his whole life, and he was thoroughly happy
+there, although in these early days he still felt each departure from
+home severely, and seldom failed to write a mournful letter after the
+holidays. There is one, quite pathetic in its simplicity, telling his
+mother how he could not say his prayers nor fall asleep on his first
+night till he had resolutely put away the handkerchief that seemed
+for some reason a special link with home. It illustrates what all who
+remember him say, how thoroughly a childlike being he still was, though
+a well-grown, manly, high-spirited boy, quite able to take care of
+himself, keep his place, and hold his own.
+
+He was placed in the lower remove of the fourth form, which was then
+'up to' the Rev. Charles Old Goodford, i.e. that was he who taught the
+division so called in school.
+
+The boy was evidently well prepared, for he was often captain of his
+division, and his letters frequently tell of successes of this kind,
+while they anticipate 'Montem.'
+
+That of 1838 was a brilliant one, for Queen Victoria, then only
+nineteen, and her first year of sovereignty not yet accomplished, came
+from the Castle to be driven in an open carriage to Salt Hill and bestow
+her Royal contribution.
+
+In the throng little Patteson was pressed up so close to the Royal
+carriage that he became entangled in the wheel, and was on the point
+of being dragged under it, when the Queen, with ready presence of mind,
+held out her hand: he grasped it, and was able to regain his feet in
+safety, but did not recover his perceptions enough to make any sign
+of gratitude before the carriage passed on. He had all a boy's shyness
+about the adventure; but perhaps it served to quicken the personal
+loyalty which is an unfailing characteristic of 'Eton fellows.'
+
+The Royal custom of the Sunday afternoon parade on the terrace of
+Windsor Castle for the benefit of the gazing public afforded a fine
+opportunity for cultivating this sentiment, and Coley sends an amusingly
+minute description of her Majesty's dress, evidently studied for
+his mother's benefit, even to the pink tips of her four long ostrich
+feathers, and calling to mind Chalon's water-colours of the Queen in
+her early youth. He finishes the description with a quaint little bit of
+moralising. 'It certainly is very beautiful with two bands playing on
+a calm, blessed Sunday evening, with the Queen of England and all her
+retinue walking about. It gives you an idea of the Majesty of God, who
+could in one short second turn it all into confusion. There is nothing
+to me more beautiful than the raising one's eyes to Heaven, and thinking
+with adoration who made this scene, and who could unmake it again.'
+
+A few days later the record is of a very different scene, namely,
+Windsor Fair, when the Eton boys used to imagine they had a prescriptive
+right to make a riot and revel in the charms of misrule.
+
+'On the second day the Eton fellows always make an immense row. So at
+the signal, when a thing was acting, the boys rushed in and pulled down
+the curtain, and commenced the row. I am happy to say I was not there.
+There were a great many soldiers there, and they all took our part. The
+alarm was given, and the police came. Then there was such a rush at the
+police. Some of them tumbled over, and the rest were half-knocked down.
+At last they took in custody three of our boys, upon which every boy
+that was there (amounting to about 450) was summoned. They burst open
+the door, knocked down the police, and rescued our boys. Meantime the
+boys kept on shying rotten eggs and crackers, and there was nothing but
+righting and rushing.'
+
+A startling description! But this was nothing to the wild pranks that
+lived in the traditions of the elder generation; and in a few years more
+the boys were debarred from the mischievous licence of the fair.
+
+Coley had now been nearly a year at Eton, and had proceeded through the
+lower and middle removes of the fourth form, when, on November 23, he
+achieved the success of which he thus writes:--
+
+'Rejoice! I was sent up for good yesterday at eleven o'clock school. I
+do not know what copy of verses for yet, but directly I do, I will send
+you a copy.... Goodford, when I took my ticket to be signed (for I was
+obliged to get Goodford, Abraham, and my tutor to sign it), said, "I
+will sign it most willingly," and then kept on stroking my hand, and
+said, "I congratulate you most heartily, and am very glad of it." I am
+the only one who is sent up; which is a good thing for me, as it will
+give me forty or fifty good marks in trials. I am so splitting with joy
+you cannot think, because now I have given you some proof that I have
+been lately sapping and doing pretty well. Do not, think that I am
+praising myself, for I am pretty nearly beside myself, you may suppose.'
+
+One of his cousins adds, on the same sheet: 'I must tell you it is very
+difficult to be sent up in the upper fourth form, and still more so in
+the middle remove.'
+
+The subject of the Latin verses which obtained this distinction was
+a wreath or garland, and there must have been something remarkable in
+them, for Mr. Abraham preserved a copy of them for many years. There
+was something in the sweetness and docility of the boy, and in the
+expression of his calm, gentle face, that always greatly interested the
+masters and made them rejoice in his success; and among his comrades
+he was a universal favourite. His brother joined him at Eton during the
+ensuing year, when the Queen's wedding afforded the boys another glimpse
+of Royal festivity. Their tumultuous loyalty and audacity appear in
+Coley's letter:--
+
+'In college, stretching from Hexter's to Mother Spier's was a
+magnificent representation of the Parthenon: there were three pillars,
+and a great thing like this (a not over-successful sketch of a
+pediment), with the Eton and Royal arms in the middle, and "Gratulatur
+Etona Victoria et Alberto" It cost L150, and there were 5,000 lamps hung
+on it. Throughout the whole day we all of us wore large white bridal
+favours and white gloves. Towards evening the clods got on Long Walk
+Wall; and as gentle means would not do, we were under the necessity of
+knocking some over, when the rest soon jumped off. However, F---- and
+myself declared we would go right into the quadrangle of the Castle,
+so we went into the middle of the road and formed a line. Soon a rocket
+(the signal that the Queen was at Slough) was let off, and then some
+Life Guards came galloping along, and one of them ran almost over me,
+and actually trod on F---'s toe, which put him into dreadful pain for
+some time. Then came the Queen's carriage, and I thought college would
+have tumbled down with the row. The cheering was really tremendous. The
+whole 550 fellows all at once roared away. The Queen and Consort nodding
+and bowing, smiling, &c. Then F---- and I made a rush to get up behind
+the Queen's carriage, but a dragoon with his horse almost knocked us
+over. So we ran by the side as well as we could, but the crowd was so
+immensely thick, we could not get on as quick as the Queen. We rushed
+along, knocking clean over all the clods we could, and rushing against
+the rest, and finally F---- and myself were the only Eton fellows that
+got into the quadrangle. As we got there, the Queen's carriage was going
+away. You may fancy that we were rather hot, running the whole way up to
+the Castle, besides the exertion of knocking over the clods and knocking
+at doors as we passed; but I was so happy.'
+
+Such is bliss at twelve years old!
+
+The first half-year of 1839 had brought Patteson into the Remove, that
+large division of the school intermediate between the fourth and fifth
+forms. The work was harder, and his diligence somewhat relaxed. In fact,
+the Coley of this period and of a good while later had more heart for
+play than work. Cricket, bathing, and boating were his delight; and
+though his school-work was conscientiously accomplished, it did not
+interest him; and when he imagined himself to have been working hard and
+well, it was a thunderbolt to him to find, at the end of the half-year,
+that a great deal more had been expected of him by his tutor. It shows
+how candid and sweet his nature was, that, just as when he was a little
+fellow at Ottery, his penitent letter should contain the rebuke he had
+received, without resentment against anyone but himself:--
+
+'Aunt has just called me down into the drawing-room and shown me my
+character. I am stupefied at it; it is so shocking just when I most
+wanted a good one on account of mamma's health. I am ashamed to say that
+I can offer not the slightest excuse; my conduct on this occasion has
+been very bad. I expect a severe reproof from you, and pray do not send
+me any money, nor grant me the slightest [favour?]. Whilst .....,
+who has very little ability (uncle says), is, by plodding on, getting
+credit, I, who (my tutor says) have abilities, am wickedly neglecting
+and offending both my heavenly and earthly Father by my bad use of them.
+Aunt called me into the drawing-room, and very kindly showed me the
+excessive foolishness of my conduct; but from this very moment I am
+determined that I will not lose a moment, and we will see what the next
+three weeks will produce.'
+
+Poor little fellow! his language is so strong that it is almost a
+surprise to find that he was reproaching himself for no more heinous
+fault than not having worked up to the full extent of his powers! He
+kept his promise of diligence, and never again incurred reproof, but was
+sent up for good again in November. His career through the school was
+above the average, though not attaining to what was expected from his
+capabilities; but the development of his nature was slow, and therefore
+perhaps ultimately the more complete, and as yet study for its own sake
+did not interest him; indeed, his mind was singularly devoid of pleasure
+in classical subjects, though so alert in other directions.
+
+He was growing into the regular tastes of the refined, fastidious Eton
+boy; wrote of the cut of his first tail-coat that 'this is really an
+important thing;' and had grown choice in the adorning of his room and
+the binding of his books, though he never let these tastes bring him
+into debt or extravagance. His turn for art and music began to show
+itself, and the anthems at St. George's Chapel on the Sunday afternoons
+gave him great delight; and in Eton Chapel, a contemporary says, 'I well
+remember how he used to sing the Psalms with the little turns at the end
+of the verses, which I envied his being able to do.' Nor was this mere
+love of music, but devotion. Coley had daily regular readings of the
+Bible in his room with his brother, cousins, and a friend or two; but
+the boys were so shy about it that they kept an open Shakespeare on the
+table, with an open drawer below, in which the Bible was placed, and
+which was shut at the sound of a hand on the door.
+
+Hitherto No. 33 Bedford Square had been the only home of the Patteson
+family. The long vacations were spent sometimes with the Judge's
+relations in the Eastern counties, sometimes with Lady Patteson's in the
+West. Landwith Rectory, in Cornwall, was the home of her eldest brother,
+Dr. James Coleridge, whose daughter Sophia was always like an elder
+sister to her children, and the Vicarage of St. Mary Church, then a
+wild, beautiful seaside village, though now almost a suburb of Torquay,
+was held by her cousin, George May Coleridge; and here the brothers and
+sisters climbed the rocks, boated, fished, and ran exquisitely wild
+in the summer holidays. Christmas was spent with the Judge's mother at
+Ipswich, amongst numerous cousins, with great merriment and enjoyment
+such as were never forgotten.
+
+Colonel Coleridge had died in 1836, his widow in her daughter's house
+in 1838, and Heath's Court had become the property of Mr. Justice
+Coleridge, who always came thither with his family as soon as the
+circuit was over. In 1841, Feniton Court, about two miles and a half
+from thence, was purchased by Judge Patteson, much to the delight of his
+children. It was a roomy, cheerful, pleasantly-situated house, with a
+piece of water in the grounds, the right of shooting over a couple of
+farms, and all that could render boy life happy.
+
+Feniton was a thorough home, and already Coley's vision was, 'When I am
+vicar of Feniton, which I look forward to, but with a very distant
+hope, I should of all things like Fanny to keep house for me till I am
+married;' and again, when relating some joke with his cousins about
+the law-papers, of the Squire of Feniton, he adds: 'But the Squire of
+Feniton will be a clergyman.'
+
+Whether this were jest or earnest, this year, 1841, brought the dawn
+of his future life. It was in that year that the Rev. George Augustus
+Selwyn was appointed to the diocese of New Zealand. Mrs. Selwyn's
+parents had always been intimate with the Patteson family, and the
+curacy which Mr. Selwyn had held up to this time was at Windsor, so
+that the old Etonian tie of brotherhood was drawn closer by daily
+intercourse. Indeed, it was from the first understood that Eton, with
+the wealth that her children enjoyed in such large measure, should
+furnish 'nerves and sinews' to the war which her son was about to wage
+with the darkness of heathenism, thus turning the minds of the boys to
+something beyond either their studies or their sports.
+
+On October 31, the Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, then Archdeacon of Surrey,
+and since Bishop of Oxford and of Winchester, preached in the morning at
+New Windsor parish church, and the newly-made Bishop of New Zealand in
+the afternoon. Coley was far more affected than he then had power to
+express. He says: 'I heard Archdeacon Wilberforce in the morning, and
+the Bishop in the evening, though I was forced to stand all the time.
+It was beautiful when he talked of his going out to found a church, and
+then to die neglected and forgotten. All the people burst out crying,
+he was so very much beloved by his parishioners. He spoke of his perils,
+and putting his trust in God; and then, when, he had finished, I think
+I never heard anything like the sensation, a kind of feeling that if it
+had not been on so sacred a spot, all would have exclaimed "God bless
+him!"'
+
+The text of this memorable sermon was, 'Thine heart shall be enlarged,
+because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the
+forces also of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.' (Is. lx. 5.) Many
+years later we shall find a reference to this, the watchword of the
+young hearer's life.
+
+The Archdeacon's sermon was from John xvii. 20, 21: 'Neither pray I for
+these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their
+word; that they all may be One, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in
+Thee, that they also may be One in Us: that the world may believe that
+Thou hast sent Me.' And here again we find one of the watchwords of
+Coley's life, for nothing so dwelt with him and so sustained him as the
+sense of unity, whether with these at home in England, or with those in
+the inner home of the Saints. When the sermon concluded with the words,
+'As we are giving of our best, as our Church is giving of her best, in
+sending forth from her own bosom these cherished and chosen sons, so let
+there go forth from every one of us a consenting offering; let us give
+this day largely, in a spirit of self-sacrifice, as Christian men, to
+Christ our Lord, and He will graciously accept and bless the offerings
+that we make'--the preacher could little guess that among the lads who
+stood in the aisle was one in whom was forming the purpose of offering
+his very self also.
+
+For at that time Coleridge Patteson was receiving impressions that
+became the seed of his future purpose, and the eyes of his spirit were
+seeing greater things than the Vicarage of Feniton. Indeed, the subject
+was not entirely new to him, for Edward Coleridge was always deeply
+interested in missions, and had done his best to spread the like
+feeling, often employing the willing services of his pupils in copying
+letters from Australia, Newfoundland, &c.
+
+When the Bishop of New Zealand came to take leave, he said, half in
+earnest, half in playfulness, 'Lady Patteson, will you give me Coley?'
+She started, but did not say no; and when, independently of this, her
+son told her that it was his greatest wish to go with the Bishop, she
+replied that if he kept that wish when he grew up he should have her
+blessing and consent.
+
+But there was no further mention of the subject. The sisters knew what
+had passed, but it was not spoken of to his father till long after, when
+the wish had become purpose. Meantime the boy's natural development put
+these visions into the background. He was going on with ordinary work
+and play, enjoying the pageantry of the christening of the Prince of
+Wales, and cheering himself hoarse and half-frantic when the King of
+Prussia came to see the school; then on his father's birthday writing
+with a 'hand quite trembling with delight' to announce what he knew
+would be the most welcome of birthday presents, namely, the news that
+he had been 'sent up' for a very good copy of seventy-nine verses,
+'all longs, on Napoleon e Seylhia profugus, passage of Beresina, and
+so forth.' His Latin verses were his strong point, and from this time
+forward he was frequently sent up, in all twenty-five times, an almost
+unprecedented number.
+
+In fact he was entering on a fresh stage of life, from the little boy to
+the lad, and the period was marked by his Confirmation on May 26, 1842.
+Here is his account both of it and of his first Communion. The soberness
+and old-fashioned simplicity of expression are worth remarking as tokens
+of the quietly dutiful tone of mind, full of reverence and sincere
+desire to do right, and resting in the consciousness of that desire,
+while steadily advancing towards higher things than he then understood.
+It was a life and character where advancement with each fresh imparting
+of spiritual grace can be traced more easily than usual.
+
+It is observable too that the boy's own earnestness and seriousness of
+mind seem to have to him supplied the apparent lack of external aids to
+devotional feeling, though the Confirmation was conducted in the brief,
+formal, wholesale manner which some in after-life have confessed to
+have been a disappointment and a drawback after their preparation and
+anticipation:--
+
+'You will know that I have been confirmed to-day, and I dare say you all
+thought of me. The ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Lincoln, and
+I hope that I have truly considered the great duty and responsibility
+I have taken upon myself, and have prayed for strength to support me
+in the execution of all those duties. I shall of course receive the
+Sacrament the first time I have an opportunity, and I trust worthily. I
+think there must have been 200 confirmed. The Bishop gave us a very
+good charge afterwards, recommending us all to take pattern by the
+self-denial and true devotion of the Bishop of New Zealand, on whom
+he spoke for a long-while. The whole ceremony was performed with the
+greatest decorum, and in the retiring and coming up of the different
+sets there was very little noise, and not the slightest confusion. I
+went up with the first set, and the Bishop came round and put his hands
+on the heads of the whole set (about forty), and then going into the
+middle pronounced the prayer. The responses were all made very audibly,
+and everyone seemed to be impressed with a proper feeling of the
+holiness and seriousness of the ceremony. After all the boys had been
+confirmed about seven other people were confirmed, of whom two were
+quite as much as thirty, I should think.'
+
+
+'June 5.
+
+'I have just returned from receiving the Holy Sacrament in Chapel. I
+received it from Hawtrey and Okes, but there were three other ministers
+besides. There was a large attendance, seventy or eighty or more Eton
+boys alone. I used the little book that mamma sent me, and found the
+little directions and observations very useful. I do truly hope and
+believe that I received it worthily... It struck me more than ever
+(although I had often read it before) as being such a particularly
+impressive and beautiful service. I never saw anything conducted with
+greater decorum. Not a single fellow spoke except at the responses,
+which were well and audibly made, and really every fellow seemed to
+be really impressed with the awfulness of the ceremony, and the great
+wickedness of not piously receiving it, I do not know whether there
+will be another Sacrament here before the holidays, or whether I shall
+receive it with you at Feniton next time.'
+
+
+No doubt the whole family (except the yet unconfirmed younger brother)
+did so receive it in the summer holidays, the last that were to be
+spent in the full joy of an unbroken household circle, and, as has been
+already said, one of unusual warmth and kindliness, binding closely
+into it all who were connected therewith. Each governess became a
+dear friend; the servants were deeply attached, and for the most
+part fixtures; and one, the nurse already mentioned, says she never
+recollects a time when Master Coley had to leave Feniton for London
+without his offering the servants to take charge of their messages or
+parcels. All dependents and poor people, in fact whatever came under
+Judge Patteson's genial, broad-hearted influence, were treated with
+the like kindness, and everything alive about the place seemed full of
+happiness and affection.
+
+The centre of this bright home had always been the mother, fervently
+loved by all who came in contact with her, fragile in health, and
+only going through her duties and exertions so cheerily by the quiet
+fortitude of a brave woman. In the course of this year, 1842, some
+severe spasmodic attacks made her family anxious; and as the railway
+communication was still incomplete, so that the journey to London was a
+great fatigue to an invalid, her desire to spend Christmas in Devonshire
+led to her remaining there with her daughters, when her husband returned
+to London on the commencement of term.
+
+He had been gone little more than a fortnight when, on November 17, a
+more severe attack came on; and though she was soon relieved from it,
+she never entirely rallied, and was firmly convinced that this was 'the
+beginning of the end.' Her husband was summoned home, Judge Coleridge
+taking a double portion of his work to set him at liberty, and the truth
+began to dawn on the poor boys at Eton. 'Do you really mean that there
+is anything so very, very dreadful to fear?' is Coley's cry in his note
+one day, and the next, 'Oh, Papa, you cannot mean that we may never,
+unless we come down to Feniton, see mamma again. I cannot bear the
+thought of it. I trust most earnestly that it is not the case. Do not
+hide anything from me, it would make me more wretched afterwards. If it
+shall (which I trust in His infinite mercy it will not) please Almighty
+God to take our dearest mamma unto Himself, may He give us grace to bear
+with fortitude and resolution the dreadful loss, and may we learn to
+live with such holiness here that we may hereafter be united for ever
+in Heaven.' This letter is marked twice over 'Only for Papa,' but the
+precaution was needless, for Lady Patteson was accustoming all
+those about her to speak freely and naturally of what she felt to be
+approaching. Her eldest brother, Dr. Coleridge, was greatly comforting
+her by his ministrations, and her sons were sent for; but as she did not
+ask for them, it was thought best that they should remain at their Uncle
+Frank's, at Ottery, until, on the evening of Sunday, the 27th, a great
+change took place, making it evident that the end was drawing near.
+
+The sufferer was told that the boys were come, and was asked if she
+would see them. She was delighted, and they came in, restraining their
+grief while she kissed and blessed them, and then, throwing her arms
+round their father, thanked him for having brought her darling boys for
+her to see once more. It was not long before she became unconscious; and
+though all the family were watching and praying round her, she showed no
+further sign of recognition, as she gradually and tranquilly fell asleep
+in the course of the night.
+
+To his cousin, Mrs. Martyn, Coley wrote the following letter just after
+the funeral:--
+
+'We only came down from our rooms to go to church, and directly the
+beautiful service was over we went upstairs again. I need not tell you
+what we then felt, and now do feel. It is a very dreadful loss to us
+all; but we have been taught by that dear mother, who has been now taken
+from us, that it is not fit to grieve for those who die in the Lord,
+"for they rest from their labours." She is now, we may safely trust, a
+blessed saint in Heaven, far removed from all cares and anxieties; and,
+instead of spending our time in useless tears and wicked repinings, we
+should rather learn to imitate her example and virtues, that, when we
+die, we may sleep in Him as our hope is this our sister doth, and may be
+finally united with her in Heaven. Yesterday was a day of great trial to
+us all: I felt when I was standing by the grave as if I must have burst.
+
+'Dear Papa bears up beautifully, and is a pattern of submission to us
+all. We are much more happy than you could suppose, for, thank God, we
+are certain she is happy, far happier than she could be on earth. She
+said once, "I wonder I wish to leave my dearest John and the children,
+and this sweet place, but yet I do wish it" so lively was her faith and
+trust in the merits of her Saviour.'
+
+A deep and permanent impression was left upon the boy's mind, as will be
+seen by his frequent references to what he had then witnessed; but for
+the present he was thought to be less depressed than the others, and
+recovered his natural tone of spirits sooner than his brother and
+sisters. The whole family spent their mournful Christmas at Thorverton
+Rectory, with Dr. and Mrs. Coleridge and their daughter Fanny, their
+chief comforters and fellow-sufferers; and then returned to London. The
+Judge's eldest daughter, Joanna, who had always been entirely one with
+the rest, had to take her place at the head of the household. In her own
+words, 'It was trying for a lad of fifteen and a half, but he was very
+good, and allowed me to take the command in a way that few boys would
+nave done.'
+
+'It has struck me as remarkable that friends and relations have again
+and again spoken of different incidents as 'turning-points' in Coley's
+life. If he had literally turned at them all, his would have been a
+most revolving career; but I believe the fact to have been that he never
+turned at all, for his face was always set the right way, but that each
+of these was a point of impulse setting him more vigorously on his way,
+and stirring up his faithful will. Such moments were those of admission
+to religious ordinances, to him no dead letters but true receptions of
+grace; and he likewise found incitements in sorrows, in failures, in
+reproofs. Everything sank deeply, and his mind was already assuming the
+introspective character that it had throughout the period of growth and
+formation. One of his Eton companions, four years younger, has since
+spoken of the remarkable impression of inwardness Patteson made on him
+even at this time, saying that whenever he was taken by surprise he
+seemed to be only ruminating till he spoke or was spoken to, and then
+there was an instant return to the outer world and ready attention to
+whatever was in hand.
+
+The spring found him of course in the full tide of Eton interests. The
+sixth and upper fifth forms, to the latter of which he had by this
+time attained, may contend in the public examination for the Newcastle
+scholarship, just before the Easter holidays, and it is a great
+testimony to a boy's ability and industry if his name appears among
+the nine select for their excellence. This time, 1843, Coley, who
+was scarcely sixteen, had of course but little chance, but he had the
+pleasure of announcing that his great friend, Edmund Bastard, a young
+Devonshire squire, was among the 'select,' and he says of himself: 'You
+will, as I said before, feel satisfied that I did my best, but it was an
+unlucky examination for me. It has done me a great deal of good in one
+way. It has enabled me to see where I am particularly deficient, viz.
+general knowledge of history, and a thorough acquaintance with Greek and
+Roman customs, law courts and expressions, and Greek and Roman writers.
+I do not find myself wanting in making out a stiff bit of Greek or Latin
+if I have time, but I must read History chiefly this year, and then I
+hope to be selected next time. My tutor is not at all disappointed in
+me.'
+
+This spring, 1843, Patteson became one of the Eleven, a perilously
+engrossing position for one who, though never slurring nor neglecting
+his studies, did not enjoy anything so much as the cricket-field.
+However, there the weight of his character, backed by his popularity and
+proficiency in all games and exercises, began to be a telling influence.
+
+On November 2, 1843, when the anniversary of his mother's death was
+coming round, he writes to his eldest sister:--
+
+
+'I had not indeed forgotten this time twelvemonth, and especially that
+awful Sunday night when we stood round dear mamma's bed in such misery.
+I never supposed at that time that we could ever be happy and merry
+again, but yet it has been so with me; and though very often the
+recollection of that night has come upon me, and the whole scene in its
+misery has passed before me, I hope I have never forgotten, that though
+a loss to us, it was a gain to her, and we ought rather to be thankful
+than sorrowful.... By the bye, I do not really want a book-case much,
+and you gave me the "Irish Stories," and I have not yet been sent up. I
+would rather not have a present, unless the Doctor means to give me an
+exercise. Do not lay this down to pride; but you know I was not sent up
+last half, and if this passes, a blank again, I do not deserve any fresh
+presents.'
+
+
+This piece of self-discipline was crowned by joyous notices of being
+'sent up for good' and 'for play' in the next half; when also occurs
+a letter showing a spirit of submission to a restriction not fully
+understood:--
+
+
+'Tuesday evening.
+
+'My dearest Father,--Hearing that "Israel in Egypt" was to be performed
+at Exeter Hall on Friday night, I went and asked my tutor whether he had
+any objection to my running up that night to hear it, and coming back
+the next morning, quite early at six. My tutor said that, without any
+absurd feelings on the matter, he should not think himself of going to
+such a thing in Lent. "It was not," he said, "certainly like going to
+the play, or any of those sort of places," but he did not like the idea
+of going at all. Do you think that there was any harm in the wish?
+
+'I do not ask because I wish you to write and say I may go, but because
+I wish to learn whether my asking at all was wrong. Even if you have no
+objection, I certainly shall not go, because for such a trifling thing
+to act in opposition to my tutor, even with your consent, would be very
+foolish.
+
+'...Good-bye, my dearest Father. God bless you, says your affectionate
+and dutiful Son,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+This year, 1844, the name of Patteson appeared among the 'select.'
+'I shall expect a jolly holiday for my reward,' he merrily says, when
+announcing it to his sisters. He had begun to join the Debating Society
+at Eton, and for a while was the president. One of the other members
+says, 'His speeches were singularly free from the bombast and
+incongruous matter with which Eton orators from fifteen to eighteen are
+apt to interlard their declamations. He spoke concisely, always to the
+point, and with great fluency and readiness. A reputation for good sense
+and judgment made his authority of great weight in the school, and his
+independent spirit led him to choose, amongst his most intimate friends
+and associates, two collegers, who ultimately became Newcastle scholars
+and medallists.
+
+'That the most popular oppidan of his day should have utterly ignored
+the supposed inferiority of the less wealthy section of the school, and
+looked on worth and high character as none the worse for being clothed
+in a coarse serge gown, is a fact seemingly trivial to ordinary readers,
+but very noticeable to Eton men. As a rank and file collegian myself,
+and well remembering the Jew and Samaritan state that prevailed between
+oppidans and collegers, I remember with pride that Patteson did so much
+to level the distinctions that worked so mischievously to the school.
+His cheerfulness and goodness were the surest guarantee for good order
+amongst his schoolfellows. There was no Puritanism in him, he was up to
+any fun, sung his song at a cricket or foot-ball dinner as joyfully
+as the youngest of the party; but if mirth sank into coarseness
+and ribaldry, that instant Patteson's conduct was fearless and
+uncompromising....'
+
+Here follows an account of an incident which occurred at the dinner
+annually given by the eleven of cricket and the eight of the boats at
+the hotel at Slough.
+
+A custom had arisen among some of the boys of singing offensive songs on
+these occasions, and Coley, who, as second of the eleven, stood in the
+position of one of the entertainers, gave notice beforehand that he was
+not going to tolerate anything of the sort. One of the boys, however,
+began to sing something objectionable. Coley called out, 'If that
+does not stop, I shall leave the room;' and as no notice was taken,
+he actually went away with a few other brave lads. He afterwards found
+that, as he said, 'fellows who could not understand such feelings
+thought him affected;' and he felt himself obliged to send word to the
+captain, that unless an apology was made, he should leave the
+eleven--no small sacrifice, considering what cricket was to him; but the
+gentlemanlike and proper feeling of the better style of boys prevailed,
+and the eleven knew their own interests too well to part with him, so
+the apology was made, and he retained his position. The affair came to
+the knowledge of two of the masters, Mr. Dupuis and Mr. Abraham, and
+they gratified their warm sense of approbation by giving Patteson a bat,
+though he never knew the reason why, as we shall see in one of his last
+letters to one of the donors.
+
+His prowess at cricket must be described in the words of his cousin,
+Arthur Duke Coleridge, who was at this time in college: 'He was by
+common consent one of the best, if not the best, of the cricketers of
+the school. The second year of his appearance at Lord's Cricket Ground
+was the most memorable, as far as his actual services were concerned, of
+all the matches he played against Harrow and Winchester. He was sent
+in first in the Harrow match; the bowling was steady and straight, but
+Patteson's defence was admirable. He scored fifty runs, in which there
+was but one four, and by steady play completely broke the neck of the
+bowling. Eton won the match easily, Patteson making a brilliant catch at
+point, when the last Harrow man retired. Full of confidence, Eton began
+the Winchester match. Victory for a long time seemed a certainty for
+Eton; but Kidding, the Winchester captain, played an uphill game so
+fiercely that the bowling had to be repeatedly changed. Our eleven were
+disorganised, and the captain had so plainly lost heart, that Patteson
+resolved on urging him to discontinue his change of bowling, and begin
+afresh with the regular bowlers. The captain allowed Patteson to have
+his way, and the game, though closely contested, was saved. His powers
+of defence were indeed remarkable. I saw the famous professional
+cricketer Lillywhite play once at Eton in his time, and becoming almost
+irritated at the stubbornness and tenacity with which Coley held his
+wicket. After scoring twenty and odd times in the first, and forty in
+the second innings, (not out), Lillywhite said, 'Mr. Patteson, I should
+like to bowl to you on Lord's Ground, and it would be different.' 'Oh,
+of course,' modestly answered Coley; 'I know you would have me out
+directly there.'
+
+The next cricket season this champion was disabled by a severe sprain
+of the wrist, needing leeches, splints, and London advice. It was when
+fixing a day for coming up to town on this account that he mentioned the
+occurrence of the previous year in a letter to his father:--
+
+'I have a great object in shirking the oppidan dinner. I not only hate
+the idea of paying a sovereign for a dinner, but last year, at the
+cricket dinner, I had a great row, which I might possibly incur another
+time, and I wish very much to avoid.'
+
+Then, after briefly stating what had passed, he adds: 'At this dinner,
+where the captain of the boats manages it, I should be his guest, and
+therefore any similar act of mine would make matters worse. You can
+therefore see why I wish Tuesday to be the day for my coming up.'
+
+The sprain prevented his playing in the matches at Lord's that summer,
+though he was well enough to be reckoned on as a substitute in case any
+of the actual players had been disabled. Possibly his accident was good
+for his studies, for this was a year of much progress and success; and
+though only seventeen, he had two offers of tutorship for the holidays,
+from Mr. Dugdale and the Marchioness of Bath. The question where his
+university life was to be spent began to come forward. Studentships at
+Christchurch were then in the gift of the Canons, and a nomination would
+have been given him by Dr. Pusey if he had not been too young to begin
+to reside, so that it was thought better that he should wait and go up
+for the Balliol scholarship in the autumn.
+
+In the October of 1844 he describes to his eldest sister the reception
+of King Louis Philippe at Eton, accompanied by the Queen, Prince Albert,
+and the Duke of Wellington:
+
+'The King wore a white great coat, and looked a regular jolly old
+fellow. He has white frizzle hair and large white whiskers. The former,
+I suspect, is a wig. The cheering was tremendous, but behind the royal
+carriage the cheers were always redoubled where the old Duke, the
+especial favourite hero, rode. When they got off their horses in the
+schoolyard, the Duke being by some mistake behindhand, was regularly
+hustled in the crowd, with no attendant near him.
+
+'I was the first to perceive him, and springing forward, pushed back the
+fellows on each side, who did not know whom they were tumbling against,
+and, taking off my hat, cheered with might and main. The crowd hearing
+the cheer, turned round, and then there was the most glorious sight I
+ever saw. The whole school encircled the Duke, who stood entirely alone
+in the middle for a minute or two, and I rather think we did cheer him.
+At last, giving about one touch to his hat, he began to move on, saying,
+"Get on, boys, get on." I never saw such enthusiasm here; the masters
+rushed into the crowd round him, waving their caps, and shouting like
+any of us. As for myself, I was half-mad and roared myself hoarse in
+about five minutes. The King and Prince kept their hats off the whole
+time, incessantly bowing, and the King speaking. He walked arm-in-arm
+with the Queen, who looked well and very much pleased. The Duke walked
+with that Grand Duchess whose name you may see in the papers, for I
+can't spell it.'
+
+Very characteristic this both of Eton's enthusiasm for the hero, and of
+the hero's undemonstrative way of receiving it, which must have somewhat
+surprised his foreign companions.
+
+A week or two later, in November 1844, came the competition for the
+Balliol scholarship, but Coley was not successful. On the Saturday he
+writes:--
+
+'The scholarship was decided last night; Smith, a Rugby man, got
+the first, and Grant, a Harrow man, the second.... I saw the Master
+afterwards; he said, "I cannot congratulate you on success, Mr.
+Patteson, but you have done yourself great credit, and passed a very
+respectable examination. I shall be happy to allow you to enter without
+a future examination, as we are all quite satisfied of your competency."
+He said that I had better come up to matriculate next term, but should
+not have another examination. We were in about nine hours a day, three
+hours in the evening; I thought the papers very hard; we had no Latin
+elegiacs or lyrics, which was rather a bore for the Eton lot. I am very
+glad I have been up now, but I confess it was the longest week I ever
+recollect. I feel quite seedy after a whole week without exercise....
+The very first paper, the Latin Essay (for which we were in six hours),
+was the worst of all my papers, and must have given the examiners an
+unfavourable impression to start with. The rest of my papers, with the
+exception of the Greek prose and the critical paper, I did very fairly,
+I think.'
+
+A greater disappointment than this was, however, in store for Coley. He
+failed in attaining a place among the 'select,' at his last examination
+for the Newcastle, in the spring of 1845. Before the list was given out
+he had written to his father that the Divinity papers were far too easy,
+with no opportunity for a pretty good scholar to show his knowledge,
+'the ridicule of every one of the masters,' but the other papers very
+difficult.
+
+'Altogether,' he adds, 'the scholarship has been to me unsatisfactory. I
+had worked hard at Greek prose, had translated and re-translated a good
+deal of Xenophon, Plato, and some Demosthenes, yet to my disappointment
+we had no paper of Greek prose, a thing that I believe never occurred
+before, and which is generally believed to test a boy's knowledge well.
+My Iambics were good, I expect, though not without two bad faults. In
+fact, I cannot look back upon a single paper, except my Latin prose,
+without a multitude of oversights and faults presenting themselves to
+me... I almost dread the giving out of the select. Think if my name was
+not there. It is some consolation that Hawtrey, yesterday, in giving me
+an exercise for good, asked how I liked the examination. Upon my saying,
+"It was not such a one as I expected, and that I had done badly," he
+said "That is not at all what I hear," but this cannot go for much...
+I want exercise very badly, and my head is very thick and stupid, as I
+fear this last paper must show the examiners.'
+
+The omission of Patteson's name from among the select was a great
+mortification, not only to himself but his father, though the Judge
+kindly wrote:--
+
+'Do not distress yourself about this unfortunate failure as to the
+Newcastle. We cannot always command our best exertions when we want to
+do so, and you were not able on this occasion to bring forward all you
+knew. It was not from idleness or want of attention to school business.
+Work on regularly, and you will do well at Oxford. I have a line from
+your tutor, who seems to think that it was in Juvenal, Cicero and Livy,
+and in Iambics, that the faults principally were. I cannot say that I am
+not disappointed; but I know so well the uncertainty of examinations
+and how much depends on the sort of papers put, and on the spirits and
+feeling one is in, that I am never surprised at such results, and I do
+not blame you at all.' Those who knew Coley best agree in thinking that
+this reverse took great effect in rousing his energies. This failure
+evidently made him take himself to task, for in the summer he writes to
+his father:--
+
+There are things which have occurred during my stay at Eton which
+cannot but make me blame myself. I mean principally a want of continuous
+industry. I have perhaps for one half or two (for instance, last Easter
+half) worked hard, but I have not been continuously improving, and
+adding knowledge to knowledge, half by half. I feel it now, because I am
+sure that I know very little more than I did at Easter. One thing I am
+improved in, which is writing themes; and you will be pleased to know
+that Hawtrey has again given me the School Theme prize, worth 5L., which
+counts for another sent up exercise.'
+
+In reply, the Judge, on July 22, wrote in the midst of the circuit, from
+Stafford, a letter that might well do a son's heart good:--
+
+'I rejoice in your finale, and shall be glad to see the exercise. You
+have gone through Eton with great credit and reputation as a scholar,
+and what is of more consequence, with perfect character as to truth and
+conduct in every way. This can only be accounted for by the assistance
+of the good Spirit of God first stirred up in you by the instructions of
+your clear mother, than whom a more excellent human being never existed.
+I pray God that this assistance may continue through life, and keep you
+always in the same good course.'
+
+A few days more and the boy's departure from the enthusiastically loved
+school had taken place, together with his final exploits as captain in
+the cricket-field, where too he formed an acquaintance with Mr. C.
+S. Roundell, the captain of the Harrow eleven, which ripened into a
+lifelong friendship.
+
+'You may suppose,' writes Coley, 'that I was really very miserable at
+leaving Eton. I did not, I assure you, without thanking God for the many
+advantages I have there enjoyed and praying for His forgiveness for my
+sin in neglecting so many. We began our match with Harrow yesterday, by
+going in first; we got 261 runs by tremendous hitting, Harrow 32, and
+followed up and got 55: Eton thus winning in one innings by 176 runs,
+the most decided beating ever known at cricket.'
+
+So ended Coleridge Patteson's school life, not reaching to all he saw
+that it might have been; but unstained, noble, happy, honourable, and
+full of excellent training for the future man. No sting was left to
+poison the fail-memory of youth; but many a friendship had been formed
+on foundations of esteem, sympathy, and kindness which endured through
+life, standing all tests of separation and difference.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. UNDERGRADUATE LIFE AT BALLIOL AND JOURNEYS ON THE CONTINENT.
+
+1845--1852.
+
+
+
+University life is apt to exert a strong influence upon a man's career.
+It comes at the age at which there is probably the most susceptibility
+to new impressions. The physical growth is over, and the almost
+exclusive craving for exercise and sport is lessening; there is more
+voluntary inclination to intellectual application, and the mind begins
+to get fair play. There is also a certain liberty of choice as to the
+course to be taken and the persons who shall become guides, and this
+renders the pupilage a more willing and congenial connection than that
+of the schoolboy: nor is there so wide a distance in age and habits
+between tutor and pupil as between master and scholar.
+
+Thus it is that there are few more influential persons in the country
+than leading University men, for the impress they leave is on the flower
+of English youth, at the very time of life when thought has come, but
+action is not yet required. At the same time the whole genius loti,
+the venerable buildings with their traditions, the eminence secured
+by intellect and industry, the pride that is taken in the past and
+its great men, first as belonging to the University, and next to the
+individual college, all give the members thereof a sense of a dignity to
+keep up and of honour to maintain, and a certainty of appreciation and
+fellow-feeling from the society with which they are connected.
+
+The Oxford of Patteson's day was yet untouched by the hand of
+reformation. The Colleges were following or eluding the statutes of
+their founders, according to the use that had sprung up, but there had
+been a great quickening into activity of intellect, and the religious
+influences were almost at their strongest. It was true that the master
+mind had been lost to the Church of England, but the men whom he and his
+companions had helped to form were the leaders among the tutors, and the
+youths who were growing up under them were forming plans of life, which
+many have nobly carried out, of unselfish duty and devotion in their
+several stations.
+
+Balliol had, under the mastership of Dr. Jenkyns, attained preeminence
+for success in the schools, and for the high standard required of its
+members, who formed 'the most delightful society, the very focus of
+the most stimulating life of the University,' within those unpretending
+walls, not yet revivified and enlarged.
+
+Here Coleridge Patteson came to reside in the Michaelmas term of 1845;
+beginning with another attempt for the scholarship, in which he was
+again unsuccessful, being bracketed immediately after the fourth with
+another Etonian, namely, Mr. Hornby, the future head-master, His friend,
+Edmund Bastard, several of his relations, and numerous friends had
+preceded him; and he wrote to his sister Fanny:--
+
+'You cannot think what a nice set of acquaintance I am gradually
+slipping into. Palmer and myself take regular familiar walks; and
+Riddell, another fellow who is the pet of the College, came up the other
+evening and sat with me, and I breakfast with them, and dine, &c. The
+only inconvenience attaching itself to such a number of men is, that
+I have to give several parties, and as I meant to get them over before
+Lent, I have been coming out rather strong in that line lately, as the
+pastry-cook's bill for desserts will show in good time.
+
+'I have been asked to play cricket in the University eleven, and have
+declined, though not without a little struggle, but cricket here,
+especially to play in such matches as against Cambridge, &c., entails
+almost necessarily idleness and expense.'
+
+The struggle was hardly a little one to a youth whose fame in the
+cricket field stood so high, and who was never happy or healthy
+without strong bodily exercise. Nor had he outgrown his taste for this
+particular sport. Professor Edwin Palmer (alluded to above) describes
+him as at this time 'a thorough public schoolboy, with a full capacity
+for enjoying undergraduate society and undergraduate amusements, though
+with so fond a recollection of Eton that to some of us he hardly seemed
+to appreciate Oxford sufficiently.'
+
+Again, Mr. Roundell (his late adversary at Lord's) says: 'He was a
+reluctant and half-interested sojourner was ever looking back to the
+playing-fields of Eton, or forward to the more congenial sphere of a
+country parish.' So it was his prime pleasure and glory that he
+thus denied himself, though not with total abstinence, for he played
+occasionally. I remember hearing of a match at Ottery, where he was one
+of an eleven of Coleridge kith and kin against the rest of Devon. His
+reputation in the field was such that, many years later, when he chanced
+to be at Melbourne at the same time with the champion English eleven,
+one of the most noted professional cricketers, meeting him in the
+street, addressed him confidentially, 'I know, sir, the Bishop of
+Melbourne does not approve of cricket for clergymen in public, but if
+you would meet me in private at five o'clock to-morrow morning, and let
+me give you a few balls, it would be a great satisfaction!'
+
+Some resolution thus was required to prevent cricket from becoming a
+tyrant, as so often befalls those whose skill renders them valuable.
+Tennis became Coley's chief recreation, enabling him to work off his
+superfluous energy at the expense of far less time than cricket matches
+require, and in this, as in everything active, he soon excelled.
+
+As to the desserts upon which the young men in turn were spending a good
+deal out of mere custom, harmlessly enough, but unnecessarily; as soon
+as the distress of the potato famine in Ireland became known, Patteson
+said, 'I am not at all for giving up these pleasant meetings, but why
+not give up the dessert?' So the agreement was made that the cost should
+for the present be made over to the 'Irish fund.'
+
+Another friend of this period, now well known as Principal Shairp of St.
+Andrews', was then in the last year of a five years' residence. He has
+been kind enough to favour me with the following effective sketch of
+Coley as an undergraduate:--
+
+'Patteson as he was at Oxford, comes back to me, as the representative
+of the very best kind of Etonian, with much good that he had got from
+Eton, with something better, not to be got at Eton or any other school.
+He had those pleasant manners and that perfect ease in dealing with men
+and with the world which are the inheritance of Eton, without the least
+tincture of worldliness. I remember well the look he then had, his
+countenance massive for one so young, with good sense and good feeling,
+in fact, full of character. For it was character more than special
+ability which marked him out from others, and made him, wherever he was,
+whether in cricket in which he excelled, or in graver things, a centre
+round which others gathered. The impression he left on me was of quiet,
+gentle strength and entire purity, a heart that loved all things true
+and honest and pure, and that would always be found on the side of
+these. We did not know, probably he did not know himself, the fire of
+devotion that lay within him, but that was soon to kindle and make him
+what he afterwards became.'
+
+In truth he was taking deep interest in the religious movement, though
+in the quiet unexcited way of those to whom such doctrines were only the
+filling out of the teachings of their childhood. He was present at that
+sermon on the 'Entire Absolution of the Penitent,' with which, on the
+Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, 1846, Dr. Pusey broke his enforced silence
+of three years.
+
+The same evening Coley wrote to his sister Fanny:--
+
+'I have just returned from University sermon, where I have been
+listening with great delight to Pusey's sermon on the Keys for nearly
+two hours. His immense benevolence beams through the extreme power
+of his arguments, and the great research of his inquiry into all the
+primitive writings is a most extraordinary matter, and as for the
+humility and prayerful spirit in which it was composed, you fancied he
+must have been on his knees the whole time he was writing it. I went
+early to Christ Church, where it was preached, and, after pushing
+through such a crowd as usually blocks up the entrance into Exeter Hall,
+I found on getting into the Cathedral that every seat was occupied.
+However, standing to hear such a man was no great exertion, and I never
+was so interested before. It will probably be printed, so that you
+will have no occasion for any remarks of mine. It is sufficient that he
+preached the doctrine to my mind in an invincible manner.' The letter
+has a postscript--'Easter vacation will be from three weeks to a month.
+Hurrah! say I; now a precious deal more glad am I to leave Oxford for
+the holidays than Eton, though Feniton is better than either.'
+
+Even in the last undergraduate year, the preference for Eton remained as
+strong as ever. Coley intended to remain at Oxford to read for honours
+through great part of the Long vacation; and after refreshing himself
+with a run to Eton, he wrote:--
+
+'Now for a very disagreeable contrast, but still I shall find great
+interest in my work as I go on, and reading books for the second or
+third time is light work compared to the first stodge at them. I am,
+however, behindhand with my work, in spite of not having wasted much
+time here.... I really don't see my way through the mass of work before
+me, and half repent having to go up for class.
+
+'...I went to the opera on Tuesday, but was too much taken up by Eton to
+rave about it, though Grisi's singing and acting were out and out; but,
+in sober earnest, I think if one was to look out simply for one's
+own selfish pleasure in this world, staying at Eton in the summer is
+paradise. I certainly have not been more happy, if so happy, for years,
+and they need no convincing there of my doting attachment to the place.
+I go down to Eton on Election Saturday and Sunday for my last enjoyment
+of it this year; but if I am well and nourishing in the summer of 1849,
+and all goes right with me, it is one of the jolliest prospects of my
+emancipation from the schools to think of a month at Eton. Oh! it's hard
+work reading for it, I can tell you.'
+
+Thus Coley Patteson's work throughout his undergraduate three years
+was, so to speak, against the grain, though it was more diligent
+and determined than it had been at Eton. He viewed this as the least
+satisfactory period of his life, and probably it was that in which he
+was doing the most violence to his likings. It struck those who had
+known him at Eton that he had 'shaken off the easy-going, comfortable,
+half-sluggish habit of mind' attributed to him there, and to be
+earnestly preparing for the future work of life. His continued interest
+in Missions was shown by his assisting to collect subscriptions for the
+Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In fact, his charm of manner,
+and his way of taking for granted that people meant to do what they
+ought, made him a good collector, and he had had a good deal of practice
+at Eton in keeping up the boys to the subscription for the stained glass
+of the east window of the Chapel which they had undertaken to give.
+
+That Long vacation of study was a great effort, and he felt it tedious
+and irksome, all the more from a weakness that affected his eyelids,
+and, though it did not injure his sight, often rendered reading and
+writing painful. Slight ailments concurred with other troubles and
+vexations to depress his spirits; and besides these outward matters, he
+seems to have had a sense of not coming up to his ideal. His standard
+was pitched higher than that of most men: his nature was prone to
+introspection, and his constitutional inertness rendered it so
+difficult for him to live up to his own views, that he was continually
+dissatisfied with himself; and this, in spite of his sweet unselfish
+temper, gave his manner at home an irritability, and among strangers
+a reserve--the very reverse of the joyous merry nature which used to
+delight in balls, parties, and gaieties.
+
+Though an ardent friend, he became disinclined to enter into general
+society; nor was the distaste ever entirely overcome, though he never
+failed to please by the charm alike of natural manner and of Christian
+courtesy; the same spirit of gentleness and kindness very soon prevailed
+in subduing, even in family life, any manifestation of the tender points
+of a growing character.
+
+In the autumn of 1849, he obtained a second class in the school of
+Literae humaniores, a place that fairly represented his abilities as
+compared with those of others. When the compulsory period of study
+was at an end, his affection for Oxford and enjoyment of all that it
+afforded increased considerably, though he never seems to have loved the
+University quite as well as Eton.
+
+As he intended to take Holy Orders, he did not give up his residence
+there; but his first use of his leisure was to take a journey on the
+Continent with his brother and Mr. Hornby. It was then that, as he
+afterwards wrote, his real education began, partly from the opening
+of his mind by the wonders of nature and art, and partly from the
+development of his genius for philology. Aptitude for language had
+already shown itself when his sister Fanny had given him some German
+lessons; and even on his first halt at Cologne, he received the
+compliment, 'Sie sprechen Deutsch wohl' and he found himself talking to
+a German on one side and a Frenchman on the other.
+
+His letters throughout his foreign travels are more copious than ever,
+but are chiefly minute descriptions of what he saw, such as would weary
+the reader who does not want a guide-book even full of individuality.
+Yet they cannot be passed by without noticing how he fulfilled the duty
+of study and endeavour at appreciation which everyone owes to great
+works of art, instead of turning aside with shallow conceit if he do not
+enter into them at first sight.
+
+After the wonders of Vienna and the mines of Salzburg, the mountain
+scenery of the Tyrol was an unspeakable pleasure, which tries to express
+itself in many closely written pages. Crossing into Italy by the Stelvio
+Pass, a sharp but passing fit of illness detained Coley at Como for a
+day, and caused him to call in an Italian doctor, who treated him on the
+starvation system, administered no medicines, and would take no fee.
+The next day Coley was in condition to go on to Milan, where his
+first impression of the Cathedral was, as so often happens, almost of
+bewilderment. He did not at first like the Lombardo-Gothic style, but
+he studied it carefully, and filled his letter with measurements and
+numbers, though confessing that no part pleased him so much as the
+pinnacles terminating in statues, 'each one a very beautiful martyr's
+memorial.' Two more visits of several hours, however, brought the
+untutored eye to a sense of the harmony of proportion, and the
+surpassing beauty of the carvings and sculpture.
+
+It did not need so much study to enjoy Lionardo da Vinci's great fresco,
+of which he wrote long and elaborately, and, altogether, Milan afforded
+him very great delight and was a new world to him. It was the farthest
+limit of his travels on this occasion. The party returned by way of
+Geneva; and Coley, alone with four guides, attempted the Col du Geant.
+Then following is his account of the danger in which he found himself:--
+
+'On Monday at 4.15 A.M. we started from the Montanvert, with our
+alpenstocks, plenty of ropes, and a hatchet to cut steps in the ice. We
+walked quickly over the Mer de Glace, and in about three hours came to
+the difficult part. I had no conception of what it would be. We had to
+ascend perpendicular walls of ice, 30, 40, 50 feet high, by little
+holes which we cut with the hatchet, and to climb over places not a foot
+broad, with enormous crevasses on each side. I was determined not to
+give in, and said not a word, but I thought that no one had a right to
+expose himself to such danger if known beforehand. After about three
+hours spent in this way, (during which I made but one slip, when I slid
+about twelve feet down a crevasse, but providentially did not lose my
+head, and saved myself by catching at a broken ridge of ice, rising
+up in the crevasse, round which I threw my leg and worked my way up it
+astride), got to the region of snow, and here the danger was of falling
+into hidden crevasses. We all five fastened ourselves to one another
+with ropes. I went in the middle, Couttet in front, then Payot. Most
+unluckily the weather began to cloud over, and soon a sharp hailstorm
+began, with every indication of a fog. We went very cautiously over
+the snow for about three hours, sinking every now and then up to our
+middles, but only once in a crevasse, when Couttet suddenly fell,
+singing out "Tirez! tirez!" but he was pulled out instantly. We had now
+reached the top, but the fog was so dense that I could scarcely see 30
+feet before me, and the crevasses and mountains of snow looming close
+round us looked awful. At this moment the guides asked me if I must make
+the passage. I said instantly that I wanted to do so, but that I would
+sooner return at once than endanger the lives of any of them. They told
+me there was certainly great danger, they had lost their way, but were
+unwilling to give up. For an hour and a half we beat about in the fog,
+among the crevasses, trying every way to find the pass, which is very
+narrow, wet to the skin, and in constant peril; but we knew that the
+descent on the Chamouni side is far more difficult than that on the
+Courmayeur side. At last all the guides agreed that it was impossible
+to find the way, said the storm was increasing, and that our only chance
+was to return at once. So we did, but the fearful difficulties of the
+descent I shall never forget. Even in the finest weather they reckon it
+very difficult, but yesterday we could not see the way, we were numbed
+with intense cold, and dispirited from being forced to return.
+
+In many places the hail and sleet had washed out the traces we trusted
+as guides. After about four hours, we had passed the most dangerous
+part, and in another hour we were safely upon the Mer de Glace, which
+we hailed with delight: Couttet, who reached the point of safety first,
+jumping on the firm ice and shouting to me "Il n'y a plus de danger,
+Monsieur." Here we took off the ropes, and drank some more brandy, and
+then went as hard as we could, jumping across crevasses, which two days
+before I should have thought awkward, as if they were cart ruts. We
+reached Chamouni at 8.30 P.M., having been sixteen and a quarter hours
+without resting. I was not at all tired; the guides thanked me for
+having given so little trouble, and declared I had gone as well as
+themselves. Indeed I was providentially unusually clear-headed and cool,
+and it was not till the danger was over that I felt my nerves give way.
+There was a good deal of anxiety about us at Chamouni, as it was one
+of the worst days ever seen here. Hornby had taken all my clothes to
+Geneva, so I put on a suit of the landlord's, and had some tea, and at
+11 P.M. went to bed, not forgetting, you may be sure, to thank God most
+fervently for this merciful protection, as on the ice I did many times
+with all my heart.
+
+'On reviewing coolly, to-day, the places over which we passed, and which
+I shall never forget, I remember seven such as I trust never again to
+see a man attempt to climb. The state of the ice and crevasses is
+always shifting, so that the next person who makes the ascent may find
+a comparatively easy path. We had other dangers too, such as this: twice
+the guides said to me, "Ne parlez pas ici, Monsieur, et allez vite," the
+fear being of an ice avalanche falling on us, and we heard the rocks and
+ice which are detached by the wet falling all about. The view from the
+top, if the day is fine, is about the most magnificent in the Alps; and
+as in that case I should have descended easily on the other side, the
+excursion would not have been so difficult. I hope you will not think I
+have been very foolish; I did not at all think it would be so dangerous,
+nor was it possible to foresee the bad weather. My curiosity to see some
+of the difficulties of an excursion in the Alps is fully satisfied.'
+
+After this adventure, the party broke up, James Patteson returning
+home with Mr. Hornby, while Coley, who hoped to obtain a Fellowship at
+Merton, and wished in the meantime to learn German thoroughly in order
+to study Hebrew by the light of German scholarship, repaired to Dresden
+for the purpose; revelling, by the way, on the pictures and glass at
+Munich, descriptions of which fill three or four letters. He remained
+a month at Dresden, reading for an hour a day with a German master, and
+spending many hours besides in study, recreating himself with German
+newspapers at the cafe where he dined, and going to the play in the
+evening to hear colloquialisms. The picture galleries were his daily
+enjoyment, and he declared the Madonna di San Sisto fully equal to
+his anticipations. There is that about the head of the Virgin which
+I believe one sees in no other picture, a dignity and beauty with a
+mixture of timidity quite indescribable.'
+
+Returning home for Christmas, Coley started again in January 1851, in
+charge of a pupil, the son of Lord John Thynne, with whom he was to go
+through Italy. The journey was made by sea from Marseilles to Naples,
+where the old regime was still in force. Shakespeare and Humboldt
+were seized; and after several hours' detention on the score of the
+suspicious nature of his literature, Mr. Patteson was asked for a bribe.
+
+The climate was in itself a great charm to one always painfully
+susceptible to cold; and, after duly dwelling on the marvels of Vesuvius
+and Pompeii, the travellers went on to Rome. There the sculptures were
+Coley's first delight, and he had the advantage of hints from Gibson on
+the theory of his admiration, such as suited his love of analysis.
+He poured forth descriptions of statues and pictures in his letters:
+sometimes apologising.--'You must put up with a very stupid and
+unintelligible sermon on art. The genius loci would move the very stones
+to preach on such a theme. Again: The worst is, that I ought to have
+months instead of days to see Rome in. I economise my time pretty well;
+but yet I find every night that I can only do a little of what I propose
+in the morning; and as for my Italian, an hour and a half a day is on
+an average more than I give to it. I suffer a good deal from weakness in
+the eyes; it prevents my working at night with comfort. I have a master
+every other day. I tried to draw, but it hurt me so much after looking
+about all day that I despair of doing anything, though I don't abandon
+the idea altogether.'
+
+There are many letters on the religious state of Rome. The apparently
+direct supplications to the Saints, the stories told in sermons of
+desperate sinners--saved through some lingering observance paid to
+the Blessed Virgin, and the alleged abuse of the Confessional, shocked
+Patteson greatly, and therewith he connected the flagrant evils of the
+political condition of Rome at that time, and arrived at conclusions
+strongly adverse to Roman Catholicism as such, though he retained
+uninjured the Catholic tone of his mind.
+
+It was art which was the special attraction to Coley of all the many
+spells of old Rome. He spent much time in the galleries, and studied
+'modern painters' with an earnestness that makes Ruskinism pervade his
+letters.
+
+At Florence, Coley wrote as usual at much length of the galleries, where
+the Madonna del Cardellino seems to have been what delighted him most.
+He did not greatly enter into Michel Angelo's works, and perhaps hardly
+did their religious spirit full justice under the somewhat
+exclusive influence of Fra Angelico and Francia, with the Euskinese
+interpretation. The delight was indescribable. He says:-- 'But I have
+written again and again on this favourite theme, and I forget that it is
+difficult for you to understand what I write, or the great change that
+has taken place in me, without seeing the original works. No one can
+see them and be unchanged. I never had such enjoyment.' His birthday
+presents were spent on a copy of the beloved Madonna del Cardellino, of
+which he says:--'though it does not reach anything like the intensity
+of feeling of the original, is still a very excellent painting, and will
+always help to excite in my imagination, and I hope to convey to you,
+some faint image of the exceeding beauty of this most beautiful of all
+paintings.'
+
+Readers chiefly interested in the subsequent career of the missionary
+would feel interrupted by the overflowing notes on painting, sculpture
+and architecture which fill the correspondence, yet without them, it is
+scarcely possible to realise the young man's intense enthusiasm for the
+Beautiful, especially for spiritual beauty, and thus how great was the
+sacrifice of going to regions where all these delights were unknown and
+unattainable. He went on to Venice, where he met a letter which gave a
+new course to his thoughts, for it informed him that the deafness, which
+had long been growing on his father had now become an obstacle to the
+performance of his duties as a Judge, and announcing his intention of
+retiring.
+
+In the fulness of his heart he wrote:--
+
+
+'Venice, Hotel de la Villa: May 2, 1851.
+
+'My dearest Father,--I have not been in Venice an hour yet, but little
+did I expect to find such news waiting for me as is contained in Jem's
+letter, and I can lose no time in answering it. It is indeed a heavy
+trial for you, that, in addition to many years of constant annoyance
+from your deafness, you should be obliged now, in the full vigour of
+your mind, and with the advantage of your experience, to give up a
+profession you so thoroughly delight in. I don't deny that I have
+often contemplated the possibility of such a thing; and I had some
+conversation with Uncle John last winter in consequence of my fancying
+your deafness was on the increase, though the girls did not perceive it;
+I hope with all my heart I was wrong. I told him what I know you feel,
+that, painful as it will be to you to retire from the Bench, if any
+dissatisfaction was expressed at your not hearing sufficiently what
+passed, you would choose rather to give up your seat than to go on
+under such circumstances. His answer, I remember, was that it was most
+difficult to know what to do, because it was no use concealing the fact
+that your infirmity did interfere with the working of the Court more
+or less, on Circuit especially, and at other times when witnesses were
+examined, but that your knowledge of law was so invaluable that it was
+difficult to see how this latter advantage could fail to outweigh the
+former defect; and everybody knew that they can't find a lawyer to fill
+your place, though another man might do the ordinary circuit work with
+greater comfort to the Bar; though therefore nobody is so painstaking
+and so little liable to make mistakes, yet to people in general and in
+the whole, another man would seem to do the work nearly as well, and
+would do his work, as far as his knowledge and conscientiousness went,
+with more ease;--this was something like the substance of what passed
+then, and you may suppose that since that time I have thought more about
+the possibility of your retirement; but as I know how very much you will
+feel giving up an occupation in which you take a regular pride, I do
+feel very sorry, and wish I was at home to do anything that could be
+done now. I know well enough that you are the last man in the world to
+make a display of your feelings, and that you look upon this as a
+trial, and bear it as one, just as you have with such great patience and
+submission (and dear Joan too,) always quietly borne your deafness; but
+I am sure you must, and do feel this very much, and, added to Granny's
+illness, you must be a sad party at home. I feel as if it were very
+selfish to be in this beautiful city, and to have been spending so much
+money at Florence. Neither did Joan, in her last letter, nor has Jem
+now, mentioned whether you received two letters from Florence, the first
+of which gave some description of my vetturino journey from Rome to
+Florence. I little thought when I was enjoying myself so very much
+there, that all this was passing at home.... Your influence in the Privy
+Council (where I conclude they will offer you a seat) might be so good
+on very important questions, and it would be an occupation for you;
+and I have always hoped that, if it should please God you should retire
+while still in the prime of life for work, you would publish some great
+legal book, which should for ever be a record of your knowledge on these
+subjects. However it may be, the retrospect of upwards of twenty years
+spent on the Bench with the complete respect and admiration of all your
+friends, is no slight thing to fall back upon: and I trust that this
+fresh trial will turn to your good, and even happiness here, as we may
+trust with safety it will hereafter.
+
+'Ever your very affectionate and dutiful Son,
+
+'JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON.'
+
+
+In this winter of 1852, Mr. Justice Patteson's final decision to retire
+was made and acted upon. The Judge delighted in no occupation so much as
+the pursuit of law, and therefore distrusted his own opinion as to the
+moment when his infirmity should absolutely unfit him for sitting in
+Court. He had begged a friend to tell him the moment that the impediment
+became serious; and this, with some hesitation, was done. The intimation
+was thankfully received, and, after due consideration, carried out.
+
+On January 29, 1852, after twenty-two years on the Bench, and at the age
+of sixty-two, Mr. Justice Patteson wrote his letter of resignation to
+Lord Truro, then Lord Chancellor, petitioning for the usual pension. It
+was replied to in terms of warm and sincere regret; and on the 2nd of
+February, Sir John Patteson was nominated to the Privy Council, as
+a member of the Judicial Committee; where the business was chiefly
+conducted in writing, and he could act with comparatively little
+obstacle from his deafness.
+
+On February 10, 1852, he took his leave of the Bar. The Court of Queen's
+Bench was crowded with barristers, who rose while the Attorney-General,
+Sir Alexander Cockburn, made an address expressive of the universal
+heartfelt feeling of respect and admiration with which the retiring
+Judge was regarded.
+
+John Patteson's reply, read with a voice broken by emotion, is so
+touching in its manly simplicity and humility that a paragraph or two
+may well be quoted:--
+
+'Mine,' he said, 'is one of the many instances which I know that a
+public man without pre-eminent abilities, if he will but exert such
+as it has pleased God to bestow on him honestly and industriously,
+and without ostentation, is sure to receive public approbation fully
+commensurate with, and generally much beyond, his real merits; and I
+thank God if I shall be found not to have fallen entirely short in the
+use of those talents which He has entrusted to me.' Then, after some
+words on the misfortune that necessitated his withdrawal, he continued,
+'I am aware that on some, and I fear too many, occasions I have given
+way to complaints and impatient expressions towards the Bar and the
+witnesses in Court, as if they were to blame when, in truth, it was my
+own deficiency; and heartily sorry have I been and am for such want of
+control over myself. I have striven against its recurrence earnestly,
+though not always successfully. My brethren on the Bench, and you, and
+the public, have been very kind and indulgent to me; the recollection of
+which will remain with, and be a great solace to me for the rest of my
+life.
+
+'And now, gentlemen, I bid you farewell most affectionately. I wish
+you many years of health and happiness, of success and honour in your
+liberal profession; the duties of which have been and are and I trust
+ever will be performed, not only with the greatest zeal, learning, and
+ability, but with the highest honour and integrity, and a deep sense of
+responsibility to God and to man, and which being so performed, are, in
+my humble judgment, eminently conducive, under the blessing of God,
+to maintain the just prerogative of the Crown, and the true right,
+liberties, and happiness of the people.'
+
+He then rose from the Judges' seat, and bowed his farewell to the
+assembly, who stood respectful and silent, except for some suppressed
+tokens of emotion, for in truth to many the parting was from an old
+familiar and much trusted friend.
+
+Private letters poured in, expressive of deep regret, esteem, and
+affection, and not only were gratefully read at the time, but became to
+the family valuable memorials of the heartfelt appreciation gained by a
+high-minded and upright course of life, and evidences that their father
+had done that which is perhaps the best thing that it is permitted to
+man to do here below, namely, 'served God in his generation.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. FELLOWSHIP OF MERTON. 1852--1854.
+
+
+
+In the summer of 1852 Coleridge Patteson stood for a fellowship of
+Merton, obtained it, and moved into rooms there. Every college has a
+distinctive character; and Merton, if not actually the eldest, is at
+least one of the oldest foundations at Oxford, and is one of the most
+unchanged in outward aspect. There is a peculiar charm in the beauty and
+seclusion of the quadrangle, in the library, still mediaeval even to the
+fittings; and the church is above all impressive in the extraordinary
+loveliness of the early decorated architecture, and the space and
+loftiness of the choir. The whole, pre-eminently among the colleges,
+gives the sense of having been unaltered for five hundred years, yet
+still full of life and vigour.
+
+Coley attached himself to Merton, though he never looked to permanent
+residence there. The Curacy in the immediate neighbourhood of his home
+was awaiting him, as soon as he should be ordained; but though his
+purpose was unchanged and he was of full age for Holy Orders, he wished
+for another year of preparation, so as to be able to study both Hebrew
+and theology more thoroughly than would be possible when pastoral labour
+should have begun. What he had already seen of Dresden convinced him
+that he could there learn Hebrew more thoroughly and more cheaply than
+at home, and to this he intended to devote the Long Vacation of 1852,
+without returning to Feniton. There the family were settling themselves,
+having given up the house in Bedford Square, since James Patteson had
+chambers in King's Bench Walk, where the ex-Judge could be with him when
+needed in London. There had some notion of the whole family profiting
+by Sir John's emancipation to take a journey on the Continent, and the
+failure of the scheme elicited the following letter:--
+
+
+'Merton: June 18.
+
+'My dearest Fan,--I can, to a certain extent, sympathise with you
+thoroughly upon this occasion; the mere disappointment at not seeing so
+many interesting places and things is a sharp one, but in your instance
+this is much increased by the real benefit you hoped to derive from
+a warmer climate; and no wonder that the disappearance of your hopes
+coupled with bodily illness makes you low and uncomfortable. The weather
+too is trying to mind and body, and though you try as usual to shake off
+the sense of depression which affects you, your letter is certainly sad,
+and written like the letter of one in weak health. Well, we shall see
+each other, please GOD, at Christmas now. That is better than passing
+nearly or quite a year away from each other; and some other time I hope
+you will be able to go to Italy, and enjoy all the wonders there, though
+a tour for health's sake cannot be too soon. It is never too soon to get
+rid of an ailment....
+
+'I find that I am getting to know the undergraduates here, which is what
+I wanted to do; it is my only chance of being of any use. True, that I
+have to do it at the expense of two half-days' cricketing, which I have
+quite ceased to care about, but I know that when I went up to Balliol,
+I was glad when a Fellow played with us. It was a guarantee for orderly
+conduct, and as I say, it gives me an opportunity of knowing men. I hope
+to leave London for Dresden on Monday week; Arthur is gone thither, as I
+find out from Jem, and I hope the scheme will answer. If I find I can't
+work, from my eyes, or anything else, preventing me, I shall come home,
+but I have no reason to expect any such thing. My best love to Joan and
+all friends.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The 'Arthur' here mentioned was the youngest son of Mr. Frank Coleridge,
+and became Coley's companion at Dresden, where he was studying German.
+He writes:--
+
+'Patteson spoke German fluently, and wrote German correctly. He had
+studied the language assiduously for about two years previously, and so
+successfully that whilst we were at Dresden, he was enabled to dispense
+with a teacher and make his assistance little more than nominal.
+Occasionally he wrote a German exercise, but rather as an amusement
+than a discipline, and merely with the view of enlarging his German
+vocabulary. I remember his writing an elaborate description of Feniton
+Court, and imagining the place to be surrounded with trees belonging
+to all sorts of climates. The result was very amusing to ourselves, and
+added to the writer's stock of words on particular subjects. When our
+master Schier appeared, the conversation was led by a palpable ambuscade
+to the topic which had been made the subject of Patteson's exercise, and
+conversation helped to strengthen memory. After looking over a few of
+Patteson's German exercises, Mr. Schier found so little to correct,
+in the way of grammatical errors, that these studies were almost
+relinquished, and gave way to Arabic and Hebrew. Before we left Dresden,
+Patteson had read large portions of the Koran; and, with the aid
+of Hurwitz's Grammar and Bernhard's Guide to Hebrew Students, books
+familiar to Cambridge men, he was soon able to read the Psalms in the
+original. I remember the admiration and despair I felt in witnessing
+Patteson's progress, and the wonder expressed by his teacher in his
+pupil's gift of rapid acquirement. We had some excellent introductions;
+amongst others, to Dr. ----, a famous theologian, with whom Patteson was
+fond of discussing the system and organisation of the Church in
+Saxony. Up to the time of his leaving England he was constantly using
+Olshausen's Commentary on the New Testament, a book he was as thoroughly
+versed in as Archbishop Trench himself. I think that he consulted no
+other books in his study of the Gospels, but Olshausen and Bengel's
+Gnomon.
+
+'In our pleasures at Dresden there was a mixture of the utile with the
+dulce. Our constant visits to the theatre were strong incentives to a
+preparatory study of the plays of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing. What
+noble acting we saw in that Dresden theatre!
+
+'With regard to the opera, I have never seen Weber or Meyerbeer's works
+given so perfectly and conscientiously as at Dresden. Patteson's chief
+delight was the Midsummer Night's Dream, with Mendelssohn's music. He
+had a tuneful baritone voice and a correct ear for music. We hired
+a piano for our sitting-room; and, though I failed to induce him to
+cultivate his voice, and join me in taking lessons, he sang some of
+Mendelssohn's Lieder very pleasingly, and knew most of the bass music
+from the Messiah by heart. He began to play a few scales on the piano,
+and hoped to surprise his sisters on his return to England by playing
+chants, but the Arabic and Hebrew studies proved too absorbing;
+he grudged the time, and thought the result disproportioned to the
+sacrifice.
+
+'In our daily walks we talked constantly of Church matters. Some sharp
+and sad experiences in the loss of more than one of his Eton and Oxford
+friends, who had abandoned the Church of England, failed to shake his
+confidence in the Church he was to serve so faithfully and to die for
+so gloriously. His faith and daily practice seem to me a protest
+and warning against the folly, if not the falsehood, of extremes.
+Moderation, quiet consistency of life, and unswerving loyalty to a faith
+which had been the joy and comfort of his dear mother, whose loveable
+nature he inherited and reflected, a blameless life and unfailing
+charity enabled him when the time came to live a life of incessant toil,
+and face a martyr's death. I remember the present Bishop of Carlisle
+inciting Cambridge undergraduates to become, by virtue of earnestness,
+gentleness, and toleration, "guides not judges, lights not firebrands."
+He drew a perfect description of Patteson, who came more completely up
+to that ideal than anyone I ever knew. Here was a man capable of the
+purest and most tender friendship, with an exquisite appreciation of all
+that is noblest in life, and he was ready to give up all, and content to
+lead the forlorn hope of Christianity, and perish in the front ranks
+of the noble army. "And having been a little tried he shall be greatly
+rewarded, for God proved him, and found him worthy for Himself."'
+
+I have given this letter almost entire, because it shows the impression
+Coley made on one, little his junior, in the intimate associations of
+cousin, neighbour, and schoolfellow, as well as travelling companion.
+
+This year seems to have been a marked stage of development. He was now
+twenty-five, and the boyish distaste for mental exertion which had so
+long rendered study an effort of duty had passed into full scholarly
+enjoyment. The individuality and originality of his mind had begun to
+awaken, and influenced probably by the German atmosphere of thought
+in which he was working, were giving him that strong metaphysical bent
+which characterised his tone through life, and became apparent in his
+sermons when he addressed an educated audience.
+
+Here is a letter to his eldest sister: 'The weather has been better
+suited for work, and I feel pretty well satisfied with my Hebrew. What
+makes it so difficult is principally this, that as it is an Oriental
+language, it is entirely different in structure, and in its inflections,
+&c., from any language I ever came across. I can't fall back upon
+anything already learnt to help me; but I see my way pretty clear now,
+and shall soon have little more than a knowledge of the meaning of the
+words to learn, which is only a matter of patience, and can be learnt
+with a good dictionary and practice. A real complete knowledge of the
+grammar is of course the great thing.
+
+'The great Dresden fair, called the Vogelschiesser, is going on; it
+began last Sunday and ends next Sunday. About half a mile from the town
+there is a very large meadow by the river, where a small town of booths,
+tents, &c., is erected, and where shooting at targets with wooden darts,
+sham railway-trains and riding-horses, confectionery of every kind,
+beer of every name, strength, and colour, pipes, cigars, toys, gambling,
+organ-grinding, fiddling, dancing, &c., goes on incessantly. The great
+attraction, however, is the shooting at the bird, which occupies the
+attention of every Saxon, and is looked upon as the consummation of
+human invention and physical science. A great pole, nearly 80 feet high,
+is erected with a wooden bird, about the size of a turkey, at the top;
+to hit this with a crossbow from a regular stand, about 50 feet from
+the foot of the pole, is the highest ambition of this great people. The
+accompaniments are rich in the extreme: cannon firing, drums rolling,
+for a successful shot, the shooting society, who exist only for the sole
+honour and glory of hacking this bird to pieces, the presence of the
+King, I think to-day, and the intense interest taken in the amusement by
+the whole population; certainly the Germans are satisfied with less than
+any people I ever saw (barring two things, smoke and beer, in which they
+are insatiable). I went out to see it all, but it rather bored me after
+an hour or so. Tom F---- and I threw some dice for a pair of braces for
+Arthur, which we presented in due form; and we had some shots at the
+targets--mine were eminently unsuccessful.
+
+'Last night we had a great treat. Emil Devrient, who has been acting in
+London, you know, came back, and acted Marquis Posa in "Don Carlos." The
+play acts very much better than it reads. Schiller certainly has great
+dramatic genius; only I agree with Goethe that there is always a longing
+for exhibiting cruelty in its most monstrous form, and refinement of
+cruelty and depravity overstepping almost the natural conditions of
+humanity. I always thought Iago about the most awful character in
+Shakspeare; but Schiller's Philip II. is something beyond even this,
+without perhaps so much necessity for the exhibition of this absolute
+delight in evil. It is long since I have been so excited in a theatre. I
+was three rows from the stage, heard and understood everything, and
+was so completely carried away by the grandeur and intense feeling of
+Devrient (who was well supported by the Don Carlos), that I had some
+difficulty to keep quiet, and feel to-day rather odd, shaken, as it
+were, from such a strain upon the feelings.'
+
+Here is a letter, enclosed within one to his sister Fanny on September
+9, written on a scrap of paper. The apologetic tone of confession is
+amusing:--
+
+'My dearest Father,--I have not before told you that I have been at work
+for just three weeks upon a new subject; reading, however, Hebrew every
+day almost for three hours as well. Schier is not a great Hebraist; and
+I found the language in one sense easier than I expected, so that with
+good grammar and dictionary I can quite get on by myself, reading an
+easy part of the Bible (historical books, e.g.) at the rate of about
+twenty-five verses an hour. Well, I began to think that I ought to use
+the opportunities that Dresden affords. I know that Hebrew is not a
+rich language; that many words occur only once, and consequently have an
+arbitrary meaning attached to them, unless they can be illustrated from
+cognate languages. Now I have a taste for these things, and have in
+three weeks progressed so far in my new study as to feel sure I shall
+make it useful; and so I tell you without fear I am working at Arabic. I
+hope you won't think it silly. It is very hard, and for ten days was as
+hard work as I ever had in my life. I think I have learnt enough to
+see my way now, and this morning read the first chapter of Genesis
+in three-quarters of an hour. It is rich, beyond all comparison, in
+inflexions; and the difficulty arises from the extreme multiplicity
+of all its forms: e.g. each verb having not only active, middle,
+and passive voices, but the primitive active having not less than
+thirty-five derivative forms and the passive thirteen. The "noun of
+action,"--infinitive with article (to akonein) of the Greek--is again
+different for each voice or form; and the primitive can take any of
+twenty-two forms, which are not compounded according to any rule.
+Again, there are twenty-eight sets of irregular plurals, which are quite
+arbitrary. No grammarian has ever given any explanation about them.
+All mere matters of memory. The very alphabet shows the richness of the
+language. There are twenty-nine letters, besides vowel points; and each
+letter is written in four different ways, so that it is different when
+isolated, when in the beginning, middle, or end of a word. It took me
+some hours to learn them. In very many respects, it is closely allied
+to the Hebrew, so that everybody who writes Hebrew grammars and lexicons
+necessarily has much to do with Arabic; and a knowledge of it may be of
+great use in clearing up difficulties in the Bible. My year in Oxford
+will enable me to go on with it, for in three weeks more I hope to be
+able to go on alone. To-morrow I begin the Koran. My lessons will not
+in all exceed 31; and I really should have gone on, perhaps, not much
+faster with Hebrew if I had worked it exclusively; and it is hard to
+read so many hours at one thing: and I may say, now without doubt, that
+I have laid the foundation for a study of Oriental languages, if I have
+time and opportunity that may be fairly given to them. Think what one
+hour a day is, and the pleasure to me is very great, and I feel that I
+have a knack rather (if I may say so) of laying hold of these things.
+Don't mention it to anyone.'
+
+There the fragment breaks off; and in a letter of August 29 there occurs
+this reply to a message from his eldest sister:--
+
+'Thank dear Joan for her caution: I know I need it sadly, especially now
+when I am at work upon somewhat out-of-the-way subjects, and feel the
+danger of forgetting that if I mistake the means for the end, and feel
+gratified with the mere intellectual amusement, I am doing very wrong,
+even when I am working very hard at very difficult matters. I like these
+things, I must confess, and the time is so well adapted to work here,
+and now that the weather is cool I can secure every day a good long
+time to myself.' In the enclosed letter he announces that he shall leave
+Dresden in another three weeks. He says:--
+
+'We have had a steady working time of it here; and as I know some
+members of the family rather discourage these Continental flights, I
+just sum up the advantages thereof. Being naturally endowed with a love
+of music, the probability is, that when you, Clara, and Miss Horsley are
+together in the house, as soon as a Lied or Sonata began, away would
+go my books, or at all events my thoughts. You know well that the piano
+goes at all hours, and always in the morning at home. Then riding,
+walking with Father, long sitting after dinner, &c. do not improve the
+chances for reading. In fact, you know that what with visitors from
+without, friends within, parties, &c., I should have had very little
+reading in the vacation, and that not through my own fault--not a
+Stilbehen in the house could protect me from music. Here I make my own
+time, and last week my eyes were troublesome. I walked twice every day,
+exactly at the hour when I most wanted it; and without nonsense, I may
+say that I have in two months done really a great deal more than I could
+have done at home even with masters. This all applies to Arthur just as
+much. He has read German exclusively most of the time, and knows as well
+as I do that it is not possible to work at home. If I could go on just
+as well as with Mendelssohn ringing in my ears, it would be different,
+but I can't. You remember how pleasant, but how very idle, last vacation
+was, and especially the last six weeks of it!'
+
+Then, after much about family matters, commissions, and little gifts
+which he was collecting for all at home--
+
+I should like to get something for everybody, but that is not possible.
+Luckily, my lessons are less expensive than I expected, and, considering
+the work, wonderfully cheap. I make good progress, I can say; but the
+difficulty is great enough to discourage any but a real "grinder" at
+such work. I have written a scrap for Father, and you will see that I
+am working away pretty well. I have finished my introductory book,
+consisting of forty-one fables; and though difficulties present
+themselves always to really good scholars from time to time, the Bible
+is not one of the hardest books, not so hard, e.g. as the Koran. Now
+I can at any future time, if the opportunity comes, go on with these
+things, and I hope find them really useful. I know you like to hear what
+I am doing; but be sure to keep it all quiet, let no one know but Father
+and Joan. You might carelessly tell it to anyone in fun, and I don't
+wish it to be known. Especially don't let any of the family know. Time
+enough if I live out my Oxford year, and have really mastered the matter
+pretty well. Remember this is taken up with a view to elucidate and
+explain what is so very hard in Hebrew. Hebrew is to be the Hauptsache,
+this the Hulfsmittel, or some day I hope one of several such helps. It
+is very important to accustom one's mind to the Denk and Anschauungswerk
+of the Orientals, which is so different from that of Europeans or their
+language. How hard are the metaphors of the Bible for this reason!'
+
+There is something in all these long apologies and strenuous desire for
+secrecy about these Arabic studies that reminds one that the character
+was a self-conscious introspective one, always striving for humility,
+and dreading to be thought presumptuous. A simpler nature, if devoid of
+craving for home sympathy, would never have mentioned the new study at
+all; or if equally open-hearted, would have let the mention of it among
+home friends take its chance, without troubling himself as to their
+possible comments. Indeed, it is curious to observe how elaborate he
+was at this period about all his concerns, meditating over the cause of
+whatever affected him. It was a form of growth; and dropped off when the
+time of action arrived, and his character had shaped itself. It must be
+remembered, too, that his habit of pouring out all his reflections and
+feelings to his sisters, and their preservation of his letters, have
+left much more on record of these personal speculations than is common.
+
+His father made a much simpler matter of the Arabic matter, in the
+following characteristic letter:--
+
+
+'Feniton Court: September 14, 1852,
+
+'My dearest Coley,--So far from thinking you wrong in learning Arabic, I
+feel sure that you are quite right. However, we shall keep your secret,
+and not say anything about it. I am heartily glad that you should
+acquire languages, modern as well as ancient. You know I have often
+pressed the former on your and Jem's notice, from myself feeling my
+deficiency and regret at it. I can well understand that Arabic, and I
+should suppose Syriac also, must be of the greatest use towards a true
+understanding of much of the Old Testament: a great deal of which is
+doubtless not understood by those who understand only our translation,
+or even the Septuagint, which I suspect to have many passages far from a
+faithful vehicle of the meaning of the original. I was greatly delighted
+with your theological letter, so to speak, as well as with the first,
+and look to have some jolly conversations with you on such subjects.
+
+'We have many more partridges than our neighbours, and Jem shoots
+uncommonly well. Three double shots yesterday. I shoot worse than usual;
+and cannot walk without much fatigue and frequent pain, so that I shall
+not be able to work enough to get much sport. I got through the Mary
+Church affair very well--that is, not making a fool of myself--and if
+I did not do much good, I think I did no harm. The Bishop of Exeter
+[Phillpotts] is mightily pleased, and wrote me a letter to that effect.
+Of course I cannot tell you what I said, it would be too long, nor are
+you likely to see it. It was fully inserted in "Woolmer," and from him
+copied into the "Guardian."
+
+'I live in hopes to see you well and hearty at Oxford on the 14th of
+October, till when, adieu, God bless you.
+
+'Your affectionate Father,
+
+'J. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The interview with the Bishop of Sydney never took place, for the
+excellent Bishop Broughton arrived with health shattered by his
+attendance on the sufferers from fever in the ship which brought him
+from St. Thomas, and he did not long survive his landing.
+
+The 'Mary Church affair' here referred to was the laying the
+foundation-stone of the Church, built or restored, it is hard to say
+which, on the lines of the former one, and preserving the old tower,
+at St. Mary Church, near Torquay. Though the death of the Rev. Gr. M.
+Coleridge had broken one tie with the place, it continued to be much
+beloved by the Patteson family, and Sir John had taken so much share
+in the church-building work as to be asked to be the layer of the
+corner-stone. The speech he made at the ensuing luncheon excited much
+attention and the sisters took care that their brother should not
+miss reading it. The stay at Dresden was drawing to an end; and he was
+preparing to return through Berlin, intending to go direct to Oxford and
+reside there till the summer, when he meant to seek ordination and enter
+on the Curacy at Alfington. He says to his sister Joanna:--
+
+'It is a long time to pass without seeing you, but I hope, if it please
+God that we all live on together, that it will be long before such
+another interval occurs. I have not grown out of an occasional fit of
+home sickness yet; and on these occasions Arthur and I talk incessantly
+about domestic matters, and indulge our fancies in conjecturing what you
+are all doing, and so forth. I followed Joan and Clara's trip, step
+by step, from the Den at Teignmouth to St. Mary Church, Oddiscombe,
+Rabbicombe, Anstey's Cave, Meadfoot, &c. How I remember every inch of
+the dear old places! Better than the mud banks at Felixstowe, are they
+not, Clara? I shall keep always the scrap from the "Guardian" with
+Father's speech. I don't think I remember any speech on a similar
+occasion so thoroughly good, and so likely to do good. Plain, sensible,
+and manly, no question of words and unimportant differences of opinion;
+no cant, high or low, just like himself. I pray I may have but a tenth
+part of his honesty and freedom from prejudice and party spirit. It
+may come, under God's blessing, if a man's mind is earnestly set on the
+truth; but the danger is of setting up your own exclusive standard of
+truth, moral and intellectual. Father certainly is more free from it
+than any man we ever knew. He tells me in his letter that the Bishop
+of Sydney is coming home to consult people in England about Synodical
+Action, &c., and that he is going to meet him and explain to him certain
+difficulties and mistakes into which he has fallen with regard to
+administering the Oath of Abjuration and the like matters. How few
+people, comparatively, know the influence Father exercises in this way
+behind the scenes, as it were. His intimacy with so many of the Bishops,
+too, makes his position really of very great importance. I don't want to
+magnify, but the more I think of him, and know how very few men they are
+that command such general respect, and bear such a character with all
+men for uprightness and singleness of purpose, it is very difficult to
+know how his place could be supplied when we throw his legal knowledge
+over and above into the scale. I hope he will write: I am quite certain
+that his opinion will exercise a great influence on very many people.
+Such a speech as this at Mary Church embodies exactly the sense of
+a considerable number of the most prudent and most able men of the
+country, and his position and character give it extra weight, and that
+would be so equally with his book as with his speech. How delightful it
+will be to have him at Oxford. He means to come in time for dinner
+on the 14th, and go away on the 16th; but if he likes it, he will, I
+daresay, stop now and then on his way to town and back. Jem will not be
+back in town when he goes up for the Judicial Committee work, so he will
+be rather solitary there, won't he. I am not, however, sure about the
+number of weeks Jem must reside to keep his term....'
+
+The enjoyment of the last few days at Dresden 'was much marred by
+a heavy cold, caught by going to see an admirable representation of
+'Egmont,' the last of these theatrical treats so highly appreciated. The
+journey to Berlin, before the cold was shaken off, resulted in an attack
+of illness; and he was so heavy and uncomfortable as to be unable to
+avail himself of his opportunities of interesting introductions.
+
+He returned to his rooms at Merton direct from Germany. Like many men
+who have come back to Oxford at a riper age than that of undergraduate
+life, he now entered into the higher privileges and enjoyments of the
+University, the studies, friendships, and influences, as early youth
+sometimes fails to do. He was felt by his Oxford friends to have greatly
+developed since his Balliol terms had been over and the Eton boy left
+behind. Study was no longer a toil and conscientious effort. It
+had become a prime pleasure; and men wondered to find the plodding,
+accurate, but unenthusiastic student of three years back, a linguist and
+philologist of no common power and attainment. Mr. Roundell says, 'He
+had become quite another person. Self-cultivation had done much for him.
+Literature and art had opened his mind and enlarged his interests and
+sympathies. The moral and spiritual forces of the man were now vivified,
+refined, and strengthened by the awakening of his intellectual and
+esthetic nature.'
+
+Ever reaching forward, however, he was on his guard against, as he said,
+making the means the end. Languages were his pleasure, but a pleasure
+held in check as only subservient to his preparation for the ministry.
+He did not mean to use them to the acquirement of academical honour
+nor promotion, nor did he even rest in the intellectual delight of
+investigation; he intended them only as keys to the better appreciation
+of the Scriptures and of the doctrines of the Church, unaware as yet
+that the gift he was cultivating would be of inestimable value in far
+distant regions.
+
+In February, while Sir John Patteson was in London, his son James was
+the cause of much alarm, owing to a mistake by which he swallowed an
+embrocation containing a large amount of laudanum. Prompt measures,
+however, prevented any ill effects; and all danger was over before the
+letter was sent off which informed Coley of what had happened; but the
+bare idea of the peril was a great shock to one of such warm affections,
+and so deeply attached to his only brother. He wrote the two following
+letters to his father and sisters on the first impulse on the receipt of
+the intelligence:--
+
+
+'Shrove Tuesday.
+
+'My dearest Father,--I believe I speak truly when I say that I never in
+my life felt so thoroughly thankful and grateful to God for His great
+mercy as I did this morning, on reading of dear Jem's danger and safety.
+He is less accustomed to talk about his feelings than I am, in which
+I see his superiority, but partly because our tastes are in several
+respects different, chiefly because of his exceeding amiability and
+unselfishness. I am sure we love each other very dearly. Ever since
+his illness at Geneva, I have from time to time contemplated the utter
+blank, the real feeling of loss, which anything happening to him would
+bring with it, and the having it brought home close to me in this way
+quite upset me, as it well might. I pray God that no ill effects may
+follow, and from what you say I apprehend none. I have often thought
+that it is much better when two brothers propose to themselves different
+objects in life, and pursue them with tastes dissimilar on unimportant
+matters. They act better upon one another; just as I look to Jem, as I
+have more than once told him, to give me a hint when he sees a want of
+common sense in anything I take up, because I know I act a good deal
+from impulse, and take an interest in many things which are perhaps not
+worth the time I spend on them. It is a mercy that I hope I shall never
+forget, never cease to be thankful for. Many and many a time, if it
+please God, I shall look to him in difficulties, and remember how nearly
+once he was lost to me. I can get away with the greatest ease for a few
+days on Thursday if desirable, and perhaps old Jem will feel low after
+this, when you have left him. I think this very likely, from what I know
+of him, and if you think it too, without asking him if he would like it,
+I will come up for some other reason. You will not go, I know, unless
+he is perfectly well; but he might, and I think would, like to have some
+one with him just at first. Let me know what you think.
+
+'Good-bye, my dearest father.
+
+'Ever your affectionate and dutiful son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+'Merton, Shrove Tuesday.
+
+'My dearest Joan and Fan,--How we must all have united this morning in
+pouring out our thanks to God for His great mercy! You will not suspect
+me of being wanting in love to you, if I say that the contemplation of
+what might have happened presented such a scene of desolation, such a
+void, that it would have required all the strength I possess to turn to
+God in resignation and submission to His will. I have often, very often,
+thought of that illness at Geneva, but this brought it home to me,
+perhaps closer still; and I hope I shall never cease to be mindful of,
+and thankful for, this special providence. Father seems pretty confident
+that all mischief is prevented; and Jem wrote six hours after he took
+the laudanum, and had then felt no drowsiness to speak of, and Dr.
+Watson said there was no fear of anything happening after two hours had
+elapsed.
+
+'I should like to join with you in showing our gratitude by some deed
+of charity, or whatever you think right. Something that without any show
+might be a thank-offering to God for His signal act of mercy.
+
+'Ever your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.
+
+'5.30. I wrote this quite early this morning. I can hardly think
+yet what it all means. Now, I feel only a sense of some very heavy
+affliction removed. Poor dear Father, and all of us! what should we have
+been without him!'
+
+
+A letter to the brother himself was written under the same impulse,
+even more tenderly affectionate, but so deep and intimate, that it would
+almost be treason to give it to the world. The next letter was written
+soon after the alarm had passed, but is undated:--
+
+'My dear Fan,--Yesterday I was unluckily too seedy with headache to go
+on the ice, and this morning I have been skating for half an hour, but
+the ice is spoilt. Very jolly it is to be twisting and turning about
+once more. I thought of writing to old Jem to come down for it, as
+I should think the frost is not severe enough to freeze any but the
+shallow water of the floods, but it was not good enough to reward him
+for the trouble of coming so far.
+
+'The constant sense of his preservation from that great danger really
+prevents my feeling so acutely perhaps as I ought to do the distress of
+others. I really think I ought to be less cheerful and happy than I feel
+myself to be. I had a pleasant little talk with Dr. Pusey on Monday:
+he was recommending me two or three books for Hebrew reading, but they
+would be of no use to me yet; the language is difficult to advance far
+into, and you know my shallow way of catching a thing at first rather
+quickly perhaps, but only superficially. I find my interest increasing
+greatly in philological studies. One language helps another very much;
+and the beautiful way in which the words, ideas, and the whole structure
+indeed, of language pervades whole families, and even the different
+families, (e.g., the Indo-Germanic and Semitic races,) is not only
+interesting, but very useful. I wish I had made myself a better Greek
+and Latin scholar, but unfortunately I used to hate classics. What
+desperate uphill work it was to read them, a regular exercise of
+self-denial every morning! Now I like it beyond any study, except
+Divinity proper, and I try to make up for lost time. There are admirable
+books in my possession which facilitate the acquisition of critical
+scholarship very much, and I work at these, principally applying it to
+New Test. Greek, LXX, &c. But my real education began, I think, with my
+first foreign trip. It seems as if there was not time for all this,
+for I have Hebrew, Arabic, &c., to go on with (though this is a slow
+process), Pearson, Hooker, Blunt on the Reformation (a mere sketch which
+I read in a day or two at odd times), Commentaries, Trench's Books on
+Parables and Miracles, which are in my room at home, and would in parts
+interest you; he is a writer of good common sense, and a well-read man.
+But I of course want to be reading history as well, and that involves
+a good deal; physical geography, geology, &c., yet one things helps
+another very much. I don't work quite as methodically as I ought; and
+I much want some one to discuss matters with relating to what I read. I
+don't say all this, I am sure you know, as if I wanted to make out that
+I am working at grand subjects. I know exceeding little of any one
+of them, so little history, e.g., that a school girl could expose
+my ignorance directly, but I like to know what we are doing among
+ourselves, and we all get to know each other better thereby. I felt
+so much of late with regard to Jem, that a natural reserve prevents so
+often members even of the same family from communicating freely to each
+other their opinions, business, habits of life, experiences of sympathy,
+approval, disapproval, and the like; and when one member is gone, then
+it is felt how much more closely such a habit of dealing with each other
+would have taught us to know him.... Nothing tests one's knowledge
+so well as questions and answers upon what we have read, stating
+difficulties, arguments which we can't understand, &c., to each other.
+Ladies who have no profession to prepare for, in spite of a very large
+correspondence and numerous household duties, may (in addition to their
+parochial work as curates!) take up a real course of reading and go into
+it thoroughly; and this gives girls not only employment for the time,
+but gives the mind power to seize every other subject presented to it.
+If you are quite alone, your reading is apt to become desultory. I find
+it useful to take once or twice a week a walk with Riddell of Balliol,
+and go through a certain period of Old Testament history; it makes me
+get it up, and then between us we hammer out so many more explanations
+of difficult passages than, at all events, I should do by myself. He is,
+moreover, about the best Greek scholar here, which is a great help to
+me. You have no idea of the light that such accurate scholarship as
+his throws upon many disputed passages in the Bible, e.g., "Wisdom is
+justified of her children," where the Greek preposition probably gives
+the key to the whole meaning, and many such. So you see, dear old Fan,
+that the want of some one to pour out this to, for it sounds fearfully
+pedantic, I confess, has drawn upon you this grievous infliction.
+
+'My kindest love to Father and dear Joan,
+
+'Ever your loving
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+Fanny Patteson answered with arguments on the other duties which
+hindered her from entering on the course of deep study which he had been
+recommending. He replies:--
+
+
+'Feb. 25, 1853.
+
+'My dearest Fan,--I must answer your very sensible well-written letter
+at once, because on our system of mutual explanation, there are two or
+three things I wish to notice in it. First, I never meant that anything
+should supersede duties which I am well aware you practise with real use
+to yourself and those about you, e.g., the kindness and sympathy shown
+to friends, and generally due observance of all social relations.
+Second, I quite believe that the practical application of what is
+already known, teaching, going about among the poor, is of far more
+consequence than the acquisition of knowledge, which, of course, for its
+own sake is worth nothing. Third, I think you perfectly right in keeping
+up music, singing, all the common amusements of a country life; of
+course I do, for indeed what I said did not apply to Joan or you, except
+so far as this, that we all know probably a great deal of which each
+one is separately ignorant, and the free communication of this to one
+another is desirable, I think.
+
+'My own temptation consists perhaps chiefly in the love of reading for
+its own sake. I do honestly think that for a considerable time past I
+have read, I believe, nothing which I do not expect to be of real
+use, for I have no taste naturally for novels, &c. (without, however,
+wishing to deny that there may be novels which teach a real insight into
+character). Barring "I Promessi Sposi" which I take up very seldom when
+tired, I have not read one for ages: I must except "Old Mortality,"
+read last Vacation at Feniton; but I can't deny that I like the study
+of languages for its own sake, though I apply my little experience in
+it wholly to the interpretation of the Bible. I like improving my
+scholarship, it is true, but I can say honestly that it is used to read
+the Greek Testament with greater accuracy: so of the Hebrew, Syriac,
+Arabic. I feel, I confess, sometimes that it is nice, &c., to know
+several languages, but I try to drive away any such thoughts, and it is
+quite astonishing how, after a few weeks, a study which would suggest
+ideas of an unusual course of reading becomes so familiar that I never
+think of myself when pursuing it, e.g., I don't think that after
+two hours' grind at Arabic the stupid wrong feeling of its being an
+out-of-the-way study comes upon me now, it is getting quite natural. It
+comes out though when I talk or write perhaps with another, but I must
+try and get over it.
+
+'I believe it to be a good thing to break off any work once or twice a
+day in the middle of any reading, for meditating a little while and for
+prayer. This is more easily done at College than elsewhere; and is, I
+hope, a preventive against such thoughts. Then, as I jog on I see how
+very little I know, what an immense deal I have to learn to become
+ordinarily well acquainted with these things. I am in that state of
+mind, perhaps, when Ecclesiastes (which I am now reading) puts my own
+case exactly before me. I think, What's the good of it all? And the
+answer comes, it may be very good properly used, or very mischievous
+if abused. I do indeed look forward to active parochial work: I think I
+shall be very happy so employed, and I often try to anticipate the time
+in thought, and feel with perfect sincerity that nothing is so useful
+or so full of comfort as the consciousness of trying to fulfil the daily
+duties of my situation. Here of course I need do nothing; I mean there
+is nothing to prevent my sitting all day in an arm-chair and reading
+"Pickwick.".... One word about the way languages help me, that you may
+not think what I am doing harder than it really is. These three bear the
+same kind of relation to each other (or rather say these five, Arabic,
+Syriac, Hebrew, Chaldee, Ethiopia; but of the last I know nothing
+whatever, and of Chaldee only so much as that it is a dialect of Hebrew
+in the same character, and consequently anyone who knows Hebrew knows
+something about it), as German to English, e.g., Bahlom (Arab.), Beel
+(Syr.), Baal (Heb.), are the same word, as you can see, only written
+in different characters, and all mean "a lord," so Baal, Beelzebub, or
+Baalzebeb. Baal Peor, which means, literally, "the Lord of the ravine,"
+viz., the idol worshipped at the Pass in the wilderness. Consequently,
+in reading any one of these languages, the same word keeps on occurring
+in all; and the chief use is of course that often a word which occurs
+only once or twice in Hebrew perhaps is in common use in the others, and
+so its meaning is fixed. Add to all this, that the Syriac version of the
+New Testament was made (as all agree) early in the second century, if
+not at the end of the first, and thus is the very best exponent of the
+New Testament where the Greek is doubtful; and the additional fact, that
+though a mixture of Chaldee and Syriac was the language of Palestine in
+our Lord's time, yet He certainly sometimes spoke what is now our Syriac
+(e.g., Talitha cumi, &c.), and the importance of it is apparent. Surely
+to read the language that our Blessed Lord himself used is no small
+profit as well as delight.
+
+'So I think we may each go on in our several pursuits, each helping
+each, and each trying to do so without a foolish affectation of
+learning.
+
+'My best love to dear Father and Joan,
+
+'Ever your affectionate Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+Fenelon has said that in a certain stage of piety there is much of self,
+and Coley was evidently in that stage. His own figure was the primary
+object before his eyes, neither indulged, nor admired, but criticised,
+repressed, and by his very best efforts thrust aside, whenever he was
+conscious that his self-contemplation was self-complacency. Still it
+was in his nature to behold it, and discuss it, and thus to conquer
+and outgrow the study in time, while leaving many observations upon
+self-culture and self-training, that will no doubt become deeply valued
+as the result of the practical experience of one who so truly mastered
+that obtrusive self.
+
+Patteson was one of the most decided workers for the admission of
+improvements and reduction of abuses within his own college, with
+which each Oxford foundation was endeavouring to forestall compulsory
+reformation by a University Commission. Mr. Roundell says:--
+
+'His early years as Fellow of Merton coincided with the period of active
+reform at Oxford which followed upon the Report of the Commission in
+1852. What part did the future Missionary Bishop take in that great
+movement? One who worked with him at that time--a time when University
+reform was as unfashionable as it is now fashionable--well remembers. He
+threw himself into the work with hearty zeal; he supported every liberal
+proposal. To his loyal fidelity and solid common sense is largely due
+the success with which the reform of Merton was carried out. And yet in
+those first days of college reform the only sure and constant nucleus
+of the floating-Liberal majority consisted of Patteson and one other.
+Whatever others did, those two were always on the same side. And so,
+somehow, owing no doubt to the general enlightenment which distinguished
+the senior Fellows of Merton under the old regime--an enlightenment
+unquestionably due to the predominance in that College of the lay
+non-resident element--the new reforming spirit found itself in the
+ascendency. It is to the honour of Patteson, and equally to the honour
+of the older Fellows of the College at that time, that so great an
+inroad upon old traditions should have been made with such an entire
+absence of provocation on the one side, or of irritation on the
+other. But Patteson, with all his reforming zeal, was also a high-bred
+gentleman. He remembered what was due to others as well as to himself.
+His bearing was one of respect for authority, of deference towards those
+who were his superiors in age. He knew how to differ. He showed towards
+others the considerate courtesy which others in return so abundantly
+showed towards him. And this generous forbearance of the seniors had its
+reward. It entailed upon the juniors a reciprocity of respect. It was
+felt by them at the time to be an additional incentive to moderation, to
+sobriety, to desistance from extreme views. The result was that the work
+got done, and what was done left no heartburnings behind.
+
+'Yet it would be delusive to pretend to claim Bishop Patteson as a
+Liberal in the political sense of the word. He was no such thing. If
+anything, his instincts, especially in Church matters, drew him the
+other way. But those who knew the man, like those who have seen the
+Ammergau Play, would as soon think of fastening upon that a sectarian
+character, as of fixing him with party names. His was a catholic mind.
+What distinguished him was his open-mindedness, his essential goodness,
+his singleness and simplicity of aim. He was a just man, and singularly
+free from perturbations of self, of temper, or of nerves. You did not
+care to ask what he would call himself. You felt what he was, that
+you were in the presence of a man too pure for party, of one in whose
+presence ordinary party distinctions almost ceased to have a meaning.
+Such a man could scarcely be on the wrong side. Both the purity of his
+nature and the rectitude of his judgment would have kept him straight.'
+
+Coley remained at Merton until the Long Vacation of 1853; when his
+Oxford life terminated, though not his connection with the University,
+for he retained his Fellowship until his death, and the friendships he
+had formed both at Balliol and Merton remained unbroken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. THE CURACY AT ALFINGTON. 1853-1855.
+
+
+
+Preparation for ordination had become Patteson's immediate object. As
+has been already said, his work was marked out. There was a hamlet
+of the parish of Ottery St. Mary, at a considerable distance from the
+church and town, and named Alfington.
+
+Some time previously, the family of Sir John Kennaway had provided
+the place with a school, which afterwards passed into the hands of Mr.
+Justice Coleridge, who, in 1849, there built the small church of St.
+James, with parsonage, school, and house, on a rising ground overlooking
+the valley of Honiton, almost immediately opposite to Feniton; and, at
+the same time, took on himself the expenses of the curacy and school,
+for the vicar of the parish, the Rev. Dr. Cornish, formerly master of
+Ottery School.
+
+The first curate of Alfington was Judge Coleridge's son Henry, the
+well-known author of the beautiful Life of St. Francis Xavier. On his
+leaving our communion, it was his father's wish that Coleridge Patteson
+should take the cure; and, until his ordination, it was committed
+temporarily to other hands, in especial to the Rev. Henry Gardiner,
+who was much beloved there. In the spring of 1853, he had a long and
+dangerous illness, when Coley came to nurse him, and became so much
+attached to him, that his influence and unconscious training became
+of great importance. The church was served by such clerical friends as
+could give their assistance on Sunday, and the pastoral care, attention
+to the school, cottage visiting, &c., became the employment of the
+candidate for Holy Orders, who thus began his work under the direction
+of his disabled friend.
+
+A letter to his sister shows how he plunged into the drudgery of the
+parish, doing that which always cost him most, namely, administering
+rebukes; so that it was no wonder that he wrote with a sort of elation
+at having lashed himself up to the point of giving a thorough warning:--
+
+
+'Feniton: July 19, 1853.
+
+'My dearest Fan,--I am going to Thorverton to-day to stay till Thursday.
+Gardiner came downstairs on Sunday, and again yesterday, and is making
+very rapid strides towards perfect recovery. He even went out yesterday
+for a few minutes. So I don't mind leaving him in the least; and indeed
+he is going to Sidmouth himself, probably at the end of the week. I have
+seen him every day without one exception, and have learnt a very great
+deal from him. He has studied very closely school work, condition of the
+labourer, boys' homes, best method of dispensing charity, &c., and on
+all these points his advice has been really invaluable. I feel now that
+I am quite to all intents working the district. People ask me about
+their children coming to school. I know almost all the people in the
+village, and a good many out of it, and begin to understand, in a very
+small way, what a clergyman's life is. A mixture of sorrow and pleasure
+indeed! There are many very sad cases of hypocrisy, filthiness, and
+wickedness (as I suppose there are in every district); and yesterday I
+had a very hard-working and in one case most painful day.
+
+'Some people had asked me to take their boy, three years and a half old,
+to school--a wretched pair, with a little savage for a son. I said I
+would speak to Miss Wilkins, and put plainly before her the character of
+parents and child. However, she wished to have him, and I knew it was so
+far well to get the boy away from home. But such a scene ensued! The
+boy was really like a little savage; kicked, dashed his head against the
+wall, and at length, with his nose bleeding violently, exhausted with
+his violence, fell asleep. Next day, he is so bad, he is sent home; when
+the mother drives him back to school, cursing and swearing, telling Miss
+Wilkins she may kill him if she pleases! Unluckily, I was not in school.
+
+'Yesterday he was in school and more quiet, but did not kneel down at
+prayers, and seemed like a little beast beginning to be tamed. So, after
+school, I called him to me, and putting him before my knees asked him
+some questions very kindly: "Did he know who God was? Had he never been
+taught to kneel down and say his prayers? Of course he had not, but it
+gave me the proper opportunity of speaking to his parents. So having
+now considered the matter for two or three days previously, having
+ascertained all the facts about the people, after an hour among some
+others in the village, I went right into their cottage, and luckily
+found father and mother and grandmother at home, besides one or two more
+(who are lodgers) in a room adjoining, with the door open. 'I am come
+to talk to you about William,' I began, whereupon I saw the woman
+turn quite red. However, I spoke for about ten minutes slowly and very
+quietly, without any appearance (as I believe) of anger or passion at
+all, but yet speaking my mind quite plainly. "I had no idea any child
+could be so neglected. Did they suppose the school was a place where
+any parent might send a child merely to get it out of the way (of course
+they do, you know, most of them)? Was it possible that a child could be
+made good as if by magic there, when it learns nothing but wicked words
+at home? Do you think you can or ought to get rid of the duties you owe
+your child? Do you suppose that God will not require from you an account
+of the way you have behaved towards him, you who have never taught him
+to know who God is, what God is, what is prayer, what is the church,
+who have taught that little mouth, which God created for praise and
+blessings, to curse and blaspheme? I know that many children do and say
+wicked things, but it is in most cases owing to the neglect of their
+parents, who do not speak kindly to their children, and do what they can
+to keep them out of temptation, but this is a different case. Your boy
+is not fit to come into the company of little Christians! Awful as it
+is to think of, he is already, at his early age, the very dread of the
+parents who live near you."
+
+'They had not a word to say, not a syllable beyond the objection which I
+had already met, that other children were bad too. I did not say what I
+might have said with truth, because it is only from Gardiner's report,
+not from my own knowledge--viz., that neither father nor mother ever
+come to church, and that their house is the centre of evil to the young
+people of the village.
+
+'"Now," I said, in conclusion, "I fully meant to send back your boy, and
+tell you I would examine him six months hence, to see if he was fit to
+be brought into the school, but as I do trust he may behave better,
+and that this may be the means of recovering him from this sad state, I
+shall take him still, unless he behaves again very badly. But remember
+this--this is the turning point in the boy's life, and all, humanly
+speaking, depends on the example you set him. What an awful thing it
+would be, if it pleased God to take him away from you now, and a fit of
+measles, scarlatina, or any such illness, may do it any day! Remember
+that you are responsible to a very great extent for your child; that
+unless it sees you watchful over your thoughts, words, and actions;
+unless it sees you regular and devout in prayer at home (I don't believe
+they ever think of such a thing--God forgive me, if I am wrong); unless
+it sees you habitually in your place in God's house, you are not doing
+your duty to yourselves or your child, you are not laying up any hope or
+comfort whatever for the day of your sickness and death. Now I hope you
+clearly understand me. I have spoken plainly--exactly what I think, and
+what I mean to act upon. You know now the sort of person you have to
+deal with. Good morning,"--and thereupon I marched out, amazed at my own
+pluck, and heartily glad that I had said what I wished, and felt I ought
+to say.
+
+'But I need hardly tell you that this left me in a state of no slight
+excitement, and that I should be much comforted by hearing what you and
+Father and Joan think of my behaviour.
+
+'Meanwhile, there are some very nice people; I dearly love some of the
+boys and girls; and I do pray that this plan of a boys' home may save
+some from contamination. I, seated with Sanders last night, found him
+and his wife very hearty about it. I have only mentioned it to three
+people, but I rather wish it to be talked about a little now, that
+they may be curious, &c., to know exactly what I mean to do. The two
+cottages, with plenty of room for the Fley's family and eight boys, with
+half an acre of garden at L11. 5s. the year. I shall of course begin
+with only one or two boys--the thing may not answer at all; but
+everyone, Gardiner, several farmers, and two or three others, quite
+poor, in different places, all say it must work well, with God's
+blessing. I do not really wish to be scheming away, working a favourite
+hobby, &c., but I do believe this to be absolutely essential. The
+profligacy and impurity of the poor is beyond all belief. Every mother
+of a family answers (I mean every honest respectable mother of a
+family): "Oh sir, God will bless such a work, and it is for want of this
+that so much misery and wretchedness abound." I believe that for a year
+or so it will exhaust most of my money, but then it is one of the best
+uses to which I can apply it; for my theory is, that help and assistance
+is wanted in this way, and I would wish to make most of these things
+self-supporting. Half an acre more of garden, thoroughly well worked,
+will yield an astonishing return, and I look to Mary as a person of
+really economical habits. It is a great relief to have poured all this
+out. It is no easy task that I am preparing for myself. I know that I
+fully expect to be very much disappointed, but I am determined to try
+it. I am determined to try and make the people see that I am not going
+to give way to everybody that asks; but that I am going to set on foot
+and help on all useful industrial schemes of every kind, for people
+of every age. I am hard at work, studying spade husbandry, inspectors'
+reports of industrial schools, &c. I am glad you are all so happy. I am
+so busy. Best love to all.
+
+'Your loving
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+Coley was thus already serving a vigorous apprenticeship in pastoral
+work, while preparing himself for receiving deacon's orders. It was a
+trying time both to his family and himself, for, as before said, his
+standard was very high, and his own strong habit of self-contemplation
+made his dissatisfaction with himself manifest in his manner to those
+nearest to him. He was always gentle and unselfish; not showing temper,
+but unhappiness.
+
+Here are letters showing a good deal of his state of mind: the first
+only dated 'Saturday evening,' but evidently written about this time,
+in reply to the cautions with which his sister had replied to the above
+letter of eager plans of improvement.
+
+
+'My dearest Fan,--Your letter has just reached me from Honiton, and I
+have read it with very great interest. I liked it better on a second
+perusal of it, which showed in itself that I wanted it, for it is quite
+true that I require to be reminded of the only true principle upon which
+one ought to work; and I allow quite willingly that I trace interested
+motives--e.g., love of self-approval or applause in actions where such
+feelings ought least of all to enter. I certainly did feel pleased with
+myself for speaking plainly to those people, and I often find myself
+indulging the notion that I am going to be a very hard-working
+clergyman, with a remedy for all the evils of the age, &c. If I was to
+hunt about for an excuse, I might perhaps find one, by saying that I am
+in that state of mind which attends always, I suppose, the anticipation
+of any great crisis in a person's life; sometimes hard work and hard
+thought, sometimes (though alas! very seldom) a real sense of the very
+awful responsibility of ministering in the Church, sometimes a
+less natural urging of the mind to contemplate and realise this
+responsibility. I was for some time reading Wilberforce's new book,
+and this involved an examination of the question in other writers; but
+lately I have laid all controversial works aside almost entirely, and
+have been reading Pearson, Bull, and the Apostolical Fathers, Clement
+and Ignatius. I shall probably read Justin Martyr's Apologies, and some
+treatises of Tertullian before next month is over. I have read some part
+already. There is such a very strong practical element in these very
+early writings that they ought to soothe and calm the mind; but I cannot
+honestly conceal the fact that the theological interest for the most
+part outweighs the practical teaching.
+
+'My light reading is of a new and very amusing and interesting
+character--viz., books on school economy, management of school farms,
+allotments, the modern dairy, spade husbandry, agricultural chemistry.
+K, W, F, C, and G, and I have great talks; and as they all agree with
+me, I think them capital judges.
+
+'I don't think at all that my present state of mind is quite natural.
+You quite repeat my own words when you say it is transitory. A calm
+undisturbed spirit of prayer and peace and contentment is a great gift
+of God, and to be waited for with patience. The motto of "The Christian
+Year" is very beautiful. I sent the roses on Tuesday. My best love to
+dear Father and Joan.
+
+'Ever your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+These words 'love of self-approval' perfectly analysed that snare
+of Coley's early life, against which he so endeavoured to guard--not
+self-conceit, but love of self-approval.
+
+So the Easter week drew on, and during it he writes to his cousin:--
+
+
+'Friday, Wallis Lodgings, Exeter: September, 1853.
+
+'My dear Sophy,--We have had a good examination, I think; perhaps rather
+harder than I expected. Woolecombe and Chancellor Harrington spoke to
+me this morning, thanking me for my papers, and telling me to read the
+Gospel at the Ordination.
+
+'I did feel very nervous last Sunday and Monday, and the Ember Prayer
+in the morning (when I was at Ottery) fairly upset me, but I don't think
+anybody saw it; now, I am thankful to say, I am very well, and
+feel thoroughly happy. I shall be nervous, no doubt, on Sunday, and
+especially at reading the Gospel, but not I think so nervous as to break
+down or do anything foolish; so when you know I am reading--for you
+won't hear me, if you are in the stalls, don't distress yourself about
+me.
+
+'I can't tell what it was that upset me so on Sunday and
+Monday--thinking of dear Mamma and how she had wished for this, the
+overwhelming kindness of everybody about me, dear Father's simple words
+of very affectionate comfort and advice.
+
+'But I walked into Exeter, and on the way got quite calm, and so I have
+been ever since. It is not strange that the realising the near approach
+of what I have for years wished for, and looked forward to, should
+at times come upon me with such force that I seem scarcely master of
+myself; but it is only excitement of feeling, and ought, I know, to
+be repressed, not for a moment to be entertained as a test of one's
+religious state, being by no means a desirable thing. I am very glad the
+examination is over. I did not worry myself about it, but it was rather
+hard work, and now I have my time to myself for quiet thought and
+meditation.
+
+'Ever, dear Sophy, your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The next evening he writes:--
+
+
+'Saturday, 5.45 P.M.
+
+'My dearest Father,--I must write my last letter as a layman to you. I
+can't tell you the hundredth part of the thoughts that have been passing
+through my mind this week. There has been no return of the excitement
+that I experienced last Sunday and Monday, and I have been very happy
+and well.
+
+'To-day my eyes are not comfortable, from I know not what cause, but as
+all the work for them is over, it does not matter so much. I am glad to
+have had a quiet time for reflection. Indeed, I do not enough realise my
+great unworthiness and sinfulness, and the awful nature of the work I am
+undertaking. I pray God very earnestly for the great grace of humility,
+which I so sadly need: and for a spirit of earnest prayer, that I may be
+preserved from putting trust in myself, and may know and forget myself
+in my office and work. I never could be fit for such work, I know that,
+and yet I am very thankful that the time for it has come. I do not feel
+excited, yet I am somewhat nervous because it requires an effort to
+meditate steadily. I have thought so much of my early life, of dearest
+Mamma. What a snare it seems, so full of transitory earthly plans and
+pursuits; such a want of earnestness of purpose and steady performance
+of duty! God grant my life as a clergyman may be more innocent to
+myself, and more useful to others! Tell dear Joan the gown came this
+morning. My kind love to her, Fan, and Jem.
+
+'Ever, my dearest Father,
+
+'Your affectionate and dutiful Son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+On the ensuing day, Sunday, September 14, 1853, John Coleridge Patteson
+received the Diaconate at the hands of the venerable Bishop Phillpotts,
+in Exeter Cathedral. His being selected to read the Gospel was the proof
+of his superiority in the examination--no wonder, considering the two
+additional years that he had spent in preparation, and the deep study
+and searchings of heart of the last few months.
+
+He was established in a small house at Alfington--the usual habitation
+of the Curate. And of his first sermon there, his uncle, Sir John
+Coleridge, gives the following touching description from his diary:--
+
+'October 23, 1853.--Yesterday morning Arthur and I went to Alfington
+Church, to be present at Coley's first sermon. I don't know when I have
+been so much delighted and affected. His manner of saying the prayers
+was exceedingly good: his voice very sweet and musical; without seeming
+loud, it was fully audible, and gave assurance of more power if needed:
+his manner quite unaffected, but sweet and devout. His sermon was a very
+sound and good one, beautifully delivered; perhaps in the early parts,
+from the very sweetness of his voice, and the very rapid delivery of
+his words, a little more variety of intonation would have helped in
+conveying his meaning more distinctly to those who formed the bulk
+of his congregation. But when he came to personal parts this was not
+needed. He made a kind allusion to me, very affecting to me; and when
+I was in this mood, and he came to the personal parts, touching himself
+and his new congregation, what he knew he ought to be to them and to
+do for them, what they should do for themselves, and earnestly besought
+their prayers, I was completely overcome, and weeping profusely.
+
+Fanny Patteson and Arthur Coleridge were sitting with the Judge, and
+were equally overcome. When the service was over, and the congregation
+dispersed, Coley joined these three in the porch, holding out his hands,
+taking theirs and shedding tears, and they with him--tears of warm
+emotion too deep for words. He was evidently surprised at the effect
+produced. In fact, on looking at the sermon, it does not seem to have
+been in itself remarkable, but as his cousin Arthur says: 'I suppose
+the deep spirituality of the man, and the love we bore him for years,
+touched the emotional part of us.' The text was significant: 'We preach
+not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants
+for Jesus' sake' (2 Cor. iv. 5).
+
+The services that the newly-ordained Deacon undertook were the ordinary
+Sunday ones, and Wednesday and Friday Matins and Litany, Saints'-day
+prayers and lecture, and an Advent and Lent Evensong and lecture on
+Wednesdays and Fridays. These last had that great popularity which
+attends late services. Dr. Cornish used to come on one Sunday in the
+month to celebrate the Holy Communion (which is given weekly in the
+mother Church); and when Mr. Grardiner was able to be at Sidmouth,
+recovering from his illness, he used to come over on the second Sunday
+in the month for the same purpose; and the next Lent, the Matins were
+daily, and followed by a lecture.
+
+At this time Patteson's constitutional shrinking from general society
+was in full force, and he also had that dislike to 'speaking to' people
+in the way of censure, which so often goes with tender and refined
+natures, however strong; so that if his housekeeper needed a reproof, he
+would make his sister administer it, and creep out of reach himself; but
+this was one of the deficiencies with which he was struggling all his
+life, and fortunately it is a fact that the most effective lectures
+usually come from those to whom they cost the most.
+
+This was the hardest part of his ministry. Where kindness and attention
+were needed, nothing could be more spontaneous, sweet, or winning than
+his ways. One of his parishioners, a farmer's daughter, writes:--
+
+'Our personal knowledge of him began some months before his Ordination,
+owing, I suppose, to Mr. Gardiner's severe illness; and as he was
+very much respected, Mr. Patteson's attentions won from the first our
+admiration and gratitude, which went on and on until it deepened
+into that love which I do not think could have been surpassed by the
+Galatians for their beloved St. Paul, which he records in his Epistle to
+them (chap. iv. 15). All were waiting for him at his Ordination, and a
+happy delusion seemed to have come over the minds of most, if not all,
+that he was as completely ours as if he had been ordained expressly for
+us.'
+
+It was not his own feeling, for he knew that when his apprenticeship
+should be past, the place was too small, and the work too easy, for a
+man in full force and vigour, though for the sake of his father he was
+glad to accept it for the present, to train himself in the work, and
+to have full time for study; but he at that time looked to remaining in
+England during his father's lifetime, and perhaps transferring himself
+to Manchester, Liverpool, London, or some large city, where there was
+need of mission work among the neglected.
+
+His father was on the City of London Charter Commission, and was in
+London from November to February, the daughters joining him there, but
+there was no lack of friends around Alfington. Indeed it was in the
+midst of an absolute clan of Coleridges, and in Buckerell parish, at
+Deerpark, that great old soldier, Lord Seaton, was spending the few
+years that passed between his Commissioner-ship in the Ionian Isles and
+his Commandership in Ireland.
+
+He was connected with the Coleridges through the Yonge family, and the
+young people were all on familiar cousinly terms. Coley was much liked
+by him; and often joined in the rides through the lanes and to the hills
+with him and his daughters, when there were many conversations of much
+interest, as there could not fail to be with a man who had never held a
+government without doing his utmost to promote God's work in the Church
+and for education; who had, moreover, strong opinions derived from
+experience of the Red Indians in Upper Canada--namely, that to reclaim
+the young, and educate them was the only hope of making Christianity
+take root in any fresh nation.
+
+It was at Deerpark, at a dinner in the late autumn of this year 1853,
+that I saw Coley Patteson for the second and last time. I had seen him
+before in a visit of three days that I made at Feniton with my parents
+in the September of 1844, when he was an Eton boy, full of high spirits
+and merriment. I remember then, on the Sunday, that he and I accompanied
+our two fathers on a walk to the afternoon service at Ottery, and that
+on the way he began to show something of his inner self, and talked
+of his mother and her pleasure in Feniton; but it began to rain, and I
+stayed for the night at Heaths Court, so that our acquaintance ceased
+for that time. It was not a formal party at Deerpark, and the evening
+was chiefly spent in playing at games, thread paper verses and the like,
+in which Coley took his part with spirit. If I had guessed what he was
+to be, I should have observed him more; but though, in after years, our
+intercourse in letters makes us feel intimate with one another, these
+two brief meetings comprise the whole of my personal acquaintance with
+one in whom I then only saw a young clergyman with his heart in his
+work.
+
+Perhaps this is the best place to mention his personal appearance, as
+the portrait at the beginning of this volume was taken not more than a
+year later.
+
+He was tall and of a large powerful frame, broad in the chest and
+shoulders, and with small neat hands and feet, with more of sheer
+muscular strength and power of endurance than of healthiness, so that
+though seldom breaking down and capable of undergoing a great deal
+of fatigue and exertion, he was often slightly ailing, and was very
+sensitive to cold. His complexion was very dark, and there was a
+strongly marked line between the cheeks and mouth, the corners of which
+drooped when at rest, so that it was a countenance peculiarly difficult
+to photograph successfully. The most striking feature was his eyes,
+which were of a very dark clear blue, full of an unusually deep
+earnest, and so to speak, inward, yet far away expression. His smile was
+remarkably bright, sweet and affectionate, like a gleam of sunshine, and
+was one element of his great attractiveness. So was his voice, which had
+the rich full sweetness inherited from his mother's family, and which
+always excited a winning influence over the hearers. Thus, though not a
+handsome man, he was more than commonly engaging, exciting the warmest
+affection in all who were concerned with him, and giving in return an
+immense amount of interest and sympathy, which only became intensified
+to old friends while it expanded towards new ones. Here is a letter to
+his father, undated, but written not long after his settling down at
+Alfington. After expressing his regret that his voice had been inaudible
+to his sister Joanna at a Friday evening service, he proceeds:--
+
+
+'I did not speak very loud, because I don't think I could do so and
+at the same time keep my mind at work and thoughts collected. Anything
+which is so unnatural and unusual as to make me conscious of myself in a
+peculiar manner would prevent, I fear, my getting on with my oration at
+all.
+
+'I am glad you think I could not have acted otherwise with E---. I
+quite expect ere long to find something going on which may call for
+my interference, and I specially guarded myself on this point. It is
+distinctly understood that I shall speak to him quite plainly whenever
+and wherever I think it necessary to do so. I do not suppose it very
+likely that he can go on long without my being forced to take some step;
+but I really feel so very unequal to expressing a decided opinion upon
+the great question of Bible readers, that I am certainly glad I have not
+taken up a hostile position hastily. As a matter of fact, he reads
+in very few cottages in my district; tracts he distributes almost
+everywhere.
+
+'Now I see of course the distinction between a man making it his
+business to read the Bible and neighbours dropping in occasionally
+to read a chapter to one who is unable to read, but where you are
+distinctly told that the wish is most decidedly to support the
+clergyman, and answers not unsatisfactory are given upon main points,
+what difference remains between the two cases I have put that can
+furnish matter for fair argument, with a man from education, &c.,
+disposed to take a different view of the whole question? Add to this,
+that I cannot appeal to the universal practice of the clergy. "Why,"
+might it be said, "do you, as a clergyman find a difficulty where Mr.
+H. finds none? You are, after all, acting on your own private opinion,
+though you lay claim to authority for it." I cannot successfully appeal
+to the distinctive teaching of our Church, clear and manifest as it is,
+for the very words I think conclusive contain no such evidence for him,
+and so on ad infinitum. Besides, to speak quite what I feel at present,
+though only so perhaps because my view is necessarily unformed, the
+natural order of things in such a district as this seems to be: gain
+the affections of the people by gentleness and showing real interest
+in their welfare, spiritual and temporal; show them in the Bible such
+teaching as the Church considers necessary (but not as yet upon the
+authority of the Church, or at least not so expressed to them); lead
+them gradually to the acknowledgment of such truths as these: that
+Christ did found a society called the Church, and appoint to certain
+persons whom he sent the Ministry of reconciliation; that if we have no
+guide but mere opinion, there will be thousands of conflicting opinions
+in the world even among good men, whereas Truth can be but one, and that
+practically this is found to be so; that it is no argument to say, that
+the Spirit so operated as to enlighten the reason of each individual to
+this extent, viz., that it may compose a Creed for him or herself; that
+the Spirit acts now in the ordinary, though not less real and heavenly
+manner; and that the infinite divisions among sectaries proves the fact
+to be as I state it.
+
+'Thus I imagine the want of that external and visible Church will be
+felt as necessary to fix the Creeds pasa katadike.
+
+'But to reverse this process, to cram positive teaching down their
+throats upon the authority of the Church before they know what the
+Church is, or feel the need of any power outside (so to speak) their
+own minds to guide them, does seem to me in a place like this (humanly
+speaking) suicidal. I cannot, of course, tell how much preparatory
+teaching they have received, but I must judge from what I see and hear,
+and deal accordingly in each cottage. Some few there are to whom I can
+speak, as to Church people in the real sense of the word, but these are
+as two or three in a hundred.
+
+'One line to say whether you think me right or wrong, would be a great
+comfort to me. I feel no tendency to latitudinarianism, but only to see
+much good in systems unrecognised by your very highflyers. I believe
+that the Church teaching is represented in an unfavourable, often
+offensive, light to many of our poor, because they hear words and see
+things which find no response in their hearts; because they are told,
+ordered almost, to believe things the propriety of believing which they
+do not recognise; because the existence of wants is implied when they
+have never been felt, and a system for supplying them introduced which
+finds no room in the understanding or affections of the patient.
+
+'But you know, dear Father, what I mean, without more dusky attempts at
+explaining myself.
+
+'Do not many High Churchmen want a little more "experimental religion"
+in Bishop Jebb's sense of the terms: not a religion of the feelings, but
+a religion brought home to the heart, and truly felt so as to prohibit
+any systematic criticism of the feelings?
+
+'I am late this week with my sermons, I have not begun either of them,
+and may have one to-morrow evening if my voice will do its part. I write
+very long washy concerns, and find it difficult to do otherwise, for
+it is a good pull upon me week after week, and latterly I have not been
+able to read very much. I shall look out two or three that I think fair
+specimens, and ask you by-and-by to run your eye over them, that you may
+point out the defects.
+
+'My ignorance of the Bible astonishes me, though not so much as it ought
+to do. I purpose, D.V., to commence a thorough study of the original
+texts. I must try to become something of a scholar, at all events, to
+make any progress in the work. I sometimes hope that, in spite of my
+many backslidings and broken resolutions, some move is taking place
+within, where most it is wanted; but I live here so quietly, that I have
+little (comparatively) food for some special faults. Good-bye, my dear
+Father,
+
+'Your affectionate and dutiful Son,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+'Some move taking place within!' It is impossible not to pause
+and observe how as Confirmation and Communion had almost palpably
+strengthened the boy's struggles with his inherent faults, so the grace
+conferred with the Deacon's orders is now felt to be lifting him higher,
+and enabling him to see further than he has yet seen.
+
+Sermons were, however, never Patteson's forte. Though his pen flowed so
+freely in letters, and he could pour out his heart extemporaneously
+with great depth, fervour and simplicity, his sermons were laboured and
+metaphysical, as if he had taken too much pains with them as it were,
+and he could not speak to the abstract, as he could to the individual,
+or when he saw the effect of his words. It was perhaps owing to the
+defective system which threw two sermons a week upon a young deacon at
+a time when his mind was working through such an experimental course of
+study and thought. Yet his people, who had learnt to believe in little
+but preaching, would not have come to prayers alone; and the extemporary
+addresses, in which he would probably have been much more successful,
+would have seemed to him at his age and at that period--twenty years
+back--too presumptuous to be attempted, at any rate till he had better
+learnt his ground. How his system would have succeeded, we cannot tell.
+The nature of the peasantry of the county he had to deal with is, to
+be quick-witted, argumentative, and ready of retort; open to religious
+impressions, but with much of self-opinion and conceit, and not much
+reverence, and often less conscientious in matters of honesty and
+morality than denser rustics of less apparent piety. The Church had for
+a long-period been at a peculiarly low ebb in the county, and there is
+not a neighbourhood which has not traditions of incredibly ignorant,
+careless and underbred--if not dissipated--clergy; and though there were
+grand exceptions, they were only respected as men; faith in the whole
+system, as a system, was destroyed. Bishop Phillpotts, coming down on
+such elements as these, was, in spite of his soundness of faith and
+grand trenchant force of character, better as a warrior than as a
+shepherd, and the controversial and political sides of his character,
+though invaluable to the Church, did not recommend him to the affections
+of the people of his diocese, who could not understand the points of the
+debate, and wanted the direct evidence of spirituality which they could
+appreciate.
+
+The cholera of 1832 had been especially terrible in the unwholesome
+precincts of the Devonshire seaports, and the effect was a great craving
+for religion. The Church was in no condition to avail herself of it; in
+fact, she would have viewed it with distrust as excitement. Primitive
+Methodism and Plymouth Brethrenism supplied the void, gave opportunities
+of prayer, and gratified the quickened longing for devotion; and
+therewith arose that association of the Church with deadness and
+of Dissent with life, which infected even the most carefully tended
+villages, and with which Patteson was doing his best to contend at
+Alfington. The stage of gaining the people's affection and confidence,
+and of quickening their religious life, he had attained; and the further
+work of teaching them that the Church alone gives security of saving
+union with Christ, was yet to come when his inward call led him
+elsewhere.
+
+On the 12th of December he says:--
+
+'Yesterday was a very happy day; Gardiner came to help me and he
+administered the Holy Communion to twenty-seven or twenty-eight of my
+own people. This is nearly double the average before I came, and two
+regular attendants are prevented by sickness from being at Church. I
+trust I have not urged the necessity of communicating unwisely upon
+them. I preach on it once a month, as you know, and in almost every
+sermon allude to it, and where occasion offers, speak about it to
+individuals at home; but I try to put before them the great awfulness
+of it as well as the danger of neglecting it, and I warn them against
+coming without feeling really satisfied from what I read to them, and
+they read in the Bible concerning it. Six came yesterday for the first
+time.... Old William (seventy-five years of age), who has never been a
+communicant, volunteered on Thursday to come, if I thought it right. He
+is, and always has been (I am told), a thoroughly respectable, sober,
+industrious man, regular at Church once a day; and I went to his cottage
+with a ticket in my pocket to urge him to consider the danger of going
+on as if content with what he did and without striving to press onwards,
+&c. But, after a long conversation on other matters, he said; "I should
+like, Sir, to come to the Sacrament, if you have no objection;" and very
+happy and thankful I felt, for I had prayed very earnestly that this old
+man might be led thither by God's grace, and now it was done without any
+urging on my part, beyond what he heard in Church and what I had said to
+his daughter about him.'
+
+The next of his letters is occupied with the pecuniary affairs of his
+lodging house for farm boys, and the obtaining of ground where they
+might grow vegetables for their own use.
+
+In February his family returned home, and his sister Fanny thus speaks
+of him to a friend:--
+
+'He does not look well; and at first we were quite uneasy, for his eyes
+were heavy and puffed, but he is much better, and confesses that dinners
+and evenings here do him good, though he quite denies the starving,
+and Mrs. Knowles also. She says he gets over anxious in mind, and was
+completely chilled the week he sat in the hall. No doubt his house is
+still both cold and damp, and the Church the same, and therefore
+the labour of reading and preaching is very great. We are by degrees
+interesting him in our winter life, having heard all his performances
+and plans; and he is very glad to have us back, though much too busy to
+have missed us when we were away. Now he has daily morning service,
+with a lecture; and if it lasts, the impression he has made is really
+extraordinary. We may well pray that he should not be vain of his works.
+There are men whose whole lives seem changed, if I am to believe what I
+hear.'
+
+Such was the young Deacon's early success. With an affectionate brother
+close at hand, and friends within easy reach, his Fellowship preserving
+his connection with Oxford, his father's and brother's profession with
+London, in fact, all England could offer; and he would easily have it
+in his power to take fresh holidays on the Continent and enjoy those
+delights of scenery, architecture, art and music, which he loved with an
+appreciation and enthusiasm that could easily have become an absorbing
+passion. Who could have a smoother, easier, pleasanter career open to
+him than the Rev. John Coleridge Patteson at six and twenty?
+
+Yet even then, the wish breathed to his mother, at fourteen, that he
+might devote himself to the cause of the heathen, lay deep in his heart;
+although for the present, he was, as it were, waiting to see what God
+would have him do, whether his duty to his father required him to remain
+at hand, or whether he might be called to minister in some great English
+manufacturing town.
+
+Early in 1854, it became known that the Bishop of New Zealand and Mrs.
+Selwyn were about to spend a year in England. Coley's aspirations to
+mission work were renewed. The thoughts excited by the sermons he had
+heard at Eton twelve years previously grew in force. He remembered his
+mother's promise of her blessing, and seriously considered of offering
+himself to assist in the work in the Southern Hemisphere. He discussed
+the matter seriously with his friend, Mr. Gardiner, who was strongly of
+opinion that the scheme ought not to be entertained during his father's
+lifetime. He acquiesced; but if his heart and mind were convinced, his
+soul and spirit were not, and the yearnings for the forefront of the
+battle were not quenched, though there was no slackening of zeal over
+the present little flock, to make them suspect that he had a thought
+beyond.
+
+Old ties of friendship already mentioned made the Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn
+promise to spend a few days at Feniton; and on the 19th of August the
+New Zealand guests arrived at Feniton. After joining in the family
+welcome, Coley went apart, and gave way to a great burst of tears, due,
+perhaps, not so mueh to disappointed ardour, as to the fervent emotion
+excited by the actual presence of a hero of the Church Militant, who
+had so long been the object of deep silent enthusiasm. The next morning,
+Coley walked from Alfington to breakfast at home, and afterwards went
+into the garden with the Bishop, who led him to talk freely of his
+present work in all its details. By-and-by the question arose, Did it
+satisfy him?
+
+Yes, the being near his father satisfied him that it was right for the
+present, but at some future time, he hoped to do more, go perhaps to
+some great manufacturing town, or, as he could not help going on to say,
+what he should like would be to go out as a missionary, only the thought
+of his father withheld him.
+
+'But,' replied the Bishop, 'if you think about doing a thing of that
+sort, it should not be put off till you are getting on in life. It
+should be done with your full strength and vigour.'
+
+Then followed an endeavour on both sides to ascertain whether the
+inclination was a real earnest desire, or only fancy for the romance of
+mission work. The test might be whether he were willing to go wherever
+he might be sent, or only where he was most interested. Coley replied,
+that he was willing to work anywhere, adding that his sister Fanny could
+testify whether his desire were a real one of long standing or the mere
+outcome of a fit of enthusiasm.
+
+Therewith they separated, and Coley, going straight to Fanny, told her
+what had passed: 'I could not help it,' he said:--'I told the Bishop of
+my wish.'
+
+'You ought to put it to my father, that he may decide it,' she answered;
+'he is so great a man that he ought not to be deprived of the crown of
+the sacrifice if he be willing to make it.'
+
+So Coley repaired to his father, and confessed his long cherished
+wish, and how it had come forth to the Bishop. Sir John was manifestly
+startled; but at once said: 'You have done quite right to speak to me,
+and not to wait. It is my first impulse to say No, but that would be
+very selfish.'
+
+Coley explained that he was 'driven to speak;' he declared himself not
+dissatisfied with his present position, nor he hoped, impatient. If his
+staying at home were decided upon, he would cheerfully work on there
+without disappointment or imagining his wishes thwarted. He would leave
+the decision entirely in the hands of his father and the Bishop.
+
+Luncheon brought the whole family together; and Sir John, making room
+for his younger daughter beside him, said, 'Fan, did you know this about
+Coley?'
+
+She answered that she had some idea, but no more could pass till the
+meal was ended; when her father went into another room, and she followed
+him. The great grief broke out in the exclamation: 'I can't let him go;'
+but even as the words were uttered, they were caught back, as it were,
+with--'God forbid I should stop him.'
+
+The subject could not be pursued, for the Bishop was public property
+among the friends and neighbours, and the rest of the day was bestowed
+upon them. He preached on the Sunday at Alfington, where the people
+thronged to hear him, little thinking of the consequences of his visit.
+
+Not till afterwards were the Bishop and the father alone together, when
+Sir John brought the subject forward. The Bishop has since said that
+what struck him most was the calm balancing of arguments, like a true
+Christian Judge. Sir John spoke of the great comfort he had in this son,
+cut off as he was by his infirmity from so much of society, and enjoying
+the young man's coming in to talk about his work. He dwelt on all with
+entire absence of excitement, and added: 'But there, what right have I
+to stand in his way? How do I know that I may live another year?'
+
+And as the conversation ended, 'Mind!' he said; 'I give him wholly, not
+with any thought of seeing him again. I will not have him thinking he
+must come home again to see me.'
+
+That resolution was the cause of much peace of mind to both father and
+son. After family prayers that Sunday night, when all the rest had gone
+upstairs, the Bishop detained the young man, and told him the result of
+the conversation, then added: 'Now, my dear Coley, having ascertained
+your own state of mind and having spoken at length to your father and
+your family, I can no longer hesitate, as far as you recognise any power
+to call on my part, to invite you most distinctly to the work.'
+
+The reply was full acceptance.
+
+Then taking his hand, the Bishop said, 'God bless you, my dear Coley! It
+is a great comfort to me to have you for a friend and companion.'
+
+Such was the outward and such the inward vocation to the Deacon now
+within a month of the Priesthood. Was it not an evident call from Him by
+whom the whole Church is governed and sanctified? And surely the noble
+old man, who forced himself not to withhold 'his son, his firstborn
+son,' received his crown from Him who said: 'With blessing I will bless
+thee.'
+
+And he wrote to his brother:--
+
+
+'August 21.
+
+'My dear old Jem,--I have news for you of an unexpected and startling
+kind; about myself: and I am afraid that it will cause you some pain to
+hear what I am to tell you. You must know that for years I have felt
+a strong leaning toward missionary work, and though my proceedings at
+Alfington and even the fact of going thither might seem to militate
+against such a notion, yet the feeling has been continually present to
+me, and constantly exercising an increasing influence over me. I trust
+I have not taken an enthusiastic or romantic view of things; my own firm
+hope and trust is that I have decided upon calm deliberate conviction,
+and it is some proof of this, that Fanny and Joan have already guessed
+my state of mind, and months ago anticipated what has now taken
+place.... And so, dear Jem, you must help them all to bear what will of
+course be a great trial. This is my trial also; for it is hard to bear
+the thought that I may be giving unnecessary pain and causing distress
+without really having considered sufficiently the whole matter. But then
+I think God does not call now by an open vision; this thought has been
+for years working in my mind: it was His providence that brought me into
+contact with the Bishop in times past, and has led me to speak now. I
+cannot doubt this. I feel sure that if I was alone in the world I should
+go; the only question that remains is, "am I bound to stay for my dear
+Father's sake, or for the sake of you all?" and this has been answered
+for me by Father and the Bishop. And now, my dear Jem, think well over
+my character, sift it thoroughly, and try to see what there is which may
+have induced me to act wrongly in a matter of so much consequence. This
+is the kindest thing you can do; for we ought to take every precaution
+not to make a mistake before it is too late. Speak out quite plainly; do
+tell me distinctly as far as you can see them my prevailing faults,
+what they were in boyhood at Eton, and at College. It may help me to
+contemplate more clearly and truly the prospect before me. We shall have
+many opportunities, I trust, of discussing all this by-and-by. I shall
+tell Uncle John, because some arrangements must be made about Alfington
+as soon as may be. My tutor knows something about it already; it will
+soon be known to more. But do not suppose that I imagine myself better
+qualified for this work than hundreds of others more earnest, and
+infinitely more unselfish, and practically good; but I have received an
+invitation to a peculiar work, which is not offered to many others. We
+must all look onwards: we must try to think of this world as but a short
+moment in our existence; our real life and home is beyond the grave. On
+September 24th I hope to be ordained Priest; think of me and pray
+for me, my dear old fellow, that God will give me more of your own
+unselfishness and care and interest for others, and teach me to act not
+according to my own will and pleasure, but solely with a view to His
+honour and glory. God bless you, my dear old Jem, my dear, dear brother.
+
+'Your most loving brother,
+
+'J. C. P.
+
+
+From that moment the matter was treated as fixed; and only three days
+later, the intention was announced to the relations at Thorverton.
+
+This is the letter to the little fatherless cousin, Paulina Martyn,
+who had always been devoted to Coley, and whom he loved with a triple
+portion of the affection children always gained from him. She was
+only eight years old, but had the precocity of solitary children much
+attended to by their elders:--
+
+
+'Feniton: August 24, 1854.
+
+'My darling Pena,--I am going to tell you a secret, and I am afraid it
+is one which will make you feel very sorry for a little while. Do you
+remember my talking to you one day after breakfast rather gravely, and
+telling you afterwards it was my first sermon to you? Well, my darling,
+I was trying to hint to you that you must not expect to go on very long
+in this world without troubles and trials, and that the use of them is
+to make us think more about God and about Heaven, and to remember that
+our real and unchangeable happiness is not to be found in this world,
+but in the next. It was rather strange for me to say all this to a
+bright happy good child like you, and I told you that you ought to be
+bright and happy, and to thank God for making you so. It is never right
+for us to try to make ourselves sad and grieve. Good people and good
+children are cheerful and happy, although they may have plenty of trials
+and troubles. You see how quietly and patiently Mamma and Grandpapa
+and Grandmamma take all their trouble about dear Aunty; that is a good
+lesson for us all. And now, my darling, I will tell you my secret. I am
+going to sail at Christmas, if I live so long, a great way from England,
+right to the other end of the world, with the good Bishop of New
+Zealand. I dare say you know where to find it on the globe. Clergymen
+are wanted out there to make known the Word of God to the poor ignorant
+people, and for many reasons it is thought right that I should go. So
+after Christmas you will not see me again for a very long time, perhaps
+never in this world; but I shall write to you very often, and send you
+ferns and seeds, and tell you about the Norfolk Island pines, and you
+must write to me, and tell me all about yourself, and always think of
+me, and pray for me, as one who loves you dearly with all his heart,
+and will never cease to pray God that the purity and innocence of
+your childhood may accompany you all through your life and make you a
+blessing (as you are now, my darling) to your dear mother and all who
+know you.
+
+'Ever your most affectionate,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+To the child's mother the words are:--
+
+'I pray God that I may have chosen aright, and that if I have acted from
+sudden impulse too much, from love of display, or from desire to raise
+some interest about myself, or from any other selfish and unholy motive,
+it may be mercifully forgiven.
+
+'Now, at all events, I must pray that with a single honest desire for
+God's glory, I may look straight onwards towards the mark. I must forget
+what is behind, I must not lose time in analysing my state of mind to
+see how, during years past, this wish has worked itself out. I trust the
+wish is from God, and now I must forget myself, and think only of the
+work whereunto I am called. But it is hard to flesh and blood to think
+of the pain I am causing my dear dear Father, and the pain I am causing
+to others outside my own circle here. But they are all satisfied that
+I am doing what is right, and it would surprise you, although you know
+them so well, to hear the calmness with which we talk about outfits.'
+
+A heavy grief was even now on the family. The beloved, 'Uncle Frank,' so
+often affectionately mentioned, had been failing for some time. He
+had taken a journey abroad, with one of his daughters, in hopes of
+refreshment and invigoration, but the fatigue and excitement were more
+than he could bear; he returned home, and took to his bed. He suffered
+no pain, and was in a heavenly state of mind indeed, a most blessed
+death-bed, most suggestive of comfort and peace to all who survive as a
+most evident proof of what the close of life may be, if only 'that life
+is spent faithfully in doing our duty to God'--as Patteson wrote to his
+old friend, Miss Neill.
+
+'And now one word about myself, which at such a time I should not
+obtrude upon you, but that the visit of the Bishop of New Zealand made
+it necessary for me to speak.
+
+'I am going with him to work, if all is well, at the Antipodes,
+believing that the growing desire for missionary work, which for
+years has been striving within me, ought no longer to be resisted, and
+trusting that I am not mistaken in supposing that this is the line of
+duty that God has marked out for me.
+
+'You may be sure that all this is done with the full consent and
+approbation of my dear Father. He and the Bishop had a great deal of
+conversation about it, and I left it entirely for them to determine.
+That it will be a great trial to us all at Christmas when we sail, I
+cannot conceal from myself; it is so great a separation that I cannot
+expect ever to see my dear Father, perhaps not any of those I love best,
+again in this world. But if you all know that I am doing, or trying to
+do, what is right, you will all be happy about me; and what has just
+been taking place at the Manor House teaches us to look, on a little to
+a blessed meeting in a better place soon. It is from no dissatisfaction
+at my present position, that I am induced to take this step. I have been
+very happy at Alfington; and I hope to be ordained Priest, on the 24th
+of September, with a calm mind. I trust I am not following any sudden
+hasty impulse, but obeying a real call to a real work, and (in the
+midst of much self-seeking and other alloy) not wholly without a sincere
+desire to labour for the honour and glory of God.'
+
+With this purpose full in view, Coleridge Patteson received Ordination
+as a Priest in the ensuing Ember Week, again at the hands of Bishop
+Phillpotts, in Exeter Cathedral; where a beautiful marble pulpit is to
+commemorate the fact.
+
+The wrench from home and friends could not but be terrible. The sisters,
+indeed, were so far prepared that they had been aware from the first
+of his wish and his mother's reception of it, and when they told their
+Father, he was pleased and comforted; for truly he was upheld by the
+strength of willing sacrifice. Those were likewise sustained who felt
+the spirit of missionary enterprise and sympathy, which was at that time
+so strongly infused into the Church; but the shock was severe to many,
+and especially to the brother who had been devoted to Coley from their
+earliest infancy, and among his relations the grief was great.
+
+As to the district of Alfington, the distress was extreme. The people
+had viewed Mr. Patteson as their exclusive property, and could not
+forgive the Bishop of New Zealand for, as they imagined, tempting him
+away. 'Ah! Sir,' was the schoolmistress's answer to some warm words from
+Mr. Justice Coleridge in praise of Bishop Selwyn, 'he may be--no
+doubt he is--a very good man. I only wish he had kept his hands off
+Alfington.' 'It would not be easy,' says the parishioner from whom
+I have already quoted, 'to describe the intense sorrow in view of
+separation. Mr. Patteson did all he could to assure us that it was his
+own will and act, consequent upon the conviction that it was God's will
+that he should go, and to exonerate the Bishop, but for some time he was
+regarded as the immediate cause of our loss; and he never knew half the
+hard things said of him by the same people who, when they heard he
+was coming, and would preach on the Sunday, did their utmost to make
+themselves and their children look their very best.'
+
+Indeed, the affectionate writer seems to have shared the poor people's
+feeling that they had thus festally received a sort of traitor with
+designs upon their pastor. She goes on to tell of his ministrations to
+her mother, whose death-bed was the first he attended as a Priest.
+
+It would be impossible for me to say all he was to her. Not long before
+her death, when he had just left the room, she said, 'I have not felt
+any pain or weakness whilst Mr. Patteson has been here.' I was not
+always present during his visits to her, and I think their closer
+communings were only known to Him above, but their effects were
+discernible in that deep confidence in him on her part, and that lasting
+impression on him, for you will remember, in his letter last April, he
+goes back in memory to that time, and calls it--'a solemn scene in my
+early ministry.' Solemn, indeed, it was to us all that last night of
+her life upon earth. He was with her from about the middle of the day
+on Monday until about four o'clock on Tuesday morning; when, after
+commending her soul to God, he closed her eyes with his own hands, and
+taking out his watch, told us the hour and moment of her departure. He
+then went home and apprised Miss Wilkins of her death in these words:
+'My soul fleeth unto the LORD before the morning watch, I say before the
+morning watch,' and at the earliest dawn of day, the villagers were made
+aware that she had passed away by the tolling bell, and tolled by him.
+This was not the only death during his ministry among us; but it was
+the first occasion where he gave the Communion of the Sick, also when he
+read the Burial Service. Cases of rejoicing with those that rejoiced as
+well as of weeping with those that wept, the child and the aged seemed
+alike to appreciate his goodness. In him were combined those qualities
+which could inspire with deep reverence and entire confidence. Many,
+many are or will be the stars in the crown of his rejoicing, and some
+owe to him under God, their deeper work of grace in the heart and their
+quickening in the divine life.'
+
+A remarkable testimony is this to the impression remaining after the
+lapse of sixteen years from a ministry extending over no more than
+seventeen months. 'Our Mr. Patteson' the people called him to the last.
+
+Yet, in the face of all this grief, the parting till death, the work
+broken off, the life cut short midway, the profusion of needs at home
+for able ministers, is it to be regretted that Coleridge Patteson
+devoted himself to the more remote fields abroad? I think we shall find
+that his judgment was right. Alfington might love him dearly, but the
+numbers were too small to afford full scope for his powers, and he would
+have experienced the trials of cramped and unemployed energies had he
+remained there beyond his apprenticeship. Nor were his gifts, so far as
+can be judged, exactly those most requisite for work in large towns.
+He could deal with individuals better than with masses, and his
+metaphysical mind, coupled with the curious difficulty he had in writing
+to an unrealised public, either in sermons or reports, might have
+rendered him less effective than men of less ability. He avoided,
+moreover, the temptations, pain, and sting of the intellectual warfare
+within the bosom of the Church, and served her cause more effectually on
+her borders than he could in her home turmoils. His great and peculiar
+gifts of languages, seconded by his capacity for navigation, enabled him
+to be the builder up of the Melanesian Church in so remarkable a manner
+that one can hardly suppose but that he was marked out for it, and these
+endowments would have found no scope in an ordinary career. Above all,
+no man can safely refuse the call to obey the higher leadings of grace.
+If he deny them, he will probably fall below that which he was before,
+and lose 'even that which he seemeth to have.'
+
+A few days later, he wrote to his cousin Arthur Coleridge an expression
+of his feelings regarding the step he had taken in the midst of the pain
+it was costing to others:--
+
+
+'Feniton: November 11, 9 A.M.
+
+'My dear Arthur,--Your letter was very acceptable because I am, I
+confess, in that state of mind occasionally when the assurance of my
+being right, coming from another, tends to strengthen my own conviction.
+
+'I do not really doubt as I believe; and yet, knowing my want of
+consideration for others, and many other thoughts which naturally
+prevent my exercising a clear sound judgment on a matter affecting
+myself, I sometimes (when I have had a conversation, it throws me
+back upon analysing my own conduct) feel inclined to go over the whole
+process again, and that is somewhat trying.
+
+'On the other hand, I am almost strangely free from excitement. I live
+on exactly as I did before: and even when alone with Father, talk just
+as I used to talk, have nothing more to tell him, not knowing how to
+make a better use of these last quiet evenings.
+
+'By-and-by I shall wish I had done otherwise, perhaps, but I do not know
+now, that I have anything specially requiring our consideration: we talk
+about family matters, the movements in the theological and political
+world, &c., very little about ourselves.
+
+'One of all others I delight to think of for the music's sake, and
+far more for the glorious thought that it conveys. "Then shall the
+righteous," not indeed that I dare apply it to myself (as you know), but
+it helps one on, teaches what we may be, what our two dear parents are,
+and somehow the intervening, space becomes smaller as the eye is fixed
+steadily on the glory beyond.
+
+'God bless you, my dear fellow.
+
+'Ever your affectionate
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+The Mission party intended to sail immediately after Christmas in the
+'Southern Cross,' the schooner which was being built at Blackwall for
+voyages among the Melanesian isles. In expectation of this, Patteson
+went up to London in the beginning of December, when the admirable
+crayon likeness was taken by Mr. Richmond, an engraving from which is
+here given. He then took his last leave of his uncle, and of the cousins
+who had been so dear to him ever since the old days of daily meeting
+in childhood; and Miss Neill, then a permanent invalid, notes down: 'On
+December 13, I had the happiness of receiving the Holy Communion from
+dear Coley Patteson, and the following morning I parted from him, as
+I fear, for ever. God bless and prosper him, and guard him in all the
+dangers he will encounter!' He wrote thus soon after his return:--
+
+
+'Feniton: December 22, 1854.
+
+'My dear Miss Neill,--I began a note to you a day or two ago, but I
+could not go on with it, for I have had so very much to do in church
+and out of it, parochializing, writing sermons, &c. It makes some little
+difference in point of time whether I am living here or at Alfington,
+and so the walking about from one house to another is not so convenient
+for writing letters as for thinking over sermons.
+
+'I need not tell you what a real happiness and comfort it is to me to
+have been with you again and to have talked so long with you, and most
+of all to have received the Communion with you. It is a blessed thought
+that no interval of space or time can interrupt that Communion of the
+Spirit, and that we are one in Him, though working in different corners
+of the Lord's field.
+
+'I want to look you out a little book or two; and Fanny has told you
+that if ever my picture is photographed, I have particularly desired
+them to send you a copy with my love. Your cross I have now round my
+neck, and I shall always wear it; it will hang there with a locket
+containing locks of hair of my dear Father and Mother, the girls, and
+Jem.
+
+'You will be glad to hear that they all seem cheerful and hearty. Fan
+is not well, but I do not see that she is depressed or unhappy. In fact,
+the terrible events of the war prove a lesson to all, and they feel, I
+suppose, that it might be far worse, and that so long as I am doing my
+duty, there is no cause for sorrow.
+
+'Still there will be seasons of loneliness and sadness, and it seems to
+me as if it always was so in the case of all the people of whom we read
+in the Bible. Our Lord distinctly taught His disciples to expect it to
+be so, and even experienced this sorrow of heart Himself, filling up
+the full measure of His cup of bitterness. So I don't learn that I ought
+exactly to wish it to be otherwise, so much is said in the Bible about
+being made partaker of His, sufferings, only I pray that it may please
+God to bear me up in the midst of it. I must repeat that your example
+is constantly before me, as a witness to the power that God gives of
+enduring pain and sickness. It is indeed, and great comfort it gives
+me. He is not indeed keeping you still in the world without giving you
+a work to do, and enabling you from your bed of sickness to influence
+strongly a circle of friends.
+
+'God bless you for all your kindness to me, and watchfulness over me
+as a child, for your daily thought of me and prayers for me, and may He
+grant that I may wear your precious gift not only on but in my heart.
+
+'Always your very affectionate
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.
+
+'P.S.--I do not expect to sail for three weeks; this morning I had
+a line about the ship, and they say that she cannot be ready for a
+fortnight.'
+
+
+On Christmas-day, he was presented with a Bible subscribed for by
+the whole Alfington population. Here is a sentence from his letter of
+acknowledgment:--
+
+'If these poor needy souls can, from love to a fellow creature whom they
+have known but a few months, deny themselves their very crumb of bread
+to show their affection, what should be our conduct to Him from whom we
+have received all things, and to whom we owe our life, strength, and all
+that we possess?'
+
+The farewell service was said by one of these poor old people to be like
+a great funeral. Sexagesima Sunday was Sir John's sixty-sixth birthday,
+and it was spent in expectation that it would be the last of the whole
+party at home, for on the Monday Sir John was obliged to go to London
+for a meeting of the Judicial Committee. The two notes his son wrote
+during his absence are, perhaps to prove good spirits, full of the
+delights of skating, which were afforded by the exceptionally severe
+frost of February 1855, which came opportunely to regale with this
+favourite pastime one who would never tread on solid ice again. He wrote
+with zest of the large merry party of cousins skating together, of the
+dismay of the old housekeeper when he skimmed her in a chair over the
+ice, sighing out, in her terror, 'My dear man, don't ye go so fast,'
+with all manner of endearing expressions--of the little boys to whom
+he threw nuts to be scrambled for, and of his own plunge through the
+thinner ice, when, regardless of drenched garments, he went on with
+the sport to the last, and came home with clothes frozen as stiff as a
+board.
+
+He was not gone when his father and brother came home on the
+twenty-sixth, prepared to go with him to Southampton.
+
+The note to his cousin Arthur written at this time thus ends: 'We
+worked together once at Dresden. Whatever we have acquired in the way of
+accomplishments, languages, love of art and music, everything brings us
+into contact with somebody, and gives us the power of influencing them
+for good, and all to the glory of God.'
+
+Many were touched when, on the first Sunday in Lent, as Sir John
+Patteson was wont to assist in Church by reading the Lessons, it fell to
+him to pronounce the blessing of God upon the patriarch for his willing
+surrender of his son.
+
+After all, the 'Southern Cross' was detected in leaking again, and
+as she was so small that the Mission party would have been most
+inconveniently crowded for so long a voyage, the Bishop was at length
+persuaded to relinquish his intention of sailing in her, and passages
+were taken for himself, Mrs. Selwyn, Mr. Patteson, and another
+clergyman, in the 'Duke of Portland,' which did not sail till the end of
+March, when Patteson was to meet her at Gravesend.
+
+Thus he did not depart till the 25th. 'I leave home this morning I may
+say, for it has struck midnight,' he wrote to Miss Neill. 'I bear with
+me to the world's end your cross, and the memory of one who is bearing
+with great and long-tried patience the cross that God has laid upon
+her.'
+
+He chose to walk to the coach that would take him to join the railway at
+Cullompton. The last kisses were exchanged at the door, and the sisters
+watched him out of sight, then saw that their father was not standing
+with them. They consulted for a moment, and then one of them silently
+looked into his sitting room, and saw him with his little Bible, and
+their hearts were comforted concerning him. After that family prayers
+were never read without a clause for Missionaries, 'especially the
+absent member of this family.'
+
+He went up to his brother's chambers in London, whence a note was sent
+home the next day to his father:--
+
+'I write one line to-night to tell you that I am, thank God, calm and
+even cheerful. I stayed a few minutes in the churchyard after I left
+you, picked a few primrose buds from dear mamma's grave, and then walked
+on.
+
+'At intervals I felt a return of strong violent emotion, but I soon
+became calm; I read most of the way up, and felt surprised that I could
+master my own feelings so much.
+
+'How much I owe to the cheerful calm composure which you all showed this
+morning! I know it must have cost you all a great effort. It spared me a
+great one.'
+
+On the 27th the brothers went on board the 'Duke of Portland,' and
+surveyed the cabins, looking in at the wild scene of confusion sure
+to be presented by an emigrant ship on the last day in harbour. A long
+letter, with a minute description of the ship and the arrangements ends
+with: 'I have every blessing and comfort. Not one is wanting. I am not
+in any excitement, I think, certainly I do not believe myself to be
+in such a state as to involve a reaction of feeling. Of course if I am
+seedy at sea for a few days I shall feel low-spirited also most likely,
+and miss you all more in consequence. But that does not go below the
+surface. Beneath is calm tranquil peace of mind.'
+
+On the 28th the two brothers joined the large number of friends who went
+down with the Mission party, among them Mr. Edward Coleridge.
+
+Parting notes were written from on board to all the most beloved; to
+little Paulina, of bright hopes, to Miss Neill of her cross; to Arthur
+the German greeting, 'Lebe wohl, doch nicht auf Ewigkeit,'--to Mr.
+Justice Coleridge:--
+
+
+'March 28, 1855.
+
+'My dear Uncle,--One line more to thank you for all your love and to
+pray for the blessing of God upon you and yours now and for ever.
+
+'We sail to-day. Such letters from home, full of calm, patient, cheerful
+resignation to his will. Wonderfully has God supported us through this
+trial. My kind love to Arthur. Always, my dear Uncle, Your affectionate,
+grateful Nephew,
+
+'JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON.'
+
+
+Perhaps the frame of mind in which Coley left England can best be
+gathered from the following extract from a letter to his father from his
+uncle Edward:--
+
+'While on board I had a good deal of quiet talk with him, and was fully
+confirmed by his manner and words, of that which I did not doubt before,
+that the surrender of self, which he has made, has been put into his
+heart by God's Holy Spirit, and that all his impulses for good are based
+on the firm foundation of trust in God, and a due appreciation of his
+mortal, as well as professional condition. I never saw a hand set on the
+plough stead with more firmness, yet entire modesty, or with an eye and
+heart less turned backwards on the world behind. I know you do not in
+any way repine at what you have allowed him to do; and I feel sure that
+ere long you will see cause to bless God not only for having given
+you such a son, but also for having put it into his heart so to devote
+himself to that particular work in the Great Vineyard.'
+
+About 5 P.M. the 'Duke of Portland' swung round with the tide, strangers
+were ordered on shore, Coleridge and James Patteson said their last
+farewells, and while the younger brother went home by the night-train
+to carry the final greetings to his father and sisters, the ship weighed
+anchor and the voyage was begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. THE VOYAGE AND FIRST YEAR. 1855-1856.
+
+
+
+When the See of New Zealand was first formed, Archbishop Howley
+committed to the care of the first Bishop the multitudinous islands
+scattered in the South Pacific. The technical bounds of the diocese were
+not defined; but matters were to a certain degree simplified by Bishop
+Selwyn's resolution only to deal with totally heathen isles, and
+whatever superiority the authorised chief pastor might rightfully claim,
+not to confuse the minds of the heathen by the sight of variations among
+Christians, and thus never to preach in any place already occupied by
+Missions, a resolution from which he only once departed, in the case of
+a group apparently relinquished by its first teachers. This cut off all
+the properly called Polynesian isles, whose inhabitants are of the Malay
+type, and had been the objects of care to the London Mission, ever since
+the time of John Williams; also the Fiji Islands; and a few which had
+been taken in hand by a Scottish Presbyterian Mission; but the groups
+which seem to form the third fringe round the north-eastern curve of
+Australia, the New Hebrides, Banks Islands, and Solomon Isles, were
+almost entirely open ground, with their population called Melanesian
+or Black Islanders, from their having much of the Negro in their
+composition and complexion. These were regarded as less quick but more
+steady than the Polynesian race, with somewhat the same difference of
+character as there is between the Teuton and the Kelt. The reputation
+of cannibalism hung about many of the islands, and there was no doubt
+of boats' crews having been lost among them, but in most cases there had
+been outrage to provoke reprisals.
+
+These islands had as yet been little visited, except by Captain Cook,
+their first discoverer, and isolated Spanish exploring expeditions; but
+of late whalers and sandal wood traders, both English and American, had
+been finding their way among them, and too often acting as irresponsible
+adventurous men of a low class are apt to do towards those whom they
+regard as an inferior race.
+
+Mission work had hardly reached this region. It was in attempting
+it that John Williams had met his death at Erromango, one of the New
+Hebrides; but one of his best institutions had been a school in one of
+the Samoan or Navigators' Islands, in which were educated young men of
+the native races to be sent to the isles to prepare the way for white
+men. Very nobly had these Samoan pupils carried out his intentions,
+braving dislike, disease and death in the islands to which they were
+appointed, and having the more to endure because they came without the
+prestige of a white man. Moreover, the language was no easier to them
+than to him, as their native speech is entirely different from the
+Melanesian; which is besides broken into such an extraordinary number of
+different dialects, varying from one village to another in an island not
+twenty miles long, that a missionary declared that the people must have
+come straight from the Tower of Babel, and gone on dividing their speech
+ever since. Just at the time of the formation of the See of New Zealand,
+the excitement caused at home by Williams's death had subsided, and the
+London Mission's funds were at so low an ebb that, so far from extending
+their work, they had been obliged to let some of it fall into abeyance.
+
+All this came to the knowledge of the Bishop of New Zealand while he was
+occupied with the cares of his first seven years in his more immediate
+diocese, and in 1848, he made a voyage of inspection in H.M.S. 'Dido.'
+He then perceived that to attempt the conversion of this host of isles
+of tropical climate through a resident English clergyman in each, would
+be impossible, besides which he knew that no Church takes root without
+native clergy, and he therefore intended bringing boys to New Zealand,
+and there educating them to become teachers to their countrymen. He had
+lately established, near Auckland, for the sons of the colonists, St.
+John's College, which in 1850 was placed under the Reverend Charles John
+Abraham, the former Eton master, who had joined the Bishop to act
+as Archdeacon and assist in the scheme of education; and here it was
+planned that the young Melanesians should be trained.
+
+The Bishop possessed a little schooner of twenty-two tons, the 'Undine,'
+in which he was accustomed to make his expeditions along the coast;
+and in August 1849, he set forth in her, with a crew of four, without a
+weapon of any sort, to 'launch out into the deep, and let down his nets
+for a draught.' Captain Erskine of H.M.S. 'Havannah' readily undertook
+to afford him any assistance practicable, and they were to cruise in
+company, the 'Undine' serving as a pilot boat or tender on coasts where
+the only guide was 'a few rough sketches collected from small trading
+vessels.'
+
+They met near Tanna, but not before the Bishop had been in Dillon's
+Bay, on the island of Erromango, the scene of Williams's murder, and had
+allowed some of the natives to come on board his vessel as a first step
+towards friendly intercourse. The plan agreed on by the Bishop and the
+Captain was to go as far north as Vate, and return by way of the Loyalty
+Isles, which fringe the east coast of New Caledonia, to touch at that
+large island, and then visit the Island of Pines, at its extreme south
+point, and there enquire into a massacre said to have taken place. This
+was effected, and in each place the natives showed themselves friendly.
+From New Caledonia the Bishop brought away a pupil named Dallup, and
+at two of the Loyalty Islands, Nengone or Mare, and Lifu, where Samoan
+teachers had excited a great desire for farther instruction, boys
+eagerly begged to go with him, and two were taken from each, in especial
+Siapo, a young Nengone chief eighteen or nineteen years old, of very
+pleasing aspect, and with those dignified princely manners which rank is
+almost sure to give. The first thing done with such lads when they came
+on board was to make clothes for them, and when they saw the needle
+employed in their service, they were almost sure to beg to be taught the
+art, and most of them soon became wonderfully dexterous in it.
+
+On the Island of Pines, so called from the tower-like masses of the
+Norfolk pine on the shores, was at that time the French Bishop of New
+Caledonia, the Oul, as the natives called him and his countrymen, for
+whom they had little love. After an interview between the two bishops,
+the 'Undine' returned to New Zealand, where the native boys were
+brought to St. John's College. The system of education there combined
+agricultural labour and printing with study, and the authorities and the
+boys shared according to their strength in both, for there was nothing
+more prominent in the Bishop's plan than that the coloured man was not
+to be treated as a mere hewer of wood and drawer of water, but, as a
+Maori once expressed the idea: 'Gentleman--gentleman thought nothing
+that ought to be done at all too mean for him; pig-gentleman never
+worked.' The whole community, including the ladies and their guests,
+dined together in hall.
+
+The five boys behaved well, Siapo being a leader in all that was good,
+and made advances in Christian knowledge; but it was one of the Bishop's
+principles that none of them should be baptized till he had proved
+whether his faith were strong enough to resist the trial of a return to
+his native home and heathen friends. The climate of New Zealand is
+far too chilly for these inhabitants of tropical regions, and it was
+absolutely necessary to return them to their homes during the winter
+quarter from June to August. The scheme therefore was to touch at their
+islands, drop them there, proceed then further on the voyage, and then,
+returning the same way, resume them, if they were willing to come under
+instruction for baptism and return to the college. In the lack of a
+common language, Bishop Selwyn hoped to make them all learn English, and
+only communicate with one another in that.
+
+The 'Undine,' not being large enough for the purpose, was exchanged for
+the 'Border Maid;' and in the course of the next three years an annual
+voyage was made, and boys to the number of from twelve to fourteen
+brought home. Siapo of Nengone was by far the most promising scholar. He
+was a strong influence, when at home, on behalf of the Samoan teachers,
+and assisted in the building of a round chapel, smoothly floored, and
+plastered with coral lime. In 1852 he was baptized, together with three
+of his friends, in this chapel, in his own island, by the Bishop, in the
+presence of a thousand persons, and received the name of George. When
+the 'Border Maid' returned, though he was convalescent from a severe
+illness, he not only begged that he might come back, but that the
+young girl to whom he was betrothed might be taken to New Zealand to
+be trained in Christian ways. Ready consent was given, and the little
+Wabisane, and her companion Wasitutru (Little Chattering Bird), were
+brought on board, and arrayed in petticoats fashioned by the Bishop's
+own hands, from his own counterpane, with white skirts above,
+embellished with a bow of scarlet ribbon, the only piece of finery to be
+found in the 'Border Maid.' The Rev. William Nihill had spent the period
+of this trip at Nengone, and had become deeply interested in the people.
+The island was then thought likely to become a centre whence to work
+on adjacent places; but to the grief and disappointment of all, George
+Siapo did not live through the summer at St. John's. He had never
+recovered his illness at home, and rapidly declined; but his faith
+burnt brighter as his frame became weaker, and his heart was set on the
+conversion of his native country. He warmly begged Mr. Nihill to return
+thither, and recommended him to the protection of his friends, and
+he wished his own brother to become scholar at St. John's. His whole
+demeanour was that of a devoted Christian, and when he died, in the
+January of the year 1853, he might be regarded as the firstfruits of the
+Melanesian Church. Since Mr. Nihill was about to return to Nengone, and
+there was a certain leaven of Christianity in the place, the girls were
+not subjected to the probation of a return before baptism, but were
+christened Caroline and Sarah, after Mrs. Abraham and Mrs. Selwyn.
+
+Another very satisfactory pupil was little Umao. An English sailor in a
+dreadful state of disease had been left behind by a whaler at Erromango,
+where the little Umao, a mere boy, had attached himself to him, and
+waited on him with the utmost care and patience, though meeting with no
+return but blows and rough words. The man moved to Tanna, where there
+are mineral springs highly esteemed by the natives, and when the 'Border
+Maid' touched there, in 1851, he was found in a terrible condition,
+but with the little fellow faithfully attending him. The Englishman was
+carried to Sydney, and left in the hospital there; but Umao begged not
+to be sent home, for he said his parents cruelly ill-used him and his
+brothers, and set them to watch the fire all night to keep off evil
+spirits; so, when New Zealand became too cold for him, he was sent to
+winter at the London Society's station in Anaiteum. His sweet friendly
+nature expanded under Christian training, but his health failed, and in
+the course of the voyage of 1853 he became so ill that his baptism was
+hastened, and he shortly after died in the Bishop's arms.
+
+Two more boys, cousins, from Lifu, also died. There never was any
+suspicion or displeasure shown among the relatives of these youths.
+Their own habits were frightfully unhealthy; they were not a long-lived
+people, and there was often great mortality among them, and though they
+were grieved at the loss of their sons, they never seemed distrustful
+or ungrateful. But it was evident that, even in the summer months, the
+climate of New Zealand was trying to these tropical constitutions, and
+as it was just then determined that Norfolk Island should no longer be
+the penal abode of the doubly convicted felons of Botany Bay, but should
+instead become the home of the descendants of the mutineers of the
+'Bounty' who had outgrown Pitcairn's Island, the Bishop cast his
+eyes upon it as the place most likely to agree alike with English and
+Melanesian constitutions, and therefore eminently fitted for the place
+of instruction.
+
+The expenses of the voyages in the 'Border Maid' had been met partly by
+the Eton Association, and partly by another association at Sydney, where
+a warm interest in these attempts had been excited and maintained by the
+yearly visits of Bishop Selwyn, who usually visited Australia while
+the lads were wintering at their homes. But the 'Border Maid' was
+superannuated, nor had she ever been perfectly fitted for the purpose;
+and when, in 1853, the Bishop was obliged to come to England to take
+measures for dividing his diocese, he also hoped to obtain permission to
+establish a Melanesian school on Norfolk Island, and to obtain the
+means of building a schooner yacht, small enough to be navigated in
+the narrow, shallow creeks separating the clustered islets, and yet
+capacious enough for the numerous passengers. In the meantime Mr. Nihill
+went to Nengone with his wife and child. His lungs were much affected,
+but he hoped that the climate would prolong his power of working among
+the Christian community, who heartily loved and trusted him.
+
+Other fellow-labourers the Bishop hoped to obtain at home, though it was
+his principle never to solicit men to come with him, only to take those
+who offered themselves; but all the particulars of the above narration
+had been known to Coley Patteson through the Bishop's correspondence
+with Mr. Edward Coleridge, as well as by the yearly report put forth by
+the Eton Association, and this no doubt served to keep up in his heart
+the flame that had burnt unseen for so many years, and to determine its
+direction, though he put himself unreservedly at the Bishop's disposal,
+to work wherever he might be sent.
+
+The means for the mission ship 'Southern Cross' were raised. She was
+built at Blackwall by Messrs. Wigram, and, after all the delays, sailed
+on the very same day as the 'Duke of Portland.'
+
+Meantime here are a few extracts from Patteson's journal-letter during
+the voyage. Sea-sickness was very slightly disabling with him; he was up
+and about in a short time, and on the 8th of April was writing:--
+
+'What a day this has been to me, the twenty-eighth anniversary of my
+baptism to begin with, and then Easter Day spent at sea!
+
+'April 20th, lat, 4 deg. N., long. 25 deg. W.--Rather hot. It is very fine
+to see all the stars of the heavens almost rise and pass overhead and
+set--Great Bear and Southern Cross shining as in rivalry of each other,
+and both hemispheres showing forth all their glory. Only the Polar Star,
+that shines straight above you, is gone below our horizon; and One alone
+knows how much toil, and perhaps sorrow, there may be in store for
+me before I see it again. But there is and will be much happiness
+and comfort also, for indeed I have great peace of mind, and a firm
+conviction that I am doing what is right; a feeling that God is
+directing and ordering the course of my life, and whenever I take the
+only true view of the business of life, I am happy and cheerful.
+
+'May 10.--It is, I find, quite settled, and was indeed always, that I am
+to go always with the Bishop, roving about the Melanesian department, so
+that for some years, if I live, I shall be generally six months at sea.
+And not little to my delight, I find that the six winter months (i.e.
+your summer months) are the ones that we shall spend in sailing about
+the islands within or near the tropics, so that I shall have little more
+shivering limbs or blue hands, though I may feel in the long run
+the effect of a migratory swallow-like life. But the sea itself is a
+perpetual tonic, and when I am thoroughly accustomed to a sea life, I
+think I shall be better almost on board ship.'
+
+This seems the place for Bishop Selwyn's impression, as written to a
+friend at this very time. 'Coley Patteson is a treasure which I humbly
+set down as a Divine recompense for our own boys*. He is a good fellow,
+and the tone of his mind is one which I can thoroughly enjoy, content
+with the 'to aei' present, yet always aiming at a brighter and better
+future.'
+
+*(Footnote: Left at home for education.)
+
+'June 18.--You must think of us at 8 P.M. on Sundays--just at 8.20 A.M.
+before you come down to prayers. The Bishop has a service in the College
+chapel; then, after all the "runners" (clergy who have district chapels)
+have returned, chanting Psalms, and reading collects, which bear
+especially on the subject of unity, introducing the special Communion
+thanksgiving for Whitsunday, and the Sanctus, and the Prayer for Unity
+in the Accession Service. I feel that it must be an impressive and very
+happy way of ending the Sunday, and you will be at Sunday prayers at the
+other end of the world praying with us.
+
+'July 3.--Still at sea. As soon as we rounded the North Cape on Friday,
+June 29, a contrary wind sprang up, and we have been beating about,
+tacking between North Cape and Cape Brett ever since. Fine sunny weather
+and light winds, but always from the south. To me it is a matter of
+entire indifference; I am quite ready to go ashore, but do not mind a
+few more days at sea. The climate is delightful, thermometer on deck 55 deg.
+to 60 deg., and such glorious sunsets! There is really something peculiar in
+the delicacy of the colours here--faint pink and blue, and such an idea
+of distance is given by the great transparency of the air. It is full
+moon too now, and I walk the deck from eleven to twelve every night with
+no great-coat, thinking about you all and my future work. Last night the
+Bishop was with me, and told me definitely about my occupation for the
+time to come. All day we have been slowly, very slowly, passing along
+from the north headland of the Bay of Islands to Cape Brett, and along
+the land south of it. A fine coast it is, full of fine harbours and
+creeks, the bay itself like a large Torbay, only bolder. Due south of
+us is the Bream headland, then the Barrier Islands. We are only about a
+mile from the shore, and refreshing it is to look at it; but as yet we
+have seen no beach; the rock runs right into the sea. Such bustle and
+excitement on board! emigrants getting their things ready, carpenters
+making the old "Duke" look smart, sailors scrubbing, but no painting
+going on, to our extreme delight. It is so calm, quite as smooth as a
+small lake; indeed there is less perceptible motion than I have felt
+on the Lake of Como. No backs, no bones aching, though here I speak for
+others more than for myself, for the Bishop began his talk last night by
+saying, "One great point is decided, that you are a good sailor. So far
+you are qualified for Melanesia."'
+
+To this may be added that Patteson had been farther preparing for
+this work by a diligent study of the Maori language, and likewise of
+navigation; and what an instructor he had in the knowledge of the
+coasts may be gathered from the fact that an old sea captain living at
+Kohimarama sent a note to St. John's College stating that he was sure
+that the Bishop had come, for he knew every vessel that had ever come
+into Auckland harbour, and was sure this barque had never been there
+before; yet she had come in the night through all the intricate
+passages, and was rounding the heads without a pilot on board. He
+therefore concluded that the Bishop must be on board, as there was
+no other man that could have taken command of her at such a time, and
+brought her into that harbour.
+
+The Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn went on shore as soon as possible; Patteson
+waited till the next day. Indeed he wrote on July 5 that he was in
+no hurry to land, since he knew no one in the whole neighbourhood but
+Archdeacon Abraham. Then he describes the aspect of Auckland from the
+sea:--
+
+'It looks much like a small sea-side town, but not so substantially
+built, nor does it convey the same idea of comfort and wealth; rude
+warehouses, &c., being mixed up with private houses on the beach. The
+town already extends to a distance of perhaps half a mile on each side
+of this cove, on which the principal part of it is built. Just in the
+centre of the cove stands the Wesleyan chapel. On the rising ground on
+the east of the cove is the Roman Catholic chapel, and on the west side
+is St. Paul's Church, an Early English stone building, looking really
+ecclesiastical and homelike. The College, at a distance of about five
+miles from the town, on some higher ground, northwest of it, is reached
+from the harbour by a boat ascending a creek to within a mile of the
+buildings, so that we shall not go into the town at all when we land. By
+water too will be our shortest, at all events our quickest way from the
+college to the town.
+
+'July 9, St. John's College.--Though we reached harbour on July 5, and
+landed the next day, I have scarcely found a minute to write a line.
+Imagine my feelings as I touched land and jumped ashore at a creek under
+Judge Martin's house, in the presence of Rota Waitoa, the only native
+clergyman in the diocese; Levi, who is perhaps to be ordained, and four
+or five other natives. Tena ra fa koe e ho a? "How are you, my friends?"
+(the common New Zealand greeting), said I as I shook hands with them one
+by one. We walked up from the beach to the house. Roses in full flower,
+and mimosa with a delicate golden flower, and various other shrubs and
+flowers in full bloom. Midwinter, recollect. The fragrance of the air,
+the singing of the birds, the fresh smell (it was raining a little and
+the grass was steaming) were delicious, as you may suppose. Here I
+was, all at once, carrying up baggage, Maoris before and behind, and
+everything new and strange, and yet I felt as if it were all right and
+natural. The Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn had landed the day before, and
+we were heartily welcomed. Mr. Martin took me into his study. "I am
+thankful to see you as a fresh labourer among us here; a man of your
+name needs no introduction to a lawyer." Nothing could exceed his
+kindness. He began talking of at once.
+
+'We dined at about 12.30. Clean mutton chops, potatoes and pumpkin (very
+good indeed), jam pudding, bread, and plenty of water (beer I refused).
+It did taste so good, I am quite ashamed of thinking about it. About two
+o'clock I started with the Bishop for the College, nearly six miles from
+Auckland.
+
+'The Bishop is at a kind of collegiate establishment on the outskirts of
+Auckland, where Mr. Kissling, a clergyman, is the resident, and thither
+I go on Wednesday, to live till October 1, when we start, please God,
+in the "Southern Cross" for the cruise around New Zealand. Here, at Mr.
+Kissling's, I shall have work with Maoris, learning each day, I trust,
+to speak more correctly and fluently. Young men for teachers, and it may
+be for clergymen, will form at once my companions and my pupils, a
+good proportion of them being nearly or quite of my own age. I am to
+be constantly at the Judge's, running in and out, working on Sundays
+anywhere as I may be sent. So much for myself.
+
+'The College is really all that is necessary for a thoroughly good and
+complete place of education; the hall all lined with kauri pine wood, a
+large handsome room, collegiate, capable of holding two hundred persons;
+the school-room, eighty feet long, with admirable arrangements for
+holding classes separately. There are two very cosy rooms, which belong
+to the Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn respectively, in one of which I am now
+sitting.... On the walls are hanging about certain tokens of Melanesia
+in the shape of gourds, calabashes, &c., such as I shall send you one
+day; a spade on one side, just as a common horse halter hanging from
+Abraham's bookshelf, betokens colonial life. Our rooms are quite large
+enough, bigger than my room at Feniton, but no furniture, of course,
+beyond a bedstead, a table for writing, and an old bookcase; but it is
+never cold enough to care about furniture... I clean, of course, my room
+in part, make my bed, help to clear away things after meals, &c., and am
+quite accustomed to do without servants for anything but cooking. There
+is a weaving room, which used to be well worked, a printing press
+(from C. M. S.) which has done some good work, and is now at work
+again--English, Maori, Greek and Hebrew types. Separate groups of
+buildings, which once were filled with lads from different Melanesian
+isles--farm buildings, barns, &c. Last of all, the little chapel
+of kauri wood, stained desk, like the inside of a really good
+ecclesiastical building in England, porch S.W. angle, a semicircular
+apse at the west, containing a large handsome stone font, open seats of
+course. The east end very simple, semicircular apse, small windows all
+full of stained glass, raised one step, no rails, the Bishop's chair
+on the north side, bench on the south. Here my eye and my mind rested
+contentedly and peacefully. The little chapel, holding about seventy
+persons, is already dear to me. I preached in it last night at the seven
+o'clock service. We chanted the Unity Psalms CXXII, CXXIII, CXXIV, and
+CL, heartily, all joining to a dear old double chant in parts. I felt
+my heart very full as I spoke to them of the blessedness of prayer
+and spiritual communion. I was at Tamaki in the morning, where I read
+prayers, the Archdeacon preaching. A little stone church, very rude
+and simple, but singing again good, and congregation of fifty-one,
+attentive. At Panmure, about three miles off, in the afternoon, a tiny
+wooden church--where Abraham took all the duty. In the evening, in the
+chapel, he read prayers, and I preached to about thirty-five or forty
+people. We left the chapel just as you were getting ready for breakfast,
+and so passed my first Sunday in New Zealand. To-day I have had hard
+work; I walked with Abraham to Auckland--six miles of rough work, I
+promise you, except the two last.
+
+I believe it was in the course of this walk that Patteson experimented
+on his Maori, a native whom they visited, and who presently turned upon
+the Archdeacon, and demanded, 'Why do you not speak like Te Pattihana?'
+Such a compliment has seldom been paid on so early an attempt at
+colloquialism in a new language. Journal continues:--
+
+'Lugged down boxes, big empty ones, from the Judge's house to the beach.
+Went with the Bishop to the old ship, packed up books, brought away
+all our things almost, helped to pack them in a cart and drag, and then
+walked back to the College, which I reached in the dark at 7.30. It is
+delightful to see the delight of the natives when they see the Bishop.
+"E--h te Pikopa!" and then they all come round him like children,
+laughing and talking. Two common men we met on Friday from Rotoma, 150
+miles off, who said that their tribe had heard that the Queen of England
+had taken away his salary, and they had been having subscriptions for
+him every Sunday. They are of various shades of colour, some light
+brown, some nearly black, and some so tattooed all over that you can't
+tell what colour they are. I was talking to-day to the best of my power
+with a native teacher upon whose face I could not see one spot as big as
+a shilling that was not tattooed, beautifully done in a regular pattern,
+one side corresponding to the other. Each tribe, as it is said (I
+know not how truly), has a pattern of its own; so they wear their
+coats-of-arms on their faces, that is all. The young Christian natives
+are not tattooed at all, and I have been to-day with Sydney, whose
+father was the great fighting man of Honghi (miscalled Shanghi) who was
+presented to George IV. This young man's father helped to exterminate a
+whole tribe who lived on a part of the College property (as it is now),
+and he is said to be perhaps the first New Zealander who was baptized
+as an infant. I find it hard to understand them; they speak very
+indistinctly--not fast, but their voices are thick in general. I hope to
+learn a good deal before October. My first letter from the ends of the
+world tells of my peace of mind, of one sound and hearty in body, and, I
+thank God, happy, calm, and cheerful in spirit.'
+
+
+'July 11, 1855; St. John's College, Auckland.
+
+'My dear Fan,--I do not doubt that I am where I ought to be; I do think
+and trust that God has given me this work to do; but I need earnest
+prayers for strength that I may do it. It is no light work to be
+suddenly transplanted from a quiet little country district, where every
+one knew me, and the prestige of dear Father's life and your active
+usefulness among the people made everything smooth for me, to a work
+exceeding in magnitude anything that falls to the lot of an ordinary
+parish priest in England--in a strange land, among a strange race
+of men, in a newly forming and worldly society, with no old familiar
+notions and customs to keep the machine moving; and then to be made
+acquainted with such a mass of information respecting Church government
+and discipline, educational schemes, conduct of clergy and teachers,
+etc., etc. It is well that I am hearty and sound in health, or I should
+be regularly overwhelmed with it. Two texts I think of constantly:
+"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." "Sufficient
+for the day," etc. I hardly dare look forward to what my work may be on
+earth; I cannot see my way; but I feel sure that He is ordering it all,
+and I try to look on beyond the earth, when at length, by God's mercy,
+we may all find rest.
+
+'That I have been so well in body and so cheerful in mind ever since I
+left home--I mean cheerful on the whole, not without seasons of sadness,
+but so mercifully strengthened at all times--must, I think, without
+any foolish enthusiasm, be remembered by me as a special act of God's
+goodness and mercy. I was not the least weary of the sea. Another month
+or two would have made very little difference to me, I think. I am very
+fond of it, and I think of my voyages to come without any degree
+of dread from that cause, and I have no reason to expect any great
+discomfort from any other. I have my whole stock of lemon syrup and
+lime juice, so that the salt meat on the "Southern Cross" will be
+counteracted in that way; and going round those islands we shall be
+ashore every few days. But what most surprises me is this: that when
+I am alone, as here at night in a great (for it is large) cheerless,
+lonely room, as I should have thought it once; though I can't help
+thinking of my own comforts at home, and all dear faces around me,
+though I feel my whole heart swelling with love to you all, still I am
+not at all sad or gloomy, or cast down. This does surprise me: I did not
+think it would or could be so. I have indeed prayed for it, but I had
+not faith to believe that my prayer would be so granted. The fact
+itself is most certain. I have at Alfington, when alone of an evening,
+experienced a greater sense of loneliness than I have once done out
+here. Of this hitherto I feel no doubt: it may be otherwise any day of
+course; and to what else can I attribute this fact, in all soberness of
+mind, but to the mercy of God in strengthening me for my work? Much of
+it may be the effect of a splendid climate upon my physique, that is
+true; for indeed to find flowers in full blossom, green meadows, hot
+suns, birds singing, etc., in midwinter, with a cool, steady breeze from
+the sea invigorating me all the while, is no doubt just what I require;
+but to-day we have a north-easter, which answers to your south-west
+wind, with pouring rain, and yet my spirits are not going down with the
+barometer. All the same, the said barometer will probably soon recover
+himself; for I believe these heavy storms seldom last long. There is
+no fire in the room where I sit, which is the Bishop's room when he is
+here; no fire-place indeed, as it opens into Mrs. Selwyn's room. The
+thermometer is 58 deg., and it is midwinter.'
+
+
+To Miss Neill, on the same day, after repeating his conviction that he
+was in the right place, he says:--
+
+
+'I have written to them at home what I ought not perhaps to have said of
+myself, but that it will give them comfort--that from all sides my
+being here as the Bishop's companion is hailed as likely to produce very
+beneficial results. But I must assure you that I fully know how your
+love for me and much too high opinion of me makes you fancy that I could
+be of use at home. But we must not, even taking this view, send our
+refuse men to the colonies. Newly forming societies must be moulded by
+men of energy, and power, and high character; in fact, churches must be
+organised, the Gospel must be preached by men of earnest zeal for God's
+glory in the salvation of souls. To lower the standard of Christian life
+by exhibiting a feeble faint glimmering instead of a burning shining
+light is to stamp upon the native mind a false impression, it may be for
+ever.
+
+'Remember, we have no ancient customs nor time-hallowed usages to make
+up for personal indifference and apathy; we have no momentum to carry on
+the machine. We have to start it, and give it the first impulse, under
+the guidance of the Spirit of God; and oh! if it takes a wrong direction
+at first, who can calculate the evil that must follow? It is easy to
+steer a vessel in smooth water, with a fair breeze; but how are you to
+keep her head straight in a rolling sea with no way on her?'
+
+
+This letter, with two or three more, went by the first mail after
+his arrival. From that time he generally kept a journal-letter, and
+addressed it to one or other of his innermost home circle; while the
+arrival of each post from home produced a whole sheaf of answers, and
+comments on what was told, by each correspondent, of family, political
+or Church matters. Sometimes the letter is so full of the subject of
+immediate interest as absolutely to leave no room for personal details
+of his own actual life, and this became more the case as the residence
+in New Zealand or Norfolk Island lost its novelty, while it never
+absorbed him so as to narrow his interests. He never missed a mail
+in writing to his father and sisters, and a letter to his brother was
+equally regular, but these latter were generally too much concerned with
+James's own individual life to be as fully given as the other letters,
+which were in fact a diary of facts, thoughts, and impressions.
+
+
+'July 12, St. Stephen's, Mr. Kissling's School-house.--You know I am to
+live here when not on the "Southern Cross," or journeying in the Bush;
+so I must describe, first, the place itself, then my room in it. The
+house is a large one-storied building of wood, no staircase in it, but
+only a succession of rooms.... There are at present fourteen or sixteen
+girls in the school, boarding here, besides Rota, who is a native
+deacon, spending a month here; Levi, who is preparing for ordination,
+and three other men. The house stands on table-land about four hundred
+yards from the sea, commanding glorious views of the harbour, sea, and
+islands, which form groups close round the coast. It is Church property
+all round, and the site of a future cathedral is within a stone's throw
+of it.... Now for my room. Plenty large enough to begin with, not less
+than sixteen feet long by twelve wide, and at least eleven high, all
+wood, not papered or painted, which I like much, as the kauri is a
+darkish grained wood; no carpet of course, but I am writing now at 10
+P.M., with no fire, and quite warm. The east side of the room is one
+great window, latticed, in a wooden frame; outside it a verandah, and
+such a beautiful view of the harbour and bay beyond. I will tell you
+exactly what I have done to-day since two o'clock, as a sample of my
+life.
+
+'2 P.M., dinner, roast mutton; my seat between the Bishop and Eota.
+Fancy the long table with its double row of Maoris. After dinner, away
+with the Bishop to the hospital, a plain wooden building a mile off,
+capable of taking in about forty patients in all. I am to visit it
+regularly when here, taking that work off the parish clergyman's
+shoulders, and a great comfort it will be. I went through it to-day,
+and had a long talk with the physician and surgeon, and saw the male
+patients, two of them natives. One of them is dying, and so I am to be
+now talking as well as I can, but at all events reading and praying,
+with this poor fellow, and a great happiness it is to have such a
+privilege and so on. Came back to tea, very pleasant. After tea made
+Eota, and Sydney, a young-man who knows English pretty well, sit in my
+room (N.B., there is but one chair, in which I placed Eota), and then
+I made them read Maori to me, and read a good deal myself, and then we
+talked as well as we could. At 6.15, prayers, the whole party of Maoris
+assembled. Mr. Kissling read the first verse of the chapter (Joshua
+vi.), and we each read one verse in turn, and then he questioned them
+for perhaps fifteen minutes. They were very intelligent and answered
+well, and it was striking to see grown-up men and young women sitting so
+patiently to be taught. Then the evening service prayers; and so I knelt
+with these good simple people and prayed with them for the first time.
+Very much I enjoyed all this. Soon after came supper, a little talking,
+and now here am I writing to you.
+
+'I wish you could see the tree-ferns; some are quite twenty feet high in
+the trunk, for trunk it is, and the great broad frond waves over it in
+a way that would make that child Pena clap her hands with delight. Then
+the geraniums and roses in blossom, the yellow mimosa flower, the wild
+moncha, with a white flower, growing everywhere, and the great variety
+of evergreen trees (none that I have seen being deciduous) make the
+country very pretty. The great bare volcanic hills, each with its
+well-defined crater, stand up from among the woodlands, and now from
+among pastures grazing hundreds of oxen; and this, with the grand sea
+views, and shipping in the harbour, make a very fine sight.
+
+'July 14.--I write to-night because you will like a line from me on the
+day when first I have in any way ministered to a native of the country.
+I was in the hospital to-day, talked a little, and read St. Luke xv. to
+one, and prayed with another Maori. The latter is dying. He was baptized
+by the Wesleyans, but is not visited by them, so I do not scruple to go
+to him. Rota, the native deacon, was with me, and he talked a long
+while with the poor fellow. It is a great comfort to me to have made a
+beginning. I did little more than read a few prayers from the Visitation
+Service, but the man understood me well, so I may be of use, I hope. He
+has never received the Lord's Supper; but if there is time to prepare
+him, the Bishop wishes me to administer it to him.
+
+'July 20.--Yesterday in sailed the "Southern Cross" with not a spar
+carried away or sail lost, perfectly sound, and in a fit state to be off
+again at once. She left England on the same day that we did, and arrived
+just a fortnight after us, and this is attributable to her having kept
+in low latitudes, not going higher than 39 deg.; whereas we were in 51 deg.
+30', which diminished the distance and brought us in the way of more
+favourable winds. I saw from my windows about 9 A.M. a schooner in the
+distance, and told the Bishop I thought it might be the "Southern Cross"
+(she has no figure-head and a very straight bow). Through the day, which
+was very rainy, we kept looking from time to time through our glasses.
+At 3 P.M. the Bishop came in: "Come along, Coley; I do believe it is the
+'Southern Cross.'" So I hurried on waterproofs, knowing that we were
+in for some mudlarking. Off we went, lugged down a borrowed boat to the
+water, tide being out. I took one oar, a Maori another, and off we went,
+Bishop steering. After twenty minutes' pull, or thereabouts, we met her,
+jumped on board, and then such a broadside of questions and answers.
+They had a capital passage. Two men who were invalided when they started
+died on the voyage--one of dysentery, I think--all the rest flourishing,
+the three women respectable and tidy-looking individuals, and two
+children very well. After a while the Bishop and I went off to shore, in
+one of his boats, pulled by two of the crew, Lowestoft fishermen, fine
+young fellows as you ever saw. Then we bought fresh meat, onions, bread,
+etc., for them, and so home by 7 P.M. "Mudlarking" very slight on this
+occasion, only walking over the flat swamp of low-water marsh for a
+quarter of a mile; but on Tuesday we had a rich scene. Bishop and I went
+to the "Duke of Portland" and brought off the rest of our things; but
+it was low-water, so the boats could not come within a long way of the
+beach, and the custom is for carts to go over the muddy sand, which is
+tolerably hard, as far into the water as they can, perhaps two and a
+half or three feet deep when it is quite calm, as it was on Tuesday.
+Well, in went our cart, which had come from the College, with three
+valuable horses, while the Bishop and I stood on the edge of the water.
+Presently one of the horses lost his footing, and then all at once all
+three slipped up, and the danger was of their struggling violently and
+hurting themselves. One of those in the shafts had his head under water,
+too, for a time. Instanter Bishop and I had our coats off, my trousers
+were rolled over my knees, and in we rushed to the horses. Such a
+plunging and splashing! but they were all got up safe. This was about 4
+P.M., and I was busy about the packages and getting them into the carts,
+unloading at Mr. Kissling's till past 8; but I did not catch cold.
+Imagine an English Bishop with attending parson cutting into the water
+up to their knees to disentangle their cart-horses from the harness in
+full view of every person on the beach. "This is your first lesson in
+mudlarking, Coley," was the remark of the Bishop as we laughed over our
+respective appearance.
+
+'July 21.--I was finishing my sermon for the soldiers to-morrow at
+11.30, when Mr. Kissling came in to say that the schooner just come into
+the harbour was the vessel which had been sent to bring Mr. and Mrs.
+Nihill from Nengone or Mare Island. He was in very bad health when he
+went there, and great doubts were entertained as to his coming back. I
+was deputed to go and see. I ran a good part of the way to the town
+on to the pier, and there heard that Mr. Nihill was dead. An old
+acquaintance of Mrs. Nihill was on the pier, so I thought I should be in
+the way, and came back, told Mrs. Kissling, and went on to the Judge's,
+and told Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Selwyn. Whilst there we saw a boat land a
+young lady and child on the beach just below the house, and they sent
+me down. Pouring with rain here on the beach, taking shelter in a
+boat-house with her brother, I found this poor young widow; and so,
+leaning on my arm, she walked up to the house. I just waited to see
+Mrs. Selwyn throw her arms round her neck, and then walked straight off,
+feeling that the furious rain and wind chimed in with a violent struggle
+which was just going on in my own mind. I go through such scenes firmly
+enough at the time, but when my part is over I feel just like a child,
+and I found the tears in my eyes; for the universal sympathy which has
+been expressed by everyone here for the lonely situation of the Nihills
+at Nengone made me feel almost a personal interest in them. He was a
+good linguist, and his loss will be severely felt by the Bishop.
+
+'August 14.--I marked out to-day some pretty places for the two wooden
+houses for the "Southern Cross" sailors at Kohimarama (Focus of Light),
+a quiet retired spot, with a beautiful sparkling beach, the schooner
+lying just outside the little bay a third of a mile off. Forty or fifty
+acres of flat pasturage, but only sixteen properly cleared, and then an
+amphitheatre of low hills, covered with New Zealand vegetation. I
+passed fine ferns to-day quite thirty feet in the stem, with great
+spreading-fronds, like branches of the Norfolk Island pine almost.
+
+'On the 17th of August came the welcome mail from home. "Oh what a
+delight it is to see your dear handwriting again!" is the cry in the
+reply. Father's I opened first, and read his letter, stopping often
+with tears of thankfulness in my eyes to thank God for enabling him not
+to be over-anxious about me, and for the blessing of knowing that he was
+as well as usual, and also because his work, so distasteful to him, was
+drawing to a close. Then I read Fan's, for I had a secret feeling that I
+should hear most from her about Alfington.'
+
+On the evening of that day he wrote to Fanny. In answer to the
+expression of the pain, of separation, he says:--
+
+
+'There is One above who knows what a trial it is to you. For myself,
+hard as it is, and almost too hard sometimes, yet I have relief in the
+variety and unceasing-multiplicity of my occupations. Not a moment of
+any day can I be said to be idle. Literally, I have not yet had a minute
+to untie my "Guardians;" but for you, with more time for meditating,
+with no change of scene, with every object that meets you at home and in
+your daily walks reminding you of me, it must indeed be such a trial as
+angels love to look upon when it is borne patiently, and with a perfect
+assurance that God is ordering all things for our good; and so let us
+struggle on to the end. All good powers are on our side, and we shall
+meet by the infinite mercy one day when there shall be no separation for
+ever.
+
+'I read on in your letter till I came to "Dear Coley, it is very hard to
+live without you,"--and I broke down and cried like a child. I was quite
+alone out in the fields on a glorious bright day, and it was the relief
+I had longed for. The few simple words told me the whole story, and I
+prayed with my whole heart that you might find strength in the hour of
+sadness. Do (as you say you do) let your natural feelings work; do not
+force yourself to appear calm, do not get excited if you can help it;
+but if your mind is oppressed with the thought of my absence, do not try
+to drive it away by talking about something else, or taking up a book,
+etc.; follow it out, see what it ends in, trace out the spiritual help
+and comfort which have already, it may be, resulted from it, the growth
+of dependence upon God above; meditate upon the real idea of separation,
+and think of Mamma and Uncle Frank.'
+
+
+'August 26, 1855, 10.40 P.M.: S. Stephen's, Auckland. 'My dear
+Arthur,--I am tired with my Sunday work, which is heavy in a colony,
+but I just begin my note on the anniversary of your dear, dear father's
+death. How vividly I remember all the circumstances of the last ten
+days--the peaceful, holy, happy close of a pure and well-spent life! I
+do so think of him, not a day passing without my mind dwelling on him; I
+love to find myself calling up the image of his dear face, and my heart
+is very full when I recollect all his love for me, and the many, many
+tokens of affection which he used to pour out from his warm, generous,
+loving heart. I can hardly tell you what an indescribable comfort it is
+to me now I think of these things, cut off from the society and sympathy
+of friends and the associations of home; the memory is very active in
+recalling such scenes, and I almost live in them again. I have very
+little time for indulging in fancies of any kind now; I begin to get
+an idea of what work is; but in my walks or at night (if I am awake),
+I think of dear Mamma and your dear father, and others who are gone
+before, with unmixed joy and comfort. You may be quite sure that I am
+not likely to forget anybody or anything connected with home. How I do
+watch and follow them through the hours of the day or night when we are
+both awake and at our work! I turn out at 6.45, and think of them at
+dinner or tea; at 10, I think of them at evening prayers; and by my
+own bed-time they are in morning church or busied about their different
+occupations, and I fancy I can almost see them.
+
+'So it goes on, and still I am calm and happy and very well; and I think
+I am in my place and hope to be made of some use some day. I like the
+natives in this school very much. The regular wild untamed fellow is
+not so pleasant at first--dirty, unclothed, always smoking, a mass of
+blankets, his wigwam sort of place filthy; his food ditto; but then he
+is probably intelligent, hospitable, and not insensible to the advantage
+of hearing about religion. It only wants a little practice to overcome
+one's English feelings about dress, civilisation, etc., and that will
+soon come.
+
+'But here the men are nice fellows, and the women and girls make capital
+servants; and so whereas many of the clergy and gentry do not keep a
+servant (wages being enormous), and ladies like your sisters and mine
+do the whole work of the housemaid, nursery-maid, and cook (which I have
+seen and chatted about with them), I, on the contrary, by Miss Maria (a
+wondrous curly-headed, black-eyed Maori damsel, arrayed in a "smock,"
+weiter nichts), have my room swept, bed made, tub--yes, even in New
+Zealand--daily filled and emptied, and indeed all the establishment will
+do anything for me. I did not care about it, as I did all for myself
+aboard ship; but still I take it with a very good grace.
+
+'In about six weeks I expect we shall sail all round the English
+settlement of New Zealand, and go to Chatham Island. This will occupy
+about three months, and the voyage will be about 4,000 miles. Then we
+start at once, upon our return, for four months in the Bush, among
+the native villages, on foot. Then, once again taking ship, away for
+Melanesia. So that, once off, I shall be roving about for nearly a year,
+and shall, if all goes well, begin the really missionary life.
+
+'It is late, and the post goes to morrow. Good-bye, my dear Arthur;
+write when you can.
+
+'Ever your affectionate
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+'August 27.--I have just been interrupted by Mrs. Kissling, who came
+to ask me to baptize privately the young son of poor Eota, the native
+deacon, and his wife Terena. Poor fellow! This child was born two or
+three days after he left this place for Taranaki with the Bishop, so
+he has not seen his son as yet. He has one boy about four, and has lost
+three or four others; and now this little one, about three weeks old,
+seems to be dying. I was almost glad that the first time I baptized a
+native child, using the native language, should be on Fan's birthday.
+It was striking to see the unaffected sympathy of the natives here. The
+poor mother came with the child in her arms to the large room. A table
+with a white cloth in the centre, and nearly the whole establishment
+assembled. I doubt if you would have seen in England grown-up men and
+women more thoroughly in earnest. It was the most comforting private
+baptism I ever witnessed.
+
+'Henri has been for an hour or more this morning asking me questions
+which you would seldom hear from farmers or tradesmen at home, showing a
+real acquaintance with the Bible, and such a desire, hunger and thirst,
+for knowledge. What was the manna in the wilderness? he began. He
+thought it was food that angels actually lived upon, and quoted the
+verse in the Psalm readily, "So man did eat angel's food." So I took
+him into the whole question of the spiritual body; the various passages,
+"meats for the belly," etc., our Lord's answer to the Sadducees, and so
+on to 1 Cor. xv. Very interesting to watch the earnestness of the man
+and his real pleasure in assenting to the general conclusion expressed
+in 1 John iii. 2 concerning our ignorance of what we shall be, not
+implying want of power on God's part to explain, but His divine will in
+not withdrawing the veil wholly from so great a mystery. "E marama ana,"
+(I see it clearly now): "He mea ngaro!" (a mystery). His mind had wholly
+passed from the carnal material view of life in heaven, and the idea
+of food for the support of the spiritual body, and the capacity for
+receiving the higher truths (as it were) of Christianity showed itself
+more clearly in the young New Zealander than you would find perhaps
+in the whole extent of a country parish. I think that when I know
+the language well enough to catechize freely, it will be far more
+interesting, and I shall have a far more intelligent set of catechumens,
+than in England. They seem especially fond of it, ask questions
+constantly, and will get to the bottom of the thing, and when the
+catechist is up to the mark and quick and wily in both question and
+illustration, they get so eager and animated, all answering together,
+quoting texts, etc. I think that their knowledge of the Bible is in some
+sense attributable to its being almost the only book printed that they
+care much about.'
+
+The 11th of September produced another long letter full of home feeling,
+drawn forth in response to his sister. Here are some extracts:--
+
+
+'Sometimes I cannot help wishing that I could say all this, but not
+often. There is One who understands, and in really great trials even, it
+is well to lean only on Him. But I must write freely. You will not think
+me moody and downhearted, because I show you that I do miss you,
+and often feel lonely and shut up in myself. This is exactly what I
+experience, and I think if I was ill, as you often are, I should break
+down under it; but God is very merciful to me in keeping me in very good
+health, so that I am always actively engaged every day, and when night
+comes I am weary in body, and sleep sound almost always, so that the
+time passes very rapidly indeed, and I am living in a kind of dream,
+hardly realizing the fact of my being at half the world's distance from
+you, but borne on from day to day, I scarcely know how. Indeed, when
+I do look back upon the past six months, I have abundant cause to be
+thankful. I never perhaps shall know fully how it is, but somehow, as a
+matter of fact, I am on the whole cheerful, and always busy and calm in
+mind. I don't have tumultuous bursts of feeling and overwhelming floods
+of recollection that sweep right away all composure. Your first letters
+upset me more than once as I re-read them, but I think of you all
+habitually with real joy and peace of mind. And I am really happy, not
+in the sense that happiness presents itself always, or exactly in the
+way that I used to feel it when with you all, or as I should feel it if
+I were walking up to the lodge with my whole heart swelling within me.
+It is much more quiet and subdued, and does not perhaps come and go
+quite as much; but yet in the midst of all, I half doubt sometimes
+whether everything about and within me is real. I just move on like a
+man in a dream, but this again does not make me idle. I don't suppose I
+ever worked harder, on the whole, than I do now, and I have much anxious
+work at the Hospital. Such cases, Fan! Only two hours ago, I left a
+poor sailor, by whose side I had been kneeling near three-quarters of an
+hour, holding his sinking head and moistening his mouth with wine, the
+dews of death on his forehead, and his poor emaciated frame heaving like
+one great pulse at each breath. For four days that he has been there
+(brought in a dying state from the Merchantman) I have been with him,
+and yesterday I administered to him the Holy Communion. He had spoken
+earnestly of his real desire to testify the sincerity of his repentance
+and faith and love. I have been there daily for nine days, but I cannot
+always manage it, as it is nearly two miles off. The responsibility is
+great of dealing with such cases, but I trust that God will pardon
+all my sad mistakes. I cannot withhold the Bread of Life when I see
+indications of real sorrow for sin, and the simple readiness to obey the
+command of Christ, even though there is great ignorance and but little
+time to train a soul for heaven. I cannot, as you may suppose, prepare
+for my Sunday work as I ought to do, from want of time. Last Sunday
+I had three whole services, besides reading the Communion Service
+and preaching at 11 A.M., and reading Prayers at 5 P.M. I should have
+preached five times but that I left my sermon at Mr. T.'s, thinking to
+go back for it.... Mrs. K. gave me an old "Woolmer" the other day, which
+gladdened my eyes. Little bits of comfort come in, you see, in these
+ways. Nothing can be kinder than the people here, I mean in Auckland and
+its neighbourhood--real, simple, hearty kindness. Perhaps the work at
+Kohimarama is most irksome to me. It is no joke to keep sailors in good
+humour ashore, and I fear that our presence on board was much needed
+during the passage out.'
+
+With reference to his sister's reading, he continues:--'Take care of
+Maurice, Fan; I do not think it too much to say that he is simply and
+plainly "unsound" on the doctrine of the Atonement; I don't charge him
+with heresy from his stand-point, but remember that you have not been
+brought into contact with Quakers, Socinians, &c., and that he may
+conceive of a way of reconciling metaphysically difficulties which a
+far inferior but less inquisitive and vorsehender geist pronounces
+for itself simply contrary to the word of God. There are two Greek
+prepositions which contain the gist of the whole matter, huper, in
+behalf of, and anti, instead of, in the place of. Maurice's doctrine
+goes far to do away with the truth of the last, as applied to the
+Sacrifice of Christ. I have an exceedingly high regard for him, and
+respect for his goodness no less than his ability. His position
+has exposed him to very great difficulties, and therefore, if he is
+decidedly wrong, it is not for us to judge him. Read his "Kingdom of
+Christ," and his early books; but he is on very slippery and dangerous
+ground now. It is indeed a great and noble task to propose to oneself,
+viz.--to teach that God is our Father, and to expose the false and most
+unhappy idea that has at times prevailed of representing God as actuated
+by strong indignation, resentment, &c., against the human race, so that
+men turned from Him as from some fearful avenging power. This is the
+worst form of Anthropomorphism, but this is not the Scriptural idea of a
+just God. We cannot, perhaps, conceive of absolute justice; certainly we
+are no judges of God's own revealed scheme of reconciling Justice with
+Law, and so I call Maurice's, to a certain extent, human teaching, more
+philosophy than religion, more metaphysics than revelation.'
+
+On the 22nd the Ordination took place, and the second Maori deacon was
+ordained, Levi (or according to Maori pronunciation, Eivata) Ahea, a man
+of about thirty-eight, whose character had long been tested. Immediately
+after, the Bishop, Mrs. Selwyn, Mr. Patteson, and the new deacon, set
+forth on a coasting expedition in the new vessel.
+
+The language of the journal becomes nautical, and strong in praise of
+the conduct of the little ship, which took the party first to Nelson,
+where Sunday, the 7th of October, was spent, the Bishop going ashore
+while Patteson held a service for the sailors on board, first going
+round to the vessels anchored in the harbour to invite the men's
+attendance, but without much success. On the 10th he wrote:--
+
+'Already I feel to a certain extent naturalized. I do not think I should
+despair of qualifying myself in three months for the charge of a native
+parish. I don't mean that I know the niceties of the language so as to
+speak it always correctly, but I should be able to communicate with
+them on ordinary subjects, and to preach and catechize. But, after all,
+Melanesia is becoming more and more a substantial reality.'
+
+The history of Bishop Selwyn's visitation hardly belongs to Patteson's
+life; but after one Sunday morning's ministration at Queen Charlotte's
+Sound, Patteson was thus entreated: 'At 2.30 I was on shore again, and
+soon surrounded by some thirty or forty natives, with whom I talked a
+long while about the prospect of a clergyman being settled among them.
+"We want you! You speak so plainly, we can understand you!"
+
+'"No, I am going to the islands, to the blacks there." (N.B. The Maoris
+speak of the Blacks with a little touch of contempt.)
+
+'"You are wanted here! Never mind the blacks!"
+
+'"Ought not the Gospel to be preached to them, too? They have no
+teacher. Is it not right they should be taught as you have been?"
+
+'"Ke rae tika ana. Yes, yes, that is right!"'
+
+The settlements, then new, of Canterbury and Dunedin were visited, and
+then, the Bishop remaining on shore on other work, the 'Southern Cross'
+started for the Chatham Isles, gaining high commendation for all the
+good qualities of which a schooner could be supposed capable.
+
+'It was pretty to see the little, vessel running away from the great
+broad-backed rollers which rolled over the shore far above. Every now
+and then she shipped a sea, and once her deck was quite full of water,
+up to the gunwale nearly.' And as for her future skipper, he says, 'I
+had plenty of work at navigation. It really is very puzzling at first;
+so much to remember--currents, compass, variation, sun's declination,
+equation of time, lee way, &c. But I think I have done my work pretty
+well up to now, and of course it is a great pleasure as well as a
+considerable advantage to be able to give out the true and magnetic
+course of the ship, and to be able from day to day to give out her
+position.'
+
+The Chatham Islands are dependencies of New Zealand, inhabited by
+Maoris, and as it has fallen to the lot of few to visit them, here is
+this extract concerning them:--
+
+'I buried a man there, a retired sea captain who had spent some twenty
+years of his life in China, and his widow was a Chinese woman, a little
+dot of a thing, rather nice-looking. She spoke a little English and
+more Maori. We walked through the Pa to the burial-ground, some twenty
+natives all dressed in black, i.e. something black about them, and many
+in a good suit, attending the funeral. Levi had spent the day before
+(Sunday) with them and had told them about me. As I approached the
+Pa before the funeral they all raised the native cry of welcome, the
+"Tangi." I advanced, speaking to them collectively, and then went
+through the ceremony of shaking hands with each one in order as they
+stood in a row, saying something, if I could think of it, to each. After
+the funeral they all (according to native custom) sat down in the open
+air, round a large cloth on the ground, on which were spread tins of
+potatoes, fish, pork, &c. The leader came to me and said, "This is the
+Maori fashion. Come, my friend, and sit with us," and deposited three
+bottles of beer at my feet, while provisions enough for Dan Lambert were
+stored around--a sort of Homeric way of honouring me, and perhaps they
+made a Benjamin of me. However, I had already eaten a mouldy biscuit and
+had a glass of beer at the house of the Chinawoman, so I only said grace
+for them, and after talking a little while, I shook hands all round and
+went off. Their hands, being used as knives and forks, were not a little
+greasy; but of course one does not think of that.
+
+As I passed the end of the Pa I heard a cry, and saw a very old man with
+a perfectly white beard, too old to come to the feast, who had crawled
+out of his hut to see me. He had nothing on but a blanket, and I was
+sorry I had not known of his being there, that I might have gone to the
+old gentleman, so we talked and shook hands, and I set off for my eight
+miles walk back. The whole island is one vast peat field, in many places
+below in a state of ignition; then the earth crumbles away below and
+pits are formed, rank with vegetation, splendid soil for potatoes.'
+
+Christmas-day was spent at Wellington, in services on shore, the
+Christmas dinner eaten on board, but the evening spent at the Governor's
+in blind man's buff and other games with the children, then evening
+prayers on board for the crew. The stay at Wellington was altogether
+enjoyable, and it ended by Mr. Patteson taking the command of the
+vessel, and returning with Mrs. Selwyn to Auckland, while the Bishop
+pursued his journey by land, no small proof of the confidence inspired
+by so recent a mariner. He was sorry to lose the sight of the further
+visitation, and in his New Year's letter of 1856, written soon after
+receiving a budget from home, there is one little touch of home
+sickness:--
+
+'Really it is a fine land, with wonderful facilities for large
+manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural interests; worth visiting,
+too, merely for the scenery, but somehow enjoying scenery depends a
+good deal upon having one's own friends to enjoy it with. One thing I
+do enjoy thoroughly, and that is the splendid sunsets. I don't remember
+anywhere to have seen such fine soft golden sunsets; and they are
+not wanting in variety, for occasionally he goes to bed among red and
+crimson and purple clouds, with wild scuds flying above, which suggest
+to me the propriety of turning up my bed and looking out for a good roll
+in the night. But there is certainly a peculiar transparency in the air
+which makes the distances look distant indeed.'
+
+This trip, so cheerfully described, was rather a pull on the frame which
+had yet to become seasoned to the heat of the southern midsummer, and
+there was a languor about the outward man, the last remnant of the
+original sluggishness, which, if ever a doubt arose of the fitness
+of the instrument for the work, awoke it during the voyage. There was
+depression likewise, in part, no doubt, from the spending the first
+Christmas away from home and friends, and partly from a secret
+disappointment at the arrangement which made him for a time
+acting-master, not to say steward, of the ship, so that he had to live
+on board of her, and make himself useful on Sundays, according to need,
+in the churches on shore, a desultory life very trying to him, but
+which he bore with his usual quiet determination to do obediently and
+faithfully the duty laid on him, without picking or choosing.
+
+The journal-letters continue on the 17th of January: 'Wrote a Maori
+sermon this morning, not feeling able yet to preach extempore in the
+native language, though it is much better to do so as soon as I can. Now
+I must stick to the vessel again. I have been quite frisky, really, for
+two days past, and have actually slept on shore, the fourth time since
+September 24. The sensation is exceedingly pleasant of firm ground
+underneath and clean water, a basin, &c., to wash in. And yet I almost
+like coming back to my ship home: it is really very comfortable, and you
+know I always liked being a good deal alone. I am reading, for lightish
+reading, the first part of the third volume of Neander's Church History,
+which is all about Missions. It is the fifth volume in the way his works
+are usually bound up, and came out in this box the other day. It is very
+interesting, especially to me now, and it is curious to observe how
+much the great men insisted upon the necessity of attending to the more
+secular part of missionary work,--agriculture, fishing, and other means
+of humanizing the social condition of the heathen among whom they lived.
+Columbanus and Boniface, and his pupil Gregory, and others (all the
+German Missionaries, almost) just went on the plan the Bishop wants to
+work out here.
+
+'2. P.M. I am off to Otaki to see my native parishioners. What different
+work from calling in at S. W.'s and other good Alfingtonians! The walk
+will be pleasant, especially as I have been grinding away at navigation
+all the morning. My stupid head gets puzzled at that kind of work; and
+yet it is very good for me, just because it requires accuracy.
+
+'29th. Just as I am beginning to get some hold of the Maori, so as to
+make real use of it, the Island languages are beginning to come into
+work. I have a curious collection here now--some given by the Judge, who
+is a great philologist, others belonging to the Bishop--a MS. grammar
+here, one chapter of St. Mark in another language, four Gospels in
+a third, a few chapters of Kings with the Lord's Prayer in a fourth,
+besides Marsden's Malay grammar and lexicon. Mrs. Nihill has given me
+some few sheets of the Nengone language, and also lent me her husband's
+MS. grammar. One letter, written (--);, but pronounced a sort of rg in the
+throat, yet not like an ordinary guttural, she declares took two
+years to learn. You may fancy I have enough to do, and then all my
+housekeeping affairs take up a deal of time, for I not only have to
+order things, but to weigh them out, help to cut out and weigh the meat,
+&c., and am quite learned in the mysteries of the store-room, which to
+be sure is a curious place on board ship. I hope you are well suited
+with a housekeeper: if I were at home I could fearlessly advertise
+for such a situation. I have passed through the preliminary steps of
+housemaid and scullerymaid, and now, having taken to serving out stores,
+am quite qualified for the post, especially after my last performance of
+making bread, and even a cake.'
+
+This seems to be the right place for the description which the wife of
+Chief Justice Martin gives of Mr. Patteson at this period. The first
+meeting, she says, 'was the beginning of an intimate friendship, which
+has been one of the great blessings of our lives. After a short stay
+at St. John's College, he came into residence at St. Stephen's native
+institution, of which Archdeacon Kissling was then the Principal. He
+learned rapidly to read and speak Maori, and won all hearts there by his
+gentle unassuming manners. My husband was at that time a great invalid,
+and as our dear friend was living within five minutes' walk of our house
+he came in whenever he had a spare half-hour. He used to bring Archer
+Butler's sermons to read with us, and I well remember the pleasant
+talks that ensued. The two minds were drawn together by common tasks and
+habits of thought. Both had great facility in acquiring languages, and
+interest in all questions of philology. Both were also readers of German
+writers on Church history and of critical interpretation of the New
+Testament, and I think it was a help to the younger man to be able to
+discuss these and kindred subjects with an older and more trained mind.
+I had heard much of our dear friend before he arrived, and I remember
+feeling a little disappointed at first, though much drawn to him by his
+gentle affectionate thoughtfulness and goodness. He said little about
+his future work. He had come obedient to the call and was quietly
+waiting to do whatever should be set him to do. As my husband a few
+months later told Sir John Patteson, there was no sudden flame of
+enthusiasm which would die down, but a steady fire which would go on
+burning. To me he talked much of his home. He used to walk beside my
+pony, and tell me about "his dear father"--how lovingly his voice used
+to linger over those words!--of the struggle it had been to leave him,
+of the dreariness of the day of embarkation. Years after he could hardly
+bear to recall it to mind. I remember his bright look the first day it
+became certain that we must visit England. "Why, then you will see my
+dear father, and tell him all about me!" I knew all his people quite
+well before, and when I went to visit his little parish of Alfington I
+seemed to recognise each cottage and its humble inmates, so faithfully
+had he described his old people and haunts.
+
+'One thing that specially impressed me was his reverent appreciation of
+the good he had gained from older friends. He certainly had not imbibed
+any of the indifference to the opinion of elders ascribed to the youth
+of this generation. "Dear old tutor," his uncles, Sir John Coleridge and
+Dr. Coleridge, to whom he looked up with almost filial reverence, the
+beloved Uncle Frank, whose holy life and death he dwelt on with a sort
+of awe, how gratefully and humbly he spoke of the help he had got
+from them! He was full of enthusiasm about music, painting, and art in
+general. He would flow on to willing listeners of Mendelssohn and other
+great composers, and when he found that we hoped to visit Italy he was
+just as eager about pictures. He owned that both at Dresden and at Rome
+he had weakened his eyes by constant study of his favourite masters.
+
+'Altogether he gave me the impression of having had a very happy youth
+and having enjoyed it thoroughly. His Eton and Oxford life, the society
+of men of thought at his father's house, home interests, foreign travel,
+art, happy days with his brother Jem in the Tyrol, were all entertained
+as pleasant memories, and yet he was able without conscious effort or
+struggle to put them all aside for his work's sake.
+
+'The Bishop kindly gave us a passage to Wellington in the "Southern
+Cross," and Mr. Patteson went with us in charge of the vessel. We were
+five days at sea. I used to lie on the deck, and watch with amused
+interest the struggle going on between his student habits and his
+practical duties, which were peculiarly distasteful to him. He was
+never quite well at sea, but was headachy and uncomfortable. He was
+scrupulously neat and clean, and the dirt and stiffness displeased
+him--how much we never knew, till he spoke out one day when very ill
+at our house in 1870. He was not apt at teaching, but he used
+conscientiously to hear a young lad spell and read daily. He would come
+up with some book of thought in his hand, and seemed buried in it, till
+he suddenly would remember he ought to be directing or overlooking in
+some way. This would happen half a dozen times in an afternoon.
+
+'He shrank at this time from finding fault. It was a positive distress
+to him. At Wellington we parted. He seemed a little depressed, I
+remember, as to what use he would be. I said: "Why, you will be the son
+Timothy! This was after some years of partially failing health, when
+these feelings had become habitual. I do not think they existed in
+his earlier voyages so long waited for." His face brightened up at the
+thought. "Yes, if I can release the Bishop of some of his anxieties,
+that will be enough."'
+
+No doubt he was depressed at parting with the Chief Justice and Mrs.
+Martin, who were thoroughly home-like friends, and whose return was then
+uncertain. His success as a sea-captain however encouraged him, and he
+wrote as follows on his return:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama: March 6, 1856.
+
+"Southern Cross."
+
+'My dear Miss Neill,--How kind of you to write to me, and such a nice
+long letter. It cost you a great effort, I am sure, and much pain, I
+fear; but I know it was a comfort to you that it was written, and
+indeed it was a great happiness to me to read it. Oh, these letters! The
+intense enjoyment of hearing about you all at home, I know no pleasure
+like it now. Fond as I always was of reading letters and papers, the
+real happiness of a mail from England now is quite beyond the conception
+of any but a wanderer in foreign parts. Our mail went out yesterday at 2
+P.M., rather unluckily for me, as I only returned from a very rapid and
+prosperous voyage to Wellington yesterday morning.
+
+'I took the Chief Justice and Mrs. Martin (such dear, excellent people)
+to Wellington to meet the "Seringa-patam," homeward bound from that
+port; and I brought back from Wellington the Governor's sick wife and
+suite. Only absent a fortnight for a voyage of 1,100 miles, including
+three days' stay at Wellington. The coast of New Zealand is so
+uncertain, and the corners so many in coasting from Auckland to
+Wellington, that the usual passage occupies seven or eight days; and
+when the "Southern Cross" appeared yesterday morning in harbour, I was
+told by several of the officers and other residents that they feared we
+had put back from foul weather, or because the Judge could not bear the
+motion of the vessel. They scarcely thought we could actually have been
+to Wellington and returned.
+
+'Most thankful am I for such a fine passage, for I had two sets of
+invalids, the Judge being only now (as we trust) recovering from
+a severe illness, and Mrs. Martin very weakly; and I felt the
+responsibility of having the charge of them very much. This was my
+second trip as "Commodore," the Bishop still being on his land journey;
+but we expect him in Auckland at the end of the month. As you may
+suppose, I am getting on with my navigation, take sights, of course,
+and work out errors of watches, place of ship, &c.; it is pretty and
+interesting work, and though you know well enough that I have no turn
+for mathematics, yet this kind of thing is rendered so easy nowadays
+by the tables that are constructed for nautical purposes, that I do not
+think I should feel afraid of navigating a ship at all. The "seamanship"
+is another thing, and that the master of the ship is responsible for....
+You ask me, dear Miss Neill, where I am settled. Why, settled, I suppose
+I am never to be: I am a missionary, you know, not a "stationary." But,
+however, my home is the "Southern Cross," where I live always in harbour
+as well as at sea, highly compassionated by all my good friends here,
+from the Governor downwards, and highly contented myself with the sole
+possession of a cosy little cabin nicely furnished with table, lots of
+books, and my dear father's photograph, which is an invaluable treasure
+and comfort to me. In harbour I live in the cabin. It is hung round with
+barometers (aneroids), sympie-someters, fixed chest for chronometers,
+charts, &c. Of course, wherever the "Southern Cross" goes I go too, and
+I am a most complete skipper. I feel as natural with my quadrant in my
+hand as of old with a cricket bat. Then I do rather have good salt-water
+baths, and see glorious sunsets and sunrises, and star-light nights, and
+the great many-voiced ocean, the winds and waves chiming all night with
+a solemn sound, lapping against my ear as I lie in my canvas bed, six
+feet by two and a half, and fall sound asleep and dream of home. Oh!
+there is much that is really enjoyable in this kind of life; and if the
+cares of the vessel, management of men, &c., do harass me sometimes, it
+is very good for me; security from such troubles having been anxiously
+and selfishly pursued by me at home.
+
+'If it please God to give success to our mission work, I may some day be
+"settled" (if I live) on some one of the countless islands of the South
+Pacific, looking after a kind of Protestant Propaganda College for the
+education of teachers and missionaries from among the islanders, but
+this is all uncertain.
+
+'Now good-bye, my dear Miss Neill. I never doubt that in all your
+sufferings God does administer abundant sources of consolation to you.
+Even my life, so painless and easy, is teaching me that we judge of
+these things by a relative standard only, and I can conceive of one duly
+trained and prepared for heaven that many most blessed anticipations of
+future rest may be vouchsafed in the midst of extreme bodily pain. It is
+in fact a kind of martyrdom, and truly so when borne patiently for the
+love of Christ.
+
+'Always, my dear Miss Neill,
+
+'Your very affectionate,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The Sundays were days of little rest. Clergy were too scarce for one
+with no fixed cure not to be made available to the utmost, and the
+undeveloped state of the buildings and of all appliances of devotion
+fell heavily and coldly on one trained to beauty, both of architecture
+and music, though perhaps the variety of employment was the chief trial.
+His Good Friday and Easter Sunday's journal show the sort of work that
+came on him:--
+
+'Taurarua, Good Friday.--I am tired, for walking about in a hot sun,
+with a Melanesian kit, as we call them, slung round the neck, with
+clothes and books, is really fatiguing. Yesterday and to-day are just
+samples of colonial work. Thursday, 7.30, prayers in chapel; 10.30,
+Communion service in chapel. Walked two miles to see a parishioner of
+the Archdeacon's. 1.30, dinner; 2.30, walked to Taurarua, five and a
+half miles, in a burning sun; walked on to Mr. T.'s and back again,
+three miles and a half more. 7, tea, wrote a sermon and went to bed.
+To-day, service and sermon, for 600 soldiers at 9; Communion service
+and preached at 11. Back to Taurarua after three miles' walk, on to
+the College, and read prayers at 7. Not much work, it is true, but
+disjointed, and therefore more fatiguing. I do sometimes long almost for
+the rest of English life, the quiet evening after the busy day; but I
+must look on to a peaceful rest by and by; meanwhile work away, and to
+be sure I have a grand example in the Bishop.
+
+'Easter Day.--I was at Tamaki chapel, a cold, bare, barn-like building
+of scoria, all this country being of volcanic origin. Fifty persons
+present perhaps: two or three faint female voices, two or three rough
+most discordant male voices, all the attempt at singing. No instrument
+of any kind. The burthen of trying to raise the tone of the whole
+service to a really rejoicing thankful character wholly, I suppose,
+upon myself, and I so unequal to it. But the happy blessed services
+themselves, they gradually absorbed the mind, and withdrew it from all
+relative and comparative ideas of externals of worship. What a training
+it is here for the appreciation of the wondrous beauty of our Church
+services, calming all feeling of excitement and irreverent passionate
+zeal, and enabling one to give full scope to the joy and glory of
+one's heart, without, I hope, forgetting to rejoice with reverence and
+moderation. Here, at Tamaki, you have nothing but the help the services
+themselves give, and I suppose that is very good for one in reality,
+though at the time it makes one feel as if something was wanting in the
+hearty sympathy and support of earnest fellow-worshippers. The College
+chapel nicely decorated.
+
+'1st Sunday after Easter: Taurarua.--I walked in from the College
+yesterday afternoon, took the soldiers' service at 9.15 A.M., Communion
+service and sermon at St. Matthew's at 11, Hospital at 2.30. Preached at
+St. Paul's at 6 P.M., reminding me of my Sunday's work when I was
+living at St. Stephen's. It is a comfort to have a Sunday in Auckland
+occasionally--more like a Sunday, with a real church, and people
+responding and singing.'
+
+So passed that first year, which many an intending missionary before
+Patteson has found a crucial test which he has not taken into his
+calculations. The soreness of the wrench from home is still fresh,
+and there is no settled or regular work to occupy the mind, while the
+hardships are exactly of the kind that have not been anticipated, and
+are most harassing, though unsatisfying to the imagination, and all this
+when the health is adapting itself to a new climate, and the spirits
+are least in time, so that the temper is in the most likely condition
+to feel and resent any apparent slight or unexpected employment. No one
+knows how many high hopes have sunk, how many intended workers have been
+turned aside, by this ordeal of the first year.
+
+Patteson, however, was accepting whatever was distasteful as wholesome
+training in the endurance of hardships, and soon felt the benefit he
+reaped from it. The fastidiousness of his nature was being conquered,
+his reluctance to rebuke forced out of being a hindrance, and no doubt
+the long-sought grace of humility was rendered far more attainable by
+the obedient fulfilment of these lowly tasks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE MELANESIAN ISLES. 1856-1857.
+
+
+
+And now, in his twenty-ninth year, after all the unconscious preparation
+of his education, and the conscious preparation of two years, Coleridge
+Patteson began the definite work of his life. Bishop Selwyn was to
+sail with him in the "Southern Cross," making the voyage that had been
+intermitted during the expedition to England, introducing him to the
+Islands, and testing his adaptation to the work there. The first point
+was, however, to be Sydney, with the hope of obtaining leave to use
+Norfolk Island as the headquarters of the Mission. They meant to touch
+there, weather permitting, on their way northward.
+
+Ascension Day was always Bishop Selwyn's favourite time for starting,
+so that the charge might be ringing freshly in his ears and those of his
+companions, 'Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
+the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'
+
+There was morning service and Holy Communion at the little College
+chapel on the 1st of May, Ascension Day of 1856; then the party went on
+board, but their first start was only to Coromandel Bay, in order
+that the Bishop might arrange a dispute with the Maoris, and they then
+returned to Auckland to take up Mrs. Selwyn. The crew were five in
+number, and Mr. Leonard Harper, son of the future Bishop of Lyttelton,
+likewise accompanied them, and relieved Patteson of his onerous duties
+as steward.
+
+The first adventure was such a storm as the little vessel had never yet
+encountered. The journal-letter thus describes it:--'On Saturday
+morning it began to blow from the north-east, and for the first time
+I experienced a circular gale or hurricane. Mrs. Somerville, I think,
+somewhere describes the nature of them in her "Physical Geography."
+The wind veered and hauled about a point or two, but blew from the
+north-east with great force, till about seven P.M. we could do no more
+with it and had to lie to. Ask old D. what that means, if you can't
+understand my description of it. The principle of it is to set two small
+sails, one fore and one aft, lash the rudder (wheel) amidships, make all
+snug, put on hatches, batten everything down, and trust to ride out the
+storm. As the vessel falls away from the wind by the action of one sail,
+it is brought up to it again by the other-sail. Thus her head is always
+kept to the wind, and she meets the seas, which if they caught her on
+the beam or the quarter would very likely send her down at once. About
+midnight on Saturday the wind suddenly chopped round to W.S.W., so that
+we were near the focus of the gale; it blew harder and harder till we
+took down the one sail forward, as the ropes and spars were enough for
+the wind to act upon. From 1 P.M. to 7 P.M. on Sunday it blew furiously.
+The whole sea was one drift of foam, and the surface of the water beaten
+down almost flat by the excessive violence of the wind, which cut off
+the head of every wave as it strove to raise itself, and carried it
+in clouds of spray and great masses of water, driving and hurling it
+against any obstacle, such as our little vessel, with inconceivable
+fury. As I stood on deck, gasping for breath, my eyes literally unable
+to keep themselves open, and only by glimpses getting a view of this
+most grand and terrible sight, it seemed as if a furious snow-storm
+was raging over a swelling, heaving, dark mass of waters. When anything
+could be seen beyond the first or second line of waves, the sky and sea
+appeared to meet in one cataract of rain and spray. A few birds were
+driving about like spirits of the storm. It was, as Shakspeare calls it,
+a regular hurly. Add to this the straining of the masts, the creaking of
+the planks, the shrill whistle of the wind in the ropes and cordage, the
+occasional crash of a heavy sea as it struck us with a sharp sound, and
+the rush of water over the decks, down the companion and hatches, that
+followed, and you have a notion of a gale of wind. And yet this was far
+from all the wind and sea can do, and we were never in any danger, I
+believe. That is, an unlucky sea at such a time may be fatal, and if
+anything about the schooner had been unsound it might have been awkward.
+At prayers, the Bishop read the prayer to be used in a storm, but I
+never myself entertained the idea of our being really in peril, nor did
+I suffer anything like the anxiety that I did when we were rounding Cape
+Palliser on our way to Wellington with the Judge. Here we had sea room
+and no fear of driving upon rocks. It is blowing a good deal now, as
+you see by my writing. I have a small ink-bottle of glass, made like
+an eel-pot (such as tax-gatherers use), tied to my buttonhole, and with
+this I can scribble away in almost any sea. Dear me! you could not sit
+still a minute, even now. I was qualmish on Saturday, and for a minute
+sick, but pretty comfortable on Sunday, though wearied by the constant
+pitching and rolling.'
+
+The day after this, namely May 15, the Bishop and Mr. Patteson rowed
+into Cascade Bay, Norfolk Island, amid a heavy surf, but they saw no
+cascade, as there had been no rain for a long time; and there were only
+rocks surmounted by pine trees, no living creature, no landing-place, as
+they coasted along. At last they saw a smooth-looking rock with an iron
+staple, and concluding that it was the way of approach, they watched
+their time, and through the surf which broke over it they leapt on it,
+and dashed ashore before the returning swell caught them. They walked
+inland, and met a man, one of twelve convicts who had been left behind
+to receive the Pitcairners, who had not yet arrived, but were on their
+way from their original island in H.M.S. 'Juno.' The vegetation and
+climate struck them as beautiful; there were oranges, lemons, sweet
+potatoes, and common potatoes, and English vegetables, and the Norfolk
+Island pine growing to a great height: 'but,' writes Coley, 'it is
+coarser in the leaf and less symmetrical in shape than I had expected.
+I thought to have seen the tree of Veitch's nursery garden on a scale
+three or four times as large, and so I might have done in any of the
+gardens; but as they grow wild in the forest, they are not so very
+different from the more common fir tribe.'
+
+They saw one house, but had little time, and getting down to the smooth
+rock, stood there, barefooted, till the boat could back in between the
+rollers; the Bishop leapt in at the first, and the boat made off at
+once, and till it could return, Patteson had to cling to the clamps to
+hinder himself from being washed off, as six or seven waves broke over
+him before the boat could come near enough for another spring. These
+difficulties in landing were one of the recommendations of the island,
+by isolating the future inhabitants from the demoralising visits of
+chance vessels.
+
+Then followed some days of great enjoyment of the calm warmth of the
+semi-tropical winter, chiefly varied by catching a young shark, and
+contrasting him with his attendant pilot, as the ugliest and
+prettiest of fish. Patteson used the calm to write (May 30) one of his
+introspective letters, owning that he felt physical discomfort, and
+found it hard to banish 'recollections of clean water, dry clothes,
+and drink not tasting like medicine; but that he most of all missed the
+perfect unconstrained ease of home conversation.'
+
+Then he continues:--
+
+'But now, don't you see, Fan, how good this is for me? If you think
+impartially of me, as you recollect me, you will see how soft and
+indolent I was, how easily I fell into self-indulgent habits, how little
+I cared to exert myself and try and exercise the influence, etc., a
+clergyman may be supposed to possess; there was nothing about me to
+indicate energy, to fit me for working out a scheme and stamping my own
+mind upon others who came in contact with me. Perhaps there is no one
+person who can trace any sensible influence to anything I ever did or
+said.
+
+'Now I don't of course venture to say that this is otherwise now; but I
+think that this is the best training to make it so. I think that I ought
+to be gaining strength of purpose, resolution, energy of character,
+under these circumstances. And observe, what should I be without some
+such change pressing on me? Just imagine me, such a one as I was at
+Alfington, alone on an island with twenty-five Melanesian boys, from
+half as many different islands, to be trained, clothed, brought into
+orderly habits, &c., the report of our proceedings made in some sort
+the test of the working of the Mission; and all this to be arranged,
+ordered, and worked out by me, who found H. B---- and W. P---- a care
+too great for me.
+
+'Don't you see that I must become very different from what I was--more of
+a man; to say nothing of the higher and religious side of this question?
+While then there is much that my carnal self-indulgent nature does not
+at all like, and while it is always trying to rebel, my better sense and
+the true voice within tells me that, independently of this particular
+work requiring such a discipline, the discipline itself is good for the
+formation of my own character.... Oh! the month of June at Feniton! the
+rhododendrons, azaleas, and kalmias, the burst of flowers and trees, the
+song of thrush and blackbird (both unknown to New Zealand). The green
+meadows and cawing rooks, and church towers and Sunday bells, and the
+bright sparkling river and leaping trout: and the hedges with primrose
+and violet (I should like to see a hedge again); and I am afraid I must
+add the green peas and beans, and various other garden productions,
+which would make salt pork more palatable! Yes, I should like to see
+it all again; but it is of the earth after all, and I have the
+"many-twinkling smile of Ocean," though there is no soft woodland dell
+to make it more beautiful by its contrast. Well, I have had a happy hour
+scribbling away, and now to work.'
+
+'I am less distressed now,' he adds, a few days later, in the same
+strain, 'at the absence of all that is customary in England on these
+occasions (great festivals), though I dare not say how far the loss of
+all these privileges produces a bad effect upon my heart and character.
+One often loses the spirit when the form is withdrawn, and I still
+sorely long for the worship of God in the beauty of holiness, and my
+mind reverts to Ottery Church, and college chapels and vast glorious
+cathedrals.'
+
+On the 10th of June the 'Southern Cross' was in Sydney harbour, and
+remained there a fortnight, Bishop Barker gladly welcoming the new
+arrivals, though in general Bishop Selwyn and his Chaplain announced
+themselves as like the man and woman in the weather-glass, only
+coming-out by turns, since one or other had to be in charge of the ship;
+but later an arrangement was made which set them more at liberty.
+And the churches at Sydney were a great delight to Patteson; the
+architecture, music, and all the arrangements being like those among
+which he had been trained.
+
+'A Sunday worth a dozen gales of wind!' he exclaims, 'but you can hardly
+judge of the effect produced by all the good substantial concomitants
+of Divine worship upon one who for fourteen months has scarcely seen
+anything but a small wooden church, with almost all the warmth of
+devotion resting on himself. I feel roused to the core. ...I felt the
+blessing of worshipping the Lord with a full heart in the beauty of
+holiness. A very good organ well played, and my joy was great when we
+sang the long 78th Psalm to an old chant of itself almost enough to
+upset me, the congregation singing in parts with heart and voice.'
+
+His exhilaration showed itself in a letter to his little cousin, Paulina
+Martin:--
+
+
+"Southern Cross," Sydney Harbour: June 18, 1856.
+
+'My darling Pena,--Are you so anxious to have a letter from me, and do
+you think I am going to forget all about you? However, you have had long
+before this two or three letters from me, I hope, and when I write to
+grandpapa or grandmamma or mamma, you must always take it as if a good
+deal was meant for you, for I have not quite so much time for writing
+as you have, I dare say, in spite of music and French and history and
+geography and all the rest of it. But I do dearly love to write to you
+when I can, and you must be quite certain that I shall always do so as I
+have opportunity.
+
+'Don't you ever talk to me about any of your English watering-places and
+sea-port towns! No one knows anything about what an harbour can be
+for perfect beauty of earth, air, and sea, for wooded banks and rocky
+heights, and fine shipping and handsome buildings, and all the bustle
+and stir of a town of 80,000 inhabitants somehow lost and hidden among
+gum trees and Norfolk Island pines and parks and gravel walks; and
+everywhere the magnificent sea view breaking in upon the eye. Don't be
+angry, darling, for I love Dawlish very much, and would sooner go and
+sail the "Mary Jane" with you in some dear little basin among the rocks
+at low tide, and watch all the little crabs and other creatures with
+long Latin names, than walk about Sydney arm-in-arm with the Bishops of
+New Zealand and Newcastle, to call on the Governor. But I must say what
+I think about the natural scenery of places that I visit, and nowhere,
+even in New Zealand--no, not even in Queen Charlotte's Sound, nor in
+Banks's Peninsula, have I seen anything so completely beautiful as this
+harbour--'"heoi ano" "that's enough." The Governor told us yesterday
+that when he was at Hobart Town, he made the convicts cut a path through
+one of the deep gullies running down from a mountain 4,500 feet high to
+the sea. The path was two miles long, and all the way the tree-ferns,
+between twenty and thirty feet high, formed a natural roof arched and
+vaulted like the fretted roofs of our Tudor churches and chapels.
+There is a botanical garden here with a very good collection of all
+the Australian trees and shrubs, and with many New Zealand and many
+semi-tropical plants besides. All the English flowers and fruits grow
+here as well, so that in the warmer months it must look beautiful. It
+is close to the sea, which runs here in little creeks and bays close up
+among the public walks and buildings; and as the shore is all rocky and
+steep at low water, there is no mud or swamp or seaweed, but only clear
+green water quite deep and always calm and tranquil, because the harbour
+is so broken up and diversified by innumerable islets, gulfs, &c., that
+no wind can raise any sea of consequence in it.
+
+'Just now it is winter time--slight frost at night, but no appearance
+of it after the sun is up; bright hot days, and bracing cold nights, the
+very perfection of a climate in winter, but in summer very hot. It is
+so funny to me to see regular stone and brick houses, and shops, and
+carriages, and cabs, &c., all quite new to me.
+
+'To-night there is a great missionary meeting. Bishops of Sydney, New
+Zealand, and Newcastle present. Bishop of Newcastle and a Mr. King
+advocate the cause of the Australian blacks, and the Bishop of New
+Zealand and unfortunate I have to speechify about Melanesia. What on
+earth to say I don't know, for of course the Bishop will exhaust the
+subject before me.
+
+'However, I must try and not be in a great fright; but I would sooner by
+half be going to have a talk with a parcel of Maoris. Now, you must get
+Fanny Patteson to tell you all about our voyage from New Zealand, our
+adventure at Norfolk Island, &c.
+
+'We sail on Monday, 23rd, for Norfolk Island again, as it is in our way
+to the Solomon group, because we shall get the S.E. trades just about
+there, and so run away in style to the Solomon Islands, and perhaps
+farther north still, but that is not probable this time.
+
+'Always, my darling,
+
+'Your affectionate cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+This meeting was called by the Australian Board of Missions to receive
+information or propositions concerning the missions to the Australians
+and Melanesians. Bishop Barker of Sydney was in the chair, and the
+Bishop of Newcastle, who had made one Melanesian cruise in the 'Border
+Maid,' was likewise present. The room was crowded to excess, and from
+900 to 1,000 were certainly present, many more failing to get in.
+Afterwards Patteson writes to his father:--
+
+'The Bishop of New Zealand, in introducing me to the meeting, spoke
+before all these people of you and me in a way that almost unnerved
+me, and I had to speak next. What he said is not reported, or very
+badly--calling me his dear friend, with his voice quivering--I never saw
+him more, or so much affected--"I ought to be most thankful to God for
+giving me so dear a companion, &c." But he spoke so of you, and people
+here seemed to know of you, coming up to me, and asking about you,
+after the meeting. The Bishop of Newcastle spoke of you most kindly, and
+really with very great feeling. An evening I had dreaded ended happily.
+Before I dined with the three Bishops; last night with Chief Justice Sir
+Alfred Stephen, and met the trio again, Bishop everywhere speaking of me
+as one of his family. "No, my boys are not with me; but we have my dear
+friend Mr. Patteson." Of course all this exhibition of feeling never
+comes out when we are alone, we know each other too well. And now the
+romance of Mission work is over, and the real labour is to begin. There
+has been bad work among the islands lately, but you know in whose hands
+we are.'
+
+The collections both at the door and on the following Sunday were very
+large, and a strong warm feeling was excited in Sydney which has never
+since died away. Mr. Patteson was much beloved there, and always met
+with kind welcome and ready assistance from all classes. But there was
+one great disappointment. The Bishop of New Zealand, on formally setting
+before Sir William Denison, Governor-General of Australia, his plan
+for making Norfolk Island the site of a school for training Melanesian
+teachers, and eventually the seat of a bishopric, received a refusal,
+and was not permitted even to place a chaplain there. Sir William, as
+he tells us in his published diary, had heard from some quarter or other
+rumours respecting the Melanesian scholars which made him suppose
+that their presence might have a bad effect upon the Pitcairners; and
+repeated that his instructions were that the islanders should be left as
+much as possible to themselves. The request to be permitted to place Mr.
+Patteson there was refused on the ground that Norfolk Island belonged to
+the see of Tasmania, and not to that of New Zealand. But the Bishop of
+Tasmania could hardly visit it without great inconvenience, and he had
+therefore placed it under the care of his brother of New Zealand,
+full in whose track it lay. The matter was referred to the Colonial
+Secretary, and in the meantime Bishop Selwyn adhered to his purpose
+of visiting it on leaving Sydney, and though he could not place his
+chaplain there, leaving Mrs. Selwyn to assist in the work of training
+the new comers to the novelties of a more temperate climate and a more
+genial soil than they had known on the torrid rock of Pitcairn's Island.
+
+Accordingly, on the 4th of July, the 'Southern Cross' again approached
+the island, and finding that the Pitcairners had come, and that
+their magistrate and Mr. Nobbs, their clergyman, would gladly welcome
+assistance, the Bishop brought Mrs. Selwyn on shore, and left her there
+to assist Mr. Nobbs in preparing the entire population to be confirmed
+on his return. But the Pitcairners have been amply written about, and as
+Coleridge Patteson's connection with them was only incidental, I shall
+not dwell on them or their history.
+
+The 'Southern Cross' reached Anaiteum on the 14th of July. This island
+was occupied by Mr. Inglis and Mr. Greddie, of the Scottish Presbyterian
+Mission, who had done much towards improving the natives. Small canoes
+soon began to come off to the vessel, little craft consisting of no more
+than the trunk of a tree hollowed out, seldom more than a foot broad,
+and perhaps eighteen inches deep, all with outriggers--namely, a slight
+wooden frame or raft to balance them, and for the most part containing
+two men, or sometimes three or four. Before long, not less than fifteen
+or twenty had come on board, with woolly hair and mahogany skins,
+generally wearing a small strip of calico, but some without even this.
+They were small men, but lithe and supple, and walked about the deck
+quite at ease, chattering in a language no one understood except the
+words 'Missy Inglis,' as they pointed to a house. Presently another
+canoe arrived with a Samoan teacher with whom the Bishop could converse,
+and who said that Mr. Geddie was at Mare. They were soon followed by a
+whale boat with a Tahitian native teacher, a Futuma man, and a crew of
+Anaiteans.
+
+'The Futuma man had expended his energies upon his hair, which was
+elaborately dressed after a fashion that precluded the possibility of
+any attention being bestowed upon the rest of his person, which was
+accordingly wholly unencumbered with any clothing. The perfection of
+this art apparently consisted in gathering up about a dozen hairs
+and binding them firmly with grass or fine twine of cocoa-nut fibre
+plastered with coral lime. As the hair grows, the binding is lengthened
+also, and only about four or five inches are suffered to escape from
+this confinement, and are then frizzed and curled, like a mop or a
+poodle's coat. Leonard Harper and I returned in this boat, Tahitian
+steering, Samoan, Futuman, and Anaiteans making one motley crew. The
+brisk trade soon carried us to the beach in front of Mr. Inglis's house,
+and arrived at the reef I rode out pick-a-back on the Samoan, Leonard
+following on a half-naked Anaitean. We soon found ourselves in the midst
+of a number of men, women and children, standing round Mr. Inglis at the
+entrance of his garden. I explained to him the reason of the Bishop's
+being unable to land, that he alone knew the harbour on the other side
+of island, and so could not leave the vessel.
+
+'Then, having delivered the boxes and letters we had brought for him
+from Auckland, we went into his house, gazing with delight at cocoanut
+trees, bananas, breadfruit trees, citrons, lemons, taro, &c., with
+bright tropical colouring thrown over all, lighting up the broad leaves
+and thick foliage of the trees around us.
+
+'The house itself is built, after the fashion of these islands, of
+wattle plastered with coral lime, the roof thatched with the leaves of
+the cocoa-nut and pandana; the fences of the garden were made of cane,
+prettily worked together in a cross pattern; the path neatly kept,
+and everything looking clean and tidy. We sat down in a small,
+well-furnished room, and looked out upon the garden, verandah, and
+groups of men and women standing outside. Presently Mrs. Inglis came
+into the room, and after some discussion I was persuaded to stay all
+night, since the schooner could not reach her anchorage before dark, and
+the next day the water-casks were to be filled.
+
+'An excellent dinner was provided: roast fowl with taro, a nutritious
+root somewhat like potato, rice and jam, bananas and delicious fruit,
+bread and Scotch cheese, with glasses of cocoa-nut milk.
+
+'Afterwards he showed us the arrangements for boarding young men and
+women--twelve of the former, and fourteen of the latter. Nothing could
+well exceed the cleanliness and order of their houses, sleeping rooms,
+and cooking rooms. The houses, wattled and plastered, had floors covered
+with native mats, beds laid upon a raised platform running round the
+inner room, mats and blankets for covering, and bamboo cane for a
+pillow. The boys were, some writing, some making twine, some summing,
+when we went in; the girls just putting on their bonnets, of their own
+manufacture, for school.
+
+'They learn all household work--cooking, hemming, sewing, &c.; the boys
+tend the poultry, cows, cultivate taro, make arrowroot, &c. All of them
+could read fluently, and all looked happy, clean, and healthy. The girls
+wear their native petticoats of cocoa-nut leaves, with a calico body.
+Boys wear trousers, and some had shirts, some waistcoats, and a few
+jackets.
+
+'We walked about a small wood adjoining the house, through which a small
+fresh-water stream runs. In the wood we saw specimens of the various
+trees and shrubs, and flowers of the island, including those already
+noticed in Mr. Inglis's garden, and the breadfruit tree and sugar-cane,
+and a beautiful bright flower of scarlet colour, a convolvulus, larger
+than any I had ever seen elsewhere; also a tree bearing a very beautiful
+yellow flower.
+
+'We then returned to the house, and shortly afterwards went to the
+church, which is at present used also as the school-house, though the
+uprights of a larger school-house are already fixed in the ground.
+
+'Men, women, and children to the number of ninety-four had assembled in
+a large oblong building, wattled and plastered, with open windows on
+all sides; mats arranged on the floor, and a raised platform or bench
+running round the building for persons who prefer to sit after the
+English, instead of the native fashion,
+
+'All that were called upon to read did so fluently; the singing was
+harsh and nasal enough, but in very good time; their counting very good,
+and their writing on slates quite equal to the average performance, I
+am satisfied, of a good English parish school. They listened attentively
+when Mr. Inglis spoke to them, and when at his request I said a few
+words, which he translated. The most perfect order and quiet prevailed
+all the time we were in the school. At the end of the lessons they
+came forward, and each one shook hands with Leonard Harper and myself,
+smiling and laughing with their quick intelligent eyes, and apparently
+pleased to see strangers among them.
+
+'By this time it was dusk, and we went back to the Mission House, and
+spent a pleasant evening, asking and answering questions about Anaiteum
+and the world beyond it, until 8 P.M., when the boarders came to
+prayers, with two or three persons who live about the place. They read
+the third chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel in turns, verse by verse, and
+then a prayer from Mr. Inglis followed. At 8.30 we had private family
+prayers, and at 9 went to bed.
+
+'July 16.--We got up at four, and were soon ready for our walk to the
+south side of the Island; Mr. Inglis came with us, and ten or twelve
+natives. For the first half-mile we walked along the beach among
+cocoa-nut trees, bananas and sugar-canes, the sun, not yet above the
+horizon, tingeing the light clouds with faint pink and purple lines,
+the freshness of the early dawn, and the soft breeze playing about us,
+gladdening at once our eyes and our hearts. Soon we struck off to the
+south, and passing through taro plantations, began to ascend the slopes
+of the island. As we walked along we heard the sound of the logs beaten
+together, summoning the people to attend the various schools planted in
+every locality, under the management of native teachers, and we had a
+good opportunity of observing the careful system of irrigation adopted
+by the natives for the cultivation of the taro plant. Following the
+course of a small mountain stream, we observed the labour with which
+the water was brought down from it upon causeways of earth, carried in
+baskets from very considerable distances; occasionally the water-course
+is led round the head of various small ravines; at other times the trunk
+of a tree is hollowed out and converted into an aqueduct; but no pains
+have been wanting to make provision for the growth of the staple food of
+the island.'
+
+From this scene of hope and encouragement the 'Southern Cross' sailed on
+the sixteenth, and passing Erromango, came in sight of Fate, also called
+Sandwich, a wooded island beautiful beyond description, but with a
+bad character for cannibalism, and where the Samoan teachers had been
+murdered. So the approach was cautious, and the vessel kept a mile from
+the shore, and was soon surrounded with canoes, one of them containing a
+native who had been instructed in Samoa, and was now acting as teacher.
+
+'The first canoe that came had five men on board. Girdles of beautifully
+plaited cocoa-nut fibre round their waists were their only clothing, but
+some had wreaths of flowers and green leaves round their heads, and most
+of them wore mother-of-pearl shells, beads, &c., round their necks and
+in their ears. They do not tattoo, but brand their skins. All five came,
+and presently three more, and then another; but seeing a large double
+canoe with perhaps twenty men in her coming close, we stood away. Two of
+our visitors chose to stay, and we have them on board now: Alsoff, a man
+of perhaps forty-five, and Mospa, a very intelligent young man from whom
+I am picking up words as fast as I can. F. would have laughed to have
+seen me rigging them out in calico shirts, buttoning them up. Mospa gave
+me his wooden comb, which they push through their hair, as you ladies do
+coral or gold pins at parties. Another fellow whose head was elaborately
+frizzled and plastered with coral lime, departed with one of my common
+calico pocket-handkerchiefs with my name in Joan's marking. This is to
+adorn his head, and for aught I know, is the first, and certainly the
+best specimen of handwriting in the island. We hope to call at all these
+islands on our way back from the north, but at present we only dodge a
+few canoes, &c.
+
+'July 20.--I suppose you like to know all little things, so I tell you
+that our Fate friends, being presented each with a blanket, just wound
+themselves up on the cabin floor, one close to Leonard and me, and slept
+away in style; that I soon taught them to eat with a knife and fork, and
+to-day have almost succeeded in making them believe that plum pudding
+(our Sunday dish) is a fine thing.
+
+'July 21.--All day we have been very slowly drifting along the west
+side of Espiritu Santo. A grand mountainous chain runs along the whole
+island, the peaks we estimate at 4,000 feet high. This alone is a fine
+sight--luxuriant vegetation to nearly the top of the peaks, clouds
+resting upon the summit of the range, from the evaporation caused by the
+vast amount of vegetable matter.
+
+'As we were lying to, about half-way along the coast, we espied a brig
+at anchor close on shore. Manned the boat and rowed about two miles to
+the brig, found it was under the command of a notorious man among the
+sandal-wood traders for many a dark deed of revenge and unscrupulous
+retaliation upon the natives. At Nengone he shot three in cold blood who
+swam off to his ship, because the people of the place were said to be
+about to attempt to take his vessel. At Mallicolo but lately I fear he
+killed not less than eight, though here there was some scuffling and
+provocation. For the Nengone affair he was tried for his life at Sydney,
+Captain Erskine and the Bishop having much to do with his prosecution.
+He is now dealing fairly (apparently) with these people, and is
+certainly on very friendly terms with them. The Bishop has known him
+many years, and baptized some years ago his only child, a son. We are
+glad to let these men see that we are about in these seas, watching
+what they do; and the Bishop said, "Mr. Patteson is come from England on
+purpose to look after these islands," as much as to say, Now there will
+be a regular visitation of them, and outrages committed on the natives
+will probably be discovered.
+
+'Well, on we rowed, half a mile to shore--such a lovely scene. A bend
+in the coral reef made a beautiful boat harbour, and into it we rowed.
+Clear as crystal was the water, bright as tropical sun at 2.30 P.M.
+could make it was the foliage on the shore. Numbers of children and boys
+were playing in the water or running about on the rocks and sands, and
+there were several men about, all of course naked, and as they lead
+an amphibious life they find it very convenient. They work little;
+breadfruit trees, cocoa-nut trees, and bananas grow naturally, and the
+yam and taro cultivations are weeded and tended by the women. They have
+nothing to do but eat, drink, and sleep, and lie on the warm coral rock,
+and bathe in the surf.
+
+'There was no shyness on the part of the children, dear little fellows
+from six to ten clustering round me, unable to understand my coat with
+pockets, and what my socks could be--I seemed to have two or three
+skins. The men came up and soon shook hands, but did not seem to know
+the custom. A Nengone man was ashore, and with him I could talk a
+little. Soon I was walking on shore arm-in-arm with him, stark naked,
+and he was asking me about Mrs. Nihill and her child. A little boy of
+the island held the other hand, and so, leaving the boat, we walked
+inland into the bush to see a native village. Ten minutes' walk brought
+us to it--cottages all of bamboos tied together with cocoa-nut fibre,
+thatched with leaves, a ridge-pole and sloping roof on either side
+reaching to the ground. No upright poles or side-walls; they were quite
+open at the two ends, perhaps 20, 30, or even 40 feet long; the general
+appearance clean and healthy. Their food was kept on raised stages as in
+New Zealand, and they had plenty of earthenware pots and basins, some of
+good shape, and all apparently strong and serviceable. Large wooden or
+earthenware platters are used for stirring up and pounding the yams with
+a heavy wooden pestle, and they have a peculiar way of scraping the yam,
+on a wooden board roughened like a grater, into a pulp, and then boiling
+it into a fine dough.
+
+'They have plenty of pigs and dogs, which they eat, and some fowls.
+Spears I saw none, but bows and arrows. I took a bow out of a man's
+hand, and then an arrow, and fitted it to the string; he made signs that
+he shot birds with it. Clubs they have, but as far as I saw only used
+for killing pigs. There is a good deal of fighting on the island,
+however. Recollect with reference to all these places, that an island
+fifty or sixty miles long, one mass of forest with no path, is not like
+an English county. It may take months to get an accurate knowledge of
+one of them; we can only at present judge of the particular spots and
+bays we touch at. But there is every indication here of friendliness,
+of a gentle, soft disposition, and I hope we shall take away some of the
+boys when we return. I never saw children more thoroughly attractive in
+appearance and manner,--dear little fellows, I longed to bring off
+some of them. You would have liked to have seen them playing with me,
+laughing and jumping about. These people don't look half so well when
+they have any clothes on, they look shabby and gentish; but seeing them
+on shore, or just coming out of a canoe, all glistening with water,
+and looking so lithe and free, they look very pleasant to the eye. The
+colour supplies the place of clothing. The chief and most of the men
+were unfortunately absent at a great feast held a few miles off, but
+there were several women and many children.
+
+'We went to their watering place, about a quarter or half a mile from
+the beach, a picturesque spot in a part of the wood to which the water
+from the hills is carried in canes of bamboo, supported on cross sticks.
+The water was very clear and sweet, and one of our little guides soon
+had a good shower-bath, standing under the shoot and then walking in the
+sun till in a few minutes his glistening skin was dry again. Coming back
+we met a man carrying water in cocoa-nut shells, six or eight hanging by
+strings two feet long at each end of a bamboo cane slung across over
+his shoulder, nicely balanced and very pretty. One of our party carried
+perhaps two and a half gallons of water in a bamboo stuffed at the end
+with grass. About five P.M. we went back to the schooner and made sail
+for Bauro (San Cristoval).'
+
+At this place there was a great disappointment at first in the
+non-appearance of William Diddimang, an old baptized scholar at St.
+John's; and though he came at last, and dined on board, he had evidently
+so far fallen away as to be unwilling to meet the Bishop. The canoes
+here were remarkably beautiful, built of several pieces, fastened with
+a kind of gum. The shape was light and elegant, the thwarts elaborately
+carved with figures of birds or fish, and the high prow inlaid with
+mother-of-pearl let into black wood.
+
+As a Sunday at sea was preferable to one among curious visitors who must
+be entertained, the schooner put out to sea to visit one to two other
+neighbouring islets, and then to return again to Bauro.
+
+Kennell Island, where she touched on the 27th, proved to be inhabited by
+Maoris. One man, who swam alone to the vessel, offered the salutation of
+rubbing noses, New Zealand fashion, and converse could be held in that
+language. Two more joined him, and spent the night on board in singing
+a kaka or song of love for their visitors. Next day the island was
+visited. 'Oh the beauty of the deep clefts in the coral reef, lined with
+coral, purple, blue, scarlet, green, and white! the little blue fishes,
+the bright blue starfish, the little land-crabs walking away with other
+people's shells. But nothing of this can be seen by you; the coral loses
+its colour, and who can show you the bright line of surf breaking the
+clear blue of this truly Pacific Ocean, and the tropical sun piercing
+through masses of foliage which nothing less dazzling could penetrate.
+Our three friends, with two more men, their wives and children, form the
+whole population of the south end of the island at all events, perhaps
+twenty in all. I trod upon and broke flowering-branches of coral that
+you would have wondered at.'
+
+Bellona likewise had a Maori-speaking population. There was no passage
+through the reef, so the Bishop and Patteson took off their coats, one
+took two hatchets and the other two adzes, and with a good header, swam
+ashore. Walking up the beach, they found a place in the bush with nine
+beautiful canoes, with nets, and large wooden hooks in them, but at
+first no people; and they were leaving their presents in the canoes when
+Patteson spied two men, and advanced to them while the Bishop went back
+to fetch the goods. After a rubbing of noses and a Maori greeting, the
+men were reassured, and eleven more came up, one a chief with a spear
+in his hand. 'I had my straw hat fastened by a ribbon, which my friend
+coveted, so I let him take it, which he did by putting his adze (my
+gift) against it, close to my ear, and cutting it, off--not the least
+occasion to be afraid of them.' A characteristic comment, certainly!
+But there was no foolhardiness. The Bishop was on the alert, and when
+presently he saw his companion linger for a moment, a quick 'Come
+along,' was a reminder that 'this was not the beach at Sidmouth.' The
+peculiar quickness of eye--verily circumspect, though without the least
+betrayal of alarm or want of confidence, which was learnt from the
+need of being always as it were on guard, was soon learnt likewise by
+Patteson, while the air of suspicion or fear was most carefully avoided.
+The swim back to the boat was in water 'too warm, but refreshing,' and
+ended with a dive under the boat for the pure pleasure of the thing.
+
+Then, as before arranged, Bauro was revisited on another part of the
+coast, where Iri was ready with a welcome, but Diddimang appeared no
+more. He had returned to native habits, and had made no attempt at
+teaching, but the visits he had made to New Zealand were not lost, for
+the Bishop had acquired a knowledge of the language, and it was moreover
+established in the Bauro mind that a voyage in his ship was safe and
+desirable. 'This part of Bauro was exceedingly beautiful:--
+
+'Here were coral crags, the masses of forest trees, the creepers
+literally hundreds of feet long, crawling along and hanging from the
+cliffs, the cocoa-nut trees and bananas, palms, &c., the dark figures
+on the edge of the rocks looking down upon us from among the trees, the
+people assembling on the bright beach--coral dust as it may be called,
+for it was worn as fine as white sand--cottages among the trees, and a
+pond of fresh water close by, winding away among the cliffs.'
+
+Here a visit was paid to Iri's boathouse, which contained three
+exquisite canoes, beautifully inlaid; then to his house, long, low, and
+open at the ends, like those formerly described, but with low wattled
+side walls. Along the ridge-pole were ranged twenty-seven skulls, not
+yet blackened with smoke, and bones were scattered outside, for a fight
+had recently taken place near at hand. 'In this Golgotha,' the Bishop,
+using his little book of Bauro words, talked to the people, and plainly
+told them that the Great God hated wars and cruelty, and such ornaments
+were horrible in his sight. Iri took it all in good part, and five boys
+willingly accepted the invitation to New Zealand. One little fellow
+about eight years old had attached himself to Coley, clinging about his
+waist with his arms, but he was too young to be taken away. Iri came
+down to the beach, and waded up to his waist in the water as the boat
+put off.
+
+In the night Gera, or Guadalcanar, was reached, a fine mountainous
+island, with a detached reef. Numerous canoes surrounded the vessel,
+bringing yarns for barter. Fish-hooks were of no account; it was small
+hatchets that were in request, and the Bauro boys could hold some sort
+of converse with the people, though theirs was quite another dialect.
+They were gaily decked out with armlets, frontlets, bracelets, and
+girdles of shell, and almost all of them wore, not only nose-rings,
+but plugs of wood or mother-of-pearl in the tip of the nose. One man
+in particular had a shell eyelet-hole let into his nose, into which he
+inserted his unicorn decoration. The Bishop amused himself and Coley by
+saying, as he hung a fishhook on this man's nose-hook, 'Naso suspendis
+adunco.' Others had six or eight pieces of wood sticking out from either
+side of the nose, like a cat's whiskers. Two young men were taken from
+hence, and more would have gone, but it was not thought well to take
+married men.
+
+The isle of Mara or Malanta had a very shy population, who seemed to
+live inland, having probably been molested by the warlike Gera men. It
+had been supposed that there was a second islet here, but the 'Southern
+Cross' boat's crew found that what had been taken for a strait was only
+the mouth of a large river, where the casks were filled.
+
+The wondrous beauty of the scene, sea and river alike fringed with the
+richest foliage, birds flying about (I saw a large blue bird, a parrot,
+I suppose), fish jumping, the perfectly still water, the mysterious
+smoke of a fire or two, the call of a man heard in the bush, just enough
+of novelty to quicken me to the full enjoyment of such a lovely bay as
+no English eyes save ours have ever seen.'
+
+No communication with the native inhabitants was here accomplished, but
+at four little flat, cocoanut-covered islets, named after Torres, were
+the head-quarters of an English dealer in cocoa-nut oil. The native race
+were Maori-speaking, but their intercourse with sailors had given them a
+knowledge of the worst part of the English language, and as usual it was
+mournfully plain how much harm our countrymen instil.
+
+The next group, sighted on the 17th of August, had already a remarkable
+history, to which Patteson refers in his journal, with no foreboding of
+the association those reefs and bays were to acquire for him, and far
+more through him.
+
+Alvaro de Mendana had, in 1567, gone forth from Peru on a voyage of
+discovery in the Pacific, and had then found, and named, most of the
+Solomon Isles. Grera and Bauro owed their names of Guadalcanar and San
+Cristoval to him. In 1594, he obtained permission to found a colony on
+San Cristoval, and set forth with his wife and four ships. But the Bauro
+people were spared that grievous misfortune of a Spanish settlement;
+Mendana missed his way, blundered into the Marquesas first, and then
+came upon a cluster of islands, one large and beautiful, two small, and
+one a volcano in full action.
+
+He called the large island Santa Cruz, and fancied the natives of the
+same race he had seen in Bauro, but they knew nothing of the language
+he had learnt there, and though courteous at first, presently discharged
+their arrows. However, he found a beautiful harbour on the other side of
+the island, and a friendly and dignified old chief called Malope, who in
+South Sea fashion exchanged names and presents with him. Mendana and
+his wife Dona Ysabel seem to have wished to be on good terms with the
+natives, and taught them to sign the cross, and say amigos, and they
+proceeded to found their intended city, but neither Mendana nor Malope
+could restrain their followers; there were musket-shots on one side and
+arrow-shots on the other, and at last, the chief Malope himself fell
+into the hands of some Spanish soldiers, who murdered him. Mendana
+punished them with death; but his own health was fast failing, he died
+in a few weeks, and his widow deserted the intended city, and returned
+home with the colonists, having probably bequeathed to the island a
+distrust of white men.
+
+All this was in Patteson's mind, as he shows by his journal, as the
+lovely scenery of Santa Cruz rose on him. The people came out in canoes
+with quantities of yams and taro, of which they knew the full value; but
+the numbers were so large that no 'quiet work' could be done, and there
+was little to be done but to admire their costume, armlets, necklaces,
+plates of mother-of-pearl, but no nose ornaments. They had strips of a
+kind of cloth, woven of reed, and elaborate varieties of head-gear, some
+plastering their hair white with coral lime, others yellow, others red;
+others had shaved half the head with no better implement than a sharp
+shell, and others had produced two lines of bristles, like hogs' manes,
+on a shaven crown. Their decorations made a great sensation among the
+Solomon Islanders, who made offers of exchange of necklaces, &c.
+
+In the evening the schooner made for the volcano, about three miles off.
+It was a magnificent sight--a perfect cone, the base of the mountain and
+all except the actual cone being under water. The cone was apparently
+about 2,000 feet high, clouds hanging about it near the top, lurid and
+fiery, increasing the grandeur of the glow at the summit. Every minute
+streams of fire, falling from the top or sides, rushed down the mount,
+so that for a space of perhaps half a mile in breadth the whole cone was
+always streaked, and sometimes covered with burning-masses of stones,
+cinders, &c. Bumbling noises were heard only a few times.
+
+'About 7 to 9 A.M. we sailed quite round the island, and saw there that
+the fiery appearance at night is not actually fire or flame, but caused
+by hot burning stones and masses of scoria, &c., constantly falling down
+the sides of the cone, which on the lee side are almost perpendicular.
+On the weather side are cocoa-nut trees, and one small house, but we
+could see no people. It was grand to see the great stones leaping and
+bounding down the sides of the cone, clearing 300 or 400 feet at a jump,
+and springing up many yards into the air, finally plunging into the sea
+with a roar, and the splash of the foam and steam combined.
+
+This was on the 12th of August, and here is the ensuing note, how
+full now of significance, which it would be faithless to term
+melancholy:--'We then went on to Nukapu, an island completely encircled
+by a coral reef. The natives soon came off in canoes, and brought
+breadfruit and cocoa-nuts. They spoke a few words of Maori, but wore
+their hair like the people of Santa Cruz, and resembled them in the
+character of their ornaments and in their general appearance. They had
+bows and clubs of the same kind, tapa stained with turmeric, armlets,
+ear-rings and nose-rings of bone and tortoiseshell.'
+
+Returning to Santa Cruz, a large supply of the produce was obtained
+by barter, but the people were still in such noisy crowds that nothing
+could be effected beyond these commercial transactions.
+
+Tubua was the next ensuing island, a lovely spot within its encircling
+ring, over which the Bishop and Patteson waded, and found thirteen men
+on the beach. Patteson went up to the first, tied a bit of red tape
+round his head, and made signs that he wanted a cocoa-nut in exchange
+for a fish-hook. Plenty were forthcoming; but the Bishop, to his
+companion's surprise, made a sudden sign to come away, and when the boat
+was regained he said: 'I saw some young men running through the bush
+with bows and arrows, and these young gentry have not the sense to
+behave well like their parents.'
+
+Vanikoro was the next stage. This too had its history, encircled as
+it is with a complete reef of coral, in some parts double. In the year
+1785, two French vessels, which were commanded by Count La Perouse, and
+named 'La Boussole' and 'L'Astrolabe,' had set forth from Brest on a
+voyage of discovery in the Pacific. They made a most discursive survey
+of that ocean, from Kamtschatka southwards, and at the end of 1787 were
+at the Samoan Isles, then unconverted, and where their two boats' crews
+were massacred, and the boats lost. The ships came to Port Jackson,
+in Australia, to build fresh boats, left it in February 1788, and were
+never heard of more. One or two attempts were made to ascertain their
+fate, but none succeeded till, in 1826, a sandal-wood trader named
+Dillon found in the possession of a European, who had lived since 1813
+in Ticopia, the silver guard of a sword, and ascertained from him that
+the natives had several articles, such as china, glass, and the handle
+of a silver fork, which evidently came from a ship. He had been told
+that these articles had been procured from another isle called Vanikoro,
+where two large ships had been wrecked.
+
+His intelligence led to the fitting out of a vessel, in which he was
+sent to ascertain the fate of the Frenchmen, and by the help of the
+man who had been so long in Ticopia, he was able to examine a Vanikoran
+chief. It appeared that the two ships had run aground on the parallel
+reefs. One had sunk at once, and the crew while swimming out had been
+some of them eaten by the sharks, and others killed by the natives;
+indeed, there were sixty European skulls in a temple. The other vessel
+had drifted over the reef, and the crew entrenched themselves on shore,
+while building another vessel. They went out and foraged for themselves
+in the taro fields, but they made no friends; they were ship-spirits,
+with noses two hands long before their faces (their cocked hats).
+Articles were recovered that placed the fact beyond a doubt, and which
+were recognised by one of the expedition who had left it in Kamtschatka,
+the sole survivor. Of the fate of the two-masted vessel built by the
+shipwrecked crew, nothing was ever discovered.
+
+The Mission party landed here, but saw nobody. They sent a black boy up
+a tree for cocoa-nuts, and left a tomahawk beneath it as payment.
+That there were inhabitants somewhere there was horrible proof, for a
+frightful odour led to search being made, and the New Zealander Hoari
+turning up the ground, found human bones with flesh hanging to them. A
+little farther off was a native oven, namely, a pit lined with stones.
+
+This was Patteson's nearest contact with cannibalism, and it left a deep
+impression of horror.
+
+The Banks group of islands came next--Great Banks Isle, or in the native
+language Vanua Lava, Valua or Saddle Isle, a long narrow ridge of hills,
+Mota or Sugarloaf Island, an equally descriptive name; Star Island,
+and Santa Maria. These places were to become of great importance to the
+Mission, but little was seen of them at this time--the walls of coral
+round them were remarkably steep and difficult of access.
+
+Valua had no beach and no canoes, and such swarms of natives clustering
+upon the cliffs that the Bishop did not think it prudent to land. In
+Mota, though the coast for the most part rises up in sheer crags, forty
+or fifty feet above the sea, with a great volcanic cone in the centre,
+a little cove was found with a good beach, where a number of inhabitants
+had assembled. They were entirely without clothing or ornament, neither
+tattooed nor disfigured by betel-nut, and their bright honest faces
+greatly attracted Patteson, though not a word of their language could
+be then understood. He wanted to swim ashore among them, but the Bishop
+would not allow it, lest it should be difficult to escape from the
+embraces of so many without giving offence. Great numbers swam out to
+the boat, and canoes brought fruits of all kinds, and bamboos decked
+with leaves and flowers. 'I crammed native combs in my hair,' says
+Patteson, 'picked up what words I could, and made up the rest by a grand
+display of gesticulation.'
+
+At Santa Maria, the next day, there was the like scene around the boat,
+only the sight of a bit of striped calico caused immense excitement. At
+other islands it had been unheeded, but here the people were mad to
+get it, and offered their largest yams for strips of it, and a pair of
+scarlet braces were purchased for two beautiful bows.
+
+At Vanua Lava, or Great Banks Island, on the 20th, a large canoe with
+seven men came alongside, three-quarters of a mile from shore. They
+would not, however, venture on board till Patteson had gone into the
+water, and placed himself in their canoe, after which they were induced
+to come on deck, were 'decorated with the order of the tape,' and
+received axes. No weapon was seen among them, and there was reason to
+think them the tractable and hopeful race they have since proved.
+
+Bligh Island, the next visited, plainly revealed itself as the cone
+of an enormous submerged volcano, the water forming a beautiful and
+extensive bay where numbers of people could be seen. There was a landing
+and a little trading for yams, and then, after the like intercourse
+with some of the inhabitants of the cluster of small islets named after
+Torres, the vessel steered for Espiritu Santo, but wind and time forbade
+a return to the part previously visited, nor was there time to do more
+than touch at Aurora, and exchange some fish-hooks for some bows.
+
+At Malicolo, in 1851, the Bishop and his party, while fetching water,
+had been assailed with stones and arrows, and had only escaped by
+showing the utmost coolness. There was, therefore, much caution shown in
+approaching this bay, called Port Sandwich, and the boat stopped outside
+its breakwater coral reef, where numerous canoes flocked round, the
+people with their bows and arrows, not attempting to barter. Their
+faces were painted some red, some black, or yellow. An old chief named
+Melanbico was recognised by the Bishop, and called by name into the
+boat. Another old acquaintance named Nipati joined him, and it was
+considered safe to row into the harbour. The Bishop had learnt a little
+of the language, and talked to these two, while Patteson examined
+Nipati's accoutrements--a club, a bow, arrows neatly made, handsomely
+feathered, and tipped with a deadly poison, tortoiseshell ear-rings, and
+a very handsome shell armlet covering the arm from the elbow eight or
+nine inches upward, his face painted red and black. The Bishop read out
+the list of names he had made on the former visit, and to several the
+answer was 'dead, or 'shot,' and it appeared that a great mortality had
+taken place. Large numbers, however, were on the beach, and the Bishop
+and Patteson landed among them, and conversed with them; but they
+showed no disposition to trade, and though some of the lads seemed
+half-disposed to come away with the party, they all changed their minds,
+and went back again. However, all had behaved well, and one little
+boy, when offered a fish-hook, at once showed that he had received one
+already. It was plain that a beginning had been made, which might lead
+to further results.
+
+Two whales were seen while rowing back to the ship. One--about a third
+of a mile off--leapt several times fairly out of the water, and fell
+back on the sea 'with a regular crack,' dashing up the spray in clouds.
+There was now very little time to spare, as the time of an ordination at
+Auckland was fixed, and two important visits had yet to be paid, so the
+two Fate guests were sent ashore in the canoes of some of their friends,
+and the 'Southern Cross' reached Nengone on the 1st of September. The
+Bishop had left a boat there some years before, and the Samoan teacher,
+Mark, who had been Mrs. Nihill's best friend and comforter, came out
+in it with a joyful party full of welcome. The Bishop and Patteson went
+ashore, taking with them their two Bauro scholars, to whom the most
+wonderful sight was a cow, they never having seen any quadruped bigger
+than a pig. All the native teachers and their wives were assembled, and
+many of the people, in front of the house where Mr. Nihill had died.
+They talked of him with touching affection, as they told how diligently
+he had striven to bring young and old to a knowledge of his God; and
+they eagerly assisted in planting at his grave a cross, which the Bishop
+had brought from Auckland for the purpose, and which bore the words: 'I
+am the Resurrection and the Life.'
+
+The coral lime church and the houses of the teachers among the cocoa-nut
+trees gave the place a civilised look, and most of the people had some
+attempt at clothing. Here several passengers were taken in. The
+two girls, Caroline Wabisane and Sarah Wasitutru, were both
+married--Caroline to a Maori named Simeona, and Sarah to a man from her
+own isle called Nawiki. All these and two more men wished to go to St.
+John's for further instruction, and were taken on board, making up a
+party of fourteen Melanesians, besides Sarah's baby. 'Mrs. Nihill will
+be glad to have the women,' writes Coley, 'and I am glad to have the
+others--not the baby, of course.'
+
+Close quarters indeed, but not for very long, for on the 3rd of
+September the schooner again put into Norfolk Island, and on the next
+Sunday Coley was present at the confirmation of the whole population,
+excepting the younger children, and at the subsequent Communion. Strong
+hopes were then entertained that the Pitcairners, standing as it were
+between the English and the islanders, would greatly assist in the
+work of the Gospel, but this plan was found only capable of being very
+partially carried out.
+
+Off Norfolk Island, he wrote to his brother an account of the way of
+life on the voyage, and of the people:--
+
+'They are generally gentle, and seem to cling to one, not with the
+very independent goodwill of New Zealanders, but with the soft yielding
+character of the child of the tropics. They are fond, that is the word
+for them. I have had boys and men in a few minutes after landing, follow
+me like a dog, holding their hands in mine as a little child does with
+its nurse.
+
+'My manner of life on board is as I described it before. I eschewed
+shoes and socks, rather liking to be paddling about all day, when not
+going on shore, or otherwise employed, which of course made up eight or
+ten out of the thirteen hours of daylight. When I went ashore (which I
+did whenever the boat went), then I put on my shoes, and always swam
+in them, for the coral would cut my feet to pieces. Usual swimming and
+wading attire--flannel shirt, dark grey trousers, cap or straw hat,
+shoes, basket round my neck with fish-hooks, or perhaps an adze or two
+in my hand. I enjoyed the tropical climate very much--really warm always
+in the water or out of it. On the reefs, when I waded in shallow water,
+the heat of it was literally unpleasant, more than a tepid bath.'
+
+On the 13th of September, the little missionary vessel came safe into
+harbour at Auckland, and Coley and his boys--they were considered
+especially as his--took up their quarters at St. John's College. All
+through the voyage he had written the journals here followed for the
+general benefit of his kindred, and at other leisure moments he had
+written more personal letters. On his sister Fanny's birthday, when
+the visit to Malicolo was just over, after his birthday wishes, he goes
+on:--
+
+'And now, how will you be when this reaches Feniton? I think of all your
+daily occupations,--school, garden, driving, &c.--your Sunday reading,
+visiting the cottages, &c., and the very thought of it makes me feel
+like old times. When occasionally I dream, or fall into a kind of trance
+when awake, and fancy myself walking up from the lodge to the house, and
+old forms and faces rise up before me, I can scarcely contain the burst
+of joy and happiness, and then I give a shake and say, "Well, it would
+be very nice, but look about the horizon, and see how many islands
+you can count!" and then, instead of thoughts of home for myself, I am
+tempted to induce others to leave their homes, though I don't really
+think many men have such a home to leave, or remain so long as I did,
+one of the home fire-side.
+
+'I have been reading one or two of the German books you sent out.
+"Friedrich der Grosse" is interesting, but henceforth I don't think I
+shall have time for aught but a good German novel or two for wet days
+and jumping seas; or such a theological book as I may send for.'
+
+The effect of the voyage seems to have shown itself in an inflamed leg,
+which was painful, but not disabled for some time. There was a welcome
+budget of letters awaiting him,--one from his uncle Dr. Coleridge, to
+which this is the reply:--
+
+
+'September 15, 1856: St. John's College.
+
+'Your letter of March 26 was awaiting my arrival here. How thankful I
+am that (as Fan says) in little as in great things God is so good to us.
+Letters from me arriving on the anniversary of my departure! and all at
+Thorverton!
+
+'You are clearly right in what you say about my post in the S. X. I did
+not like it at first, just as a schoolboy does not like going back to
+school; but that it was good for me I have no doubt; and now see! here I
+am on shore for seven or eight months, if I live so long--my occupations
+most interesting, working away with twelve Melanesians at languages,
+etc., with the highest of all incentives to perseverance, trying to form
+in them habits of cleanliness, order, decency, etc.
+
+'Last night (Sunday--their first Sunday in New Zealand), after
+explaining to the Solomon Islands boys, seven in number, the nature of
+the Lord's Prayer as far as my knowledge of their language would carry
+me, I thought myself justified in making them kneel down round me, and
+they uttered with their lips after me (i.e. the five most intelligent)
+the first words of prayer to their Father in Heaven. I don't venture to
+say that they understood much--neither does the young child taught at
+his or her mother's knees--neither do many grown persons perhaps know
+much about the fulness of the Prayer of Prayers--(these scenes teach
+me my ignorance, which is one great gain)--yet they knew, I think, that
+they were praying to some great and mighty one--not an abstraction--a
+conscious loving Being, a Father, and they know at least the name of His
+Son, Jesus Christ.
+
+'Their first formula was: "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
+Ghost, only One God." I can't yet explain that our Blessed Lord came
+from heaven and died for our sins; neither (as far as human thought
+may reach) does the power of God's Spirit as yet work in their hearts
+consciousness of sin, and with that the sense of the need of a Redeemer
+and Saviour. I asked in my sermon yesterday the prayers of the people
+for the grace of God's Holy Spirit to touch the hearts and enlighten the
+understandings of these heathen children of a common Father, and I added
+that greatly did their teachers need their prayers that God would make
+them apt to teach, and wise and simple in endeavouring to bring before
+their minds the things that belong unto their peace. You too, dear
+Uncle, will think I know of these things, for my trust is great. In this
+cold climate, 26 deg. or 27 deg. of latitude south of their own island, I have
+much anxiety about their bodily health, and more about their souls.
+
+'The four youngest, sixteen to eighteen, sleep in my room. One is now on
+my bed, wrapped up in a great opossum rug, with cold and slight fever;
+last night his pulse was high, to-day he is better. I have to watch over
+them like a cat. Think of living till now in a constant temperature
+of 84 deg., and being suddenly brought to 56 deg.. New Zealand is too cold for
+them, and the College is a cold place, wind howling round it now.
+
+'Norfolk Island is the place, and the Pitcairners themselves are most
+co-operative and hearty; I trust that in another year I may be there.
+
+'Thank you for all your kind wishes on my birthday. I ought to wish to
+live many years, perhaps, to try and be of use; especially as I am so
+unfit to go now, or rather I ought not to wish at all. Sometimes I feel
+almost fainthearted, which is cowardly and forgetful of our calling "to
+fight manfully under Christ's banner." Ah! my Bishop is indeed a warrior
+of the Cross. I can't bear the things Sophy said in one of her letters
+about my having given up.
+
+It seems mock humility to write it; but, dear Uncle, if I am conscious
+of a life so utterly unlike what all you dear ones fancy it to be, what
+must it be in the sight of God and His holy angels? What advantages I
+have always had, and have now! and not a day goes by and I can say I
+have done my duty. Good-bye, dear dear Uncle.
+
+'Always your affectionate and grateful nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.
+
+'Love to dear Aunt.'
+
+
+Almost the first experience after settling in at St. John's College was
+a sharp attack of fever that fell on Kerearua, one of the Bauro lads.
+Such illnesses, it seemed, were frequent at home and generally fatal.
+His companion Hirika remarked, 'Kerearua like this in Bauro ah! in a few
+days he would die; by-and-by we go back to Bauro.' The sick boys were
+always lodged in Coley's own room to be more quiet and thoroughly
+nursed. Fastidiousness had been so entirely crushed that he really
+seemed to take pleasure in the arrangement, speaking with enthusiasm of
+the patient's obedience and gratitude, and adding, 'He looks quite nice
+in one of my night-shirts with my plaid counterpane, and the plaid Joan
+gave me over it, a blanket next to him.'
+
+The Melanesians readily fell into the regular habits of short school,
+work out of doors, meals in hall and bed-time, and they were allowed a
+good deal of the free use of their limbs, needful to keep them happy
+and healthy. Now and then they would be taken into Auckland, as a great
+treat, to see the soldiers on parade, and of course the mere living
+with civilization was an immense education to them, besides the direct
+instruction they received.
+
+The languages of Nengone and Bauro were becoming sufficiently familiar
+to Mr. Patteson to enable him to understand much of what they said to
+him. He writes to Miss Neill (October 17):--
+
+
+'I talk with them about common things, and learn a great deal of their
+wild savage customs and habits, but I can do but little as yet in the
+way of real instruction. Some ideas, I trust, they are beginning to
+acquire concerning our Blessed Lord. Is it not a significant fact that
+the god worshiped in Gfera, and in one village of Bauro, is the Serpent,
+the very type of evil? I need not say that these dear boys have won
+their way to my heart, they are most docile and affectionate. I think
+some will really, if they live, leave their own island and live with me
+at Norfolk Island, or here, or wherever my dwelling may be whenever I am
+not in the "Southern Cross."
+
+'But of course I must not dwell on such notions. If it come to pass that
+for some years I can retain a hold upon them, they may be instructed
+sufficiently to make them teachers in their turn to their own people.
+But all this is in the hands of God. My home journal will tell you
+particulars of our voyage. Don't believe in the ferocity, &c., of the
+islanders. When their passions are excited, they do commit fearful
+deeds, and they are almost universally cannibals, i.e. after a battle
+there will be always a cannibal feast, not otherwise. But treat them
+well and prudently, and I apprehend that there is little danger in
+visiting them, meaning by visiting merely landing on the beach the first
+time, going perhaps to a native village the next time, sleeping on shore
+the third, spending ten days the fourth, &c., &c. The language once
+learnt from the pupils we bring away, all is clear. And now good-bye, my
+dear Miss Neill. That I think of you and pray for you, you know, and I
+need not add that I value most highly your prayers for me. When I think
+of my happiness and good spirits, I must attribute much, very much, to
+God's goodness in accepting the prayers of my friends.'
+
+After the old custom of telling the home party all his doings, the
+journal-letter of the 27th of November goes through the teaching to the
+Bauro boys:--
+
+'I really think they comprehend thus much, that God, who made all
+things, made man, Adam and Eve, very good and holy; that Adam and Eve
+sinned, that they did not listen to the word of God, but to the Bad
+Spirit; that God found them out, though they were afraid and tried to
+hide (for He sees and knows all things); that He drove them out of the
+beautiful garden, and said that they must die; that they had two sons,
+Cain and Abel; that Cain killed his brother, and that all fighting
+and killing people, and all other sins (I mention all for which I have
+names) came into the world because of sin; that God and man were far
+apart, not living near, no peace between them because men were so
+evil. That God was so good that He loved men all the time, and that He
+promised to save all men who would believe in His Son Jesus Christ, who
+was to die for them (for I can't yet express, "was to die that men might
+not go down to the fire, but live for ever with God "); that by and by
+He sent a flood and drowned all men except Noah and seven other people,
+because men would not be good; that afterwards there was a very good
+man, named Abraham, who believed all about Jesus Christ, and God chose
+him, and his son Isaac, and his son Jacob, and his twelve sons, to be
+the fathers of a people called Jews; that those people alone knew about
+God, and had teachers and praying men: and that they killed lambs and
+offered them (gave them to God as a sign of Jesus Christ being one day
+slain and offered to God on a cross) but these very men became wicked
+too, and at last, when no man knew how to be happy and good, Jesus
+Christ came down from heaven. His mother was Mary, but He had no father
+on earth, only God the Father in heaven was His Father: the Holy Ghost
+made Mary to be mother of Jesus Christ.
+
+'Then I take two books, or anything else, and say, This one is God, and
+this is man. They are far apart, because man is so bad and God is so
+good. But Jesus Christ came in the middle between them, and joins them
+together. He is God and He is Man too; so in(side) Him, God and Man
+meet, like the meeting of two men in one path; and He says Himself He is
+the true Way, the only true Path to God and heaven. God was angry with
+us because we sinned; but Jesus Christ died on the cross, and then God
+the Father forgave us because Jesus Christ gave His life that we might
+always live, and not die. By and by He will come to judge us; and He
+knows what we do, whether we steal and lie, or whether we pray and teach
+what is good. Men of Bauro and Gera and Santa Cruz don't know that yet,
+but you do, and you must remember, if you go on doing as they do after
+you know God's will, you will be sent down to the fire, and not see
+Jesus Christ, who died that you might live.
+
+'I think that they know all this, and much in the exactly equivalent
+words. Of course I find difficulty in rendering religious ideas in a
+language which contains scarcely any words adequate to express them, but
+I am hopeful enough to believe that they do know so much at all events.
+How far their hearts are affected, One alone knows. It is indeed but
+little after they have been with us four months; but till I had them on
+shore, I could get very little work done. The constant boat work took me
+away, and anywhere in sight of islands, of course they were on deck in
+eagerness to see the strange country. Then I could not work with energy
+while my leg would not let me take exercise. But it is now beginning
+to be a real pleasure as well as duty to teach both Nengone and Bauro
+people. Enough of the language to avoid most of the drudgery has been
+got over, I hope, though not near enough for purposes of 'exact and
+accurate translation.'
+
+I have given at length this account of Patteson's fundamental teaching,
+though to some it may seem to savour of the infant school, because in
+spite of being hampered by imperfect knowledge of the language, he has
+thrown into it the great principle both of his action and teaching;
+namely, the restoration of the union of mankind with God through Christ.
+It never embraced that view of the heathen world which regards it as
+necessarily under God's displeasure, apart from actual evil, committed
+in wilful knowledge that it is evil. He held fast to the fact of man
+having been created in the image of God, and held that whatever good
+impulses and higher qualities still remained in the heathen, were the
+remnants of that Image, and to be hailed accordingly. Above all, he
+realised in his whole life the words to St. Peter: 'What God hath
+cleansed that call not thou common,' and not undervaluing for a moment
+Sacramental Grace, viewed human nature, while yet without the offer
+thereof, as still the object of fatherly and redeeming love, and full of
+fitful tokens of good coming from the only Giver of life and holiness,
+and needing to be brought nearer and strengthened by full union and
+light, instead of being left to be quenched in the surrounding flood
+of evil. 'And were by nature the children of wrath,' he did not hold
+to mean that men were objects of God's anger, lying under His deadly
+displeasure; but rather, children of wild impulse, creatures of passion,
+swayed resistlessly by their own desires, until made 'children of
+grace,' and thus obtaining the spiritual power needful to enable them to
+withstand these passions. An extract from the sermon he had preached at
+Sydney may perhaps best serve to illustrate his principle:--
+
+'And this love once generated in the heart of man, must needs pass on to
+his brethren; that principle of life must needs grow and expand with
+its own inherent energy; the seed must be developed into the tree, and
+strike its roots deep and wide, and stretch out its branches unto
+the sea and its boughs unto the rivers. No artificial nor accidental
+circumstances can confine it, it recognises no human ideas of
+nationality, or place, or time, but embraces like the dome of heaven all
+the works of God. And love is the animating principle of all. In every
+star of the sky, in the sparkling, glittering waves of the sea, in every
+flower of the field, in every creature of God, most of all in every
+living soul of man, it adores and blesses the beauty and the love of the
+great Creator and Preserver of all.
+
+'Viewed indeed from that position which was occupied by ancient
+philosophers, the existing contrarieties between nations might well
+appear inexplicable, and intellectual powers might seem to be the
+exclusive heritage of particular nations. But Christianity leads us to
+distinguish between the nature of man as he came fresh from the hands of
+his Creator, and that natural propensity to sin which he has inherited
+in consequence of his fall from original innocence. It teaches that as
+God has "made of one blood all nations to dwell together on the face
+of the whole earth," and has given in virtue of this common origin one
+common nature destined to be pure and holy and divine, so, by virtue of
+Redemption and Regeneration, the image of God may be restored in all,
+and whatever is the result of his depravity therefore may be overcome.
+And this seems to be the answer to all statements relating to the want
+of capacity in certain nations of the earth for the reception of Divine
+Truth, that every man, because he is a man, because he is a partaker of
+that very nature which has been taken into the Person of the Son of God,
+may by the grace of God be awakened to the sense of his true life, of
+his real dignity as a redeemed brother of Christ.
+
+'The spark of heavenly fire may indeed have been all but quenched by
+the unbridled indulgence of his passions; the natural wickedness of the
+heart of man may have exhibited itself with greater fearfulness where no
+laws and customs have introduced restraints against at least the outward
+expression of vice; but the capacity for the Christian life is there;
+though overlaid, it may be, with monstrous forms of superstition or
+cruelty or ignorance, the conscience can still respond to the voice of
+the Gospel of Truth.'
+
+And one who so entirely believed and acted upon these words found them
+true. The man who verily treated the lads he had gathered round him with
+a perfectly genuine sympathy, a love and a self-denial--nay more, an
+identification of self with them--awoke all that was best in their
+characters, and met with full response. Enthusiastic partiality of
+course there was in his estimate of them; but is it not one of the
+absolute requisites of a good educator to feel that enthusiasm, like
+the parent for the child? And is it always the blind admiration at which
+outsiders smile; is it not rather indifference which is blind, and love
+which sees the truth?
+
+'I would not exchange my position with these lads and young men for
+anything (he wrote, on December 8, to his uncle, the Eton master). I
+wish you could see them and know them; I don't think you ever had pupils
+that could win their way into your heart more effectually than these
+fellows have attached themselves to me. It is no effort to love them
+heartily. Gariri, a dear boy from San Cristoval, is standing by me now,
+at my desk, in amazement at the pace that my pen is going, not knowing
+that I could write to you, my dear old tutor, for hours together if I
+had nothing else to do. He is, I suppose, about sixteen, a most
+loveable boy, gentle, affectionate, with all the tropical softness and
+kindliness.
+
+'We have seven Solomon Islanders--five from Mata, a village at the
+north-west of San Cristoval, and two from the south-east point of
+Guadalcanar, or Gera, a magnificent island about twenty-five or twenty
+miles to the north-west of San Cristoval. From frequent intercourse they
+are almost bilingual, a great "lounge" for me, as one language does for
+both; the structure of the two island tongues is the same, but scarcely
+any words much alike. However, that is not much odds.
+
+'Then from Nengone, where you remember Mr. Nihill died after eighteen
+months' residence on the island, we have four men and two women, both
+married. Of these, two men and both the women have been baptized, some
+time ago, by the Bishop, in 1852, and one by the London Mission, who now
+occupy the island. These four I have, with full trust, admitted to the
+Holy Communion. Mr. Nihill had taught them well, and I am sure they
+could pass an examination in Scriptural history, simple doctrinal
+statements, &c., as well as most young English people of the middle
+class of life. The other two are well taught, and one of them knows a
+great deal, but, poor fellow, he misconducted himself at Nengone, and
+hence I cannot recommend him to the Bishop for baptism without much talk
+about him.
+
+'But I think my love is more poured out upon my Bauro and Gera lads.
+They are such dear fellows, and I trust that already they begin to
+know something about religion. Certain it is that they answer readily
+questions and say with their mouths what amounts almost to a statement
+of the most important Christian truths. Of course I cannot tell what
+effect this may have on their hearts. They join in prayer morning and
+evening, they behave admirably, and really there is nothing in their
+conduct to find fault with. If it please God that any of them were at
+some future time to stay again with us, I have great hopes that they may
+learn enough to become teachers in their own country.
+
+'The Nengone lads are quite in a different position. Their language has
+been reduced to writing, the Gospel of St. Mark translated, and they can
+all read a little English, so that at evening prayers we read a verse
+all round, and then I catechise and expound to them in Nengone.
+
+'I really trust that by God's blessing some real opening into the great
+Solomon group has been effected. There is every hope that many boys will
+join us this next voyage. No one can say what may be the result. As yet
+it is possible to get on without more help, but I do not for a moment
+doubt that should God really grant not only a wide field of labour, but
+some such hope of cultivating it, He will send forth plenty of men to
+share in this work. Men who have some means of their own--L100 a year is
+enough, or even less--or some aptitude for languages, surely will feel
+drawn in this direction. It is the happiest life a man can lead, full of
+enjoyment, physical and mental, exquisite scenery, famous warm
+climate, lots of bathing, yams and taro and cocoa-nut enough to make an
+alderman's mouth water, and such loving, gentle people. But of course
+something depends on the way in which a man looks at these things, and
+a fine gentleman who can't get on without his servant, and can't put his
+luggage for four months into a compass of six feet by one-and-a-half,
+won't like it....
+
+'You know the kind of incidents that occur, so I need not repeat them
+to you. I have quite learnt to believe that there are no "savages"
+anywhere, at least among black or coloured people. I'd like to see
+anyone call my Bauro boys savages! Why, the fellows on the reef that
+have never seen a white man will wade back to the boat and catch one's
+arms to prevent one falling into pits among the coral, just like an old
+nurse looking after her child. This they did at Santa Maria, where we
+two swam ashore to a party of forty or fifty men, and where our visit
+was evidently a very agreeable one on both sides, though we did not know
+one syllable of the language, and then.... But I almost tremble to think
+of the immense amount of work opening upon one. Whither will it lead?
+But I seldom find any time for speculations; and oh, my dear tutor, I
+am as happy as the day is long, though it never seems long to me!....
+My dear father writes in great anxiety about the Denison case. Oh dear!
+what a cause of thankfulness it is to be out of the din of controversy,
+and to find hundreds of thousands longing for crumbs which are shaken
+about so roughly in these angry disputes! It isn't High or Low or Broad
+Church, or any other special name, but the longing desire to forget all
+distinctions, and to return to a simpler state of things, that seems
+naturally to result from the very sight of heathen people. Who thinks of
+anything but this: "They have not heard the Name of the Saviour Who died
+for them," when he is standing with crowds of naked fellows round him? I
+can't describe the intense happiness of this life. I suppose trials will
+come some day, and I almost dread the thought, for I surely shall not be
+prepared to bear them. I have no trials at all, even of a small kind, to
+teach me how to bear up under great ones.'
+
+In truth Coleridge Patteson had entered on the happiest period of his
+life. He had found his vocation, and his affections were fastening
+themselves upon his black flock, so that, without losing a particle
+of his home love, the yearnings homewards were appeased, and the fully
+employed time, and sense of success and capability, left no space for
+the self-contemplation and self-criticism of his earlier life. He gives
+amusing sketches of the scenes:--
+
+'The donkey here, a fatally stubborn brute, is an unceasing amusement to
+my boys. No one of them can retain his seat more than ten minutes, but
+they all fall like cats on their legs amid cries of laughter. The
+donkey steers straight for some small scrubby trees, and then kicks and
+plunges, or else rubs their legs against the sides of the house, and
+all this time the boys are leaping about the unfortunate fellow who is
+mounted, and the fun is great.
+
+'Wadrokala, one of the Nengone lads, who had recently made his first
+communion, became the prominent scholar at this time. He had thought
+a good deal. One night he said: "I have heard all kinds of words
+used--faith, repentance, praise, prayer--and I don't clearly understand
+what is the real great thing, the chief thing of all. They used these
+words confusedly, and I feel puzzled. Then I read that the Pharisees
+knew a great deal of the law, and so did the Scribes, and yet they were
+not good. I am not doing anything good. Now I know something of the
+Bible, and I can write; and I fear very much, I often feel very much
+afraid, that I am not good, I am not doing anything good."'
+
+He was talked to, and comforted with hopes of future work; but a day
+or two later his feelings were unconsciously hurt by being told in joke
+that he was wearing a shabby pair of trousers to save the good ones to
+take home to Nengone. His remonstrance was poured out upon a slate:--
+
+'Mr. Patteson, this is my word:--I am unhappy because of the word you
+said to me that I wished for clothes. I have left my country. I do not
+seek clothes for the body. What is the use of clothes? Can my spirit be
+clothed with clothes for the body? Therefore my heart is greatly afraid;
+but you said I greatly wished for clothes, which I do not care for.
+One thing only I care for, that I may receive the life for my spirit.
+Therefore I fear, I confess, and say to you, it is not the thing for the
+body I want, but the one thing I want is the clothing for the soul, for
+Jesus Christ's sake, our Lord.'
+
+Soon after a very happy Christmas, Wadrokala and Kainwhat expressed a
+desire, after a final visit to their native island, to return with Mr.
+Patteson, and be prepared to be sent as native teachers to any dark
+land, as the Samoans had come to them.
+
+Wadrokala narrated something of the history of his island, a place with
+6,000 inhabitants, with one tribe forming a priestly caste, the head of
+which was firmly believed by even these Christian Nengonese to possess
+the power of striking men dead by his curse. Caroline, Kainwhat and
+Kowine were the children of a terrible old chief named Bula, who
+had fifty-five wives, and whose power was almost absolute. If anyone
+offended him, he would send either a priest or one of his sons to kill
+the man, and bring the corpse, of which the thighs were always reserved
+for his special eating, the trunk being given to his slaves. If one
+of his wives offended him, he sent for the high priest, who cursed
+her--simply said, 'She has died,' and die she did. A young girl who
+refused to marry him was killed and eaten, or if any person omitted to
+come into his presence crouching, the penalty was to be devoured; in
+fact, he seems to have made excuses for executions in order to gratify
+his appetite for human flesh, which was considered as particularly
+dainty fare. Everyone dreaded him, and when at last he died a natural
+death, his chief wife was strangled by her own brother, as a matter
+of course. Such horrors as these had pretty well ceased by that time,
+though still many Nengonese were heathen, and the priests were firmly
+believed to have the power of producing death and disease at will by
+a curse. Wadrokala, with entire conviction, declared that one of his
+father's wives had thus been made a cripple for life.
+
+Nengonese had become almost as familiar to Coley as Maori, and his
+Sundays at this time were decidedly polyglot; since, besides a regular
+English service at Taranaki, he often took a Maori service, and preached
+extempore in that tongue, feeling that the people's understanding went
+along with him; and there were also, in early morning and late evening,
+prayers, partly in Nengonese, partly in Bauro, at the College chapel,
+and a sermon, first in one language, and then repeated in the other. The
+Nengone lads, who had the question of adherence to the London Mission
+at home, or the Church in New Zealand, put to them, came deliberately
+to entreat to remain always with Mr. Patteson, saying that they saw that
+this teaching of the Church was right, and they wished to work in it. It
+was a difficult point, as the London Mission was reasserting a claim
+to the Loyalty Isles, and the hopes of making them a point d'appui were
+vanishing; but these men and their wives could not but be accepted, and
+Simeona was preparing for baptism. A long letter to Professor Max
+Muller on the languages will be found in the Appendix. The Bishop of New
+Zealand thus wrote to Sir John Patteson respecting Coley and his work:--
+
+
+'Taurarua, Auckland: March 2, 1857.
+
+'My dear Judge,--Your letter of December 5 made me very happy, by
+assuring me of the satisfaction which you feel in your son's duties and
+position. I do indeed most thankfully acknowledge the goodness of God
+in thus giving me timely aid, when I was pledged to a great work, but
+without any steady force to carry it on. Coley is, as you say, the right
+man in the right place, mentally and physically: the multiplicity of
+languages, which would try most men, is met by his peculiar gift; the
+heat of the climate suits his constitution; his mild and parental temper
+makes his black boys cling about him as their natural protector; and his
+freedom from fastidiousness makes all parts of the work easy to him; for
+when you have to teach boys how to wash themselves, and to wear clothes
+for the first time, the romance of missionary work disappears as
+completely as a great man's heroism before his valet de chambre.
+
+'On Sunday, February 22, we had a native baptism, an adult from Nengone
+and his infant child. Coley used the Baptismal Service, which he had
+translated, and preached fluently in the Nengone tongue, as he had done
+in the morning in New Zealand. The careful study which we had together
+of the latter on our voyage out will be of great use in many other
+dialects, and Mrs. Nihill has given him her husband's Nengone
+manuscripts.
+
+'You know in what direction my wishes tend, viz., that Coley, when he
+has come to suitable age, and has developed, as I have no doubt he will,
+a fitness for the work, should be the first island Bishop, upon the
+foundation, of which you and your brother Judge, and Sir W. Farquhar,
+are trustees; that Norfolk Island should be the see of the Bishop,
+because the character of its population, the salubrity of its climate,
+and its insular position, make it the fittest place for the purpose.
+
+'Your affectionate and grateful friend,
+
+'G. A. NEW ZEALAND.'
+
+
+By the same mail Patteson himself wrote to Miss Neill:--
+
+'If it please God to give us some few native teachers from Bauro and
+Grera, not to be sent before, but to go with or follow us (i.e. Bishop
+and me), in a short time the word of God might be heard in many a grand
+wild island, resplendent with everything that a tropical climate and
+primeval forests, etc., can bestow, and thickly populated with an
+intelligent and, as I imagine, tolerably docile race, of whom some are
+already "stretching out their hands unto God."
+
+'All these Solomon Islanders here would answer questions about
+Christianity as well, perhaps, as children of nine or ten years old
+in England. Some seem to feel that there is a real connection between
+themselves and what they are taught, and speak of the love of God in
+giving Jesus Christ to die for them, and say that God's Holy Spirit
+alone can enlighten their dark hearts.
+
+'That beautiful image of light and darkness seems common to all nations.
+The regular word used by the Nengone people, who are far more advanced
+in Christian knowledge and practice, for all heathen places is "the dark
+lands."
+
+'On Sunday week, February 22, we had a deeply interesting service in the
+College chapel at 7.15 P.M., just as the English world was beginning its
+Sunday. Simeona and his infant boy of four weeks and three days old were
+baptized. The College chapel was nicely lighted, font decorated simply.
+I read the service in Nengone, having had all hands at work setting the
+types and printing on Friday and Saturday. The Bishop took the part of
+the service which immediately precedes the actual baptism, and baptized
+them both--first the father, by the name of George Selwyn, then the
+baby, by the name of John Patteson. This was the special request of the
+parents, and as it is my dear Father's name, how could I object? He is,
+of course, my godson, and a dear little fellow he is. At the end of my
+sermon, I added a few words to "George," and besought the prayers of
+the Nengone people for him and his child. We have now four regular
+communicants among them--Wadrokala, Mark (Kainwhat), Carry and Sarah.
+George is baptized, and baby; and Sarah's child, Lizzy, I baptized long
+ago. In about two months (D. V.), we are off for a good spell of four
+or five months among the islands, taking back this party, though some of
+them will, by and by, rejoin us again, I hope.'
+
+The plan of starting in April for a four or five months' cruise was
+disconcerted, as regarded Bishop Selwyn, by the delay of Bishop Harper
+and the Archdeacons in arriving for the intended Synod, which was thus
+put off till May, too wintry a month for the Melanesians to spend in New
+Zealand. After some doubt, it was decided that Mr. Patteson should make
+a short voyage, for the mere purpose of returning his scholars to their
+homes, come back to Auckland, and make a fresh start when the Bishop was
+ready.
+
+In prospect of the parting, Patteson writes to his beloved old governess
+(March 19, 1857):--
+
+'You will like a report of my pupils, especially as I can give most
+of them a good ticket, little mark and all, as we used to say of yours
+(though not as often as we ought to have done) to our dear mother.
+You never had such willing pupils, though you turned out some, I hope,
+eventually as good. In your hands these lads would be something indeed.
+Really they have no faults that I can detect, and when their previous
+state is considered, it is wonderful; for all this time they have been
+with us, the greatest fault has been a fit of sulkiness, lasting
+about half a day, with three of them. Their affection, gentleness,
+unselfishness, cheerfulness, willingness to oblige, in some of them a
+natural gentlemanly way of doing things, and sometimes indications of
+what we should call high principle--all these things give one great
+hopes, not for them only, but for all these nations, that, refined by
+Christianity, they may be bright examples of manly virtues and Christian
+graces.'
+
+To some, no doubt, these expressions will seem exaggerated, but not to
+those who have had any experience of the peculiar suavity and grace
+that often is found in the highbred men of native races, before they are
+debased by the corruptions brought in by white men. Moreover, in every
+case, the personal influence of the teacher when in immediate contact
+with a sufficiently small number, is quite enough to infuse good habits
+and obviate evil ones to an extent quite inconceivable to those who have
+not watched the unconscious exertion of this power. Patteson knew that
+too much reliance must not be placed on present appearance.
+
+'It is dangerous (he says), to have persons clinging to you too much. I
+feel that; but then these fellows, I take it, are very impulsive, and no
+doubt the cocoanuts in their own land will exercise a counter-influence
+to mine, and so I shall soon be undeceived if I learn to think too much
+of their personal affection; but I never knew such dear lads, I don't
+know how I shall get on without them.
+
+'You must be looking forward to your spring and summer. How delicious
+some of those days are in England! We miss the freshness of a deciduous
+foliage, our evergreens look dull, and we have no deciduous trees as
+yet. A good scamper with Joan on the East Hill, or a drive with Fan in
+the pony carriage along a lane full of primroses and violets would be
+pleasant indeed, and so would a stroll with old Jem up the river be
+happy indeed, and I could almost quit the "Southern Cross" for dear
+Father's quarter-deck in the "Hermitage," but that I am, I believe,
+sailing in the right vessel, and, as I trust, on the right course to the
+haven where we may all meet and rest for ever.'
+
+On Good Friday the three Nengone young men who had been baptized were
+confirmed, and on the Wednesday in Easter Week the 'Southern Cross'
+sailed, this time with a responsible sailing master. At Nengone Mr.
+Patteson had a friendly interview with Mr. Craig, the London Society's
+missionary, and explained to him the state of things with regard to
+these individual pupils; then, after being overwhelmed with presents by
+the Christian population, shaped his course for Bauro.
+
+On the way he had the experience of a tropical thunderstorm, after
+having been well warned by the sinking of the barometer through the
+whole of the day, the 27th of April. 'At 7.30 the breeze came up, and
+the big drops began, when suddenly a bright forked flash so sustained
+that it held its place before our eyes like an immense white-hot crooked
+wire, seemed to fall on the deck, and be splintered there. But one
+moment and the tremendous crack of the thunder was alive and around
+us, making the masts tremble. For more than an hour the flashes were so
+continuous that I think every three seconds we had a perfect view of
+the whole horizon. I especially remember the firmament between the lurid
+thunder clouds looking quite blue, so intense was the light. The thunder
+rolled on without cessation, but the tremendous claps occurred only at
+intervals. We have no lightning conductor, and I felt somewhat anxious;
+went below and prayed God to preserve us from lightning and fire, read
+the magnificent chapter at the end of Job. As the storm went on, I
+thought that at that very hour you were praying "From lightning and
+tempest, good Lord, deliver us." We had no wind: furious rain, repeated
+again from midnight to three this morning. About eleven the thunder
+had ceased, but the broad flashes of lightning were still frequent. The
+lightning was forked and jagged, and one remarkable thing was the length
+of time that the line of intense light was kept up, like a gigantic
+firework, so that the shape of the flash could be drawn with entire
+accuracy by any one that could handle a pencil. It was a grand and
+solemn sight and sound, and I am very thankful we were preserved from
+danger, for the storm was right upon us, and the danger must have been
+great.'
+
+A ready welcome awaited the 'Southern Cross' at Bauro, in a lovely bay
+hitherto unvisited, where a perfect flotilla of canoes came off to greet
+her, and the two chiefs, Iri and Eimaniaka, came on board, and no less
+than fifty-five men with them. The chiefs and about a dozen men were
+invited to spend the night on board. The former lay on the floor of the
+inner cabin, talking and listening while their host set before them some
+of the plain truths of Christianity. He landed next day, and returned
+the visit by going to Iri's hut, where he pointed to the skulls,
+discoursed on the hatefulness of such decorations, and recommended their
+burial. He also had an opportunity of showing a Christian's horror of
+unfilial conduct, when Rimaniaka struck his mother for being slow in
+handing yams; and when a man begged for a passage to Gera in direct
+opposition to his father's commands, he was dismissed with the words, 'I
+will have nothing to do with a man who does not obey his own father.'
+
+At Gera there was also a great assembly of canoes, and as all hands were
+wanted on board, Patteson went ashore in a canoe with the brother of
+one of the scholars. He was told that he was the first white man who had
+ever landed there, and the people showed a good deal of surprise, but
+were quite peaceable, and the presence of women and children was a sign
+that there was no danger. When he tried to return to the ship, a heavy
+sea came on, and the canoes were forced to put back, and he thus found
+himself obliged to spend the night on the island. He was taken into a
+house with two rooms, in each of which numbers of men were lying on the
+ground, a small wood fire burning in the midst of each group of three or
+four.
+
+A grass mat was brought him, and a bit of wood for a pillow, and as
+he was wet through, cold, and very tired, he lay down; but sleep was
+impossible, from tormenting vermin, as well as because it seemed to be
+the custom of the people to be going backwards and forwards all night,
+sitting over the fire talking, then dropping asleep and waking to talk
+again. A yam was brought him after about an hour, and long before dawn
+he escaped into the open air, and sat over a tire there till at high
+tide, at six o'clock in the morning, he was able to put off again and
+reach the ship, where forty-five natives had slept, and behaved well.
+
+'The sense of cold and dirt and weariness was not pleasing,' he
+confesses, and certainly the contrast to the Eton and Oxford habits was
+great. There was a grand exchange of presents; hatchets, adzes,
+hooks and empty bottles on one side, and a pig and yams on the other.
+Immediately after follows a perilous adventure, which, as we shall find,
+made a deep impression. It is thus related in a letter for the benefit
+of Thorverton Rectory:--
+
+
+'At Sea: Lat. 19 deg. 50' S.; long. 167 deg. 41' E.
+
+'My dearest Uncle,--May is a month specially connected henceforward
+in my mind with a merciful deliverance from great peril, which God
+vouchsafed to us on May 2nd. We touched on a reef at the Isle of
+Guadalcanar, one of the Solomon Islands, in lat. 9 deg. 50', and but for
+God's mercy in blessing our exertions, we might have incurred fearful
+danger of losing the Mission vessel. As it was, in a couple of minutes
+we were off the reef and in deep safe water--to Him be the praise and
+the glory! I have written all particulars as usual to my father, and now
+that the danger has been averted, you will rejoice to hear how great a
+door is opened to us in that part of the world. Personal safety ensured,
+and, so far as can be judged of, no apparent obstacle in the way of the
+Mission in that quarter. Had this great peril not occurred--and it was
+to human eyes and in human language the mere "chance" of a minute--I
+might have dwelt with too much satisfaction on the bright side of the
+picture. As it is, it is a lesson to me "to think soberly." I can hardly
+trust myself to write yet with my usual freedom of the scenery, natives,
+&c. One great thought is before me--"Is it all real that we touched on
+that reef in the sight of hundreds of natives?" It was not a sense of
+personal danger--that could not occur at such a time; but the idea that
+the vessel might be lost, the missionary operations suspended, &c.; this
+shot through me in those two minutes! But I had no time for more than
+mental prayer, for I was pulling at ropes with all my strength; not
+till it was all over could I go below and fall on my knees in a burst
+of thanksgiving and praise. We suppose that there must be a very strong
+under-current near the reef at the mouth of the bay, for the vessel,
+instead of coming round as usual (and there was abundance of room),
+would not obey the helm, and we touched an outlying rock before we could
+alter the sails, when she rounded instantly on the other tack. Humanly
+speaking, she would have come off very soon, as the tide was flowing,
+and she received no damage, as we came very gently against the rock,
+which was only about the size of an ordinary table. But it is an event
+to be remembered by me with thankfulness all my life. I think the number
+of natives who had been on deck and about us in canoes that morning
+could not have been less than 450. They behaved very well. Of the
+five principal chiefs three could talk some Bauro language, so I could
+communicate with them, and this was one reason why I felt satisfied of
+their good-will. They gave me two pigs, about 500 or 600 cocoa-nuts,
+and upwards of a ton of yams, though I told them I had only two small
+hatchets, five or six adzes, a few gimlets, and empty bottles to give in
+exchange. If I had not been satisfied of their being quite friendly, I
+would not have put ourselves so entirely into their power; but it is of
+the greatest consequence to let the natives of a place see that you
+are not suspicious, and where there is no evident hazard in so doing, I
+think I ought to act upon it. Perhaps the Bishop, being an older hand at
+it, will think I was rash; but as far as the natives are concerned, the
+result shows I was quite right; the letting go a kedge in deepish water
+is another matter, that was a mistake I know now. But we could not work
+the vessel by reason of the crowds of natives, and what was I to do?
+Either not stand close in, as they all expected, or let go a kedge. If I
+did not go into the mouth of the bay, they would have said, "He does not
+trust us," and mutual suspicion would have been (possibly) the result,
+and I could not make them understand rightly the reason why I did not
+want to drop the kedge or small anchor.
+
+'I had slept on shore about three miles up the bay among a number of
+natives, twenty-five or twenty-six in the same room with me, on the
+previous evening: at least, I lay down in my things, which, by the bye,
+were drenched through with salt and rain water. They said I was the
+first white person that had been ashore there. They treated me very
+well. How in the face of all this could I run the risk of letting them
+think I was unwilling to trust them? So I think still that I was right
+in all but one thing. I ought to have ascertained better the nature
+of the current and the bottom of the harbour, to see if there was good
+holding ground. But it is easier to do those things in an English port
+than in the sight of a number of natives, and especially when there is
+but one person able to communicate with the said natives. If I went off
+in the boat sounding, who was to look after the schooner? If I stayed
+on board, who was to explain to the natives what was being done in the
+boat? Besides, we have but five men on board, including the master
+and mate, and one of them was disabled by a bad hand, so that if I
+had manned the boat, I should have left only three able-bodied men on
+board--it was a puzzle, you see, dear Uncle. Now I have entered into
+this long defence lest any of you dear ones should think me rash.
+Indeed, I don't want to run any risks at all. But there was no risk
+here, as I supposed, and had we chosen to go round on the other tack we
+should have known nothing of a risk now. As it was, we did run a great
+hazard of grounding on the reef, and therefore, Laus Deo.
+
+'Oh! dear little Pena, if you had only seen the village which, as yet,
+I alone of white people have been allowed to see--the great tall
+cocoa-nuts, so tall and slender at the top, that I was almost afraid
+when a boy was sent up to gather some nuts for me--the cottages of
+bamboo and cocoa-nut leaves--the great forest trees, the parrots flying
+about among the branches--the crowd of men and children and a few women
+all looking at, and some talking to the strange chief, "who had spoken
+the truth and brought their kinsman as he promised,"--the sea in the
+harbour shut off by small islets and looking like a beautiful lake with
+high wooded and steep banks--the pretty canoes on the beach, and the
+great state canoe lying at its stone anchor about fifty yards off, about
+fifty feet long, and inlaid throughout with mother-of-pearl, the spears
+leaning against the houses--men stalking about with a kind of club (the
+great chief Puruhanua gave me his);--I think your little head would have
+been almost turned crazy....
+
+'June 4th, Auckland.--We reached harbour a week ago in a violent
+squall of wind and rain at 8.45 P.M. Anxious night after the anchor
+was dropped, lest the vessel should drag. Nine days coming from Norfolk
+Island, very heavy weather--no accident, but jib-boom pitched away while
+lying to in a south-easter....
+
+'Your loving nephew,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+The Rev. Benjamin Thornton Dudley, for several years a most valuable
+helper in the work, both at home and abroad, gives the following account
+of his own share in it, and his recollections of that first year:--
+
+'The first time I ever saw Mr. Patteson was in the beginning of 1856,
+when you (this is a letter to Mrs. Selwyn) all visited Lyttelton in
+the newly arrived "Southern Cross." That indescribable charm of manner,
+calculated at once to take all hearts by storm, was not perhaps as
+fully developed in him then as afterwards, and my experience was then
+comparatively limited, yet his words in the sermon he preached on behalf
+of the Melanesian Mission (a kind of historical review of the growth and
+spread of the Gospel), although coming after the wonderful sermon of the
+Bishop in the morning, made a deep impression on several of us, myself
+among the number.
+
+'You came to Lyttelton at the end of 1856 again, this time without him,
+and the Bishop brought me up to St. John's College, and placed me under
+him there. I remember at first how puzzled I felt as to what my position
+was, and what I was expected to do. Not a single direction was given
+me by Mr. Patteson, nor did he invite me to take a class in the
+comparatively small Melanesian school. Gradually it dawned upon me that
+I was purposely left there, and that I was expected to offer myself for
+anything I could do. When I offered myself I was allowed to assist in
+this and that, until at length I fell into my regular place. Although
+the treatment I received in this respect puzzled me, I felt his great
+kindness from the first. How bright he was in those days, and how
+overflowing with spirits when among the Melanesians. What fun there used
+to be of a morning, when he would come and hunt the lazy ones out of
+bed, drive them down to the bath house, and there assist their ablutions
+with a few basins of water thrown at them; and what an amount of quiet
+"chaff" used to go on at breakfast time about it as we sat with them
+in the great hall, without any of those restraints of the "high table"
+which were introduced at dinner.
+
+'During the first voyage made that year to return our Melanesian party,
+I think Mr. Patteson was feeling very much out of sorts. I do not
+remember any time during the years in which I was permitted to see so
+much of him when he took things so easily. He spoke of himself as lazy,
+and I confess I used to wonder somewhat how it was that he retired so
+completely into the cabin, and did apparently so little in the way of
+study. He read the "Heir of Redclyffe," and other books of light reading
+in that voyage. I understood better afterwards what, raw youth as I
+was at the time, puzzled me in one for whom I was already beginning
+to entertain a feeling different from any previously experienced. That
+seems to me now to have been quite a necessary pause in his life after
+he had with wholeheartedness and full intention given himself to his
+work, but before he had fully faced all its requirements and had learnt
+to map out his whole time with separate toil.'
+
+So concluded what may be called the first term of Coley Patteson's
+tutorship of his island boys. His work is perhaps best summed up in this
+sentence in a letter to me from Mrs. Abraham: 'Mr. Patteson's love for
+them, and his facility in communicating with them in their own tongue,
+make his dealing with the present set much more intimate and effective
+than it has ever been before, and their affections towards him are drawn
+out in a lively manner.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE AND LIFU. 1857-1859.
+
+
+
+It seems to me that the years between 1856 and 1861 were the very
+brightest of Coleridge Patteson's life. He had left all for Christ's
+sake and the Gospel's, and was reaping the blessing in its freshness.
+His struggles with his defects had been successful, the more so
+because he was so full of occupation that the old besetting trouble,
+self-contemplation, had been expelled for lack of opportunity; and he
+had become far more simple, since humility was ceasing to be a conscious
+effort.
+
+There is a light-heartedness about his letters like that of the old Eton
+times. Something might have been owing to the impulse of health, which
+was due to the tropical heat. Most probably this heat was what exhausted
+his constitution so early, but at first it was a delightful stimulus,
+and gave him exemption from all those discomforts with which cold had
+affected him at home. This exhilaration bore him over the many trials
+of close contact with uncivilised human nature so completely that his
+friends never even guessed at his natural fastidiousness. That which
+might have been selfish in this fastidiousness was conquered, though the
+refinement remained. Even to the last, in his most solitary hours, this
+personal neatness never relaxed, but the victory over disgust was a real
+triumph over self, which no doubt was an element of happiness.
+
+While the Bishop continued to go on the voyages with him, he had
+companionship, guidance, and comparatively no responsibility, while his
+success, that supreme joy, was wonderfully unalloyed, and he felt
+his own especial gifts coming constantly into play. His love for his
+scholars was one continual well of delight, and really seemed to be an
+absolute gift, enabling him to win them over, and compensating for what
+he had left, even while he did not cease to love his home with deep
+tenderness.
+
+Another pair of New Zealand friends had to be absent for a time.
+Archdeacon Abraham's arm was so severely injured by an accident with
+a horse, that the effects were far more serious than those of a common
+fracture. The disaster took place in Patteson's presence. 'I shall never
+forget,' writes his friend, 'his gentleness and consideration as he
+first laid me down in a room and then went to tell my wife.'
+
+It was found necessary to have recourse to English advice; the
+Archdeacon and Mrs. Abraham went home, and were never again residents at
+Auckland.
+
+A letter to Mr. Justice Coleridge was written in the interval between
+the voyages:--
+
+
+'Auckland: June 12, 1857.
+
+'My dear Uncle,--You will not give me credit for being a good
+correspondent, I fear; but the truth is that I seldom find time to
+do more than write long chatty letters to my dear father and sisters,
+occasionally to Thorverton, and to Miss Neill and one or two others to
+cheer them in their sickness and weariness. Any news from afar may be a
+real relaxation.
+
+'For myself I need only say that I find these dear people most
+attractive and winning, that it is no effort to love them, that they
+display all natural gifts in a remarkable way--good temper, affection,
+gentleness, obedience, gratitude, &c., occasionally real self-restraint.
+Dear Hirika's last words to me at San Cristoval were, "Oh, I do love you
+so," and his conduct showed it. He is a bright handsome lad, clever
+but inaccurate, of most sweet disposition. In matters of personal
+cleanliness, healthy appearance, &c., the change in seven months
+was that of a lad wholly savage becoming neat, tidy in dress, and of
+gentlemanly appearance. In some ways he was my pet of the whole party,
+though I have equally bright hopes of Grariri, a sturdy, honest fellow
+with the best temper I almost ever found among lads of sixteen anywhere,
+and Kerearua is the most painstaking fellow of the lot; and a boy whose
+distinguishing features it would be hard to describe; but he may be
+summed up as a very good boy, and certainly a most loveable one. Sumaro
+and Kimarua older and less interesting.
+
+'I printed short catechisms, a translation of the Lord's Prayer, Creed,
+General Confession, two or three other of the Common Prayer prayers, and
+one or two short missionary prayers in the dialect of both islands; but
+I can only speak at all fluently the language of San Cristoval.
+
+'Of the Nengone people I could say much more. The two young women
+(married) and the two young unmarried men had been under Mr. Nihill's
+instruction two or three years, baptized, and were regular communicants
+while at the College. Simeona was baptized on the same day as his infant
+son, after he had been with us five months. He and the other four were
+confirmed at the College chapel, and he afterwards received the Holy
+Communion with the rest.
+
+'Kowine, a lad of seventeen, is not baptized, though well instructed. We
+were not wholly satisfied about him. Of the knowledge of them all I can
+speak with the utmost confidence. They know more a great deal than most
+candidates for confirmation in a well-regulated English parish. It was
+delightful to work with them. We wrote Bible history, which has reached
+about fifty sheets in MS. in small handwriting, bringing the history
+to the time of Joshua; very many questions and answers, and translated
+ninety pages of the Prayer Book, including Services for Infant and Adult
+Baptism, Catechism, Burial Service, &c.
+
+'It is most interesting work, though not easy, and much of it will no
+doubt be altered when we come to know the language thoroughly well. This
+island of Nengone (called also Maro and Britannia Island) contains
+about 6,500 inhabitants, of whom some profess Christianity, while the
+remainder are still fighting and eating one another, though accessible
+to white people.
+
+'We hope to have time to see something of the heathen population, though
+the London Mission Society having re-occupied the island, we do not
+regularly visit it with the intention of establishing ourselves.... The
+language is confined to that island. I call it language, not dialect,
+for it is, I believe, really distinct from any others we have or have
+heard of, very soft, like Italian, and capable of expressing accurately
+minute shades of meaning. Causative forms, &c., remind us of the
+oriental structure, one peculiarity (that of the chief's dialect, or
+almost language, running parallel to that of common life) I think I have
+before mentioned.
+
+'In about a month I suppose we shall be off again for three or four
+months, and we long to get hold of pupils from the Banks Archipelago,
+Santa Cruz, Espiritu Santo, in which no ground is broken at present. We
+visited them last year, but did not get any pupils; lovely islands, very
+populous, and the natives very bright, intelligent-looking. But how I
+long to see again some of my own dear boys, I do so think of them! It
+may be that two or three of them may come again to us, and then we may
+perhaps hope that they may learn enough to be really useful to their own
+people.... Dear uncle, I should indeed rejoice much to see my dear, dear
+father and sisters and Jem and all of you if it came in the way of one's
+business, but I think, so long as I am well, that the peculiar nature of
+this work must require the constant presence of one personally known to,
+and not only officially connected with, the natives. While I feel very
+strongly that in many ways intercourse occasionally resumed with the
+home clergy must be very useful to us, yet if you can understand that
+there is no one to take one's place, you see how very unlikely it must
+be that I can move from this hemisphere. I say "if you can understand,"
+for it does seem sad that one should really be in such a position that
+one's presence should be of any consequence; but, till it please God
+that the Bishop shall receive other men for this Mission, there is no
+other teacher for these lads, and so we must rub on and do the best
+we can. Of course I should be most thankful, most happy if, during his
+lifetime, I once more found myself at home, but I don't think much nor
+speculate about it, and I am very happy, as I am well and hearty. You
+won't suspect me of any lessening of strong affection for all that
+savours of home. I think that I know every face in Alfington and in
+Feniton, and very many in Ottery as of old; I believe I think of all
+with increasing affection, but while I wonder at it, I must also confess
+that I can and do live happy day after day without enjoying the sight of
+those dear faces.
+
+'Always your affectionate and grateful nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+As soon as the 'Southern Cross' had carried Bishop Harper back to
+Lyttelton, the Melanesian voyage was recommenced, this time with a
+valuable assistant in Mr. Benjamin Dudley. Mrs. Selwyn was again dropped
+at Norfolk Island, and five young Pitcairners were taken on board to
+serve as a boat's crew, and also to receive instruction.
+
+This was a more extensive voyage than the first, as more time could be
+spent on it, but there is less full description, as there was less time
+for writing; and besides, these coral islands are much alike. Futuma was
+the first new island visited:--
+
+'The canoes did not venture to come off to us, so we went ashore in
+the boat, Bishop and I wading ankle-deep to the beach. Forty or fifty
+natives under a deep overhanging rock, crouching around a fire, plenty
+of lads and boys, no women. Some Tanna men in the group, with their
+faces painted red and black, hair (as you know) elaborately frizzled and
+dressed with coral lime. The Futuma people speak a different language
+from those of Anaiteum, and the Tanna people speak a third (having,
+moreover, four dialects of their own). These three islands are all in
+sight of each other. Tanna has an active volcano, now smoking away, and
+is like a hot-bed, wonderfully fertile. People estimate its population
+at 10,000, though it is not very large,--about thirty miles long. At
+Futuma, the process by which these coral islands have been upheaved is
+well seen. The volcanic rocks are lying under the coral, which has been
+gradually thrust upwards by them. As the coral emerged, the animal went
+on building under water, continually working lower and lower down upon
+and over the volcanic formation, as this heaved in its upward course the
+coral formation out of the sea.'
+
+Erromango was occupied by the Scottish Mission, and Mr. Gordon was then
+living there in peace and apparent security, when a visit was paid to
+him, and Patteson gathered some leaves in Dillon's Bay, the spot where
+John Williams met his death sixteen years before, not, as now was
+understood, because he was personally disliked, but because he was
+unconsciously interfering with a solemnity that was going on upon the
+beach.
+
+At Fate Isle, the people were said to be among the wildest in those
+seas. When the 'Royal Sovereign' was wrecked, they had killed the whole
+crew, nineteen in number, eaten ten at once, and sent the other nine
+as presents to their friends. Very few appeared, but there was a good
+'opening' exchange of presents.
+
+A great number of small islets lie around Fate, forming part of the
+cluster of the New Hebrides, The Bishop had been at most of them before,
+and with a boat's crew of three Pitcairners and one English sailor,
+starting early and spending all day in the boat, he and Patteson
+touched at eleven in three days, and established the first steps to
+communication by obtaining 127 names of persons present, and making
+gifts. These little volcanic coral isles were all much alike, and
+nothing remarkable occurred but the obtaining two lads from Mai, named
+Petere and Laure, for a ten months' visit. Poor fellows, they were very
+sea-sick at first, and begged to go home again, but soon became very
+happy, and this connection with Petere had important consequences in
+the end. These lads spoke a language approaching Maori, whereas the Fate
+tongue prevailed in the other isles.
+
+At Mallicolo, on August 20, a horrible sight presented itself to the
+eyes of the two explorers when they walked inland with about eighteen
+most obliging and courteous natives--an open space with four hollowed
+trunks of trees surrounding two stones, the trees carved into the shape
+of grotesque human heads, and among them, a sort of temple, made of
+sloping bamboos and pandanus leaves meeting at the top, from whence
+hung a dead man, with his face painted in stripes of red and yellow,
+procured, it was thought, from the pollen of flowers. There was not
+enough comprehension of the language to make out the meaning of all
+this.
+
+Ambrym, the next island, was more than usually lovely, and was destined
+to receive many more visits. The women made their approach crawling,
+some with babies on their backs. Whitsuntide, where the casks had to be
+filled with water, showed a great number of large, resolute-looking men,
+whose air demanded caution; 'but,' says the journal, 'practice makes
+perfect, and we get the habit of landing among strangers, the knack
+of managing with signs and gesticulations, and the feeling of ease
+and confidence which engenders confidence and good-will in the others.
+Quarrels usually arise from both parties being afraid and suspicious of
+each other.'
+
+Leper's Isle owes its unpleasant name to its medicinal springs. It is a
+particularly beautiful place, containing a population of good promise.
+Three landings were made there, and at the fourth place Patteson jumped
+ashore on a rock and spent some time in calming the fears of a party of
+natives who had been frightened in their canoe by the boat under
+sail overtaking them. 'They fingered bows and arrows, but only from
+nervousness,' he says. However, they seem to have suspected the visitors
+of designs on their load of fine taro, and it was some time before the
+owner would come out and resume it. On all these isles the plan could
+as yet only be to learn names and write them down, so as to enquire
+for acquaintance next time, either make presents, or barter them for
+provisions, discover the class of language, and invite scholars for
+another time.
+
+So at Star Island three or four natives said, 'In ten moons you two come
+back; very good, then we go with you.' 'I think,' Patteson tells his
+sisters, 'you would have liked to have seen me, standing on a rock, with
+my two supporters, two fine young men, who will I trust go with us next
+time, my arms round their necks, and a fine background of some thirty
+or forty dark figures with bows and arrows, &c., and two or three little
+rogues, perched on a point of rock above me, just within reach,
+asking for fish-hooks.' He says it in all simplicity, but the picture
+presupposes some strength of mind in the sisters who were to appreciate
+it.
+
+Few natives appeared at Espiritu Santo, and the vessel passed on to
+Oanuta or Cherry Island, where the Bishop had never been, and where
+a race of dull, good-natured giants was found. The chief was a
+noble-looking man with an aquiline nose, and seemed to have them well
+under command, and some of the younger men, who had limbs which might
+have been a model for a sculptor, could have lifted an ordinary-sized
+Englishman as easily as a child. They were unluckily already acquainted
+with whalers, whom they thought the right sort of fellows, since they
+brought tobacco and spirits, did not interfere with native habits,
+nor talk of learning, for which the giants saw no need. The national
+complexion here was of a lighter yellow, the costume a tattooed chest,
+the language akin to Maori; and it was the same at Tikopia, where four
+chiefs, one principal one immensely fat, received their visitors seated
+on a mat in the centre of a wide circle formed by natives, the innermost
+seated, the others looking over them. These, too, were accustomed to
+whalers, and when they found that pigs and yams in exchange for spirits
+and tobacco were not the object, they were indifferent. They seemed to
+despise fish-hooks, and it was plain that they had even obtained muskets
+from the whalers, for there were six in the chiefs house, and one was
+fired, not maliciously but out of display. The Bishop told them his
+object, and they understood his language, but were uninterested. The fat
+chief regaled the two guests with a cocoa-nut apiece, and then seemed
+anxious to be rid of them.
+
+The Banks Islands, as usual, were much more hopeful, Santa Maria coming
+first. Canoes came round the vessel, and the honesty of the race showed
+itself, for one little boy, who had had a fish-hook given him, wished to
+exchange it for calico, and having forgotten to restore the hook at
+the moment, swam back with it as soon as he remembered it. There was a
+landing, and the usual friendly intercourse, but just as the boat had
+put off, a single arrow was suddenly shot out of the bush, and fell
+about ten yards short. It was curious that the Spanish discoverers
+had precisely the same experience. It was supposed to be an act of
+individual mischief or fun, and the place obtained the appropriate name
+of Cock Sparrow Point.
+
+It was not possible to get into the one landing-place in the wall round
+Mota's sugar-loaf, but there was an exchange of civilities with the
+Saddleites, and in Vanua Lava, the largest member of the group, a
+beautiful harbour was discovered, which the Bishop named Port Patteson,
+after the Judge.
+
+The Santa Cruz group was visited again on the 23rd of September. Nothing
+remarkable occurred; indeed, Patteson's journal does not mention these
+places, but that of the Bishop speaks of a first landing at Nukapu, and
+an exchange of names with the old chief Acenana; and the next day of
+going to the main island, where swarms of natives swam out, with cries
+of Toki, toki, and planks before them to float through the surf.
+About 250 assembled at the landing place, as before, chiefly eager for
+traffic. The Volcano Isle was also touched at, but the language of the
+few inhabitants was incomprehensible. The mountain was smoking, and
+red-hot cinders falling as before on the steep side. It was tempting to
+climb it and investigate what probably no white man had yet seen, but it
+was decided to be more prudent to abstain.
+
+Some events of the visit to Bauro are related in the following letter to
+the young cousin whose Confirmation day had been notified to him in time
+to be thought of in his prayers:--
+
+
+'Off San Cristoval: October 5, 1857.
+
+'My dearest Pena,--It was in a heathen land, among a heathen people,
+that I passed the Sunday--a day most memorable in your life--on which
+I trust you received for the first time the blessed Sacrament of our
+Saviour's Body and Blood.
+
+'My darling--, as I knelt in the chiefs house, upon the mat which was
+also my bed--the only Christian in that large and beautiful island--my
+prayers were, I hope, offered earnestly that the full blessedness of
+that heavenly Union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him with the
+Father and the Holy Ghost, might rest upon you for ever. I had
+reckoned upon being on board that Sunday, when the Holy Eucharist
+was administered on board our vessel; but as we reached Mwaata, our
+well-known village at San Cristoval, on Saturday, we both agreed that
+I had better go ashore while the vessel went away, to return for me on
+Monday. My day was now passed strangely enough, my first Sunday in a
+land where no Sunday is known.
+
+'It was about 3 P.M. on Saturday when I landed, and it was an effort to
+have to talk incessantly till dark. Then the chief Iri went with me
+to his house. It is only one oblong room, with a bamboo screen running
+halfway across it about half-way down the room. It is only made of
+bamboo at the sides, and leaves for the roof. Yams and other vegetables
+were placed along the sides. There is no floor, but one or two grass
+mats are placed on the ground to sleep on. Iri and his wife, and an
+orphan girl about fourteen or fifteen, I suppose, slept on the other
+side of the screen; and two lads, called Grariri and Parenga, slept on
+my side of it. I can't say I slept at all, for the rats were so very
+many, coming in through the bamboo on every side, and making such a
+noise I could not sleep, though tired. They were running all about me.
+
+'Well, at daylight I sent Gariri to fetch some water, and shaved and
+washed, to the great admiration of Iri and the ladies, and of others
+also, who crowded together at the hole which serves for door and
+windows. I lay down in my clothes, all but my coat, but I took a razor
+and some soap ashore.
+
+'Sunday was spent in going about to different neighbouring settlements,
+and climbing the coral rocks was hard work, the thermometer at sea being
+85 deg. in the cool cabin, as the Bishop told me to-day.
+
+'Of course many people were at work in the yam grounds, several of which
+I saw; but I found considerable parties at the different villages, and
+had, on the whole, satisfactory conversations with them. They listened
+and asked questions, and I told them as well as I could the simplest
+truths of Christianity.
+
+'I had a part of a yam and drank four cocoa-nuts during the day, besides
+eating some mixture of yam, taro, and cocoa-nut all pounded together.
+
+'People offered me food and nuts everywhere. Walked back with a boy
+called Tahi for my guide, and stopped at several plantations, and talked
+with the people.
+
+'Sat out in the cool evening on the beach at Mwaata, after much talk
+in a chiefs house called Tarua; people came round me on the beach, and
+again I talked with them (a sort of half-preaching, half-conversing
+these talks were), till Iri said we must go to bed. Slept a little that
+night.
+
+'I can truly say that you were in my head all day. After my evening
+prayers, when I thought of you--for it was about 9 P.M. = 10.10 A.M.
+with you, and you were on your way to church--I thought of you, kneeling
+between your dear mamma and grandmamma, and dear grandpapa administering
+to his three beloved ones the Bread of Life, and I was very happy as I
+thought of it, for I trust, through the mercy of God, and the merits of
+our Lord, that we shall be by Him raised at the Last Day to dwell with
+Him for ever. But indeed I must not write to you how very unworthy I
+felt to belong to that little company.
+
+'This morning about eleven the vessel's boat came off for me, with the
+Bishop. I had arranged about some lads coming on with us, and it ended
+in seven joining our party. Only one of our old scholars has come again:
+he is that dear boy Grariri, whose name you will remember.
+
+'Now I have had a good change of shirts, etc., and feel clean and
+comfortable, though I think a good night's rest will do me no harm. I
+have written to you the first minute that I had time. What a blessed,
+happy day it must have been for you, and I am sure they thought of you
+at Feniton.
+
+'Your loving cousin,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+This strange Sunday was spent in conversation with different sets of
+natives, and that some distinct ideas were conveyed was plain from what
+old Iri was overheard saying to a man who was asking him whether he had
+not a guest who spoke Bauro: 'Yes,' said Iri, adding that 'he said men
+were not like dogs, or pigs, or birds, or fishes, because these cannot
+speak or think. They all die, and no one knows anything more about them,
+but he says we shall not die like that, but rise up again.'
+
+On Monday, the 7th of October, Grera was revisited, and Toto, a last
+year's scholar, came forth with his welcome in a canoe; but it was
+rather a mixed success, for the danger of the vessel on her previous
+visit was a warning against bringing her into the harbour, where there
+was no safe anchorage, and this disappointed the people. Thirteen,
+indeed, slept on board, and the next morning sixty canoes surrounded
+the vessel, and some hundred and sixty came on deck at once; but they
+brought only one pig and a few yams, and refused to fetch more, saying
+it was too far--a considerable inconvenience, considering the necessity
+of providing the Melanesian passengers with vegetable food. The whole
+nine slept in the inner cabin, Orariri on Patteson's sofa, 'feet to
+feet, the others on the floor like herrings in a barrel.'
+
+The great island of New Caledonia was next visited. The Bishop had been
+there before, and Basset, one of the chiefs, lamented that he had been
+so long absent, and pleaded hard to have an English missionary placed in
+his part of the country. It was very sad to have no means of complying
+with the entreaty, and the Bishop offered him a passage to Auckland,
+there to speak for himself. He would have come, but that it was the
+season for planting his yams; but he hoped to follow, and in the
+meantime sent a little orphan named Kanambat to be brought up at
+Auckland. The little fellow was pleased enough with the ship at first,
+but when his countrymen who had been visiting there left her, he jumped
+overboard and was swimming like a duck after them, when, at a sign from
+the Bishop, one of the Pitcairners leapt after him, and speedily brought
+him back. He soon grew very happy and full of play and fun, and was well
+off in being away from home, for the French were occupying the island,
+and poor Basset shortly after was sent a prisoner to Tahiti for refusing
+to receive a Roman Catholic priest.
+
+Nengone were reached on October 23, and most of the old scholars were
+ready with a warm welcome; but Mr. Creagh, the London missionary, had
+taken Wadrokala away with him on an expedition, and of the others, only
+Kowine was ready to return, though the two married couples were going
+on well, and one previous scholar of the Bishop's and four new
+ones presented themselves as willing to go. Urgent letters from the
+neighbouring isle of Lifu entreated the Bishop to come thither, and,
+with a splendid supply of yams, the 'Southern Cross' again set sail,
+and arrived on the 26th. This island had entirely abandoned heathenism,
+under the guidance of the Samoans. The people felt that they had come to
+the end of the stock of teaching of these good men, and entreated for an
+Englishman from the Bishop, and thus, here was the third island in this
+one voyage begging for a shepherd, and only one English priest had been
+found to offer himself to that multitude of heathen!
+
+The only thing that could be done was to take John Cho, a former St.
+John's scholar, to receive instruction to fit him for a teacher, and
+with him came his young wife Naranadune, and their babe, whom the Bishop
+had just baptized in the coral-lime chapel, with three other children.
+
+The next few days were spent in great anxiety for Wailumai, a youth
+from Grera, who was taken ill immediately after dinner with a most
+distressing difficulty of breathing. He proved to have a piece of sugar
+cane in his throat, which made every breath agony, and worked a small
+ulcer in the throat. All through the worst Patteson held him in his
+arms, with his hand on his chest: several times he seemed gone, and
+ammonia and sal volatile barely revived him. His first words after he
+was partially relieved were, 'I am Bishop! I am Patihana!' meaning that
+he exchanged names with them, the strongest possible proof of affection
+in Melanesian eyes. He still seemed at the point of death, and they made
+him say, 'God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost! Jesus
+Christ, Son of God.' At last a favourable change took place, but he
+continued so ill for several days that his two attendants never did more
+than lie down in their clothes; nor was it till the third day that he
+at length coughed up the piece of cane that had caused the mischief. He
+still required so much care that Patteson did not go on shore at Norfolk
+Island when the five Pitcairners were exchanged for Mrs. Selwyn.
+
+On November 15 Auckland harbour was again reached after this signally
+prosperous voyage. It is thus summed up in a letter written two days
+later:--
+
+
+'November 17, 1857: St. John's College.
+
+'My dear Miss Neill,--Thanks for your L21. 2s., and more thanks still
+for your prayers and constant interest in this part of the world. After
+nearly seventeen weeks at sea, we returned safely on Sunday morning
+the 15th, with thirty-three Melanesians, gathered from nine islands and
+speaking eight languages. Plenty of work for me: I can teach tolerably
+in three, and have a smattering of one or two more.
+
+'One is the wife of a young man, John Cho, an old scholar baptized. His
+half-brother is chief of Lifu Isle, a man of great influence. The London
+Mission (Independents) are leaving all their islands unprovided with
+missionaries, and these people having been much more frequently visited
+by the Bishop than by the "John Williams," turn to him for help. By and
+by I will explain all this: at present no time.
+
+'We visited sixty-six islands and landed eighty-one times, wading,
+swimming, &c.; all most friendly and delightful; only two arrows shot
+at us, and only one went near--so much for savages. I wonder what people
+ought to call sandal-wood traders and slave-masters if they call my
+Melanesians savages.
+
+'You will hear accounts of the voyage from Fanny. I have a long journal
+going to my father, but I can't make time to write at length any more.
+I am up before five and not in bed before eleven, and you know I must be
+lazy sometimes. It does me good. Oh! how great a trial sickness would be
+to me! In my health now all seems easy. Were I circumstanced like you,
+how much I should no doubt repine and murmur. God has given me hitherto
+a most merciful share of blessings, and my dear father's cordial
+approbation of and consent to my proceedings is among the greatest....
+
+'The anniversary of my dear mother's death comes round in ten days. That
+is my polar star (humanly speaking), and whensoever it pleases God to
+take my dear dear father to his rest, how blessed to think of their
+waiting for us, if it be His merciful will to bring me too to dwell
+before Him with them for ever.
+
+'I must end, for I am very busy. The weather is cold, and my room full
+of lads and young men. If I was not watching like a cat they would be
+standing about in all sorts of places and catching cold.
+
+'I send you in a box, a box made by Pitcairners of Pitcairn woods.
+
+'Ever your loving old pupil,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The little New Caledonian remained at Taurarua with the Bishop, and as
+there was no woman at St. John's to take the charge of Cho's wife, she
+was necessarily sent to Mrs. Kissling's school for Maori girls, while
+her husband pursued his studies at St. John's.
+
+Patteson often gave his services at the Maori village of Orakei, where
+there was to be a central native school managed by Pirimona (Philemon),
+a well-trained man, a candidate for Holy Orders.
+
+'However, this did not satisfy his countrymen. As if I had not enough to
+do, old Wi comes with a request from the folks at Orakei that I would be
+their "minita," and take the management of the concern. Rather rich, is
+it not? I said, of course, that I was minita for the islanders. "Oh, let
+the Bishop take another man for that, you are the minister for us." He
+is, you know, wonderfully tatooed, and a great object of curiosity to
+the boys!
+
+Before many days had passed, there had occurred the first case of that
+fatal tetanus, which became only too well known to those concerned in
+the Mission. Of course, all weapons were taken from the scholars; but
+one of the San Cristoval boys, named Tohehammai, fetched one of his own
+arrows out of Mr. Dudley's room to exchange with an English lad for a
+shirt, and as he was at play, carrying the arrow in his left hand behind
+his back and throwing a stick like a spear with the other, he sharply
+pricked his right arm, within the elbow, against the point of the arrow;
+but thinking nothing of the hurt, and knowing that the weapons were
+forbidden playthings, he said nothing for twelve days, but then
+complained of stiffness in the arm. Two doctors happened to be at the
+college that day; one thought it rheumatism, the other mentioned the
+word tetanus, but for three days more the arm was merely stiff, it
+was hung in a sling, and the boy went about as usual, until, on the
+fifteenth day, spasmodic twitchings in the arm came on.
+
+Liniment of chloroform was rubbed in, and the boy was kept under
+chloroform, but in vain; the next day his whole body was perfectly
+rigid, with occasional convulsions. About 4 p.m. his throat had become
+contracted, and the endeavour to give him nourishment brought on
+convulsive attacks. The Bishop came at 8. p.m., and after another
+attempt at giving him food, which produced a further spasm, he was lying
+quietly when Patteson felt his pulse stop.
+
+'"He is dying!" the Bishop said. '"Father, into Thy hands we commend his
+spirit."'
+
+Patteson's 'Amen' came from his heart. The poor fellow made no sound
+as he lay with his frame rigid, his back arched so that an arm could
+be thrust under it. He was gone in that moment, unbaptized. Patteson
+writes:--
+
+'I had much conflict with myself about it. He had talked once with me in
+a very hopeful way, but during his illness I could not obtain from him
+any distinct profession of faith, anything to make me feel pretty sure
+that some conviction of the truth of what he he had been taught, and not
+mere learning by rote, was the occasion of his saying what he did say. I
+did wish much that I might talk again with the Bishop about it, but his
+death took us by surprise. I pray God that all my omission and neglect
+of duty may be repaired, and that his very imperfect and unconscious
+yearnings after the truth may be accepted for Christ's sake.'
+
+The arrow was reported to have been poisoned, but by the time the cause
+of the injury had been discovered it had been thrown away and could not
+be recovered for examination. Indeed, lockjaw seems to be so prevalent
+in the equatorial climates, and the natives so peculiarly liable to it,
+that poison did not seem needful to account for the catastrophe.
+
+Altogether, these lads were exotics in New Zealand, and exceedingly
+fragile. In the very height of summer they had to wear corduroy
+trousers, blue serge shirts, red woollen comforters, and blue Scotch
+caps, and the more delicate a thick woollen jersey in addition; and with
+all these precautions they were continually catching cold, or getting
+disordered, and then the Bauro and Grera set could only support such
+treatment as young children generally need. The Loyalty Islanders were
+much tougher and stronger and easier to treat, but they too showed that
+the climate of Auckland was a hard trial to their constitutions.
+
+On the last day of March came tidings of the sudden death of the
+much-beloved and honoured Dr. James Coleridge of Thorverton.
+
+'It is a great shock,' says the letter written the same day; 'not that
+I feel unhappy exactly, nor low, but that many many memories are revived
+and keep freshening on my mind.... And since I left England his warm,
+loving, almost too fond letters have bound me very closely to him,
+and sorely I shall miss the sight of his handwriting; though he may be
+nearer to me now than before, and his love for me is doubtless even more
+pure and fervent.
+
+'I confess I had thought sometimes that if it pleased God to take you
+first, the consciousness that he would be with you was a great comfort
+to me--not that any man is worth much then. God must be all in all. But
+yet he of all men was the one who would have been a real comfort to you,
+and even more so to others.' To his cousin he writes:--
+
+
+'Wednesday in Passion Week, 1858: St. John's College.
+
+'My dearest Sophy,--Your letter with the deep black border was the first
+that I opened, with trembling hand, thinking: "Is it dear dear Uncle
+gone to his eternal rest; or dear Aunty? not that dear child, may God
+grant; for that would somehow seem to all most bitter of all--less, so
+to speak, reasonable and natural." And he is really gone; that dear,
+loving, courageous, warm-hearted servant of Christ; the desire of our
+eyes taken away with a stroke. I read your letter wondering that I was
+not upset, knelt down and said the two prayers in the Burial Service,
+and then came the tears; for the memory of him rose up very vividly
+before me, and his deep love for me and the notes of comfort and
+encouragement he used to write were very fresh in my mind. I looked
+at the print of him, the one he sent out to me, with "your loving old
+Uncle" in pencil on it. I have all his letters: when making a regular
+clearance some months ago, I could not tear up his, although dangerous
+ones for me to read unless used as a stimulant to become what he thought
+me. His "Jacob" sermon in his own handwriting, I have by me. But more
+than all, the memory of his holy life, and his example as a minister of
+Christ, have been left behind for us as a sweet, undying fragrance;
+his manner in the sick-room--I see him now, and hear that soft, steady,
+clear voice repeating verses over my dear mother's death-bed; his
+kindly, loving ways to his poor people; his voice and look in the
+pulpit, never to be forgotten. I knew I should never see him again in
+this world. May God of His mercy take me to be with him hereafter.
+
+'Thank you, dear Sophy, for writing to me; every word about him is
+precious, from his last letter to me:--
+
+'"You will believe how sweet it is to me every month now to give the
+Holy Eucharist to my three dear ones."
+
+'"All complaints of old men must be serious."
+
+'I wish I had more time to write, but I am too busy in the midst of
+school, and printing Scripture histories and private prayers, and
+translations in Nengone, Bauro, Lifu; and as all my time out of school
+is spent in working in the printing office, I really have not a minute
+unoccupied. With one exception, I have scarcely ever taken an hour's
+walk for some six weeks. A large proportion of the printing is actually
+set up by my own fingers; but now one Nengone lad, the flower of my
+flock, can help me much--a young man about seventeen or eighteen,
+of whom I hope very much--Malo, baptized by the name of Harper, an
+excellent young man, and a great comfort to me. He was setting up in
+type a part of the little book of private prayers I am now printing for
+them. I had just pointed out to him the translation of what would be in
+English--"It is good that a man as he lies down to sleep should remember
+that that night he may hear the summons of the Angel of God; so then let
+him think of his death, and remember the words of St. Paul: 'Awake, thou
+that sleepest,'" etc.; when in came the man whom the Archdeacon left
+in charge here with my letters. "I hope, sir, there is no bad news for
+you;" and my eye lighted on the deep black border of your envelope.
+
+'To-morrow, if I live, I enter upon my thirty-second year--a solemn
+warning I have received to-day, as another year is passing from me. May
+some portion of his spirit rest on me to bless my poor attempt to
+do what he did so devotedly for more than forty years: his duty as a
+soldier and servant of his Lord and Master, into whose joy he has no
+doubt now entered.
+
+'Easter Day.--What an Easter for him! and doubtless we all who will by
+and by, as the world rolls round, receive the Holy Eucharist shall be in
+some way united to him as well as to all departed saints--members of His
+Mystical Body.
+
+'April 12.--Bishop came out yesterday afternoon from Auckland. After
+baptisms at 5, and evening service at 7, sat till past 11 settling
+plans: thus, God willing, start this day fortnight to return the
+boys--this will occupy about two months; as we come back from the far
+north, he will drop one at Lifu, one of the Loyalty Islands, with large
+population; he will go on to New Zealand, stay perhaps six weeks in New
+Zealand, or it may be two months; so that with the time occupied by his
+voyage from Lifu to New Zealand, 1,000 miles and back, he will be away
+from Lifu about two and a half or three months. Then, picking me up
+(say about September 12), we go on at once to the whole number of our
+islands, spending three months or so among them, getting back to New
+Zealand about the end of November. So that I shall be in Melanesia,
+D.V., from the beginning of May to the end of November. I shall be able
+to write once more before we start--letters which you will get by the
+June mail from Sydney--and of course I shall send letters by the Bishop
+when he leaves me at Lifu. But I shall not be able to hear again from
+England till the Bishop comes to pick me up in September. Never mind. I
+shall have plenty to do; and I can think of those dear ones at home, and
+of you all, in God's keeping, with perfect comfort. The Lifu people are
+in a more critical state than any others just now, otherwise I
+should probably stop at San Cristoval. A few years ago they were very
+wild--cannibals of course; but they are now building chapels, and
+thirsting for the living waters. What a privilege and responsibility
+to go to them as Christ's minister, to a people longing for the glad
+tidings of the Gospel of Peace. Samoan teachers have been for a good
+many years among them.
+
+'I cannot write now to dearest Aunty or Pena.
+
+'May God bless you and abundantly comfort you.... I think I see his dear
+face. I see him always.
+
+'Your loving cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Cho's wife had arrived in a cart at the College when her baby was a day
+old, so rapid is recovery with mothers in those climates. 'I saw the
+baby,' observes the journal, quite strong, not dark,--but I don't care
+for them till they can talk; on the contrary, I think them a great bore,
+especially in wooden houses, where a child with good lungs may easily
+succeed in keeping all the inhabitants awake.'
+
+'April 12.--Settled that I stop at Lifu in the interval between the two
+voyages. I think Lifu wants me more than any other island just now. Some
+15,000 or 20,000 stretching out their hands to God. The London Mission
+(Independent) sent Samoan teachers long ago, but no missionary, even
+after frequent applications. At last they applied personally to the
+Bishop, he being well known to them of old. I can't go for good, because
+I have of course to visit all these islands; but I shall try to spend
+all the time that I am not at sea or with boys in New Zealand, perhaps
+three months yearly, with them, till they can be provided with a regular
+clergyman.
+
+'So I shall have no letters from you till the return of the vessel to
+pick me up in September. But be sure you think of me as very happy and
+well cared for, though, I am glad to say, not a white man on the
+island; lots of work, but I shall take much exercise and see most of
+the inhabitants. The island is large, not so large as Bauro, but still
+large.
+
+'You will say all that is kind to all relations, Buckerell, etc. Thank
+the dear old vicar for the spurs, and tell him that I had a battle royal
+the other day with a colonial steed, which backed into the bush, and
+kicked, and played the fool amazingly, till I considerably astonished
+him into a gallop, in the direction I wanted to go, by a vigorous
+application of the said spurs.
+
+'God bless and keep you all.
+
+'Your loving
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+A few days later he writes:--
+
+
+'The "Southern Cross," returning to Lifu, will bring my letters; but
+unless a stray whaler comes to Lifu while I am there, on its way to
+Sydney, that will be the only exchange of letters. I am afraid this will
+be an increase of the trial of separation to you all, but it is not
+sent until you have learnt to do pretty well without me, and you will be
+comforted by knowing that this island of Lifu, with many inhabitants, is
+in a very critical state; that what it most wants is a missionary, and
+that as far as I am concerned, all the people will be very anxious to do
+all they can for me. I take a filter and some tea. We shall have yams,
+taro, cocoa-nuts, occasionally a bit of turtle, a fowl, or a bit of
+pork. So, you see, I shall live like an alderman; I mean, if I am to
+go to every part of the island, heathen and all. Perhaps 20,000 people,
+scattered over many miles. I say heathen and all, because only a very
+small number of the people now refuse to admit the new teaching. Samoans
+have been for some time on the island, and though, I dare say, their
+teaching has been very imperfect and only perhaps ten or fifteen people
+are baptized, they have chapels, and are far advanced beyond any of the
+islands except Nengone and Toke, always excepting Anaiteum. Hence it is
+thought the leaven may work quietly in the Solomon Islands without me,
+but that at Lifu they really require guidance. So now I have a parochial
+charge for three months of an island about twenty-five miles long and
+some sixteen or eighteen broad.
+
+'I feel that my letters, after so long an absence, may contain much to
+make me anxious, so that I shall not look with unmixed pleasure to my
+return to my great packet; yet I feel much less anxiety than you might
+imagine; I know well that you are in God's keeping, and that is enough.'
+
+After just touching at Nengone early in May the 'Southern Cross' went on
+to Lifu, and on landing, the Bishop and Mr. Patteson found a number of
+people ready to receive them, and to conduct them to the village, where
+the chief and a great number of people were drawn up in a half-circle
+to receive them. The young chief, Angadhohua, bowed and touched his hat,
+and taking Coley's hand, held it, and whispered, 'We will always live
+together.'
+
+'By and by we will talk about it,' was the answer; and they were taken
+to a new house, belonging to one of the Samoans, built of lath plastered
+and thatch, with one large room and a lesser one at each of its angles.
+There the Bishop and Mr. Patteson sat on a chest, and seventy or eighty
+men squatted on mats, John Cho and the native teacher foremost. There
+was a five minutes' pause. Lifu was not yet familiar to Coley, who spoke
+it less well than he had spoken German, and John Cho said to him: 'Shall
+I tell them what you have said to me formerly?'
+
+He then explained that Mr. Patteson could only offer them a visit of
+three or four months, and would then have the charge of lads from 'dark
+isles.'
+
+Silence again; then Angadhohua asked: 'Cannot you stop always?'
+
+'There are many difficulties which you cannot understand, which prevent
+me. Would you like me to shut the door which God has opened to so many
+dark lands?'
+
+'No, no; but why not have the summer school here as well as the winter?'
+
+'Because it does the lads good to see New Zealand, and because the
+Bishop, who knows better than I do, thinks it right.'
+
+'And cannot we have a missionary?'
+
+However, they were forced to content themselves with all that could be
+granted to them, and it was further explained that Mr. Patteson would
+not supersede the native teachers, nor assume the direction of the
+Sunday services, only keep a school which any one might join who liked.
+This was felt to be only right in good faith to the London Mission, in
+order not to make dire confusion if they should be able to fill up the
+gap before the Church could.
+
+After sleeping in the house, Patteson produced the books that had been
+printed for them at St. John's.
+
+'Would that you could have seen their delight! About two pages,
+indifferently printed, was all they had hitherto. Now they saw
+thirty-two clearly printed 8vo. pages of Bible History, sixteen of
+prayers, rubrics, &c., eight of questions and answers. "You see," said
+I cunningly; "that we don't forget you during these months that I can't
+live among you."'
+
+They began reading at once, and crying, 'Excellent, exactly right, the
+very thing.'
+
+It was thought good that some one from Lifu should join the Mission
+party and testify to their work, and on the invitation, the chief,
+Angadhohua, a bright youth of seventeen, volunteered to go. It was an
+unexampled thing that a chief should be permitted by his people to
+leave them, there was a public meeting about it, and a good deal of
+excitement, but it ended in Cho, as spokesman, coming forward with tears
+in his eyes, saying, 'Yes, it is right he should go, but bring him back
+soon. What shall we do?'
+
+Patteson laid his hand on the young chief's shoulder, answering, 'God
+can guard him by sea as on land, and with His blessing we will bring him
+back safe to you. Let some of the chiefs go with him to protect him. I
+will watch over him, but you may choose whom you will to accompany him.'
+
+So five chiefs were selected as a body-guard for the young Angadhohua,
+who was prince of all the isle, but on an insecure tenure, for the
+French, in New Caledonia, were showing a manifest inclination to annex
+the Loyalty group.
+
+The heavily loaded boat had a perilous strife with the surf before the
+ship was reached, and it was a very rough passage to Anaiteum, where
+some goods had to be left for Mr. Inglis, and he asked that four Fate
+visitors might be taken home. This was done, and Mr. Grordon was visited
+at Erromango on the way, and found well and prosperous.
+
+At Mai, the reception of Petere and Laure was ecstatic. There was a
+crowd on shore to meet them, and on the two miles' walk to the village
+parties met, hugged, and wept over them. At the village Mr. Patteson
+addressed the people for ten minutes, and Petere made an animated
+exposition of what he had learnt, and his speeches evidently had great
+effect. His younger brother and two little boys all came in his stead,
+and would form part of the winter school at Lifu.
+
+The Espiritu Santo boy, the dunce of the party, was set down at
+home, and the Banks Islanders were again found pleasant, honest, and
+courteous, thinking, as it appeared afterwards, that the white men were
+the departed spirits of deceased friends. A walk inland at Vanua Lava
+disclosed pretty villages nestling under banyan trees, one of them
+provided with a guest-chamber for visitors from other islands. Two boys,
+Sarawia and another, came away to be scholars at Lifu, as well as his
+masters in the language, of which he as yet scarcely knew anything,
+but which he afterwards found the most serviceable of all these various
+dialects.
+
+The 26th of May brought the vessel to Bauro, where poor old Iri was
+told of the death of his son, and had a long talk with Mr. Patteson,
+beginning with, 'Do you think I shall see him again?' It was a talk
+worth having, though it was purchased by spending a night in the house
+with the rats.
+
+It seemed as though the time were come for calling on the Baurese to
+cease to be passive, and sixty or seventy men and women having come
+together, Mr. Patteson told them that he did not mean to go on merely
+taking their boys to return them with heaps of fish-hooks and knives,
+but that, unless they cared for good teaching, to make them good and
+happy here and hereafter, he should not come like a trader or a whaler.
+That their sons should go backwards and forwards and learn, but to teach
+at home; and that they ought to build a holy house, where they might
+meet to pray to God and learn His will.
+
+Much of this was evidently distasteful, though they agreed to build a
+room.
+
+'I think,' he writes, 'that the trial stage of the work has arrived.
+This has less to attract outwardly than the first beginning of all, and
+as here they must take a definite part, they (the great majority who
+are not yet disposed to decide for good) are made manifest, and the
+difficulty of displacing evil customs is more apparent.'
+
+In fact, these amiable, docile Baurese seemed to have little manliness
+or resolution of character, and Sumaro, a scholar of 1857, was
+especially disappointing, for he pretended to wish to come and learn at
+Lifu, but only in order to get a passage to Gera, where he deserted, and
+was well lectured for his deceit.
+
+The Gera people were much more warlike and turbulent, and seemed to have
+more substance in them, though less apt at learning. Patteson spent the
+night on shore at Perua, a subsidiary islet in the bay, sleeping in a
+kind of shed, upon two boards, more comfortably than was usual on these
+occasions. Showing confidence was one great point, and the want of safe
+anchorage in the bay was much regretted, because the people could not
+understand why the vessel would not come in, and thought it betokened
+mistrust. Many lads wished to join the scholars, but of those who were
+chosen, two were forced violently overboard by their friends, and only
+two eventually remained, making a total of twelve pupils for the
+winter school at Lifu, with five languages between them--seven with the
+addition of the Nengone and Lifu scholars.
+
+'You see,' writes Patteson on June 10, on the voyage, 'that our
+difficulty is in training and organising nations, raising them from
+heathenism to the life, morally and socially, of a Christian. This is
+what I find so hard. The communication of religious truth by word of
+mouth is but a small part of the work. The real difficulty is to do for
+them what parents do for their children, assist them to--nay, almost
+force upon them--the practical application of Christian doctrine. This
+descends to the smallest matters, washing, scrubbing, sweeping, all
+actions of personal cleanliness, introducing method and order, habits
+of industry, regularity, giving just notions of exchange, barter, trade,
+management of criminals, division of labour. To do all this and yet not
+interfere with the offices of the chief, and to be the model and pattern
+of it, who is sufficient for it?'
+
+On June 16, Mr. Patteson was landed at Lifu, for his residence there,
+with the five chiefs, his twelve boys, and was hospitably welcomed to
+the large new house by the Samoan. He and four boys slept in one of the
+corner rooms, the other eight lads in another, the Rarotongan teacher,
+Tutoo, and his wife in a third. The central room was parlour, school,
+and hall, and as it had four unglazed windows, and two doors opposite
+to each other, and the trade-wind always blowing, the state of affairs
+after daylight was much like that which prevailed in England when King
+Alfred invented lanterns, while in the latter end of June the days were,
+of course, as short as they could be on the tropic of Capricorn, so that
+Patteson got up in the dark at 5-30 in the morning.
+
+At 7 the people around dropped in for prayers, which he thought it
+better not to conduct till his position was more defined. Then came
+breakfast upon yams cooked by being placed in a pit lined with heated
+stones, with earth heaped over the top. Mr. and Mrs. Tutoo, with their
+white guest, sat at the scrap of a table, 'which, with a small stool,
+was the only thing on four legs in the place, except an occasional
+visitor in the shape of a pig.' Then followed school. Two hundred Lifu
+people came, and it was necessary to hold it in the chapel. One o'clock,
+dinner on yams, and very rarely on pig or a fowl, baked or rather done
+by the same process; and in the afternoon some reading and slate work
+with the twelve Melanesians, and likewise some special instruction to a
+few of the more promising Lifuites. At 6.30, another meal of yams, but
+this time Patteson had recourse to his private store of biscuit; and the
+evening was spent in talk, till bedtime at 9 or 9.30. It was a thorough
+sharing the native life; but after a few more experiments, it was found
+that English strength could not be kept up on an exclusive diet of
+yams, and the Loyalty Isles are not fertile. They are nothing but rugged
+coral, in an early stage of development; great ridges, upheaved, bare
+and broken, and here and there with pits that have become filled with
+soil enough to grow yams and cocoa-nuts.
+
+The yams--except those for five of the lads, whose maintenance some of
+the inhabitants had undertaken--were matter of purchase, and formed the
+means of instruction in the rules of lawful exchange. A fixed weight of
+yams were to constitute prepayment for a pair of trousers, a piece of
+calico, a blanket, tomahawk, or the like, and all this was agreed to,
+Cho being a great assistance in explaining and dealing with his people.
+But it proved very difficult to keep them up to bringing a sufficient
+supply, and as they had a full share of the universal spirit of
+haggling, the commissariat was a very harassing and troublesome
+business, and as to the boys, it was evident that the experiment was
+not successful. Going to New Zealand was seeing the world. Horses,
+cows, sheep, a town, soldiers, &c., were to be seen there, whereas Lifu
+offered little that they could not see at home, and schooling without
+novelty was tedious. Indeed, the sight of civilised life, the being
+taken to church, the kindness of the friends around the College, were no
+slight engines in their education; but the Lifu people were not advanced
+enough to serve as an example--except that they had renounced the more
+horrible of their heathen habits. They were in that unsettled state
+which is peculiarly trying in the conversion of nations, when the old
+authoritative customs have been overthrown, and the Christian rules not
+established.
+
+It was a good sign that the respect for the chief was not diminished.
+One evening an English sailor (for there turned out to be three whites
+on the island) who was employed in the sandal-wood trade was in the
+house conversing with Tutoo, when Angadhohua interrupted him, and he--in
+ignorance of the youth's rank--pushed him aside out of the way. The
+excitement was great. A few years previously the offender would have
+been killed on the spot, and as it was, it was only after apology and
+explanation of his ignorance that he was allowed to go free; but an
+escort was sent with him to a place twenty miles off lest any one should
+endeavour to avenge the insult, not knowing it had been forgiven.
+
+Many of the customs of these Loyalty Isles are very unhealthy, and
+the almost exclusive vegetable diet produced a low habit of body, that
+showed itself in all manner of scrofulous diseases, especially tumours,
+under which the sufferer wasted and died. Much of Patteson's time was
+taken up by applications from these poor creatures, who fancied him
+sure to heal them, and had hardly the power, certainly not the will, to
+follow his advice.
+
+Nor had he any authority. He only felt himself there on sufferance
+till the promised deputation should come from Rarotonga from the London
+Mission, to decide whether the island should be reserved by them, or
+yielded to the Church. Meantime he says on Sunday:--
+
+'Tutoo has had a pretty hard day's work of it, poor fellow, and he is
+anything but strong. At 9.30 we all went to the chapel, which began by
+a hymn sung as roughly as possible, but having rather a fine effect from
+the fact of some 400 or 500 voices all singing in unison. Then a long
+extemporary prayer, then another hymn, then a sermon nearly an hour
+long. It ought not to have taken more than a quarter of an hour, but it
+was delivered very slowly, with endless repetitions, otherwise there was
+some order and arrangement about it. Another hymn brought the service to
+an end about 11. But his work was not done; school instantly succeeded
+in the same building, and though seven native teachers were working
+their classes, the burthen of it fell on him. School was concluded
+with a short extemporary prayer. At three, service again--hymn, prayer,
+another long sermon, hymn, and at last we were out of chapel, there
+being no more school.'
+
+'To be sure,' is the entry on another Sunday, 'little thought I of old
+that Sunday after Sunday I should frequent an Independent chapel. As for
+extemporary prayer not being a form, that is absurd. These poor fellows
+just repeat their small stock of words over and over again, and but
+that they are evidently in earnest, it would seem shockingly irreverent
+sometimes. Most extravagant expressions! Tutoo is a very simple,
+humble-minded man, and I like him much. He would feel the help and
+blessing of a Prayer-book, poor fellow, to be a guide to him; but even
+the Lord's Prayer is never heard among them.'
+
+So careful was Mr. Patteson not to offend the men who had first worked
+on these islands, that on one Sunday when Tutoo was ill, he merely
+gave a skeleton of a sermon to John Cho to preach. On the 27th of July,
+however, the deputation arrived in the 'John Williams'--two ministers,
+and Mr. Creagh on his way back to Nengone, and the upshot of the
+conference on board, after a dinner in the house of Apollo, the native
+teacher, was that as they had no missionary for Lifu, they made no
+objection to Mr. Patteson working there at present, and that if in
+another year they received no reinforcement from home, they would take
+into consideration the making over their teachers to him. 'My position
+is thus far less anomalous, my responsibility much increased. God will,
+I pray and trust, strengthen me to help the people and build them up in
+the faith of Christ.'
+
+'August 2.--Yesterday I preached my two first Lifu sermons; rather
+nervous, but I knew I had command of the language enough to explain my
+meaning, and I thought over the plan of my sermons and selected texts.
+Fancy your worthy son stuck up in a pulpit, without any mark of the
+clergyman save white tie and black coat, commencing service with a hymn,
+then reading the second chapter of St. Matthew, quite new to them, then
+a prayer, extemporary, but practically working in, I hope, the principle
+and much of the actual language of the Prayer-book--i.e. Confession,
+prayer for pardon, expression of belief and praise--then another hymn,
+the sermon about forty minutes. Text: "I am the Way," &c. Afternoon:
+"Thy Word is a lantern unto my feet."
+
+'You can easily understand how it was simple work to point out that a
+man lost his way by his sin, and was sent out from dwelling with God;
+the recovery of the way by which we may again return to Paradise is
+practically the one great event which the whole Bible is concerned in
+teaching. The subject admitted of any amount of illustration and
+any amount of reference to the great facts of Scripture history, and
+everything converges to the Person of Christ. I wish them to see clearly
+the great points--first, God's infinite love, and the great facts by
+which He has manifested His Love from the very first, till the coming
+of Christ exhibited most clearly the infinite wisdom and love by which
+man's return to Paradise has been effected.
+
+'Significant is that one word to the thief on the Cross "Paradise." The
+way open again; the guardian angel no longer standing with flaming sword
+in the entrance; admission to the Tree of Life.'
+
+'The services were much shorter than usual, chiefly because I don't
+stammer and bungle, and take half an hour to read twenty verses of the
+Bible, and also because I discarded all the endless repetitions and
+unmeaning phrases, which took up half the time of their unmeaning
+harangues. About an hour sufficed for the morning-service; the evening
+one might have been a little longer. I feel quite at my ease while
+preaching, and John told me it was all very clear; but the prayers--oh!
+I did long for one of our Common Prayer-books.'
+
+One effect of the Independent system began to reveal itself strongly.
+How could definite doctrines be instilled into the converts by teachers
+with hardly any books, and no formula to commit to memory? What was the
+faith these good Samoans knew and taught?
+
+'No doctrinal belief exists among them,' writes Patteson, in the third
+month of his stay. 'A man for years has been associated with those who
+are called "the people that seek Baptism." He comes to me:--
+
+'J. G. P. 'Who instituted baptism?
+
+'A. Jesus.
+
+'J. G. P. And He sent His Apostles to baptize in the Name of Whom?
+
+'Dead silence.
+
+'"Why do you wish to be baptized?"
+
+'"To live."
+
+'"All that Jesus has done for us, and given to us, and taught us, is for
+that object. What is the particular benefit we receive in baptism?" 'No
+conception.' Such is their state.
+
+'I would not hesitate if I thought there were any implicit recognition
+of the doctrine of the Trinity; but I can't baptize people morally good
+who don't know the Name into which they are to be baptized, who can't
+tell me that Jesus is God and man. There is a lad who soon must die of
+consumption, whom I now daily examine. He has not a notion of any truth
+revealed from above, and to be embraced and believed as truth upon the
+authority of God's Word. A kind of vague morality is the substitute for
+the Creed of the Apostles. What am I to do? I did speak out for three
+days consecutively pretty well, but I am alone, and only here for four
+months, and yet, I fear, I am expecting too much from them, and that
+I ought to be content with something much less as the (so to speak)
+qualifications; but surely they ought to repent and believe. To say the
+word, "I believe," without a notion of what they believe, surely that
+won't do. They must be taught, and then baptized, according to our
+Lord's command, suited for adults.'
+
+Constant private teaching to individuals was going on, and the 250
+copies of the Lifu primer were dispersed where some thousands were
+wanted, and Mr. Patteson wrote a little book of sixteen pages,
+containing the statement of the outlines of the faith, and of Scripture
+history; but this could not be dispersed till it had been printed in New
+Zealand.
+
+And in the meantime a fresh element of perplexity was arising. The
+French had been for some time past occupying New Caledonia, and a bishop
+had been sent thither about the same time as Bishop Selwyn had gone to
+New Zealand; but though an earnest and hardworking man, he had never
+made much progress. He had the misfortune of being connected in the
+people's minds with French war ships and aggression, and, moreover, the
+South Sea race seem to have a peculiar distaste for the Roman Catholic
+branch of the Church, for which it is not easy to account.
+
+The Loyalty Isles, as lying so near to New Caledonia, were tempting to
+the French Empire, and the Bishop at the same time felt it his duty to
+attempt their conversion.
+
+Some priests had been placed at the north end of the island for about
+six months past, but the first communication was a letter on July
+6, complaining, partly in French, partly in English, that since Mr.
+Patteson's arrival, the people had been making threatening reports.
+Now Mr. Patteson had from the first warned them against showing any
+unkindness to the French priests, and he wrote a letter of explanation,
+and arranged to go and hold a conference. On the way, while supping with
+the English sailor, at the village where he was to sleep, he heard a
+noise, and found the Frenchman, Pere Montrouzier, had arrived. He was
+apparently about forty; intelligent, very experienced in mission work,
+and conversant with the habits and customs of French and English in
+the colonies; moreover, with plenty of firmness in putting forward his
+cause. He seems to have been supported by the State in a manner unusual
+with French missions.
+
+'I had one point only that I was determined to press (Patteson says),
+namely, liberty to the people to follow any form of religion they might
+choose to adopt. I knew that they and I were completely in his power,
+yet that my line was to assume that we were now about to arrange our
+plans for the future independently of any interference from the civil
+power.
+
+'He let me see that he knew he could force upon the Lifu people whatever
+he pleased, the French Government having promised him any number of
+soldiers he may send for to take possession, if necessary, of the
+island. They have 1,000 men in New Caledonia, steamers and frigates of
+war; and he told me plainly that this island and Nengone are considered
+as natural appendages of New Caledonia, and practically French
+possessions already, so that, of course, to attempt doing more than
+secure for the people a religious liberty is out of the question. He
+promised me that if the people behaved properly to him and his people,
+he would not send for the soldiers, nor would he do anything to
+interfere with the existing state of the island.
+
+'He will not himself remain here long, being commissioned, in
+consequence of his fourteen years' experience, to prepare the way for
+the French mission here. He told me that twenty missionaries are coming
+out for this group, about seven or eight of whom will be placed on Lifu,
+others on Nengone, &c.; that the French Government is determined to
+support them; that the Commandant of Nimia in New Caledonia had sent
+word to him that any number of men should be sent to him at an instant's
+notice, in a war steamer, to do what he might wish in Lifu, but that
+honestly he would do nothing to compel the people here to embrace
+Romanism; but that if necessary he would use force to establish the
+missionaries in houses in different parts of the island, if the chiefs
+refused to sell them parcels of land, for instance, one acre. The
+captain of the "Iris," an English frigate, called on him on Monday, and
+sent me a letter by him, making it quite clear that the French will meet
+with no opposition from the English Government. He too knew this, and
+of course knew his power; but he behaved, I must say, well, and if he
+is really sincere about the liberty of religion question, I must be
+satisfied with the result of our talk. I was much tired. We slept
+together on a kind of bed in an unfurnished house, where I was so cold
+that I could not sleep; besides, my head ached much; so my night was
+not a very pleasant one. In the morning we resumed our talk, but the
+business was over really. The question that we had discussed the evening
+before was brought to an issue, however, by his requiring from John
+Cho, who was with us, permission to buy about an acre of land in his
+territory. John was much staggered at this. It looked to him like a
+surrender of his rights. I told him, at great length, why I thought he
+must consent; but finally it was settled, that as John is not the real
+chief, I should act as interpreter for the Frenchmen; and send him from
+Mu an answer to a letter which he addresses to me, but which is, in
+fact, intended for the chief.
+
+'It is, I suppose, true, that civilised nations do not acknowledge the
+right of a chief to prevent any one of his subjects from selling a
+plot of his land to a foreigner unless they may be at war with that
+particular nation.
+
+'He said that France would not allow a savage chief to say "My custom in
+this respect is different from yours;" and again, "This is not a taking
+possession. It is merely requiring the right to put up a cottage for
+which I pay the just price." He told me plainly, if the chiefs did not
+allow him to do so, he would send for soldiers and put it up by force;
+but not use the soldiers for any other purpose. Of course I shall relate
+all this to Angadhohua at Mu, and make them consent.
+
+'He told me that at New Caledonia they had reserved inalienably
+one-tenth of the land for the natives, that the rest would be sold to
+French colonists of the poor class, no one possessing more than ten
+acres; that 5,000 convicts would be sent there, and the ticket-of-leave
+system adopted, and that he thought the worst and most incorrigible
+characters would be sent to Lifu. Poor John! But I can't help him; he
+must make such terms as he can, for he and his people are wholly in
+their power.
+
+'Our talk being ended, I found a great circle of men assembled on the
+outside with a pile of yams as usual in the centre for me. I was glad
+to see a small pile also for the Frenchman. I made my speech in his
+presence, but he knows not Lifu. "Be kind to the French, give them food
+and lodging. This is a duty which you are bound to pay to all men;
+but if they try to persuade you to change the teaching which you have
+received, don't listen to them. Who taught you to leave off war and evil
+habits, to build chapels, to pray? Remember that. Trust the teachers who
+have taught you the Word of God."
+
+'This was the kind of thing I said. Then off we set--two miles of loose
+sand at a rattling pace, as I wanted to shake off some 200 people who
+were crowding about me. Then turning to the west, climbed some coral
+rocks very quickly, and found myself with only half my own attendants,
+and no strangers. Sat down, drank a cocoa-nut, and waited a long time
+for John, who can't walk well, and then quietly went on the remaining
+eight or nine miles to Zebedee's place, a Samoan teacher. They were
+very attentive, and gave me some supper. They had a bed, which was, of
+course, given up to me in spite of opposition. They regard a missionary
+as something superhuman almost. Sometimes I can't make them eat and
+drink with me; they think it would be presumptuous. Large meeting of
+people in the afternoon, and again the following morning, to whom I said
+much what I had already said at We. Then fifteen miles over to Apollo's
+place on the west coast, a grand bay, with perfectly calm water,
+delicious in the winter months. Comfortable quarters; Apollo a
+cleverish, free-spoken fellow.
+
+'I went, on the same afternoon, two miles of very bad road to visit
+the French priest, who is living here. More talk and of a very friendly
+nature. He has been eighteen months at San Cristoval, but knows not the
+language; at Woodlark Island, New Caledonia, &c. We talked in French
+and English. He knows English fairly, but preferred to talk French. This
+day's work was nineteen miles.
+
+Slept at Apollo's. Next morning went a little way in canoes and walked
+six miles to Toma's place; meeting held, speech as usual, present of
+yams, pig, &c. Walked back the six miles, started in double canoe for
+Gaicha, the other side of the bay: wind cold, some difficulty in getting
+ashore. Walked by the bad path to Apollo's and slept there again;
+Frenchman came in during the evening. Next day, Friday, meeting in the
+chapel. Walked twenty miles back to We, where I am now writing. Went the
+twenty miles with no socks; feet sore and shoes worn to pieces, cutting
+off leather as I came along. Nothing but broken bottles equals jagged
+coral. Paths went so that you never take three steps in the same
+direction, and every minute trip against logs, coral hidden by long
+leaves, arid weeds trailing over the path. Often for half a mile you
+jump from one bit of coral to another. No shoes can stand it, and I was
+tired, I assure you. Indeed, for the last two days, if I stopped for a
+minute to drink a nut, my legs were so stiff that they did not get into
+play for five minutes or so.
+
+'July 16th.--The captain of the "Iris" frigate passing Lifu dropped me
+a line which satisfied me that the French will meet with no impediment
+from the English Government in the prosecution of their plans out here.
+Well, this makes one's own path just as easy, because all these things,
+great and small, are ordered for us; but yet I grieve to think that we
+might be occupying these groups with missionaries. Even ten good men
+would do for a few years; and is it unreasonable to think that ten
+men might be found willing to engage in such a happy work in such a
+beautiful part of the world--no yellow fever, no snakes, &c. I think
+of the Banks Islands, Vanua Lava, with its harbour and streams, and
+abundance of food, and with eight or nine small islands round it,
+speaking the same language, few dialectic differences of consequence, as
+I believe.
+
+'Even one good man might introduce religion here as we have received it,
+pure and undefiled. Oh! that there were men who could believe this,
+and come out unconditionally, placing themselves in the Bishop's hands
+unreservedly. He must know the wants and circumstances of the islands
+far better than they can, and therefore no man ought to stipulate as to
+his location, &c. Did the early teachers do so? Did Titus ever think of
+saying to St. Paul, "Mind I must be an elder, or bishop, or whatever he
+was, of Crete?" Just as if that frame of mind was compatible with a real
+desire to do what little one can by God's help to bring the heathen to a
+knowledge of Christ.
+
+'At this moment, one man for the Banks group and another for Mai and the
+neighbouring islands would be invaluable. If anything occurs to make me
+leave these Loyalty Islands as my residence during a part of the year,
+I am off to Banks, or Mai, or Solomon Isles. But what am I? In many
+respects not so well qualified for the work as many men who yet,
+perhaps, have had a less complete education. I know nothing of
+mechanics, and can't teach common things; I am not apt to teach
+anything, I fear, having so long deferred to learn the art of teaching,
+but of course exposing one's own shortcomings is easy enough. How to get
+the right sort of men? First qualification is common-sense, guided, of
+course, by religious principle. Some aptitude for languages, but that is
+of so little consequence that I would almost say no one was sufficient
+by itself as a qualification. Of course the mission work tends immensely
+to improve all earnest men; the eccentricities and superfluities
+disappear by degrees as the necessary work approves itself to the
+affection and intellect.'
+
+The French question resulted in a reply in Angadhohua's name, that the
+people should be permitted to sell ground where the mission required it;
+and that in the one place specified about which there was contention,
+the land should be ceded as a gift from the chiefs. 'This,' observes
+Mr. Patteson, 'is the first negotiation which has been thrust upon me. I
+more than suspect I have made considerable blunders.'
+
+By the 13th of August, he had to walk over the coral jags for another
+consultation with Pere Montrouzier, whose negotiation with Cho had
+resulted in thorough misunderstanding, each thinking the other was
+deceiving him, and not dealing according to promise to Mr. Patteson. The
+Pere had, in his fourteen years' experience, imbibed a great distrust
+of the natives, and thought Mr. Patteson placed too much confidence
+in them, while the latter thought him inclined to err the other way;
+however, matters were accommodated, at heavy cost to poor Coley's feet.
+A second pair of shoes were entirely cut to pieces, and he could not put
+any on the next day, his feet were so blistered.
+
+The troubles were not ended, for when the ground was granted, there
+followed a stipulation that the chiefs should not hinder the men from
+working at the building; and when the men would not work, the chiefs
+were suspected of preventing it, and a note from Pere Montrouzier
+greatly wounded Patteson's feelings by calling John Cho faux et
+artificieux.
+
+However, after another note, he retracted this, and a day or two after
+came the twenty miles over the coral to make a visit to the English
+clergyman. 'There is much to like in him: a gentleman, thoroughly
+well informed, anxious of course to discuss controversial points, and
+uncommonly well suited for that kind of work, he puts his case well and
+clearly, and, of course, it is easy to make their system appear most
+admirably adapted for carrying out all the different duties of a Church,
+as it is consistent in all, or nearly all, particulars, given the one
+or two leading points on which all depend. The Church of England here
+is very much in the position of any one of those other bodies, Wesleyan,
+Independent, or Presbyterian; and though we have a Bishop at the
+head--of what, however? Of one individual clergyman! Oh, that we had now
+a good working force--twenty or thirty men with some stuff in them; and
+there are plenty if they would only come. Meanwhile, France sends plenty
+of men; steamers bring them houses, cows for themselves and as presents
+for natives--supports the missionary in every way. New Caledonia is
+handy for the central school, everything almost that can be requisite.
+Never mind; work on, one small life is a mighty trifling thing
+considered with reference to those great schemes overruled by God to
+bring out of them great ultimate good, no doubt.'
+
+There was an interchange of books between the French and English priest.
+Pere Montrouzier lent, and finally gave, Martinet's 'Solution de Grands
+Problemes,' which Patteson calls 'a very interesting book, with a
+great deal of dry humour about it, not unlike Newman's more recent
+publications. "It is," he (Montrouzier) says, "thought very highly of in
+France." He is a well-read man, I should imagine, in his line; and that
+is pretty extensive, for he is a really scientific naturalist, something
+of a geologist, a good botanist, besides having a good acquaintance with
+ecclesiastical literature.'
+
+There was the more time for recreation with the Pere's French books,
+and the serious work of translating St. Mark's Grospel and part of the
+Litany into Lifu, as the inhabitants were all called off from school
+in the middle of August 'by a whale being washed ashore over a barrier
+reef--not far from me. All the adjacent population turned out in grass
+kilts, with knives and tomahawks to hack off chunks of flesh to be
+eaten, and of blubber to be boiled into oil; and in the meantime the
+neighbourhood was by no means agreeable to anyone possessing a nose.'
+
+Meanwhile Sarawia, the best of the Banks pupils, had a swelling on the
+knee, and required care and treatment, but soon got better. Medical
+knowledge, as usual, Patteson felt one of the great needs of missionary
+life. Cases of consumption and scrofula were often brought to him,
+and terrible abscesses, under which the whole body wasted away. 'Poor
+people!' he writes, 'a consumptive hospital looms in the far perspective
+of my mind; a necessary accompaniment, I feel now, of the church and the
+school in early times. I wish I could contrive some remedy for the dry
+food, everything being placed between leaves and being baked on the
+ground, losing all the gravy; and when you get a chicken it is a
+collection of dry strings. If I could manage boiling; but there is
+nothing like a bit of iron for fire-place on the island, and to keep
+up the wood fire in the bush under the saucepan is hard work. I must
+commence a more practical study than hitherto of "Robinson Crusoe,"
+and the "Swiss Family." Why does no missionary put down hints on the
+subject? My three months here will teach me more than anything that has
+happened to me, and I dare say I shall get together the things I want
+most when next I set forth from New Zealand.... I find it a good plan to
+look on from short periods to short periods, and always ask, what next?
+And at last it brings one to the real answer:--Work as hard as you can,
+and that rest which lacks no ingredient of perfect enjoyment and peace
+will come at last.'
+
+Among the needs he discovered was this:--'By the bye, good cheap Bible
+prints would be very useful; large, so as to be seen by a large class,
+illustrating just the leading ideas. Schnorr's Bible prints by Rose and
+Bingen are something of the kind that I mean, something quite rude will
+do. Twenty-four subjects, comprising nothing either conventional or
+symbolical, would be an endless treasure for teachers; the intervening
+history would be filled up and illustrated by smaller pictures, but
+these would be pegs on which to hang the great events these lads ought
+to know. Each should be at least twenty-four inches by ten.
+
+'Try to remember, in the choice of any other picture books for them,
+that anything that introduces European customs is no use yet. Pictures
+of animals are the best things. One or two of a railway, a great bridge,
+a view of the Thames with steamers rushing up and down, would all
+do; but all our habits of social life are so strange that they don't
+interest them yet.
+
+'When I next reach Auckland, I suppose my eyes will rejoice at
+seeing your dear old likenesses. When we build our permanent central
+school-house at Kohimarama, I shall try to get a little snuggery, and
+then furnish it with a few things comfortably; I shall then invest in a
+chest of drawers, as I dare say my clothes are getting tired of living
+in boxes since March 1855.
+
+'I can hardly tell you how much I regret not knowing something about the
+treatment of simple surgical cases. If when with W---- I had studied the
+practical--bled, drawn teeth, mixed medicines, rolled legs perpetually,
+it would have been worth something. Surely I might have foreseen all
+this! I really don't know how to find the time or the opportunity
+for learning. How true it is that men require to be trained for their
+particular work! I am now just in a position to know what to learn were
+I once more in England. Spend one day with old Fry (mason), another with
+John Venn (carpenter), and two every week at the Exeter hospital, and
+not look on and see others work--there's the mischief, do it oneself.
+Make a chair, a table, a box; fit everything; help in every part of
+making and furnishing a house, that is, a cottage. Do enough of every
+part to be able to do the whole. Begin by felling a tree; saw it into
+planks, mix the lime, see the right proportion of sand, &c., know how to
+choose a good lot of timber, fit handles for tools, &c.
+
+'Many trades need not be attempted; but every missionary ought to be a
+carpenter, a mason, something of a butcher, and a good deal of a cook.
+Suppose yourself without a servant, and nothing for dinner to-morrow but
+some potatoes in the barn, and a fowl running about in the yard. That's
+the kind of thing for a young fellow going into a new country to imagine
+to himself. If a little knowledge of glazing could be added, it would be
+a grand thing, just enough to fit in panes to window-frames, which last,
+of course, he ought to make himself. Much of this cannot be done for
+you. I can buy window-frames in Auckland, and glass; but I can't carry
+a man a thousand miles in my pocket to put that glass into these frames;
+and if it is done in New Zealand, ten to one it gets broken on the
+voyage; whereas, glass by itself will pack well. Besides, a pane gets
+broken, and then I am in a nice fix. To know how to tinker a bit is a
+good thing; else your only saucepan or tea-kettle may be lying by you
+useless for months. In fact, if I had known all this before, I should
+be just ten times as useful as I am now. If anyone you know thinks of
+emigrating or becoming a missionary, just let him remember this.'
+
+To these humble requisites, it appears that a missionary ought on
+occasion to be able to add those of a prime minister and lawgiver.
+Angadhohua, a bright, clever lad, only too easily led, was to be
+instructed in the duties of a chief; Mr. Patteson scrupulously trying
+in vain to make him understand that he was a person of far more
+consideration and responsibility than his white visitor would be in his
+own country. The point was to bring the Christian faith into connection
+with life and government. 'Much talk have I had with John in order that
+we may try to put before them the true grounds on which they ought
+to embrace Christianity,' writes Mr. Patteson, when about to visit a
+heathen district which had shown an inclination to abandon their old
+customs, 'and also the consequences to which they pledge themselves by
+the profession of a religion requiring purity, regularity, industry,
+&c., but I have little doubt that our visit now will result in the
+nominal profession of Christianity by many heathen. Angadhohua, John,
+and I go together, and Isaka, a Samoan teacher who has been a good deal
+among them. I shall make an arrangement for taking one of their leading
+men to New Zealand with me, that he may get some notion of what is meant
+by undertaking to become a Christian. It is in many respects a great
+benefit to be driven back upon the very first origin of a Christian
+society; one sees more than ever the necessity of what our Lord has
+provided, a living organised community into which the baptized convert
+being introduced falls into his place, as it were, naturally; sees
+around him everything at all times to remind him that he is a regenerate
+man, that all things are become new. A man in apostolic times had the
+lessons of the Apostles and disciples practically illustrated in the
+life of those with whom he associated. The church was an expression of
+the verbal teaching committed to its ministers. How clearly the
+beauty of this comes out when one is forced to feel the horrible blank
+occasioned by the absence of the living teacher, influencing, moulding,
+building up each individual professor of Christianity by a process
+always going on, though oftentimes unconsciously to him on whom it
+operates.
+
+'But how is the social life to be fashioned here in Lifu according to
+the rule of Christ? There is no organised body exemplifying in daily
+actions the teaching of the Bible. A man goes to chapel and hears
+something most vague and unmeaning. He has never been taught to grasp
+anything distinctly--to represent any truth to his mind as a settled
+resting-place for his faith. Who is to teach him? What does he see
+around him to make him imperceptibly acquire new habits in conformity
+with the Bible? Is the Christian community distinguished by any habits
+of social order and intercourse different from non-Christians?
+
+'True, they don't fight and eat one another now, but beyond that are
+they elevated as men? The same dirt, the same houses, the same idle
+vicious habits; in most cases no sense of decency, or but very little.
+Where is the expression of the Scriptural life? Is it not a most
+lamentable state of things? And whence has it arisen? From not
+connecting Christian teaching in church with the improvement in social
+life in the hut and village, which is the necessary corollary and
+complement of such teaching.
+
+'By God's grace, I trust that some little simple books in Lifu will
+soon be in their houses, which may be useful. It is even a cause for
+thankfulness that in a few days (for the "Southern Cross" ought to be
+here in a week with 500 more copies) some 600 or more copies, in large
+type, of the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments will be in
+circulation; but they won't use them yet. They won't be taught to learn
+them by heart, and be questioned upon them; yet they may follow by and
+by. Hope on is the rule. Give them the Bible, is the cry; but you must
+give them the forms of faith and prayer which Christendom has accepted,
+to guide them; and oh! that we were so united that we could baptize them
+into a real living exemplification, and expression--an embodiment of
+Christian truth, walking, sleeping, eating and drinking before their
+eyes. Christ Himself was that on earth, and His Church ought to be now.
+These men saw to accept His teaching was to bind themselves to a
+certain course of life which was exhibited before their own eyes. Hence,
+multitudes approved His teaching, but would not accept it--would not
+profess it, because they saw what was involved in that profession. But
+now men don't count the cost; they forget that "If any man come to Me"
+is followed by "Which of you intending to build a tower," &c. Hence the
+great and exceeding difficulty in these latter days when Christianity is
+popular!'
+
+In this state of things it was impossible to baptize adults till they
+had come to a much clearer understanding of what a Christian ought to do
+and to believe; and therefore Coley's only christenings in Lifu were of
+a few dying children, whom he named after his brother and sisters, as
+he baptized them with water, brought in cocoa-nut shells, having taught
+himself to say by heart his own translation of the baptismal form.
+
+He wrote the following letter towards the end of his stay:--
+
+
+'September 6, 1858: Lifu, Loyalty Islands.
+
+'My dear Miss Neill,--The delay of four or five days in the arrival of
+the "Southern Cross" gives me a chance of writing you a line. The Bishop
+dropped me here this day three months, and told me to look out for him
+on September 1. As New Zealand is 1,000 miles off, and he can't command
+winds and waves, of course I allow him a wide margin; and I begged him
+not to hurry over my important business in New Zealand in order to keep
+his appointment exactly. But his wont is to be very punctual. I have
+here twelve lads from the north-west islands: from seven islands,
+speaking six languages. The plan of bringing them to a winter school in
+some tropical isle is now being tried. The only difficulty here is that
+Lifu is so large and populous; and just now (what with French priests on
+it, and the most misty vague kind of teaching from Independents the only
+thing to oppose to the complete machinery of the Romish system) demands
+so much time, that it is difficult to do justice to one's lads from
+the distant lands that are living with one here. The Bishop had an
+exaggerated notion of the population here. I imagine it to be somewhere
+about 8,000. The language is not very hard, but has quite enough
+difficulty to make it more than a plaything: the people in that state
+when they venerate a missionary--a very dangerous state; I do my best to
+turn the reverence into the right channel and towards its proper object.
+
+'You will see by the last Melanesian report of which I desired a copy to
+be sent to you, that our work is very rapidly increasing; that openings
+are being made in all directions; and that had we men of trust, we could
+occupy them at once. As it is, we keep up a communication with some
+seventy-four islands, waiting, if it may be, that men may be sent,
+trying to educate picked men to be teachers; but I am not very sanguine
+about that. At all events, the first flush of savage customs, &c., is
+being, I trust, removed, so that for some other body of Christians, if
+not the Church of England, the door may be laid open.
+
+'Of course, the interest of the work is becoming more and more
+absorbing; so that, much as there is indeed going on in your world to
+distract and grieve one, it comes to me so weakened by time and distance
+that I don't sympathise as I ought with those who are suffering so
+dreadfully from the Indian Mutiny, or the commercial failure, or the
+great excitement and agitation of the country. You can understand how
+this can be, perhaps; for my actual present work leaves me small leisure
+for reflecting, and for placing myself in the position of others at
+a distance; and when I have a moment's time surely it is right that I
+should be in heart at Feniton, with those dear ones, and especially my
+dear dear father, of whom I have not heard for five months, so that I am
+very anxious as to what account of him the "Southern Cross" may bring,
+and try to prepare myself for news of increased illness, &c.
+
+'You, I imagine, my dear Miss Neill, are not much changed to those who
+see you day by day; but I should find you much weaker in body than when
+I saw you last, and yet it did not seem then as if you had much strength
+to lose: I don't hear of any sudden changes, or any forms of illness;
+the gradual exhausting process is going on, but accompanied, I fear,
+with even greater active pain than of old; your sufferings are indeed
+very severe and very protracted, a great lesson to us all. Yet you have
+much, even speaking only of worldly comfort, which makes your position a
+much happier one than that of the poor suffering souls whom I see here.
+Their house is one round room, a log burning in the centre, no chimney,
+the room full of smoke, common receptacle of men, women, boys, girls,
+pigs, and fowls. In the corner a dying woman or child. No water in the
+island that is fresh, a few holes in the coral where water accumulates,
+more or less brackish; no cleanliness, no quiet, no cool fresh air, hot
+smoky atmosphere, no proper food, a dry bit of yam, and no knowledge of
+a life to come: such is the picture of the invalided or dying South Sea
+Islander. All dying children under years of discretion I baptize, and
+all the infants brought to the chapel by parents who themselves are
+seeking baptism; but I have not baptized any adults yet, they must
+be examined and taught for some time, for the Samoan and Rarotongan
+teachers sent by the Independent missionaries are very imperfectly
+instructed and quite incapable of conveying definite teaching to them.
+
+'I don't see, humanly speaking, how this island is to be kept from
+becoming purely Roman Catholic. They have a large staff of men, and are
+backed up by the presence of a complete government establishment in
+New Caledonia, only two or three days distant, while what have we? Four
+months a year of the time, partially otherwise occupied by Melanesian
+schools, of one missionary, and while here these four months, I have my
+lads from many islands to teach, so that I can't lay myself out to learn
+this one language, &c. I am writing this on September 16. "Southern
+Cross" not yet come, and my lads very anxious; I confess I should like
+to see it, not only (as you will believe) because all my stores are
+gone. I have not a morsel of biscuit or grain of sugar left, and am
+reduced to native fare, which does not suit my English constitution for
+very long. Yams and taro, and a fowl now and then, will be my food until
+the ship comes. Hitherto I have had coffee and biscuits in addition.
+
+'My very kind love to Mrs. S ----, and many thanks for the letters,
+which I much enjoy.
+
+'Your very affectionate old pupil,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+The whole of September passed without the arrival of the 'Southern
+Cross.' The fact was that after Mr. Patteson had been left at Lifu,
+the vessel when entering Port-au-France, New Caledonia, had come upon
+a coral reef, and the damage done to her sheathing was so serious that
+though she returned to Auckland from that trip, she could not sail again
+without fresh coppering; and as copper had to be brought from Sydney
+for the purpose, there was considerable delay before she could set
+forth again, so that it was not till the last day of September that she
+gladdened Patteson's eyes, and brought the long-desired tidings from
+home.
+
+This voyage was necessarily short, as there were appointments to be kept
+by the Bishop in New Zealand in November, and all that could be aimed at
+was the touching at the more familiar islands for fresh instalments
+of scholars. The grand comet of 1858 was one feature of this
+expedition--which resulted in bringing home forty-seven Melanesians,
+so that with the crew, there were sixty-three souls on board during the
+homeward voyage!
+
+'As you may suppose, the little "Southern Cross" is cram full, but the
+Bishop's excellent arrangements in the construction of the vessel for
+securing ventilation, preserve us from harm by God's blessing. Every day
+a thorough cleaning and sweeping goes on, and frequent washing, and as
+all beds turn up like the flap of a table, and some thirty lads sleep
+on the floor on mats and blankets, by 7 A.M. all traces of the night
+arrangements have vanished. The cabin looks and feels airy; meals go on
+regularly; the boys living chiefly on yams, puddings, and cocoa-nuts,
+and plenty of excellent biscuit. We laid in so many cocoa-nuts that they
+have daily one apiece, a great treat to them. A vessel of this size,
+unless arranged with special reference to such objects, could not
+carry safely so large a party, but we have nothing on board to create,
+conceal, or accumulate dirt; no hold, no storeroom, no place where
+a mixed mess of spilt flour, and sugar, and treacle, and old rotten
+potatoes, and cocoa-nut parings and bits of candle, can all be washed
+together into a dark foul hold; hence the whole ship, fore and aft, is
+sweet and clean. Stores are kept in zinc lockers puttied down, and in
+cedar boxes lined with zinc. We of course distribute them ourselves; a
+hired steward would be fatal, because you can't get a servant to see the
+importance of care in such details.'
+
+Mr. Patteson always, in the most careful manner, paid respect both to
+the chief's person and his dicta. He declined more than once to give
+directions which he said ought to issue from the chief, although on one
+of these occasions he was asked by the chief himself. He foresaw clearly
+the evils that might follow if the people's respect for recognised
+authority were weakened, instead of being, as it might be, turned to
+useful account. And so he always accorded to John Cho, and to other
+persons of rank when they were with us in the Mission school, just such
+respect as they were accustomed to receive at the hands of their own
+people. For instance, he would always use to a moderate extent the
+chief's language in addressing John Cho or any other of the Loyalty
+chiefs; and it being a rule of theirs that no one in the presence of the
+chiefs should ever presume to sit down higher than the chiefs, he would
+always make a point of attending to it as regarded himself; and once or
+twice when, on shore in the islands, the chief had chosen to squat down
+on the ground among the people, he would jocularly leave the seat that
+had been provided for him, and place himself by the chief's side on the
+ground. All this was keenly appreciated as significant, but alas! the
+Loyalty Islanders were not long to remain under his charge.
+
+The ensuing letter was written to Sir John Taylor Coleridge, after
+learning the tidings of his retirement from the Bench in the packet of
+intelligence brought by the vessel:--
+
+
+'November 10, 1858: Lat. 31 deg. 29' S.; Long. 171 deg. 12' E.
+
+'My dear Uncle John,--I see by the papers that you have actually
+resigned, and keep your connection with the judges only as a Privy
+Councillor. I am of course on my own account heartily glad that you will
+be near my dear father for so many months of the year, and you are
+very little likely to miss your old occupation much, with your study at
+Heath's Court, so I shall often think of you in summer sitting out on
+the lawn, by John's Pinus excelsis, and in winter in your armchair by
+the fire, and no doubt you will often find your way over to Feniton.
+And then you have a glorious church!.... Oh! I do long for a venerable
+building and for the sound of ancient chants and psalms. At times,
+the Sunday is specially a day on which my mind will go back to the old
+country, but never with any wish to return. I have never experienced
+that desire, and think nothing but absolute inability to help on a
+Melanesian or a Maori will ever make a change in that respect. I feel
+as certain as I can be of anything that I should not be half as happy
+in England as I am in New Zealand, or in Lifu, in the Banks or Solomon
+Islands, &c. I like the life and the people, everything about it and
+them....
+
+'Coppering the schooner caused delay, so that he (the Bishop) could give
+but two months instead of three to the Island voyage, for he starts on
+November 25 for a three months' Confirmation tour (1,000 miles) among
+the New Zealanders, which will bring him to Wellington by March 1, for
+the commencement of the first synod. Consequently we have only
+revisited some of our seventy and odd islands, but we have no less than
+forty-seven Melanesians from twelve islands on board, of whom three are
+young married women, while two are babies.
+
+'This makes our whole number on board sixty, viz., four Pitcairners,
+forty-seven Melanesians, ourselves + crew = sixty-three, a number too
+great for so small a vessel, but for the excellent plan adopted by the
+Bishop in the internal arrangement of the vessel when she was built, and
+the scrupulous attention to cleanliness in every place fore and aft. As
+it is, we are not only healthy but comfortable, able to have all meals
+regularly, school, prayers, just as if we had but twenty on board.
+Nevertheless, I think, if you could drop suddenly on our lower deck at
+9 P.M. and visit unbeknown to us the two cabins, you would be rather
+surprised at the number of the sleepers--twelve in our after-cabin, and
+forty-five in the larger one, which occupies two-thirds of the vessel.
+
+'Of course we make no invasion upon the quarters forward of the four men
+before the mast--common seamen, and take good care that master and mate
+shall have proper accommodation.
+
+'One gets so used to this sort of thing that I sleep just as well as I
+used to do in my own room at home, and by 6.30 or 7 A.M. all vestiges
+of anything connected with sleeping arrangements have vanished, and the
+cabins look like what they are,--large and roomy. We have, you know, no
+separate cabins filled with bunks, &c., abominations specially contrived
+to conceal dirt and prevent ventilation. Light calico curtains answer
+all purposes of dividing off a cabin into compartments, but we agree to
+live together, and no one has found it unpleasant as yet. We turn a
+part of our cabin into a gunaikhon at night for the three women and two
+babies by means of a canvas screen. Bishop looks after them, washes the
+babies, tends the women when sick, &c., while I, by virtue of being a
+bachelor, shirk all the trouble. One of these women is now coming for
+the second time to the college; her name is Carry. Margaret Cho is on
+her second visit, and Hrarore is the young bride of Kapua, now coming
+for his third time, and baptized last year.
+
+'We wish to make both husbands and wives capable of imparting better
+notions to their people.
+
+'We have, I think, a very nice set on board....
+
+'I think everything points to Vanua Lava, the principal island of the
+Banks group, becoming our centre of operations, i.e., that it would be
+the place where winter school would be carried on with natives from many
+islands, from Solomon Islands group to the north-west, and Santa Cruz
+group to north, New Hebrides to south and Loyalty Islands south-west,
+and also the depot among the islands, a splendid harbour, safe both from
+trade and hurricane winds, plenty of water, abundantly supplied
+with provisions, being indeed like a hot-house, with its hot springs
+constantly sending up clouds of vapour on the high hills, a population
+wholly uninjured by intercourse with traders and whalers, it being
+certain that our vessel was the first at all events that has ever been
+seen by the eyes of any member of this generation on the islands; I
+could prove this to you easily if I had time.
+
+'They are most simple, gentle and docile, unwarlike, not cannibals, I
+verily believe as good a specimen of the natural fallen man as can
+be met with, wholly naked, yet with no sense of shame in consequence;
+timid, yet soon learning to confide in one; intelligent, and gleaming
+with plenty of spirit and fun. As the island, though 440 miles north
+of the Loyalty Isles, is not to leeward of them, it would only take us
+about eight days more to run down, and a week more to return to it from
+New Zealand, than would be the case if we had our winter school on one
+of the Loyalty Islands. So I hope now we may get a missionary for Lifu,
+and so I may be free to spend all my time, when not in New Zealand,
+at Vanua Lava. Temperature in winter something under 80 deg. in the shade,
+being in lat. 13 deg. 45' 5". The only thing against Vanua Lava is the fact
+that elephantiasis abounds among the natives, and they say that the
+mortality is very considerable there, so it might not be desirable to
+bring many lads to it from other islands; but the neighbouring islands
+of Mota and Valua, and Uvaparapara are in sight and are certainly
+healthy, and our buildings are not so substantial as to cause much
+difficulty in shifting our quarters if necessary. The language is very
+hard, but when it is one's business to learn a thing, it is done after a
+while as a matter of course.
+
+'We have quite made up our mind that New Zealand itself is the right
+place for the head-quarters of the Mission. True, the voyage is long,
+and lads can only be kept there five or six months of the year, but the
+advantages of a tolerably settled state of society are so great, and
+the opportunities of showing the Melanesians the working of an English
+system are so many, that I think now with the Bishop that New Zealand
+should be the place for the summer school in preference to any other. I
+did not think so at one time, and was inclined to advocate the plan of
+never bringing the lads out of the tropics, but I think now that there
+are so many good reasons for bringing the lads to New Zealand that we
+must hope to keep them by good food and clothing safe from colds and
+coughs. Norfolk Island would have been in some ways a very good place,
+but there is no hope now of our being settled there....
+
+'I can hardly have quite the same control over lads brought to an island
+itself wholly uncivilised as I can have over them in New Zealand, but as
+a rule, Melanesians are very tractable. Certainly I would sooner have
+my present school to manage, forty-five of all ages from nine to perhaps
+twenty-seven or eight, from twelve or thirteen islands, speaking at
+least eight languages, than half the number of English boys, up to all
+sorts of mischief....
+
+'Thank you, dear uncle, for the Xavier; a little portable book is very
+nice for taking on board ship, and I dare say I may read some of his
+letters in sight of many a heathen island....
+
+'Good-bye, my dear Uncle.
+
+'Your affectionate and grateful nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+'Savages are all Fridays, if you know how to treat them' is a saying of
+Patteson's in one of his letters, and a true one. In truth, there was no
+word that he so entirely repudiated as this of savage, and the courtesy
+and untutored dignity of many of his native friends fully justified his
+view, since it was sure to be called forth by his own conduct towards
+them.
+
+The chiefs, having a great idea of their own importance, and being used
+to be treated like something sacred, and never opposed, were the most
+difficult people to deal with, and in the present voyage there was a
+time of great anxiety respecting a young chief named Aroana, from the
+great isle of Malanta. He fell into an agony of nervous excitement lest
+he should never see his island again, an attack of temporary insanity
+came on, and he was so strong that Mr. Patteson could not hold him down
+without the help of the Bishop and another, and it was necessary to tie
+him down, as he attempted to injure himself. He soon recovered, and the
+cooler latitudes had a beneficial effect on him, but there was reason
+to fear that in Malanta the restraint might be regarded as an outrage on
+the person of a chief.
+
+The voyage safely ended on the night of the 16th of November. Here is
+part of a letter to Mr. Edward Coleridge, written immediately after
+reading the letters that had been waiting in Auckland:--
+
+
+'My father writes:--"My tutor says that there must be a Melanesian
+Bishop soon, and that you will be the man," a sentence which amused me
+not a little.
+
+'The plan is that the Bishop should gradually take more and more
+time for the islands, as he transfers to the General Synod all deeds,
+documents, everything for which he was corporation sole, and as he
+passes over to various other Bishops portions of New Zealand. Finally,
+retaining only the north part of the northern island, to take the
+Melanesian Bishopric.
+
+'I urged this plan upon him very strongly one day, when somewhere about
+lat. 12 deg. S. (I fancy) he pressed me to talk freely about the matter. I
+said: "One condition only I think should be present to your mind, viz.,
+that you must not give up the native population in New Zealand," and to
+this he assented.
+
+'If, dear tutor, you really were not in joke, just try to find some
+good man who would come and place himself under the Bishop's direction
+unreservedly, and in fact be to him much what I am + the ability and
+earnestness, &c. Seriously, I am not at all fitted to do anything but
+work under a good man. Of course, should I survive the Bishop, and no
+other man come out, why it is better that the ensign should assume the
+command than to give up the struggle altogether. But this of course is
+pure speculation. The Bishop is hearty, and, I pray God, may be Bishop
+of Melanesia for twenty years to come, and by that time there will be
+many more competent men than I ever shall be to succeed him, to say
+nothing of possible casualties, climate, &c.
+
+'Good-bye, my dear Uncle; kind love to all.
+
+'Your loving nephew and pupil,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The three women and the two babies were disposed of in separate houses,
+but their husbands, with thirty-nine other Melanesians, four Norfolk
+Islanders, two printers, Mr. Dudley and Mr. Patteson, made up the
+dinner-party every day in the hall of St. John's College. 'Not a
+little happy I feel at the head of my board, with two rows of merry,
+happy-looking Melanesians on either side of me!'
+
+The coughs, colds, and feverish attacks of these scholars were the only
+drawback; the slightest chill made them droop; and it was a subject of
+joy to have any day the full number in hall, instead of one or two lying
+ill in their tutor's own bed-chamber.
+
+On the 29th of December came the exceeding joy of the arrival of the
+Judge and Mrs. Martin, almost straight from Feniton, ready to talk
+untiringly of everyone there. On the New Year's day of 1859 there was a
+joyful thanksgiving service at Taurarua for their safe return, at which
+all the best Church people near were present, and when John Cho made his
+first Communion.
+
+On the 20th these much-loved friends came to make a long stay at the
+College, and the recollections they preserved of that time have thus
+been recorded by Lady Martin. It will be remembered that she had parted
+from him during the year of waiting and irregular employment:
+
+'We were away from New Zealand nearly three years. We had heard at
+Feniton dear Coley's first happy letters telling of his voyages to the
+islands in 1856-7, letters all aglow with enthusiasm about these places
+and people. One phrase I well remember, his kindly regret expressed for
+those whose lot is not cast among the Melanesian islands. On our
+return we went to live for some months at St. John's College, where Mr.
+Patteson was then settled with a large party of scholars.
+
+'We soon found that a great change had passed over our dear friend. His
+whole mind was absorbed in his work. He was always ready, indeed, to
+listen to anything there was to tell about his dear father; but about
+our foreign travels, his favourite pictures, the scenes of which we had
+heard so much from him, he would listen for a few minutes, but was sure
+in a little while to have worked round to Melanesia in general, or to
+his boys in particular, or to some discussion with my husband on the
+structure of their many languages and dialects. It was then that
+Bishop Abraham said that when the two came to their ninth meaning of a
+particle, he used to go to sleep.
+
+'There were a very fine intelligent set of young men from the Loyalty
+Islands, some sleepy, lazy ones from Mai, some fierce, wild-looking lads
+from the Solomon Islands who had long slits in their ears and bone horns
+stuck in their frizzly hair. Mr. Patteson could communicate with all
+more or less easily, and his readily delicate hearing enabled him to
+distinguish accurately sounds which others could not catch--wonderful
+mp and piv and mbw which he was trying to get hold of for practical
+purposes.
+
+'He was in comfortable quarters, in one long low room, with a sunny
+aspect. It looked fit for a student, with books all about, and pictures,
+and photos of loved friends and places on the walls, but he had no mind
+to enjoy it alone. There was sure to be some sick lad there, wrapped up
+in his best rugs, in the warmest nook by the fire. He had morning and
+afternoon school daily in the large schoolroom, Mr. Dudley and Mr. Lask
+assisting him. School-keeping, in its ordinary sense, was a drudgery
+to him, and very distasteful. He had none of that bright lively way and
+readiness in catechising which made some so successful in managing a
+large class of pupils at once, but every person in the place loved
+to come to the evening classes in his own room, where, in their own
+language, he opened to them the Scriptures and spoke to them of the
+things pertaining to the kingdom of God. It was in those private classes
+that he exercised such wonderful influence; his musical voice, his holy
+face, his gentle manner, all helping doubtless to impress and draw even
+the dullest. Long after this he told me once how after these evening
+classes, one by one, some young fellow or small boy would come back with
+a gentle tap at the door, "I want to talk to you," and then and there
+the heart would be laid open, and counsel asked of the beloved teacher.
+
+'It was very pleasant to see him among his boys. They all used to go off
+for a walk on Saturday with him, sometimes to town, and he as full of
+fun with them as if they had been a party of Eton boys. He had none of
+the conventional talk, so fatal to all true influence, about degraded
+heathen. They were brethren, ignorant indeed, but capable of acquiring
+the highest wisdom. It was a joke among some of us, that when asked the
+meaning of a Nengone term of endearment he answered naively, "Oh, it
+means old fellow." He brought his fresh, happy, kindly feelings towards
+English lads and young men into constant play among Melanesians, and so
+they loved and trusted him.'
+
+I think that exclusiveness of interest which Lady Martin describes, and
+which his own family felt, and which is apt to grow upon missionaries,
+as indeed on every one who is very earnestly engaged in any work,
+diminished as he became more familiar with his work, and had a mind more
+at liberty for thought.
+
+Mr. Dudley thus describes the same period:--'It was during the summers
+of 1857-8 and 1858-9 that the Loyalty Islanders mustered in such numbers
+at St. John's College, as it was supposed that they, at least Lifu would
+be left in the hands of the Church of England. Mr. Patteson worked very
+hard these years at translations, and there was an immense enthusiasm
+about printing, the Lifuites and Nengonese striving each to get the most
+in their own language.
+
+'Never shall I forget the evening service during those years held in
+the College chapel, consisting of one or two prayers in Bauro, Gera,
+and other languages, and the rest in Nengonese, occasionally changing
+to Lifu, when Mr. Patteson used to expound the passage of Scripture
+that had been translated in school during the day. Usually the Loyalty
+Islanders would take notes of the sermon while it went on, but now and
+then it was simply impossible, for although his knowledge of Nengonese
+at that time, as compared with what it was afterwards, was very limited,
+and his vocabulary a small one from which to choose his expressions, he
+would sometimes speak with such intense earnestness and show himself
+so thoroughly en rapport with the most intelligent of his hearers, that
+they were compelled to drop their papers and pencils, and simply to to
+listen. I remember one evening in particular. For some little time past
+the conduct of the men, especially the married men, had not been at all
+satisfactory. The married couples had the upper house, and John Cho,
+Simeona, and Kapua had obtained a draught-board, and had regularly given
+themselves up to draught-playing, night and day, neglecting all the
+household duties they were expected to perform, to the great annoyance
+of their wives, who had to carry the water, and do their husbands' work
+in other ways as well their own. This became soon known to Mr. Patteson,
+and without saying anything directly to the men, he took one evening as
+his subject in chapel those words of our Lord, "If thy hand or thy foot
+offend thee," &c., and spoke as you know he did sometimes speak, and
+evidently was entirely carried out of himself, using the Nengonese with
+a freedom which showed him to be thinking in it as he went on, and
+with a face only to be described as "the face of an angel." We all
+sat spellbound. John Cho, Simeona, and the other walked quietly away,
+without saying a word, and in a day or two afterwards I learnt from John
+that he had lain awake that night thinking over the matter, that fear
+had come upon him, lest he might be tempted again, and jumping up
+instantly, he had taken the draught-board from the place where he had
+left it and had cast it into the embers of their fire.
+
+'Many and many a time was I the recipient of his thoughts, walking
+with him up and down the lawn in front of the cottage buildings of an
+evening, when he would try to talk himself clear. You may imagine what
+a willing listener I was, whatever he chose to talk upon, and he often
+spoke very freely to me, I being for a long time his only resident white
+companion. It was not long before I felt I knew his father well, and
+reverenced him deeply. He never was tired of talking of his home, and
+of former days at Eton and Oxford, and then while travelling on the
+Continent. Often and often during those early voyages have I stood or
+sat by his side on the deck of the "Southern Cross," as in the evening,
+after prayers, he stood there for hours, dressed in his clerical attire,
+all but the grey tweed cap, one hand holding the shrouds, and looking
+out to windward like a man who sees afar off all the scenes he was
+describing.'
+
+Thinking over those times since, one understands better far than one did
+at the time the reality of the sacrifice he had made in devoting himself
+for life to a work so far away from those he loved best on earth.
+
+The Bishop of Wellington, for to that see Archdeacon Abraham had been
+consecrated while in England, arrived early in March, and made a short
+stay at the College, during which he confirmed eleven and baptized one
+of Patteson's flock. Mrs. Abraham and her little boy remained at the
+College, while her husband went on to prepare for her at Wellington,
+and thus there was much to make the summer a very pleasant one, only
+chequered by frequent anxieties about the health of the pupils, as
+repeated experiments made it apparent that the climate of St. John's was
+too cold for them. Another anxiety was respecting Lifu for the
+London Missionary Society, had, after all, undertaken to supply two
+missionaries from England, and it was a most doubtful and delicate
+question whether the wishes of the natives or the established principle
+of noninterference with pre-occupied ground, ought to have most weight.
+The Primate was so occupied by New Zealand affairs that he wrote to
+Mr. Patteson to decide it himself and he could but wait to be guided by
+circumstances on the spot.
+
+To Mr. Edward Coleridge he writes on the 18th of March:--
+
+
+'I have many and delightful talks with Mr. Martin on our languages. We
+see already how strong an infusion of Polynesian elements exists in
+the Melanesian islands. With the language of four groups we are fairly
+acquainted now, besides some of the distinguishing dialects, which
+differ very much from one another; nevertheless, I think that by-and-by
+we shall connect them all if we live; but as some dialects may have
+dropped out altogether, we may want a few links in the chain to
+demonstrate the connection fully to people at a distance. It is a great
+refreshment to me to work out these matters, and the Judge kindly looked
+up the best books that exist in all the Polynesian languages, so that we
+can found our induction upon a comparison of all the dialects now from
+the Solomon Islands to the Marquesas, with the exception of the Santa
+Cruz archipelago. We have been there two or three times, but the people
+are so very numerous and noisy, that we never have had a chance as yet
+of getting into a quiet talk (by signs, &c.) with any of the people.
+
+'Still, as we know some Polynesian inhabitants of a neighbouring isle
+who have large sea canoes, and go to Santa Cruz, we may soon get one of
+them to go with us, and so have an interpreter, get a lad or two, and
+learn the language.
+
+'We are sadly in want of men; yet we cannot write to ask persons to
+come out for this work who may be indisposed, when they arrive in
+New Zealand, to carry out the particular system on which the Bishop
+proceeds. Any man who would come out and consent to spend a summer at
+the Melanesian school in New Zealand in order to learn his work, and
+would give up any preconceived notions of his own about the way to
+conduct missionary work that might militate against the Bishop's
+plan--such a man would be, of course, the very person we want; but we
+must try to make people understand that half-educated men will not do
+for this work. Men sent out as clergymen to the mission-field who would
+not have been thought fit to receive Holy Orders at home, are not at all
+the men we want. It is not at all probable that such men would really
+understand the natives, love them, and live with them; but they would be
+great dons, keeping the natives at a distance, assuming that they could
+have little in common, &c.--ideas wholly destructive of success in
+missionary, or in any work. That pride of race which prompts a white man
+to regard coloured people as inferior to himself, is strongly ingrained
+in most men's minds, and must be wholly eradicated before they will ever
+win the hearts, and thus the souls of the heathen.
+
+'What a preachment, as usual, about Melanesia!...
+
+'Your loving old Pupil and Nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Next follows a retrospective letter:--
+
+
+'April 1, 1859: St. John's College.
+
+'My dearest Father,--Thirty-two years old to-day! Well, it is a solemn
+thing to think that one has so many days and months and years to account
+for. Looking back, I see how fearfully I wasted opportunities which
+I enjoyed, of which, I fancy, I should now avail myself gladly; but I
+don't know that I fancy what is true, for my work now, though there
+is plenty of it, is desultory, and I dare say hard application,
+continuously kept up, would be as irksome to me as ever.
+
+'It seems very strange to me that I never found any pleasure in
+classical studies formerly. Now, the study of the languages for its own
+sake even is so attractive to rue that I should enjoy working out the
+exact and delicate powers of Greek particles, &c.; but I never cared for
+it till it was too late, and the whole thing was drudgery to me. I
+had no appreciation, again, of Historians, or historians; only thought
+Thucydides difficult and Herodotus prosy(!!), and Tacitus dull, and Livy
+apparently easy and really very hard. So, again, with the poets; and
+most of all I found no interest (fancy!) in Plato and Aristotle. They
+were presented to me as merely school books; not as the great effort of
+the cultivated heathen mind to solve the riddle of man's being; and
+I, in those days, never thought of comparing the heathen and Christian
+ethics, and the great writers had no charm for me.
+
+'Then my French. If I had really taken any pains with old Tarver in old
+days--and it was your special wish that I should do so--how useful it
+would be to me now; whereas, though I get on after a sort, I don't speak
+at all as I ought to do, and might have learnt to do. It is sad to look
+back upon all the neglected opportunities; and it is not only that I
+have not got nearly (so to speak) a quantity of useful materials for
+one's work in the present time, but that I find it very hard to shake
+off desultory habits. I suppose all persons have to make reflections of
+this kind, more or less sad; but, somehow, I feel it very keenly now:
+for certainly I did waste time sadly; and it so happens that I have
+just had "Tom Brown's Schooldays" lent me, and that I spent some time in
+reading it on this particular day, and, of course, my Eton life rose up
+before me. What a useful book that is! A real gain for a young person to
+have such a book. That is very much the kind of thing that would really
+help a boy--manly, true, and plain.
+
+'I hear from Sydney by last mail that the Bishop is really desirous to
+revive the long dormant Board of Missions. He means to propose to send
+a priest and a deacon to every island ready for them, and to provide for
+them--if they are forthcoming, and funds. Of this latter I have not much
+doubt....
+
+'April 24--I have to get ready for three English full services
+to-morrow, besides Melanesian ditto.--So goodbye, my dearest Father,
+
+'Your loving and dutiful Son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Sir John Patteson might well say, in a letter of this summer, to Bishop
+Selwyn:--
+
+'As to my dear boy Coley, I am more and more thankful every day that I
+agreed to his wishes; and in whatever situation he may be placed, feel
+confident that his heart will be in his work, and that he will do God
+service. He will be contented to work under any one who may be appointed
+Bishop of Melanesia (or any other title), or to be the Bishop himself.
+If I judge truly, he has no ambitious views, and only desires that he
+may be made as useful as his powers enable him to be, whether in a high
+or subordinate situation.'
+
+Nothing could be more true than this. There was a general sense of the
+probability that Mr. Patteson must be the first Missionary Bishop; but
+he continued to work on at the immediate business, always keeping the
+schemes and designs which necessarily rose in his mind ready to be
+subjected to the control of whomsoever might be set over him. The cold
+had set in severely enough to make it needful to carry off his 'party of
+coughing, shivering Melanesians' before Easter, and the 'Southern Cross'
+sailed on the 18th. Patteson took with him a good store of coffee,
+sugar, and biscuits, being uncertain whether he should or should not
+again remain at Lifu.
+
+In the outward voyage he only landed his pupils there, and then went
+on to the Banks Islands, where Sarawia was returned at Vanua Lava, and
+after Mr. Patteson had spent a pleasant day among the natives, Mota was
+visited next after.
+
+'May 24.--On Monday, at 3 P.M., we sailed from Port Patteson across
+to Mota. Here I landed among 750 people and the boat returned to the
+vessel. She was to keep up to windward during the night and call for me
+the next morning. I walked with my large following, from the teach, up
+a short steep path, to the village, near to which, indeed only 200 yards
+off, is another considerable village. The soil is excellent; the houses
+good--built round the open space which answers to the green in
+our villages, and mighty banyan trees spreading their lofty and
+wide-branching arms above and around them. The side walls of these
+houses are not more than two feet high, made only of bamboos lashed by
+cocoa-nut fibre, or wattled together, and the long sloping roofs nearly
+touch ground but within they are tolerably clean and quite dry. The moon
+was in the first quarter, and the scene was striking as I sat out in
+the open space with some 200 people crowding round me--men, women and
+children; fires in front where yams were roasting; the dark brown forms
+glancing to and fro in the flickering light; the moon's rays quivering
+down through the vast trees, and the native hollow drum beating at
+intervals to summon the people to the monthly feast on the morrow. I
+slept comfortably on a mat in a cottage with many other persons in
+it. Much talk I had with a large concourse outside, and again in this
+cottage, on Christianity; and all were quiet when I knelt down as usual
+and said my evening prayers. Up at 5.30 A.M., and walked up a part of
+the Sugar Loaf peak, from which the island derives its English name, and
+found a small clear stream, flowing, through a rocky bed, back to the
+village, where were some 300 people assembled; sat some time with them,
+then went to the beach, where the boat soon came for me.
+
+'After this there was a good deal of bad weather; but all the lads were
+restored to their islands, including Aroana, the young Malanta chief,
+who had begun by a fit of frenzy, but had since behaved well; and who
+left his English friends with a promise to do all in his power to tame
+his people and cure them of cannibalism.'
+
+Then came some foul winds and hot exhausting weather.
+
+'I have done little more than read Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine," and
+Helps's "Spanish America," two excellent books and most delightful
+to me. The characters in the Spanish conquest of Mexico and America
+generally; the whole question of the treatment of natives; and that
+nobleman, Las Casas--are more intelligible to me than to most persons
+probably. The circumstances of my present life enable me to realise it
+to a greater extent.
+
+'Then I have been dipping into a little ethnology; yesterday a little
+Plato; but it is almost too hot for anything that requires a working
+head-piece. You know I take holiday time this voyage when we are in open
+water and no land near, and it is great relaxation to me.'
+
+A pretty severe gale of wind followed, a sharp test of Patteson's
+seamanship.
+
+'Then came one day of calm, when we all got our clothes dry, and the
+deck and rigging looked like an old clothes' shop. Then we got a fairish
+breeze; but we can get nothing in moderation. Very soon it blew up
+into a strong breeze, and here we are lying to with a very heavy sea.
+Landsmen would call it mountainous, I suppose. I am tired, for I have
+had an anxious time; and we have had but one quiet night for an age, and
+then I slept from 9.30 P.M. to 7.30 A.M. continuously. 'It may be that
+this is very good training for me. Indeed it must give me more coolness
+and confidence. I felt pleased as well as thankful when we made the
+exact point of Nengone that I had calculated upon, and at the exact
+time.'
+
+On the 20th of June, Auckland harbour was safely attained; but the
+coming back without scholars did not make much of holiday time for their
+master, who was ready to give help to other clergymen whenever it might
+be needed, though, in fact, this desultory occupation always tried him
+most.
+
+On the 25th of July he says:--
+
+'I have had a sixty miles' walk since I wrote last; some part of it over
+wild country. I lost my way once or twice and got into some swamps, but
+I had my little pocket-compass.
+
+'My first day was eighteen miles in pouring rain; no road, in your sense
+of the word; but a good warm room and tea at the end. Next day on the
+move all day, by land and water, seeing settlers scattered about. Third
+day, Sunday, services at two different places. Fourth day, walk of
+some twenty-seven miles through unknown regions baptizing children
+at different places; and reaching, after divers adventures, a very
+hospitable resting-place at 8 p.m. in the dark. Next day an easy walk
+into Auckland and Taurarua. Yesterday, Sunday, very wet day. Man-of-war
+gig came down for me at 9.15 A.M., took the service on board; 11 A.M.
+St. Paul's service; afternoon, hospital, a mile or so off; 6 P.M., St.
+Paul's evening service; 8.30, arrived at Taurarua dripping.'
+
+The same letter replies to one from home:--
+
+'I thank you, my dear father, for writing so fully about yourself, and
+especially, for seeing and stating so plainly your full conviction that
+I ought not to think of returning to England. It would, as you say,
+humanly speaking, interfere most seriously with the prospects of the
+Mission. Some dear friends write to me differently, but they don't quite
+understand, as you have taken pains to do, what our position is out
+here; and they don't see that my absence would involve great probable
+injury to the whole work.
+
+'It is curious how few there are who know anything of New Zealand and
+Melanesia!
+
+'Of course it is useless to speculate on the future, but I see nothing
+at all to make it likely that I shall ever revisit England. I can't
+very well conceive any such state of things as would make it a duty to
+gratify my constant inclination. And, my dear father, I don't scruple to
+say (for you will understand me) that I am happier here than I should be
+in England, where, even though I were absent only a few months, I should
+bear about with me the constant weight of knowing that Melanesia was not
+provided for. And, strange as it may seem, this has quite ceased to be a
+trial to me. The effort of subduing the longing desire to see you is
+no longer a great one: I feel that I am cheerful and bright, and
+light-hearted, and that I have really everything to make a man thankful
+and contented.
+
+'And if you could see the thankful look of the Bishop, when he is again
+assured that there is no item of regret or desire to call me home on
+your part, you would feel, I know, that colonial work does require,
+especially, an unconditional unreserved surrender of a man to whatever
+he may find to do.'
+
+But while admiring the noble spirit in which the son held fast his post,
+and the father forebore to unsettle him there, let not their example
+he used in the unkind and ignorant popular cry against the occasional
+return of colonial Bishops. For, be it remembered, that dire necessity
+was not drawing Coleridge Patteson to demand pecuniary assistance round
+all the platforms of English towns. The Eton, and the Australian and New
+Zealand Associations, supplemented by the Society for the Propagation of
+the Gospel and his own family, relieved him from the need of having to
+maintain his Mission by such means. All these letters are occupied with
+the arrangements for raising means for removing the Melanesian College
+to a less bleak situation, and it is impossible to read them without
+feeling what a difference it made to have a father who did not view
+giving to God's work as robbing his family.
+
+On the 13th of August, Patteson was on board, preparing for the voyage;
+very cold, and eager for the tropics. The parting voice in his farewell
+letter is: 'I think I see more fully that work, by the power of God's
+Spirit, is the condition of us all in this world; tiny and insignificant
+as the greatest work of the greatest men is, in itself, yet the one
+talent is to be used.'
+
+It was meant to be a farewell letter, but another followed in the
+leisure, while waiting for the Bishop to embark, with some strong (not
+to say fiery) opinions on the stern side of duty:--
+
+'I feel anxious to try to make some of the motives intelligible, upon
+which we colonial folk act sometimes. First. I think that we get
+a stronger sense of the necessity for dispensing with that kind of
+courtesy and good nature which sometimes interferes with duty than
+people do in England.
+
+'So a man placed as I am (for example) really cannot oftentimes avoid
+letting it be seen that work must come first; and, by degrees, one
+sympathises less than one possibly should do with drones and idlers in
+the hive, and feels it wrong to assent to a scheme which lets a real
+work suffer for the sake of acquiescing in a conventional recognition of
+comfort, claims of society, &c.
+
+'Would the general of an army say to his officers, "Pray, gentlemen,
+don't dirty your boots or fatigue your horses to succour the inhabitants
+of a distant village"? Or a captain to his mates and middies: "Don't
+turn out, don't go aloft. It is a thing hard, and you might get wet"?
+
+'And the difference between us and people at home sometimes is, that we
+don't see why a clergyman is not as much bound as an officer in the army
+or navy to do what he is pledged of his own act to do; and that at home
+the 'parsonage and pony-carriage' delusion practically makes men forget
+this. I forget it as much as any man, and should very likely never have
+seen the mistake but for my coming to New Zealand; and it is one of the
+great blessings we enjoy.
+
+'There is a mighty work to be done. God employs human agents, and the
+Bible tells us what are the rules and conditions of their efficiency.
+
+'"Oh! but, poor man, he has a sickly wife!" Yes, but, "it remaineth that
+those who have wives be as they that have none."
+
+'True, but the case of a large family? "Whosoever loveth child more than
+me," &c.
+
+'Second. The fact that we live almost without servants makes us more
+independent, and also makes us acquainted with the secrets of each
+other's housekeeping, &c. All that artificial intercourse which depends
+a good deal upon a well-fitted servants' hall does not find place here.
+More simple and more plain and homely in speech and act is our life in
+the colonies--e.g., you meet me carrying six or seven loaves from town
+to the college. "Oh, I knew that the Bishop had to meet some persons
+there to-day, and I felt nearly sure there would be no breakfast then."
+Of course an English person thinks, "Why didn't he send the bread?" To
+which I answer, "Who was there to send?"
+
+'I don't mean that I particularly like turning myself into a miller one
+day and a butcher the next; but that doing it as a matter of course,
+where there is no one else to do it, one does sometimes think it
+unreasonable to say, as has been said to the Bishop:--"Two thousand
+pounds a year you want for your Mission work!" "Yes," said the
+Bishop, "and not too much for sailing over ten thousand miles, and for
+educating, clothing, and feeding some forty young men!"
+
+'I mean that conventional notions in England are preventing people from
+really doing half what they might do for the good of the needy.
+
+'I don't know how this might be said to be a theory tending to
+revolutionise society; but I think I do know that there is a kind of
+religious common sense which comes in to guide people in such matters.
+Only, I do not think it right to admit that plea for not doing more in
+the way of almsgiving which is founded upon the assumption that first
+of all a certain position in society must be kept up, which involves
+certain expenditure.
+
+'A barrister is living comfortably on L800 a year, or a clergyman in
+his living of L400. The professional income of the one increases, and a
+fatter living is given to the other, or some money is left them. What
+do they do? Instantly start a carriage, another servant, put the
+jack-of-all-trades into a livery, turn the buttons into a flunkey, and
+the village girl into a ladies' maid! Is this really right? They were
+well enough before. Why not use the surplus for some better purpose?
+
+'I imagine that we, the clergy, are chiefly to blame, for not only not
+protesting against, but most contentedly acquiescing in such a state of
+things. You ask now for something really demanding a sacrifice. "I can't
+afford it." "What, not to rescue that village from starvation? not to
+enable that good man to preach the Gospel to people only accessible by
+means of such an outlay on his vessel, &c.? Give up your carriage,
+your opera box; don't have so many grand balls, &c. "Oh no! it is all a
+corban to the genius of society.
+
+'Now, is this Scriptural or not, my dear father? I don't mean that any
+individual is justified in dictating to his neighbour, still less in
+condemning him. But are not these the general principles of religion and
+morality in the Bible? There are duties to society: but a good man
+will take serious counsel as to what they are, and how far they may be
+militating against higher and holier claims.
+
+'August 24.--Why I wrote all this, my dearest father, I hardly know,
+only I feel sure that unless men at home can, by taking real pains to
+think about it, realise the peculiar circumstances of colonial life,
+they will never understand any one of us.
+
+'I have written Fan a note in which I said something about my few
+effects if I should die.
+
+'One thing I should like to say to you, not as venturing to do more than
+let you be in full possession of my own mind on the matter. Should I die
+before you die, would it be wrong for me to say, "Make the Melanesian
+Mission my heir"?
+
+'It may be according to the view which generally obtains that the other
+three should then divide my share. But now I would take what may seem
+the hard view of which I have been writing, and say, "They have enough
+to maintain them happily and comfortably." The Mission work without such
+a bequest will be much endangered. I feel sure that they would wish
+it to be so, for, of course, you know that this large sum of which you
+write will be, if I survive you, regarded simply as a bequest to the
+Mission in which I have a life interest, and the interest of which, in
+the main, would be spent on the Mission.
+
+'But I only say plainly, without any reserve, what I have thought about
+it; not for one moment putting up my opinion against yours, of course,
+in case you take a contrary view.
+
+'We sail, I hope, to-morrow, but the Bishop is more busy than ever.
+
+'Again, my dearest Father,
+
+'Your loving and dutiful Son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The history of this voyage was, as usual, given in a long letter for the
+Feniton fireside; but there was a parallel journal also, kept for the
+Bishop of Wellington, which is more condensed, and, therefore, better
+for quotation.
+
+The manner in which the interest in, and connection with all English
+friends and relations was kept up is difficult to convey, though it was
+a very loveable part of the character. Little comments of condolence or
+congratulation, and messages of loving remembrance to persons mentioned
+by playful names, would only be troublesome to the reader; but it must
+be taken for granted that every reply to a home packet was full of these
+evidences that the black children on a thousand isles had by no means
+driven the cousins and friends of youth from a heart that was enlarged
+to have tenderness for all.
+
+
+'Lat. 9 deg. 29' S.; Long. 163 deg. S.E. "Southern Cross:" October 9, 1859.
+
+'My dear Bishop,--We are on our way from Uleawa to the Santa Cruz group,
+having visited the Loyalty Islands, Southern New Hebrides, Banks Island
+(2), and Solomon Islands.
+
+'The Bishop so planned the voyage as to run down the wind quickly to
+the Solomon Islands, and do the real work coming home; not, as usual,
+beating up in the open water between the Santa Cruz archipelago, Banks
+Islands and New Hebrides to the east, and New Caledonia to the west. We
+are thus able to visit Vanua Lava on the way out and home also; and as
+we meant to make the Banks Islands the great point this voyage, that
+was, of course, great gain.
+
+'We touched at Norfolk Island.... Going on to Nengone we found everybody
+away at the distant yam grounds, and could not wait to see them.
+
+'At Lifu, the first thing that shocked us was John's appearance: one of
+those fatal glandular swellings has already produced a great change in
+him. He looked sallow and weak, and I fear ut sit vitalis. He spoke to
+me very calmly about his illness, which he thinks is unto death, and I
+did not contradict him.
+
+'We had much private talk together. He is a fine fellow and, I believe,
+a sincere Christian man. Then came the applications to us not to desert
+them, and letters enumerating all the villages of Lifu almost without
+exception, and entreating us to suffer them to be connected with us, and
+we had to answer that already two missionaries from the L. M. S. are
+on their way from Sydney to Lifu, and that it would do harm to have two
+rival systems on the island. They acquiesced but not heartily, and it
+was a sad affair altogether, all parties unhappy and dissatisfied, and
+yet unable to solve the difficulty. Then came a talk with Angadhohua,
+John's half-brother, the real chief. The poor lad feels now what a
+terrible thing it will be for him and his people if they should lose
+John. Nothing can be nicer than his way of talking: "I know you don't
+think me firm enough, and that I am easily led by others. What am I to
+do if John dies? We all respect him. He has been taught so much, and
+people all listen to him." I gave him the best advice that I could
+and longed to be able to do something for him and his people. It was,
+however, a comfort to leave with them St. Mark, Scripture books, &c.
+
+'We called at Tanna, to see poor Mr. Paton, who lost his wife last
+April. He is living on there quite alone, and has already lived down the
+first angry opposition of some of the people, and the unkind treatment
+that he received from men and women alike who mocked him because of his
+wife's death, &c. He has had much fever and looked very ill, but his
+heart was in his work; and the Bishop said he seemed to be one of the
+weak things which God hath chosen. I know he made me feel pretty well
+ashamed of myself.
+
+'Next day we spent a few hours with Mr. and Mrs. Gordon at Erromango. He
+has a small house on the high table-land overlooking Dillon's Bay, and
+certainly is exposed to winds which may, for aught I know, rival those
+of Wellington notoriety. The situation is, however, far preferable in
+the summer to that on the beach, which is seldom free from malaria and
+ague.
+
+'Then we sailed to the great bay of Pango, landed at Fate a fellow
+who had come to the Bishop in New Zealand for a passage, and in the
+afternoon sailed away through "the Pool" (the landlocked space between
+Mallicolo and Espiritu Santo to the west; Aspee, Ambrym, Whitsuntide,
+Aurora to the east), where for eighty miles the water is always smooth,
+the wind always steady, the scenery always lovely, and where, on this
+occasion, the volcano was bright.
+
+'Being nearly becalmed to the south-east of Leper's Isle, the Bishop
+gave me the choice of a visit to Whitsuntide or Leper's Island. I voted
+for the latter, and delighted we were to renew an acquaintance made two
+years ago, and not since kept up, with these specially nice people. We
+were recognised at once, but we have a very small vocabulary.
+
+'The sea was running heavily into the bay, but it is sand there and not
+much rock on the beach, and we had a jolly swim ashore. Then we bought a
+few yams, which the surf did not permit us to get to the boat, and had
+a very pleasant visit; for, as we sat among them, words came into one's
+head, or were caught from their mouth, and at the end of twenty minutes
+we were getting on a little. The old chief took me by the hand and led
+me aside to the spot where the ladies were assembled, and divining no
+doubt that I was a bachelor, politely offered me his daughter, and his
+protection, &c., if I would live among them.
+
+'I missed seeing the Bishop knocked clean over by the breakers as he
+was swimming off to the boat; I was still talking to the people, with my
+back to the sea, and only saw him staggering to his feet again. Thinking
+to myself that if he was knocked over, I had better look out, I awaited
+a "smooth" and swam out comfortably.
+
+'The next morning (Sunday) at ten, we dropped anchor in Port Patteson,
+the harbour which you know the Bishop would call after my father. The
+first person who came off to us was Sarawia, my old Lifu pupil, from
+this island! Then came a good many men. I told them there would be no
+going ashore and no trading till the next day. Palemana, your friend
+Matawathki, &c., were at church, all dressed and well-behaved. What nice
+orderly people they are, to be sure!
+
+'The next day we bought lots of yams, and gave away seeds and
+fruit-trees, or rather planted them; and looked for a place for a
+station, and fixed at last on the rising-ground which forms the east
+side of the harbour, and the Bishop, arming himself with an axe, led
+a party to clear the bush, which was very thick. They made a fair path
+through in one afternoon to the top, and a healthy place might be found
+now with little trouble to return to at night from the schools, &c. in
+the village below, and so shirk the malaria.
+
+'But the next day, as I had anticipated, rather changed his intentions
+as to the principal station being formed at Vanua Lava. We landed at
+Sugar Loaf Island, and with something of pride I showed off to him the
+beauties of the villages where I slept in May last--the dry soil,
+the spring of water, the wondrous fertility, the large and remarkably
+intelligent, well-looking population, the great banyan tree,
+twenty-seven paces round--and at once he said, "This is such a place as
+I have seen nowhere else for our purpose."
+
+'The Bishop had seen this island before I was with him, during one of
+the "Border Maid's" voyages, and knew the people, of course, but had not
+happened to have walked in shore at all, and so the exceeding beauty and
+fitness of the island for a Mission station had not become so apparent
+to him. We know of no place where there seems to be such an unusual
+combination of everything that can be desired, humanly speaking, for
+such an institution. So that is settled (D.V.) that next winter I
+should be here, if alive and well; and that the Banks Islands should be
+regarded as the central point of the Mission.
+
+'Such boys! Bright-eyed, merry fellows, many really handsome; of that
+reddish yellow tinge of colour which betokens affinity with Polynesian
+races, as their language also testifies. The majority of the people
+were pleasing in their appearance and manner. Well, all this was very
+hopeful, and we went off very happy, taking Eumau, the boy who first met
+us at Port Patteson when we found it out, and old Wompas (who was with
+me at Lifu), and another from Mota, to see the Northern Islands.
+
+'I think our work is more likely now to revolve upon a fixed
+centre--Sugar Loaf Island in the Banks group--that we shall make the
+occupation of the group the first ohject, and do all with reference to
+that as the necessary part of the work to be attended to first. In the
+choice of scholars, e.g., we have considered whether we should not limit
+our selection to such as might pass the next winter with me at Sugar
+Loaf Island, and so that the vessel need not run down to leeward of it.
+Solomon Islands are the extreme verge. In the East Island, where there
+would be merely a question of nothing or something, we may take very
+young men who would perhaps not be easy to keep out of harm at Sugar
+Loaf, because there will be no difficulty about returning them to their
+homes....
+
+'November 11th.--We found in the Santa Cruz group that the news of
+Captain Front's and his two men's death in Vanikoro, and (as we suppose)
+the news of the "Cordelia" having been at that island to inquire into
+the matter, had made the people anxious, uneasy, noisy, and rather
+rude. That poor man went to make a station at Vanikoro in the usual way,
+taking three poor New Caledonian women with him. The Vanikoro people
+killed the three English and took away the women.
+
+'We did not land at Sta. Cruz, but we had a more pleasant intercourse
+than heretofore with thirty or forty canoes' crews.
+
+'Timelin Island we ascertained to be identical with Nukapu, an old
+familiar place whose latitude we had not ascertained correctly before.
+The small reef (Polynesian) islands did not give us so good a reception
+as last year, though there was no unfriendliness. The news about
+Vanikoro had made them suspicious of visits from white men. But they
+will be all right by next time....
+
+'We saw a pleasant party at Bligh Island, brought away one young man
+from that island, and two lads belonging to a neighbouring small island
+called Eowa. The next day we watered on the north side of Vanua Lava,
+and in the evening went across to Santa Maria. Here we landed on the
+next day among two hundred or more people, shy and noisy. We bought a
+few yams, and I detected some young fellows stealing from our little
+heap I would not overlook this, but the noticing it made them more
+suspicious that we meant to hurt them. As the Bishop and I, after some
+twenty minutes, turned to rejoin the boat, the whole crowd bolted like
+a shot right and left into the bush. Evidently they must have had some
+trading crew tire a parting shot in mere wantonness at them from their
+boat. I expected some arrows to be shot at us; but they did not shoot
+any.
+
+'The same evening (Saturday) we stood across the passage with a brisk
+breeze, and took up our party, consisting of five and including Sarawia
+and four others anciently noted as promising in appearance....
+
+'We reached Mota (Sugar Loaf Island) in time to leave me for a night's
+visit to the people. I had time before the boat called next day at noon
+to see five or six of their villages. People quite accustomed to expect
+me--all most friendly, apparently pleased to be told that I would stop
+with them in the winter. Seven scholars joined us here....
+
+'At Mai, I slept in the house of Petere and Laure. Things are promising.
+It is quite ready for a missionary. We brought away Moto, Pepeu, and the
+two young boys who were with me at Lifu, and very many wished to come.
+
+'Thence we had a very long passage to Lifu. John Cho is, I am thankful
+to say, very much better. The two men from the London Missionary Society
+are on the island.... The Lifu people tell me that in the north of
+the island many are accepting the teaching of the two French priests.
+William Martin Tahia and Chakham, a principal chief and old scholar, are
+with us.
+
+'At Nengone, Wadrokala, George Simeona, and Harper Malo have come away
+for good.... We number thirty-nine Melanesians.... This is a long letter
+which will try your patience.
+
+'Always, my dear Bishop,
+
+'Affectionately yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Another long letter was written during this voyage to Mr. Edward
+Coleridge, a great portion of it on the expediency of the islands being
+taken under British protection, also much respecting the Church of New
+Zealand, which is scarcely relevant to the immediate subject, and only
+at the end is there anything more personal:--
+
+'The last accounts of my father were unusually good, but I well know
+what news may be awaiting our return from a voyage whether long or
+short, and I try to be ready for any news; yet I suppose that I cannot
+at all realize what it would be. It makes some difference when the idea
+of meeting again in this world has been relinquished for now four and a
+half years, yet it is all very well to wait or think about it! I was not
+so upset by dear Uncle James's death as I should no doubt have been had
+I enjoyed the prospect of frequently seeing him. Somehow, when all ideas
+of time and space are annihilated by death, one must think about such
+separations in a religious way: for separations in any other sense to us
+here, from people in England, have already taken place. I must except,
+however, the loving wise letters, and the power of realising more
+clearly perhaps the occupations of those still in the body--their
+accustomed places and duties; though I suppose we can tell quite enough
+about all this in the case of those who have died in the true faith of
+Christ to know, at all events, that we are brought and united to them
+whenever we think or do anything religiously. I often think that this
+is well brought out in the "Heir of Redclyffe"--the loss of "the bright
+outside," the life and energy and vigour, and all the companionable and
+sociable qualities, contrasted with the power of thinking oneself into
+the inner spiritual relations that exist between the worlds visible and
+invisible.
+
+'All this effort is much diminished in our case. There is no very great
+present loss; at least, it is not so sensibly felt by a great deal as it
+would be if we missed some one with whom we lived up to the time of his
+death. It is much easier to think of them as they are than it could be
+in the case of persons who remember so vividly what they so lately were;
+and this is why, I suppose, the news of Uncle James's death seemed to
+affect me so much less than I should have expected, and it may be
+so again: certain it is that I loved him dearly, and that I miss his
+letters very much indeed; but I think that the point I felt most about
+him was the sad affliction to his family, and the great loss to my dear
+father, who had of late seen more than ever of him.'
+
+From the home letter I only quote from the reflections so regularly
+inspired by the anniversary of the 28th of November.
+
+After lamenting that it was difficult to realise those scenes in his
+mother's illness which he and his brother only knew from narration,
+Patteson adds:--
+
+'The memory of those days would perhaps have been more precious to me
+if I had witnessed more with my own eyes. And yet of course it really
+mattered nothing at all, because the lesson of her life does not depend
+on an acquaintance with a few days of it; and what I saw when I was
+there I never have forgotten, and hope that I never may forget.
+
+'And indeed I feel now with regard to you, my dear Father, that I have
+not learned to know you better while I was with you than I do now. I
+think that in some ways I enter more almost into your mind and thought,
+or that I fancy I do so: just as the present possession of anything so
+often prevents our really taking pains to learn all about it. We rest
+content with the superficial knowledge of that which is most easily
+perceived and recognised in it....
+
+'I think I know from your letters, and from the fact of my absence from
+you making me think more about you, as much about you as those present.
+I very much enjoy a letter from Joan, which gives me a kind of tableau
+vivant of you all. That helps me to realize the home life; so do the
+photographs, they help in the same way. But your letters, and the fact
+that I think so much about them, and about you, are my real helps.'
+
+The voyage ended on the 7th of December. It was the last made under the
+guidance of the Bishop of New Zealand, and, alas! the last return of the
+first 'Southern Cross.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. MOTA AND ST. ANDREW'S COLLEGE, KOHIMARAMA. 1859-1862.
+
+
+
+With the year 1860 a new period, and one far more responsible and
+eventful, began. After working for four years under Bishop Selwyn's
+superintendence, Coleridge Patteson was gradually passing into a sphere
+of more independent action; and, though his loyal allegiance to his
+Primate was even more of the heart than of the letter, his time of
+training was over; he was left to act more on his own judgment; and
+things were ripening for his becoming himself a Bishop. He had nearly
+completed his thirty-third year, and was in his fullest strength, mental
+and bodily; and, as has been seen, the idea had already through Bishop
+Selwyn's letters become familiar to his family, though he himself had
+shrunk from entertaining it.
+
+The first great change regarded the locality of the Melanesian school in
+New Zealand. Repeated experience had shown that St. John's College was
+too bleak for creatures used to basking under a vertical sun, and it
+had been decided to remove to the sheltered landing-place at Kohimarama,
+where buildings for the purpose had been commenced so as to be habitable
+in time for the freight of 1859.
+
+It should be explained, that the current expenses of the Mission had
+been defrayed by the Eton and Sydney associations, with chance help
+from persons privately interested, together with a grant of L200, and
+afterwards L300 per annum from the Society for the Propagation of the
+Gospel. The extra expense of this foundation was opportunely met by a
+discovery on the part of Sir John Patteson, that his eldest son, living
+upon the Merton Fellowship, had cost him L200 a year less than his
+younger son, and therefore that, in his opinion, L800 was due to
+Coleridge. Moreover, the earlier voyages, and, in especial the
+characters of Siapo and Umao, had been so suggestive of incidents
+fabricated in the 'Daisy Chain,' that the proceeds of the book were felt
+to be the due of the Mission and at this time these had grown to such an
+amount as to make up the sum needful for erecting such buildings as were
+immediately requisite for the intended College.
+
+These are described in the ensuing letter, which I give entire, because
+the form of acknowledgment is the only style suitable to what, however
+lightly acquired, was meant as an offering, even though it cost the
+giver all too little:
+
+
+'Kohimarama: Dec. 21, 1859.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--I have received at length from my father a distinct
+statement of what you have given to the Melanesian Mission. I had heard
+rumours before, and the Bishop of Wellington had spoken to me of your
+intentions, but the fact had not been regularly notified to us.
+
+'I think I know you too well to say more than this. May God bless you
+for what you have lent to Him, and give us, who are specially connected
+with the Mission, grace to use your gift as you intend it to be used, to
+His glory in the salvation of souls.
+
+'But you will like to hear how your gift will be appropriated. For three
+summers the Melanesian scholars lived at St. John's College, which is
+situated on a low hill, from which the ground falls away on every side,
+leaving it exposed to every wind that blows across and around the narrow
+isthmus.
+
+'Thank God, we had no death traceable to the effect of the climate,
+but we had constant anxiety and a considerable amount of illness.
+When arrangements were completed for the arrival of a new principal to
+succeed the Bishop of Wellington, the college was no longer likely to be
+available for the Mission school. Consequently, we determined to build
+on the site long ago agreed upon; to put up some substantial buildings,
+and to remove some of the wooden buildings at the College which would
+not be required there, and set them up again at Kohimarama.
+
+'Just opposite the entrance into the Auckland harbour, between the
+island of Eangitoto with its double peak and the easternmost point of
+the northern shore of the harbour, lies a very sheltered bay, with its
+sea-frontage of rather more than a quarter of a mile, bounded to the
+east, south, and west by low hills, which where they meet the sea become
+sandy cliffs, fringed with the red-flower-bearing pohutakawa. The whole
+of this bay, the seventy acres of flat rich soil included within the
+rising ground mentioned, and some seventy acres more as yet lying
+uncleared, adjoining the same block of seventy acres, and likely to be
+very valuable, as the land is capital--the whole of this was bought by
+the Bishop many years ago as the property of the Mission, and is the
+only piece of Church land over which he retains the control, every other
+bequest or gift to the amount of 14,000 acres, having been handed over
+by him to the General Synod. This he retains till the state of the
+Melanesian Mission is more definitely settled.
+
+'On the west corner of this bay we determined to build. A small tide
+creek runs for a short way about S.S.E. from the extreme end of the
+western part of the beach, then turns early eastward, and meets a small
+stream coming down from the southern hill at its western extremity. This
+creek encloses a space extending along the whole width of the bay of
+about eighteen or twenty acres.
+
+'At the east end stand three wooden cottages, occupied by the master,
+mate, and a married seaman of the "Southern Cross." At the west end
+stands the Melanesian school. Fences divide the whole space into three
+portions, whereof the western one forms our garden and orchard; and the
+others pasture for cows and working bullocks; small gardens being also
+fenced off for the three cottages. The fifty acres of flat land south of
+the creek we are now clearing and ploughing.
+
+'The situation here is admirably adapted for our school. Now that we
+have a solid wall of the scoria from the volcanic island opposite, we
+have a complete shelter from the cold south wind. The cliff and hill to
+the west entirely shut off the wind from that quarter, and the north and
+east winds are always warm. The soil is very dry, and the beach composed
+exclusively of small "pipi" shells--small bivalves. So that by putting
+many cart-loads of these under our wooden floors, and around our
+buildings, we have so perfect a drainage that after heavy rain the soil
+is quite dry again in a few hours. It causes me no anxiety now, when I
+am for an hour away from my flock, to be thinking whether they are lying
+on the ground, forgetting that the hot sun overhead does not destroy the
+bad effect of a damp clay soil such as that at St. John's College.
+
+'The buildings at present form three sides of a quadrangle, but the
+south side is only partly filled up. The large schoolroom, eighty feet
+long, with three sets of transepts, has been removed from the College,
+and put up again so as to form the east side of the quadrangle. This
+is of wood; so is the small wooden quadrangle which serves now for
+dormitories, and a part of which I occupy; my house consisting of
+three little rooms, together measuring seventeen feet by seven. These
+dormitories are the southern side of the quadrangle, but do not reach
+more than half-way from the east to the west side, room being left for
+another set of dormitories of equal size, when we want them and
+can afford them. The west side consists of a very nice set of stone
+buildings, including a large kitchen, store room, and room for putting
+things in daily and immediate use; and the hall, which is the northern
+part of the side of the quadrangle, is a really handsome room, with
+simple open roof and windows of a familiar collegiate appearance. These
+buildings are of the dark grey scoria, almost imperishable I suppose,
+and look very well. The hall is just long enough to take seven of us
+at the high table (so to speak), and thirty-four at the long table,
+stretching from the high table to the end of the room.
+
+'At present this is used for school also, as the carpenters who
+are making all our fittings, shelves, &c., are still in the large
+schoolroom. We take off the north end of the schoolroom, including one
+set of transepts for our temporary chapel. This part will be lined, i.e.
+boarded, neatly inside. The rest of the building is very rough, but it
+answers its purpose.
+
+'In all the stone buildings, the rough stone is left inside just as
+it is outside. It does not look bad at all to my eye, and I doubt if I
+would have it lined if we had funds to pay for it.
+
+'I hope eventually that stone buildings will take the place of the
+present wooden schoolroom and dormitories; but this ought to last many
+years. Here we live most happily and comfortably. The climate almost
+tropical in summer. The beautiful scenery of the harbour before our
+eyes, the smooth sea and clean dry beach within a stone's throw of my
+window. The lads and young men have their fishing, bathing, boating,
+and basking in the sun, which all day from sunrise to sunset beats right
+upon us; for the west cliff does not project more than a few yards to
+the north of us, and the eastern boundary is low and some way off. I see
+the little schooner at her moorings whenever I look off my book or my
+paper, and with an opera-glass can see the captain caulking the
+decks. All is under my eye; and the lads daily say, "College too cold;
+Kohimarama very good; all the same Bauro, Mota," as the speaker belongs
+to one or other of our fourteen islands represented.... The moment we
+heard of your gift, we said simultaneously, "Let it be given to this or
+to some specific and definite object." I think you will like to feel
+not only that the money came most opportunely, but that within the walls
+built with that money, many many hundreds, I trust, of these Melanesian
+islanders will be fed and taught, and trained up in the knowledge and
+fear of God....
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Before the old year was out came the tidings of the death of good Miss
+Neill, the governess whom Patteson had so faithfully loved from early
+childhood, and whose years of suffering he had done his best to cheer.
+'At rest at last.' In the same letter, in answer to some complaint from
+his sister of want of detail in the reports, he says: 'Am I trying to
+make my life commonplace? Well, really so it is more or less to me.
+Things go on in a kind of routine. Two voyages a year, five months in
+New Zealand, though certainly two-thirds of my flock fresh every year. I
+suppose it still sounds strange to you sometimes, and to others always,
+but they should try to think for themselves about our circumstances.
+
+'And you know, Fan, I can't write for the world at large anecdotes of
+missionary life, and swell the number of the "Gems" and other trashy
+books. If people who care to know, would think of what their own
+intuition tells them of human nature, and history tells them of
+heathenism, they can make out some notion of real missionary work.
+
+'The school is the real work. Teaching adults to read a strange tongue
+is hard work; I have little doubt but that the Bishop is right in saying
+they must be taught English; but it is so very difficult a language, not
+spelt a bit as pronounced; and their language is all vocalic and so easy
+to put into writing.
+
+'But if you like I will scatter anecdotes about--of how the Bishop and
+his chaplain took headers hand in hand off the schooner and roundhouse;
+and how the Bishop got knocked over at Leper's Island by a big wave;
+and how I borrowed a canoe at Tariko and paddled out yams as fast as the
+Bishop brought them to our boat, &c.--but this is rubbish.'
+
+This letter is an instance of the reserve and reticence which Mr.
+Patteson felt so strongly with regard to his adventures and pupils.
+He could not endure stories of them to become, as it were, stock for
+exciting interest at home. There was something in his nature that shrank
+from publishing accounts of individual pupils as a breach of confidence,
+as much, or perhaps even more, than if they had been English people,
+likely to know what had been done. Moreover, instances had come to his
+knowledge in which harm had been done to both teachers and taught by
+their becoming aware that they were shown off to the public in print.
+Such things had happened even where they would have seemed not only
+unlikely, but impossible; and this rendered him particularly cautious
+in writing of his work, so that his reports were often dry, while he
+insisted strongly on his letters to his family being kept private.
+
+The actual undertakings of the Mission did not exceed its resources, so
+that there was no need for those urgent appeals which call for sensation
+and incident to back them; and thus there sometimes seemed to the
+exterior world to be a lack of information about the Mission.
+
+The letters of January 1860 show how the lads were fortified
+against weather: 'They wear a long flannel waistcoat, then a kind of
+jersey-shaped thing, with short trousers, reaching a little below the
+knee, for they dabble about like ducks here, the sea being not a hundred
+yards from the building. All the washing, of course, and most of the
+clothes-making they can do themselves; I can cut out after a fashion,
+and they take quickly to needle and thread; but now the Auckland ladies
+have provided divers very nice garments, their Sunday dresses are very
+nice indeed.'
+
+The question of the Bishopric began to come forward. On the 18th of
+January a letter to Sir John Patteson, after speaking of a playful
+allusion which introduced the subject, details how Mrs. Selwyn had
+disclosed that a letter had actually been despatched to the Duke of
+Newcastle, then Colonial Secretary, asking permission to appoint and
+consecrate John Coleridge Patteson as Missionary Bishop of the Western
+Pacific Isles.
+
+J.C.P.--'Well, then, I must say what I feel about it. I have known for
+some time that this was not unlikely to come some day; but I never spoke
+seriously to you or to the Martins when you insinuated these things,
+because I thought if I took it up gravely it would come to be considered
+a settled thing.'
+
+Mrs. S.--'Well, so it has been, and is----'
+
+J.C.P.--'But has the Bishop seriously thought of this, that he has had
+no trial of any other man; that I could give any other man who may
+come, perhaps, the full benefit of my knowledge of languages, and of my
+acquaintance with the islands and the people, while we may reasonably
+expect some one to come out before long far better fitted to organise
+and lead men than I am? Has he fairly looked at all the per contra?
+
+Mrs. S.--'I feel sure he has.'
+
+J.C. P.--'I don't deny that my father tells me I must not shrink from
+it; that some things seem to point to it as natural; that I must not
+venture to think that I can be as complete a judge as the Bishop of what
+is good for Melanesia--but what necessity for acting now?'
+
+Here came an interruption, but the conversation was renewed later in
+the day with the Bishop himself, when Patteson pleaded for delay on
+the score that the isles were as yet in a state in which a missionary
+chaplain could do all that was requisite, and that the real management
+ought not to be withdrawn from the Bishop; to which the reply was
+that at the present time the Bishop could do much to secure such
+an appointment as he wished; but, in case of his death, even wishes
+expressed in writing might be disregarded. After this, the outpouring to
+the father continues:--
+
+'I don't mean to shrink from this. You tell me that I ought not to do
+so, and I quite believe it. I know that no one can judge better than you
+can as to the general question, and the Bishop is as competent to decide
+on the special requirements of the case.
+
+'But, my dear father, you can hardly tell how difficult I find it to
+be, amidst all the multiplicity of works, a man of devotional prayerful
+habits; how I find from time to time that I wake up to the fact that
+while I am doing more than I did in old times, yet that I pray less. How
+often I think that "God gives" habitually to the Bishop "all that sail
+with him;" that the work is prospering in his hands; but will it prosper
+in mine? I know He can use any instrument to His glory: I know that,
+and that He will not let my sins and shortcomings hinder His projects of
+love and blessing to these Melanesian islanders; but as far as purity
+of motive, and a spirit of prayer and self-denial do go for anything in
+making up the qualification on the human side for such an office--in so
+far, do they exist in me? You will say I am over sensitive and expect
+too much. That, I think, very likely may be true. It is useless to wait
+till one becomes really fit, for that of course I never shall be.
+But while I believe most entirely that grace does now supply all our
+deficiencies when we seek it fully, I do feel frightened when I see that
+I do not become more prayerful, more real in communion with God. This
+is what I must pray for earnestly: to become more prayerful, more
+constantly impressed with the necessity of seeking for everything from
+Him.
+
+'You all think that absence from relations, living upon yams, want of
+the same kind of meat and drink that I had at home, that these things
+are proofs of sincerity, &c. I believe that they all mean just nothing
+when the practical result does not come to this--that a man is walking
+more closely with his God. I dare not say that I can feel humbly and
+reverently that my inner life is progressing. I don't think that I am
+as earnest in prayer as I was. Whether it be the effect of the amount
+of work distracting me; or, sometimes, of physical weariness, or of the
+self-indulgence (laugh as you may) which results from my never being
+contradicted or interfered with, or much worried, still I do feel this;
+and may He strengthen me to pray more for a spirit of prayer.
+
+'I don't know that the actual time for my being consecrated, if I live,
+is nearer by reason of this letter: I think it most probable that it may
+take place when the General Synod meets, and, consequently, five bishops
+will be present, in 1862, at Nelson. But I suppose it is more fixed than
+it has been hitherto, and if the Bishop writes to you, as he may do,
+even more plainly than he speaks to me, you will know what especially to
+ask for me from God, and all you dear ones will recollect daily how I do
+inwardly tremble at the thoughts of what is to come. Do you remember how
+strangely I was upset before leaving home for my ordination as a deacon;
+and now it is coming to this--a church to be planted, organised, edified
+among the wild heathen inhabitants of Melanesia; and what hope can there
+be for me if there is to be no growth of a fervent, thankful, humble
+spirit of prayer and love and adoration? Not that, as I feel to my great
+comfort, God's work is dependent upon the individual growth in grace
+even of those who are entrusted with any given work; but it is in some
+way connected with it.
+
+'And yet, the upshot of it all is that I shall do (D.V.) what the Bishop
+tells me is right. I hope he won't press on the matter, but I am content
+now to leave it with him, knowing what you have said, and being so
+thankful to leave it with you and him.'
+
+There is a letter to his sister Fanny of the same date, beginning
+merrily about the family expostulation on receiving a box of reports
+where curiosities had been expected:--
+
+'Fancy not thinking your worthy brother's important publications the
+most satisfactory treasures that any box could contain! The author's
+feelings are seriously injured! What are Melanesian shells to Melanesian
+statistics, and Lifu spears to a dissertation on the treatment of Lifu
+diseases? Great is the ingratitude of the houses of Feniton and Dawlish!
+
+'Well, it must have been rather a "sell," as at Eton it is called, to
+have seen the long-desired and highly-paid-for box disgorge nought but
+Melanesian reports! all thanks to Mrs. Martin, who packed it after I was
+off to the Islands.
+
+'I cannot send you anything yet, but I will bear in mind the fact that
+reports by themselves are not considered satisfactory. Does anybody read
+them, after all? for they really cost me some days' trouble, which I
+can't find time for again. This year's report (for I suppose there must
+be one) is not begun, and I don't know what to put in it. I have but
+little news beyond what I have written once for all to Father.
+
+'The decisive letter from the Bishop of New Zealand to the Duke of
+Newcastle is in the Governor's hands, and all discussion of the question
+is at an end. May God bring out of it all that may conduce to His glory;
+but how I dread what is to come, you, who remember my leaving home first
+for my deacon's ordination, can well imagine.
+
+'It is true I have seen this coming for a year or two, and have seen
+no way of preventing its coming upon me--no one else has come out; the
+Bishop feels he cannot work his present diocese and Melanesia: he is
+satisfied that he ought to take New Zealand rather than the islands;
+that the time is come for settling the matter while he is able to settle
+it; and I had nothing to say, for all personal objections he overruled.
+So then, if I live, it is settled; and that, at all events, is a
+comfort.... Many of my Melanesians have heavy coughs--some twelve, but I
+don't think any of them seriously ill, only needing to be watched. I
+am very well, only I want some more exercise (which, by the bye, it is
+always in my power to take), and am quite as much disposed as ever to
+wish for a good game at tennis or fives to take it out of me.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The birthday letter of February 11 is a happy one, though chiefly taken
+up with the business matters respecting the money required for the
+Mission, of which Sir John was one trustee. Life was pleasant then, for
+Patteson says:--
+
+'I do feel sometimes that the living alone has its temptations, and
+those great ones; I mean that I can arrange everything--my work, my
+hours, my whole life--after my own pleasure a great deal more than
+probably is good for me; and it is very easy to become, in a manner,
+very self-indulgent. I think that most likely, as our work (D.V.)
+progresses, one or two men may be living with me, and that will supply a
+check upon me of some kind. At present I am too much without it. Here
+I am in my cosy little room, after my delicious breakfast of perfect
+coffee, made in Jem's contrivance, hot milk and plenty of it, dry
+toast and potato. Missionary hardships! On the grass between me and the
+beach--a distance of some seventy yards--lie the boys' canvas beds and
+blankets and rugs, having a good airing. The schooner lies at anchor
+beyond; and, three or four miles beyond the schooner, lies Eangitoto,
+the great natural breakwater to the harbour. With my Dollond's
+opera-glass that you gave me, I can see the master and mate at their
+work refitting. Everything is under my eye. Our long boat and whale boat
+(so-called from their shapes) lie on the beach, covered with old sails
+to protect them from the sun. The lads are washing clothes, or
+scrubbing their rooms, and all the rooms--kitchen, hall, store-room,
+and school-room. There is a good south-western breeze stirring--our cold
+wind; but it is shut off here, and scarcely reaches us, and the sun has
+great power.
+
+'I have the jolliest little fellows this time--about seven of
+them--fellows scarcely too big to take on my knee, and talk to about
+God, and Heaven, and Jesus Christ; and I feel almost as if I had a kind
+of instinct of love towards them, as they look up wonderingly with their
+deep deep eyes, and smooth and glossy skins, and warm soft cheeks, and
+ask their simple questions. I wish you could have seen the twenty Banks
+Islanders as I told them that most excellent of all tales--the story
+of Joseph. How their eyes glistened! and they pushed out their heads to
+hear the sequel of his making himself known to his brethren, and asking
+once more about "the old man of whom ye spake, is he yet alive?"
+
+'I can never read it with a steady voice, nor tell it either.'
+
+Sir John had thus replied to the tirade against English conventional
+luxury:--
+
+'The conventional notions in this old country are not always suited to
+your country, and I quite agree that even here they are carried too far.
+Yet there are other people than the needy whose souls are entrusted to
+the clergy here, and in order to fulfil that trust they must mix on some
+degree of equality with the gentry, and with the middle classes who are
+well-to-do. Then again, consider both as to clergy and laity here. If
+they were all to lower themselves a peg or two, and give up many not
+only luxuries, but comforts, numbers of tradesmen, and others working
+under them, aye, even merchants, manufacturers, and commercial men of
+all sorts, would be to some extent thrown out of employ. The artificial
+and even luxurious state of society here does really prevent many
+persons from falling into the class of the needy. All this should
+be regulated in its due proportion. Every man ought so to limit his
+expenses as to have a good margin for charitable purposes of all sorts,
+but I cannot think that he is doing good by living himself like a pauper
+in order to assist paupers. If all men did so, labour of all kinds would
+be overstocked with hands, and more paupers created. True it is, that
+we all are too apt as means increase, some to set our hearts upon them,
+which is wickedness; some to indulge in over much luxury, which is
+wicked also; there should be moderation in all things. I believe that
+more money is given in private charities of various kinds in helping
+those who are struggling with small means, and yet not apparently in
+the class of the needy, than the world is aware of; and those who do the
+most are precisely those who are never heard of. But do not mistake me.
+I am no advocate for luxury and idle expenditure. Yet I think you carry
+your argument a little farther than is just. The impositions that are
+practised, or attempted to be practised, upon charitable people are
+beyond all conception.' The following is the answer:--
+
+
+'April 23, 1860.
+
+'My dearest Father,--Thank you for writing your views about luxuries,
+extravagant expenditure, and the like. I see at once the truth of what
+you say.
+
+'What I really mean is something of this kind. A high degree of
+civilisation seems to generate (perhaps necessarily) a state of society
+wherein the natural desires of people to gratify their inclinations
+in all directions, conjoined with the power of paying highly for the
+gratification of such inclinations, tends to call forth the ingenuity of
+the working class in meeting such inclinations in all agreeable ways. So
+springs up a complicated mechanism, by which a habit of life altogether
+unnecessary for health and security of life and property is introduced
+and becomes naturalised among a people.
+
+If this is the necessary consequence of the distinction between rich and
+poor, and the course of civilisation must result in luxury and poverty
+among the two classes respectively (and this seems to be so), it is,
+of course, still more evident that the state of society being once
+established gradually, through a long course of years, no change can
+subsequently be introduced excepting in one way. It is still in the
+power of individuals to act upon the community by their example--e.g.,
+the early Christians, though only for a short time, showed the result
+of the practical acceptance of the Lord's teaching in its effect upon
+society. Rich and poor, comparatively speaking, met each other half way.
+The rich man sold his possessions, and equal distribution was made to
+the poor.
+
+'All that I contend for is that, seeing the fearful deterioration, and
+no less fearful extravagance, of a civilised country, the evil is one
+which calls loudly for careful investigation. Thousands of artisans
+and labourers who contribute nothing to the substantial wealth of the
+country, and nothing towards the production of its means of subsistence,
+would be thrown out of employment, and therefore that plan would be
+wrong. Jewellers, &c., &c., all kinds of fellows who simply manufacture
+vanities, are just as honest and good men as others, and it is not their
+fault, but the fault (if it be one at all) of civilisation that
+they exist. But I don't see why, the evil being recognised, some
+comprehensive scheme of colonisation might not be adopted by the rulers
+of a Christian land, to empty our poor-houses, and draft off the surplus
+population, giving to the utterly destitute the prospect of health,
+and renewed hopes of success in another thinly-inhabited country, and
+securing for those who remain behind a more liberal remuneration for
+their work by the comparative absence of competition.
+
+'I hardly know what to write to you, my dear Father, about this new
+symptom of illness. I suppose, from what you say, that at your time
+of life the disease being so mild in its form now, will hardly prove
+dangerous to you, especially as you submit at once to a strictness of
+diet which must be pretty hard to follow out--just the habit of a whole
+life to be given up; and I know that to forego anything that I like, in
+matters of eating and drinking, wants an effort that I feel ashamed of
+being obliged to make. I don't, therefore, make myself unnecessarily
+anxious, though I can't help feeling that such a discipline must be
+hard. You say that in other respects you are much the same; but that
+means that you are in almost constant pain, and that you cannot obtain
+entire relief from it, except in bed.
+
+'Still, my dear Father, as you do bear it all, how can we wish that God
+should spare you one trial or infirmity, which, we know, are, in His
+providence, making you daily riper and riper for Heaven? I ought not
+to write to you like this, but somehow the idea of our ever meeting
+anywhere else has so entirely passed from my mind, that I try to view
+things with reference to His ultimate purpose and work.
+
+'Your loving and dutiful Son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The most present trouble of this summer was the sickness of Simeona. The
+account of him on Ash Wednesday is: 'He is dying of consumption slowly,
+and may go back with us two months hence, but I doubt it. Poor fellow,
+he makes the worst of his case, and is often discontented and thinks
+himself aggrieved because we cannot derange the whole plan of the school
+economy for him. I have everything which is good for him, every little
+dainty, and everyone is most kind; but when it comes to a complaint
+because one pupil-teacher is not set apart to sit with him all day, and
+another to catch him fish, of course I tell him that it would be wrong
+to grant what is so unreasonable. Some one or other of the most stupid
+of the boys catches his fish just as well as a pupil-teacher, and he is
+quite able to sit up and read for two or three hours a day, and would
+only be injured by having another lad in the room on purpose to be the
+receptacle of all his moans and complaints, yet I know, poor fellow! it
+is much owing to the disease upon him.'
+
+In spite of his fretfulness and exactions, the young man, meeting not
+with spoiling, but with true kindness, responded to the touch. Lady
+Martin tells us: 'I shall never forget dear Mr. Patteson's thankfulness
+when, after a long season of reserve, he opened his heart to him, and
+told him how, step by step, this sinfulness of sin had been brought home
+to him. He knew he had done wrong in his heathen boyhood, but had put
+away such deeds when he was baptized, and had almost forgotten the past,
+or looked on it as part of heathenism. But in his illness, tended daily
+and hourly by our dear friend, his conscience had become very tender. He
+died in great peace.'
+
+His death is mentioned in the following letter to Sir John Coleridge:--
+
+
+'March 26, 1860. '(This day 5 years I left home. It was a Black Monday
+indeed.)
+
+'My dear Uncle,--At three this morning died one of my old scholars,
+by name George Selwyn Simeona, from Nengone. He was here for his third
+time; for two years a regular communicant, having received a good deal
+of teaching before I knew him. He was baptized three years ago. I did
+not wish to bring him this time, for it was evident that he could not
+live long when we met last at Nengone, and I told him that he had better
+not come with us; but he said, "Heaven was no farther from New Zealand
+than from Nengone;" and when we had pulled some little way from shore,
+he ran down the beach, and made us return to take him in. Gradual
+decline and chronic bronchitis wore him to a skeleton. On Thursday the
+Bishop and I administered the Holy Eucharist to him; and he died at 3
+A.M. to-day, with his hand in mine, as I was in the act of commending
+his soul to God. His wife, a sweet good girl, one of Mrs. Selwyn's
+pupils from Nengone in old times, died last year. They leave one boy of
+three years, whom I hope to get hold of entirely, and as it were adopt
+him.
+
+'The clear bright moon was right over my head as after a while, and
+after prayer with his friends, I left his room; the quiet splash of
+the tiny waves on our sheltered shore, and the little schooner at
+her anchorage: and I thanked God that one more spirit from among the
+Melanesian islanders was gone to dwell, we trust, with JESUS CHRIST in
+Paradise.
+
+'He will not be much missed in the Melanesian school work, for, for
+months, he could not make one of us....
+
+'I find Trench's Notes on the Authorised Version of the New Testament
+very useful, chiefly as helping one to acquire a habit of accurate
+criticism for oneself, and when we come (D.V.) to translate any portion
+of the Scriptures, of course such books are very valuable.'
+
+'Last mail brought me but a very few letters. The account of my dear
+Father's being obliged to submit to discipline did not alarm me, though
+I know the nature of the disease, and that his father died of it. It
+seems in his case likely to be kept under, but (as I have said before) I
+cannot feel uneasy and anxious about him, be the accounts what they may.
+It is partly selfish, for I am spared the sight of his suffering, but
+then I do long for a look at his dear face and for the sound of his
+voice. Five years of absence has of course made so much change in my
+mind in this respect, that I do not now find myself dreaming of home,
+constantly thinking of it; the first freshness of my loss is not felt
+now. But I think I love them all and you all better than ever; and I
+trust that I am looking inward on the whole to the blessedness of our
+meeting hereafter.
+
+'But this work has its peculiar dangers. A man may become so
+familiarised with the habits of the heathen that insensibly his
+conscience becomes less sensitive.
+
+'There is a danger in living in the midst of utter lawlessness and
+violence; and though the blessings and privileges far excel the
+disadvantages, yet it is not in every way calculated to help one
+forward, as I think I have in some ways found by experience.
+
+'Well, this is all dull and dry. But our life is somewhat monotonous on
+shore, varied only by the details of incidents occurring in school,
+and witnessing to the growth of the minds of my flock. They are a very
+intelligent set this year, and there are many hopeful ones among them.
+We have worked them hard at English, and all can read a little; and some
+eight or ten really read nicely, but then they do not understand nearly
+all they read without an explanation, just like an English boy
+beginning his knowledge of letters with Latin (or French, a still spoken
+language).
+
+'In about a month we shall (D.V.) start to take them back; but the
+vessel will be absent but a short time, as I shall keep the Solomon
+Islanders with me in the Banks Archipelago for the winter, and so avoid
+the necessity of the schooner running 200 or 300 miles to leeward and
+having to make it up again. I have slept ashore twice in the Banks
+Islands, but no other white man has done so, and that makes our course
+very clear, as they have none of the injuries usually committed by
+traders, &c., to revenge.
+
+'Good-bye once more, my dearest Uncle,
+
+'Your affectionate and grateful Nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The calmness of mind respecting his father which is here spoken of was
+not perpetual, and his grief broke out at times in talks with his young
+friend and companion, Mr. Dudley, as appears by this extract:--
+
+'I remember his talking to me more than once on the subject of his
+father, and especially his remarking on one occasion that his friends
+were pressing him to come out there oftener, and suggesting, when
+he seemed out of health and spirits, that he was not taking care of
+himself; but that it was the anguish he endured, as night after night he
+lay awake thinking of his father gradually sinking and craving for him,
+and cheerfully resigning him, that really told upon him. I know that I
+obtained then a glimpse of an affection and a depth of sorrow such as
+perfectly awed me, and I do not think I have witnessed anything like it
+at all, either before or since. It was then that he seemed to enter into
+the full meaning of those words of our Lord, in St. Mark x. 29-30, i.e.,
+into all that the "leaving" there spoken of involved.'
+
+Yet in spite of this anxiety there was no flinching from the three
+months' residence at Mota, entirely out of reach of letters. A frame
+house, with planks for the floor, was prepared at Auckland to be taken
+out, and a stock of wine, provisions, and medicines laid in. The Rev.
+B. Y. Ashwell, a New Zealand clergyman, joined the Mission party as a
+guest, with two Maori youths, one the son of a deacon; and, besides Mr.
+Dudley, another pupil, Mr. Thomas Kerr, was beginning his training for
+service in the Mission. Sailing on one of the last days of April, there
+was a long passage to Nengone, where the party went ashore, and found
+everything in trouble, the French constantly expected, and the chiefs
+entreating for a missionary from the Bishop, and no possibility of
+supplying them. Lifu was rendered inaccessible by foul winds.
+
+'Much to my sorrow,' writes Mr. Patteson, 'I could not land my two
+pupil-teachers, who, of course, wished to see their friends, and who
+made me more desirous to give them a run on shore, by saying at once:
+"Don't think of us, it is not safe to go." But I thought of what my
+feelings would be if it were the Devonshire coast, somewhere about
+Sidmouth, and no landing!' However, they, as well as the three
+Nengonese, Wadrokala, Harper Malo, and Martin Tahia, went on
+contentedly.
+
+'Off Mai, May 19th.--Mr. Kerr has been busy taking bearings, &c., for
+the purpose of improving our MS. chart, and constructing a new one.
+Commodore Loring wanted me to tell him all about Port Patteson, and
+asked me if I wished a man-of-war to be sent down this winter to see me,
+supposing the New Zealand troubles to be all over. I gave him all the
+information he wanted, told him that I did not want a vessel to come
+with the idea of any protection being required, but that a man-of-war
+coming with the intention of supporting the Mission, and giving help,
+and not coming to treat the natives in an off-hand manner, might do
+good. I did not speak coldly; but really I fear what mischief even a
+few wildish fellows might do on shore among such people as those of the
+Banks Islands!
+
+'A fore-and-aft schooner in sight! Probably some trader. May be a
+schooner which I heard the French had brought for missionary purposes.
+What if we find a priest or two at Port Patteson! However, my course is
+clear any way: work straight on.
+
+'May 21st.--Schooner a false alarm. We had a very interesting visit on
+Saturday afternoon at Mai. We could not land till 4 P.M.; walked at once
+to the village, a mile and a half inland. After some excitement caused
+by our appearance, the people rushing to welcome us, we got them to be
+quiet, and to sit down. I stood up, and gave them a sermonette, then
+made Dudley, who speaks good Mai, say something. Then we knelt down, and
+I said the second Good Friday Collect, inserted a few petitions which
+you can imagine anyone would do at such a time, then a simple prayer in
+their language, the Lord's Prayer in English, and the Grace.'
+
+On Friday Mota was reached, and the people showed great delight when
+the frame of the house was landed at the site purchased for a number
+of hatchets and other goods, so that it is the absolute property of
+the Mission. Saturday was spent in a visit to Port Patteson, where the
+people thronged, while the water-casks were being filled, and bamboos
+cut down, with entreaties that the station might be there; and the
+mosquitoes thronged too--Mr. Patteson had fifty-eight bites on one foot.
+
+On Whit Sunday, after Holy Communion on board, the party went on shore,
+and prayed for, 'I cannot say with the people of Vanua Lava.'
+
+And on Whit Monday the house was set up 'in a most lovely spot,' says
+Mr. Dudley, 'beneath the shade of a gigantic banyan tree, the trunk and
+one long horizontal branch of which formed two sides of as beautiful
+a picture as you would wish to look upon; the sloping bank, with
+its cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and other trees, forming the base of the
+picture; and the coral beach, the deep, clear, blue tropical ocean, with
+others of the Banks Islands, Valua, Matlavo, and Uvaparapara, in the
+distance, forming the picture itself.'
+
+At least a hundred natives came to help, pulling down materials from
+their own houses to make the roof, and delighted to obtain a bit of
+iron, or still better of broken glass, to shave with. In the afternoon,
+the master of the said house, using a box for a desk, wrote: 'Our little
+house will, I think, be finished to-night; anyhow we can sleep in it,
+if the walls are but half ready; they are merely bamboo canes tied
+together. We sleep on the floor boarded and well raised on poles, two
+feet and more from the ground--beds are superfluous here.'
+
+Here then was the first stake of the Church's tabernacle planted in all
+Melanesia!
+
+The boards of the floor had been brought from New Zealand, the heavy
+posts on which the plates were laid were cut in Vanua Lava, and the
+thatch was of cocoa-nut leaves, the leaflets ingeniously bound together,
+native fashion, and quite waterproof; but a mat or piece of canvas had
+to be nailed within the bamboo walls to keep out the rain.
+
+On Wednesday a short service was held, the first ever known in Mota;
+and then Mr. Ashwell and Mr. Kerr embarked, leaving Mr. Patteson and Mr.
+Dudley with their twelve pupils in possession. Mr. Dudley had skill to
+turn their resources to advantage. Space was gained below by making a
+frame, to which knapsacks, bags, &c., could be hung up, and the floor
+was only occupied by the four boxes, which did the further part of
+tables, desks, and chairs in turn. As to beds, was not the whole floor
+before them? and, observes the Journal: 'Now I see the advantage of
+having brought planks from New Zealand to make a floor. We all had
+something level to lie on at night, and when you are tired enough, a
+good smooth plank or a box does just as well as a mattress.'
+
+Fresh water was half a mile off, and had to be fetched in bamboos; but
+this was a great improvement upon Lifu, where there was none at all; and
+a store of it was always kept in four twenty-gallon casks, three on the
+beach, and one close to the house.
+
+The place was regularly purchased:--
+
+'June 8th.--I have just bought for the Mission this small clearing of
+half an acre, and the two acres (say) leading to the sea, with twenty or
+more bread-fruits on it. There was a long talk with the people, and some
+difficulty in finding out the real proprietors, but I think we arranged
+matters really well at last. You would have been amused at the solemnity
+with which I conducted the proceeding: making a great show of writing
+down their names, and bringing each one of the owners up in their turn
+to see his name put down, and making him touch my pen as I put a cross
+against his name. Having spent about an hour in enquiring whether any
+other person had any claim on the land or trees, I then said, "Now this
+all belongs to me," and they assented. I entered it in my books--"On
+behalf of the Melanesian Mission," but they could only understand that
+the land belonged to the Bishop and me, because we wanted a place where
+some people might live, who should be placed by the Bishop to teach
+them. Of course the proceeding has no real validity, but I think they
+will observe the contract: not quite the same thing as the transfer of
+land in the old country! Here about 120 men, quite naked, represented
+the interests of the late owners, and Dudley and I represented the
+Mission.'
+
+The days were thus laid out--Morning school in the village, first with
+the regular scholars, then with any one who liked to come in; and then,
+when the weather permitted, a visit to some village, sometimes walking
+all round, a circuit of ten miles, but generally each of the two taking
+a separate village, talking to the people, teaching them from cards, and
+encouraging interrogatories. Mr. Patteson always had such an attraction
+for them that they would throng round him eagerly wherever he went.
+
+The Mota people had a certain faith of their own; they believed in
+a supreme god called Ikpat, who had many brothers, one of whom was
+something like Loki, in the Northern mythology, always tricking him.
+Ikpat had disappeared in a ship, taking the best of everything with him.
+It was also believed that the spirits of the dead survived and ranged
+about at night, maddening all who chanced to meet them; and, like many
+other darkly coloured people, the Motans had begun by supposing their
+white visitors to be the ghosts of their deceased friends come to
+revisit them.
+
+There were a good many other superstitions besides; and a ceremony
+connected with one of them was going on the second week of the residence
+at Mota--apparently a sort of freemasonry, into which all boys of a
+certain age were to be initiated.
+
+The Journal says:--
+
+'There is some strange superstitious ceremony going on at this village.
+A space had been enclosed by a high hedge, and some eighteen or nineteen
+youths are spending a month or more inside the fence, in a house where
+they lie wrapped up in mats, abundantly supplied with food by the
+people, who, from time to time, assemble to sing or perform divers
+rites. I had a good deal of trouble with the father of our second year's
+pupil Tagalana, who insisted upon sending his son thither. I warned
+him against the consequences of hindering his son, who wished to follow
+Christ. He yielded, because he was evidently afraid of me, but not
+convinced, as I have no right to expect he should be.
+
+'The next morning comes an old fellow, and plants a red-flowering branch
+in our small clearing, whereupon our Mota boys go away, not wishing to
+go, but not daring to stay. No people came near us, but by-and-by comes
+the man who had planted it, with whom I had much talk, which ended in
+his pulling up and throwing away the branch, and in the return of our
+boys.
+
+'In the evening many people came, to whom I spoke very plainly about the
+necessity of abandoning these customs if they were in earnest in saying
+they wished to embrace the Word of God. On Sunday they gave up their
+singing at the enclosure, or only attempted it in a very small way.
+
+'June 6th.--I am just returned from a village a mile and a half off,
+called Tasmate, where one of their religious ceremonies took place this
+morning. The village contains upwards of twenty houses, built at
+the edge of the bush, which consists here almost exclusively of
+fruit-bearing trees--cocoa-nut trees, bananas, bread-fruit, and large
+almond trefts are everywhere the most conspicuous. The sea view looking
+south is very beautiful.
+
+'I walked thither alone, having heard that a feast was to be held there.
+As I came close to the spot, I heard the hum of many voices, and the
+dull, booming sound of the native drum, which is nothing but a large
+hollow tree, of circular shape, struck by wooden mallets. Some few
+people ran off as I appeared, but many of them had seen me before. The
+women, about thirty in number, were sitting on the ground together, in
+front of one of the houses, which enclosed an open air circular space;
+in front of another house were many children and young people. In the
+long narrow house which forms the general cooking and lounging room of
+the men of each village, and the sleeping room of the bachelors, were
+many people preparing large messes of grated yam and cocoa-nut in flat
+wooden dishes. At the long oblong-shaped drum sat the performers, two
+young men, each with two short sticks to perform the kettledrum part
+of the business, and an older man in the centre, whose art consisted in
+bringing out deep, hollow tones from his wooden instrument. Around them
+stood some thirty men, two of whom I noticed especially, decked out with
+red leaves, and feathers in their hair. Near this party, and close to
+the long, narrow house in the end of which I stood, was a newly raised
+platform of earth, supported on stones. On the corner stone were laid
+six or eight pigs' jaws, with the large curling tusks left in them. This
+was a sacred stone. In front of the platform were three poles, covered
+with flowers, red leaves, &c.
+
+'For about an hour and a half the men at or around the drum kept up an
+almost incessant shouting, screaming and whistling, moving their legs
+and arms in time, not with any wild gesticulations, but occasionally
+with some little violence, the drum all the time being struck
+incessantly. About the middle of the ceremony, an old, tall, thin man,
+with a red handkerchief, our gift at some time, round his waist, began
+ambling round the space in the middle of the houses, carrying a boar's
+skull in his hand. This performance he repeated three times. Then a
+man jumped up upon the platform, and, moving quickly about on it and
+gesticulating wildly, delivered a short speech, after which the drum was
+beat louder than ever; then came another speech from the same man; and
+then the rain evidently hastening matters to a conclusion to the
+whole thing, without any ceremony of consecrating the stone, as I had
+expected.
+
+'In the long room afterwards I had the opportunity of saying quietly
+what I had said to those about me during the ceremony: the same story of
+the love of God, especially manifested in JESUS CHRIST, to turn men from
+darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. With what
+power that verse speaks to one while witnessing such an exhibition of
+ignorance, or fear, or superstition as I have seen to-day! And through
+it all I was constantly thinking upon the earnestness with which these
+poor souls follow out a mistaken notion of religion. Such rain as fell
+this morning would have kept a whole English congregation from going to
+church, but they never sought shelter nor desisted from their work
+in hand; and the physical effect was really great, the perspiration
+streamed down their bodies, and the learning by heart all the songs
+and the complicated parts of the ceremony implied a good deal of pains.
+Christians do not always take so much pains to fulfil scrupulously their
+duties as sometimes these heathens do. And, indeed, their bondage is
+a hard one, constant suspicion and fear whenever they think at all.
+Everything that is not connected with the animal part of our nature
+seems to be the prey of dark and gloomy superstitions; the spiritual
+part is altogether inactive as an instrument of comfort, joy, peace
+and hope. You can imagine that I prayed earnestly for these poor souls,
+actually performing before me their strange mysteries, and that I spoke
+earnestly and strongly afterwards.
+
+'The argument with those who would listen was: What good comes of all
+this? What has the spirit you call Ikpat ever done for you? Has he
+taught you to clothe yourselves, build houses, &c.? Does he offer to
+make you happy? Can you tell me what single good thing has come from
+these customs? But if you ask me what good thing has come to us from the
+Word of God, first you had better let me tell you what has happened in
+England of old, in New Zealand, Nengone, or Lifu, then I will tell you
+what the Word of God teaches;--and these with the great outline of the
+Faith.'
+
+Every village in the island had the platforms, poles, and flowers; and
+the next day, at a turn in the path near a village, the Mission party
+suddenly came upon four sticks planted in a row, two of them bearing
+things like one-eyed masks; two others, like mitres, painted red, black,
+and white. As far as could be made out, they were placed there as a
+sort of defiance to the inhabitants; but Mr. Patteson took down one,
+and declared his intention of buying them for fish-hooks, to take to New
+Zealand, that the people might see their dark and foolish customs!
+
+Some effect had already been produced, the people declared that there
+had been much less of fighting since the missionaries had spoken to them
+eighteen months back, and they had given up some of the charms by which
+they used to destroy each other; but there was still much carrying of
+bows; and on the way home from this expedition, Mr. Patteson suddenly
+came on six men with bows bent and arrows pointed in his direction. He
+at once recognised a man from Veverao, the next village to the station,
+and called out 'All right!' It proved that a report had come of his
+being attacked or killed on the other side of the island, and that they
+had set out to defend or avenge him.
+
+He received his champions with reproof:--'This is the very thing I told
+you not to do. It is all your foolish jealousy and suspicion of them.
+There is not a man on the island who is not friendly to me! And if they
+were not friendly, what business have you with your bows and arrows? I
+tell you once more, if I see you take your bows again, though you may
+do it as you think with a good intention towards me, I will not stay at
+your village. If you want to help me, receive the Word of God, abandon
+your senseless ceremonies. That will be helping me indeed!'
+
+'Cannot you live at peace in this little bit of an island?' was the
+constant theme of these lectures; and when Wompas, his old scholar,
+appeared with bow and arrows, saying, I am sent to defend you,' the
+answer was, 'Don't talk such nonsense! Give me the bow!' This was done,
+and Patteson was putting it across his knee to break it, when the youth
+declared it was not his. 'If I see these things again, you know what
+will become of them!'
+
+The mitres and masks were gone; but the Veverao people were desperately
+jealous of the next village, Auta, alleging that the inhabitants were
+unfriendly, and by every means trying to keep the guest entirely to
+themselves; while he resolutely forced on their reluctant ears, 'If
+you are sincere in saying that you wish to know God, you must love your
+brother. God will not dwell in a divided heart, nor teach you His truth
+while you wilfully continue to hate your brother!'
+
+The St. Barnabas Day on which most of this was written was a notable
+one, for it was marked by the first administration of both the
+Sacraments in Mota. In the morning one English and four Nengonese
+communicants knelt round their pastor; and, in the evening, after a
+walk to Auta, and much of this preaching of peace and goodwill, then a
+dinner, which was made festive with preserved meat and wine, there came
+a message from one Ivepapeu, a leading man, whose child was sick. It was
+evidently dying, and Mr. Patteson, in the midst of the people, told them
+that--
+
+'The Son of God had commanded us to teach and baptize all nations; that
+they did not understand the meaning of what he was about to do, but that
+the word of JESUS the Son of God was plain, and that he must obey it;
+that this was not a mere form, but a real gift from heaven, not for the
+body but the soul; that the child would be as likely to die as before,
+but that its spirit would be taken to God, and if it should recover, it
+must be set apart for God, not taken to any heathen rites, but given
+to himself to be trained up as a child of God.' The parents consented:
+'Then,' he continues, 'we knelt, and in the middle of the village, the
+naked group around me, the dying child in its mother's lap, I prayed to
+God and Christ in their language to bless the child according to His
+own promise, to receive it for His own child, and to convey to it the
+fulness of the blessing of His holy Sacrament. Then while all were
+silent, I poured the water on its head, pronouncing the form of words
+in English, and calling the child John, the first Christian child in the
+Banks Islands. Then I knelt down again and praised God for His goodness,
+and prayed that the child might live, if it were His good pleasure, and
+be educated to His glory; and then I prayed for those around me and for
+the people of the island, that God would reveal to them His Holy Name
+and Word and Will; and so, with a few words to the parents and people,
+left them, as darkness settled down on the village and the bright stars
+came out overhead.'
+
+The innocent first-fruits of Mota died three days later, and Mr.
+Patteson found a great howling and wailing going on over its little
+grave under a long low house. This was hushed when he came up, and spoke
+of the Resurrection, and described the babe's soul dwelling in peace in
+the Kingdom of the Father, where those would join it who would believe
+and repent, cast away their evil practices, and be baptized to live
+as children of God. Kneeling down, he prayed over it, thanking God
+for having taken it to Himself, and interceding for all around. They
+listened and seemed touched; no opposition was ever offered to him,
+but he found that there was much fighting and quarrelling, many of the
+villages at war with each other, and a great deal too much use of the
+bow and arrow, though the whole race was free from cannibalism. They
+seemed to want to halt between two opinions: to keep up their orgies on
+the one hand, and to make much of the white teacher on the other; and
+when we recollect that two unarmed Englishmen, and twelve blacks
+from other islands, were perfectly isolated in the midst of a heathen
+population, having refused protection from a British man-of-war, it
+gives a grandeur to the following narrative:--
+
+'June 7th.--One of their chief men has just been with two bread-fruit as
+a present. I detected him as a leader of one of their chief ceremonies
+yesterday, and I have just told him plainly that I cannot accept
+anything from him, neither can I suffer him to be coming to my place
+while it is notorious that he is teaching the children the very things
+they ought not to learn, and that he is strongly supporting the old
+false system, while he professes to be listening attentively to the Word
+of God. I made him take up his two bread-fruit and carry them away; and
+I suppose it will be the story all over the village that I have driven
+him away.
+
+'"By-and-by we will listen to the Word of God, when we have finished
+these ceremonies."
+
+'"Yes, you hearken first to the voice of the evil spirit; you choose him
+firsthand then you will care to hear about God.'"
+
+The ceremony was to last twenty days, and only affected the lads, who
+were blackened all over with soot, and apparently presented pigs to the
+old priest, and were afterwards admitted to the privileges of eating and
+sleeping in the separate building, which formed a kind of club-house for
+the men of each village, and on which Mr. Patteson could always reckon
+as both a lecture room and sleeping place.
+
+The people kept on saying that 'by-and-by' they would make an end of
+their wild ritual, and throw down their enclosures, and at the same time
+they thronged to talk to him at the Mission station, and built a shed to
+serve for a school at Auta.
+
+Meantime the little estate was brought into order. A pleasant day of
+landscape-gardening was devoted to clearing gaps to let in the lovely
+views from the station; and a piece of ground was dug and planted with
+pine-apples, vines, oranges, and cotton, also a choicer species of
+banana than the indigenous one. Bread-fruit was so plentiful that
+breakfast was provided by sending a boy up a tree to bring down four or
+five fruits, which were laid in the ashes, and cooked at once; and as to
+banana leaves 'we think nothing of cutting one down, four feet long and
+twenty inches wide, of a bright pale green, just to wrap up a cooked yam
+or two.'
+
+The first week in July, with Wadrokala, Mark, and two Malanta men,
+Mr. Patteson set forth in the boat that had been left with him, for an
+expedition among the other islands, beginning with Saddle Island, or
+Valua, which was the proper name.
+
+The day after leaving Eowa, the weather changed; and as on these
+perilous coasts there was no possibility of landing, two days and the
+intervening night had to be spent in the open four-oared boat, riding to
+a grapnel!
+
+Very glad they were to get into Port Patteson, and to land in the wet,
+'as it can rain in the tropics.' The nearest village, however, was
+empty, everybody being gone to the burial wake of the wife of a chief,
+and there was no fire to cook the yams, everything dreary and deserted,
+but a short walk brought the wet and tired party to the next village,
+where they were made welcome to the common house; and after, supping
+on yams and chocolate, spent a good night, and found the sea smooth the
+next day for a return to head-quarters.
+
+These first weeks at Mota were very happy, but after that the strain
+began to tell. Mr. Patteson had been worn with anxiety for his father,
+and no doubt with awe in the contemplation of his coming Episcopate,
+and was not in a strong state of health when he left Kohimarama, and the
+lack of animal food, the too sparing supply of wine, and the bare board
+bed told upon him. On the 24th of July he wrote in a letter to his Uncle
+Edward:--
+
+
+'I have lost six days: a small tumour formed inside the ear about two
+inches from the outer ear, and the pain has been very considerable,
+and the annoyance great. Last night I slept for the first time for five
+nights, and I have been so weary with sleeplessness that I have been
+quite idle. The mischief is passing away now. That ear is quite deaf;
+it made me think so of dear Father and Joan with their constant trial. I
+don't see any results from our residence here; and why should I look for
+them? It is enough that the people are hearing, some of them talking,
+and a few thinking about what they hear. All in God's own time!'
+
+Mr. Dudley adds: 'His chief trouble at this time was with one of his
+ears. The swelling far in not only made him deaf while it lasted, but
+gave him intense and protracted agony. More than once he had to spend
+the whole night in walking up and down the room. But only on one
+occasion during the whole time do I remember his losing his patience,
+and that was when we had been subjected to an unusually protracted
+visitation from the "loafers" of the village, who would stretch
+themselves at full length on the floor and table, if we would let
+them, and altogether conduct themselves in such a manner as to call for
+summary treatment, very different from the more promising section. The
+half jocular but very decided manner in which he cleared the house on
+this occasion, and made them understand that they were to respect our
+privacy sometimes, and not make the Mission station an idling place, was
+very satisfactory. It was no small aggravation of the pain to feel that
+this might be the beginning of permanent deafness, such as would
+be fatal to his usefulness in a work in which accuracy of ear was
+essential.'
+
+However, this gradually improved; and another boat voyage was made,
+but again was frustrated by the torrents of rain. In fact, it was an
+unusually wet and unwholesome season, which told upon everyone. Mark
+Chakham, the Nengonese, was brought very near the grave by a severe
+attack of dysentery. All the stores of coffee, chocolate, wine and
+biscuit were used up. The 'Southern Cross' had been due full a month,
+and nothing was heard of her through the whole of September.
+
+Teaching and conversation went on all this time, trying as it was;
+and the people still came to hear, though no one actually undertook to
+forsake his idols.
+
+'I am still hopeful about these people,' is the entry on September 18,
+'though all their old customs and superstitions go on just as before.
+But (1) they know that a better teaching has been presented to them. (2)
+They do not pursue their old habits with the same unthinking-security.
+(3) There are signs of a certain uneasiness of mind, as if a struggle
+was beginning in them. (4) They have a vague consciousness, some of
+them, that the power is passing away from their witchcrafts, sorceries,
+&c., by which unquestionably they did and still do work strange effects
+on the credulous people, like 'Pharaoh's magicians of old.'
+
+This was ground gained; and one or two voyages to Vanua Lava and
+the other isles were preparatory steps, and much experience had been
+acquired, and resulted in this:--
+
+'The feasibility of the Bishop's old scheme is more and more apparent
+to me. Only I think that in taking away natives to the summer school, it
+must be understood that some (and they few) are taken from new islands
+merely to teach us some of their languages and to frank us, so that we
+may have access in safety to their islands. Should any of them turn out
+well, so much the better; but it will not be well to take them with the
+expectation of their becoming teachers to their people. But the other
+section of the school will consist of young men whose behaviour we have
+watched during the winter in their own homes, whose professions we have
+had an opportunity of testing--they may be treated as young men on the
+way to become teachers eventually to their countrymen. One learns much
+from living among a heathen people, and only by living in our pupils'
+homes shall we ever know their real characters. Poor fellows! they
+are adepts in all kinds of deceitfulness at a very early age, and so
+completely in our power on board the schooner and at Kohimarama, that we
+know nothing of them as they are.'
+
+The very paper this is copied from shows how the stores were failing,
+for the full quarto sheets have all failed, and the journal is continued
+on note paper.
+
+Not till October 1 was Mr. Patteson's watch by a poor dying woman
+interrupted by tidings that a ship was in sight. And soon it was too
+plain that she was not the 'Southern Cross,' though, happily, neither
+trader nor French Mission ship. In a short time there came ashore
+satisfactory letters from home, but with them the tidings that the
+little 'Southern Cross' lay in many fathoms water on the New Zealand
+coast!
+
+On her return, on the night of the 17th of June, just as New Zealand
+itself was reached, there was a heavy gale from the north-east. A
+dangerous shoal of rocks, called the Hen and Chickens, stands out from
+the head of Ngunguru Bay; and, in the darkness and mist, it was supposed
+that these were safely passed, when the ship struck on the eastern
+Chicken, happily on a spot somewhat sheltered from the violence of the
+breakers. The two passengers and the crew took refuge in the rigging all
+night; and in the morning contrived to get a line to land, on which
+all were safely drawn through the surf, and were kindly received by the
+nearest English settlers.
+
+So, after five years' good service, ended the career of the good
+'Southern Cross' the first. She had gone down upon sand, and much of
+the wreck might have been recovered and made useful again had labour not
+been scarce at that time in New Zealand that the Bishop could find no
+one to undertake the work, and all he could do was to charter another
+vessel to be despatched to bring home the party from Mota. Nor
+were vessels fit for the purpose easy to find, and the schooner
+'Zillah'--welcome as was the sight of her--proved a miserable substitute
+even in mere nautical capabilities, and her internal arrangements were
+of course entirely inappropriate to the peculiar wants of the Mission.
+
+This was the more unfortunate because the very day after her arrival Mr.
+Dudley was prostrated by something of a sunstroke. Martin Tehele was
+ill already, and rapidly became worse; and Wadrokala and Harper Malo
+sickened immediately, nor was the former patient recovered. Mr. Dudley,
+Wadrokala and Harper were for many days in imminent danger, and
+were scarcely dragged through by the help of six bottles of wine,
+providentially sent by the Bishop. Mr. Dudley says:--
+
+'During the voyage Mr. Patteson's powers of nursing were severely tried.
+Poor Martin passed away before we arrived at Nengone, and was committed
+to the deep. Before he died he was completely softened by Mr. Patteson's
+loving care, and asked pardon for all the trouble he had given and the
+fretfulness he had shown. Poor fellow! I well remember how he gasped out
+the Lord's Prayer after Mr. Patteson a few minutes before he died. We
+all who had crawled up round his bed joining in with them.
+
+'Oh, what a long dreary time that was! Light baffling winds continually,
+and we in a vessel as different from the "Southern Cross" as possible,
+absolutely guiltless, I should think, of having ever made two miles an
+hour to windward "in a wind." The one thing that stands out as having
+relieved its dreariness is the presence of Mr. Patteson, the visits he
+used to pay to us, and the exquisite pathos of his voice as, from the
+corner of the hold where we lay, we could hear him reading the Morning
+and Evening Prayers of the Church and leading the hymn. These prevented
+these long weary wakeful days and nights from being absolutely
+insupportable.'
+
+At last Nengone was reached, and Wadrokala and Harper were there set
+ashore, better, but very weak. Here the tidings were known that in Lifu
+John Cho had lost his wife Margaret, and had married the widow of
+a Karotongan teacher, a very suitable match, but too speedy to be
+according to European ideas; and on November 26 the 'Zillah' was off the
+Three Kings, New Zealand.
+
+
+'Monday: Nov. 26, 1860. '"Zillah" Schooner, off the Three Kings, N. of
+New Zealand.
+
+'You know pretty well that Kohimarama is a small bay, about one-third
+of a mile along the sea frontage, two-and-a-half miles due east of
+Auckland, and just opposite the entrance into the harbour, between the
+North Head and Eangitoto. The beach is composed entirely of the shells
+of "pipi" (small cockles); always, therefore, dry and pleasant to walk
+upon. A fence runs along the whole length of it. At the eastern end
+of it, a short distance inside this N. (= sea) fence, are the three
+cottages of the master and mate and Fletcher. Sam Fletcher is a
+man-of-war's man, age about thirty-eight, who has been with us some four
+years and a half. He has all the habits of order and cleanliness that
+his life as coxswain of the captain's gig taught him; he is a very
+valuable fellow. He is our extra man at sea.
+
+'Each of these cottages has its garden, and all three men are married,
+but only the master (Grange) has any family, one married daughter.
+
+'Then going westward comes a nine-acre paddock, and then a dividing
+fence, inside (i.e. to W.) of which stand our buildings.
+
+'Now our life here is hard to represent. It is not like the life of an
+ordinary schoolmaster, still less like that of an ordinary clergyman.
+Much of the domestic and cooking department I may manage, of course,
+to superintend. I would much rather do this than have the nuisance of a
+paid servant.
+
+'So at 5 A.M., say, I turn out; I at once go to the kitchen, and set the
+two cooks of the week to work, light fire, put on yams or potatoes, then
+back to dress, read, &c.; in and out all the time, of the kitchen till
+breakfast time: say 8 or 8.30. You would be surprised to see how very
+soon the lads will do it all by themselves, and leave me or Mr. Kerr to
+give all our attention to school and other matters.
+
+'So you can fancy, Joan, now, the manner of life. My little room with my
+books is my snuggery during the middle of the day, and at night I have
+also a large working table at one end of the big school-room, covered
+with books, papers, &c., and here I sit a good deal, my room being
+too small to hold the number of books that I require to have open for
+comparison of languages, and for working out grammatical puzzles. Then
+I am in and out of the kitchen and store-room, and boys' rooms, seeing
+that all things, clothes, blankets, floors, &c., are washed and kept
+clean, and doing much what is done in every house.'
+
+Snuggery no doubt it looked compared with the 'Zillah;' but what would
+the 'Eton fellow' of fifteen years back have thought of the bare,
+scantily furnished room, with nothing but the books, prints, and
+photographs around to recall the tastes of old, and generally a sick
+Melanesian on the floor? However, he was glad enough to return thither,
+though with only sixteen scholars from ten places. Among them was
+Taroniara from Bauro, who was to be his follower, faithful to death. The
+following addition was made to the letter to Mr. Edward Coleridge, begun
+in Banks Islands:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama: Dec. 1, 1860.
+
+'One line, my dear tutor, before I finish off my pile of hastily written
+letters for this mail.
+
+'Alas! alas! for the little schooner, that dear little vessel, our home
+for so many months of each year, so admirably qualified for her work.
+Whether she may be got off her sandy bed, no one can say. Great expense
+would certainly be incurred, and the risk of success great also.
+
+'I have not yet had time to talk to the Bishop, I only reached New
+Zealand on November 28. We cannot, however, well do our work in
+chartered vessels [then follows a full detail of the imperfections of
+the 'Zillah' and all other Australian merchant craft; then--But, dear
+old tutor, even the "Southern Cross" (though what would I give to
+see her now at her usual anchorage from the window at which I am now
+sitting!) for a time retires into the distance, as I think of what is to
+take place (D.V.) in January next.
+
+'I hoped that I had persuaded the Bishop that the meeting of the General
+Synod in February 1862 would be a fit time. I do not see that the Duke's
+despatch makes any difference in the choice of the time. But all was
+settled in my absence; and now at the Feast of the Epiphany or of
+the Conversion of St. Paul (as suits the convenience of the Southern
+Bishops) the Consecration is to take place. I am heartily glad that the
+principle of consecrating Missionary Bishops will be thus affirmed and
+acted upon; but oh! if some one else was to be the Bishop!
+
+'And yet I must not distrust God's grace, and the gift of the Holy
+Spirit to enable me for this work. I try and pray to be calm and
+resigned, and I am happy and cheerful.
+
+'And it is a blessed thing that now three of your old dear friends, once
+called Selwyn, Abraham, Hobhouse should be consecrating your own nephew
+and pupil, gathered by God's providence into the same part of God's
+field at the ends of the earth.'
+
+
+Still with his heart full of the never-forgotten influence of his
+mother, he thus begins his home letter of the same date:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama: Dec. 1.
+
+'My dearest Father,--I could not write on November 28, but the memory of
+that day in 1842 was with me from morning to night. We anchored on that
+day at 1 A.M., and I was very busy till late at night. I had no idea
+till I came back from the Islands that there was any change in the
+arrangements for the consecration in February 1862. But now the Bishops
+of Wellington and Nelson have been summoned for the Feast of the
+Epiphany, or of the conversion of St. Paul, and all was done in
+my absence. I see, too, that you in England have assumed that the
+consecration will take place soon after the reception of the Duke's
+despatch.
+
+'I must not now shrink from it, I know. I have full confidence in
+your judgment, and in that of the Bishop; and I suppose that if I was
+speaking of another, I should say that I saw reasons for it. But depend
+upon it, my dear Father, that a man cannot communicate to another the
+whole of the grounds upon which he feels reluctant to accept an office.
+I believe that I ought to accept this in deference to you all, and I do
+so cheerfully, but I don't, say that my judgment agrees wholly with you
+all.
+
+'And yet there is no one else; and if the separation of New Zealand and
+Melanesia is necessary, I see that this must be the consequence. So I
+regard it now as a certainty. I pray God to strengthen and enable me: I
+look forward, thanks to Him, hopefully and cheerfully. I have the love
+and the prayers of many, many friends, and soon the whole Church of
+England will recognise me as one who stands in special need of grace and
+strength from above.
+
+'Oh! the awful power of heathenism! the antagonism, not of evil only,
+but of the Evil One, rather, I mean the reality felt of all evil
+emanating from a person, as St. Paul writes, and as our Lord spoke of
+him. I do indeed at times feel overwhelmed, as if I was in a dream. Then
+comes some blessed word or thought of comfort, and promised strength and
+grace.
+
+'But enough of this.
+
+'The "Southern Cross" cannot, I think, be got off without great certain
+expense and probable risk. I think we shall have to buy another vessel,
+and I dare say she may be built at home, but I don't know what is the
+Bishop's mind about it....
+
+'I shall write to Merton, I don't know why I should needs vacate my
+fellowship. I have no change of outward circumstances brought upon me
+by my change presently from the name of Presbyter to Bishop, and we want
+all the money.
+
+'What you say about a Missionary Bishop being for five months of the
+year within the diocese of another Bishop, I will talk over with the
+Bishop of New Zealand. I think our Synodical system will make that
+all right; and as for my work, it will be precisely the same in all
+respects, my external life altered only to the extent of my wearing a
+broader brimmed and lower crowned hat. Dear Joan is investing moneys in
+cutaway coats, buckles without end, and no doubt knee-breeches and what
+she calls "gambroons" (whereof I have no cognizance), none of which will
+be worn more than (say) four or five times in the year. Gambroons and
+aprons and lawn sleeves won't go a-voyaging, depend upon it. Just when
+I preach in some Auckland church I shall appear in full costume; but the
+buckles will grow very rusty indeed!
+
+'How kind and good of her to take all the trouble, I don't laugh
+at that, and at her dear love for me and anxiety that I should have
+everything; but I could not help having a joke about gambroons, whatever
+they are....
+
+'Good-bye once more, my dearest Father. You will, I trust, receive
+this budget about the time of your birthday. How I think of you day and
+night, and how I thank you for all your love, and perhaps most of all,
+not only letting me come to Melanesia, but for your great love in never
+calling me away from my work even to see your face once more on earth.
+
+'Your loving and dutiful son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Remark upon a high-minded letter is generally an impertinence both to
+the writer and the reader, but I cannot help pausing upon the foregoing,
+to note the force of the expression that thanks the father for the love
+that did not recall the son. What a different notion these two men had
+of love from that which merely seeks self-gratification! Observe,
+too, how the old self-contemplative, self-tormenting spirit, that was
+unhappiness in those days of growth and heart-searching at the first
+entrance into the ministry, had passed into humble obedience and trust.
+Looking back to the correspondence of ten years ago, volumes of progress
+are implied in the quiet 'Enough of this.'
+
+There were, however, some delays in bringing the three together, and on
+the New Year's Day of 1861, the designate writes to Bishop Abraham:
+'I dare say the want of any positive certainty as to the time of the
+Consecration is a good discipline for me. I think I feel calm now; but
+I know I must not trust feelings, and when I think of those islands and
+the practical difficulty of getting at them, and the need of so many of
+those qualities which are so wonderfully united in our dear Primate,
+I need strength from above indeed to keep my heart from sinking. But I
+think that I do long and desire to work on by God's grace, and not to
+look to results at all.'
+
+A 'supplementary mail' made possible a birthday letter (the last)
+written at 6 A.M. on the 11th of February: 'I wanted of course to write
+to you to-day. Many happy returns of it I wish you indeed, for it may
+yet please God to prolong your life; but in any case you know well how
+I am thinking and praying for you that every blessing and comfort may
+be given you. Oh I how I do think of you night and day. When Mrs. Selwyn
+said "Good-bye," and spoke of you, I could not stand it. I feel that
+anything else (as I fancy) I can speak of with composure; but the verses
+in the Bible, such as the passage which I read yesterday in St. Mark x.,
+almost unnerve me, and I can't wish it to be otherwise. But I feel that
+my place is here, and that I must look to the blessed hope of meeting
+again hereafter....
+
+'Of course no treat is so great to me as the occasional talks with the
+Bishop. Oh! the memory of those days and evenings on board the "Southern
+Cross." Well, it was so happy a life that it was not good for me,
+I suppose, that it should last. But I feel it now that the sense of
+responsibility is deepening on me, and I must go out to work without
+him; and very, very anxious I am sometimes, and almost oppressed by it.
+
+'But strength will come; and it is not one's own work, which is the
+comfort, and if I fail (which is very likely) God will place some other
+man in my position, and the work will go on, whether in my hands or not,
+and that is the real point.
+
+'Some talk I find there has been about my going home. I did not hear
+of it until after Mrs. Selwyn had sailed. It was thought of, but it was
+felt, as I certainly feel, that it ought not to be.... My work lies
+out here clearly; and it is true that any intermission of voyages or
+residences in the islands is to be avoided.'
+
+Mrs. Selwyn had gone home for a year, and had so arranged as to see the
+Patteson family almost immediately on her return. Meantime the day drew
+on. The Consecration was not by Royal mandate, as in the case of Bishops
+of sees under British jurisdiction; but the Duke of Newcastle, then
+Colonial Secretary, wrote:--'That the Bishops of New Zealand are at
+liberty, without invasion of the Royal prerogative or infringement of
+the law of England, to exercise what Bishop Selwyn describes as their
+inherent power of consecrating Mr. Patteson or any other person to take
+charge of the Melanesian Islands, provided that the consecration should
+take place beyond British territory.'
+
+In consequence it was proposed that the three consecrating Bishops
+should take ship and perform the holy rite in one of the isles beneath
+the open sky; but as Bishop Mackenzie had been legally consecrated in
+Cape Town Cathedral, the Attorney-General of New Zealand gave it as his
+opinion that there was no reason that the consecration should not take
+place in Auckland.
+
+
+'Kohimarama: Feb. 15, 1861.
+
+'My dearest Father,--Mr. Kerr, who has just returned from Auckland,
+where he spent yesterday, brings me the news that the question of the
+Consecration has been settled, and that it will take place (D.V.) on
+Sunday week, St. Matthias Day, February 24.
+
+'I ought not to shrink back now. The thought has become familiar to me,
+and I have the greatest confidence in the judgment of the Bishop of New
+Zealand; and I need not say how your words and letters and prayers too
+are helping me now.
+
+'Indeed, though at any great crisis of our lives no doubt we are
+intended to use more than ordinary strictness in examining our motives
+and in seeking for greater grace, deeper repentance, more earnest and
+entire devotion to God, and amendment of life, yet I know that any
+strong-emotion, if it existed now, would pass away soon, and that I must
+be the same man as Bishop as I am now, in this sense, viz., that I shall
+have just the same faults, unless I pray for strength to destroy them,
+which I can do equally well now, and that all my characteristic and
+peculiar habits of mind will remain unchanged by what will only change
+my office and not myself. So that where I am indolent now I shall be
+indolent henceforth, unless I seek to get rid of indolence; and I shall
+not be at all better, wiser, or more consistent as Bishop than I am now
+by reason simply of being a Bishop.
+
+'You know my meaning. Now I apply what I write to prove that any strong
+excitement now would be no evidence of a healthy state of mind. I feel
+now like myself, and that is not at all like what I wish to be. And so
+I thank God that as before any solemn season special inducements to
+earnest repentance are put into our minds, so I now feel a special call
+upon me to seek by His grace to make a more faithful use of the means of
+usefulness which He gives me, that I may be wholly and entirely turned
+to Him, and so be enabled to do His will in Melanesia. You know, my
+dearest Father, that I do not indeed undervalue the grace of Ordination;
+only I mean that the right use of any great event in one's life, as I
+take it, is not to concentrate feeling so much on it as earnestness of
+purpose, prayer for grace, and for increase of simplicity and honesty
+and purity of heart. Perhaps other matters affect me more than my
+supposed state of feeling, so that my present calmness may be attributed
+to circumstances of which I am partially ignorant; and, indeed, I do
+wonder that I am calm when one moment's look at the map, or thought of
+the countless islands, almost overwhelms me. How to get at them? Where
+to begin? How to find men and means? How to decide upon the best method
+of teaching, &c.? But I must try to be patient, and to be content with
+very small beginnings--and endings, too, perhaps.
+
+
+'Sunday, Feb. 24, St. Matthias, 10 A.M.--The day is come, my dearest
+Father, and finds me, I thank God, very calm. Yesterday, at 6 P.M., in
+the little chapel at Taurama, the three Bishops, the dear Judge, Lady
+Martin, Mrs. Abraham, Mr. Lloyd and I met together for special prayer.
+How we missed Mrs. Selwyn, dear dear Mrs. Selwyn, from among us, and how
+my thoughts passed on to you! Evening hymn, Exhortation in Consecration
+Service, Litany from the St. Augustine's Missionary Manual, with the
+questions in Consecration Service turned into petitions, Psalm cxxxii.,
+cxxxi., li.; Lesson i Tim. iii.; special prayer for the Elect Bishop
+among the heathen, for the conversion of the heathen; and the Gloria in
+Excelsis.
+
+'Then the dear Bishop walked across to me, and taking my hand in both
+of his, looking at me with that smile of love and deep deep thought, so
+seldom seen, and so deeply prized. "I can't tell you what I feel," he
+said, with a low and broken voice. "You know it--my heart is too full! "
+
+'Ah! the memory of six years with that great and noble servant of God
+was in my heart too, and so we stood, tears in our eyes, and I unable to
+speak.
+
+'At night again, when, after arranging finally the service, I was left
+with him alone, he spoke calmly and hopefully. Much he said of you, and
+we are all thinking much of you. Then he said: "I feel no misgiving in
+my heart; I think all has been done as it should be. Many days we three
+have discussed the matter. By prayer and Holy Communion we have sought
+light from above, and it is, I believe, God's will." Then once more
+taking both hands, he kissed my forehead: "God bless you, my dear Coley.
+I can't say more words, and you don't desiderate them."
+
+'"No," said I; "my heart, as yours, is too full for words. I have lived
+six years with you to little purpose, if I do not know you full well
+now!"
+
+'And then I walked, in the perfect peace of a still cloudless night--the
+moon within two days of full--the quarter of a mile to St. Stephen's
+schools, where I slept last night. On the way I met the Bishop of
+Wellington and Mrs. Abraham, coming up from St. Stephen's to the
+Bishop's house.
+
+J. C. P.--What a night of peace! the harbour like a silver mirror!
+
+'B. of W.--Dominus tecum.
+
+'Mrs. A.--I trust you will sleep.
+
+'J. C. P.--I thank you; I think so. I feel calm.
+
+
+'Sunday Night, 10 P.M. (Feniton, Sunday, 10.40 A.M.)--It is over--a most
+solemn blessed service. Glorious day. Church crowded--many not able to
+find admittance; but orderly. More than two hundred communicants. More
+to-morrow (D.V.). All day you have been in our minds. The Bishop spoke
+of you in his sermon with faltering voice, and I broke down; yet at the
+moment of the Veni Creator being sung over me, and the Imposition of
+Hands, I was very calm. The Bible presented is the same that you gave
+me on my fifth birthday with your love and blessing. Oh! my dear dear
+Father, God will bless you for all your love to me, and your love to Him
+in giving me to His service. May His heavenly blessing be with you--all
+your dear ones for ever!
+
+'Your most loving and dutiful Son,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.
+
+
+'February 25th.--I am spending to-day and to-morrow here--i.e., sleeping
+at the Judge's, dining and living half at his house, and half at the
+Bishop's--quiet and calm it is, and I prize it. The music yesterday was
+very good; organ well played. The choirs of the three town churches,
+and many of the choral society people, filled the gallery--some eighty
+voices perhaps. The Veni Creator the only part that was not good, well
+sung, but too much like an anthem.
+
+'Tagalana, half-sitting, half-kneeling behind me, held the book for the
+Primate to read from at the Imposition of Hands--a striking group, I am
+told.'
+
+
+Here ends the letter, to which a little must be added from other
+pens; and, first, from Mrs. Abraham's letter for the benefit of Eton
+friends:--
+
+
+'The Consecration was at St. Paul's Church, in default of a Cathedral.
+Built before the Bishop arrived, St. Paul's has no chancel: and the
+Clergy, including a Maori Deacon, were rather crowded within the rail.
+Mr. Patteson was seated in a chair in front, ten of his island boys
+close to him, and several working men of the rougher sort were brought
+into the benches near. We were rather glad of the teaching that none
+were excluded. The service was all in harmony with the occasion; and the
+sermon gave expression to all the individual and concentrated feeling of
+the moment, as well as pointing the Lesson and its teaching.
+
+'The sermon was on the thought of the Festival: "And they prayed, and
+said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of
+these two Thou hast chosen." (Acts i. 24.) After speaking of the special
+import and need of the prayers of those gathered to offer up their
+prayers at the Holy Communion, for those who were to exercise the office
+of apostles in their choice, he spoke in words that visibly almost
+overpowered their subject:--
+
+'"In this work of God, belonging to all eternity, and to the Holy
+Catholic Church, are we influenced by any private feelings, any personal
+regard? The charge which St. Paul gives to Timothy, in words of awful
+solemnity, 'to lay hands suddenly on no man,' may well cause much
+searching of heart. 'I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus
+Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, without
+preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.' Does our
+own partial love deceive us in this choice? We were all trained in
+the same place of education, united in the same circle of friends; in
+boyhood, youth, manhood, we have shared the same services, and joys,
+and hopes, and fears. I received this, my son in the ministry of Christ
+Jesus, from the hands of a father, of whose old age he was the
+comfort. He sent him forth without a murmur, nay, rather with joy and
+thankfulness, to these distant parts of the earth. He never asked even
+to see him again, but gave him up without reserve to the Lord's work.
+Pray, dear brethren, for your Bishops, that our partial love may not
+deceive us in this choice, for we cannot so strive against natural
+affection as to be quite impartial."
+
+'And again, as the Primate, addressing more especially his beloved son
+in the ministry, exclaimed, "May Christ be with you when you go forth in
+His name, and for His sake, to those poor and needy people," and his eye
+went along the dusky countenances of his ten boys, Coleridge Patteson
+could hardly restrain his intensity of feeling.'
+
+Another letter from the same lady to the sisters adds further details to
+the scene, after describing the figures in the church:--
+
+'Lady Martin, who had never seen the dress (the cassock and rochet)
+before, said that Coley reminded her of the figures of some young knight
+watching his armour, as he stood in his calm stedfastness, and answered
+the questions put to him by the Primate.
+
+'The whole service was very nicely ordered, and the special Psalm well
+chanted. With one exception (which was, alas! the Veni Creator), the
+music was good, and Coley says was a special help to him; the pleasure
+of it, and the external hold that it gave, helping him out of himself,
+as it were, and sustaining him.'
+
+Lady Martin adds her touch to the picture; and it may perhaps be
+recorded for those who may in after times read the history of the first
+Bishop of the Melanesian Church, that whatever might be wanting in
+the beauty of St. Paul's, Auckland, never were there three Bishops who
+outwardly as well as inwardly more answered to the dignity of their
+office than the three who stood over the kneeling Coleridge Patteson.
+
+'I shall never forget the expression of his face as he knelt in the
+quaint rochet. It was meek and holy and calm, as though all conflict
+was over and he was resting in the Divine strength. It was altogether a
+wonderful scene: the three consecrating Bishops, all such noble-looking
+men, the goodly company of clergy and Hohua's fine intelligent brown
+face among them, and then the long line of island boys, and of St.
+Stephen's native teachers and their wives, were living testimonies of
+Mission work. Coley had told us in the morning of a consecration he had
+seen at Rome, where a young Greek deacon had held a large illuminated
+book for the Pope to read the words of Consecration. We had no such
+gorgeous dresses as they, but nothing could have been more simply
+beautiful and touching than the sight of Tagalana's young face as he did
+the same good office. There was nothing artistic about it; the boy came
+forward with a wondering yet bright look on his pleasant face, just
+dressed in his simple grey blouse.
+
+'You will read the sermon, so there is no need to talk about it. Your
+brother was overcome for a minute at the reference to his father, but
+the comfort and favour of His Heavenly Master kept him singularly calm,
+though the week before he had undoubtedly had much struggle, and his
+bodily health was affected.'
+
+All the friends who were thus brought together were like one family,
+and still called the new Bishop by the never disused abbreviation that
+recalled his home. He was the guest of the now retired Chief Justice and
+Lady Martin, who were occupying themselves in a manner probably unique
+in the history of law and lawyers, by taking charge of the native school
+at St. Stephen's.
+
+The next two were great days of letter writing. Another long full letter
+was written to the father, telling of the additional record which
+each of the three consecrating Bishops had written in the Bible of his
+childhood, and then going into business matters, especially hoping that
+the Warden and Fellows of Merton would not suppose that as a Bishop he
+necessarily had L5,000 a year and a palace, whereas in fact the see
+had no more than the capital of L5,000 required by Government! He had
+already agreed with his father that his own share of the inheritance
+should go to the Mission; and, as he says, on hearing the amount:--
+
+'Hard enough you worked, my dear Father, to leave your children so well
+off. Dear old Jem will have enough; and my children now dwell in 200
+islands, and will need all that I can give them. God grant that the day
+may come when many of them may understand these things, and rise up and
+call your memory blessed!
+
+'Your words of comfort and blessing come to me with fresh strength just
+now, two days only after the time when you too, had you been here, would
+in private have laid your hand on my head and called down God's blessing
+upon me. I shall never know in this world what I owe to your prayers.'
+
+There is much, too, of his brother's marriage; and in a separate letter
+to the sisters there are individual acknowledgments of each article of
+the equipment, gratifying the donor by informing her that the 'cutaway'
+coat was actually to be worn that very evening at a dinner party at the
+Chief Justice's, and admiring the 'gambroon,' which turned out to be the
+material of the cassock, so much as to wish for a coat made of it for
+the islands. Apropos of the hat:-- 'You know my forehead is square, so
+that an oval hat does not fit; it would hang on by the temples, which
+form a kind of right angle with the forehead.'
+
+Another letter of that 26th was from the Bishop of Wellington to Dr.
+Goodford respecting this much-loved old pupil:--
+
+'Anything more conscientious and painstaking cannot be conceived than
+the way he has steadily directed every talent, every hour or minute
+of his life, to the one work he had set before him. However small
+or uncongenial or drumdrudgery-like his occupation, however hard, or
+dangerous, or difficult, it seemed to be always met in the same calm,
+gentle, self-possessed spirit of love and duty, which I should fancy
+that those who well knew his good and large-minded, large-hearted
+father, and his mother, whom I have always heard spoken of as saintly,
+could best understand. Perhaps the most marked feature in his character
+is his genuine simplicity and humility. I never saw it equalled in one
+so gifted and so honoured and beloved.
+
+'It is really creditable to the community to see how universal is the
+admiration for his character, for he is so very good, so exceedingly
+unworldly, and therefore such a living rebuke to the selfishness of the
+world; and though so gentle, yet so firm and uncompromising that you
+would have supposed he would hardly be popular outside the circle
+of friends who know him and understand him. Certainly he is the most
+perfect character I ever met.'
+
+The last day of February was that of the Installation.
+
+Again Mrs. Abraham must speak:--
+
+'On Thursday last we had another happy day at Kohimarama, where Bishop
+Patteson was duly installed in the temporary chapel of St. Andrew's
+College, as we hope to call it, after the church at Cocksmoor, in "The
+Daisy Chain." The morning was grey, and we feared rain would keep our
+ladies away, but we made the venture with our willing squire, Mr. M----,
+in the "Iris" boat to help us. The pity was, that after all Lady Martin
+could not go, as she had an invalid among her Maori flock, whom she
+could not trust all day by herself. The day lightened, and our sail was
+pleasant.
+
+'The Primate and Missionary Bishop planted a Norfolk pine in the centre
+of the quadrangle--"the tree planted by the water side," &c. The Bishop
+then robed and proceeded to chapel, and the Primate led the little
+service in which he spoke the words of installation, and the mew Bishop
+took the oath of allegiance to him. The Veni Creator was sung, and the
+Primate's blessing-given. The island boys looked on from one transept,
+the "Iris" sailors from another, and Charlie stood beside me. I am
+afraid his chief remembrance of the day is fixed upon Kanambat's tiny
+boat and outrigger, which he sat in on the beach, and went on voyages,
+in which the owner waded by his side, and saw him (Kanambat) skim along
+the waves like a white butterfly. We all dined in hall, after the boys,
+on roast beef and plum pudding, melons and water melons, and strolled
+about the place and beach at leisure, till it was time to sail back
+again.'
+
+On the Sunday the new Bishop preached at St. Mary's one of the sermons
+that broke from him when he was too much excited (if the word may be
+used) for his usual metaphysical style. The subject was the promise
+of the Comforter, His eternal presence and anointing, and the need of
+intercessory prayer, for which the preacher besought earnestly, as one
+too young for his office, and needing to increase in the Holy Spirit
+more and more. Very far were these from being unrealised words. God's
+grace had gone along with him, and had led him through every step and
+stage of his life, and so mastered his natural defects, that friends who
+only knew him in these years hear with incredulous indignation of those
+flaws he had conquered in his younger days. 'Fearless as a man, tender
+as a woman, showing both the best sides of human nature,' says one of
+the New Zealand friends who knew him best; 'always drawing out the good
+in all about him by force of sympathy, and not only taking care that
+nothing should be done by others that he would not do himself, but doing
+himself what he did not like to ask of them, and thinking that they
+excelled him.' Humility, the effort of his life, was achieved at last
+the more truly because not consciously.
+
+The letter to his father was again almost wholly on money matters; but
+at the end come two notable sentences:--
+
+'How can I thank you for giving me up to this work, and for all the wise
+and loving words with which you constantly cheer me and encourage me?
+Your blessing comes now to strengthen me, as work and responsibilities
+are fast accumulating upon me. I thank God that He enables us at the
+two ends of the world to see this matter in the same way, so that no
+conflict of duties arises in my mind.
+
+'This book, "Essays and Reviews," I have, but pray send your copy also;
+also any good books that may be produced bearing on that great question
+of the Atonement, and on Inspiration, Authority of Scripture, &c. How
+sad it is to see that spirit of intellectualism thinking to deal with
+religion in forgetfulness of the necessary conditions of humility and
+faith! How different from the true gnosis!'
+
+
+'Kohimarama: April 29, 1861.
+
+'My dearest Father,--As I read your letters of Feb. 21-25, you are, I
+trust, reading mine which tell you of what took place on Feb. 24. That
+point is settled. I almost fear to write that I am a Bishop in the
+Church of Christ. May God strengthen me for the duties of the office to
+which I trust He has indeed called me!
+
+'As I read of what you say so wisely and truly, and dear Joan and Fan
+and Aunt James and all, of my having expected results too rapidly at
+Mota, I had sitting with me that dear boy Tagalana, who for two months
+last winter was in the great sacred enclosure, though, dear lad, not by
+his own will, yet his faith was weak, and no wonder.
+
+'Now, God's holy name be praised for it, he is, I verily believe, in his
+very soul, taught by the Spirit to see and desire to do his duty. I feel
+more confidence about him than I have done about anyone who has come
+into my hands originally in a state of complete heathenism. It is
+not that his knowledge only is accurate and clearly grasped, but the
+humility, the loving spirit, the (apparent) personal appropriation of
+the blessing of having been brought to know the love of God and the
+redemption wrought for him by the death of Christ; this is what, as I
+look upon his clear truthful eyes, makes me feel so full of thankfulness
+and praise.
+
+'"But Tagalana, if I should die, you used to say that without my help
+you should perhaps fall back again: is that true?"
+
+'"No, no; I did not feel it then as I do now in my heart. I can't tell
+how it came there, only I know He can never die, and will always be with
+me. You know you said you were only like a sign-post, to point out the
+way that leads to Him, and I see that we ought to follow you, but to go
+altogether to Him."
+
+'I can't tell you, my dearest Father, what makes up the sum of my
+reasons for thinking that God is in His mercy bringing this dear boy to
+be the first-fruits of Mota unto the Christ, but I think that there is
+an inward teaching going on now in his heart, which gives me sure hope,
+for I know it is not my doing.
+
+'All you all say about Mota is most true: I never thought otherwise
+really, but I wrote down my emotions and impulses rather than my
+deliberate thoughts, that my letter written under such strange
+circumstances might become as a record of the effect produced day by day
+upon us by outward circumstances.
+
+'What some of you say about self-possession on one's going about among
+the people being marvellous, is just what of course appears to me
+commonplace. Of course it is wrong to risk one's life, but to carry
+one's life in one's hand is what other soldiers besides those of the
+Cross do habitually; and no one, as I think, would willingly hurt a hair
+of my head in Melanesia, or that part of it where I am at all known.
+
+'How I think of those islands! How I see those bright coral and sandy
+beaches, strips of burning sunshine fringing the masses of forest rising
+into ridges of hills, covered with a dense mat of vegetation. Hundreds
+of people are crowding upon them, naked, armed, with wild uncouth
+cries and gestures; I cannot talk to them but by signs. But they are my
+children now! May God enable me to do my duty to them!
+
+'I have now as I write a deepening sense of what the change must be that
+has passed upon me. Again I go by God's blessing for seven months to
+Melanesia. All that our experience has taught us we try to remember:
+food, medicine, articles of trade and barter.
+
+'But what may be the result? Who can tell? You know it is not of myself
+that I am thinking. If God of His great mercy lead me in His way, to me
+there is little worth living for but the going onward with His blessed
+work, though I like my talks with the dear Bishop and the Judge. But
+others are committed to me--Mr. Pritt and Mr. Kerr go with me. Shall I
+find dear old Wadrokala and Harper alive, and if alive, well?
+
+'And yet, thank God, we go on day by day, so happy, so hopeful!
+
+'I see two sermons by the Bishop of Oxford, "God's Revelation Man's
+Trial," please send them. They bear, I conclude, on the controversy
+of the day. I need not tell you that I find a very great interest in
+reading these books, or rather at present in talking now and then, when
+we meet, with the Judge on the subject of which those books treat. The
+books I have not read. But I know no refreshment so great as the reading
+any books which deal with these questions thoughtfully. I hope you don't
+think it wrong and dangerous for me to do so; pray tell me. I don't
+believe that I am wrong in doing it, yet it may be that I read them
+as an intellectual treat, and prefer them to thoughtful books on other
+subjects, because they deal with a study which I am a little more
+conversant with than with history, science, &c.
+
+'Besides, I do see that we have, many of us, very vague notions of the
+meaning of terms which we use, and I see that I must be prepared (I
+speak for myself) to expect that a clergyman may not with impunity use a
+language wanting in definiteness and precision. It is possible that
+men do too passively receive hereditary and conventional opinions
+which never have a living reality to them. But this, you know, I do not
+confound with the humble submission to authoritative teaching, given
+upon authority, to supersede the necessity of every person investigating
+for himself the primary grounds of his religious convictions.'
+
+It is worth noting how the Bishop submits his reading to his father's
+approval, as when he was a young boy. Alas! no more such letters of
+comfort and counsel would be exchanged. This one could hardly have been
+received by that much-loved father.
+
+Preparations for the voyage were going on; but the 'Dunedin,' the only
+vessel to be procured, at best a carthorse to a racer compared with the
+'Southern Cross,' was far from being in a satisfactory state, as appears
+in a note of 3rd of May to the Bishop of Wellington:--
+
+'Here we are still. The only vessel that I could make any arrangement
+about not yet returned, and known to be in such a state that the pumps
+were going every two hours. I have not chartered her, but only agreed
+with the owner a month ago nearly that I would take her at a certain sum
+per day, subject to divers conditions about being caulked (which is all
+she wants, I have ascertained), being provided with spare sails, spars,
+chronometer, boat, &c., and all agreement to be off unless by a certain
+day (already past) she was in a state satisfactory to Mr. Kerr. But
+there is, I fear, none other, and I am in a difficulty.'
+
+
+Of the same day is a letter to the Rev. Stephen Hawtrey:--
+
+
+'Taurarua, Auckland: May 6, 1861.
+
+'My dear Mr. Hawtrey,--I was highly pleased to receive a note from you.
+Though I never doubt of the hearty sympathy and co-operation of all Eton
+friends (how could you do so with such an annual subscription list?),
+yet it is very pleasant and more than pleasant to be reminded by word or
+by letter that prayers and wishes are being offered up for Melanesia by
+many good men throughout the world.
+
+'I should like to send a special appeal for a Mission Vessel by the next
+mail. We cannot get on without one. Vessels built for freight are to the
+"Southern Cross" as a cart-horse to a thoroughbred steed, and we must
+have some vessel which can do the work quickly among the multitude of
+the isles, and many other reasons there are which we seamen only perhaps
+can judge fully, which make it quite essential to the carrying on this
+peculiar Mission that we should have a vessel of a peculiar kind.
+
+'Tagalana, from Mota (Sugar Loaf Island), in the Banks Archipelago, is,
+I think, likely by God's great mercy to become the first-fruits of that
+cluster of islands unto Christ. He is here for the third time; and I
+have infinite comfort in seeing the earnestness of his character, and
+the deep sense of what he was, and what he is going to be, so truly
+realised.
+
+'He is now so unlike what still his people are, so bright and open in
+manner, and all who see him say, "What is come to the lad, his manner
+and very appearance so changed!" "Clothed," thank God, he is, "and in
+his right mind," soon to sit, if not already seated, at the feet
+of Christ. You may, if you think fit, let your thoughts centre more
+especially in him. He, of all who have come into my hands absolutely
+stark naked and savage, gives now the greatest ground for hope and
+thanksgiving. I shall (D.V.) think of all your dear friends assembled in
+your church and house on St. Barnabas Day. May God bless and reward you
+all for your work of charity to Melanesia!
+
+'Very sincerely yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.
+
+'P.S.--I hope to baptize that dear boy Tagalana on his own island in the
+course of the winter. I should wish to make the service as impressive
+as possible, in the presence of as many islanders as I can bring to the
+spot, under the shadow of a mighty banyan tree, and above the sparkling
+waves of the great Pacific.'
+
+
+The 'Dunedin' was patched up into sailing with the new Bishop for his
+cathedral--the banyan tree of Mota.
+
+It carried him away to his work, away from all knowledge of the blow
+that was preparing for him at home, and thinking of the delight that was
+in store for his family in a visit from Mrs. Selwyn, who, immediately
+after his Consecration, had returned home to spend a year in England on
+business.
+
+Sir John Patteson's happiness in his son's work and worth were far
+greater than those of the actual worker, having none of the drawbacks
+that consciousness of weakness must necessarily excite. The joy this
+gave his heart may, without exaggeration, he deliberately said to have
+been full compensation for the loss of the presence so nobly sacrificed.
+On January 22 he had written to the Bishop of New Zealand:--
+
+
+'You write most kindly touching him, dear fellow, and truly I am to be
+envied, qui natum haberem tali ingenio praeditum. Not for a moment have
+I repented of giving my sanction to his going out to New Zealand; and I
+fully believe that God will prosper his work. I did not contemplate his
+becoming a Bishop, nor is that the circumstance which gives me the great
+satisfaction I feel. It is his devotion to so good a work, and that he
+should have been found adequate to its performance; whether as a Bishop
+or as a Priest is not of itself of so much importance.
+
+'Perhaps he may have been consecrated before I am writing this, though I
+am puzzled as to the time....
+
+'May God bless with the fullest success the labours of both of you in
+your high and Christian works!'
+
+
+There had for more than a year been cause of anxiety for Sir John's
+health, but it was not the disease that had then threatened which
+occasioned the following calm-hearted letter to be written to his son:--
+
+
+'Feniton Court: March 22, 1861.
+
+'My own dearest Coley,--I promised always to tell you the truth
+respecting myself, and will do so. About a month ago, on my rising from
+reading prayers, the girls and the Dawlish party who were here exclaimed
+that my voice was broken, at which I laughed. Whitby was in London, but
+his partner happened to call, and looking at my throat found it relaxed,
+and recommended a mustard poultice on the front. When we came to put it
+on, we discovered that the glands of the throat were much swelled and
+in hard knots. Whitby returned in two days, and was much alarmed. He
+declared that it was serious, and nothing but iodine could check it.
+I had been unable to take iodine under Watson some years ago, as it
+affected my head tremendously, so he applied it outwardly by painting;
+this painting did not reduce them, and he strongly pressed my having
+London advice, for he said that if not reduced and the swellings
+increased internally, they would press on the windpipe and choke me: it
+was somewhat a surgical matter. So on Tuesday the 12th inst. we went
+to London, and I consulted Paget. He entirely agreed with Whitby, and
+thought it very serious, and ordered iodine internally at all hazards. I
+took it, and by God's mercy it agreed with me. Paget wished to talk over
+the case with Watson, and they met on the 16th, Saturday. They quite
+agreed, and did not conceal from me that if iodine did not reduce the
+swellings, and they should increase internally, the result must be
+fatal. How soon, or in what particular manner, they could not tell; it
+might even become cancerous. They did not wish me to stay in town,
+but thought I was better here, and Paget, knowing Whitby, has perfect
+confidence in his watching, and will correspond with him, if necessary.
+At present there is no reduction of the swellings. The iodine has
+certainly lessened the pains in my limbs, but does not seem, so to
+speak, to determine to the throat, but it may be there has been hardly
+time to say that it will not. My own impression is, that it will not,
+and that it is highly improbable that I shall last very long. I mean
+that I shall not see 1862, nor perhaps the summer or autumn of this
+year. I cannot tell why, but this near prospect of death has not given
+me any severe shock, as perhaps it ought to have done. It brings more
+than ever to my mind serious recollection of the sins of my youth, and
+the shortcomings of my after life in thousands of instances. I have
+never been a hardened sinner, but years ago, if I did what was sin, it
+smote me, and I tried to repent; yet there has always been in me a want
+of fervid love to God, and to my blessed Redeemer for His unspeakable
+love in suffering for my sins; but it has been cold--that may have been
+the natural constitution of the man, I cannot tell--but I never have
+placed my hopes of forgiveness and of blessedness hereafter in
+anything but in His merits, and most undeserved goodness in offering me
+salvation, if I have not thrown it away. But what shall I say? As the
+time approaches, it may please Him in His mercy to give me a warmer
+heart, and a more vivid perception of all that He has done for me. If I
+were to say that I am not a sinner, the truth would not be in me; and
+if I am washed in His blood and cleansed, it is not by any efforts or
+merits of my own, but by His unlimited mercy and goodness. Pray for me,
+that when the time comes I may not for any fears of death fall from Him.
+You know that as far as regards this world and its enjoyments, save the
+love of my dear good children, they have sate but lightly upon me for
+some time; but it is not because we have nothing that we are unwilling
+to leave, therefore we are prepared for that which is to come. Perhaps
+it may please God to give me still a short time that I may try more
+strenuously to prepare myself. We shall never meet again in this world.
+Oh! may Almighty God in His infinite mercy grant us to meet again in His
+kingdom, through the merits of our blessed Redeemer....
+
+'Oh! my dearest Coley, what comfort I have had in you--what delightful
+conversations we have had together, and how thankful we ought to be to
+our gracious God for allowing it to be so: and still not less thankful
+for the blessings of being watched and comforted and soothed by the dear
+girls, and by that dear and good Jem. All so good in their various ways,
+and I so little worthy of them...of Francis. That will indeed, humanly
+speaking, be a terrible loss to his family, for they want his fatherly
+care, and will do so for years. Not so with me; and as I am in my
+seventy-second year, it cannot be said that I am cut off prematurely:
+but on the contrary, fall like a fruit or a sheaf at its proper
+ripeness. Oh! that it may be so spiritually indeed.'
+
+
+Another letter followed the next month:--
+
+
+'Feniton Court: April 24, 1861.
+
+'My own dearest Coley,--How many more letters you may receive from me,
+God only knows, but, as I think, not many. The iodine fails altogether,
+and has produced no effect on the swellings in my throat; on the
+contrary, they steadily increase, though not rapidly. Doubtless they
+will have their own course, and in some way or other deliver my soul
+from the burden of the flesh. Oh! may it by God's mercy be the soul of a
+faithful man! Faith and love I think I have, and have long had: but I
+am not so sure that I have really repented for my past sins, or only
+abandoned them when circumstances had removed almost the temptation
+to commit them. Yet I do trust that my repentance has generally been
+sincere, and though I may have fallen again, that I may by God's grace
+have risen again. I have no assurance that I have fought the good fight
+like St. Paul, and that henceforth there is laid up a crown of gold;
+yet I have a full and firm hope that I am not beyond the pale of God's
+mercy, and that I may have hold of the righteousness of Christ, and may
+be partaker of that happiness which he has purchased for His own, by His
+atoning blood. No other hope have I; and in all humility I from my heart
+feel that any apparent good that I may have done has been His work in me
+and not my own. May it please Him that you and I, my dear son, may
+meet hereafter, together with all those blessed ones, who have already
+departed this life in His faith and fear, in His kingdom above.
+
+'My head aches occasionally, and is not so clear as it used to be....
+The next mail will bring us more definite news, if indeed I am not
+myself removed before then.... I am afraid that you discern by what I
+have written that I am become stupid, and though I could never write
+decently, yet you will see that continued dull pain in the head, and
+other pains in various parts, have made me altogether heavy and stupid.
+I have had the kindest letters and messages from various quarters when
+it became known, as it is always very soon, that my health was in a
+precarious state: one particularly from the Bishop of Lichfield (all
+companions in Old Court, King's, you know) which is very consoling. He
+says, If not for such as you, for whom did Christ die? I will not go
+on in such strains, for it is of no use. Only do not despair of me, my
+beloved Son, and believe me always,
+
+'Your loving Father,
+
+'J. PATTESON.'
+
+
+'Feniton Court: May 25, 1861.
+
+'O my own dearest Coley,--Almighty God be thanked that He has preserved
+my life to hear from you and others of your actual consecration as a
+Missionary Bishop of the Holy Catholic Church: and may He enable you
+by His grace and the powerful assistance of His Spirit to bring to
+His faith and fear very many who have not known Him, and to keep and
+preserve in it many others who already profess and call themselves
+Christians.
+
+'I was too ill to be present at the whole service on Sunday, but I
+attended the Holy Sacrament, and hope to do so to-morrow. We have with
+us our dear Sarah Selwyn, who came on Thursday: she came in the most
+kind and affectionate spirit, the first visit that she could make, that
+she might if possible see me: "I will go and see him before he dies."
+What delight this has been to me you may easily imagine, and what talk,
+and what anecdotes we have had about you and all your circle; for though
+your letters have all along let us in wonderfully into your daily life,
+yet there were many things to be filled up, which we have now seen more
+clearly and more perfectly recollect as long as our lives are spared.
+
+'What at present intensely fills our hearts and minds is all that took
+place on St. Matthias Day, and the day or two before and after. Passages
+and circumstances there were, which it is almost wonderful that you all
+could respectively bear, some affecting one the more and some the other;
+but the absorbing feeling that a great work was then done, and the
+ardent trust and prayer that it might turn out to the glory of God, and
+the good of mankind, supported every one, I have no doubt. It was
+about one of those days that I was first informed of the nature of
+the complaint which had just been discovered, and which is bringing me
+gradually to the grave.
+
+'Trinity Sunday.--I am just returned from receiving the Holy Sacrament.
+You will do so the same in a few hours, and they may well be joined
+together, and probably the last that you and I shall receive together
+in this world. My time is probably very short. Dear Sarah will hereafter
+tell you more particulars of these few days. Dear Joan and Fanny are
+watching me continually; it is hard work for them continually and most
+uncertain, but in my mind it cannot be very long. Jem is here helping
+them continually, but his wife's mother is grievously ill at a
+relation's in Gloucestershire, and I will not have him withdrawn from
+her. I hope that next week she may be removed to Jem's new cottage, next
+Hyde Park, and then they, Joan and Fanny will watch me, and Jem on a
+telegraph notice may come to me. If I dare express a hope, it is that
+this state of things may not last long. But I have no desire to express
+any hope at all; the matter is in the hands of a good God, who will
+order all things as is best.... I would write more, but I am under the
+serious impression that I shall be dead before this letter reaches you.
+
+'May our Almighty God, three Persons, blessed for evermore, grant that
+we may meet hereafter in a blessed eternity!'
+
+
+One more letter was written:--
+
+
+'Feniton Court, Honiton: June 12, 1861.
+
+'Oh! my dearest Right Reverend well-beloved Son, how I thank God that it
+has pleased Him to save my life until I heard of the actual fact of your
+being ordained and consecrated, as I have said more than once since I
+heard of it. May it please Him to prolong your life very many years, and
+to enable you to fulfil all those purposes for which you have been
+now consecrated, and that you may see the fruit of your labour of love
+before He calls you to His rest in Heaven. But if not, may you have laid
+such foundations for the spread of God's Word throughout the countries
+committed to your charge, that when it pleases God to summon you hence,
+you may have a perfect consciousness of having devoted all your time and
+labour, and so far as you are concerned have advanced all the works as
+fastly and as securely as it seemed fit to your great Assister, the Holy
+Spirit, that they should be advanced. Only conceive that an old Judge of
+seventy-two, cast out of his own work by infirmity, should yet live to
+have a son in the Holy Office of Bishop, all men rejoicing around
+him; and so indeed they do rejoice around me, mingling their loving
+expressions at my illness and approaching death....
+
+'I shall endeavour to write at intervals between this and July mail. It
+tries me to write much at a time.
+
+'Your loving Father,
+
+'J. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The calm of these letters was the pervading spirit of Feniton. With
+perfect cheerfulness did the aged Judge await the summons, aware that he
+carried the 'sentence of death within himself,' and that the manner
+of his summons would probably be in itself sudden--namely, one of the
+choking fits that increased in frequency. He lived on with his children
+and relations round him, spending his time in his usual manner, so
+far as his strength permitted--bright, kind, sunny as ever, and not
+withdrawing his interest from the cares and pleasures of others, but
+glad to talk more deeply, though still peacefully, of his condition and
+his hopes. One thing only troubled him. Once he said, and with tears in
+his eyes, to his beloved brother-in-law, Sir John Coleridge: 'Woe unto
+you when all men shall speak well of you,' adding to this effect, 'Alas!
+That this has been my lot without my deserts. It pains me now!'
+
+But as this popularity had come of no self-seeking nor attempt to win
+applause, it was a grief that was soon dispelled. Perhaps if there
+was one strong wish, it was to hear of his son's actually having been
+received into the order of Bishops, and that gratification was granted
+to him. The letters with the record of consecration arrived in time
+to be his Whitsuntide joy--joy that he still participated in the
+congregation, for though not able to be at church for the whole service,
+he still was always present at the celebration of the Holy Communion.
+
+On the day the letters came there was great peace, and a kind of
+awful joy on all the household. For many weeks past, Sir John had not
+attempted to read family prayers, but on this evening he desired his
+daughters to let him do so. Where in the prayer for missionaries he
+had always mentioned, 'the absent member of this family,' he added in a
+clear tone, 'especially for John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary Bishop.'
+That was the father's one note of triumph, the last time he ever led the
+household prayers. In a day or two Mrs. Selwyn came to him, and he wrote
+the following to the Bishop of New Zealand:--
+
+
+'Feniton Court: May 24, 1861.
+
+'My very dear Friend,--Here I am, and I have with me your dear and good
+wife, who arrived yesterday. She looks well, and I trust is so. She has
+arranged her visits so as to come to me as soon as possible. "I will go
+and see him before he die," and I feel sensibly the kindness of it. What
+a mercy is it that my life should have been preserved to receive from
+my dear son Coley and from you by letter the account of his having been
+consecrated by you as Bishop of the true Catholic Church. There were
+[accounts?] of that most impressive service, which, had I been present,
+would have, I fear, sent me to the floor; and you and Coley must have
+had difficulty in holding up at those feeling statements of your having
+received him at my old hands. When you so received him, it was known
+I was satisfied that his heart was really fixed on this missionary
+work--that he felt a call to it. I believe, you know, and I am sure God
+knows, that I had not the most distant notion in my mind that it would
+lead to his becoming a Bishop, nor do I now rejoice in the result,
+simply on account of the honour of the office; but because my confidence
+in the honesty and sincerity of his then feelings has been justified,
+and that it has pleased God to endow him with such abundant graces.
+May it please God that you should continue together in your respective
+governments in His Church many years, and that we may all meet together
+in his kingdom above!
+
+'When I parted with him I did not expect to see his face on earth, yet
+perhaps I hardly expected that our separation would be so soon, though
+I am in my seventy-second year. But in February I discovered these
+swellings in my throat; which, humanly speaking, could only be cured by
+iodine. Iodine has failed, and other attempts at a cure fail also; and
+it is only a question of time when the soul will be delivered from the
+burthen of the flesh. So indeed it is with all human beings; but it is
+one thing to know this as a general proposition, and another to know
+that the particular minister of death has hold of you, and that you are
+really only living from day to day.
+
+'For all your many kindnesses to all of us and to my son, I thank you
+from the very bottom of my soul, and pray that we may meet hereafter,
+through the merits, and for the sake of our blessed Mediator and
+Redeemer Jesus Christ our Lord, that as we have striven on earth to be
+followers of Him and His glory, so we may be partakers of it in Heaven.
+
+'Your loving Friend,
+
+'J. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The July mail was without a letter from the father. The end had come
+in the early morning of June 28, 1861, with a briefer, less painful
+struggle than had been thought probable, and the great, sound, wise,
+tender heart had ceased to beat.
+
+There is no need to dwell on the spontaneous honours that all of those
+who had ever been connected with him paid to the good old Judge, when he
+was laid beside his much-loved wife in Feniton churchyard. Bishop Sumner
+of Winchester, the friend of his boyhood, read the funeral service.
+
+'His works do follow him:' and we turn to that work of his son's in
+which assuredly he had his part, since one word of his would have turned
+aside the course that had brought such blessing on both, had he not
+accepted the summons, even as Zebedee, when he was left by the lake
+side, while his sons became fishers of men.
+
+Unknowing of the tidings in reserve for him, the Bishop was on his
+voyage, following the usual course; hearing at Anaiteum that a frightful
+mortality had prevailed in many of these southern islands. Measles had
+been imported by a trader, and had, in many cases, brought on dysentery,
+and had swept away a third of Mr. Geddie's Anaiteum flock. Mr. Gordon's
+letters had spoken of it as equally fatal in Erromango, and there were
+reports of the same, as well as of famine and war, in Nengone.
+
+'God will give me men in His time; for could I be cut up into five
+pieces already I would be living at Nengone, Lifu, Mai, Mota, and
+Bauro!' was the comment on this visit; and this need of men inspired a
+letter to his uncle Edward, on a day dear to the Etonian heart:--
+
+
+'Schooner "Dunedin," 60 tons.
+
+'In sight of Erromango, New Hebrides: June 4, 1861.
+
+'My dear Tutor,--Naturally I think of Eton and of you especially to-day.
+I hope you have as fine a day coming on for the cricket-match and for
+Surley as I have here. Thermometer 81 deg.; Tanna and Erromango, with
+their rugged hilly outlines, breaking the line of the bright sparkling
+horizon.
+
+'I managed to charter the vessel for the voyage just in time to escape
+cold weather in New Zealand. She is slow, but sound; the captain a
+teetotaller, and crew respectable in all ways. So the voyage, though
+lengthy, is pleasant.
+
+'I have some six or seven classes to take, for they speak as many more
+languages; and I get a little time for reading and writing, but not
+much.
+
+'I need not tell you how heavily this new responsibility presses on me,
+as I see the islands opening, and at present feel how very difficult it
+must be to obtain men to occupy this opening--
+
+'True, we have not to contend with subtle and highly-elaborated systems
+of false religion. It is the ignorantia purae negationis, comparatively
+speaking, in some of the islands; yet, generally, there is a settled
+system of some kind observed among them, and in the Banks Islands, an
+extraordinarily developed religion, which enters into every detail of
+social and domestic life, and is mixed up with the daily life of every
+person in the archipelago.
+
+'I think, therefore, that men are needed who have what I may call strong
+religious common sense to adapt Christianity to the wants of the various
+nations that live in Melanesia, without compromising any truth of
+doctrine or principle of conduct--men who can see, in the midst of the
+errors and superstitions of a people, whatever fragment of truth or
+symptom of a yearning after something better may exist among them, and
+make that the point d'appui, upon which they may build up the structure
+of Christian teaching. Men, moreover, of industry they must be, for it
+is useless to talk of "picking up languages." Of course, in a few days a
+man may learn to talk superficially and inaccurately on a few subjects;
+but to teach Christianity, a man must know the language well, and this
+is learnt only by hard work.
+
+'Then, again, unless a man can dispense with what we ordinarily call
+comfort or luxuries to a great extent, and knock about anywhere in
+Melanesian huts, he can hardly do much work in this Mission. The climate
+is so warm that, to my mind, it quite supplies the place of the houses,
+clothing, and food of old days, yet a man cannot accommodate himself to
+it all at once. I don't say that it came naturally to me five years ago,
+as it does now, when I feel at home anywhere, and cease to think it
+odd to do things which, I suppose, you would think very extraordinary
+indeed.
+
+'But most of all--for this makes all easy--men are wanted who really do
+desire in their hearts to live for God and the world to come, and who
+have really sought to sit very loosely to this world. The enjoyment, and
+the happiness, and the peace all come, and that abundantly; but there is
+a condition, and the first rub is a hard one, and lasts a good while.
+
+'Naturally buoyant spirits, the gift of a merry heart, are a great help;
+for oftentimes a man may have to spend months without any white man
+within hundreds of miles, and it is very depressing to live alone in the
+midst of heathenism. But there must be many many fellows pulling up to
+Surley to-night who may be well able to pull together with one on the
+Pacific--young fellows whose enthusiasm is not mere excitement of
+animal spirits, and whose pluck and courage are given them to stand the
+roughnesses (such as they are) of a missionary life. For, dear Uncle,
+if you ever talk to any old pupil of yours about the work, don't let him
+suppose that it is consistent with ease and absence of anxiety and work.
+When on shore at Kohimarama, we live very cosily, as I think. Some might
+say we have no society, very simple fare, &c.; I don't think any man
+would really find it so. But in the islands, I don't wish to conceal
+from anyone that, measured by the rule of the English gentleman's
+household, there is a great difference. Why should it, however, be
+measured by this standard? I can truly say that we have hitherto always
+had what is necessary for health, and what does one need more? though I
+like more as much as anyone.
+
+'How you will wonder at the news of my consecration, and, indeed, well
+you may! I would, indeed, that there were a dozen men out here under
+whom I was working, if only they were such men as the Primate would have
+chosen to the work.
+
+'But it is done now, and I know I must not shrink from it. Never did I
+need the love and prayers of my dear relations and friends as I do now.
+Already difficulties are rising up around me, and I am so little fit to
+be a leader of work like this. Don't forget, dear Tutor, your old pupil,
+who used to copy the dear Bishop's letters in your study from Anaiteum,
+Erromango, &c.; and little thought that he would write from these
+islands to you, himself the Missionary Bishop.
+
+'With kind love to all,
+
+'Your loving old Pupil and Nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+This thoughtful and beautiful letter was written in sight of Erromango,
+a sandal-wood station, whence a trader might be found to take charge of
+it. The ink was scarcely dry before the full cost of carrying the Gospel
+among the heathen was brought before the writer. Not only houses and
+brethren must be given up, but the 'yea and his own life also' was now
+to be exemplified almost before his eyes.
+
+The Erromaugo Mission, like that of Anaiteum, came from the Scottish
+Kirk. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, as has been seen, had been visited on every
+voyage of the 'Southern Cross' during their three years' residence
+there, and there was a warm regard between them and the Bishop. It was
+then a great shock to hear a Nengone man call out from a sandal-wood
+vessel, lying in Dillon's Bay, that they had both been killed!
+
+It was but too true. The Erromango people had been little inclined to
+listen to Mr. Gordon's warnings, and he, a young and eager man, had told
+them that to persevere in their murders and idolatries would bring a
+judgment upon them. When therefore the scourge of sickness came, as at
+Anaiteum, they connected him with it; and it was plain from his diary
+that he had for some months known his life to be in danger, but he had
+gone about them fearlessly, like a brave man, doing his best for the
+sick.
+
+On May 20 he was in a little wood, putting up a house instead of
+one that had been blown down by a hurricane, and he had sent his few
+faithful pupils to get grass for the thatch. Nine natives from a village
+about three hours' walk distant came to the house where his wife
+was, and asked for him. She said he was in the little wood. They went
+thither, and while eight hid themselves in the bush, one went forward
+and asked for some calico. Mr. Gordon took a bit of charcoal and wrote
+on a bit of wood directions to his wife to give the bearer some cotton,
+but the man insisted that he must come himself to give out some medicine
+for a sick man. Mr. Gordon complied, walking in front as far as the
+place where lay the ambush, when the man struck him with a tomahawk on
+the spine, and he fell, with a loud scream, while the others leaping out
+fell upon him with blows that must have destroyed life at once, yelling
+and screaming over him. Another went up to the house. Mrs. Gordon had
+come out, asking what the shouts meant. 'Look there!' he said, and as
+she turned her head, he struck her between the shoulders, and killed her
+as soon as she had fallen.
+
+Another native had in the meantime rushed down the hill to the
+sandal-wood station half a mile off on the beach, and the trader, arming
+his natives, came up too late to do more than prevent the murderers from
+carrying off the bodies or destroying the house. The husband and wife
+were buried in the same grave; the natives fenced it round; and now,
+on June 7, eighteen days after, Bishop Patteson read the Burial
+Service over it, with many solemn and anxious thoughts respecting the
+population, now reduced to 2,500, and in a very wild condition.
+
+At Mai the Bishop spent two hours the next day, and brought away one old
+scholar and one new one.
+
+At Tariko, where he had been three years before with the Primate, the
+Episcopal hat brought the greeting 'Bishop,' as the people no doubt
+thought the wearer identical. Of Ambrym there is a characteristic
+sentence: 'As we left the little rock pool where I had jumped ashore,
+leaving, for prudence sake, the rest behind me in the boat, one man
+raised his bow and drew it, then unbent it, then bent it again, but
+apparently others were dissuading him from letting fly the arrow. The
+boat was not ten yards off, I don't know why he did so; but we must try
+to effect more frequent landings.'
+
+On June 12 Mota was reached, and the next morning the Mission party
+landed, warmly welcomed by the inhabitants. The house was found safely
+standing and nearly weather-proof.
+
+'June 13th.--This morning I put up the framework for another small
+house, where I shall put Wadrokala, his child-wife, and many of our
+boxes. We had to carry up the timber first from the beach, and it was
+rather hot work, as also the carpentering, as I chose a place for the
+house where no falling bread-fruit or branches of trees would hurt it,
+and the sun was so hot that it almost burnt my hand when I took up a
+handful of nails that had been lying for ten minutes in the sun. So our
+picnic life begins again, and that favourably. I feel the enjoyment of
+the glorious view and climate, and my dear lads, Tagalana and Parenga,
+from Bauro, are with me, the rest in Port Patteson, &c., coming over
+in the vessel to-morrow, which I shall then discharge. I see that the
+people are very friendly; they all speak of your bread-fruit tree, your
+property. The house had not been entered, a keg of nails inside it not
+touched.
+
+'Tagalana's father is dead. His first words to me were, "Oh that the
+Word of God had come in old times to Mota, I should not then cry so much
+about him. Yes, it is true, I know, I must be thankful it is come now,
+and I must remember that, and try to help others who may die too before
+they believe it."
+
+'"Yes, I am quite your child now! Yes, one Father for us all in Heaven.
+You my father here! Yes, I stop always with you, unless you send me
+away. They ask me with whom I shall live now; I say with the Bishop."
+
+'How I was praising and rejoicing in my heart as the dear boy was
+speaking: "Yes, I am feeling calm again now. When people die at Mota,
+you know they make a great shouting, but soon forget the dead person.
+But I am able to be quiet and calm now, as you talk to me about God and
+Jesus Christ. Yes, He rose again. Death is not the end. I know you said
+it is for those who repent and believe in Christ the Door to enter into
+life eternal. How different it all seems then!"
+
+'When you read this you will say, "Thank God that I sent him out to
+Melanesia with my blessing on his head. I too may see Tagalana one day
+with Him who is the Father of us all."
+
+'One soul won to Christ, as I hope and believe, by His love and power,
+and if in any degree by my ministry, to God be the praise!'
+
+The comfort sent home to the sisters with the letter respecting this
+voyage is:--
+
+
+'Mota: June 14, 1861.
+
+'Now, dear Joan, don't any of you think too much about the murder of Mr.
+and Mrs. Gordon, as if my life was exposed to the same kind of risk.
+
+'Certainly it is not endangered here. It may be true that at places
+where I am not known some sudden outbreak may occur; but humanly
+speaking, there are not many places that as yet I am able to visit where
+I realise the fact of any danger being run.
+
+'Yet it may happen that some poor fellow, who has a good cause to think
+ill of white men, or some mischievous badly disposed man, may let fly a
+random arrow or spear some day.
+
+'If so, you will not so very much wonder, nor be so very greatly
+grieved. Every clergyman runs at least as great a risk among the
+small-pox and fevers of town parishes. Think of Uncle James in the
+cholera at Thorverton.'
+
+So with the 'Dunedin' dismissed, Bishop Patteson, Mr. Pritt, Mr.
+Kerr, and their pupils recommenced their residence at Mota. The Banks
+Islanders returned to their homes; and when the Bishop came to Aroa,
+Tagalana's native place, three weeks lately the little fellow received
+him affectionately, cooked yams, fetched mats, and was not ashamed
+before his own people to kneel down, and join audibly in hymn and
+prayer. The people begged for Wadrokala or some other teacher to be
+placed among them. The Journal continues:--
+
+'On Friday, at 8.30, I started, not quite knowing whither I should go,
+but soon saw that I could fetch round the south end of Vanua Lava, which
+was well. The sea, when it comes through the passage between Mota and
+Valua, is heavy, but the boat had great way on her, sailing very fast,
+so that I could steer her well, and we did not take very long crossing
+to the small reef islands. I passed between Pakea and Vanua Lava (Dudley
+Passage), and then we had unexpectedly a very heavy sea, a strong tide
+up. I did not like it, but, thank God, all went well. One very heavy sea
+in particular I noticed, which broke some twenty yards ahead, and about
+the same distance astern of us, while the exact part of it which came
+down upon us was only a black wall of water, over which we rode lightly
+and dry. I think that it might have swamped us had it broken upon the
+boat. My boat is an open four-oared one, 26 feet long, and about five
+wide, strong but light. She sails admirably with a common lug sail.
+I had one made last summer, very large, with two reefs, so that I can
+reduce it to as small a sail as I please. By 4 or 5 P.M. I neared Aruas,
+in the bay on the west side of Vanua Lava; the same crowd as usual on
+the beach, but I did not haul the boat up. I had a grapnel, and dropped
+it some fifty yards from the beach.
+
+'Somehow I did not much like the manner of some of the people; they did
+not at night come into the Ogamal, or men's common eating and sleeping
+house, as before, and I overheard some few remarks which I did not quite
+like--something about the unusual sickness being connected with this
+new teaching--I could not be quite sure, as I do not know the dialect
+of Aruas. There were, however, several who were very friendly, and the
+great majority were at least quiet, and left us to ourselves. The
+next morning I started at about eight, buying two small pigs for two
+hatchets, and yams and taro and dried bread-fruit for fish-hooks. I
+gave one young man a piece of iron for his attention to us. As we pulled
+away, one elderly man drew his bow, and the women and children ran off
+into the bush, here, as everywhere almost in these islands, growing
+quite thickly some twenty yards above high-water mark. The man did
+not let fly his arrow: I cannot tell why this small demonstration took
+place.'
+
+When an arrow was pointed at him, it was Bishop Patteson's custom to
+look the archer full in the face with his bright smile, and in many
+more cases than are here hinted at, that look of cheery confidence and
+good-will made the weapon drop.
+
+After a few more visits to the coasts of this archipelago the boat
+returned to Mota, where Mr. Pritt and Mr. Kerr had kept school every
+day, besides getting the station into excellent order and beauty. Their
+presence at the head-quarters left the Bishop free to circulate in the
+villages, sleeping in the Ogamals, where he could collect the men. They
+always seemed pleased and interested, and their pugnacious habits
+were decidedly diminishing, though their superstitious practices and
+observances were by no means dropped.
+
+The Diary, on July 24, thus speaks of the way of life; which, however,
+was again telling on the health of the party:--
+
+'I am so accustomed to sleeping about anywhere that I take little or no
+account of thirty, forty, fifty naked fellows, lying, sitting, sleeping
+round me. Someone brings me a native mat, someone else a bit of yam; a
+third brings a cocoa-nut; so I get my supper, put down the mat (like a
+very thin door-mat) on the earth, roll up my coat for a pillow, and make
+a very good night of it. I have had deafness in my right ear again for
+some days; no pain with it, but it is inconvenient.
+
+'Several of our lads have had attacks of fever and ague; Wadrokala and
+his child of a wife, Bum, a Bauro boy, &c. The island is not at all
+unhealthy, but natives cannot be taught caution. I, thank God, am in
+robust health, very weather-beaten. I think my Bishop's dress would look
+quite out of keeping with such a face and pair of hands!
+
+'There is much as usual in such cases to encourage and to humble us.
+Some few people seem to be in earnest. The great majority do their best
+to make me think they are listening. Meanwhile, much goes on in the
+island as of old.
+
+'Sunday, July 28th, 11.45 A.M.--I have much anxiety just now. At this
+moment Wadrokala is in an ague fit, five or six others of my party kept
+going by quinine and port wine, and one or other sickening almost daily.
+Henry Hrahuena, of Lifu, I think dying, from what I know not--I think
+inflammation of the brain, induced possibly by exposure to the sun,
+though I have not seen him so exposed, and it is a thing I am very
+careful about with them. I do what I can in following the directions of
+medical books, but it is so hard to get a word from a native to explain
+symptoms, &c.; besides, my ear is now, like last year, really painful;
+and for two nights I have had little sleep, and feel stupid, and getting
+a worn-out feeling. With all this, I am conscious that it is but a
+temporary depression, a day or two may bring out the bright colours
+again. Henry may recover by God's mercy, the boys become hearty again;
+my ear get right. At present I feel that I must rub on as I can, from
+hour to hour.
+
+'If I find from experience that natives of Melanesia, taken to a
+different island, however fertile, dry, and apparently healthy, do seem
+to be affected by it, I must modify my plans, try as soon as possible
+to have more winter schools, and, what is of more consequence, I must
+reconsider the whole question of native teachers. If a great amount
+of sickness is to be the result of gathering scholars around me at an
+island, I could do, perhaps, more single-handed, in health, and with
+no one to look after, than with twenty fellows of whom half are causing
+continual anxiety on the score of health. Now were I alone, I should
+be as brisk as a bee, but I feel weighed down somewhat with the anxiety
+about all these fellows about me.
+
+'I must balance considerations, and think it out. It requires great
+attention. It is at times like these that I experience some trials.
+Usually my life is, as you know, singularly free from them.
+
+'July 31st.--Henry died on Sunday about 4 A.M. Wadrokala is better.
+The boys are all better. I have had much real pain and weariness from
+sleepless nights, owing to the small tumour in my ear. What a sheet of
+paper for you to read! And yet it is not so sad either. The boys were
+patient and good; Wadrokala takes his ague attacks like a man; and about
+Henry I had great comfort.
+
+'He was about eighteen or nineteen, as I suppose, the son of the great
+enchanter in Lifu in old times--the hereditary high priest of Lifu
+indeed. He was a simple-minded, gentle, good fellow, not one probably
+who would have been able to take a distinct line as a teacher, yet
+he might have done good service with a good teacher. We found that
+afternoon a slate on which he had written down some thoughts when first
+taken ill, showing that he felt that he was sick unto death. Very full
+of comfort were his written as well as his spoken words.'
+
+On August 1, while the Bauro scholars were writing answers to questions
+on the Lord's Prayer, a party of men and women arrived, headed by a
+man with a native scarf over his shoulders. They had come to be taught,
+bringing provisions with them, and eating them, men and women together,
+a memorable infringement of one of the most unvarying customs of the
+Banks inhabitants; and from the conversation with them and with others,
+Bishop Patteson found that the work of breaking down had been attained,
+that of building up had to be begun. They must learn that leaving off
+heathen practices was not the same thing as adopting the religion of
+Christ, and the kind of work which external influences had cut short in
+Lifu had to be begun with them.
+
+'Soon, I think, the great difficulty must be met in Mota of teaching the
+Christian's social and domestic life to people disposed to give up
+much of their old practices. This is the point at which I suppose most
+Missions have broken down. It is a great blessing indeed to reach it,
+but the building up of converts is the harder work. Here, for example,
+a population of 1,500 people; at present they know all that is necessary
+for the cultivation of yams, &c., they build houses sufficient for the
+purpose of their present life, they are giving up fighting, losing-faith
+in their old charms and contrivances for compassing the death of their
+enemies; they will very likely soon be at peace throughout the whole
+island. Well, then, they will be very idle, talk infinite scandal,
+indulge in any amount of gluttony; professing to believe our religion,
+their whole life will contradict that profession, unless their whole
+social and domestic life be changed, and a new character infused into
+them. It would be a great mistake to suppose that the English aspect
+of the Christian's social life is necessarily adapted to such races
+as these. The Oriental tendencies of their minds, the wholly different
+circumstances of their lives, climate, absence of all poverty or
+dependence upon others, &c., will prevent them from ever becoming a
+little English community; but not, I trust, their becoming a Christian
+community. But how shall I try to teach them to become industrious,
+persevering, honest, tidy, clean, careful with children, and all the
+rest of it? What a different thing from just going about and teaching
+them the first principles of Christianity! The second stage of a Mission
+is the really difficult one.'
+
+A few days after the foregoing observations were written, H.M.S.
+'Cordelia,' a war steamer, entered Port Patteson, and Captain Hume
+himself came across by boat to Mota, to communicate to Bishop Patteson
+his instructions to offer him a cruise in the vessel, render him any
+assistance in his power in the Solomon Islands, and return him to
+any island he might desire. Letters from the Primate assumed that the
+proposal should be accepted; it was an opportunity of taking home the
+Bauro and Grera boys; moreover there was a quarrel between English and
+natives to be enquired into at Ysabel Island, where the Bishop could be
+useful as interpreter; and, as he could leave his two friends to carry
+on the school at Mota, he went on board, and very good it was for him,
+in the depressed state of health brought on by rude bed and board, to be
+the guest on board a Queen's ship and under good medical care.
+
+For the 'Cordelia' had brought out the letters which gave the first
+intimation of his father's state; and without the privacy, and freedom
+from toil and responsibility, he could hardly have borne up under the
+blow. The first day was bad enough: 'a long busy day on shore with just
+one letter read, and the dull heavy sensation of an agony that was to
+come, as soon as I could be alone to think.' Arrangements had to be
+made; and there was not one solitary moment till 9 P.M. in the cabin
+when this loving and beloved son could shut himself in, kneel down, and
+recover composure to open the two letters in his father's hand.
+
+He wrote it all--his whole heart--as of old to the father who had ever
+shared his inmost thoughts:--
+
+'It may be that as I write, your blessed spirit, at rest in Paradise,
+may know me more truly than ever you did on earth; and yet the sorrow
+of knowing how bitter it is within may never be permitted to ruffle your
+everlasting peace.
+
+'I may never see you on earth. All thought of such a joy is gone. I
+did really cling to it (I see it now) when most I thought I was quite
+content to wait for the hope of the great meeting. I will try to
+remember and to do what you say about all business matters.
+
+'I will pray God to make me more desirous and more able to follow the
+holy example you leave behind. Oh that the peace of God may be given to
+me also when I come to die; though how may I dare to hope for such an
+end, so full of faith and love and the patient waiting for Christ!
+
+'I must go on with my work. This very morning I was anxious, passing
+shoal water with the captain and master beside me, and appealing to me
+as pilot. I must try to be of some use in the ship. I must try to turn
+to good account among the islands this great opportunity. Probably
+elasticity of mind will come again now for very pain of body. Oh! how
+much more sorrow and heavy weight on my heart! I am quite worn out and
+weary. It seems as if the light were taken from me, as if it was no
+longer possible to work away so cheerily when I no longer have you to
+write to about it all, no longer your approval to seek, your notice to
+obtain.
+
+'I must go on writing to you, my own dearest Father, even as I go on
+praying for you. It is a great comfort to me, though I feel that in all
+human probability you are to be thought of now as one of the blessed
+drawn wholly within the veil. Oh! that we may all dwell together
+hereafter for His blessed sake who died for us. Now more than ever your
+loving and dutiful Son,' &c.
+
+Such another letter was written to his sister Fanny; but it is dated
+four days later, when he was better in health, and was somewhat
+recovered from the first shock; besides which, he felt his office of
+comforter when writing to her. So the letter is more cheerful, and is
+a good deal taken up with the endeavour to assure the sisters of
+his acquiescence in whatever scheme of life they might adopt, and
+willingness that, if it were thought advisable, Feniton Court should
+be sold. 'This is all cold and heartless,' he says, 'but I must try and
+make my view pretty clear.' Towards the end occurs the following:--
+
+'Last night, my slight feverish attack over, my ears comfortable, with
+the feeling of health and ease returning, I lay awake, thought of dear
+Uncle Frank, and then for a long time of dear Mamma. How plainly I saw
+her face, and dear dear Uncle James, and I wondered whether dear dear
+Father was already among them in Paradise. It is not often that I can
+fasten down my mind to think continuously upon those blessed ones; I am
+too tired, or too busy; and this climate, you know, is enervating.
+But last night I was very happy, and seemed to be very near them. The
+Evening Lesson set me off, 1 John iii. How wonderful it is! But all the
+evening I had been reading my book of Prayers and Meditations. Do
+you know, Fan, at times the thought comes upon me with a force almost
+overpowering, that I am a Bishop; and that I must not shrink from
+believing that I am called to a special work. I don't think that I dwell
+morbidly on this, but it is an awful thought. And then I feel just
+the same as of old, and don't reach out more, or aim more earnestly at
+amendment of life and strive after fresh degrees of enlightenment and
+holiness. But probably I have to learn the lesson, which it may be only
+sickness will teach me, of patient waiting, that God will accomplish His
+own work in His own time.'
+
+Some of this is almost too sacred for publication, and yet it is well
+that it should be seen how realising the Communion of Saints blessed
+the solitary man who had given up home. The next letter is to Sir J. T.
+Coleridge:--
+
+
+'H.M.S. "Cordelia," September 11, 1861.
+
+'My dearest Uncle,--It is now nearly five weeks since I learnt from
+my letters of March and April, brought to me by this ship, the very
+precarious state of my dear Father.
+
+'He has never missed a mail since we have been parted, never once; and
+he wrote as he always did both in March and April. I had read a letter
+from the good Primate first; because I had to make up my mind whether I
+could, as I was desired, take a cruise in this vessel; and in his letter
+I heard of my dear Father's state. With what reverence I opened his
+letters! With what short earnest prayers to God that I might have
+strength supplied and resignation I had kept them till the last. All day
+at Mota I had been too busy to read any but the Primate's letters. I
+had many matters to arrange...and it was not until night that I could
+quietly read my letters in the captain's cabin. My dear Father's words
+seem to come to me like a voice from another world. I think from what
+he says, and what they all say, that already he has departed to be with
+Christ.
+
+'I think of him and my dear mother, and those dear uncles James and
+Frank, so specially dear to me, and others gone before. I think of all
+that he has been to me, and yet how can I be unhappy? The great shock to
+me was long overpast: it is easy for me to dwell on his gain rather
+than my loss; yet how I shall miss his wise loving letters and all the
+unrestrained delights of our correspondence.
+
+'It is not with me as with those dear sisters, or with old Jem. Theirs
+is the privilege of witnessing the beauty and holiness of his life to
+the end; and theirs the sorrow of learning to live without him. Yet
+I feel that the greatest perhaps of all the pleasures of this life is
+gone. How I did delight in writing to him and seeking his approval
+of what I was about! How I read and re-read his letters, entering so
+entirely into my feelings, understanding me so well in my life, so
+strangely different from what it used to be.
+
+'Well, it should make me feel more than ever that I have but one thing
+to live for--the good, if so it may please God, of these Melanesian
+islands.
+
+'I cannot say, for you will like to know my feelings, that I felt
+so overwhelmed with this news as not to be able to go about my usual
+business. Yet the rest on board the vessel has been very grateful to me.
+The quiet cheerfulness and briskness will all come again, as I think;
+and yet I think too that I shall be an older and more thoughtful man by
+reason of this.
+
+'There has been reported a row at Ysabel Island, one of the Solomon
+group, eighteen months ago. This vessel, a screw steamer, ten guns and a
+large pivot gun, came to enquire, with orders from the Commodore of the
+station to call at Mota and see me, and request me to go with the vessel
+if I could find time to do so; adding that the vessel was to take me to
+any island which I might wish to be returned to. Now I have long wished
+to indoctrinate captains of men-of-war with our notions of the right
+way to settle disputes between natives and traders. Secondly, I had a
+passage free with my Solomon Islanders, and consequently all October and
+half November I may devote to working up carefully (D.V.) the Banks and
+New Hebrides group without being under the necessity of going down to
+the Solomon Islands. Thirdly, I had an opportunity of going further
+to the westward than I had ever been before, and of seeing new ground.
+Fourthly, the Primate, I found, assumed that I should go. So here I
+am, in great clover, of course: the change from Mota to man-of-war life
+being amusing enough. Barring some illness, slight attacks of fever, I
+have enjoyed myself very much. The seeing Ysabel Island is a real gain.
+I had time to acquire some 200 words and phrases of the language, which
+signify to me a great deal more. The language is a very remarkable one,
+very Polynesian; yet in some respects distinguished from the Polynesian,
+and most closely related to Melanesian dialects.
+
+'I need not enter into all this. It is my business, you know, to work
+at such things, and a word or two often tells me now a good deal of the
+secrets of a language--the prominent forms, affixes, &c., &c.; the way
+in which it is linked on to other dialects by peculiar terminations, the
+law by which the transposition of vowels and consonants is governed in
+general. All these things soon come out, so I am very sanguine
+about soon, if I live, seeing my way in preparing the way for future
+missionaries in the far West.
+
+'But I must not forget that I have some islands to visit in the next
+month or two where the people are very wild, so that I of all people
+have least reason to speculate about what I may hope to do a year hence.
+
+'The real anxiety is in the making up my own mind whether or not I ought
+to lower the boat in such a sea way; whether or not I ought to swim
+ashore among these fellows crowded there on the narrow beach, &c.
+
+'When my mind is made up, it is not so difficult then. But, humanly
+speaking, there are but few islands now where I realise the fact of
+there being any risk; at very many I land with confidence. Yet I could
+enumerate, I dare say, five-and-twenty which we have not visited at
+all, or not regularly; and where I must be careful, as also in visiting
+different parts of islands already known to us in part. Poor poor
+people, who can see them and not desire to make known to them the words
+of life? I may never forget the Bishop's words in the Consecration
+Service:--"Your office is in the highest sense to preach the Gospel to
+the poor;" and then his eye glanced over the row of Melanesians sitting
+near me.
+
+'How strange that I can write all this, when one heavy sense of trouble
+is hanging vaguely over me. And yet you will be thankful that I can
+think, as I trust, heartily of my work, and that my interest is in no
+way lessened. It ought to be increased. Yet I scarce realise the fact of
+being a Bishop, though again it does not seem unnatural. I can't explain
+what I mean. I suppose the fact that I knew for so long before that it
+must come some day if I lived, makes the difference now.
+
+'I don't think, however, that your words will come true of my appearing
+in shovel hat, &c., at Heath's Court some fine day. It is very
+improbable that I shall ever see the northern hemisphere, unless I see
+it in the longitude of New Guinea.
+
+'I must try to send a few island shells to M----, B----, and Co.; those
+little ones must not grow up, and I am sure that you all do not suffer
+them to grow up, without knowing something about "old cousin Coley"
+tumbling about in a little ship (albeit at present in a war steamer) at
+the other end of the world. Seriously, dear Uncle, as they grow older,
+it may be some help for them to hear of these poor Melanesians, and of
+our personal intercourse with them, so to speak.
+
+'I have but little hope of hearing, if I return safe to New Zealand at
+the end of November, that this disastrous war is over. I fear that
+the original error has been overlaid by more recent events, forgotten
+amongst them. The Maori must suffer, the country must suffer. Confession
+of a fault in an individual is wrong in a State; indeed, the rights of
+the case are, and perhaps must be, unknown to people at a distance. We
+have no difficulty here in exposing the fallacies and duplicities of the
+authors of the war, but we can't expect (and I see that it must be so)
+people in England to understand the many details. To begin with, a man
+must know, and that well, Maori customs, their national feeling, &c. It
+is all known to One above, and that is our only hope now. May He grant
+us peace and wisdom for the time to come!
+
+'I have been reading Helps again this voyage, a worthy book, and
+specially interesting to me. How much there is I shall be glad to read
+about. What an age it is! America, how is that to end? India, China,
+Japan, Africa! I have Jowett's books and "Essays and Reviews." How much
+I should like to talk with you and John, in an evening at Heath's Court,
+about all that such books reveal of Intellectualism at home. One does
+feel that there is conventionalism and unreality in the hereditary
+passive acceptance of much that people think they believe. But how on
+Jowett's system can we have positive teaching at all? Can the thing
+denoted by "entering into the mind of Christ or St. Paul" be substituted
+for teaching the Catechism?
+
+'Not so, writes my dear Father in the depth of his humility and
+simplicity, writing to me what a father could scarcely say to a son!
+But our peculiar circumstances have brought this blessing to me, that I
+think he has often so "reamed out" his heart to me in the warmth of his
+love to a son he was never again to see in the body, that I know him
+better even than I should have done had I remained at home.
+
+'So wonderful was my dearest Father's calmness when he wrote on the 24th
+of April, that if he was alive to write again in May, I think it not
+impossible that he may allude to these matters. If so, what golden words
+to be treasured up by me! I have all his letters. You will see, or have
+seen him laid by my dear Mother's side. They dwell together now with Him
+in Paradise.
+
+'Good-bye, my dearest Uncle. Should God spare your life, my letters will
+be more frequent to you now.
+
+'My kindest love to Aunt.
+
+'Your affectionate and grateful Nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+There is little more record of this voyage. There was less heart and
+spirit than usual for the regular journalizing letter; but the five
+weeks' voyage had been most beneficial in restoring health and energy,
+and it had one very important effect upon the Mission, for it was here
+that Lieutenant Capel Tilly, R.N., became so interested in the Mission
+and its head, as to undertake the charge of the future 'Southern Cross.'
+The 'Cordelia' was about to return to England, where, after she was
+paid off, Mr. Tilly would watch over the building of the new vessel on a
+slightly larger scale than the first, would bring her out to Kohimarama,
+and act as her captain.
+
+So great a boon as his assistance did much to cheer and encourage the
+Bishop, who was quite well again when he landed at Mota on September 17,
+and found Mr. Pritt convalescent after a touch of ague, and Mr. Kerr so
+ill as to be glad to avail himself of Captain Hume's kind offer to take
+him back to Auckland in the 'Cordelia.'
+
+Probably all were acclimatised by this time, for we hear of no more
+illness before the 'Sea Breeze,' with Mr. Dudley, came, on the 10th of
+October, to take the party off.
+
+He says:--'The Bishop and Mr. Pritt both looked pale and worn. There
+were, however, signs in the island of a great advance in the state of
+things of the previous year. An admirable schoolroom had been built;
+and in the open space cleared in front of it, every evening some hundred
+people would gather, the older ones chatting, the younger ones being
+initiated in the mysteries of leap-frog, wrestling, and other English
+games, until prayer time, when all stood in a circle, singing a Mota
+hymn, and the Bishop prayed with and for them.
+
+'That voyage was not a long one. We did not go to the Solomon Islands
+and the groups to the north, but we worked back through the New
+Hebrides, carefully visiting them.'
+
+Mr. Dudley had brought letters that filled the Bishop's heart to
+overflowing, and still it was to his father that he wrote: 'It seems
+as if you had lived to see us all, as it were, fixed in our several
+positions, and could now "depart in peace, according to His word."'
+
+The agony and bitterness seem to have been met and struggled through,
+as it were, in those first days on board the 'Cordelia.' In this second
+letter there is infinite peace and thankfulness; and so there still was,
+when, at Norfolk Island, the tidings of the good old man's death met
+him, as described in the ensuing letter:--
+
+
+'"Sea Breeze," one hundred miles south-east of Norfolk Island: 8 A.M.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--Joy and grief were strangely mingled together
+while I was on shore in Norfolk Island, from 6 P.M. Saturday to 8 P.M.
+Sunday (yesterday).
+
+'I was sitting with Mr. Nobbs (Benjamin Dudley the only other person
+present) when he said, "We have seen in our papers from Sydney the news
+of the death of your revered Father." He concluded that I must have
+known of it.
+
+'How wonderful it seems to me that it did not come as a great shock. I
+showed by my face (naturally) that I had not known before that God had
+taken him unto Himself, but I could answer quite calmly, "I thank God.
+Do not be distressed at telling me suddenly, as you see you have done
+inadvertently. I knew he could not live long. We all knew that he was
+only waiting for Christ."
+
+'And, dear dear John and Fan, how merciful God has been! The last part
+of his letter to me, of date June 25, only three days before his
+call came, so that I know (and praise God for it) that he was spared
+protracted suffering. Shall I desire or wish to be more sorry than I am?
+Shall I try to make myself grieve, and feel unhappy? Oh, no; it is of
+God's great mercy that I still feel happy and thankful, for I cannot
+doubt the depth of my love to him who has indeed been, and that more
+than ever of late, the one to whom I clung in the world.
+
+'I could be quiet at night, sleeping in Mr. Nobbs's house, and yet I
+could not at once compose myself to think it all over, as I desired to
+do. And then I had much to do, and here was the joy mingling with the
+sorrow.
+
+'For the Norfolk Island people have come to see how wise was the
+Primate's original plan, and now they much desire to connect themselves
+more closely with the Mission.
+
+'Mr. and Mrs. Nobbs desire their son Edwin, who was two years at the
+Governor's at Sydney, and is now eighteen and a half years old, to be
+given wholly to us.... So said Simon Young of his boy Fisher, and so did
+three others. All spoke simply, and without excitement, but with deep
+feeling. I thought it right to say that they should remain at Norfolk
+Island at present, that we all might prove them whether they were indeed
+bent upon this work, that we might be able to trust that God had indeed
+called them. To the lads I said, "This is a disappointment, I know, but
+it is good for you to have to bear trials. You must take time to count
+the cost. It is no light thing to be called to the work of a teacher
+among the heathen. In giving up your present wish to go immediately,
+you are obeying your parents and others older than yourselves, and your
+cheerful obedience to them is the best evidence that you wish to act
+upon a sense of duty, and not only from impulse; but don't think I wish
+to discourage you. I thank Him who has put the good desire into your
+hearts. Prove yourselves now by special prayer and meditation."
+
+'Then came the happy, blessed service, the whole population present,
+every confirmed person communicating, my voice trembling at the Fifth
+Commandment and the end of the Prayer for the Church Militant, my heart
+very full and thankful. I preached to them extempore, as one can preach
+to no other congregation, from the lesson, "JESUS gone to be the guest
+of a man that is a sinner," the consequences that would result in us
+from His vouchsafing to tabernacle among us, and, as displayed in the
+Parable of the Pounds, the use of God's gifts of health, influence,
+means; then, specifying the use of God's highest gifts of children to be
+trained to His glory, quoting 1 Samuel i. 27, 28, "lent to the Lord," I
+spoke with an earnestness that felt strange to me at the time.
+
+'Simon Young said afterwards: "My wife could not consent months ago
+to Fisher's going away, but she has told me now that she consents. She
+can't withhold him with the thought of holy Hannah in her mind." And I
+felt as if I might apply (though not in the first sense) the prophecy
+"Instead of thy fathers, thou shalt have children."
+
+'To add to all, Mr. Nobbs said: "I have quite altered my mind about the
+Melanesian school, I quite see that I was mistaken;" and the people are
+considering how to connect themselves closely with us.
+
+'You may imagine, dear Joan, that joy and grief made a strange, yet not
+unhappy tumult in my mind. I came away at 3 P.M. (the wind being very
+fair) hoping to revisit them, and, by the Bishop of Tasmania's desire,
+hold a confirmation in six months' time. How I am longing to hear the
+last record of the three days intervening between June 25 and 28, you
+may well imagine.... Already, thank God, four months have passed, and
+you are recovering from the great shock. Yours is a far harder trial
+than mine. May God comfort and bless us all, and bring us to dwell with
+our dear parents in heaven, for our blessed Lord's sake.
+
+'Your very loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+And this most touching account from within is supplemented by the
+following, by Mr. Dudley, from without:--
+
+
+'He took it [the tidings of his father's death] quite calmly. Evidently
+it had been long expected and prepared for. He was even cheerful in his
+quiet grave way. In the evening there was singing got up for him by some
+of the Norfolk Islanders, in one of the large rooms of the old barracks.
+He enjoyed it; and after it had gone on some time, he thanked them in a
+few touching words that went home, I am sure, to the hearts of many of
+them, and then we all knelt down, and he prayed extempore. I wish I had
+kept the words of that prayer! Everyone was affected, knowing what was
+then occupying his mind, but we were still more so next morning, at
+the service in church. His voice had that peculiarly low and sweet tone
+which always came into it when he was in great anxiety or sorrow, but
+his appeal to the congregation was inspiring to the last degree. It was
+the Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, and the subject he took was from
+the second lesson, the Parable of the Pounds, in St. Luke xix., and so
+pointed out the difficulties between the reception of a talent and the
+use of it. He showed that the fact of people's children growing up
+as wild and careless as heathen was no proof that no grace had been
+bestowed upon them; on the contrary, in the baptized it was there, but
+it had never been developed; and then came the emphatic assertion,
+"The best way of employing our gifts of whatever kind--children, means,
+position--is by lending them to the Lord for His service, and then a
+double blessing will be returned for that we give. Hannah giving her
+child to the Lord, did she repent of it afterwards, think you, when she
+saw him serving the Lord, the one upright man of the house of Israel?"'
+
+No doubt these words were founded on those heartfelt assurances which
+stirred his very soul within him that his own father had never for
+a moment regretted or mourned over the gift unto the Lord, which had
+indeed been costly, but had been returned, 'good measure, pressed
+together, and flowing over,' in blessing! can I grieve and sorrow about
+my dear dear Father's blessed end?' are the words in a letter to myself
+written on the 19th. It further contained thanks for a photograph of
+Hursley Church spire and Vicarage, which had been taken one summer
+afternoon, at the desire of Dr. Moberly (the present Bishop of
+Salisbury), and of which I had begged a copy for him. 'I shall like the
+photograph of Hursley Vicarage and Church, the lawn and group upon
+it. But most shall I like to think that Mr. Keble, and I dare say Dr.
+Moberly too, pray for me and this Mission. I need the prayers of
+all good people indeed.' I quote this sentence because it led to a
+correspondence with both Mr. Keble and Dr. Moberly, which was equally
+prized by the holy and humble men of heart who wrote and received the
+letters:--
+
+
+'St. Andrew's, Kohimarama: November 20, 1861.
+
+'Thank you, my dearest Sophy, for your loving letters, and all your love
+and devotion to him.
+
+'I fear I do not write to those two dear sisters of mine as they and you
+all expect and wish. I long to pour it all out; I get great relief in
+talking, as at Taurarua I can talk to the dear Judge and Lady Martin.
+She met me with a warm loving kiss that was intended to be as home-like
+as possible, and for a minute I could not speak, and then said
+falteringly, "It has been all one great mercy to the end. I have heard
+at Norfolk Island." But I feel it still pent up to a great extent, and
+yet I have a great sense of relief. I fancy I almost hear sometimes
+the laboured breathing, the sudden stop--the "thanks be to God, he has
+entered into his rest."
+
+'What his letters are, I cannot even fully say to another, perhaps never
+fully realise myself.
+
+'As I write, the tears come, for it needs but a little to bring them
+now, though I suppose the world without thinks that I "bear up," and go
+on bravely.
+
+'But when any little word or thought touches the feelings, the sensitive
+rather than the intellectual part of me, then I break down.
+
+'And yet it seems to bring thoughts and hopes into more definite shape.
+How I read that magnificent last chapter of Isaiah last Sunday. I seemed
+to feel my whole heart glowing with wonder, and exultation, and praise.
+The world invisible may well be a reality to us, whose dear ones there
+outnumber now those still in the flesh. Jem's most beautiful, most
+intensely affecting letter, with all his thoughtfulness about the grave,
+&c., fairly upset me. I let the Judge and Lady Martin read some parts of
+it, and they returned it, saying it had quite overcome them. Now all
+day I feel really as much as at those moments, only the special
+circumstances give more expression at one time than at another to the
+inward state of mind.
+
+'How I treasure up many many of his words and actions!
+
+'What a history in these words: "All times of the day are alike to me
+now; getting near, I trust, the time when it will be all day."
+
+'Those are the things that break me down. I see his dear face, and hear
+him slowly and calmly saying such words of patient trust and faith, and
+it is too much. Oh! that I might live as the son of such parents ought
+to live!
+
+'And then I turn to the practical duties again, and get lost in the
+unceasing languages and all the rest of it.
+
+'Now enough--but I write what comes uppermost.
+
+'Your loving Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Very soon after the return, on the 6th December, 1861, an Ordination
+was held at St. Paul's, Auckland, when the Primate ordained two Maori
+deacons, and Bishop Patteson, the Rev. Benjamin Dudley.
+
+Sir William and Lady Martin spent part of this summer in the little
+cottage at Kohimarama where the sailing master of the late 'Southern
+Cross' had lived: and again we have to thank her for a picture of life
+at St. Andrew's. She says:--
+
+'The new settlement was then thought to be healthy, and he and his boys
+alike rejoiced in the warmth of the sheltered bay, after the keenness
+of the air at St. John's on higher ground. The place looked very pretty.
+The green fields and hawthorn hedges and the sleek cattle reminded one
+of England. As a strong contrast, there was the white shelly beach and
+yellow sands. Here the boys sunned themselves in play hours, or fished
+on the rocks, or cooked their fish at drift-wood fires. On calm days one
+or two would skim across the blue water in their tiny canoes. One great
+charm of the place was the freedom and naturalness of the whole party.
+There was no attempt to force an overstrained piety on these wild
+fellows, who showed their sincerity by coming with the Bishop. By
+five in the morning all were astir, and jokes and laughter and shrill
+unaccountable cries would rouse us up, and go on all day, save when
+school and chapel came to sober them.
+
+'The Bishop had not lost his Eton tastes, and only liked to see them
+play games, and the little fat merry-faced lads were always on the
+look-out for a bit of fun with him. One evening a tea-drinking was given
+in the hall in honour of us. The Mota boys sung in twilight the story of
+the first arrival of the Mission vessel and of their wonder at it. The
+air, with a monotonous, not unpleasing refrain, reminded us of some old
+French Canadian ditties. I remember well the excitement when the Bishop
+sent up a fire balloon. It sailed slowly towards the sea, and down
+rushed the whole Melanesian party, shrieking with delight after it. Our
+dear friend's own quarters were very tiny, and a great contrast to
+his large airy room at St. John's. He occupied a corner house in the
+quadrangle, to be close to the boys. Neither bedroom nor sitting-room
+was more than ten feet square. Everything was orderly, as was his wont.
+Photographs of the faces and places he loved best hung on the walls.
+Just by the door was his standing desk, with folios and lexicons. A
+table, covered with books and papers in divers languages, and a chair or
+two, completed his stock of furniture. The door stood open all day long
+in fine weather, and the Bishop was seldom alone. One or other of
+the boys would steal quietly in and sit down. They did not need to be
+amused, nor did they interrupt his work. They were quite content to be
+near him, and to get now and then a kind word or a pleasant smile. It
+was the habitual gentle sympathy and friendliness on his part that won
+the confidence of the wild timid people who had been brought up in an
+element of mistrust, and which enabled them after a while to come and
+open their hearts to him.
+
+'How vividly the whole scene comes back to me as I write! The Bishop's
+calm thoughtful face, the dusky lads, the white-shelled square in front,
+relieved by a mass of bright geraniums or gay creepers, the little
+bed-room with its camp bed, and medicine bottles and good books, and,
+too often, in spite of our loving remonstrances, an invalid shivering
+with ague, or influenza, in possession. We knew that this involved
+broken nights for him, and a soft board and a rug for a couch. He was
+overtasking his powers during those years. He was at work generally from
+five A.M. to eleven P.M., and this in a close atmosphere; for both the
+schoolroom and his own house were ill-ventilated. He would not spare
+time enough either for regular exercise. He had a horse and enjoyed
+riding, but he grudged the time except when he had to come up to town on
+business or to take Sunday services for the English in the country. It
+was very natural, as he had all a student's taste for quiet study, yet
+could only indulge it by cutting off his own hours for relaxation. He
+was constantly called off during the day to attend to practical work,
+teaching in school, prescribing for and waiting on the sick, weighing
+out medicines, keeping the farm accounts, besides the night classes in
+several languages.
+
+'He was really never so happy as among his boys or his books. He had no
+liking for general society, though his natural courteousness made him
+shrink from seeming ungracious. He did thoroughly enjoy a real talk with
+one or two friends at a time, but even this he denied himself.'
+
+Fanny Patteson had spent several days at Hursley in the course of the
+winter, and the Vicar and Mrs. Keble had greatly delighted in hearing
+her brother's letters. The following letter from Mr. Keble was written,
+as will be perceived, immediately after hearing the account of the
+baptism of the dying child at Mota:--
+
+
+'Hursley, February 19, 1862.
+
+'My dear Bishop Patteson,--I seat myself down on a low chair between
+the pictures of your uncle and your Metropolitan, and that by command of
+your sister, who is on a footstool in the corner opposite, I to send two
+words, she 200, or, for aught I know, 2,000, to greet you on the other
+side of the world. We have the more right, as your kind sisters have
+kept us well up to your Missionary doings from time to time, and we seem
+to be very often with you on board or in your islands (I say we, for
+my dear wife is more than half of me, as you may well suppose, in such
+sympathies), and it seems to me that, perhaps, in the present state
+of your island or sea-work you may have more time than by-and-by for
+thinking of one and another; anyhow we trust that that may happen which
+we ask for every evening--that we may be vouchsafed a part in the holy
+prayers which have been that day offered to the Throne of Grace, in
+Melanesia or elsewhere. I don't know whether I am right, but I fancy you
+at times something between a Hermit and a Missionary. God grant you a
+double blessing! and as you are a Bishop besides, you will breathe us a
+blessing in return for this, such as it is. Fanny's visit has been, as
+you know it would be, most charming and genial to us old folks (not that
+my wife ought to be so spoken of), and I shall always think it so kind
+of her to have spared us the time when she had so much to do and so
+short a time to do it in; but she seems like one going about with a bag
+of what Bishop Selwyn calls "hope-seed," and sowing it in everyplace;
+yet when one comes to look close at it, it all consists of memories,
+chiefly you know of whom. I only wish I could rightly and truly treasure
+up all she has kindly told us of your dear Father; but it must be a
+special grace to remember and really understand such things. It will be
+a most peculiar satisfaction, now that we have had her with us in this
+way, to think of you all three together, should God's Providence allow
+the meeting of which we understand there is a hope. The last thing she
+has told us of is the baptism on St. Barnabas' Day--"the first fruits
+of Mota unto Christ." What a thought--what a subject for prayer and
+thanksgiving! God grant it may prove to you more than we can ask or
+think.
+
+'Ever yours, my dear Bishop,
+
+'J. K.
+
+'Don't trouble yourself to write, but think of us.'
+
+
+Of course there was no obeying this postscript, and the immediate reply
+was:--
+
+
+'My dear dear Mr. Keble,--Few things have ever given me more real
+pleasure than the receipt of your letter by this mail. I never doubted
+your interest in New Zealand and Melanesia, and your affection for me
+for my dear Father's sake. I felt quite sure that prayers were being
+offered up for us in many places, and where more frequently than at
+Hursley? Even as on this day, five years ago, when I touched the reef
+at Guadalcanar, in the presence of three hundred armed and naked men, (I
+heard afterwards) prayers were being uttered in the dead of your night
+by my dear old governess, Miss Neill, that God would have me in His
+safe keeping. But it is most pleasant, most helpful to me, to read your
+letter, and to feel that I have a kind of right now to write to you, as
+I hope I may do while I live fully and freely.
+
+'I do not say a word concerning the idea some of you in England seem to
+take of my life here. It is very humbling to me, as it ought to be, to
+read such a letter from you. How different it is really!
+
+'If my dear sisters do come out to me for a while, which, after their
+letters by this February mail, seems less impossible than before, they
+will soon see what I mean: a missionary's life does not procure him any
+immunity from temptations, nor from falling into them; though, thanks be
+to God, it has indeed its rich and abundant blessings. It is a blessed
+thing to draw a little fellow, only six months ago a wild little savage,
+down upon one's knee, and hear his first confession of his past life,
+and his shy hesitating account of the words he uses when he prays to his
+newly-found God and Saviour. These are rare moments, but they do occur;
+and, if they don't, why the duty is to work all the same.
+
+'The intelligence of some of these lads and young men really surprises
+me. Some with me now, last October were utterly wild, never had worn
+a stitch of clothing, were familiar with every kind of vice. They
+now write an account of a Scripture print, or answer my MS. questions
+without copy, of course, fairly and legibly in their books, and read
+their own language--only quite lately reduced to writing--with ease.
+What an encouragement! And this applies to, I think, the great majority
+of these islanders.
+
+'One child, I suppose some thirteen or fourteen years of age, I baptized
+on Christmas Day. Three days afterwards I married her to a young man who
+had been for some years with us. They are both natives of Nengone, one
+of the Loyalty Isles. I administered the Holy Eucharist to her last
+Saturday, and she is dying peacefully of consumption. What a
+blessed thing! This little one, fresh from Baptism, with all Church
+ministrations round her, passing gently away to her eternal rest. She
+looks at me with her soft dark eyes, and fondles my hand, and says she
+is not unhappy. She has, I verily believe, the secret of real happiness
+in her heart.
+
+'I must write more when at sea. I have very little time here.
+
+'I hope by God's blessing to make a long round among my many islands
+this winter; some, I know, must be approached with great caution. Your
+prayers will be offered for me and those with me, I know, and am greatly
+comforted by the knowledge of it.
+
+'Fanny tells me what you have said to her about supplying any deficit
+in the money required for our vessel. I feel as if this ought not in one
+sense to come upon you, but how can I venture to speak to you on such
+matters? You know all that I think and feel about it. Send me more your
+blessing. I feel cares and anxieties now. My kind love to Mrs. Keble.
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+Two more notes followed in quick succession to Hursley Vicarage, almost
+entirely upon the matter of the new 'Southern Cross,' which was being
+built under Mr. Tilly's eye. The two Bishops were scrupulous about
+letting Mr. Keble give more than a fair proportion towards the vessel,
+which was not to cost more than L3,000, though more roomy than her
+lamented predecessor. Meantime the 'Sea Breeze' was 'again to serve for
+the winter voyage:--
+
+
+'St. Barnabas Day, Auckland: 1862.
+
+'My dear Sisters,--Think of my being ashore, and in a Christian land on
+this day. So it is. We sail (D.V.) in six days, as it may be this day
+week. The Melanesians are very good and pretty well in health, but we
+are all anxious to be in warm climates. I think that most matters are
+settled. Primate and I have finished our accounts. Think of his wise
+stewardship! The endowment in land and money, and no debts contracted! I
+hope that I leave nothing behind me to cause difficulty, should anything
+happen. The Primate and Sir William Martin are my executors; Melanesia,
+as you would expect, my heir. I may have forgotten many items, personal
+reminiscences. Ask for anything, should anything happen. I see no reason
+to anticipate it, humanly speaking, but it is always well to think
+of such things. I am just going to the little Taurarua chapel to our
+Melanesian Commemoration service with Holy Communion.
+
+'Oh! if it should please God to grant us a meeting here!
+
+'Great blessings have been given me this summer in seeing the progress
+made by the scholars, so great as to make me feel sober-minded and
+almost fearful, but that is wrong and faithless perhaps, and yet surely
+the trials must come some day.
+
+'God bless you all, and keep you all safe from all harm.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Bishop.'
+
+
+'Friday, June 27th, 2 P.M.--How you are thinking of all that took place
+that last night on earth. He was taking his departure for a long voyage,
+rather he was entering into the haven where he would be! May God give
+us grace to follow his holy example, his patient endurance of his many
+trials, the greatest his constant trial of deafness.
+
+'I think if the weather be fair, that we shall go off to-morrow. Oh! if
+we do meet, and spend, it may be, Christmas together.
+
+28th, 3 P.M.--The first anniversary of our dear Father's death. How you
+are all recalling what took place then! How full of thankfulness for his
+gain, far outweighing the sorrow for our loss! And yet how you must
+feel it, more than I do, and yet I feel it deeply: but the little fond
+memories of the last months, and above all the looks and spoken words
+of love, I can't altogether enter into them. His letters are all that
+letters can be, more than any other letters can be, but they are not
+the same thing in all ways. The Primate has left us to hurry down the
+sailing master of the "Sea Breeze." It was a very rough morning, but is
+calm now, boats passing and repassing between the shore and the schooner
+at anchor off Kohimarama.'
+
+The habit of writing journals was not at once resumed by Bishop Patteson
+when his father was not there to read them; and the chance of seeing his
+sisters, no doubt, made him write less fully to them, since they might
+be on the voyage when the letters arrived in England. Thus the fullest
+record of the early part of the voyage is in a report which he drew up
+and printed in the form of a letter to the Rev. J. Keble:--
+
+'We chartered the "Sea Breeze" schooner in June last for four months:
+she is a vessel of seventy tons register, a little larger than the old
+"Southern Cross," and as well suited for our purpose as a vessel can be
+which is built to carry passengers in the ordinary way. No voyage can of
+course equal in importance those early expeditions of the Primate, when
+he sailed in his little schooner among seas unknown, to islands never
+before visited, or visited only by the sandal-wood traders. But I never
+recollect myself so remarkable a voyage as this last. I do not mean that
+any new method was adopted in visiting islands, or communicating with
+the natives. God gave to the Bishop of New Zealand wisdom to see and
+carry out from the first the plan, which more and more approves itself
+as the best and only feasible plan, for our peculiar work. But all
+through this voyage, both in revisiting islands well known to us, and in
+recommencing the work in other islands, where, amidst the multitude
+of the Primate's engagements, it had been impossible to keep up our
+acquaintance with the people, and in opening the way in islands now
+visited for the first time, from the beginning to the end, it pleased
+God to prosper us beyond all our utmost hopes. I was not only able to
+land on many places where, as far as I know, no white man had set foot
+before, but to go inland, to inspect the houses, canoes, &c., in crowded
+villages (as at Santa Cruz), or to sit for two hours alone amidst a
+throng of people (as at Pentecost Island), or to walk two and a half
+miles inland (as at Tariko or Aspee). From no less than eight islands
+have we for the first time received, young people for our school here,
+and fifty-one Melanesian men, women, and young lads are now with
+us, gathered from twenty-four islands, exclusive of the islands so
+long-known to us of the Loyalty Group. When you remember that at Santa
+Cruz, e.g., we had never landed before, and that this voyage I was
+permitted to go ashore at seven different places in one day, during
+which I saw about 1,200 men: that in all these islands the inhabitants
+are, to look at, wild, naked, armed with spears and clubs, or bows and
+poisoned arrows; that every man's hand (as, alas! we find only too
+soon when we live among them) is against his neighbour, and scenes of
+violence and bloodshed amongst themselves of frequent occurrence; and
+that throughout this voyage (during which I landed between seventy and
+eighty times) not one hand was lifted up against me, not one sign
+of ill-will exhibited; you will see why I speak and think with real
+amazement and thankfulness of a voyage accompanied with results so
+wholly unexpected. I say results, for the effecting a safe landing on
+an island, and much more the receiving a native lad from it, is, in
+this sense, a result, that the great step has been made of commencing an
+acquaintance with the people. If I live to make another voyage, I shall
+no longer go ashore there as a stranger. I know the names of some of the
+men; I can by signs remind them of some little present made, some little
+occurrence which took place; we have already something in common, and as
+far as they know me at all, they know me as a friend. Then some lad
+is given up to us, the language learned, and a real hold on the island
+obtained.
+
+'The most distant point we reached was the large island Ysabel, in the
+Solomon Archipelago. From this island a lad has come away with us, and
+we have also a native boy from an island not many miles distant from
+Ysabel, called Anudha, but marked in the charts (though not correctly)
+as Florida.
+
+'It would weary you if I wrote of all the numerous adventures and
+strange scenes which in such a voyage we of course experience. I will
+give you, if I can, an idea of what took place at some few islands, to
+illustrate the general character of the voyage.
+
+'One of the New Hebrides Islands, near the middle of the group, was
+discovered by Cook, and by him called "Three Hills." The central part of
+it, where we have long-had an acquaintance with the natives, is called
+by them "Mai." Some six years ago we landed there, and two young men
+came away with us, and spent the summer in New Zealand. Their names were
+Petere and Laure; the former was a local chief of some consequence. We
+took a peculiar interest in this island, finding that a portion of
+the population consists of a tribe speaking a dialect of the great
+Polynesian language of which another dialect is spoken in New Zealand.
+Every year we have had scholars from Mai, several of whom can read and
+write. We have landed there times without number, slept ashore three or
+four times, and are well known of course to the inhabitants.
+
+'The other day I landed as usual among a crowd of old acquaintances,
+painted and armed, but of that I thought nothing. Knowing them to be
+so friendly to us, instead of landing alone, I took two or three of
+our party to walk inland with me; and off we started, Mr. Dudley and
+Wadrokala being left sitting in the boat, which was, as usual, a short
+distance from the beach. We had walked about half a mile before I
+noticed something unusual in the manner of the people, and I overheard
+them talking in a way that made me suspect that something had happened
+which they did not want me to know. Petere had not made his appearance,
+though in general the first to greet us, and on my making enquiries for
+him, I was told that he was not well. Not long afterwards I overheard
+a man say that Petere was dead, and taking again some opportunity that
+offered itself for asking about him, was told that he was dead, that he
+had died of dysentery. I was grieved to hear this, because I liked
+him personally and had expected help from him when the time came for
+commencing a Mission station on the island. The distance from the beach
+to the village where Petere lived is about one and a half mile, and
+a large party had assembled before we reached it. There was a great
+lamentation and crying on our arrival, during which I sat down on a
+large log of a tree. Then came a pause, and I spoke to the people,
+telling them how sorry I was to hear of Petere's death. There was
+something strange still about their manner, which I could not quite make
+out; and one of our party, who was not used to the kind of thing, did
+not like the looks of the people and the clubs and spears. At last one
+of them, an old scholar of ours, came forward and said, "The men here do
+not wish to deceive you; they know that you loved Petere, and they will
+not hide the truth; Petere was killed by a man in a ship, a white man,
+who shot him in the forehead." Of course I made minute enquiries as to
+the ship, the number of masts, how many people they saw, whether there
+was anything remarkable about the appearance of any person on board, &c.
+The men standing round us were a good deal excited, but the same story
+was told by them all.
+
+'After a while I walked back to the beach, no indication having been
+made of unfriendliness, but I had not gone more than a quarter of a
+mile when three men rushed past me from behind, and ran on to the beach.
+Meanwhile Mr. Dudley and Wadrokala in the boat were rather uneasy at
+the manner of the people standing near them on the reef; and they too
+suspected that something unusual had occurred. Presently they saw these
+three men rush out of the bush on to the beach and distribute "kava"
+(leaves of the pepper plant) among the people, who at once changed their
+manner, became quite friendly and soon dispersed. It was quite evident
+that a discussion had taken place on shore as to the treatment we were
+to receive; and these men on the beach were awaiting the result of the
+discussion, prepared to act accordingly. There was scarcely any danger
+in our case of their deciding to injure us, because they knew us well;
+but had we been strangers we should have been killed of course; their
+practice being, naturally enough, to revenge the death of a countryman
+on the arrival of the next man who comes from what they suppose to be
+their enemies' country.
+
+'This story may show you that caution is necessary long after the time
+that a real friendship has commenced and been carried on. We never can
+tell what may have taken place during the intervals of our visits. I
+returned to the village, with Mr. Kerr and Mr. Dudley and slept ashore,
+thinking it right to restore mutual confidence at once; and there was
+not the slightest risk in doing so.
+
+'Now let me tell you about an island called Ambrym, lying to the
+south of Aurora and Pentecost, the two northernmost islands of the New
+Hebrides group.
+
+'Ambrym is a grand island, with a fine active volcano, so active on this
+last occasion of our visiting it, that we were covered and half-blinded
+by the ashes; the deck was thickly covered with them, and the sea
+for miles strewed with floating cinders. We have repeatedly landed in
+different parts of the island, but this time we visited an entirely new
+place. There was a considerable surf on the beach, and I did not like
+the boat to go near the shore, partly on that account, but chiefly
+because our rule is not to let the boat approach too near the beach lest
+it should be hauled up on shore by the people and our retreat to the
+schooner cut off. So I beckoned to some men in a canoe (for I could not
+speak a word of the language), who paddled up to us, and took me ashore.
+
+'As I was wading to the beach, an elderly man came forward from the
+crowd to the water's edge, where he stood holding both his arms uplifted
+over his head. Directly that I reached him, he took my hand, and put it
+round his neck, and turned to walk up the beach. As I walked along with
+him through the throng of men, more than three hundred in number, my arm
+all the while round his neck, I overheard a few words which gave me some
+slight clue as to the character of their language, and a very few words
+go a long way on such occasions. We went inland some short distance,
+passing through part of a large village, till we came to a house with
+figures, idols or not, I hardly know, placed at some height above the
+door.
+
+'They pointed to these figures and repeated a name frequently, not
+unlike the name of one of the gods of some of the islands further to the
+north; then they struck the hollow tree, which is their native drum, and
+thronged close round me, while I gave away a few fish-hooks, pieces of
+red braid, &c. I asked the names of some of the people, and of objects
+about me, trees, birds, &c. I was particularly struck with two boys who
+kept close to me. After some time I made signs that I would return to
+the beach, and we began to move away from the village; but I was soon
+stopped by some men, who brought me two small trees, making signs that I
+should plant them.
+
+'When I returned to the beach, the two boys were still with me, and I
+took their hands and walked on amidst the crowd. I did not imagine that
+they would come away with me, and yet a faint hope of their doing so
+sprang up in my mind, as I still found them holding my hands, and even
+when I began to wade towards the boat still close by my side in the
+water. All this took place in the presence of several hundred natives,
+who allowed these boys to place themselves in the boat and be taken on
+board the schooner.
+
+'I was somewhat anxious about revisiting an island called Tikopia.
+Once we were there, five or six years ago. The island is small, and the
+inhabitants probably not more than three hundred or four hundred. They
+are Polynesians, men of very large stature, rough in manner, and not
+very easily managed. I landed there and waded across the reef among
+forty or fifty men. On the beach a large party assembled. I told them
+in a sort of Polynesian patois, that I wished to take away two lads from
+their island, that I might learn their language, and come back and teach
+them many things for their good. This they did not agree to. They said
+that some of the full-grown men wished to go away with me; but to this
+I in my turn could not agree. These great giants would be wholly
+unmanageable in our school at present. I went back to the edge of the
+reef--about three hundred yards--and got into the boat with two men;
+we rowed off a little way, and I attempted, more quietly than the noisy
+crowd on shore would allow, to explain to them my object in coming
+to them. After a while we pulled back to the reef, and I waded ashore
+again; but I could not induce them to let me take any one away who was
+at all eligible for the school. Still I was very thankful to have been
+able twice to land and remain half an hour or more on shore among the
+people. Next year (D.V.) I may be able to see more of them, and perhaps
+may obtain a scholar, and so open the island. It is a place visited
+by whalers, but they never land here, and indeed the inhabitants are
+generally regarded as dangerous fellows to deal with, so I was all the
+more glad to have made a successful visit.
+
+'Nothing could have been more delightful than the day I spent in making
+frequent landings on the north side of Santa Cruz. This island was
+visited by Spaniards, under the command of Mendana, nearly three hundred
+years ago. They attempted to found a colony there, but after a short
+time were compelled, by illness and the death of Mendana and his
+successor, to abandon their endeavour. It is apparently a very fertile
+island, certainly a very populous one. The inhabitants are very
+ingenious, wearing beautiful ornaments, making good bags woven of grass
+stained with turmeric, and fine mats. Their arrows are elaborately
+carved, and not less elaborately poisoned: their canoes well made and
+kept in good order. We never before landed on this island; but the
+Primate, long before I was in this part of the world, and two or three
+times since, had sailed and rowed into the bay at the north-west end,
+called Graciosa Bay, the fine harbour in which the Spaniards anchored. I
+went ashore this last voyage in seven different places, large crowds
+of men thronging down to the water's edge as I waded to the beach. They
+were exceedingly friendly, allowed me to enter the houses, sit down and
+inspect their mode of building them. They brought me food to eat; and
+when I went out of the houses again, let me examine the large sea-going
+canoes drawn up in line on the beach. I wrote down very many names, and
+tried hard to induce some young people to come away with me, but after
+we had pulled off some way, their courage failed them, and they swam
+back to the shore.
+
+'Two or three of the men took off little ornaments and gave them to
+me; one bright pretty boy especially I remember, who took off his shell
+necklace and put it round my neck, making me understand, partly by
+words, but more by signs, that he was afraid to come now, but would do
+so if I returned, as I said, in eight or ten moons.
+
+'Large baskets of almonds were given me, and other food also thrown into
+the boat. I made a poor return by giving some fish-hooks and a tomahawk
+to the man whom I took to be the person of most consequence. On shore
+the women came freely up to me among the crowd, but they were afraid to
+venture down to the beach. Now this is the island about which we have
+long felt a great difficulty as to the right way of obtaining any
+communication with the natives. This year, why and how I cannot tell,
+the way was opened beyond all expectation. I tried hard to get back from
+the Solomon Islands so as to revisit it again during the voyage, but we
+could not get to the eastward, as the trade-wind blew constantly from
+that quarter.
+
+'At Leper's Island I had just such another day--or rather two days were
+spent in making an almost complete visitation of the northern part of
+the island--the people were everywhere most friendly, and I am hoping to
+see them all again join us soon, when some may be induced to.
+
+'It would be the work of days to tell you all our adventures. How at
+Malanta I picked two lads out of a party of thirty-six in a grand war
+canoe going on a fighting expedition--and very good fellows they are;
+how we filled up our water-casks at Aurora, standing up to our necks
+in the clear cool stream rushing down from a cataract above, with the
+natives assisting us in the most friendly manner; how at Santa Maria,
+which till this year we never visited without being shot at, I walked
+for four or five hours far inland wherever I pleased, meeting great
+crowds of men all armed and suspicious of each other--indeed actually
+fighting with each other--but all friendly to me; how at Espiritu Santo,
+when I had just thrown off my coat and tightened my belt to swim ashore
+through something of a surf, a canoe was launched, and without more ado
+a nice lad got into our boat and came away with us, without giving me
+the trouble of taking a swim at all; how at Florida Island, never before
+reached by us, one out of some eighty men, young and old, standing all
+round me on the reef, to my astonishment returned with me to the boat,
+and without any opposition from the people quietly seated himself by my
+side and came away to the schooner; how at Pentecost Island, Taroniara
+(a lad whom the Primate in old days had picked up in his canoe paddling
+against a strong head wind, and kept him on board all night, and sent
+him home with presents in the morning) now came away with me, but
+not without his bow and poisoned arrows, of which I have taken safe
+possession; how Misial felt sea-sick and home-sick for a day or two,
+but upon being specially patronised by the cook, soon declared "that no
+place could compare with the galley of a Mission vessel," to the truth
+of which declaration the necessity of enlarging his scanty garments soon
+bore satisfactory testimony; how at Ysabel the young chief came on board
+with a white cockatoo instead of a hawk on his wrist, which he presented
+to me with all the grace in the world, and with an enquiry after his
+good friend Captain Hume, of H.M.S. "Cordelia," who had kindly taken me
+to this island in the winter of 1861.'
+
+To this may be added some touches from the home letter of August 27, off
+Vanikoro:--
+
+'I don't deny that I am thankful that the Tikopia visit is well over.
+The people are so very powerful and so independent and unmanageable,
+that I always have felt anxious about visiting them. Once we were there
+in 1856, and now again. I hope to keep on visiting them annually. Sydney
+traders have been there, but have never landed; they trade at arm's
+length from their boat and are well armed. It is a strange sensation,
+sitting alone (say) 300 yards from the boat, which of course can't be
+trusted in their hands, among 200 or more of people really gigantic. No
+men have I ever seen so large--huge Patagonian limbs, and great heavy
+hands clutching up my little weak arms and shoulders. Yet it is not a
+sensation of fear, but simply of powerlessness; and it makes one think,
+as I do when among them, of another Power present to protect and defend.
+
+'They perfectly understood my wish to bring away lads. Full-grown
+Brobdignag men wished to come, and some got into the boat who were not
+easily got out of it again. Boys swam off, wishing to come, but the
+elder people prevented it, swimming after them and dragging them back.
+It was a very rough, blustering day; but even on such a day the lee side
+of the island is a beautiful sight, one mass of cocoa-nut trees, and the
+villages so snugly situated among the trees.
+
+'Just been up the rigging to get a good look at this great encircling
+reef at Vanikoro. Green water as smooth as glass, inside the reef for
+a mile, and then pretty villages; but there is no passage through the
+reef, it is a continuous breakwater. We are working up towards a part
+of the reef where I think there may be a passage. Anyhow I am gaining a
+good local knowledge of this place, and that saves time another year.
+
+'The ten lads on board talk six languages, not one of which do I know;
+but as I get words and sentences from them, I see how they will "work
+in" with the general character of the language of which I have several
+dialects. It is therefore not very difficult to get on some little way
+into all at once; but I must not be disappointed if I find that
+other occupations take me away too much for my own pleasure from this
+particular branch of my work.'
+
+A long letter to Sir John T. Coleridge gives another aspect of the
+voyage:--
+
+
+'"Sea Breeze" Schooner: off Rennell Island. 'Therm. 89 deg. in shade; lat.
+11 deg. 40', long. 160 deg. 18' 5". 'September 7, 1862.
+
+'My dear Uncle,--I can hardly keep awake for the unusually great heat.
+The wind is northerly, and it is very light, indeed we are almost
+becalmed, so you will have a sleepy letter, indeed over my book I was
+already nodding. I think it better to write to you (though on a Sunday)
+than to sleep. What a compliment! But I shall grow more wakeful as I
+write. Perhaps my real excuse for writing is that I feel to-day much
+oppressed with the thought of these great islands that I have been
+visiting, and I am sadly disappointed in some of my scholars from San
+Cristoval.
+
+'Leaving New Zealand on June 20th, I sailed to Norfolk Island, where I
+held my first Confirmation. By desire of the Bishop of Tasmania, I
+act as Bishop for the Norfolk Islanders. This was, as you know, a very
+solemn time for me; sixteen dear children were confirmed. Since that
+time I have visited very many islands with almost unequalled success, as
+far as effecting landings, opening communication, and receiving native
+lads are concerned. I have on board natives from many places from which
+we have never received them before. Many I have left with Mr. Dudley and
+Mr. Pritt on Mota Island at school, but I have now twenty-one, speaking
+eleven languages. At many places where we had never landed, I was
+received well.
+
+'The state of things, too, in the Banks Islands is very encouraging.
+What do you think of my having two married (after their fashion) couples
+on board from the Solomon Islands (San Cristoval and Contrariete)? This
+was effected with some difficulty. Both the men are old scholars, of
+course. I ought therefore to be most thankful; and yet my heart is
+sad because, after promises given by Grariri and his wife, Parenga and
+Kerearua (all old scholars, save Mrs. Garm), not one came away with me
+yesterday, and I feel grieved at the loss of my dear boys, who can read
+and write, and might be taught so much now! It is all very faithless;
+but I must tell it all to you, for indeed I do not feel as if I had
+any right to expect it otherwise, but in the moment of perceiving and
+confessing that it is very good for me, I find out for the first time
+how much my heart was set upon having them.
+
+'And then San Cristoval, sixty miles long, with its villages and
+languages, and Malanta over eighty miles long, and Guadalcanar, seventy!
+It is a silly thought or a vain, human wish, but I feel as if I longed
+to be in fifty or a hundred places at once. But God will send qualified
+men in good time. In the meanwhile (for the work must be carried on
+mainly by native teachers gathered from each island), as some fall off I
+must seek to gain others. Even where lads are only two, or even one year
+with mer and then apparently fall back to what they were before, some
+good may be done, the old teaching may return upon them some day, and
+they may form a little nucleus for good, though not now.
+
+'As for openings for men of the right sort, they abound. Really if I
+were free to locate myself on an island instead of going about to all, I
+hardly know to which of some four or five I ought to go. But it is of
+no use to have men who are not precisely the kind of men wanted. Somehow
+one can't as yet learn to ask men to do things that one does oneself
+as a matter of course. It needs a course of training to get rid of
+conventional notions. I think that Norfolk Island may supply a few, a
+very few fellows able to be of use, and perhaps New Zealand will do so,
+and I have the advantage of seeing and knowing them. I don't think that
+I must expect men from England, I can't pay them well; and it is so very
+difficult to give a man on paper any idea of what his life will be in
+Melanesia or Kohimarama. So very much that would be most hazardous to
+others has ceased to be so to me, because I catch up some scrap of the
+language talked on the beach, and habit has given an air of coolness and
+assurance. But this does not come all at once, and you cannot talk
+about all this to others. I feel ashamed as I write it even to you. They
+bother me to put anecdotes of adventures into our Report, but I cannot.
+You know no one lands on these places but myself, and it would be no
+good to tell stories merely to catch somebody's ear. It was easier to do
+so when the Bishop and I went together, but I am not training up anyone
+to be the visitor, and so I don't wish anybody else to go with me.
+Besides Mr. Pritt and Mr. Dudley are bad swimmers, and Mr. Kerr not
+first-rate. My constant thought is "By what means will God provide for
+the introduction of Christianity into these islands," and my constant
+prayer that He will reveal such means to me, and give me grace to use
+them.
+
+'What reality there is in such a work as this! What continual need of
+guidance and direction! I here see before me now an island stretching
+away twenty-five miles in length! Last night I left one sixty miles
+long. I know that hundreds are living there ignorant of God, wild men,
+cannibals, addicted to every vice. I know that Christ died for them, and
+that the message is for them, too. How am I to deliver it? How find an
+entrance among them? How, when I have learnt their language, speak to
+them of religion, so as not to introduce unnecessary obstacles to the
+reception of it, nor compromise any of its commands?
+
+'Thank God I can fall back upon many solid points of comfort--chiefest
+of all, He sees and knows it all perfectly. He sees the islanders too,
+and loves them, how infinitely more than I can! He desires to save them.
+He is, I trust, sending me to them. He will bless honest endeavours
+to do His will among them. And then I think how it must all appear to
+angels and saints, how differently they see these things. Already, to
+their eyes, the light is breaking forth in Melanesia; and I take great
+comfort from this thought, and remember that it does not matter whether
+it is in my time, only I must work on. And then I think of the prayers
+of the Church, ascending continually for the conversion of the heathen;
+and I know that many of you are praying specially for the heathen of
+Melanesia. And so one's thoughts float out to India, and China, and
+Japan, and Africa, and the islands of the sea, and the very vastness of
+the work raises one's thoughts to God, as the only One by whom it must
+be done.
+
+'Now, dear Uncle, I have written all this commonplace talk, not
+regarding its dulness in your eyes, but because I felt weary and also
+somewhat overwrought and sad; and it has done me much good, and given me
+a happy hour.
+
+'We had our service on board this morning, and the Holy Eucharist
+afterwards; Mr. Kerr, two Norfolk Islanders, a Maori, and a Nengone man
+present. I ought not to be faint-hearted. My kind love to Aunt and Mary.
+
+'Your affectionate and dutiful Nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+The climate of Mota had again disagreed with Mr. Dudley, who was laid up
+with chronic rheumatism nearly all the time he was there; and the Bishop
+returned from his voyage very unwell; but Mr. Pritt happily was strong
+and active, and the elder Banks Island scholars were very helpful, both
+in working and teaching, so that the schools went on prosperously, and
+the custom of carrying weapons in Mota was dropped.
+
+On November 7 the 'Sea Breeze' was again in harbour; and on the 15th,
+after mature consideration, was written this self-sacrificing letter:--
+
+
+'St. Andrew's: November 15, 1862.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--I returned from a voyage unusually interesting and
+prosperous on the 7th of this month; absent just nineteen weeks. We were
+in all on board seventy-one.
+
+'I found all your letters from April to August 25. How thankful I am to
+see and know what I never doubted, the loving manner in which my first
+and later letters about New Zealand were taken. How wise of you to
+perceive that in truth my judgment remained all through unaltered,
+though my feelings were strongly moved, indeed the good folk here begged
+me to reconsider my resolution, thinking no doubt kindly for me that it
+would be so great a joy to me to see you. Of course it would; were there
+no other considerations that we already know and agree upon, what joy so
+great on earth! But I feel sure that we are right. Thank God that we
+can so speak, think, and act with increasing affection and trust in each
+other!
+
+'The more I think of it, the more I feel "No, it would not do! It would
+not be either what Joan expects or what Fan expects. They look at it in
+some ways alike--i.e., in the matter of seeing me, which both equally
+long to do. In some ways they regard it differently. But it would not
+to one or the other be the thing they hope and wish for. They would
+both feel (what yet they would not like to acknowledge) disappointment."
+Though, therefore, I could not help feeling often during the voyage,
+"What if I hear that they may be with me by Christmas!" yet it was not
+exactly unwelcome to hear that you do not come. I recognised at once
+your reading of my letters as the right one; and my feelings, strong
+as they are, give way to other considerations, especially when, from my
+many occupations, I have very little time to indulge them.
+
+'But for the thought of coming, and your great love to me, I thank you,
+dear ones, with all my heart. May God bless you for it!...
+
+'Good-bye, my dear Sisters; we are together in heart at all events.
+
+'Your loving Brother, 'J. C. P.'
+
+The judgment had decided that the elder sister especially would suffer
+more from the rough life at Kohimarama than her brother could bear that
+she should undergo, when he could give her so little of his society as
+compensation, without compromising his own decided principle that all
+must yield to the work. Perhaps he hardly knew how much he betrayed
+of the longing, even while deciding against its gratification; but his
+sisters were wise enough to act on his judgment, and not on their own
+impulse; and the events of the next season proved that he had been
+right. To Sir John Coleridge he wrote:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama: November 15, 1862.
+
+'My dear Uncle,--I should indeed, as you say, delight to have a ramble
+in the old scenes, and a good unburthening of thoughts conceived during
+the past seven or eight years.
+
+'And yet you see I could not try the experiment of those dear good
+sisters of mine coming out. It would not have been what they expected
+and meant to come out to. I am little seen by any but Melanesians, and
+quite content that it should be so. I can't do what I want with them,
+nor a tenth part of it as it is. I cannot write to you of this last
+voyage--in many respects a most remarkable one--indicating, if I am not
+over hopeful, a new stage in our Mission work. Many islands yielding
+scholars for the first time; old scholars, with but few exceptions,
+steadfast and rapidly improving; no less than fifty-seven Melanesians
+here now from twenty-four islands, exclusive of the Loyalty Islands,
+and five bright Pitcairners, from twenty-four to sixteen, helpful,
+good, conscientious lads. There are eight languages that I do not know,
+besides all the rest; yet I can see that they are all links in the great
+chain of dialects of the great "Pacific language,"--yet dialects very
+far removed sometimes from one another.
+
+'I find it not very easy to comply with reasonable demands from men in
+Europe, who want to know about these things. If I had time and ability,
+I think I should enjoy really going into philology. I get books sent me
+from people such as Max Muller, Grabalentz, &c.; and if I write to them
+at all, it is useless to write anything but an attempt at classification
+of the dialects; and that is difficult, for there are so many, and
+it takes so long to explain to another the grounds upon which I feel
+justified in connecting dialects and calling them cognate. It becomes an
+instinct almost, I suppose, with people in the trade.
+
+'But I hardly know how far I ought to spend any time in such things.
+Elementary grammars for our own missionaries and teachers are useful,
+and the time is well spent in writing them. Hence it is that I do not
+write longer letters. Oh! how I enjoy writing un-business letters; but I
+can't help it--it's part of my business now to write dull Reports--i.e.
+reports that I can't help making dull, and all the rest of it....
+
+'I cannot write about Bishop Mackenzie. Mr. Pritt (at 9.30 P.M. the
+night we landed) put his head into my room and said, "Bishop Mackenzie
+is dead," and I sat and sat on and knelt and could not take it all in! I
+cannot understand what the papers say of his modus operandi, yet I know
+that it was an error of judgment, if an error at all, and there may be
+much which we do not know. So I suspend my opinion.'
+
+In a letter to myself, written by the same mail, in reply to one in
+which I had begged him to consider what was the sight, to a Christian
+man, of slaves driven off with heavy yokes on their necks, and whether
+it did not justify armed interposition, he replies with arguments that
+it is needless now to repeat, but upholding the principle that
+the shepherd is shepherd to the cruel and erring as well as to the
+oppressed, and ought not to use force. The opinion is given most humbly
+and tenderly, for he had a great veneration for his brother Missionary
+Bishop. Commenting on the fact that Bishop Selwyn's speech at Cambridge
+had made Charles Mackenzie a missionary, and that he would gladly have
+hailed an invitation to the Australasian field of labour, the letter
+proceeds:--
+
+'How wonderful it is to reflect upon the events of the last few years!
+Had he come out when I did to New Zealand, I might be now his Missionary
+Chaplain; and yet it is well that there should be two missionary
+dioceses, and without the right man for the African Mission, there might
+have been a difficulty in carrying out the plan.
+
+'The chapel is not built yet, for I have sixty mouths to feed, and other
+buildings must be thought of for health's sake. But I have settled all
+that in my will.'
+
+'In a postscript is mentioned the arrival of some exquisite altar plate
+for the College chapel, which had been offered by a lady, who had also
+bountifully supplied with chronometers and nautical instruments the
+'Southern Cross,' which was fast being built at Southampton.
+
+The above letter was accompanied by one to Dr. Moberly:--
+
+
+'St. Andrew's College, Kohimarama: Nov. 18, 1862.
+
+'My dear Dr. Moberly,--Thank you heartily for writing to me. It is
+a real help to me and to others also, I think, of my party to be in
+communication with those whom we have long respected, and whose prayers
+we now more than ever earnestly ask. We returned on November 7 from a
+very remarkable voyage.
+
+'I was nineteen weeks absent all but a day: sailed far beyond our most
+distant island in my previous voyage, landed nearly eighty times amidst
+(often) 300 and more natives, naked, armed, &c., and on no less than
+thirty or forty places never trodden before (as far as I know) by the
+foot of a white man. Not one arm was lifted up against me, not one bow
+drawn or spear shaken. I think of it all quietly now with a sort of
+wondering thankfulness.
+
+'From not less than eight islands we have now for the first time
+received native lads; and not only are openings being thus made for us
+in many directions, but the permanent training of our old scholars is
+going on most favourably; so that by the blessing of God we hope, at
+all events in the Banks Islands, to carry on continuously the Mission
+Schools during the winter and summer also. We have spent the three last
+winters here, but it would not be wise to run the risk of the damp hot
+climate in the summer. Natives of the island must do this, and thank God
+there are natives being raised up now to do it. The enclosed translation
+of a note. It is but three or four years since the language was reduced
+to writing, and here is a young man writing down his thoughts to me
+after a long talk about the question of his being baptized.
+
+'Four others there are soon, by God's blessing, to be baptized
+also--Sarawia from Vanua Lava, Tagalana from Aroa, Pasvorang from
+Eowa, Woleg from Mota, and others are pressing on; Taroniara from San
+Cristoval, Kanambat from New Caledonia, &c. I tell you their names, for
+you will I know, remember them in your prayers.
+
+'Will you kindly let Mr. Keble see the enclosed note? It does not, of
+course, give much idea of the lad's state of mind; but he is thoroughly
+in earnest, and as for his knowledge of his duty there can be no
+question there. He really knows his Catechism. I have scarcely a minute
+to write by this mail. Soon you will have, I hope, a sketch of our last
+voyage. We remember you all, benefactors and benefactresses, daily.
+Thank you again for writing to me: it humbles me, as it ought to do, to
+receive such a letter from you.
+
+'Very faithfully yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+These names deserve note: Sarawia the first to be ordained of the
+Melanesian Church; and Taroniara, who was to share his Bishop's death.
+B----, as will be seen, has had a far more chequered course. Tagalana
+is described in another letter as having the thoughtfulness of one who
+knows that he has the seeds of early death in him; but he, the living
+lectern at the consecration, has lived to be the first deacon of his
+island of Aroa.
+
+The ensuing is to the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, at that time Principal
+of St. Mark's Training College, Chelsea, upon the question whether that
+institution would afford assistants:--
+
+
+'Auckland, New Zealand: Nov. 15, 1862.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--You will not be surprised, I hope, to hear from me;
+I only wish I had written to you long ago. But until quite recently
+we could not speak with so much confidence concerning the Melanesian
+Mission, and it is of little use to write vaguely on matters which I am
+anxious now to make known to you.
+
+'The general plan of the Mission you may get some notion of from the
+last year's Report (which I send), and possibly you may have heard or
+seen something about it in former years. This last voyage of nineteen
+weeks, just concluded, has determined me to write to you; for the time
+is come when we want helpers indeed, and I think that you will expect me
+naturally to turn to you.
+
+'It is not only that very many islands throughout the South Pacific,
+from the Loyalty Islands on to the northwest as far as Ysabel Island in
+the Solomon group, are now yielding up scholars and affording
+openings for Mission stations, though this indeed is great matter for
+thankfulness; but there is, thank God, a really working staff gathered
+round us from the Banks Archipelago, which affords a definite field,
+already partially occupied with a regular system at work in it; and here
+young persons may receive the training most needed for them, actually
+on a heathen island, though soon not to be without some few Christians
+amongst its population. Now I can say to anyone willing and qualified to
+help me:--
+
+'In the six summer months there is the central school work in New
+Zealand, where now there are with me fifty-one Melanesians from
+twenty-four islands, speaking twenty-three languages; and in the six
+winter months there is a station regularly occupied on Mota Island,
+where all the necessary experience of life in the islands can be
+acquired.
+
+'I am not in any hurry for men. Norfolk Island has given me five young
+fellows from twenty-one to sixteen years of age, who already are very
+useful. One has been with me a year, another four months. They are
+given unreservedly into my hands, and already are working well into our
+school, taking the superintendence of our cooking, e.g., off our hands;
+with some help from us, they will be very useful at once as helpers on
+Mota, doing much in the way of gardening, putting up huts, &c., which
+will free us for more teaching work, &c., and they are being educated
+by us with an eye to their future employment (D.V.) as missionaries. I
+would not wish for better fellows; their moral and religious conduct is
+really singularly good--you know their circumstances and the character
+of the whole community. But I should be thankful by-and-by to have men
+equally willing to do anything, yet better educated in respect of book
+knowledge. No one is ever asked to do what we are not willing to do, and
+generally in the habit of doing ourselves--cooking, working, &c., &c.
+But the Melanesian lads really do all this kind of work now. I have
+sixty mouths to fill here now; and Melanesian boys, told out week by
+week, do the whole of the cooking (simple enough, of course) for us
+all with perfect punctuality. I don't think any particular taste for
+languages necessary at all. Anyone who will work hard at it can learn
+the language of the particular class assigned to him. Earnest, bright,
+cheerful fellows, without that notion of "making sacrifices," &c.,
+perpetually occurring to their minds, would be invaluable. You know
+the kind of men, who have got rid of the conventional notion that more
+self-denial is needed for a missionary than for a sailor or soldier,
+who are sent anywhere, and leave home and country for years, and think
+nothing of it, because they go "on duty." Alas! we don't so read our
+ordination vows. A fellow with a healthy, active tone of mind, plenty
+of enterprise and some enthusiasm, who makes the best of everything, and
+above all does not think himself better than other people because he
+is engaged in Mission work--that is the fellow we want. I assume, of
+course, the existence of sound religious principle as the greatest
+qualification of all. Now, if there be any young persons whom you could
+wish to see engaged in this Mission now at St. Mark's, or if you know
+of any such and feel justified in speaking to them, you will be doing a
+great kindness to me, and, I believe, aiding materially in this work.
+
+'I should not wish at all any young man to be pledged to anything; as on
+my part I will not pledge myself to accept, much less ordain, any man
+of whom I have no personal knowledge. But let anyone really in earnest,
+with a desire and intention (as far as he is concerned) to join the
+Mission, come to me about December or January in any year. Then he
+will live at the Mission College till the end of April, and can see for
+himself the mode of life at the Central Summer School in New Zealand.
+Then let him take a voyage with me, see Melanesians in their own homes,
+stop for a while at Mota--e.g. make trial of the climate, &c., &c., and
+then let me have my decisive talk with him.
+
+'If he will not do for the work, I must try and find other employment
+for him in some New Zealand diocese, or help to pay his passage home.
+I don't think such a person as you would recommend would fail to make
+himself useful; but I must say plainly that I would rather not have a
+man from England at all, than be bound to accept a man who might not
+thoroughly and cordially work into the general system that we have
+adopted. We live together entirely, all meals in common, same cabin,
+same hut, and the general life and energy of us all would be damaged by
+the introduction of any one discordant element. You will probably say,
+"Men won't go out on these terms," and this is indeed probable, yet
+if they are the right fellows for this work--a work wholly anomalous,
+unlike all other work that they have thought of in many respects--they
+will think that what I say is reasonable, and like the prospect all
+the better (I think) because they see that it means downright work in a
+cheery, happy, hopeful, friendly spirit.
+
+'A man who takes the sentimental view of coral islands and cocoa-nuts,
+of course, is worse than useless; a man possessed with the idea that he
+is making a sacrifice will never do; and a man who thinks any kind of
+work "beneath a gentleman" will simply be in the way, and be rather
+uncomfortable at seeing the Bishop do what he thinks degrading to do
+himself. I write all this quite freely, wishing to convey, if possible,
+some idea to you of the kind of men we need. And if the right fellow is
+moved by God's grace to come out, what a welcome we will give him, and
+how happy he will soon be in a work the abundant blessings of which none
+can know as we know them. There are three clergymen with me. Mr. Pritt,
+who came out with the Bishop of Nelson as his chaplain, but who, I am
+thankful to say, is regularly part and parcel of the Mission staff; Mr.
+Dudley, ordained last year, who for six years has been in the Mission,
+and has had the special advantage of being trained under the Primate's
+eye; and Mr. Kerr who was also ordained about ten months ago.
+
+'I give 100 pounds to a clergyman when ordained, increasing it
+101 annually to a maximum of 150 pounds. But this depends upon
+subscriptions, &c. I could not pledge myself even to this, except in the
+case of a man very highly recommended. But of this I will write more.
+
+'Again let me say that I do not want anyone yet, not this year. I shall
+be off again (D.V.) in the beginning of May 1863, for six months; and
+if then I find on my return (D.V.) in November, letters from you, either
+asking me to write with reference to any young man, or informing me that
+one is on the way out, that will be quite soon enough.
+
+'I need not say I don't expect any such help so soon, if at all.
+
+'Finally, pray don't think that I underrate the great advantage of
+having such persons as St. Mark's produces; but I write guardedly. My
+kind love to Mrs. Derwent.
+
+'Affectionately yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+On the 29th of December, after two pages of affectionate remarks on
+various family incidents, the letter proceeds:--
+
+'We are having an extra scrubbing in preparation for our visitors on
+Thursday, who may wish to be with us on the occasion of the baptism of
+our six Banks Islanders; and I am writing in the midst of it, preferring
+to sit in the schoolroom to my own room, which is very tiny and very
+hot.
+
+'We have some eight only out of the fifty-one whom I am obliged to treat
+rather as an awkward squad, not that they are too stupid to learn, but
+that we cannot give them the individual attention that is necessary.
+They teach me their language; but I cannot put them into any class where
+they could be regularly taught--indeed, they are not young fellows
+whom I should bring again. They do the work of introducing us to their
+islands, and of teaching us something of their language. So I continue
+to give them what little time I can--the real strength of our force
+being given to those whom we hope to have here again.
+
+'We are all on the qui vive about our beautiful vessel, hoping to see it
+in about six or eight weeks. It will, please God, be for years the great
+means by which we may carry on the Mission if we live; and all the care
+that has been spent upon it has been well spent, you may be sure.
+
+'I don't want to appear as if I expected this to be done in one sense,
+but it is only when I think of the personal interest shown in it that I
+suppose it right to thank people much. I don't want it to be thought of
+any more than you do as a gift to us particular missionaries. It is the
+Church carrying on its own work. Yet, as you truly say, private feelings
+and interests are not to be treated rudely; and I do think it a
+very remarkable thing that some 2,000 pounds should be raised by
+subscriptions, especially when one knows that so very few people have an
+idea of the work that is being done.'
+
+'What a blessed New Year's rejoicing in hope here follows:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama: Jan. 1, 1863.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--The first letter of the year to you! Thank God for
+bringing us to see it! It is 1 P.M., and at 4.30 P.M. six dear children
+(from twenty-two to fourteen) are to be baptized. Everything in one
+sense is done; how very little in the other and higher sense! May
+Almighty God pour the fulness of His blessing upon them! I sit and look
+at them, and my heart is too full for words. They sit with me, and
+bring their little notes with questions that they scarcely dare trust
+themselves to speak about. You will thank God for giving me such
+comfort, such blessings, and such dear children. How great a mercy it
+is! How unexpected! May God make me humble and patient through it all!
+
+'What a sight it would be for you four hours hence! Our party of
+sixty-one, visitors from Auckland, the glorious day, and the holy
+service, for which all meet.
+
+'I use Proper Psalms, 89, 96, 126, 145, and for lessons a few verses, 2
+Kings v. 9-15, and Acts viii. 35-9. After the third Collect, the Primate
+may say a few words, or I may do so; and then I shall use our usual
+Melanesian Collect for many islands, very briefly named; and so conclude
+with the Blessing.
+
+'What this is to me you must try and realise, that you may be partakers
+of my joy and thankfulness. To have Christians about me, to whom I can
+speak with a certainty of being understood, to feel that we are all
+bound together in the blessed Communion of the Body of Christ, to know
+that angels on high are rejoicing and evil spirits being chased away,
+that all the Banks Islands and all Melanesia are experiencing, as it
+were, the first shock of a mighty earthquake, that God who foresees the
+end may, in his merciful Providence, be calling even these very children
+to bear His message to thousands of heathens, is not it too much?
+One's heart is not large enough for it, and confession of one's own
+unworthiness breaks off involuntarily into praise and glory!
+
+'I know, my dear Sisters, that this is most likely one of the great
+blessings that precede great trials. I can't expect or wish (perhaps)
+always to sail with a fair wind, yet I try to remember that trial must
+come, without on that account restraining myself from a deep taste of
+the present joy. I can't describe it!
+
+'Then we have now much that we ever can talk about--deep talk about Mota
+and the other islands, and the special temptations to which they must
+be exposed; that now is the time when the devil will seek with all his
+might to "have" them, and so hinder God's work in the land; that they
+have been specially blest by God to be the first to desire to know His
+will, and that they have heavy responsibilities.
+
+'"Yes," they say, "we see man does not know that his room is dirty and
+full of cobwebs while it is all dark; and another man, whose room is not
+half so dirty, because the sun shines into it and shows the dirt, thinks
+his room much worse than the other. That is like our hearts. It is worse
+now to be angry than it was to shoot a man a long time ago. But the more
+the sun shines in, the more we shall find cobwebs and dirt, long after
+we thought the room was clean. Yes, we know what that means. We asked
+you what would help us to go on straight in the path, now that we are
+entering at the gate. We said prayer, love, helping our countrymen. Now
+we see besides watchfulness, self-examination; and then you say we must
+at once look forward to being confirmed, as the people you confirmed
+at Norfolk Island. Then there is the very great thing, the holy and the
+great, the Supper of the Lord." So, evening by evening and day by day,
+we talk, this being of course not called school, being, indeed, my great
+relaxation, for this is the time when they are like children with a
+father.
+
+'I know I feel it so. Don't take the above as a fair sample of our
+talk, for the more solemn words we say about God's Love, Christ's
+Intercession, and the Indwelling of the Spirit, I can hardly write down
+now.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.
+
+'P.S.--Feast of the Epiphany. Those dear children were baptized on
+Thursday. A most solemn interesting scene it was!'
+
+Thoroughly happy indeed was the Bishop at this time. In a note of
+February 3 to the Bishop of Wellington, he speaks of the orderly state
+of the College:--
+
+'Mr. Pritt has made a complete change in the Melanesian school, very
+properly through me; not putting himself forward, but talking with
+me, suggesting, accepting suggestions, giving the benefit of his great
+knowledge of boys and the ways to educate them. All the punctuality,
+order, method, &c., are owing to him; and he is so bright and hearty,
+thoroughly at ease with the boys, and they with him.'
+
+The same note announces two more recruits--Mr. John Palmer, a
+theological student at St. John's, and Joseph Atkin, the only son of a
+settler in the neighbourhood, who had also held a scholarship there.
+He had gained it in 1860, after being educated at the Taranaki Scotch
+School and the Church of England Grammar School at Parnell, and his
+abilities were highly thought of. The Bishop says:--
+
+'Joe Atkin, you will be glad to hear, has joined us on probation till
+next Christmas, but he is very unlikely to change his mind. He and his
+father have behaved in a very straightforward manner. I am not at all
+anxious to get fellows here in a hurry. The Norfolk Islanders, e.g., are
+in need of training much more than our best Melanesians, less useful as
+teachers, cooks, even as examples. This will surprise you, but it is so.
+
+'I have long suspected that Joe thought about joining us. He tells me,
+"You never would give me a chance to speak to you, Sir."
+
+"Quite true, Joe; I wished the thought to work itself out in your own
+mind, and then I thought it right to speak first to your father."
+
+'I told him that I could offer but "a small and that an uncertain
+salary" should he be ordained five years hence; and that he ought to
+think of that, that there was nothing worldly in his wishing to secure
+a maintenance by-and-by for wife and child, and that I much doubted my
+power to provide it. But this did not at all shake either his father or
+him. I have a great regard for the lad, and I know you have.'
+
+From that time forward reading with and talking with 'Joe Atkin' was one
+of the chief solaces of the Bishop's life, though at present the young
+man was only on trial, and could not as yet fill the place of Mr.
+Benjamin Dudley, who, soon after the voyage, married, and returned to
+Canterbury settlement. The loss was felt, as appears in the following:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama; Saturday, 1 P.M., Feb. 7, 1863.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--I have a heavy cold, so you must expect a stupid
+letter. I am off in an hour or two for a forty-mile ride, to take
+to-morrow's services (four) among soldiers and settlers. The worst of it
+is that I have no chance of sleep at the end, for the mosquitos near the
+river are intolerable. How jolly it would be, nevertheless, if you were
+here, and strong enough to make a sort of picnic ride of it. I do it
+this way: strap in front of the saddle a waterproof sheet, with my silk
+gown, Prayer-book, brush and comb, razor and soap, a clean tie, and
+a couple of sea biscuits. Then at about 3 P.M. off I go. About twenty
+miles or so bring me to Papakura, an ugly but good road most of the way.
+Here there is an inn. I stop for an hour and a half, give the horse a
+good feed, and have my tea. At about 7.30 or 8 I start again, and ride
+slowly along a good road this dry weather. The moon rises at 9.30,
+and by that time I shall be reaching the forest, through which a good
+military road runs. This is the part of the road I should like to show
+you. Such a night as this promises to be! It will be beautiful. About 11
+I reach a hut made of reeds on the very brink of the river, tether the
+horse, give him a feed, which I carry with me from Papakura, light a
+fire (taking matches) inside the hut, and try to smoke away mosquitos,
+lie down in your plaid, Joan--do you remember giving it to me?--and get
+what sleep I can. To-morrow I work my way home again, the fourth service
+being at Papakura at 4 P.M., so I ought to be at Kohimarama by 9 P.M.,
+dead tired I expect. I think these long days tire me more than they did;
+and I really do see not a few white hairs, a dozen or so, this is quite
+right and respectable.
+
+'I am writing now because I am tired with this cold, but chiefly because
+when I write only for the mail I send you such wretched scrawls, just
+business letters, or growls about something or other which I magnify
+into a grievance. But really, dear Joan and Fan, I do like much writing
+to you; only it is so very seldom I can do so, without leaving undone
+some regular part of the day's work. I am quite aware that you want to
+know more details about my daily life, and I really wish to supply them;
+but then I am so weary when I get a chance of writing, that I let my
+mind drift away with my pen, instead of making some effort to write
+thoughtfully. How many things I should like to talk about, and which I
+ought to write about: Bishops Mackenzie and Colenso, the true view of
+what heathenism is, Church government, the real way to hope to get at
+the mass of heathens at home, the need of a different education in some
+respects for the clergy, &c. But I have already by the time I begin to
+write taken too much out of myself in other ways to grapple with
+such subjects, and so I merely spin out a yarn about my own special
+difficulties and anxieties.
+
+'Don't mind my grumbling. I think that it is very ungrateful of me to
+do so, when, this year especially, I am receiving such blessings; it is
+partly because I am very much occupied, working at high pressure, partly
+because I do not check my foolish notions, and let matters worry me. I
+don't justify it a bit; nor must you suppose that because I am very busy
+just now, I am really the worse for it. The change to sea life will
+set me all to rights again; and I feel that much work must be done in a
+little time, and a wise man would take much more pains than I do to keep
+himself in a state fit to do it.
+
+'I have told you about our manner of life here. Up at 5, when I go round
+and pull the blankets, not without many a joke, off the sleeping boys,
+many of the party are already up and washing. Then, just before prayers,
+I go into the kitchen and see that all is ready for breakfast. Prayers
+at 5.45 in English, Mota, Baura, &c., beginning with a Mota Hymn, and
+ending with the Lord's Prayer in English. Breakfast immediately after:
+at our table Mr. Pritt, Mr. Kerr, and young Atkin who has just joined
+us. At the teachers' table, five Norfolk Islanders, Edward (a Maori),
+five girls and two of their husbands, and the three girls being placed
+at this table because they are girls; Melanesians at the other three
+tables indiscriminately. There are four windows, one at the north, three
+at the east side. The school and chapel, in one long modern building,
+form the corresponding wing on the eastern side of my little room, and
+the boys dormitories between.
+
+'We are daily expecting the vessel, though it will be a quick passage
+for her if she comes in the next ten days, and then what a bustle!
+
+'We send Dudley and his wife away to Canterbury for eight or nine
+months; he is so weak as to make the change, which I had urged him to
+try for some time past, quite necessary.
+
+'Next Sunday a Confirmation at Orehunga, eight miles off; back to
+Auckland for catechising and Baptism at 3 p.m. and evening service at
+6.30, and never a word of either sermon written, and all the school
+work! Never mind, a good growl to you is a fine restorative, and really
+I get on very well somehow.
+
+'Well, good-bye, you dear Sisters,
+
+'Your affectionate Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+On the last day of February came the new 'Southern Cross,' and two
+delightful notes announced it to the Vicar of Hursley and to myself in
+one envelope.
+
+
+'St. Andrew's: Feb. 28, 1863.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--The "Southern Cross" arrived safely this morning.
+Thanks to God!
+
+'What it is to us even you can hardly tell; I know not how to pour out
+my thankfulness. She seems admirably adapted for the work. Mr. Tilly's
+report of her performance is most satisfactory: safe, fast, steers well,
+and very manageable. Internal arrangements very good; after cabin too
+luxurious, but then that may be wanted for sick folk, and as it is
+luxurious, why I shall get a soft bed, and take to it very kindly.
+
+'Pray let dear Mr. Keble and Dr. Moberly know at once how very happy
+and thankful I am for this blessing. I know all you good friends at home
+will try to picture to yourselves my delight as I jumped on board!
+
+'The boys are, of course, wild with excitement. It is blowing very hard.
+Last night (when we were thinking of them) it was an anxious night for
+them close on the coast.
+
+'I have no time to write more. I thought of Lady... as I looked at
+the chronometers and instruments, and of you all as I looked at the
+beautiful vessel slipping along through the water with scarce a stitch
+of canvas. I pray that she may be spared many years to the Mission,
+and that we may have grace to use her, as she ought to be used, to His
+glory.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Bishop.
+
+'You know that you are daily remembered in our prayers. God bless you.'
+
+
+'10.30 P.M., March 1, 1863.
+
+'My dear Mr. Keble,--One line, though on Sunday night, to tell you of
+the safe arrival of the "Southern Cross." You have a large share in her,
+and she has a large share in your good wishes and prayers, I am sure.
+
+'Solemn thoughts on this day, an Ordination Sunday, mingle with the joy
+at the coming of this messenger (I trust of mercy and peace). I need not
+ask you to pray continually for us, for I know you do so. But indeed,
+now is the time when we seem especially to need your prayers.
+
+'The lads have no lack of intellectual capacity, they not unfrequently
+surprise me. Now is the time when they are in the receptive state, and
+now especially any error on our part may give a wrong direction to
+the early faith of thousands! What an awful thought! We are their only
+teachers, the only representatives of Christianity among them. How
+inexpressibly solemn and fearful! This is the thought so perpetually
+present to me. The training of the future missionaries of Melanesia
+is, by God's Providence, placed in our hands. No wonder that I feel
+sometimes overwhelmed at the thought!
+
+'But I know that if God gives me grace to become more simple-minded and
+humble, He will order even this aright. You I know will pray more than
+ever for me. My kindest regards to Mrs. Keble; I hope she is better.
+
+'Your affectionate and grateful young Friend,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+Before the first joy of the arrival was over, ere the 'Southern Cross'
+could make her first voyage among the multitude of isles, a great
+calamity had fallen upon St. Andrew's. Whether it was from the large
+numbers, or the effect of the colder climate, or from what cause
+could not be told, but a frightful attack of dysentery fell upon the
+Melanesians, and for several weeks suffering and death prevailed among
+them. How Bishop Patteson tended them during this time can be better
+guessed than described.
+
+Archdeacon Lloyd, who came to assist in the cares of the small party of
+clergy, can find no words to express the devotion with which the Bishop
+nursed them, comforting and supporting them, never shrinking from the
+most repulsive offices, even bearing out the dead silently at night,
+lest the others should see and be alarmed.
+
+Still no mail, except during the voyages, had ever left New Zealand
+without a despatch for home; and time was snatched in the midst of all
+this distress for a greeting, in the same beautiful, clear minute hand
+as usual:--
+
+
+'Hospital, St. Andrew's: Saturday night, 9 P.M., March 22, 1863.
+
+'My dearest Brother and Sister,--I write from the dining hall (now our
+hospital), with eleven Melanesians lying round me in extremity of peril.
+I buried two to-day in one grave, and I baptized another now dying by my
+side.
+
+'God has been pleased in His wisdom and mercy to send upon us a terrible
+visitation, a most virulent form of dysentery. Since this day fortnight
+I have scarce slept night or day, but by snatching an hour here and
+there; others are working quite as hard, and all the good points of our
+Melanesian staff are brought out, as you may suppose.
+
+'The best medical men cannot suggest any remedy. All remedies have been
+tried and failed. Every conceivable kind of treatment has been tried
+in vain. There are in the hall (the hospital now) at this moment
+eleven--eleven more in the little quadrangle, better, but in as anxious
+a state as can be; and two more not at all well.
+
+'I have sent all the rest on board to be out of the way of contagion.
+How we go on I scarce know.... My good friend, Mr. Lloyd, is here,
+giving great help; he is well acquainted with sickness and a capital
+nurse.
+
+'I have felt all along that it would be good for us to be in trouble;
+we could not always sail with a fair wind, I have often said so, and God
+has sent the trial in the most merciful way. What is this to the falling
+away of our baptized scholars!
+
+'But it is a pitiful sight! How wonderfully they bear the agony of it.
+No groaning.
+
+'When I buried those two children to-day, my heart was full, I durst not
+think, but could only pray and believe and trust in Him. God bless you.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.
+
+'O Lord, correct me, but with judgment!'
+
+
+On the 25th, two more were dead, and buried without time to make
+coffins, for thirteen still hung between life and death, while fresh
+cases were sent from on board ship. Mr. Pritt and Mr. Palmer cooked
+nourishing food and prepared rice-water unceasingly; while the others
+tended the sick, and the Primate returned from a journey to give his
+effective aid. On the night of the 30th, a fifth died unexpectedly,
+having only been ill a week, the only scholar from Pentecost Island. One
+of these lads, when all hope was over, was wrapped in his white winding
+sheet, carried into the chapel, and there baptized by the Bishop, with
+choked voice and weeping eyes.
+
+Over those who had not faith enough to justify him in baptizing them, he
+said the following prayers as he laid them in their graves:--
+
+'Sentences. Psalms from the Burial Service.
+
+'Forasmuch as it hath pleased Thee, O Almighty God, to take from amongst
+us the souls of these two children committed to our charge, we therefore
+commit their bodies to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust
+to dust; humbly commending to Thy Fatherly mercy these and all other Thy
+children who know not Thee, whom Thou knowest, who art the Father and
+Lord of all things in heaven and earth, to whom be all praise and glory,
+with Thy Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.
+Amen.
+
+'We humbly beseech Thee, most merciful God, to remember for good the
+inhabitants of the islands of Melanesia, and specially we pray God by
+the grave of these children, for the dwellers in Vanua Lava and Ambrym
+that Thou wouldest cause the light of the Gospel to shine m their
+hearts. Give unto Thy servants grace in their sight, that we may go
+forth in peace, and return if it be Thy will in safety, to the honour
+and glory of Thy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
+
+'O Almighty God, Father of Mercy, we cry unto Thee in our sorrow and
+distress, most humbly confessing that we have most justly provoked Thy
+wrath and heavy indignation.
+
+'We know, O Lord, that this is a dispensation of mercy, a gift from
+Thee, to be used, as all things may be used to Thy glory. Yet, O Lord,
+suffer not our unworthiness to hinder Thy work of mercy!
+
+'O Lord, look down from heaven, visit with Thy tender compassion Thy
+children lying under Thy hand in grievous sufferings of body. Restore
+them if it be Thy good pleasure to health and strength, or if it be Thy
+good will to take them out of this world, receive them to Thy tender
+mercies for His blessed sake who died for all men, Thy Son our Lord.
+
+'Lord's Prayer. Grace.'
+
+This was written down for use, in great haste, in the same spirit that
+breathes through the account of the next death: the entry dated on
+Coleridge Patteson's thirty-sixth birthday, April 1, 1863, which must
+be transcribed, though much of the detail of this time of trial has been
+omitted.
+
+'Sosaman died at 9 A.M. this day--a dear lad, one of the Banks
+Islanders, about ten or twelve years old. As usual I was kneeling by
+him, closing his eyes in death. I can see his poor mother's face now!
+What will she say to me? she who knows not the Christian's life in
+death! Yet to him, the poor unbaptized child, what is it to him? What
+a revelation! Yes, the names he heard at our lips were names of real
+things and real persons! There is another world! There is a God, a
+Father, a Lord Jesus Christ, a Spirit of holiness, a Love and Glory. So
+let us leave him, O Father, in Thy hands, who knowest him who knew not
+Thee on earth. Thy mercies never fail. Thou hast created all things, and
+for Thy pleasure they are and were created.
+
+'I washed him, and laid him out as usual in a linen sheet. How white it
+looked! So much more simple and touching than the coffin--the form just
+discernible as it lay where five had lain before; and then I knelt down
+in our little chapel; and, I thank God, I could still bless and praise
+Him in my heart!
+
+'How is it that I don't pray more? I pray in one sense less than
+usual--am not so long on my knees. I hope it is that I am so worn out,
+and so very, very much occupied in tending the sick and dying, but I am
+not sure.
+
+'Anyhow I am sure that I am learning at terrible cost lessons which, it
+may be, God would have taught me more gently if I had ears to hear. I
+have not in all things depended upon Him, and perpetually sought help
+from Him.
+
+'Oh that my unworthiness may not hinder His work of mercy!
+
+'If I live, the retrospect of this most solemn time will, I hope,
+be very useful. I wonder if I ever went through such acute mental
+suffering, and yet, mind! I feel perfectly hardened at times--quite
+devoid of sensibility.'
+
+He said in another letter that he felt that if he relaxed his
+self-command for one moment he should entirely break down. To him
+writing to his beloved home was what speaking, nay, almost thinking,
+would be in another man; it gave an outlet to his feeling, and security
+of sympathy. There was something in his spiritual nature that gave him
+the faculty of realising the Communion of Saints in its fullest sense,
+both with those on earth and in Paradise; and, above all, with his
+Heavenly Father, so that he seems as complete an example as ever lived
+of the reality of that privilege, in which too often we only express our
+belief.
+
+Sosaman's was the last death. On a fragment of pink paper, bearing the
+date of the next day, it is declared that an alleviation in the worst
+symptoms had taken place, and that the faces and eyes were less haggard.
+'Oh! if it be God's will to grant us now a great deliverance, all glory
+be to Him!'
+
+The deliverance was granted. The next mail brought tidings of
+gladness:--
+
+
+'St. Andrew's: April 17, 1863.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--You know the calm yet weary feeling that succeeds
+to the period of intense anxiety and constant watchfulness. Six dear
+children are taken from us, as you know already. Some twenty-one others
+have been very ill, nigh unto death. Two or three are still weak, but
+doing well.
+
+'All the rest are convalescent. Oh! I look at them, to see the loving
+bright smile again on their poor wan faces. I don't mind breaking
+down now; yet I have experienced no decided reaction; only I am very
+indolent, like one who, for six weeks, has not had his usual allowance
+of sleep. What abundant cause we have for thankfulness! All the many
+hours that I spent in that atmosphere, and yet not a whit the worse for
+it. What a sight it was! What scenes of suffering! There seemed to be no
+end to it; and yet there was always strength for the immediate work in
+hand. Tending twenty-four sick, after hurrying back from burying two
+dear lads in one grave, or with a body lying in its white sheet in the
+chapel; and once, after a breathless watch of two hours, while they all
+slept the sleep of opium, for we dared almost anything to obtain some
+rest, stealing at dead of night across the room to the figure wrapped so
+strangely in its blanket, and finding it cold and stiff, while one dying
+lay close by. It has been a solemn time indeed. And now the brightness
+seems to be coming back.
+
+'I have not yet ceased to think of the probable consequences; but,
+speaking somewhat hastily, I do not think that this will much retard the
+work. I may have to use some extra caution in some places--e.g., one of
+the two first lads brought from Ambrym is dead: one lad, the only one
+ever brought from the middle of Whitsuntide Island, is dead; I must be
+careful there. The other four came from Mota, Matlavo, Vanua Lava (W.
+side), and Guadalcanar; for the six who died came from six islands.
+
+'One dear lad, Edmund Quintal, sixteen or seventeen years old, was for a
+while in a critical state. Fisher Young, a little older, was very unwell
+for three or four days. They came from Norfolk Island.
+
+'The last six weeks have been very unhealthy. We had an unusually hot
+dry summer--quite a drought; the wells, for example, were never so
+tried. There was also an unusual continuance of north-east winds--our
+sultry close wind. And when the dry weather broke up, the rain and damp
+weather continued for many days. Great sickness prevailed in Auckland
+and the country generally.
+
+'The Norfolk Islanders, now four in number--Edwin Nobbs, Gilbert
+Christian, Fisher Young, and Edmund Quintal--have behaved excellently.
+Oh, how different I was at their age! It is pleasant, indeed, to see
+them so very much improved; they are so industrious, so punctual, so
+conscientious. The fact seems to be that they wanted just what I do hope
+the routine of our life has supplied--careful supervision, advice, and,
+when needed, reproof. They had never had any training at all.
+
+'But there was something better--religious feeling--to work on! and the
+life here has, by God's blessing, developed the good in them. I am very
+hopeful about then now. Not, mind! that any one of them has a notion
+of teaching, but they are acquiring habits which will enable them to be
+good examples in all points of moral conduct to those of the Melanesians
+who are not already like B----, &c. The head work will come by-and-by, I
+dare say.
+
+'April 22.--The storm seems to have passed, though one or two are still
+very weak. But there are no active symptoms of disease. How mercifully
+God has dealt with us! I have been very seedy for a few days, and am so
+still. In spite of two teeth taken out a fortnight ago, my whole jaw has
+been paining me much, heavy cold, and I can't get good sleep by reason
+of the pain, and I want sleep much. I think I must go to the dentist
+again. You see we hope to sail in ten days or so, and I want to be well.
+
+'We have just washed and scrubbed the hall thoroughly, and once again it
+ceases to be our hospital. That looks bright, does not it? You must let
+all friends know about us, for I shall not be able to write to many, and
+perhaps I shall not have time to write at all. In the midst of all
+this, I have so much work about the management of the Mission farm and
+property, and the St. John's College estate, and educational prospects.'
+
+The 'Southern Cross' was at sea again on May 2, and approved herself
+entirely to her owners' satisfaction.
+
+Moreover, another clergyman had come on board for a trial trip, the
+Rev. Robert Codrington, a Fellow of Wadham, Oxford, who brought the
+University culture which was no small personal pleasure to Bishop
+Patteson in the companion of his labours. So that the staff consisted of
+Mr. Pritt, Mr. Kerr, Mr. Codrington, Mr. Palmer and Mr. Atkin, besides
+Mr. Tilly, whose management of the vessel left the Bishop free from
+cares whenever his knowledge of the coast was not needed. Some of the
+results of his leisure on the outward voyage here appear:--
+
+'I am glad I have read the accounts which Bishop Mackenzie's sister sent
+me. I know more about it now. Work and anxiety and necessity for action
+all came upon them so rapidly, that there was but little time for
+forming deliberate plans. I can well realise the finding oneself
+surrounded with a hundred poor creatures, diseased and hungered, the
+multitude of questions how to feed, lodge, and clothe them. How far
+it is right to sanction their mode of life, &c. One thing I am glad to
+notice, that the Bishop abstained from all attempts to convey religious
+instruction, because he was not sufficiently acquainted with the
+language to know what ideas he might or might not be suggesting.
+That was wise, and yet how unlike many hot-headed men, who rush with
+unintentional irreverence into very dangerous experiments.
+
+'I confess, as you know, that there seems to me far too cumbrous and
+expensive and talkative a method employed in England, for raising
+supplies for that Mission and Columbia, Honolulu, &c. I never think
+of all that fuss of the four Universities, and all the meetings and
+speeches, without some shame. But united action will come in the
+train of real synodical action; and if I understand aright, the last
+Convocation of Canterbury accepted all that we are trying for, taking
+the right view in the question of Provinces, Metropolitans, position of
+Colonial Churches, joint action of the Church at large, &c. Extension of
+Episcopate in England. Oh, thanks be to God for it all. What a work for
+this branch of the Catholic Church! How can people sit quiet, not give
+their all!
+
+'I like very much Vaughan's work on the Epistle to the Romans. That
+is the book to teach young students how to read their Greek Testament.
+Accurate scholarship, no private notions imported into the Greek text.
+I should like to hear Mr. Keble speak about the law underlying the
+superstitions of heathenism, the way to deal with the perversions of
+truth, &c. Somehow I get to marvel at and love that first book of Hooker
+more and more. It is wonderful. It goes to the bottom of the matter; and
+then at times it gives one to see something of the Divine wisdom of the
+Bible as one never saw it before.
+
+'But I fear that I seek too much after a knowledge and understanding of
+principles of action which are attainable by a scholar and man of real
+reasoning power, but which I am not able to make of practical use,
+having neither the brains nor the goodness. This is what I really mean.
+
+'May 20th.--Any really good book on the New Testament, especially
+dealing critically with the Greek text, I certainly wish to have. I
+feel that the great neglect of us clergy is the neglect of the continual
+study most critically and closely of the grammatical meaning of the
+Hebrew and Greek texts. Oh! that in old days I had made myself a good
+scholar! Oh! that I did really know Hebrew and Greek well! What a
+blessing and delight it would be now! I fear that I shall never be
+a good Hebrew scholar, I can't make time for it; but a decent Greek
+scholar I hope to be. I work away, but alas I for want of time, only by
+fits and starts, at grammars, and such a book as Vaughan's "Epistle to
+the Romans," an excellent specimen of the way to give legitimate help to
+the student. Trench's books I delight in. The Revision by Five Clergymen
+is an assistance. There was a review in the Quarterly the other day on
+the Greek Testament, very nearly an excellent one. The ordinary use of
+folio commentaries I don't wish to depreciate, but I think it far less
+valuable than the diligent study for oneself with the best grammatical
+aids of the original text. I always assume an acquaintance with the
+true mind and spirit of the Church of England as a substratum of
+interpretation. I like Westcott's book on the "Introduction to the Study
+of the Gospels."
+
+'Oh! why, when I sat evening after evening with our dear Father, did
+I not ask him on all these points much more than I did? He did talk
+of such things! But I suppose it is partly the impulse given to such
+studies by the tendency of present religious thought. Yet ought it not
+to have been always put forward at Eton and Oxford that the close study
+of the text of the Bible is the first duty of a Christian scholar.
+I never really thought of it till I came out here, and then other
+occupations crowded upon me, and so it was too late to make myself a
+scholar. Alas!
+
+'Now I really think nothing is so great a relaxation tome as a good book
+by Trench, or Vaughan, or Ellicott, or Dr. Pusey, and I do enjoy it.
+Not that I can keep up my attention for very long so as to make it
+profitable, but even then it is delightful, only I must go over it
+again, and so it is perhaps time wasted.
+
+'But I greatly miss the intimate friend with whom to fix what I read by
+conversation and communication of mutual difficulties in understanding
+passages. I don't often forget points on which the Judge and I have had
+a talk, but what I read by myself I read too quickly, and forget. I want
+to fix it by subsequent discussion and enquiry with a competent friend.
+If I have intelligent young men to read with, that will almost do,
+it will easily help me to remember what I have read. It won't be
+suggestive, like the Judge's conversation; yet if one tries to teach
+conscientiously one does learn a great deal. I am puzzled as to books
+for my Norfolk Islanders. I should like much the "Conversations on the
+Catechism." Are they published separately? Shall I ask Miss Yonge to
+give me a copy? And the "Plain Commentary" would be useful too, if
+(which I doubt) it is plain enough.'
+
+
+'"Southern Cross:" May 9, 1863.
+
+'My dear Joan,--You ask me about qualifications which a man had better
+possess for this Mission, so perhaps I had better ask you to enquire of
+cousin Derwent Coleridge and of Ernest Hawkins for letters written to
+them some six months ago in which (if I remember rightly) I succeeded
+as well as I am likely to do now in describing the class of men I should
+like some day to have. I dare say they have not kept the letters, I
+forgot that, because although they took me some little time to write,
+they may have chucked them away naturally enough. Still if they have
+them and can find them, it may be worth while for you to keep a copy by
+you to show to any person who wishes for information.
+
+'It is not necessary at all that a man should have a taste for languages
+or a faculty of acquiring them. What I want now is not a linguist, but a
+well-trained school-master of black boys and men, who will also put his
+hand to any kind of work--a kindly, gentle, cheerful, earnest fellow,
+who will make light of all little inconveniences, such as necessarily
+attend sea life, &c., who is so much of a gentleman that he can afford
+to do any kind of work without being haunted by the silly thought that
+it "is beneath him," "not his business." That is the fellow for me. He
+would have to learn one language, the language of the particular class
+given over to him, and I think that a person of any moderate ability
+might soon do this with our teaching. If I could get him to take an
+interest in the general science of language and to go into philological
+points, of course his work would be lighter, and he would have soon the
+advantage of knowing dialects cognate to that which he must know. But
+that is not necessary.
+
+'The real thing is to train a certain number of lads in habits of
+attention, punctuality, tidiness, &c., to teach them also upon a plan,
+which I should show him, to read and write. The religious instruction I
+should take, and the closer investigation of the language too, unless he
+showed a capacity for going into the nicer points of structure, &c.
+
+'But somehow a cut and dried teaching machine of a man, however
+methodical, and good, and conscientious, won't do. There must be a
+vivacity, an activity of mind, a brightness about the man, so that a
+lesson shall never be mere drudgery; in short, there must be a real love
+in the heart for the scholars, that is the qualification.
+
+'One man and one only I hope to have some day who ought to be able to
+learn scraps at least of many languages, but he will have a different
+work to do. No work can be considered to be satisfactorily carried on
+while it depends on the life of any one man. Someone to take my place
+will come, I hope, some day. He would have to go round the islands with
+me, and acquire a knowledge of the whole field of work--the wading and
+swimming, the mode of dealing with fellows on a first meeting, &c.; he
+will not only have one class to look after, but he must learn the same
+kind of lesson that I learnt under the Primate. Where to get such a
+man, I'm sure I don't know. He must be of standing and ability to be
+acceptable to the others should I die, &c., &c.
+
+'So we need not speculate about him, and the truth is, I am not in any
+hurry to get men from home. We are educating ourselves lads here who
+will very likely learn to do this kind of work fairly well. Mr. Palmer
+will, I hope, be ordained at Christmas. Young Atkin will be useful some
+day. By-and-by if I can get one or two really first-rate men, it will
+indeed be a great thing. But who knows anything of me in England? I
+don't expect a really able man to come out to work with me. They will go
+to other parts of the world kept more before the notice of the public by
+committees and meetings and speeches, &c.; and indeed I am very thankful
+for it. I am not old nor wise enough to be at the head of a party of
+really able men. I must be more fit to lead before I can ask men to
+follow.
+
+'Of course I know that the work, if I chose to speak out, is second to
+none in interest and importance, and that very little comparatively is
+known about it in England. But it is evidently far better that it should
+go quietly on without attracting much notice, and that we all should
+remain unknown at all events at present. By-and-by, when by God's
+blessing things are more ripe for definite departments of work, and
+men can have distinct duties at once assigned to them, and our mode of
+carrying on the Mission has been fairly tested, then it will be high
+time to think about first-rate men.
+
+'And, presumptuous and strange as it may seem for me to say it, a man
+confessedly second-rate, unfit to hold a position with the best stamp of
+English clergymen, I had rather not have. I can get the material cheaper
+and made to my own hand out here.
+
+'Some men are dull though good, others can't get away from their book
+life and the proprieties, others are donnish, others are fine gentlemen,
+others are weak in health, most have preconceived and, many, mistaken
+views about heathenism, and the way to deal with it; some would come out
+with the notion that England and English clergymen were born to set the
+colonies right.
+
+'How few would say, "There's a young man for the Bishop, only a
+second-class man, no scholar, not remarkable in any way, but he has
+learnt his work in a good school, and will go out to him with the
+purpose of seeing how he carries on the work, and learning from him." I
+don't expect men worth anything to say this. Of course I don't; and
+yet you know, Joan, I can't take them on any other terms. No, I prefer
+taking promising lads here, and training them up, not with any pledge
+that I will employ them in the Mission, but with the promise of giving
+them every chance of becoming qualified for it.'
+
+The voyage was much shorter than had been intended, and its history is
+best summed up here:--
+
+
+'"Southern Cross," Kohimarama: Aug. 6, 1863.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--This date, from this place, will surprise you. We
+returned yesterday, after a short voyage of only three months. I had
+arranged my plans for a long voyage, hoping to revisit all our known
+islands, and that more than once. We sailed to Norfolk Island, thence
+at once to Mota. I spent two days there, and left the Rev. L. Pritt in
+charge of the station; Mr. Palmer being with him and the four Norfolk
+Islanders, and several old scholars.
+
+'I spent a fortnight in the Banks Archipelago, returning some scholars,
+and taking away others from divers islands; and then went back to Mota,
+bringing some sixteen or seventeen lads to the central school. I found
+them all pretty well; the whole island at peace, people moving about
+everywhere unarmed, and a large school being gathered together.
+
+'I went off again to the south (the New Hebrides group), returning
+scholars who had been in New Zealand, purchasing yams for axes and iron,
+&c., to supply the large number of scholars at Mota. The season had been
+unfavourable, and the crop of yams in some islands had almost failed.
+However, in another fortnight I was again at Mota with some six or seven
+tons of yams. I found things lamentably changed. A great mortality
+was going on, dysentery and great prostration of strength from severe
+influenza.
+
+'But of those not actually boarding at the station, the state was very
+sad indeed. About twenty-five adults were dead already, several of them
+regular attendants at school, of whom we were very hopeful.
+
+'I spent two days and a half in going about the island, the wet
+incessant, the ground steaming and reeking with vegetable exhalations.
+During those days twenty-seven adults died, fifty-two in all, and many,
+many more were dying, emaciated, coughing, fainting; no constitutional
+vigour of body, nor any mutton broth, or beef tea, or jellies, or
+chickens, or wine, &c. Mr. Pritt did what he could, and more than
+I thought could have been done; but what could be done? How could
+nourishing food be supplied to dozens of invalids living miles off,
+refusing to obey directions in a country which supplies no food to rally
+the strength of persons in illness?
+
+'I decided to remove the whole party at once, explaining to the people
+that we were not afraid to share with them the risk of dying, but that
+if Mr. Pritt and the others died, there were no teachers left. I felt
+that our Banks Island scholars must be removed, and that at once lest
+they should die. I could not send the vessel to the Solomon Islands
+without me, for Mr. Tilly was completely laid up and unable to move from
+rheumatic gout, and no one else on board knows those languages.
+
+'I could not leave the party at Mota in the sickness, and I could not
+well send the vessel to Port Patteson for a time, for the danger was
+imminent. So I took them all away, in all thirty-nine.
+
+'But now the vessel was full, more than sixty on board, and I had
+reckoned upon an empty vessel in the hot Santa Cruz and Solomon Island
+latitudes. Moreover, the weather was extraordinarily unfavourable--damp,
+foul winds, squalls, calms, unhealthy weather. Mr. Tilly was being
+greatly pulled down, and everything seemed to point out that the voyage
+ought not to be long. I made my mind up, took back the Solomon Island
+scholars; and, with heavy sea and baffling winds and one short gale,
+sailed back to New Zealand.
+
+'How mysteriously our plans are overruled for good! I came back to hear
+of the war; and to learn to be thankful for my small, very young and
+very manageable party. Thirty-three Banks Islanders, the baptized party
+and select lads from their islands, one New Caledonian, four Ysabel
+lads, constitute this summer's Melanesian school.
+
+'Don't be disappointed; I was at first, but I had the comfort of having
+really no alternative. I had, indeed, a great desire to make a thorough
+visitation of Leper's Island, and Santa Cruz especially; but the wind,
+usually so fair, was dead against me, we had, so to speak, no trade
+winds, and I had to give it up. It was certainly my duty to get to the
+south with my invalids as soon as I could, and alter my plans, which,
+you know, always are made with a view to divers modifications being
+rendered necessary.
+
+'Training the baptized scholars, and putting into shape such knowledge
+as I have of Melanesian tongues, that made a good summer programme, as
+I was obliged to content myself with a small party gathered from but few
+islands. Concentration v. diffusion I soon began to think a very good
+thing.
+
+'Well, so it is, and now I see great reason to be thankful. Why do we
+not always give thanks whether we see the reason or not?
+
+'The vessel behaves admirably. I have written to Jem at length, and he
+must be applied to for my account of her. Pray tell Mr. Keble all this.
+I have a most valuable letter from Dr. Moberly, a great delight and
+honour to me. It is very kind of him to write; and his view of Church
+matters is really invaluable, no papers can give that which his letter
+gives, and only he and a very few others could give an opinion which I
+so greatly value. He speaks hopefully of Church matters in general, and
+there are great reasons surely for thankfulness and hope.
+
+'Yet men such as he see far and wide, and to their great hearts no very
+violent storms are caused by such things as sorely trouble others. He
+sees the presumption and weakness, the vain transitory character of that
+phase of modern thought which Bishop Colenso represents, and confidently
+expects its speedy disappearance. But it does try the earnest, while it
+makes shipwreck of the frivolous, and exercises the faith and humility
+of all. Even a very poor scholar can see that his reasoning is most
+inconclusive, and his reading superficial and inferences illogical.
+
+'God bless you, my dear Cousin.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+Perhaps this is the fittest place to give Mr. Tilly's description of the
+Bishop in his voyages:--
+
+'My acquaintance with the late Bishop Patteson began at Port Patteson,
+in the Banks Islands, in 1861. He went with us in H.M.S. "Cordelia" to
+the Solomon Islands, and after being together some two months we again
+left him at Port Patteson on our way back to Auckland. During the time
+he was on board the "Cordelia" it was arranged that I was to sail the
+new vessel (the present "Southern Cross"), then about to be built by the
+Messrs. Wigram, and the size, internal arrangements, &c. were told me
+by him. He did not trouble me with much detail, referring me almost
+altogether to Bishop Selwyn--and gave no written directions; the little
+he said I carefully noted, observing that he spoke as with a thorough
+knowledge of the subject (so far as I could be a judge) as to sea-going
+qualities, capacity, &c., and to the best of my recollection, I found
+that while the vessel was building these few directions were the main
+ones to be kept in view. We entered Auckland harbour (from England)
+early on the morning of February 28, 1863, and hove to off the North
+Head, to wait for the Bishop coming off from Kohimarama before going up
+the harbour. It had been blowing hard outside the night before from the
+N.E., and there was still much wind, and some sea, even in the harbour.
+I was much struck by his appearance and manner. Having to launch his
+boat through a surf at Kohimarama beach, he had only on a shirt and
+trousers, and was of course drenched. He stepped on board more like
+a sailor than a clergyman, and almost immediately made one or two
+sailor-like remarks about the vessel, as if he understood her qualities
+as soon as he felt her in motion; and he was quite right in what he
+said.
+
+'Before the building of the present vessel he had (I am told) navigated
+at different times to and from the islands; of his capacity in this
+respect, therefore, others who knew him there can speak. During the time
+I remained in the "Southern Cross," he never in any way, to the best
+of my recollection, interfered in the navigation or management of the
+vessel; but I came to know--almost at once--that his general planning of
+a voyage, knowledge of local courses and distances, the method by which
+it could be done most quickly and advantageously, and the time required
+to do it in, were thorough; and, in fact, I suppose, that almost without
+knowing it, in all this I was his pupil, and to the last felt the
+comfort of his advice or assistance, as, e.g., when looking out together
+from aloft he has seen shoal water more quickly than myself, or has
+decided whether certain doubtful appearances ahead were or were not
+sufficient to make us alter our course, &c.; and always speaking as no
+one who was what sailors call a landsman could have done. There was, of
+course, always a great deal of boat work, much of it to be done with a
+loaded boat in a seaway, requiring practical knowledge of such matters,
+and I do not remember any accidents, such as staving a boat on a reef,
+swamping, &c. in all those years; and he invariably brought the boat
+out when it was easy for the vessel to pick her up, a matter not
+sufficiently understood by many people. This was where Mr. Atkin's
+usefulness was conspicuous. Mr. Atkin was a fearless boatman, and the
+knowledge of boating he gained with us at sea was well supplemented when
+in Auckland, where he had a boat of his own, which he managed in the
+most thorough manner, Auckland being at times a rough place for boating.
+He (Mr. Atkin) pulled a good and strong oar, and understood well how to
+manage a boat under sail, much better in fact than many sailors (who are
+not always distinguished in that respect). His energy, and the amount
+of work he did himself were remarkable; his manner was quiet and
+undemonstrative. He took all charge--it may in a manner be said--of
+the boys on board the vessel, regulated everything concerning meals,
+sleeping arrangements, &c., how much food had to be bought for them at
+the different islands, what "trade" (i.e. hatchets, beads, &c.) it was
+necessary to get before starting on a voyage, calculated how long our
+supply of water would last, and in fact did so much on board as left the
+master of the vessel little to do but navigate. With regard to the
+loss the Mission has sustained in Mr. Atkin, speaking from my personal
+knowledge of his invaluable services on a voyage, I can safely say
+there is no one here now fitted to take his place. He had always capital
+health at sea, and was rarely sea-sick, almost the only one of the party
+who did not suffer in that way. And his loss will be the more felt now,
+as those who used to help in the boat are now otherwise employed as
+teachers, &c.; and as Norfolk Island is a bad place to learn boating,
+there is great need of some one to take his place, for a good boat's
+crew is a necessity in this work as may be readily understood when the
+boat is away sometimes for the greater part of the day, pulling and
+sailing from place to place. At those places where the Bishop landed
+alone, Mr. Atkin gradually acquired the experience which made him so fit
+to look after the safety of the boat and crew. In this manner he, next
+to the Bishop, became best known to the natives throughout the islands,
+and was always looked for; in fact, at many places they two were perhaps
+only recognised or remembered.
+
+'Bishop Patteson was hardly what could be called a good sailor in
+one sense of the word; rough weather did not suit him, and although I
+believe seldom if ever actually sea-sick, he was now and then obliged to
+lie down the greater part of the day, or during bad weather. He used to
+read and write a great deal on board, and liked to take brisk walks
+up and down the deck, talking to whoever happened to be there. He was
+orderly and methodical on board, liked to see things in their places,
+and was most simple in all his habits. He always brought a good stock of
+books on board (which we all made use of), but very few clothes.
+
+'The living on board was most simple, much the same as the crew,
+those in the cabin waiting on themselves (carrying no steward), until
+gradually boys used to volunteer to do the washing up, &c. School with
+all the boys was kept up when practicable; but the Bishop was always
+sitting about among them on the deck, talking to one and another, and
+having classes with him in the cabin. There were regular morning
+and evening native and English prayers. The sermons on Sundays
+were specially adapted for the sailors, and listened to with marked
+attention, as indeed they well might be, being so earnest, simple, and
+suitable.
+
+'Speaking for myself, I used to look forward to the voyage as the time
+when I should have the privilege of being much with him for some months.
+While on shore at Kohimarama I saw but comparatively little of him,
+except at meals; but during the voyage I saw of course a great deal of
+him, and learned much from him--learned to admire his unselfishness
+and simplicity of mode of life, and to respect his earnestness and
+abilities. His conversation on any subject was free and full; and those
+on the few nights when quietly at anchor they could be enjoyed more,
+will be long remembered. Of his manner to Melanesians, others will, no
+doubt, say enough, but I may be excused for mentioning one scene that
+very much struck me, and of which I am now the only (white) one left
+who was present at it. We were paying a visit for the first time to an
+island, and--the vessel being safe in the offing--the Bishop asked me if
+I would go with them as he sometimes did on similar occasions. We pulled
+in to a small inner islet among a group, where a number of (say 200)
+natives were collected on the beach. Seeing they looked as if friendly,
+he waded on shore without hesitation and joined them; the reception was
+friendly, and after a time he walked with them along the beach, we in
+the boat keeping near. After a while we took him into the boat again,
+and lay off the beach a few yards to be clear of the throng, and be able
+to get at the things he wanted to give them, they coming about the boat
+in canoes; and this is the fact I wished to notice--viz., the look on
+his face while the intercourse with them lasted. I was so struck with
+it, quite involuntarily, for I had no idea of watching for anything of
+the sort; but it was one of such extreme gentleness, and of yearning
+towards them. I never saw that look on his face again, I suppose because
+no similar scene ever occurred again when I happened to be with him. It
+was enough in itself to evoke sympathy; and as we pulled away, though
+the channel was narrow and winding, yet, as the water was deep, we
+discussed the possibility of the schooner being brought in there at some
+future time. I am quite aware of my inability to do justice to that side
+of the Bishop's character, of which, owing to the position in which I
+stood to him as master of the Mission vessel, I have been asked to say
+a few words. There are others who know far better than myself what his
+peculiar qualifications were. His conduct to me throughout the time
+was marked by an unvarying confidence of manner and kindliness in our
+everyday intercourse, until, gradually, I came to think I understood
+the way in which he wished things done, and acted in his absence with
+an assurance of doing his wishes, so far as I could, which I never
+had attained to before with anyone else, and never shall again. And,
+speaking still of my own experience, I can safely say the love we grew
+to feel for him would draw such services from us (if such were needed)
+as no fear of anyone's reproof or displeasure ever could do. And perhaps
+this was the greatest privilege, or lesson, derived from our intercourse
+with him, that "Love casteth out fear!"
+
+'Tiros. CAPEL TILLY.
+
+
+'Auckland: October 28, 1872.'
+
+This letter to Mr. Derwent Coleridge follows up the subject of the
+requisites for missionary work:--
+
+
+'"Southern Cross," Kohimarama: August 8, 1863.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--Thank you for a very kind letter which I found here on
+my return from a short three months' voyage in Melanesia. You will, I am
+sure, give me any help that you can, and a young man trained under your
+eye would be surely of great use in this work. I must confess that I
+distrust greatly the method adopted still in some places of sending out
+men as catechists and missionaries, simply because they appear to be
+zealous and anxious to engage in missionary work. A very few men, well
+educated, who will really try to understand what heathenism is, and will
+seek, by God's blessing, to work honestly without prejudice and without
+an indiscriminating admiration for all their own national tastes
+and modes of thought--a few such men, agreeing well together and
+co-operating heartily, will probably be enabled to lay foundations for
+an enduring work. I do not at all wish to apply hastily for men--for any
+kind of men--to fill up posts that I shall indeed be thankful to occupy
+with the right sort of men. I much prefer waiting till it may please
+God to put it into the head of some two or three more men to join the
+Mission--years hence it may be. We need only a few; I don't suppose that
+ten years hence I should (if alive) ever wish to have more than six or
+eight clergy; because their work will be the training of young natives
+to be themselves teachers, and, I pray God, missionaries in due time. I
+am so glad that you quite feel my wants, and sympathise with me. It is
+difficult to give reasons--intelligible to you all at a distance--for
+everything that I may say and do, because the circumstances of this
+Mission are so very peculiar. But you know that I have always the
+Primate to consult with as to principles; and I must, for want of a
+better course, judge for myself as to the mode of working them out in
+detail.
+
+'Two plans are open for obtaining a supply of young men. First, I may
+receive some few ready-trained men, who nevertheless will have to
+learn the particular lessons that only can be taught here on the spot.
+Secondly, I may have youths of (say) sixteen to eighteen years of age,
+sent out from such a school as Stephen Hawtrey's for example, who will
+come with a good general knowledge of ordinary things, and receive a
+special training from myself. I think, too, that New Zealand will now
+and then supply an earnest, active-minded young fellow--who will be a
+Greek or Latin scholar, yet may find a useful niche in which he may
+be placed. At present I have means only to maintain one or two such
+persons, and this because I am able to use the money my dear Father
+left me for this purpose. Indeed, I have no other use for it. The money
+received on public account would not keep the Mission in its present
+state, and the expenditure ought to be increased by maintaining
+more scholars and teachers. I don't forget what you say about the
+philological part of my business. My difficulty is this, mainly: that it
+is next to impossible to secure a few hours of continuous leisure. You
+can have no idea of the amount of detail that I must attend to: seeing
+everything almost, and having moreover not a few New Zealand matters
+to employ my time, besides my Melanesian work. I have, I suppose, a
+considerable amount of knowledge of Melanesian tongues, unknown by name
+to anyone else perhaps; I quite feel that this ought not to die with
+me, if anything should suddenly happen to me. I hoped this summer to
+put together something; but now there is this Maori war, and an utterly
+unsettled state of things. I may have to leave New Zealand with my
+Melanesians almost any day. But I will do what I can, and as soon as I
+can. Again: I find it so hard to put on paper what I know. I could talk
+to a philologist, and I fancy that I could tell him much that would
+interest him; but I never wrote anything beyond a report in my life, and
+it is labour and grief to me to write them--I can't get on as a scribe
+at all. Then, for two or three years I have not been able to visit some
+islands whose language I know just enough of to see that they supply
+a valuable link in the great Polynesian chain. One might almost get
+together all the disjecta membra and reconstruct the original Polynesian
+tongue. But chiefly, of course, my information about Melanesia may be
+interesting. I have begun by getting together numerals in forty quite
+unknown dialects. I will give, at all events, short skeleton grammars
+too of some. But we have no time. Why, I have from five hundred to
+two thousand or more carefully ascertained words in each of several
+dialects, and of course these ought to be in the hands of you all
+at home. I know that, and have known it for years; but how to do it,
+without neglecting the daily necessary work?
+
+'Again: the real genius of the language, whatever it may be, is learned
+when I can write down what I overhear boys saying when they are talking
+with perfect freedom, and therefore idiomatically, about sharks,
+cocoa-nuts, yams, &c. All translations must fail to represent a language
+adequately, and most of all the translation into a heathen language of
+religious expressions. They have not the ideas, and the language cannot
+be fairly seen in the early attempts to make it do an unaccustomed work.
+
+'I remember more of you and my Aunt than you suppose. Even without the
+photograph (which I am very glad to have--thank you for it), I could
+have found you and Aunt out in a crowd. I can't say that I remember my
+own generation so well.
+
+'Thank you again for writing so kindly.
+
+'Always, my dear Cousin,
+
+'Affectionately yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'
+
+
+The next mail carried the reply to Johanna's sympathy with the troubles
+of the time of sickness in the early part of the year.
+
+
+'August 28, 1863.
+
+'My dear Joan,--Very full of comfort to have all your kind loving
+thoughts and words about our sickness. I know you thought and talked
+much about it, and indeed it was a very heavy visitation viewed in one
+way, though in another (and I really can't analyze the reason why) there
+was not only peace and calmness, but eyen happiness. I suppose one
+may be quite sure one is receiving mercies, and be thankful for them,
+although one is all the time like a man in a dream. I can hardly think
+of it all as real. But I am sure that God was very, very merciful to us.
+There was no difficulty anywhere about the making known the death of the
+lads to their relatives. I did not quite like the manner of the people
+at Guadalcanar, from which island poor Porasi came; and I could not get
+at the exact place from which Taman came, though I landed on the same
+island north and south of the beach from which I brought him.
+
+'I do not at all think that any interruption of the work has been
+occasioned by it. It was very unfortunate that I could not, last voyage,
+make visits (and long ones too, as I had hoped) to many islands where
+in the voyage before I had met with such remarkable tokens of good-will,
+especially Leper's Island and Santa Cruz, but I think that if I can make
+a regular good round next time, it may be all as well. I imagine that
+in a great many islands it would now take a good deal to shake their
+confidence in us. At the same time it was and is a matter of great
+regret that I did not at once follow up the openings of the former year,
+and by returning again to the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands (as in
+the contemplated six months' voyage I intended to do), strengthen the
+good feeling now existing. Moreover, many scholars who were here last
+year would have come again had I revisited them and picked them up
+again. But the Mota sickness, the weather, and Mr. Tilly's illness made
+it more prudent to return by what is on the whole the shorter route,
+i.e., to the west of New Caledonia.
+
+'You should have been with me when, as I jumped on shore at Mota, I took
+Paraskloi's father by the hand. That dear lad I baptized as he lay in
+his shroud in the chapel, when the whole weight of the trial seemed,
+as it were, by a sudden revelation to manifest itself, and thoroughly
+overwhelmed and unnerved me. I got through the service with the tears
+streaming down my cheeks, and my voice half choked. He was his father's
+pride, some seventeen years old. A girl ready chosen for him as his
+wife. "It is all well, Bishop, he died well. I know you did all you
+could, it is all well." He trembled all over, and his face was wet with
+tears; but he seemed strangely drawn to us, and if he survives this
+present epidemic, his son's death may be to him the means in God's hands
+of an eternal life. Most touching, is it not, this entire confidence?
+
+'At Aruas, the small island close to Valua, from which dear Sosaman
+came, it was just the same; rather different at the west side of
+Vanua Lava, where they did not behave so well, and where (as I heard
+afterwards) there had been some talk of shooting me; but nothing
+occurred while I was on shore with them to alarm me.
+
+'At Ambrym I landed with Talsil (Joval, from the same place, had died),
+a great crowd, all friendly, walked into the village and sat down,
+speechifying by the principal man, a presentation to me of a small pig;
+but such confidence that this man came back with me on board, where I
+gave him presents. I much wished to land at Taman's place, but could not
+do so, though I tried twice, without causing great delay.
+
+'I could have brought away any number of scholars from almost any of
+these islands, probably from all. I have great reason to regret not
+having revisited Ambrym and other islands, but I think that a year
+hence, if alive, I may feel that it is better as it is.
+
+'These Norfolk Islanders, four of them, I take as my children, for I
+can't fairly charge them (except Edwin Nobbs) to the Mission, and I wish
+to give Norfolk Island some help, as it is really, though not by letters
+patent, part of my charge. Edwin Nobbs is a thoroughly good fellow, and
+Fisher Young is coming on very well.
+
+'Now, my dearest Joan, good-bye. My hats will come no doubt in good
+time, my present chapeau is very seedy, very limp and crooked and
+battered; as near green as black almost--a very good advertisement
+of the poverty of the Mission. But if I go about picking up gold
+in Australia, I shall come out in silk cassock and all the
+paraphernalia--very episcopal indeed!
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Herewith was a letter for Dr. Moberly:--
+
+'St. Andrew's College, Kohimarama: August 29, 1863. 'My dear Dr.
+Moberly,--Thank you for a very kind and most interesting letter written
+in May. I know that you can with difficulty find time to write at all,
+and thank you all the more. If you knew the real value to us of such
+letters as you have now sent, containing your impressions and opinions
+of things in general, men, books, &c., you would be well rewarded for
+your trouble, I assure you. To myself, I must say to you, such letters
+are invaluable; they are a real help to me, not only in that they supply
+information from a very good authority on many questions which I much
+desire to understand, but even more because I rise up or kneel down
+after reading them, and think to myself, "how little such men who so
+think of me really know me; how different I ought to be," and then it is
+another help to me to try and become by God's grace less unlike what you
+take me to be. Indeed, you must forgive me for writing thus freely. I
+live very much alone as far as persons of the same language, modes of
+thought, &c., are concerned. I see but little (strange as it may seem to
+you) even of my dear Primate. We are by land four or five miles apart,
+and meet perhaps once or twice a month for a few minutes to transact
+some necessary business. His time is, of course, fully occupied; and
+I never leave this place, very seldom even this little quadrangle, and
+when other work does not need immediate attention (a state of things at
+which I have not arrived as yet), there are always a dozen new languages
+to be taken up, translations to be made, &c. So that when I read
+a letter which is full of just such matters as I think much of, I
+naturally long to talk on paper freely with the writer. Were I in
+England, I know scarcely any place to which I would go sooner than
+Winchester, Hursley, Otterbourne, and then I should doubtless talk as
+now I write freely. All that you write of the state of mind generally in
+England on religious questions is most deeply interesting. What a matter
+of thankfulness that you can say, "With all the sins and shortcomings
+that are amongst us, there is an unmistakeable spreading of devotion and
+the wish to serve God rightly on the part of very many."
+
+'Then, the Church preferments have lately been good; Bishop Ellicott,
+one of your four coadjutors in the revision of the A. V., especially.
+I know some part of his Commentary, and am very glad to find that you
+speak so very highly of it. What a contrast to be sure between such work
+as his and Jowett's and Stanley's! Jowett actually avows a return to
+the old exploded theory of the inaccurate use of language in the
+Greek Testament. This must make men distrust him sooner or later as an
+interpreter of Scripture. I thank you heartily for your offer of sending
+me Bishop Ellicott's Commentary, but I hardly like you to send me so
+valuable a gift. What if you substitute for it a copy of what you have
+written yourself, not less valuable to me, and less expensive to you? I
+hardly like to write to ask favours of such people as Bishop Ellicott;
+I mean I have no right to do so; yet I almost thought of asking him to
+send a copy of his Commentaries to us for our library. I have ventured
+to write to Dean Trench: and I am pretty sure that Mr. Keble will send
+me his "Life of Bishop Wilson." But pray act as you wish. I am very
+grateful to you for thinking of it at all; and all such books whether
+yours or his will be used and valued, I can undertake to say. My good
+friend Kidding knows that I was, alas! no scholar at Eton or Oxford. I
+have sought to remedy this in some measure as far as the Greek Testament
+is concerned, and there are some excellent books which help one much;
+yet I can never make myself a good scholar, I fear; one among many
+penalties I pay for want of real industry in old days.
+
+'Miss Yonge will hear from my sisters, and you from her, I have no
+doubt, my very scanty account of a very uninteresting voyage. I see
+everywhere signs of a change really extraordinary in the last few years.
+I can tell no stories of sudden conversions, striking effects, &c. But
+I know that in twenty, thirty, perhaps forty places, where a year or two
+ago no white man could land without some little uncertainty as to his
+reception, I can feel confident now of meeting with friends; I can walk
+inland--a thing never dreamt of in old days, sleep ashore, put myself
+entirely into their hands, and meet with a return of the confidence on
+their part. We have, too, more dialects, talk or find interpreters in
+more places; our object in coming to them is more generally known--and
+in Mota, and two or three other small islands of the Banks group, there
+is almost a system of instruction at work. The last voyage was a failure
+in that I could not visit many islands, nor revisit some that I longed
+to land at for the second or third time. But I don't anticipate any
+difficulty in reestablishing (D. V.) all the old familiarity before
+long. No doubt it is all, humanly speaking, hazardous where so much
+seems to depend upon the personal acquaintance with the people.
+
+'By-and-by I hope to have some young man of character and ability enough
+to allow of his being regarded as my probable successor, who may always
+go with me--not stop on any one island--but learn the kind of work I
+have to do; then, when I no longer can do the work, it will be taken up
+by a man already known to the various islanders.
+
+'I have not touched on many points in your letter. Again, thank you for
+it: it is very kind of you to write. I must send a line to Dr. Eidding.
+
+'I am, my dear Dr. Moberly,
+
+'Yours very truly,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Bishop.'
+
+
+The next of the closely written sheets that every mail carried was
+chiefly occupied with the Maori war and apostasy, on which this is not
+the place to enter, until the point where more personal reflections
+begin.
+
+'How all this makes me ponder about my own special work I need not say.
+There is not the complication of an English colony, it is true; that
+makes a great difference.
+
+'My own feeling is that one should teach positive truth, the plain
+message of Christianity, not attacking prejudices. Conviction as it
+finds its way into the heart by the truth recommending itself will do
+the work of casting out the old habits. I do not mean to say that the
+devil is not in a special way at work to deceive people to follow lying
+delusions. But all error is a perversion of truth; it has its existence
+negatively only, as being a negation of truth. But God is truth, and
+therefore Truth is ----. Now this is practically to be put, it seems to
+me, in this way. Error exists in the mind of man, whom God has created,
+as a perversion of truth; his faculties are constructed to apprehend
+and rest satisfied with truth. But his faculties are corrupted, and
+the devil supplies a false caricature of truth, and deceives him to
+apprehend and rest satisfied with a lie. But inasmuch as his nature,
+though damaged, is not wholly ruined by the Fall, therefore it is still
+not only possible for him to recognise positive truth when presented
+to him, but he will never rest satisfied with anything else--he will be
+restless and uneasy till he has found it.
+
+'It is because I feel that it is more natural to man to follow truth
+than error ("natural" being understood to mean correspondent to the
+true nature) that I believe the right thing is to address oneself to
+the principle in a man which can and will recognise truth. Truth
+when recognised expels error. But why attack error without positively
+inculcating truth? I hope it does not bore you for me to write all this.
+But I wish you to learn all that may explain my way of dealing with
+these questions.'
+
+The next day, October 25, a headache gives the Bishop a reason for
+indulging himself, while waiting for his pupils, in calling up and
+setting down a realisation of his sisters' new home at St. Mary Church,
+where for the time he seems to go and live with them, so vividly does he
+represent the place to himself. His first return to his own affairs is
+a vision that once more shows his unappeased craving for all appliances
+'for glory and for beauty' in the worship of God.
+
+'I may some day have a connection with Mary Church marbles. Sometimes
+I have a vision--but I must live twenty years to see more than a
+vision--of a small but exceedingly beautiful Gothic chapel, rich inside
+with marbles and stained glass and carved stalls and encaustic tiles and
+brass screen work. I have a feeling that a certain use of really good
+ornaments may be desirable, and being on a very small scale it might be
+possible to make a very perfect thing some day. There is no notion of my
+indulging such a thought. It may come some day, and most probably long
+after I am dead and gone. It would be very foolish to spend money upon
+more necessary things than a beautiful chapel at present, when in fact
+I barely pay my way at all. And yet a really noble church is a wonderful
+instrument of education, if we think only of the lower way of regarding
+it. Well, you have a grand church, and it is pleasant to think of dear
+dear Father having laid the stone, and of Cousin George. What would
+he say now to Convocation and Synods, and the rapid progress of the
+organisation of the Church?
+
+'I think that what you say, Fan, about my overvaluing the world's
+opinion is very true. Self-consciousness and a very foolish sinful
+vanity always have been and are great sources of trial to me. How often
+I have longed for that simplicity and truthfulness of character that
+we saw so beautifully exemplified in our dear Father! How often I think
+that it is very good for me that I am so wanting in all personal gifts!
+I should be intolerable! I tell you this, not to foster such feelings by
+talking of them, but because we wish to know and be known to each
+other as we are. It is a very easy thing to be a popular preacher here,
+perhaps anywhere. You know that I never write a really good sermon, but
+I carry off platitudes with a sort of earnest delivery, tolerably clear
+voice, and with all the prestige of being a self-devoted Missionary
+Bishop. Bless their hearts! if they could see me sipping a delicious
+cup of coffee, with some delightful book by my side, and some of my lads
+sitting with me, all of them really loving one, and glad to do anything
+for one!
+
+'A less self-conscious person could do what I can hardly do without
+danger. I see my name in a book or paper, and then comes at once a
+struggle against some craving after praise. I think I know the fault,
+but I don't say I struggle against it as I ought to do. It is very hard,
+therefore, for me to write naturally about work in which I am myself
+engaged. But I feel that a truthful account of what we see and hear
+ought to be given, and yet I never speak about the Mission without
+feeling that I have somehow conveyed a false impression.'
+
+
+Again there was a time of sickness. The weather alternated between keen
+cutting winds and stifling heat; and there was much illness among the
+colonists, as well as a recurrence of the dreadful disease of the former
+year among the scholars of St. Andrew's, though less severe, and one
+boy died after fourteen days' sickness, while two pulled through with
+difficulty. In the midst came the Ember Week, when Mr. Palmer was
+ordained Deacon; and then the Bishop collapsed under ague, and spent the
+morning of Christmas Day in bed, but was able to get up and move into
+chapel for the celebration, and afterwards to go into hall and see the
+scholars eat their Christmas dinner.
+
+In the letter he wrote in the latter part of the day, he confessed that
+'he felt older and less springy;' though, as he added, there was
+good reason for it in the heavy strain that there had been upon him
+throughout the year, though his native, scholars were all that he could
+desire.
+
+A few days' holiday and change at the Primate's brought back spirits and
+strength; but the question whether under any circumstances New Zealand
+would be a safe residence for the great body of Melanesian scholars
+was becoming doubtful, and it seemed well to consider of some other
+locality. Besides, it was felt to be due to the supporters of the
+Mission in Australia to tell them personally how great had been the
+progress made since 1855; and, accordingly, on one of the first days of
+February, Bishop Patteson embarked in a mail steamer for Sydney, but
+he was obliged to leave six of his lads in a very anxious state with
+a recurrence of dysentery. However, the Governor, Sir George Grey, had
+lent his place on the island of Kawau, thirty miles north of Auckland,
+to the party, so that there was good hope that change would restore the
+sick.
+
+'Fancy me,' says the Journal of February 6, 'on board a screw steamer,
+252 feet long, with the best double cabin on board for my own single
+use, the manager of the company being anxious to show me every
+attention, eating away at all sorts of made dishes, puddings, &c., and
+lounging about just as I please on soft red velvet sofas and cushions.'
+
+The rest and good living were the restorative he needed; and, in spite
+of anxiety about the patients at home, he enjoyed and profited by it.
+
+On February 6, Sydney was reached, but the Bishop sailed on at once for
+his farthest point. At Melbourne, on the 11th, he quaintly declares,
+after describing his kind reception: 'I feel at present a stranger among
+strangers; no new thing to me, especially if they are black, and begin
+by offering me cocoa-nut instead of bread and butter. This place
+looks too large for comfort--like a section of London, busy, bustling,
+money-making. There are warm hearts somewhere amid the great stores and
+banks and shops, I dare say. But you know it feels a little strange,
+and especially as I think it not unlikely that a regular hearty Church
+feeling may not be the rule of the place. Still I am less shy than I
+was, and with real gentlemen feel no difficulty in discussing points on
+which we differ.
+
+It is the vulgar uneducated fellow that beats me. The Melanesians, laugh
+as you may at it, are naturally gentlemanly and courteous and well-bred.
+I never saw a "gent" in Melanesia, though not a few downright savages. I
+vastly prefer the savage.'
+
+Melbourne was, however, to be taken on the return; and he went on to
+Adelaide, where Bishop Short and the clergy met him at the port, and he
+was welcomed most heartily. The Diocesan Synod assembled to greet him,
+and presented an address; and there were daily services and meetings,
+when great interest was excited, and tangibly proved by the raising of
+about L250. He was perfectly astonished at the beauty and fertility
+of the place, and the exceeding luxuriance of the fruit. One bunch
+of grapes had been known to weigh fourteen pounds. As to the style of
+living with all ordinary English comforts and attendance, he says:--'I
+feel almost like a fish out of water, and yet I can't help enjoying it.
+One very easily resumes old luxurious habits, and yet the thought of
+my dear boys, sick as I fear some must be, helps to keep me in a sober
+state of mind.'
+
+On St. Matthew's Day he assisted at an Ordination: and on the 27th
+returned to Melbourne for three weeks, and thence to Sydney. His time
+was so taken up that his letters are far more scanty and hurried than
+usual.
+
+'I have been running no little risk of being spoilt, and I don't say
+that I have come off uninjured. In Melbourne I was told by the Dean (the
+Bishop is in England) and by Judge Pohlman (an excellent good man)
+that they remembered no occasion during the twenty-two years of sojourn
+(before Melbourne was more than a village) when so much interest had
+been shown in Christian work, especially Mission work. This is a thing
+to be very thankful for. I felt it my duty to speak strongly to them on
+their own duties, first to Aborigines, secondly to Chinese (of whom some
+40,000 live in Victoria), thirdly to Melanesians. I did not aim only at
+getting money for Melanesia; I took much higher ground than that. But
+the absence of the ordinary nonsense about startling conversions, rapid
+results, &c., and the matter-of-fact unsentimental way of stating the
+facts of heathenism, and the way to act upon it, did, no doubt, produce
+a very remarkable effect.
+
+'I need not tell you that I did pray for strength to make good use
+of such unexpected and very unusual opportunities. Crowded meetings,
+nothing before like it in Melbourne or the provinces. I did not feel
+nervous, much to my surprise; I really wonder at it, I had dreaded it
+much.
+
+'It was a sight to see St. George's Hall crowded, children sitting on
+the floor, platform, anywhere, and very many adults (about 500) besides.
+Now you know my old vanity. Thank God, I don't think it followed me very
+much here. There was a strong sense of a grand opportunity, and the need
+of grace to use it.'
+
+The enthusiasm at Victoria resulted in 350 pounds, and pledges of future
+assistance; and at Sydney there was the like grand meeting, the like
+address, and hearty response; and the Churches of Australia pledged
+themselves to bear the annual expenses of the voyages of the 'Southern
+Cross.' A number of young clerks and officials, too, united in an
+arrangement by which she could be insured, high as was the needful rate.
+
+The preaching and speeches produced an immense feeling, and the after
+review of the expedition is thus recorded:--
+
+'As for my sermons in Australia, I found to my surprise that every
+minute was so occupied that I could not make time to write; and as for
+doing so in New Zealand before I started, why, I systematized and put
+into the printer's hands, in about four months, grammars, &c., more or
+less complete, of seventeen languages, working up eight or ten more in
+MS.!
+
+'I had to preach extempore for the most part: I did not at all like it,
+but what could I do? Sermons and speeches followed like hail--at least
+one, sometimes two on week-days, and three on Sundays. I preached on
+such points as I had often talked out with the Primate and Sir William,
+and illustrated principles by an occasional statement of facts drawn
+from missionary experience.
+
+'Now, old Fan, as you know, the misery of self-consciousness and conceit
+clings to me. I can't, as dear old father could, tell you what actually
+occurred without doing myself harm in the telling of it.
+
+'It pleased God to make me able to say all through what I think it was
+good for people to hear. All meetings and services (with a few, very few
+exceptions, from heavy rains, &c.) were crowded. I could not in a few
+minutes speak with any degree of completeness on subjects which for
+years had occupied my thoughts: I was generally about an hour and
+a half, occasionally longer--I tried to be shorter. But people were
+attentive and interested all through. At Melbourne, it was said that
+1,500 children (at a meeting for them) were present, and 500 adults,
+including many of the most educated people. All, children included, were
+as still as mice for an hour and a half, except occasional cheers.
+
+'But generally there was little excitement. I did not, as you can
+suppose, take the sensation line; spoke very rapidly, for I had no time
+to spare--but clearly and quietly, sometimes gravely, sometimes with
+exceeding earnestness, and exposed sophistries and fallacies and errors
+about the incapacity of the black races, &c. There were times when I
+lost all sense of nervousness and self, and only wished that 10,000
+people had been present, for I felt that I was speaking out, face to
+face, plain simple words of truth.
+
+'The effect at the time was no doubt very remarkable. The Dean of
+Melbourne, e.g., said publicly that no such earnestness in religious,
+matters had ever been exhibited there. The plan of Mission work was
+simple, practicable, commended itself to hard-headed men of business.
+Many came to hear who had been disgusted with the usual sentimentalism
+and twaddle, the absence of knowledge of human nature, the amount of
+conventional prejudice, &c. They were induced to come by friends who
+represented that this was something quite different, and these men
+went away convinced in many cases, seconding resolutions and paying
+subscriptions.
+
+'I said what was true, that I was the mouthpiece of the Bishop of New
+Zealand; that I could speak freely of the plan of the Mission, for it
+was not my plan, &c. How I was carried through it all, I can't say. I
+was unusually well, looked and felt bright, and really after a while
+enjoyed it, though I was always glad when my share in the speechifying
+was over. Yet I did feel it a blessing, and a privilege, to stand up
+there and speak out; and I did speak out, and told them their plain
+duties, not appealing to feelings, but aiming at convincing the
+judgment. I told 1,500 people in church at Sydney, "I speak as to wise
+men, judge ye what I say." Do you know, Fan, I almost feel that if I
+live a few years I ought to write a book, unless I can get the Primate
+to do it? So much that is self-evident to us, I now see to be quite
+unknown to many good educated men. I don't mean a silly book, but a very
+simple statement of general principles of Christian work, showing the
+mode that must be adopted in dealing with men as partakers of a
+common nature, coupled with the many modifications and adaptations to
+circumstances which equally require special gifts of discernment and
+wisdom from on high. Then occasional narratives, by way of illustration,
+to clench the statement of principles, might be introduced; but I can't
+write, what I might write if I chose, folios of mere events without
+deducing from them some maxims for Christian practice.'
+
+The impression produced was deep and lasting at all the Australian
+capitals, including Brisbane.
+
+A plan was even set on foot for transferring a part of the Melanesian
+school to a little island not far from the coast of Queensland, in a
+much warmer climate than Kohimarama, where it was thought Australian
+natives might be gathered in.
+
+Here is the description of the place, written a day or two after the
+return to New Zealand:--
+
+
+'St. Andrew's: April 27, 1864.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--I returned on the 24th from Australia. I visited the
+dioceses of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Everywhere I met
+with great encouragement; and indeed, I thank God that (as I had hoped)
+the special work of the Mission became the means of exciting
+unusual interest in the work of the Church generally. It was a great
+opportunity, a great privilege in the crowded meetings to tell people
+face to face their duties, to stand up as the apologist of the despised
+Australian black, and the Chinese gold-digger, and the Melanesian
+islander.
+
+'All the Primate had taught me--what heathenism is, how to deal with
+it, the simple truisms about the "common sin, common redemption," the
+capacity latent in every man, because he is a man, and not a fallen
+angel nor a brute beast, the many conventional errors on Mission
+(rather) ministerial work--many, many things I spoke of very fully and
+frequently. I felt it was a great responsibility. How strange that I
+forgot all my nervous dread, and only wished there could be thousands
+more present, for I knew that I was speaking words of truth, of hope,
+and love; and God did mercifully bless much that He enabled, me to say,
+and men's hearts were struck within them, though, indeed, I made no
+effort to excite them.
+
+'Much may result from it. We may have a branch school on the S.W.
+of Curtis Island, on the east coast of Queensland, healthy, watered,
+wooded, with anchorage, about 25 deg. S. latitude, a fair wind to and from
+some of the islands; to which place I could rapidly carry away sick
+persons.
+
+'There I could convey two hundred or more scholars, in the same time
+required to bring sixty to New Zealand; there yams can be grown; there
+it may be God's will that a work may be commenced at length among the
+remnant that is left of the Australian blacks. The latter consideration
+is very strongly urged upon me by the united voice of the Australian
+Churches, by none more strongly than by the Bishop of Sydney. I dare to
+hope that the communion of the Australian and New Zealand Churches will
+be much strengthened by the Mission as a link. What blessings, what
+mercies!
+
+'This will not involve an abandonment of St Andrew's, but the work must
+expand. I think Australia will supply near 1,000 pounds a year, perhaps
+more before long.
+
+'To teach me that all is in His hands, we have again had a visitation
+from dysentery. It has been very prevalent everywhere, no medical men
+remember such a season. We have lost from consumption two, and from
+dysentery six this year; in fourteen months not less than fourteen: more
+than in all the other years put together. Marvellous to relate, all our
+old baptized and confirmed scholars are spared to us. Good-bye, and God
+ever bless and keep you.
+
+'Your affectionate cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON, Bishop.'
+
+
+One of these deaths was that of Kareambat, the little New Caledonian
+confided to the Bishop of New Zealand by poor Basset. He had been
+christened on the previous Epiphany.
+
+No doubt this grief on coming home increased the effect of this year of
+trial. Indeed even on the voyage there had been this admission, 'Somehow
+I don't feel right with all this holiday; I have worked really very
+hard, but "change of work is the best holiday." I don't feel springy. I
+am not so young as I was, that's the truth of it, and this life is not
+likely to be a long one. Yet when used up for this work, absence of
+continual anxiety and more opportunity of relaxation may carry a man on
+without his being wholly useless!'
+
+The Maori war was a constant grief and anxiety to all the friends on
+shore, and there was thus evidently much less elasticity left to meet
+the great shock that was preparing for the voyagers in the expedition of
+1864. Mr. Codrington was not of the party, having been obliged to go to
+England to decide whether it was possible to give himself wholly to the
+Mission; and the staff therefore consisted of Mr. Pritt, Mr. Kerr, and
+Mr. Palmer, with Mr. Joseph Atkin, whose journal his family have kindly
+put at my disposal.
+
+The endeavour was to start after the Ascension Day Communion, but things
+were not forward enough. May was not, however, very far advanced before
+the 'Southern Cross' was at sea.
+
+On May 17, Norfolk Island was visited, and Edwin Nobbs and Fisher Young
+had what proved to be their last sight, of their home and friends. The
+plan was to go on to Nengone and Erromango, take up the stores sent to
+the latter place from Sydney, drop the two clergymen at Mota, and after
+a stay there, go to the New Hebrides, and then take up the party, and if
+possible leave them to make experiment of Curtis Island, while going to
+those Santa Cruz islands for which he always seems to have had such a
+yearning.
+
+'I feel as usual,' he finishes the letter sent from Norfolk Island,
+'that no one can tell what may be the issue of such voyages. I pray and
+trust that God will mercifully reveal to me "what I ought to do, and
+give me grace and power to fulfil the same."
+
+'I have now been for some time out of the way of this kind of work, but
+I hope that all may be safely ordered for us. It is all in His hands;
+and you all feel, as I try to do, that there should be no cause for
+anxiety or trouble.
+
+'Yet there are moments when one has such an overwhelming sense of one's
+sins and negligences provoking God to chastise one. I know that His
+merciful intention towards men must be accomplished, and on the whole
+I rest thankfully in that, and feel that He will not suffer my utter
+unworthiness to hinder His work of love and goodness.'
+
+At Mota, Mr. Atkin's journal shows to what work a real helper needed to
+be trained:--
+
+'The Mission-house had lost its roof in a gale of wind. The epidemic
+that was raging last year did not seem to have continued long after with
+such violence; some more of the people were dead, but not very many.
+We took off all the Mota boys, and things that were wanted in three
+boat-loads, the last time leaving the Bishop. There was, fortunately,
+very little surf, and we got nothing wet, but as the tide was high, we
+had to carry the things over the coral reefs with the water a little
+above our knees.
+
+'About an hour later we dropped anchor at Vanua Lava. On Saturday
+morning I went ashore with the boat, and got water for washing and sand
+for scrubbing decks, and several tons of taro and yams discharged on
+board the vessel. Then made another trip, left all the boys on shore
+for a holiday, and took off twelve or fourteen cwt. of yams, taro, and
+cocoa-nuts. After dinner and washing up, went to fetch boys back. Where
+we bought the yams there was such a surf breaking that we could not haul
+the boat on the beach, and we had to wade and carry them out. After we
+got on board, we had a bathe. Two of the Solomon Islanders distinguished
+themselves by jumping off the fore-yard, and diving under the ship.
+Mr. Tilly and the mates had been stowing, and the rest of us had been
+getting yams all day, and if our friends could have seen us then,
+haggard-looking and dirty, singing choruses to nigger melodies, how
+shocked they would have been!
+
+'Next Thursday went across to Mota, took the Bishop on board, and sailed
+south as fast as possible.
+
+'Sunday morning we were at the entrance of the passage between Ambrym
+and Mallicolo, without a breath of wind. We had service at 10 A.M.; and
+in the afternoon, psalms and hymns and chants in the cabin, the Bishop
+doing most of the singing.
+
+'June 6th.--On Monday morning we landed at the old place at Tariko. We
+began to buy some yams. The Bishop and William Pasvorang went ashore,
+and the rest of us stayed in the boat, keeping her afloat and off
+the reefs. Unfortunately the place where we landed was neutral ground
+between two tribes, who both brought yams to the place to sell. One
+party said another was getting too many hatchets, and two or three drew
+off and began shooting at the others. One man stood behind the Bishop,
+a few feet from him, and fired away in the crowd with a will. The
+consternation and alarm of both parties were very ludicrous. Some of
+each set were standing round the boat, armed with bows and arrows, but
+they were so frightened that they never seemed to think of using them,
+but ran off as hard as they could scamper to the shallow water, looking
+over their shoulders to see if the enemies' arrows were after them. One
+arrow was fired at the Bishop from the shore, and one hit the boat just
+as we pushed off.
+
+'The Bishop himself says of this fray:--"I was in the middle, one man
+only remained by me, crouching under the lee of the branch of the tree,
+and shooting away from thence within a yard of me. I did not like to
+leave the steel-yard, and I had to detach it from the rope with which
+it was tied to the tree, and the basket too was half full of yams and
+heavy, so that it was some time before I got away, and walked down the
+beach, and waded to the boat, shooting going on all round at the time;
+no one shooting at me, yet as they shot on both sides of me at each
+other, I was thankful to get well out of it. I thought of him who
+preserves from 'the arrow that flieth by day,' as He has so mercifully
+preserved so many of us from 'the sickness.'" Now don't go and let this
+little affair be printed.'
+
+At Parama there was a friendly landing. At Sopevi Mr. Atkin says: 'We
+could not find the landing place where the Bishop two years ago found
+several people. We saw three or four on the shore. They were just the
+same colour as the dust from the volcano. What a wretched state they
+must be in! If they go to the neighbouring-isles they will be killed as
+enemies, and if they stay at home they are constantly suffocated by
+the ashes, which seemed to have fallen lately to the depth of more than
+afoot.'
+
+At Mallicolo a landing place was found, and an acquaintance begun
+by means of gifts of calico. At Leper's Island St. Barnabas Day was
+celebrated by bringing off two boys, but here again was peril. The
+Bishop writes:--
+
+'The people, though constantly fighting, and cannibals and the rest of
+it, are to me very attractive, light-coloured, and some very handsome.
+As I sat on the beach with a crowd about me, most of them suddenly
+jumped up and ran off. Turning my head I saw a man (from the boat they
+saw two men) a few yards from me, corning to me with club uplifted. I
+remained sitting, and held out a few fish-hooks to him, but one or two
+men jumped up and seizing him by the waist forced him off. After a few
+minutes (lest they should think I was suspicious of them), I went back
+to the boat. I found out from the two young men who went away with
+me from another place, just what I expected to hear, viz. that a poor
+fellow called Moliteum was shot dead two months ago by a trader for
+stealing a bit of calico. The wonder was, not that they wanted to avenge
+the death of their kinsman, but that the others should have prevented
+it. How could they possibly know that I was not one of the wicked
+set? Yet they did discriminate; and here again, always by the merciful
+Providence of God, the plan of going among the people unarmed and
+unsuspiciously has been seen to disarm their mistrust and to make them
+regard me as a friend.'
+
+Curtis Island was inspected, but there was no possibility of leaving a
+party to make experiment on it; and then the 'Southern Cross' sailed for
+the Santa Cruz cluster, that group whose Spanish name was so remarkable
+a foreboding of what they were destined to become to that small party
+of Christian explorers. Young Atkin made no entry in his diary of those
+days, and could never bear to speak of them; and yet, from that time
+forward, his mind was fully made up to cast in his lot with the Mission.
+
+It was on August 15 that the first disaster at these islands took
+place. Not till the 27th could the Bishop--on his sister Fanny's
+birthday--begin a letter to her, cheering himself most touchingly with
+the thought of the peace at home, and then he broke off half way, and
+could not continue for some days:--
+
+'My dearest Fan,--You remember the old happy anniversaries of your
+birthday--the Feniton party--the assembly of relations--the regular
+year's festivity.
+
+'No doubt this anniversary brings as much true happiness, the assurance
+of a more abiding joy, the consciousness of deeper and truer sympathy.
+You are, I hope, to pass the day cheerfully and brightly with perhaps
+---- and ---- about you.... Anyhow, I shall think of you as possibly all
+together, the remnant of the old family gathering, on a calm autumn day,
+with lovely South Devon scenery around you.
+
+'The day comes to me in the midst of one of the deepest sorrows I have
+ever known--perhaps I have never felt such sorrow...perhaps I have
+never been so mercifully supported under it. It is a good and profitable
+sorrow I trust for me: it has made so much in me reveal itself as
+hollow, worldly, selfish, vainglorious. It has, I hope, helped to
+strip away the veil, and may be by God's blessing the beginning of more
+earnest life-long repentance and preparation for death.
+
+'On August 15 I was at Santa Cruz. You know that I had a very remarkable
+day there three years ago. I felt very anxious to renew acquaintance
+with the people, who are very numerous and strong.
+
+'I went off in the boat with Atkin (twenty), Pearce (twenty-three or
+twenty-four years old), Edwin Nobbs, Fisher Young, and Hunt Christian,
+the last three Norfolk Islanders. Atkin, Edwin and Fisher have been with
+me for two or three years--all young fellows of great promise, Fisher
+perhaps the dearest of all to me, about eighteen, and oh! so good, so
+thoroughly truthful, conscientious, and unselfish!
+
+'I landed at two places among many people, and after a while came back
+as usual to the boat. All seemed pleasant and hopeful. At the third
+place I landed amidst a great crowd, waded over the broad reef
+(partially uncovered at low water), went into a house, sat down for some
+time, then returned among a great crowd to the boat and got into it. I
+had some difficulty in detaching the hands of some men swimming in the
+water.
+
+'Well, when the boat was about fifteen yards from the reef, on
+which crowds were standing, they began (why I know not) to shoot at
+us.--(Another letter adds) 300 or 400 people on the reef, and five or
+six canoes being round us, they began to shoot at us.--I had not shipped
+the rudder, so I held it up, hoping it might shield off any arrows that
+came straight, the boat being end on, and the stern, having been backed
+into the reef, was nearest to them.
+
+'When I looked round after a minute, providentially indeed, for the
+boat was being pulled right into a small bay on the reef, and would have
+grounded, I saw Pearce lying between the thwarts, with the long shaft
+of an arrow in his chest, Edwin Nobbs with an arrow as it seemed in his
+left eye, many arrows flying close to us from many quarters. Suddenly
+Fisher Young, pulling the stroke oar, gave a faint scream; he was shot
+through the left wrist. Not a word was spoken, only my "Pull! port
+oars, pull on steadily." Once dear Edwin, with the fragment of the
+arrow sticking in his cheek, and the blood streaming down, called out,
+thinking even then more of me than of himself, "Look out, sir! close to
+you!" But indeed, on all sides they were close to us!
+
+'How we any of us escaped I can't tell; Fisher and Edward pulled on,
+Atkin had taken Pearce's oar, Hunt pulled the fourth oar. By God's mercy
+no one else was hit, but the canoes chased us to the schooner. In about
+twenty minutes we were on board, the people in the canoes round the
+vessel seeing the wounded paddled off as hard as they could, expecting
+of course that we should take vengeance on them. But I don't at all
+think that they were cognisant of the attack on shore.'
+
+
+Several letters were written about this adventure; but I have thought
+it better to put them together, every word being Bishop Patteson's own,
+because such a scene is better realised thus than by reading several
+descriptions for the most part identical. What a scene it is! The
+palm-clad island, the reef and sea full of the blacks, the storm of long
+arrows through the air, the four youths pulling bravely and steadily,
+and their Bishop standing over them, trying to ward off the blows with
+the rudder, and gazing with the deep eyes and steadfast smile that had
+caused many a weapon to fall harmless!
+
+Pearce, it should be observed, was a volunteer for the Mission then on a
+trial-trip.
+
+There was an even more trying time to come on board. The Bishop
+continues:--
+
+'I drew out the arrow from Pearce's chest: a slanting wound not going
+in very deep, running under the skin, yet of apparently almost fatal
+character to an ignorant person like myself; Five inches were actually
+inside him. The arrow struck him almost in the centre of the chest and
+in the direction of the right breast. There was no effusion of blood,
+he breathed with great difficulty, groaning and making a kind of hollow
+sound, was perfectly composed, gave me directions and messages in case
+of his death. I put on a poultice and bandage, and leaving him in charge
+of some one, went to Fisher. The wrist was shot through, but the upper
+part of the arrow broken off and deep down; bleeding profuse, of which
+I was glad; I cut deeply, though fearing much to cut an artery, but I
+could not extract the wooden arrow-head. At length getting a firm hold
+of the projecting point of the arrow on the lower side of his wrist,
+I pulled it through: it came out clean. The pain was very great, he
+trembled and shivered: we gave him brandy, and he recovered. I poulticed
+the wound and went to Edwin. Atkin had got out the splinter from his
+wound; the arrow went in near the eye and came out by the cheek-bone:
+it was well syringed, and the flow of blood had been copious from the
+first. The arrows were not bone-headed, and not poisoned, but I well
+knew that lock-jaw was to be dreaded. Edwin's was not much more than
+a flesh wound. Fisher's being in the wrist, frightened me more: their
+patience and quiet composure and calm resignation were indeed a strength
+and comfort to us all.
+
+'This was on Monday, August 15. All seemed doing well for a day or two,
+I kept on poultices, gave light nourishing food, &c. But on Saturday
+morning Fisher said to me, "I can't make out what makes my jaws feel so
+stiff."
+
+'Then my heart sank down within me, and I prayed earnestly, earnestly
+to God. I talked to the dear dear lad of his danger, night and day we
+prayed and read. A dear guileless spirit indeed. I never saw in so young
+a person such a thorough conscientiousness as for two years I witnessed
+in his daily life, and I had long not only loved but respected him.
+
+'We had calm weather and could not get on. By Saturday the jaws were
+tight-locked. Then more intense grew the pain, the agony, the whole body
+rigid like a bar of iron! Oh! how I blessed God who carried me through
+that day and night. How good he was in his very agonies, in his fearful
+spasms, thanking God, praying, pressing my hand when I prayed and
+comforted him with holy words of Scripture. None but a well-disciplined,
+humble, simple Christian could so have borne his sufferings: the habit
+of obedience and faith and patience; the childlike unhesitating trust in
+God's love and fatherly care, supported him now. He never for a moment
+lost his hold upon God. What a lesson it was! it calmed us all. It
+almost awed me to see in so young a lad so great an instance of God's
+infinite power, so great a work of good perfected in one young enough to
+have been confirmed by me.
+
+'At 1 A.M. (Monday) I moved from his side to my couch, only three yards
+off. Of course we were all (I need not say) in the after cabin. He said
+faintly, "Kiss me. I am very glad that I was doing my duty. Tell my
+father that I was in the path of duty, and he will be so glad. Poor
+Santa Cruz people!" Ah! my dear boy, you will do more for their
+conversion by your death than ever we shall by our lives. And as I lay
+down almost convulsed with sobs, though not audible, he said (so Mr.
+Tilly afterwards told me), "Poor Bishop!" How full his heart was of love
+and peace, and thoughts of heaven. "Oh! what love," he said. The last
+night when I left him for an hour or two at 1 A.M. only to lie down in
+my clothes by his side, he said faintly (his body being then rigid as
+a bar of iron), "Kiss me, Bishop." At 4 A.M. he started as if from a
+trance; he had been wandering a good deal, but all his words even
+then were of things pure and holy. His eyes met mine, and I saw the
+consciousness gradually coming back into them. "They never stop singing
+there, sir, do they?"--for his thoughts were with the angels in heaven.
+Then, after a short time, the last terrible struggle, and then he fell
+asleep. And remember, all this in the midst of that most agonizing, it
+may be, of all forms of death. At 4 A.M. he was hardly conscious, not
+fully conscious: there were same fearful spasms: we fanned him and
+bathed his head and occasionally got a drop or two of weak brandy or
+wine and water down. Then came the last struggle. Oh! how I thanked God
+when his head at length fell back, or rather his whole body, for it was
+without joint, on my arm: long drawn sighs with still sadder contraction
+of feature succeeded, and while I said the Commendatory Prayer, he
+passed away.
+
+'The same day we anchored in Port Patteson, and buried him in a quiet
+spot near the place where the Primate and I first landed years ago.
+It seems a consecration of the place that the body of that dear child
+should be resting there.
+
+'Some six years ago, when Mrs. Selwyn stopped at Norfolk Island she
+singled him out as the boy of special promise. For two or three years he
+had been with me, and my affection flowed out naturally to him. God had
+tried him by the two sicknesses at Kohimarama and at Mota, and by his
+whole family returning to Pitcairn. I saw that he had left all for this
+work. He had become most useful, and oh! how we shall miss him!
+
+'But about five days after this (August 22) Edwin's jaws began to
+stiffen. For nine or ten days there was suspense, so hard to bear. Some
+symptoms were not so bad, it did not assume so acute a form. I thought
+he ought to be carried through it. He was older, about twenty-one, six
+feet high, a strong handsome young man, the pride of Norfolk Island,
+the destined helper and successor (had God so willed) of his father, the
+present Clergyman. The same faith, the same patience, the same endurance
+of suffering.
+
+'On Friday, September 2, I administered the Holy Communion to him
+and Pearce. He could scarce swallow the tiniest crumb. He was often
+delirious, yet not one word but spoke of things holy and pure, almost
+continually in prayer. He was in the place where Fisher had died, the
+best part of the cabin for an invalid. Sunday came: he could take no
+nourishment, stomach and back in much pain: a succession of violent
+spasms at about 10.30 A.M., but his body never became quite rigid. The
+death struggle at 1 A.M. September 5, was very terrible. Three of us
+could scarcely hold him. Then he sank back on my arm, and his spirit
+passed away as I commended his soul to God. Then all motionless. After
+some minutes, I said the first prayer in the Burial Service, then
+performed the last offices, then had a solemn talk with Pearce, and
+knelt down, I know not how long.
+
+'We buried him at sea. All this time we were making very slow progress;
+indeed the voyage has been very remarkable in all respects. Pearce
+seems to be doing very well, so that I am very hopeful about him. The
+temperature now is only 72 degrees, and I imagine that his constitution
+is less liable to that particular disease. Yet punctured wounds are
+always dangerous on this account.
+
+'Patience and trust in God, the same belief in His goodness and love,
+that He orders all things for our good, that this is but a proof of His
+merciful dealing with us: such comforts God has graciously not withheld.
+I never felt so utterly broken down, when I thought, and think, of the
+earthly side of it all; never perhaps so much realised the comfort and
+power of His Presence, when I have had grace to dwell upon the heavenly
+and abiding side of it. I do with my better part heartily and humbly
+thank Him, that He has so early taken these dear ones by a straight
+and short path to their everlasting home. I think of them with blessed
+saints, our own dear ones, in Paradise, and in the midst of my tears I
+bless and praise God.
+
+'But, dear Fan, Fisher most of all supplied to me the absence of earthly
+relations and friends. He was my boy: I loved him as I think I never
+loved any one else. I don't mean more than you all, but in a different
+way: not as one loves another of equal age, but as a parent loves a
+child.
+
+'I can hardly think of my little room at Kohimarama without him. I
+long for the sight of his dear face, the sound of his voice. It was
+my delight to teach him, and he was clever and so thoughtful and
+industrious. I know it is good that my affections should be weaned from
+all things earthly. I try to be thankful, I think I am thankful really;
+time too will do much, God's grace much more. I only wonder how I have
+borne it all. "In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart,
+Thy comforts have refreshed my soul." Mr. Tilly has been and is full of
+sympathy, and is indeed a great aid. He too has a heavy loss in these
+two dear ones. And now I must land at Norfolk Island in the face of the
+population crowding the little pier. Mr. Nobbs will be there, and the
+brothers and sisters of Edwin, and the uncles and aunts of Fisher.
+
+'Yet God will comfort them; they have been called to the high privilege
+of being counted worthy to suffer for their Savior's sake. However much
+I may reproach myself with want of caution and of prayer for guidance
+(and this is a bitter thought), they were in the simple discharge of
+their duty. Their intention and wish were to aid in bringing to those
+poor people the Gospel of Christ. It has pleased God that in the
+execution of this great purpose they should have met with their deaths.
+Surely there is matter for comfort here!
+
+'I can't write all this over again.... I have written at some length to
+Jem also; put the two letters together, and you will be able to realise
+it somewhat.
+
+'This is a joint letter to you and Joan. It was begun on your birthday,
+and it has been written with a heavy, dull weight of sorrow on my heart,
+yet not unrelieved by the blessed consciousness of being drawn, as I
+humbly trust, nearer to our most merciful Father in heaven, if only by
+the very impossibility of finding help elsewhere. It has not been a time
+without its own peculiar happiness. How much of the Bible seemed endued
+with new powers of comfort.... How true it is, that they who seek,
+find. "I sought the Lord, and He heard me." The closing chapters of the
+Gospels, 2 Corinthians, and how many other parts of the New Testament
+were blessings indeed! Jeremy Taylor's "Life of Christ," and "Holy
+Living and Dying," Thomas a Kempis, most of all of course the
+Prayer-book, and such solemn holy memories of our dear parents and
+uncles, such blessed hopes of reunion, death brought so near, the
+longing (if only not unprepared) for the life to come: I could not be
+unhappy. Yet I could not sustain such a frame of mind long; and then
+when I sank to the level of earthly thoughts, then came the weary
+heartache, and the daily routine of work was so distasteful, and I felt
+sorely tempted to indulge the "luxury of grief." But, thanks be to God,
+it is not altogether an unhealthy sorrow, and I can rest in the full
+assurance that all this is working out God's purposes of love and mercy
+to us all--Melanesians, Pitcairners, and all; and that I needed the
+discipline I know full well....
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+It was not possible to touch at Norfolk Island, each attempt was baffled
+by the winds; and on September 16 the 'Southern Cross' anchored at
+Kohimarama, and a sad little note was sent up to the Primate with the
+announcement of the deaths and losses.
+
+In spite of the comfort which, as this note said, Patteson felt 'in the
+innocence of their lives, and the constancy of their faith' unto the
+death, the fate of these two youths, coming at the close of a year
+of unusual trial, which, as he had already said, had diminished his
+elasticity, had a lasting effect. It seemed to take away his youthful
+buoyancy, and marked lines of care on his face that never were effaced.
+The first letter after his return begins by showing how full his heart
+was of these his children:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama: Sunday, September 18, 1864.
+
+'My dearest Fan,--I must try to write without again making my whole
+letter full of dear Edwin and Fisher. That my heart is full of them you
+can well believe.
+
+'These last five weeks have taught me that my reading of the Bible was
+perhaps more intellectual and perhaps more theological than devotional,
+to a dangerous extent probably; anyhow I craved for it as a revelation
+not only of truth, but of comfort and support in heavy sorrow. It may be
+that when the sorrow does not press so heavily, the Bible cannot speak
+so wonderfully in that particular way of which I am writing, and it is
+right to read it theologically also.
+
+'But yet it should always be read with a view to some practical result;
+and so often there is not a special, though many general points which
+may make our reading at once practical. Then comes the real trial, and
+then comes the wondrous power of God's Word to help and strengthen.
+
+'Now it helps me to know where I am, to learn how others manage to see
+where they are.
+
+'All that you say about self-consciousness, &c., can't I understand it!
+Ah! when I saw the guileless pure spirit of those two dear fellows ever
+brightening more and more for now two years. I had respected them as
+much as I loved them. I used to think, "Yes, we must become such as
+they; we too must seek and pray for the mind of a little child."
+
+'And surely the contemplation of God is the best cure. How admirable
+Jeremy Taylor is on those points! Oh that he had not overlaid it all
+with such superabundant ornamentation of style and rhetoric. But it is
+the manner of the age. Many persons I suppose get over it, perhaps
+like it; but I long for the same thoughts, the same tenderness and
+truthfulness, and faithful searching words with a clear, simple, not
+unimaginative diction. Yet his book is a great heritage.
+
+'Newman has a sermon on Contemplation or Meditation, I forget which; and
+my copy is on board. But I do hope that by praying for humility, with
+contemplation of God's majesty and love and our Savior's humility and
+meekness, some improvement may be mercifully vouchsafed to me.
+
+'To dwell on His humiliation, His patience, that He should seek for
+heavenly aids, accept the ministration of an angel strengthening Him,
+how full of mystery and awe! and yet written for us! And yet we are
+proud and self-justified and vainglorious!
+
+'The Archbishop of York, in "Aids to Faith," on the Death of Christ, has
+some most solemn and deep remarks on the Lord's Agony. I don't know that
+it could ever be quite consistent with reverence to speak on what is
+there suggested. Yet if I could hear Mr. Keble and Dr. Pusey (say)
+prayerfully talking together on that great mystery, I should feel that
+it might be very profitable. But he must be a very humble man who should
+dare to speak on it. Yet read it, Fan, it cannot harm you; it is very
+awful, it is fully meant that He was sinless, without spot, undefiled
+through all. It makes the mystery of sin, and of what it cost to redeem
+our souls, more awful than ever.
+
+'And then, surely to the contemplation of God and the necessary contrast
+of our own weakness and misery, we add the thought of our approaching
+death, we anticipate the hours, the days, it may be the weeks and
+months, even the years of weariness, pain, sleeplessness, thirst,
+distaste for food, murmuring thoughts, evil spirits haunting us,
+impatient longings after rest for which we are not yet prepared, the
+thousand trials, discomforts, sadnesses of sickness--yes, it must come
+in some shape; and is it to come as a friend or an enemy to snatch us
+from what we love and enjoy, or to open the gates of Paradise?
+
+'I humbly thank God that, while I dare not be sure that I am not
+mistaken, and suppose that if ready to go I should be taken, the thought
+of death at a distance is the thought of rest and peace, of more blessed
+communion with God's saints, holy angels and the Lord. Yet I dare not
+feel that if death was close at hand, it might not be far otherwise.
+How often the "Christian Year," and all true divinity helps up here! Why
+indulge in such speculations? Seek to prepare for death by dying daily.
+Oh! that blessed text: Be not distracted, worry not yourselves about the
+morrow, for the morrow shall, &c. How it does carry one through the day!
+Bear everything as sent from God for your good, by way of chastisement
+or of proving you. Pusey's sermon on Patience, Newman's on a Particular
+Providence, guarding so wisely against abuse as against neglect of the
+doctrine. How much to comfort and guide one! and then, most of all, the
+continual use of the Prayer-book. Do you often use the Prayer at the
+end of the Evening Service for Charles the Martyr? Leave out from "great
+deep...teach us to number"--and substitute "pride" for "splendour."
+Leave out "according to... blessed martyr." In the Primate's case, it is
+a prayer full of meaning, and it may have a meaning for us all.
+
+'Once more, the love of approbation is right and good, but then it
+must be the love of the approbation of God and of good men. Here, as
+everywhere, we abuse His gift; and it is a false teaching which bids
+us suppress the human instinct which God implanted in us, but a true
+leading, which bids us direct and use it to its appointed and legitimate
+use. On this general subject, read if you have not read them, and you
+can't read them too often, Butler's Sermons; you know, the great
+Butler. I think you will easily get an analysis of them, such as Mill's
+"Analysis of Pearson on the Creed," which will help you, if you want it.
+Analyse them for yourself, if you like, and send me out your analysis
+to look at. There is any amount of fundamental teaching there and the
+imprimatur of thousands of good men to assure us of it.
+
+'I think, as I have written to Joan, that if I were with you, after the
+first few days my chiefest delight would be in reading and talking over
+our reading of good books. Edwin and Fisher were beginning to
+understand thoughtful books; and how I did delight in reading with them,
+interspersing a little Pitcairn remark here and there! Ah! never more!
+never more! But they don't want books now. All is clear now: they live
+where there is no night, in the Glory of God and of the Lamb, resting
+in Paradise, anticipating the full consummation of the Life of the
+Resurrection. Thanks be to God, and it may not be long--but I must not
+indulge such thoughts.
+
+'I feel better, but at times this sad affliction weighs me down much,
+and business of all kinds seems almost to multiply. Yet there are many
+many comforts, and kindest sympathy.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+Just at this time heavy sorrow fell upon Bishop Hobhouse of Nelson; and
+the little council of friends at Auckland decided that Bishop Patteson
+should go at once to do his best to assist and comfort him, and bring
+him back to Auckland. There was a quiet time of wholesome rest at
+Nelson; and the effects appeared in numerous letters, and in the
+thinking out of many matters on paper to his sisters.
+
+'Oh! how I think with such ever-increasing love of dear Fisher and
+Edwin! How I praised God for them on All Saints' Day. But I don't expect
+to recover spring and elasticity yet awhile. I don't think I shall ever
+feel so young again. Really it is curious that the number of white hairs
+is notably increased in these few weeks (though it is silly to talk
+about it. Don't mention it!), and I feel very tired and indolent. No
+wonder I seem to "go softly." But I am unusually happy down in the
+depths, only the surface troubled. I hope that it is not fancy only that
+makes the shortness and uncertainty of this life a ground of comfort
+and joy. Perhaps it is, indeed I think it is, very much a mere cowardly
+indolent shirking of work.
+
+'Did I say I thought I might some day write a book? It will be some day
+indeed. It seems funny enough to think of such a thing. The fact is, it
+is much easier to me to speak than to write. I think I could learn
+with a good deal of leisure and trouble to write intelligibly, but not
+without it. I am so diffusive and wanting in close condensed habits
+of thought. How often I go off in a multitude of words, and really say
+nothing worthy to be remembered.
+
+'How I should enjoy, indeed, a day or two at Hursley with Mr. and Mrs.
+Keble. A line from him now and then, if he can find time, would be a
+great delight to me; but I know that he thinks and prays, and that is
+indeed a great happiness.
+
+'Oh, the blessing of such thoughts as All Saints' Day brings!--and now
+more dear than ever, every day brings!--"Patriarchs, prophets, apostles,
+martyrs, and every spirit made perfect in the faith of Christ," as an
+old Liturgy says. And the Collects in the Burial Service! How full, how
+simple and soothing, how full of calm, holy, tender, blessed hopes and
+anticipations!
+
+'So you think the large Adelaide photograph very sad. I really don't
+remember it; I fancy I thought it a very fair likeness. But you know
+that I have a heavy lumpy dull look, except when talking--indeed, then
+too for aught I know--and this may be mistaken for a sad look when it
+is only a dull stupid one. You can't get a nice picture out of an ugly
+face, so it's no use trying, but you are not looking for that kind of
+thing. You want to see how far the face is any index of the character
+and life and work.
+
+I don't think it odd that I should look careworn. I have enough to make
+me so! And yet if I were with you now, brightened up by being with you,
+you would say, "How well he looks!" And you would think I had any amount
+of work in me, as you saw me riding or walking or holding services. And
+then I had to a very considerable extent got over that silly shyness,
+which was a great trial and drawback to me of old, and sadly prevented
+me from enjoying the society of people (at Oxford especially) which
+would have done me much good. But without all these bodily defects, I
+should have been even more vain, and so I can see the blessing and
+mercy now, though how many times I have indulged murmuring rebellious
+thoughts!
+
+'Perhaps I shall live ten or twenty years, and look back and say, "I
+recollect how in '64 I really almost thought I should not last long."
+But don't fancy that I am morbidly cherishing such fancies. Only I like
+you all to know me as I am changing in feeling from time to time. There
+is quite enough to account for it all.'
+
+A few days later he returned to Auckland, and thence wrote to me a
+letter on the pros and cons of a move from New Zealand. The sight of
+ships and the town he had ceased to think of great importance, and older
+scholars had ceased to care for it, and there was much at that time to
+recommend Curtis Island to his mind. The want of bread-fruit was the
+chief disadvantage he then saw in it, but he still looked to keeping up
+Kohimarama for a good many years to come. I cannot describe how tender
+and considerate he was of feelings he thought I might possibly have of
+disappointment that St. Andrew's was not a successful experiment as far
+as health was concerned, evidently fearing that I had set my hopes on
+that individual venture, and that my feelings might be hurt if it had to
+be deserted.
+
+The next letters are a good deal occupied with the troubles incident
+to the judgment upon 'Essays and Reviews.' He took a view, as has been
+seen, such as might be expected of the delicate refining metaphysical
+mind, thinking out points for itself, and weighing the possible value
+of every word, and differed from those who were in the midst of the
+contest, and felt some form of resistance and protest needful. He
+was strongly averse to agitation on the subject, and at the same time
+grieved to find himself for the first time, to his own knowledge, not
+accepting the policy of those whom he so much respected; though the
+only difference in his mind from theirs was as to the manner of the
+maintenance of the truth, and the immediate danger of error going
+uncondemned--a point on which his remote life perhaps hardly enabled him
+to judge.
+
+All these long letters and more, which were either in the same tone,
+or too domestic to be published, prove the leisure caused by having an
+unusually small collection of pupils, and happily all in fair health;
+but with Christmas came a new idea, or rather an old one renewed.
+Instead of only going to Norfolk Island, on sufferance from the Pitcairn
+Committee, and by commission from the Bishop of Tasmania, a regular
+request was made, by Sir John Young, the Governor of Australia, that
+the Pitcairners might be taken under his supervision, so that, as far
+as Government was concerned, the opposition was withdrawn which had
+hindered his original establishment there, though still Curtis Island
+remained in the ascendency in the schemes of this summer. The ensuing
+is a reply to Sir John Coleridge's letter, written after hearing of the
+attack at Santa Cruz:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama: March 3, 1865.
+
+'My dearest Uncle,--Many many thanks for your letter, so full of comfort
+and advice. I need not tell you that the last budget of letters revived
+again most vividly not only the actual scene at Santa Cruz, but all the
+searchings of heart that followed it. I believe that we are all agreed
+on the main point. Enough ground has been opened for the present.
+Codrington was right in saying that the object of late has been to fill
+up gaps. But some of the most hazardous places to visit lie nearest
+to the south, e.g. some of the New Hebrides, &c., south of the Banks
+Islands. My notion is, that I ought to be content even to pass by
+(alas!) some places where I had some hold when I had reason to feel
+great distrust of the generally kind intentions of the people (that is
+a dark sentence, but you know my meaning). In short, there are very few
+places where I can feel, humanly speaking, secure against this kind of
+thing. It is always in the power of even one mischievous fellow to do
+mischief. And if the feeling of the majority might be in my favour, yet
+there being no way of expressing public opinion, no one cares to take
+an active part in preventing mischief. It is not worth his while to get
+into a squabble and risk his own life.
+
+'But I shall be (D.V.) very cautious. I dare say I was becoming
+presumptuous: one among the many faults that are so discernible. It is,
+dear Uncle, hard to see a wild heathen party on the beach, and not try
+to get at them. It seems so sad to leave them. But I know that I ought
+to be prudent, even for my own sake (for I quite suppose that, humanly
+speaking, my life is of consequence for a few years more), and I
+can hardly bear the thought of bringing the boat's crew, dear good
+volunteers, into danger. Young Atkin, the only son of my neighbour,
+behaved admirably at Santa Cruz, and is very staunch. But his parents
+have but him and one daughter, and I am bound to be careful indeed.
+But don't think me careless, if we get into another scrape. There is
+scarcely one island where I can fully depend upon immunity from all
+risk. There was no need to talk so much about it all before.
+
+'As to Curtis Island, I need not say that I have no wish indeed to take
+Australian work in hand. I made it most clear, as I thought, that
+the object of a site on Curtis Island was the Melanesian and not the
+Australian Mission. I offered only to incorporate Australian blacks, if
+proper specimens could be obtained, into our school, regarding in
+fact East Australia as another Melanesian island. This would only have
+involved the learning a language or two, and might have been of some
+use. I did not make any pledge. But I confess that I think some such
+plan as this one only feasible one. I don't see that the attempts at
+mission work are made on the most hopeful plan. But I have written to
+the Brisbane authorities, urging them to appropriate large reserves for
+the natives. I tell them that it is useless for them to give me a few
+acres and think they are doing a mission work, if they civilize the
+native races off their own lands. In short, I almost despair of doing
+anything for blacks living on the same land with whites. Even here in
+New Zealand, the distrust now shown to us all, to our religion even,
+is the result in very great measure of the insolent, covetous behaviour
+exhibited by the great majority of the white people to the Maori. Who
+stops in Australia to think whether the land which he wants for his
+sheep is the hunting ground of native people or not?
+
+'I confess that while I can't bear to despair and leave these poor souls
+uncared for, I can't propose any scheme but one, and who will work that?
+If, indeed, one or two men could be found to go and live with a tribe,
+moving as they move and really identifying himself with their interests!
+But where are such men, and where is a tribe not already exasperated by
+injurious treatment?
+
+'It was the statement for our mode of action which commended itself so
+much to people in Australia, that they urged me to try and do something.
+But I answered as I have now written; and when at one meeting in Sydney
+I was asked whether I would take Australians into my school, I said,
+"Yes, if I can get the genuine wild man, uncontaminated by contact with
+the white man." I can't, in justice to our Melanesian scholars, take the
+poor wretched black whose intercourse with white men has rendered him a
+far more hopeless subject to deal with than the downright ferocious yet
+not ungenerous savage. "If," was the answer, "you can get them, I will
+pay for them."
+
+'Indeed, dear Uncle, I don't want more but less work on my hands: yet
+as I look around, I see (as far as I can judge) so great a want of that
+prudence and knowledge and calm foresight that the Primate has shown
+so remarkably, that I declare I do think his plan is almost the only
+reasonable one for dealing with black races. Alas! you can't put hearty
+love for strangers into men's hearts by paying them salaries.
+
+'I think that in two or three years I may, if I live, have some
+preparatory branch school at Curtis Island. If it should clearly
+succeed, then I think in time the migration from New Zealand might
+take place. I do not think two schools in two different countries would
+answer. We want the old scholars to help us in working the school; we
+can't do without them, and the old scholars can't be trained without
+the younger ones, the material on whom their teaching, and training
+faculties must be exercised.
+
+'You all know how deeply I feel about dear Mr. Keble!
+
+'Thank God, we have as yet no dysentery. I baptized last week a lad
+dying of consumption. There are many blessings, as all clergymen know,
+in having death scenes so constantly about one; and the having to do
+everything for these dear fellows makes one love them so....
+
+'Your affectionate and dutiful Nephew,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+The above sentence refers to the paralytic attack Mr. Keble had on
+November 30, 1864. Nevertheless, almost at that very time, he was
+writing thus:--
+
+
+'Penzance: March 7, 1865.
+
+'My dear and more than dear Bishop,--It would be vain for me to write to
+you, if I pretended to do more than just express my heart's wish that
+I could say something of the doings and sufferings which now for years
+past we of course associate with your name, so as to encourage and
+support you in your present manifold distress. But (especially for
+reasons known only to myself) I must leave that altogether to Him who
+helps His own to do and suffer. One thing only I would say, that to us
+at our great distance it looks as if the sanguis martyrum were being to
+you as the semen Ecclesiae, and you know how such things were hailed in
+the time of St. Cyprian. May it please God before long to give you some
+visible earnest of this sure blessing! but I suppose that if it tarry,
+it may be the greater when it comes. Our troubles as a Church, though of
+a different kind, are not small. The great point with me is, lest, if in
+our anxiety to keep things together, we should be sinfully conniving
+at what is done against the faith, and so bringing a judgment upon
+ourselves. I do not for a moment think that by anything which has yet
+been done or permitted our being as a Church is compromised (though
+things look alarmingly as if it might be before long), but I fear
+that her well-being is more and more being damaged by our entire and
+conscious surrender of the disciplinary part of our trust, and that if
+we are apathetic in such things we may forfeit our charter. There is no
+doubt, I fear, that personal unbelief is spreading; but I trust that
+a deeper faith is spreading also; it is (at Oxford, e.g.) Pusey and
+Moberly, &c., against the Rationalists and other tempters. As to the
+question of the Bible being (not only containing) the Word, I had no
+scruples in signing that Declaration. One thought which helped me was,
+the use made in the New Testament of the Old, which is such as to show
+that we are not competent judges as to what passages convey deep moral
+or religious meanings or no. Another, that in every instance where
+one had the means of ascertaining, so far as I have known, the Bible
+difficulty has come right: therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that
+so it would be in all the rest, if we knew the right reading and the
+right interpretation of the words. And as to what are called the Divine
+and Human Elements, I have seemed to help myself with the thought
+that the Divine adoption (if so be) of the human words warrants their
+truthfulness, as a man's signature makes a letter his own; but whether
+this is relevant, I doubt. My wife and I are both on the sick list, and
+I must now only add that we never forget you.
+
+'Ever yours,
+
+'J. K.
+
+
+Nothing has hitherto been said of this term at St. Andrew's: so here is
+an extract from a letter to one of the cousinhood, who had proposed
+a plan which has since been carried out extensively and with good
+effect:--
+
+'The difficulty about scholars appropriated to certain places or
+parishes is this: I cannot be sure of the same persons remaining with
+me. Some sickness in an island, some panic, some death of a relative,
+some war, or some inability on my part from bad weather or accident to
+visit an island, may at any time lose me a scholar. Perhaps he may be
+the very one that has been appropriated to some one, and what am I to
+say then?
+
+'This year we have but thirty-eight Melanesians, we ought to have sixty.
+But after dear Edwin and Fisher's wounds, I could not delay, but hurried
+southwards, passing by islands with old scholars ready to come away.
+This was sad work, but what could I do?
+
+'I will gladly assign, to the best of my power, scholars whom I think
+likely to remain with me to various places or persons; but pray make
+them understand that their scholar may not always be forthcoming.
+Anyhow, their alms would go to the support of some Melanesian, who would
+be their scholar as it were for the time being.
+
+'You would perhaps feel interested in knowing that the Gospel of St.
+Luke has been printed in the Mota language, to a great extent by our
+scholars, and that George Sarawia is printing now the Acts, composing
+it, and doing press-work and all. Young Wogale (about thirteen) prints
+very fairly, and sent off 250 copies of a prayer, which the Bishop of
+Nelson wanted for distribution, of which everything was done by him
+entirely. They both began to learn about last November.
+
+'When morning school is over at 10 A.M., all hands, "dons" and all,
+are expected to give their time to the Mission till 12.45. Mr. Pritt
+is general overlooker (which does not mean doing nothing himself) of
+domestic work: kitchen, garden, farm, dairy, &c. You know that we have
+no servants. Mr. Palmer prints and teaches printing. Atkin works at
+whatever may be going on, and has a large share of work to get ready for
+me, and to read with me: Greek Testament, 12 to 12.45, Greek and Latin
+from 2 to 3. So all the lads are busy at out-door work from 10 to 12.45;
+and I assure you, under Mr. Pritt's management, we begin to achieve
+considerable results in our farm and garden work. We are already
+economising our expenditure greatly by keeping our own cows, for which
+we grow food (a good deal artificial), and baking our own bread. We sell
+some of our butter, and have a grand supply of milk for our scholars,
+perhaps the very best kind of food for them.
+
+'If we can manage to carry on a winter's school here with some ten or
+twelve of the lads left under Mr. Pritt's charge, while I go off with
+the rest, I really think that the industrial department may become
+something considerable. It is an essential part of the system, for we
+must begin with teaching habits of order, punctuality, &c:, in respect
+of those things with which they have already some acquaintance. No
+Melanesian can understand why he is to sit spelling away at a black
+board; and he is not like a child of four or five years old, he must
+be taught through his power of reasoning, and perceiving the meaning
+of things. Secondly, we can gradually invest the more advanced scholars
+with responsible duties. There are the head cooks in the various weeks,
+the heads of departments in garden work, &c., &c. As these lads and
+men are being trained (we hope) to teach others, and as we want them to
+teach industry, decency, cleanliness, punctuality, to be, and to teach
+others to be honest, and careful, and thoughtful, so we find all these
+lessons are learnt more in the industrial work than in the mere book
+work, though that is not neglected. Indeed school, in the restricted
+sense of the word, is going on for four or four and a half hours a day.
+
+'The main difficulty remains, of retaining our hold upon boys. Oh that I
+could live permanently in twenty islands at once! But I can't do so even
+in one; and all the letter-writing and accounts, and, worst of all,
+the necessity for being trustee for matters not a bit connected with
+Melanesia, because there is no one else, interferes sadly with my
+time. I think I could work away with the languages, &c., and really do
+something with these fellows, but I never get a chance. I never have two
+days together which I can spend exclusively at Melanesian work. And I
+ought to have nothing whatever to distract me. Twenty languages calling
+for arrangement and comparison causes confusion enough!'
+
+These interruptions made the Kohimarama life trying. 'As for
+correspondence,' says the birthday despatch to Fanny, 'why this mail
+my letters to Victoria alone are twelve, let alone Sydney, Brisbane,
+Adelaide, Tasmania, New Zealand, and England. Then three sermons a week,
+occasional services, reading up for a most difficult session of General
+Synod, with really innumerable interruptions from persons of all kinds.
+Sometimes I do feel tempted to long for Curtis Island merely to get
+away from New Zealand! I feel as if I should never do anything here.
+Everything is in arrears. I turn out of a morning and really don't know
+what to take up first. Then, just as I am in the middle of a letter (as
+yesterday) down comes some donkey to take up a quarter of an hour (lucky
+if not an hour) with idle nonsense; then in the afternoon an invasion
+of visitors, which is worst of all. That fatal invention of "calling"!
+However, I never call on anyone, and it is understood now, and people
+don't expect it. I have not even been to Government House for more than
+a year!
+
+'There, a good explosion does one good! But why must idle people
+interfere with busy men? I used to make it up by sitting up and getting
+up very early indeed; but somehow I feel fit for nothing but sleeping
+and eating now.'
+
+After an absence of three weeks at the General Synod at Christchurch,
+the Bishop took up such of his party as were to return, and sailed home,
+leaving those whom he thought able to brave the winter with Mr. and Mrs.
+Pritt, on one of the first days of June. The first visit was one to the
+bereaved family at Norfolk Island, whence a brief note to his brother on
+the 9th begins:--
+
+'Nothing can be more comforting to me than the loving patient spirit
+of these dear people. Poor Mr. and Mrs. Nobbs and all the brothers and
+sisters so good and so full of kindness to me. It was very trying when
+I first met them yesterday. They came and kissed me, and then, poor
+things, fairly gave way, and then I began to talk quietly about Edwin
+and Fisher, and they became calm, and we knelt and prayed together.'
+
+After landing the Bishop at Mota, the others crossed to Port Patteson
+where they found Fisher Young's grave carefully tended, kept clear of
+weeds, and with a fence round it. After establishing Mr. Palmer at the
+station at Mota, the Bishop re-embarked for Santa Maria, where, at the
+north-east--Cock Sparrow Point, as some one had appropriately called
+it--the boat was always shot at; but at a village called Lakona, the
+people were friendly, and five scholars had come from thence, so the
+Bishop ventured on landing for the night, and a very unpleasant night
+it, was--the barrack hut was thronged with natives, and when the heat
+was insufferable and he tried to leave it, two of his former scholars
+advised him strongly to remain within.
+
+It was bad weather too, and there was some difficulty in fetching him
+off, and he was thankful that the wet had hindered more than 300 or 400
+natives from collecting; there was no possibility of speaking to them
+quietly, for the sight of the boat suggested trading, and they flocked
+round as he was fetched off, half a dozen swimming out and begging to go
+to New Zealand. He took three old scholars and one new one, and sent the
+others off with fish-hooks, telling them that if they would not behave
+at Lakona as he liked, he would not do as they liked. However, no arrows
+were shot.
+
+Then while the 'Southern Cross,' with Mr. Tilly and Mr. Atkin, went on
+to land the Solomon Island scholars, the work at Mota was resumed in
+full force. It seems well worth while to dwell on the successive steps
+in the conversion of this place, and the following letter shows the
+state of things in the season of 1865:--
+
+
+'Mota: July 4, 1865.
+
+'My dearest Sisters and Brother,--I must write a joint letter for all,
+with little notes if I have anything more special for anyone of you. I
+wish you could see this place. The old hut is queer enough certainly,
+quite open on one side, and nearly so on another, but it is
+weather-tight in the middle, with forms to sit on and a table or two
+like a kitchen table, on which I read and write by day, and sleep by
+night. Last night we killed five lizards; they get on the roof and drop
+down and bite pretty severely, so seeing these running all about, we
+made a raid upon them, poor things. The great banyan tree is as grand
+as ever, a magnificent tree, a forest in itself, and the view of the sea
+under its great branches, and of the islands of Matlavo and Valua, is
+beautiful.
+
+'At daylight I turn off my table and dress, not elaborately--a flannel
+shirt, old trousers and shoes; then a yam or two is roasted on the
+embers, and the coffee made, and (fancy the luxury here in Mota!)
+delicious goat's milk with it. Then the morning passes in reading,
+writing, and somewhat desultory talking with people, but you can't
+expect punctuality and great attention. Then at one, a bit of biscuit
+and cheese (as long as the latter lasts). Mr. Palmer made some bread
+yesterday. Then generally a walk to meet people at different villages,
+and talk to them, trying to get them to ask me questions, and I try to
+question them. Then at 6 P.M., a tea-ation, viz., yam and coffee, and
+perhaps a crab or two, or a bit of bacon, or some good thing or other.
+But I forgot! this morning we ate a bit of our first full-grown and
+fully ripe Mota pine-apple (I brought some two years ago) as large and
+fine as any specimens I remember in hot-houses. If you mention all these
+luxuries, we shall have no more subscriptions, but you may add that
+there is as yet no other pineapple, though our oranges, lemons, citrons,
+guavas, &c., are coming on. Anyone living here permanently might make a
+beautiful place indeed, but it becomes sadly overgrown in our absence,
+and many things we plant are destroyed by pigs, &c.
+
+'Then after tea--a large party always witnessing that ceremony--there is
+an hour or so spent in speaking again to the people, and then I read a
+little with Wadrokala and Carry. Then Mr. Palmer and I read a chapter of
+Vaughan on the Revelation, then prayers, and so to bed. It seems as if
+little was done--certain talks with people, sometimes many, sometimes
+few; yet, on the whole, I hope an increased acquaintance with our
+teaching. You can well understand that the consciousness of sin and the
+need of a Redeemer may be talked about, but cannot be stated so as
+to make one feel that one has stated it in the most judicious and
+attractive manner. Of course it is the work of God's Spirit to work this
+conviction in the heart. But it is very hard so to speak of it as
+to give (if you can understand me) the heathen man a fair chance of
+accepting what you say. Forgetfulness of God; ingratitude to the Giver
+of life, health, food; ignorance of the Creator and the world to come,
+of the Resurrection and Life Everlasting, are all so many proofs to
+us of a fallen and depraved state. But the heathen man recognises some
+outward acts as more or less wrong; there he stops. "Yes, we don't fight
+now, nor quarrel, nor steal so much as we used to do. We are all right
+now."
+
+'"Are you? I never taught you to think so. You tell me that you believe
+that the Son of God came down from heaven. What did He come for? What is
+the meaning of what you say that He died for us?"
+
+'It is the continual prayer and effort of the Christian minister
+everywhere, that God would deepen in his own heart the sense of sin, and
+create it in the mind of the heathen. And then the imperfect medium of a
+language very far from thoroughly known! It is by continual prayer, the
+intercession of Christ, the power of the Spirit (we well know) that the
+work must be carried on. How one does understand it! The darkness seems
+so thick, the present visible world so wholly engrosses the thoughts,
+and yet, you see, there are many signs of progress even here, in changed
+habits to some extent, in the case of our scholars, real grounds of hope
+for the future. One seems to be doing nothing, yet surely if no change
+be wrought, what right have we to expect it. It is not that I looked for
+results, but that I seek to be taught how to teach better. The Collect
+for the first Sunday after Epiphany is wonderful.
+
+'It requires a considerable effort to continually try to present to
+oneself the state of the heathen mind, to select illustrations, &c.,
+suitable to his case. And then his language has never been used by him
+to set forth these new ideas; there are no words which convey the ideas
+of repentance, sin, heartfelt confession, faith, &c. How can there be,
+when these ideas don't exist? Yet somehow the language by degrees
+is made the exponent of such ideas, just as all religious ideas are
+expressed in English by words now used in their second intention, which
+once meant very different and less elevated ideas.
+
+'I find everywhere the greatest willingness to listen. Everywhere I take
+my pick of boys, and now for any length of time. That is the result of
+eleven scholars remaining now in New Zealand. Everyone seems to wish to
+come. I think I shall take away five or six young girls to be taught at
+Kohimarama, to become by and by wives for scholars. Else the Christian
+lad will have to live with a heathen girl. But all this, if carried out
+properly, would need a large number of scholars from only one island. At
+Curtis Island, indeed (should it answer and supply plenty of food), we
+might hope to have a school some day of 300 or 400, and then thirty or
+forty from each island could be educated at once; but it can't be so in
+New Zealand. And a good school on an island before a certain number are
+trained to teach could not, I think, be managed successfully. I feel
+that I must concentrate more than hitherto. I must ascertain--I have
+to some extent ascertained--the central spots upon which I must chiefly
+work. This is not an easy thing, nevertheless, to find out, and it has
+taken years. Then using them as centres, I must also find out how far
+already the dialect of that spot may extend, how far the people of the
+place have connections, visiting acquaintances, &c. elsewhere, and to
+use the influence of that place to its fullest extent. Many islands
+would thus fall under one centre, and thus I think we may work. My mind
+is so continually, day and night, I may say, working on these points,
+that I dare say I fill up my letters with nothing else. But writing on
+these points helps me to see my way.'
+
+
+On July 7, an expedition to Aroa seems to have overtired Bishop
+Patteson, and a slight attack of fever and ague came on. One of his
+aunts had provided him with a cork bed, where, after he had exerted
+himself to talk to his many visitors, he lay 'not uncomfortably.' He
+was not equal to going to a feast where he hoped to have met a large
+concourse, and after a day of illness, was taken back to Mota in the
+bottom of the boat; but in another week more revived, and went on with
+his journal, moralising on the books he had been reading while laid up.
+
+'I looked quite through Bishop Mackenzie's life. What a beautiful
+story it is! what a truthful, simple, earnest character, and that
+persuasiveness that only real humility and self-forgetfulness and
+thoughtfulness can give. Then his early desire to be useful, his
+Cambridge life, the clear way in which he was being led on all through.
+It is very beautiful as an illustration of the best kind of help that
+God bestows on His children. Here was one so evidently moulded and
+fashioned by Him, and that willingly, for so it must be, and his life
+was just as it should be, almost as perfect perhaps as a life can be.
+What if his work failed on the Shire? First, his work has not failed to
+begin with, for aught we know; and secondly his example is stimulating
+work everywhere. I shall indeed value his Thomas a Kempis. [A copy sent
+home from the Zambesi stained with the water of the Shire, and sent to
+the Bishop by Miss Mackenzie].
+
+The ship returned with tidings that the more important scholars would
+be ready to come back after a short holiday with their friends, and the
+Bishop embarked again on the 29th. At Mai he landed, and slept ashore,
+when little Petere, the son of the young man whose death had so nearly
+been revenged on the Bishop, a boy of eight years old, did the honours
+as became a young chief, and announced, 'I am going to New Zealand with
+you.' No one made any attempt to prevent him; but the old scholars did
+not show themselves helpful, and only one of them, besides three more
+new ones, came away. The natives were personally friendly, but there was
+no sign of fighting being lessened among them.
+
+At Whitsuntide there was a brisk trade in yams, but no scholars were
+brought away; the parents would not part with any young enough to be
+likely to be satisfactory pupils, nor would the one last year's scholar
+come. Here intelligence was received that a two-masted ship had been
+at Leper's Island, a quarrel had taken place and some natives had been
+shot. It was therefore decided that it would not be safe to land, but
+as the vessel sailed along the coast, numerous canoes came out, bringing
+boars' tusks for sale. Three boys who had been taken on a cruise of six
+weeks the year before, eagerly came on board, and thirty or forty more.
+All the parents were averse to letting them go, and only two ended by
+being brought away: Itole, a young gentleman of fourteen or so, slim
+and slight, with a waist like a wasp, owing to a cincture worn night
+and day, and his hair in ringlets, white with coral-lime; his friend a
+little older, a tall, neat-limbed fellow, not dark and with little of
+the negro in his features.
+
+A letter to me was written during this cruise, from which I give an
+extract:--
+
+'It was a great delight to me to receive a letter from Mr. Keble, by
+the February mail from England. How kind of him to write to me; and his
+words are such a help and encouragement.
+
+'I dare say I shall see Merivale's Lectures soon. Nothing can well be
+so wonderful, as a proof of God's hand controlling and arranging all the
+course of history to those who need it, as a subject for adoration and
+praise, to those who need not such proof, than the vast preparation made
+for the coming of Christ and the spreading of the Gospel. To popularise
+this the right way, and bring it home to the thought of many who have
+not time nor inclination for much reading, must be a good work. I
+suppose that all good Church histories deal with that part of the
+subject; it is natural for the mere philosopher to do so.
+
+'And think how the early Alexandrian teachers used the religious
+yearnings of the East to draw men to the recognition of their wants,
+supplied and satisfied only in Christianity. Often it is the point
+d'appui that the Missionary must seek for. There is an element of faith
+in superstition; we must fasten on that, and not rudely destroy the
+superstition, lest with it we destroy the principle of faith in things
+and beings unseen. I often think, that to shake a man's faith in his
+old belief, however wrong it may be, before one can substitute something
+true and right, is, to say the least, a dangerous experiment. But
+positive truth wins its way without controversy, while error has no
+positive existence, and there is a craving for truth deep down in the
+heathen heart.
+
+'Do you remember that grand passage of Hooker, where he says that he
+cannot stand to oppose all the sophisms of Romanism, only that he will
+place against it a structure of truth, before which, as Dagon before the
+Ark, error will be dashed in fragments?
+
+'In our work (and so I suppose in a Sunday school) one must think out
+each step, anticipate each probable result, before one states anything.
+It is of course full of the highest interest. Can't you fancy a party of
+twenty or thirty dark naked fellows, when (having learnt to talk freely
+to them) I question them about their breakfast and cocoa-nut trees,
+their yams and taro and bananas, &c., "Who gave them to you? Can you
+make them grow? Why, you like me and thank me because I give you a few
+hatchets, and you have never thought of thanking Him all these long
+years."
+
+'"It is true, but we didn't think."
+
+'"But will you think if I tell you about Him?"
+
+'"He gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons."
+
+'How it takes one back to the old thoughts, the true philosophy of
+religion. Sometimes I lie awake and think "if Jowett and others could
+see these things!"
+
+'And yet, if it is not presumptuous in me to say so, I do think
+that this work needs men who can think out principle and supply any
+thoughtful scholar or enquirer with some good reason for urging this
+or that change in the manners and observances of the people. Often as
+I think of it, I feel how greatly the Church needs schools for
+missionaries, to be prepared not only in Greek and Latin and manual
+work, but in the mode of regarding heathenism. It is not a moment's work
+to habitually ask oneself, "Why feel indignant? How can he or she
+know better?" It is not always easy to be patient and to remember the
+position which the heathen man occupies and the point of view from which
+he must needs regard everything brought before him.
+
+'Thank you for Maclear's book. It is a clear statement of the leading
+facts that one wishes to know, a valuable addition to our library.
+You know, no doubt, a book which I like much, Neander's "Light in Dark
+Places."
+
+'I shall remember about Miss Mackenzie's memoir of that good Mrs.
+Robertson. I wonder that men are not found to help Mr. Robertson. Here,
+as you know, the climate (as in Central Africa) is our difficulty. I
+think sometimes I make too much of it, but really I don't see how a man
+is to stand many months of it. But I can't help thinking and hoping that
+if that difficulty did not exist I could see my way to saying, "Now,
+a missionary is wanted for these four or five or six islands, one for
+each, and a younger man as fellow-helper to that missionary," and they
+would be forthcoming.
+
+'Yet doubtless I don't estimate fairly the difficulties and hardships
+as they appear to the man who has never left England, and is not used
+to knocking about. I should have felt the same years ago but for the
+thought of being with the Primate, at least I suppose so.
+
+'Well, I have written a very dull letter, but the place from which it
+comes will give it some interest. I really think that not Mota only, but
+the Banks Islands are in a hopeful state.
+
+'Next year (D.V.) Mr. Palmer will try the experiment of stopping here
+for eight or ten months. I almost dare to hope that a few years may make
+great changes. Yet it seems as if nothing were done in comparison with
+what remains to be done.
+
+'Sarah, Sarawia's wife, pronounced that as she was always ill at home,
+she would risk the New Zealand winter; two more married pairs came, and
+four little maidens to be bred up under Mrs. Pritt, girls from twelve to
+eight years old, of whom Sarah was quite able to take charge.'
+
+There was the usual proportion of lads from various islands; but the
+most troublesome member of the community seems to have been Wadrokala's
+three years old daughter. 'I have daily to get Wadrokala and Carry to
+prevent their child from being a nuisance to everybody.' But this might
+have been a difficulty had she been white.
+
+This large party had to be taken to the Solomon Isles to complete the
+party, sailing in company with the 'Curacoa,' the Commodore's ship, when
+the local knowledge and accurate surveying done by Mr. Tilly and Mr.
+Kerr proved very valuable, and Sir William Wiseman gave most kind and
+willing assistance.
+
+Since his short interview with the Bishop off Norfolk Island, he had
+been cruising in the New Hebrides. There some of the frequent outrages
+of the traders had made the people savage and suspicious, and one of the
+Missionaries of the London Missionary Society living at Tanna had been
+threatened, driven away across the island, and his property destroyed.
+He had appealed for protection as a British subject, and Sir William
+Wiseman had no choice but to comply; so after warning had been sent to
+the tribe chiefly concerned to quit their village, it was shelled and
+burnt. No one seems to have been hurt, and it was hoped that this
+would teach the natives to respect their minister--whether to love his
+instruction was another question.
+
+This would not have been worth mentioning had not a letter from on board
+the 'Curacoa' spoken of chastising a village for attacking a Missionary.
+It went the round of the English papers, and some at once concluded
+that the Missionary could be no other than the Bishop. Articles
+were published with the usual disgusting allusions to the temptation
+presented by a plump missionary; and also observing with more justice
+that British subjects had no right to run into extraordinary peril and
+appeal to their flag for protection.
+
+Every friend or relative of Bishop Patteson knew how preposterous the
+supposition was, and his brother took pains to contradict the rumour.
+As a matter of fact, as his letters soon proved, he was not only not in
+company with the 'Curacoa' at the time, but had no knowledge either of
+the outrage or the chastisement, till Sir William Wiseman mentioned it
+to him when they were together at Sydney.
+
+At Ysabel or Mahya, the party was made up to sixty, seven married
+couples and seven unmarried girls among them. The female population
+was stowed away at night in the after cabins, with 'arrangements quite
+satisfactory to them, as they were quite consistent with propriety, but
+which would somewhat startle unaccustomed folk.'
+
+The 'Curapoa' stood in the offing while Sta. Cruz was visited, or rather
+while the 'Southern Cross' approached, for the Bishop thought it
+better not to risk landing; but numerous canoes came off, and all the
+curiosities were bought which were offered in hopes of reestablishing
+a friendly relation. There was reason to think the people of this group
+more than usually attached to the soil, and very shy and distrustful,
+owing perhaps to the memories left by the Spaniards.
+
+Thence the 'Southern Cross' sailed across for an inspection of Curtis
+Island, and again with a favourable impression; but the Brisbane
+Parliament had just been prorogued, everyone was taking holiday, and the
+Bishop therefore gave up his visit to that place, and sent the vessel
+straight home to Auckland with her cargo of souls, while he returned to
+Sydney to carry on the same work as in the former year. Here one great
+delight and refreshment to him was a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Mort at their
+beautiful home at Greenoaks. What a delight it must have been to
+find himself in a church built by his host himself! 'one of the most
+beautiful things I have seen, holds about 500 people; stained glass,
+carved stalls, stone work, &c.,--perfect.' And the house, 'full of
+first-rate works of art, bronzes, carvings, &c.,' was pleasant to the
+eyes that had been so enthusiastic in Italy and Germany, and had so
+long fasted from all beauty but that of Nature, in one special type. The
+friends there were such as to give life and spirit to all these external
+charms, and this was a very pleasant resting place in his life. To Sir
+John Coleridge he writes:--
+
+'I am having a real holiday. This place, Greenoaks, the really
+magnificent place of my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Mort, is lovely. The
+view of the harbour, with its land-locked bays, multitude of vessels,
+wooded heights, &c., is not to be surpassed; and somehow I don't
+disrelish handsome rooms and furniture and pictures and statues and
+endless real works of art in really good taste.
+
+'One slips into these ways very readily. I must take care I am not
+spoilt. Everyone, from the governor downwards, lays himself out to make
+my visit pleasant. They work me hard on Sundays and week days, but it
+is a continual round of, I don't deny, to me, pleasurable occupation.
+Kindly people asked to meet me, and the conversation always turned to
+pleasant and useful subjects: Church government, principles of Mission
+work, &c. These colonies, unfortunate in many ways, are fortunate in
+having governors and others in high position who are good men, and the
+class of people among whom my time is spent might (me judice) hold its
+position among the best English society.
+
+'I am very intimate with some few families, drop in and set the young
+ladies down to play Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and it is a nice change,
+and refreshes me.'
+
+From Sydney the Bishop went to Adelaide and Melbourne, and these five
+weeks in Australia obtained about 800 pounds for the Mission; the Bishop
+of Sydney had hoped to raise more, but there had been two years of
+terrible drought and destruction of cattle, and money was not
+abundant. The plan of sending Australian blacks to be educated with
+the Melanesians was still entertained; but he had not much hope of this
+being useful to the tribes, though it might be to the individuals, and
+none of them ever were sent to him.
+
+But what had a more important effect on the Mission was a conference
+between Sir William Wiseman and Sir John Young, the Governor of New
+South Wales, resulting in an offer from the latter of a grant of land
+on Norfolk Island for the Mission, for the sake of the benefit to the
+Pitcairners; at the same time the Commodore offered him a passage in the
+'Curacoa' back to Auckland, touching at Norfolk Island by the way. The
+plan was carried out, and brought him home in time for Christmas, to
+find all and prosperous under Mr. Pritt at St. Andrew's. His mind was
+nearly made up on the expedience of a change to a place which was likely
+to suit both English and tropical constitutions alike, and he hoped to
+make the experiment the ensuing winter with Mr. Palmer and a small body
+of scholars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE EPISCOPATE AT KOHIMARAMA. 1866.
+
+
+
+The removal of his much-loved correspondent did not long withhold the
+outpouring of Bishop Patteson's heart to his family; while his work was
+going on at the College, according to his own definition of education
+which was given about this time in a speech at St. John's: 'Education
+consists in teaching people to bear responsibilities, and laying the
+responsibilities on them as they are able to bear them.'
+
+Meanwhile, he wrote as follows to Miss Mackenzie, on receiving the book
+she had promised to send him as a relic of her brother:--
+
+
+'January 1, 1866.
+
+'My dear Miss Mackenzie,--I have this evening received your brother's
+Thomas a Kempis, and your letter. I valued the letter much, as a true
+faithful record of one whom may God grant that I may know hereafter, if,
+indeed, I may be enabled to follow him as he followed Christ. And as
+for the former, what can I say but I hope that the thought of your dear
+brother may help me to read that holy book in something of the spirit in
+which he read and meditated on it.
+
+'It seems to bring me very near to him in thought. Send me one of his
+autographs to paste into it. I don't like to cut out the one I have in
+the long letter to the Scottish Episcopal Church, which you kindly sent
+me.
+
+'I found, too, in one of Mr. Codrington's boxes, a small sextant for me,
+which, being packed with the Thomas a Kempis, I think may have been your
+brother's. Do you really mean this for me too? If so, I shall value it
+scarcely less than the book. Indeed, I think that, divided as I am from
+all relations and home influences and affections, I cling all the more
+to such means as I may still enjoy of keeping up associations. I like
+to have my father's watch-chain in use, and to write on his old desk.
+I remember my inkstand in our drawing-room in London. So I value much
+these memorials of the first Missionary Bishop of the Church of England,
+in modern days at all events, and night by night as I read a few lines
+in his book, and think of him, it brings me, I hope, nearer in spirit to
+him and to others, who, like him, have done their duty well and now rest
+in Christ.
+
+'We are pretty well now (Jan. 20), but one very promising lad sank last
+week in low fever; a good truthful lad he was, and as I baptized him at
+midnight shortly before he died, I felt the great blessing of being able
+with a very clear conscience to minister to him that holy sacrament; and
+so he passed away, to dwell, I trust, with his Lord.
+
+'What a revelation to that spirit in its escape from the body! But I
+must not write on. With many thanks once again for these highly-valued
+memorials of your brother,
+
+'I remain, my dear Miss Mackenzie,
+
+'Very truly yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The sandal-wood referred to in the following letter was the brother's
+gift to a church, All Saints, Babbicombe, in which his sisters were
+deeply interested, and of which their little nephew laid the first
+stone:--
+
+
+'St. Matthias' Day.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--You are thinking of me to-day, I know, but you
+hardly know that in an hour or two I hope the Primate will ride down and
+baptize nine of our Melanesian scholars.
+
+'The last few weeks have been a happy, though of course an anxious time,
+and now to-day the great event of their lives is to take place. May God
+grant that the rest of their lives may be like this beginning!
+
+'We avoid all fuss. I don't like anyone being here but the Primate and
+Mrs. Selwyn, yet I think some dozen more may come, though I don't like
+it. I need not say that making a scene on such occasions is to my
+mind very objectionable. I could much prefer being quite alone. I have
+translated some appropriate Psalms, but the 2nd and 57th they hardly
+know as yet quite well; so our service will be Psalms 96, 97, 114; 1st
+lesson 2 Kings, v. 9--15, Magnificat; 2nd lesson Acts viii. 5-12,
+and the Baptismal Service. Henry Tagalana reads the first, and George
+Sarawia the second lesson. Then will come my quiet evening, as, I trust,
+a close of an eventful day. I have your English letters of December,
+with the news of Johnny laying the stone. I am thankful that that good
+work is begun. Sir John Young writes to me that I can have a gift of 100
+acres at Norfolk Island, with permission to buy more. I think that, all
+being well, I shall certainly try it with a small party next summer, the
+main body of scholars being still brought to Kohimarama.
+
+'The sandal-wood is not yet gone! But, my dear Joan, the altar of
+sandal-wood! If it is to be solid and not veneered, why, L50 would not
+buy it at Erromango. It sells in Sydney for about L70 a ton, and it is
+very heavy wood. However, I will send some of the largest planks I ever
+saw of the wood, and it is now well seasoned. It cost me L14 merely to
+work it into a very simple lectern, so hard is the grain.
+
+'What has become of the old Eton stamp of men? Have you any in
+England? I must not run the risk of the Mission being swamped, by
+well-intentioned, but untaught men. We must have gentlemen of white
+colour, or else I must rely wholly, as I always meant to do chiefly, on
+my black gentlemen; and many of them are thorough gentlemen in feeling
+and conduct, albeit they don't wear shoes.
+
+'It was a most impressive service. The dear Primate looking worn and
+somewhat aged, very full of feeling; the two most advanced, George and
+Henry, in their surplices, reading the Lessons; the nine candidates
+looking so reverent and grave, yet not without self-possession.
+
+'As he signed each one with the sign of the Cross, his left hand resting
+on the head of each, the history of the Mission rushed into my mind, the
+fruit of the little seed be sowed when, eight years ago, he thought it
+wisest not to go ashore at Mota, and now more than twenty Christians of
+the Banks Islands serve God with prayers night and day.
+
+'What would you have thought, if you could have been there? Our little
+chapel looked nice with the red hangings and sandal-wood lectern.
+
+'Then we had a quiet cup of tea, and the old and new baptized party had
+a quiet talk with me till 8.30, when I sent them away.
+
+'And then after an hour I was alone. That I should have been already
+five years a Bishop, and how much to think of and grieve over, something
+too to be thankful for. Perhaps after all, dear Edwin and Fisher stand
+out most clearly from all the many scenes and circumstances.
+
+'And now what is to come? This move to Norfolk Island? Or what?
+"Something," you say; "perhaps in time showing the Governor that the
+Melanesians are not so very wild." But it is another Governor; and so
+far from the Melanesians being wild, it is expressly on the ground that
+the example of the school will be beneficial that I am asked to go!
+
+'Tell all who may care to know it about our St. Matthias' Day, I must
+give myself the pleasure of writing one line to Mr. Keble. I won't write
+many lest I weary him, dear good man. I like to look at his picture, and
+have stuck the photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Keble which Charlotte Yonge
+sent me into the side of it. How I value his prayers and thoughts for us
+all!
+
+'Your loving brother,
+
+'J. C. P.
+
+'P.S.--No terms of full communion between the Home and the Colonial
+Church can be matter of Parliamentary legislation. It is the "One Faith,
+One Lord," that binds us together; and as for regulating the question
+of colonially ordained clergy ministering in English dioceses, you had
+better equalise your own Church law first for dealing with an Incumbent
+and a Curate.'
+
+
+'Auckland: Tuesday in Holy Week.
+
+'My dear Uncle,--I have long owed you a letter, but I have not written
+because I have had an unusual time of distraction. Now, all my things
+being on board the "Southern Cross," I am detained by a foul wind. We
+can do nothing till it changes; and I am not sorry to have a few quiet
+hours, though the thought of a more than usually serious separation from
+the dear Primate and Mrs. Selwyn, Sir William and Lady Martin, hangs
+over my head rather gloomily. Still I am convinced, as far as I can
+be of such matters, that this move to Norfolk Island is good for the
+Mission on the whole. It has its drawbacks, as all plans have, but the
+balance is decidedly in favour of Norfolk Island as against New Zealand.
+I have given reasons at length for this opinion in letters to Joan and
+Fan, and also, I think, to Charlotte Yonge, who certainly deserves to
+know all my thoughts about it.
+
+'But I may shortly state some of them, in case you may not have heard
+them, because I should like this step to approve itself to your mind:--
+
+'1. Norfolk Island is 600 miles hearer to Melanesian islands than
+Auckland, and not only nearer in actual distance, but the 600 miles from
+Norfolk Island to Auckland are the cold and boisterous miles that must
+be passed at the extremities of the voyages with no intervening lands to
+call at and obtain a change for our large party on board.
+
+'2. The difficulty usually is to get westward when sailing from New
+Zealand, by the North Cape of New Zealand, because the prevalent winds
+are from the west. So that usually the passage to Norfolk Island is a
+long-one.
+
+'3. New Zealand is much to the east of Norfolk Island, and to go from
+the Loyalty, New Hebrides, Banks, and Santa Cruz groups to New Zealand,
+it is necessary to make a long stretch out to the N.E. (the trades
+blowing from about S.E. by E.), standing down to S. on the other tack.
+But Norfolk Island is almost due S. of other those groups.
+
+'4. I cannot come back from the islands during my winter voyage to New
+Zealand, it is too distant; the coast is dangerous in the winter season
+and the cold too great for a party of scholars first coming from the
+tropics. But I can go backwards and forwards through the islands and
+Norfolk Island during the five winter months. It is not wise to sail
+about in the summer, hurricanes being prevalent then.
+
+'5. As I can only make one return from the islands to New Zealand in
+the year, I can only have a school consisting of (say) sixty Melanesians
+brought in the very crowded vessel + (say) thirty left in New Zealand
+for the winter; and I dare not attempt to leave many, for so much care
+is needed in the cold season. But in Norfolk Island I can have a school
+of any number, because I can make separate voyages thither from the
+Banks and Solomon Islands, &c., each time bringing a party of sixty, if
+I think fit.
+
+'6. The productions of Norfolk Island include the yam, taro (Caladium
+esculentum), sweet potato, sugar-cane, banana, almond, orange,
+pine-apple, coffee, maize. Only cocoa-nut and bread-fruit are wanting,
+that natives of Melanesia care much about.
+
+'7. There is no necessity for so violent a contrast as there must be in
+New Zealand between the life with us and in their homes in respect of
+dress, food, and houses.
+
+'Light clothing and an improved style of native house and more cleanly
+way of eating their food--not of cooking it, for they are cleanly
+already in that--may be adopted, and more easily perpetuated in their
+own homes than the heavy clothing necessary here, and the different
+style of houses and more English food.
+
+'This is very important, because with any abrupt change of the outer
+man, there is sometimes a more, very more natural abandonment of the
+inner thoughts and disposition and character. Just as men so often lose
+self-respect when they take to the bush life; or children who pray by
+their own little bedside alone, leave off praying in "long chamber," the
+outward circumstances being altered.
+
+'I have for years thought that we seek in our Missions a great deal
+too much to make English Christians of our converts. We consciously and
+unanimously assume English Christianity (as something distinct I mean
+from the doctrines of the Church of England), to be necessary; much as
+so many people assume the relation of Church and State in England to
+be the typical and normal condition of the Church, which should be
+everywhere reproduced. Evidently the heathen man is not treated fairly
+if we encumber our message with unnecessary requirements.
+
+'The ancient Church had its "selection of fundamentals"--a kind of
+simple and limited expansion of the Apostles' Creed for doctrine and
+Apostolic practice for discipline.
+
+'Notoriously the Eastern and Western mind misunderstood one another. The
+speculative East and the practical West could not be made to think after
+the same fashion. The Church of Christ has room for both.
+
+'Now any one can see what mistakes we have made in India. Few men think
+themselves into the state of the Eastern mind, feel the difficulties
+of the Asiatic, and divine the way in which Christianity should be
+presented to him.
+
+'We seek to denationalise these races, as far as I can see; whereas
+we ought surely to change as little as possible--only what is clearly
+incompatible with the simplest form of Christian teaching and practice.
+
+'I don't mean that we are to compromise truth, but to study the native
+character, and not present the truth in an unnecessarily unattractive
+form.
+
+'Don't we overlay it a good deal with human traditions, and still more
+often take it for granted that what suits us must be necessary for them,
+and vice versa.
+
+'So many of our missionaries are not accustomed, not taught to think
+of these things. They grow up with certain modes of thought, hereditary
+notions, and they seek to reproduce these, no respect being had to the
+utterly dissimilar character and circumstances of the heathen.
+
+'I think much about all this. Sir William Martin and I have much talk
+about it; and the strong practical mind of the Primate, I hope, would
+keep me straight if I was disposed to theorise, which I don't think is
+the case.
+
+'But Christianity is the religion for humanity at large. It takes in all
+shades and diversities of character, race, &c.
+
+'The substratum of it is, so to say, inordinate and coextensive with the
+substratum of humanity--all men must receive that. Each set of men must
+also receive many thing of secondary, yet of very great importance
+for them; but in this class there will be differences according to the
+characteristic differences of men throughout the world.
+
+'I can't explain myself fully; but, dear Uncle, I think there is
+something in what I am trying to say.
+
+'I want to see more discrimination, more sense of the due proportion,
+the relative importance of the various parts which make up the sum of
+extra teaching.
+
+'There is so great want of order in the methods so often adopted,
+want of arrangement, and proper sequence, and subordination of one to
+another.
+
+'The heathen man will assume some arbitrary dictate of a missionary to
+be of equal authority and importance with a moral command of God, unless
+you take care. Of course the missionary ought not to attempt to impose
+any arbitrary rule at all; but many missionaries do, and usually justify
+such conduct on the ground of their "exceptional position."
+
+'But one must go much further. If I tell a man just beginning to
+listen, two or three points of Christian faith, or two or three rules of
+Christian life, without any orderly connection, I shall but puzzle him.
+
+'Take, e.g., our English Sunday, I am far from wishing to change the
+greater part of the method of observing it in England.
+
+'I hope the Melanesian Christians may learn to keep holy the Lord's Day.
+But am I to begin my teaching of a wild Solomon Islander at that end;
+when he has not learned the evil of breaking habitually the sixth,
+seventh, and eighth Commandments?
+
+'I notice continually the tendency of the teaching of the very men who
+denounce "forms" to produce formation.
+
+'It is nearest to the native mind; it generates hypocrisy and mere
+outward observance of certain rules, which, during the few years that
+the people remain docile on their first acceptance of the new teaching,
+they are content to submit to.
+
+'I see the great difficulty of making out all this. It necessitates
+the leaving so very much to the discretion of the pioneer. Ergo the
+missionary must not be the man who is not good enough for ordinary work
+in England, but the men whom England even does not produce in large
+numbers with some power of dealing with these questions.
+
+'It is much better and safer to have a regular well-known rule to act
+by; but I don't see how you can give me, e.g., precise directions. It
+seems to me that you must use great care in selecting your man, and then
+trust him fully.
+
+'I hope it is not an excess of self-conceit and self-reliance which
+makes me pass by, rather lightly, I confess, some of the advice that
+very well-intentioned people occasionally volunteer to missionaries. I
+have had (D. Gr.) the Primate and Sir William Martin's men, who know what
+heathenism is, and the latter of whom has deeply studied the character
+of the various races of the world.
+
+'I mean that when some one said, "Do you really mean to place those
+savage Melanesians among the immaculate Pitcairners?" the natural
+answer seemed to me to be, "I am not aware that you ever saw either a
+Pitcairner or a Melanesian." I thought it rather impertinent. The truth
+is, that the great proportion of our Melanesian scholars in our school,
+i.e., not standing alone, but helped by the discipline of the school,
+are quite competent to set an example to the average Pitcairners. But
+this I mark only as an illustration of my meaning. Occasionally I hear
+of some book or sermon or speech in which sound views (as I venture to
+call them) are propounded on these points.
+
+'Always your loving and grateful Nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The next letter was called forth by my sorrowful communication of the
+shattered state of both my dear friends; of whom, one, at the very
+time that my Cousin wrote, was already gone to his rest, having been
+mercifully spared the loneliness and grief we had feared for him.
+
+
+'St. Andrew's: April 24, 1866.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--I write a line at once in reply to a letter of January
+29, for I see that a great sorrow is hanging over you, is perhaps
+already fallen on you, and I would fain say my word of sympathy,
+possibly of comfort.
+
+'One, perhaps, of the great blessings that a person in my position
+enjoys is that he must perforce see through the present gloom occasioned
+by loss of present companionship on to the joy beyond. I hear of the
+death of dear Uncle, and friends, and even of that loving and holy
+Father of mine, and somehow it seems all peace, and calmness, and joy.
+It would not be so were I in England, to actually experience the sense
+of loss, to see the vacant seat, and miss the well-known voice; but it
+is (as I see) a great and most blessed alleviation to the loss of their
+society here below. You feel that when those loving hearts at Hursley
+can no longer be a stay and comfort to you here, you will have a sense
+almost of desolation pressing on you. You must, we all have, many trials
+and some sorrows, and I suppose Hursley has always been to you a city of
+refuge and house of rest.
+
+'But I think the anticipation is harder than the reality. For him, but
+how can I speak of such as he is? Why should we feel anxiety? Surely he
+is just the man upon whom we should expect some special suffering, which
+is but some special mark of love and (may we not say in such a case?) of
+approbation. Some special aid to a very close conformity to the mind and
+character of Christ, to be sent in special love and mercy.
+
+'I always seem to think that in the case of good men the suffering is
+the sure earnest of special nearness to God. It surely--if one may dare
+so to speak, and the case of Job warrants it, and the great passage
+"Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you" (all)--is true that
+God is glorified in the endurance of sufferings which He lays upon the
+saints. And if dear Mr. Keble must suffer this last blow, as all through
+his life he has felt the care of the Churches pressing sorely on him,
+and has even had to comfort the weary, and guide the wayward, and to
+endure disappointment, and to restrain the over zealotish, and
+reprove the thoughtless, and bear in his bosom the infirmities of many
+people--why must we be unhappy about him, and why mourn for ourselves?
+God forbid! It is only one mark of the cross stamped upon him, only one
+more draught of the cup of the lacking measures of the afflictions of
+Christ. But you must, more than I, know and feel all this; and it is
+only in attempting to put before your eyes your own thoughts, that I
+have written this. For, indeed, I do sympathise with you, and I think
+how to me, who knew him so little yet yield to no one in deep reverence
+and love for him, his departure would be almost what the passing away of
+one of those who had seen the Lord must have been to those of old time;
+yet our time is not so very long now, and may be short, and we have had
+this blessed example for a long time, and there is on all accounts far
+more cause for joy than for sorrow.
+
+'You must not think me unkind to Miss Mackenzie, because I have written
+to Fan to say that my letters and anecdotes are not to be fishes to swim
+in her "Net." It may be unwise in me to write all that kind of thing,
+but it does such an infinity of harm by its reflex action upon us who
+are engaged in this work. And I can write brotherly letters, if they are
+to be treated as public property. I could not trust my own brother to
+make extracts from my letters. No one in England can be a judge of
+the mischief that the letters occasion printed contrary to my wish by
+friends. We in the Mission think them so infinitely absurd, one-sided,
+exaggerated, &c., though we don't mean to make them so when we write
+them.
+
+'We are all well, thank God, except a good fellow called Walter
+Hotaswol, from Matlavo (Saddle Island), who is in a decline. He has had
+two bad haemorrhages; but he is patient, simple-minded, quite content
+to die, and not doubting at all his Father's love, and his Saviour's
+merits, so I cannot grieve for him, though he was the one, humanly
+speaking, to have led the way in his home.
+
+'You know that I sympathise with all your anxieties about Church
+matters. Parliamentary legislation would be the greatest evil of all.
+All your troubles only show that synodical action, and I believe with
+the laity in the Synod, is the only cure for these troubles.
+
+'God bless you, my dear Cousin,
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+To the sisters he wrote at the same time:--
+
+'I hear from Miss Yonge that Mrs. Keble is very ill--dying. But, as I
+wrote to her, why should such things grieve us? He will soon rejoin her,
+and so it is all peace and comfort. He was seventy-five, I think, last
+St. Mark's Day, and I began a letter to him, but it was not fair to
+him to give him the trouble of reading it, and I tore it up. He knows
+without it how I do love and revere him, and I cannot pluck up courage
+to ask for some little book which he has used, that there may be a
+sort of odour of sanctity about it, just as Bishop Mackenzie's Thomas a
+Kempis, with him on the Zambesi, is on my table now.'
+
+
+Before going forth with this 'lonely watcher' upon his voyage, the
+description of this season's work with his scholars must be given from a
+Report which he brought himself to write for the Eton Association. After
+saying how his efforts were directed to the forming a number of native
+clergy in time to work among their own people, he continues:--'When
+uncivilised races come into contact with civilised men, they must either
+be condemned to a hopeless position of inferiority, or they must be
+raised out of their state of ignorance and vice by appealing to those
+powers within them which God intended them to use, and the use of which
+will place them by His blessing in the possession of whatever good
+things may be denoted by the words Religion and Civilisation.
+
+'Either we may say to our Melanesian scholars, "You can't expect to be
+like us: you must not suppose that you can ever cease to be dependent on
+us, you must be content always to do as you are told by us, to be like
+children, as in malice so in knowledge; you can never be missionaries,
+you may become assistant teachers to English missionaries whom you must
+implicitly obey, you must do work which it would not be our place to do,
+you must occupy all the lower and meaner offices of our society;"--or,
+if we do not say this (and, indeed, no one would be likely to say it),
+yet we may show by our treatment of our scholars that we think and mean
+it.
+
+'Or we may say what was, e.g., said to a class of nineteen scholars who
+were reading Acts ix.
+
+'"Did our Lord tell Saul all that he was to do?"
+
+'"No."
+
+'"What! not even when He appeared to him in that wonderful way from
+Heaven?"
+
+'"No."
+
+'"What did the Lord say to him?"
+
+'"That he was to go into Damascus, and there it would be told him what
+he was to do."
+
+'"What means did the Lord use to tell Saul what he was to do?"
+
+'"He sent a man to tell him."
+
+'"Who was he?"
+
+'"Ananias."
+
+'"Do we know much about him?"
+
+'"No, only that he was sent with a message to Saul to tell him the
+Lord's will concerning him and to baptize him."
+
+'"What means did the Lord employ to make His will known to Saul?"
+
+'"He sent a disciple to tell him." '"Did He tell him Himself
+immediately?"
+
+'"No, He sent a man to tell him."
+
+'"Mention another instance of God's working in the same way, recorded in
+the Acts."
+
+'"The case of Cornelius, who was told by the angel to send for Peter."
+
+'"The angel then was not sent to tell Cornelius the way of salvation?"
+
+'"No, God sent Peter to do that."
+
+'"Jesus Christ began to do the same thing when He was on earth, did He
+not, even while He was Himself teaching and working miracles?"
+
+'"Yes; He sent the twelve Apostles and the seventy disciples."
+
+'"But what is the greatest instance of all, the greatest proof to us
+that God chooses to declare His will through man to man?"
+
+'"God sent His own Son to become man."
+
+'"Could He not have converted the whole world in a moment to the
+obedience of faith by some other way?"
+
+'"Yes."
+
+'"But what did He in His wisdom choose to do?"
+
+'"He sent His Son to be born of the Virgin Mary, to become man, and to
+walk on this earth as a real man, and to teach men, and to die for men."
+
+'"What does Jesus Christ call us men?"
+
+'"His brethren." '"Who is our Mediator?"
+
+'"The Man Christ Jesus."
+
+'"What means does God employ to make His will known to us?"
+
+'"He uses men to teach men."
+
+'"Can they do this by themselves?"
+
+'"No, but God makes them able."
+
+'"How have you heard the Gospel?"
+
+'"Because God sent you to us."
+
+'"And now, listen. How are all your people still in ignorance to hear
+it? What have I often told you about that?"
+
+'Whereupon the scholars looked shy, and some said softly, "We must teach
+them."
+
+'"Yes, indeed you must!"
+
+'And so the lesson ended with questioning them on the great duty and
+privilege of prayer for God's Holy Spirit to give them both the will and
+the power to do the work to which God is calling them.
+
+'So we constantly tell them "God has already been very merciful to you,
+in that He has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. He
+has enabled you to receive the knowledge of His will, and to understand
+your relations to Him. He has taught you to believe in Him, to pray to
+Him, to hope for salvation through the merits of His Son's death and
+resurrection. He has made you feel something of the power of His love,
+and has taught you the duty of loving Him and serving your brother. He
+calls upon you now to rouse yourself to a sense of your true position,
+to use the gifts which He has given you to His glory and the good of
+your brethren. Don't suppose that you are unable to do this. You
+are unable to do it, as you were unable to believe and love Him by
+yourselves, but He gives you strength for this very purpose that you may
+be able to do it. You can do it through Christ, who strengtheneth you.
+Our fathers were not more able to teach their people once than you to
+teach your people now!"
+
+'We make no distinction whatever between English and Melanesian members
+of the Mission as such. No Melanesian is excluded from any office of
+trust. No classification is made of higher and lower kinds of work, of
+work befitting a white man and work befitting a black man. English
+and Melanesian scholars or teachers work together in the school,
+printing-office, dairy, kitchen, farm. The senior clergyman of the
+Mission labours most of all with his own hands at the work which
+is sometimes described as menial work; and it is contrary to the
+fundamental principle of the Mission that anyone should connect with the
+idea of white man the right to fag a black boy.
+
+'Young men and lads come to us and say, "Let me do that. I can't write
+the languages, or do many things you or Mr. Pritt or Mr. Palmer do, so
+let me scrub your floor, or brush your shoes, or fetch some water."
+And of course we let them do so, for the doing it is accompanied by no
+feeling of degradation in their minds; they have seen us always doing
+these things, and not requiring them to do them as if it were the
+natural work for them, because they are black, and not proper for us,
+because we are white.
+
+'Last night, a young man, sitting by the fire, said to the Bishop, "They
+want you to stop with them in my land."
+
+'"I wish with all my heart I could."
+
+'"Yes, I know, you must go to so many places."
+
+'"But they are different in your land now."
+
+'"Oh! yes, they don't fight now as they used to do; they don't go about
+armed now."
+
+'"Well, that is a thing to be thankful for. What is the reason of it, do
+you think? "
+
+"Why they know about you, and see you now and then, and Henry Tagalana
+talked to them, and I talked a little to them, and they asked me about
+our ways here, and they want to learn."
+
+'"Well, there are now five of you from your island, and you must try
+hard to learn, that you may teach them, for remember you must do it, if
+God spares your life."'
+
+'During the year 1865 a great advance was made in the industrial
+department of our work. About seventeen acres of land were taken in hand
+and worked by Mr. Pritt, with the Melanesian lads. We have our own
+dairy of thirteen cows, and, besides supplying the whole Mission party,
+numbering in all seventy-seven persons, with abundance of milk, we sell
+considerable quantities of butter. We grow, of course, our own potatoes
+and vegetables, and maize, &c., for our cows. The farm and dairy work
+affords another opportunity for teaching our young people to acquire
+habits of industry.'
+
+Cooking, farm, gardening, dairy-work, setting out the table, &c.,
+were all honourable occupations, and of great importance in teaching
+punctuality and regularity, and the various arts and decencies of life
+to the youths, who were in time to implant good habits in their native
+homes. Their natural docility made them peculiarly easy to manage and
+train while in hand; the real difficulty was that their life was so
+entirely different from their home, that there was no guessing how deep
+the training went, and, on every voyage, some fishes slipped through the
+meshes of the net, though some returned again, and others never dropped
+from their Bishop's hands. But he was becoming anxious to spare some of
+his scholars the trial of a return to native life; and, as the season
+had been healthy, he ventured on leaving twenty-seven pupils at St.
+Andrew's with Mr. and Mrs. Pritt, among them George and Sarah Sarawia.
+
+After Trinity Sunday, May 27, the 'Southern Cross' sailed, and the
+outward voyage gave leisure for the following letter to Prof. Max
+Muller, explaining why he could not make his knowledge of languages of
+more benefit to philology while thus absorbed in practical work:--
+
+
+'"Southern Cross," off Norfolk Ireland: June 6, 1866.
+
+'My dear Friend,--I am about to tire your patience heavily. For I
+must find you some reasons for doing so little in making known these
+Melanesian dialects, and that will be wearisome for you to read; and,
+secondly, I cannot put down clearly and consecutively what I want to
+say. I have so very little time for thinking out, and working at any
+one subject continuously, that my whole habit of mind becomes, I fear,
+inaccurate and desultory. I have so very many and so very different
+occupations, and so much anxiety and so many interruptions, as the
+"friction" that attends the working, of a new and somewhat untried
+machine.'
+
+'You know that we are few in number; indeed (Codrington being absent)
+I have but two clergymen with me, and two young men who may be ordained
+by-and-by. Besides, had I the twenty troublesome men, whom you wish to
+banish into these regions, what use would they or any men be until they
+had learnt their work? And it must fall to me to teach them, and that
+takes again much of my time; so that, as a matter of fact, there are
+many things that I must do, even when all is going on smoothly; and
+should sickness come, then, of course, my days and nights are spent
+in nursing poor lads, to whom no one else can talk, cheering up poor
+fellows seized with sudden nervous terror, giving food to those who will
+take it from no one else, &c.
+
+'Then the whole management of the Mission must fall upon me; though I am
+most thankful to say that for some time Mr. Pritt has relieved me from
+the charge of all domestic and industrial works. He does everything of
+that kind, and does it admirably, so that our institution really is a
+well-ordered industrial school, in which kitchen work, dairy work, farm
+work, printing, clothes making and mending, &c., are all carried on,
+without the necessity of having any foreign importation of servants,
+who would be sure to do harm, both by their ideas as to perquisites (=
+stealing in the minds of our Melanesians), and by introducing the idea
+of paid labour; whereas now we all work together, and no one counts any
+work degrading, and still less does any one qua white consider himself
+entitled to fag a Melanesian.
+
+'Mr. Tilly, R.N., has also quite relieved me from my duties as skipper,
+and I have no trouble about marine stores, shipping seamen, navigating
+the vessel now. I cannot be too thankful for this; it, saves me time,
+anxiety, and worry; yet much remains that I must do, which is not
+connected with peculiar work directly.
+
+'I can't refuse the Bishop of New Zealand when he presses me (for want
+of a better man) to be trustee of properties, and to engage in managing
+the few educational institutions we have. I can't refuse to take some
+share in English clerical work while on shore; indeed, in 1865, my good
+friend Archdeacon Lloyd being ill, I took his parish (one and a half
+hour distant from Kohimarama), the most important parish in Auckland,
+for some three months; not slacking my Melanesian work, though I could
+only avoid going back by hard application, and could make no progress.
+Then I must attend our General Synod; and all these questions concerning
+the colonial churches take some time to master, and yet I must know what
+is going on.
+
+'Then I must carry on all the correspondence of the Mission. I am always
+writing letters. Every L5 from any part of New Zealand or Australia I
+must acknowledge; and everyone wants information, anecdotes, &c., which
+it vexes my soul to have to supply, but who else can do it? Then I keep
+all the accounts, very complicated, as you would say if you saw my big
+ledger. And I don't like to be altogether behindhand in the knowledge
+of theological questions, and people sometimes write to me, and their
+letters need to be answered carefully. Besides, take my actual time
+spent in teaching. Shall I give you a day at Kohimarama?
+
+'I get in the full summer months an hour for reading by being dressed
+at 5.30 A.M. At 5.30 I see the lads washing, &c., 7 A.M. breakfast all
+together, in hall, 7.30 chapel, 8-9.30 school, 9.30-12.30 industrial
+work. During this time I have generally half an hour with Mr. Pritt
+about business matters, and proof sheets are brought me, yet I get a
+little time for preparing lessons. 12.45 short service in chapel, 1
+dinner, 2-3 Greek Testament with English young men, 3-4 classics with
+ditto, 5 tea, 6.30 evening chapel, 7-8.30 evening school with divers
+classes in rotation or with candidates for Baptism or Confirmation,
+8.30-9 special instruction to more advanced scholars, only a few. 9-10
+school with two other English lay assistants. Add to all this, visitors
+interrupting me from 4-5, correspondence, accounts, trustee business,
+sermons, nursing sick boys, and all the many daily unexpected little
+troubles that must be smoothed down, and questions inquired into, and
+boys' conduct investigated, and what becomes of linguistics? So much
+for my excuse for my small progress in languages! Don't think all this
+egotistical; it is necessary to make you understand my position.
+
+'If I had spare time, leisure for working at any special work, perhaps
+eleven years of this kind of life have unfitted me for steady sustained
+thought. And you know well I bring but slender natural qualifications
+to the task. A tolerably true ear and good memory for words, and now
+something of the instinctive insight into new tongues, but that is
+chiefly from continual practice.
+
+'But when I attempt to systematise, I find endless ramifications of
+cognate dialects rushing through my brain, by their very multitude
+overwhelming me, and though I see the affinities and can make practical
+use of them, I don't know how to state them on paper, where to begin,
+how to put another person in my position.
+
+'Again, for observation of the rapid changes in these dialects, I have
+not much opportunity. For no one in Melanesia can be my informant. It
+is not easy where so many dialects must be known for practical purposes,
+for the introductory part of Mission work, to talk to some wild naked
+old fellow, and to make him understand what I am anxious to ascertain.
+It is a matter that has no interest for him, he never thought of it,
+he doesn't know my meaning, what have we in common? How can I rouse him
+from his utter indifference, even if I know his language so well as to
+talk easily, not to a scholar of my own, but to an elderly man, with
+none but native ideas in his head?
+
+'All that I can do is to learn many dialects of a given archipelago,
+present their existing varieties, and so work back to the original
+language. This, to some extent, has been done in the Banks group, and
+in the eastern part of the Solomon Isles. But directly I get so far as
+this, I am recalled to the practical necessity of using the knowledge
+of the several dialects rather to make known God's truth to the heathen
+than to inform literati of the process of dialectic variation. Don't
+mistake me, my dear friend, or suspect me of silly sentimentalism. But
+you can easily understand what it is to feel "God has given to me only
+of all Christian men the power of speaking to this or that nation, and,
+moreover, that is the work He has sent me to do." Often, I don't deny,
+I should like the other better. It is very pleasant to shirk my evening
+class, e.g. and spend the time with Sir William Martin, discussing some
+point of Melanesian philosophy. But then my dear lads have lost two
+hours of Christian instruction, and that won't do.
+
+'I don't need to be urged to do more in working out their languages. I
+am quite aware of the duty of doing all that I can in that way, and I
+wish to do it; but there are only twenty-four hours in the day and night
+together! I feel that it is a part of my special work, for each grammar
+and dictionary that I can write opens out the language to some other
+than myself. But I am now apologising rather for my fragmentary way of
+writing what I do write by saying that what I find enough, with my
+help given in school to enable one of my party to learn a dialect, I am
+almost obliged to regard as a measure of the time that I ought to spend
+on it.
+
+'Another thing, I have no outline provided for me, which I can fill up.
+My own clear impression is that to attempt to follow the analogy of
+our complicated Greek and Latin grammars would not only involve certain
+failure, but would mislead people altogether. I don't want to be hunting
+after a Melanesian paulo-post-futurum. I had rather say, "All men qua
+men think, and have a power of expressing their thoughts. They have
+wants and express them. They use many different forms of speech in
+making that statement, if we look superficially at the matter, not so if
+we look into it," and so on. Then, discarding the ordinary arrangement
+of grammars, explain the mode of thought, the peculiar method of
+thinking upon matters of common interest, in the mind of the Melanesian,
+as exhibited in his language. An Englishman says, "When I get there, it
+will be night." But a Pacific Islander says, "I am there, it is night."
+The one says, "Go on, it will soon be dark." The other, "Go on, it has
+become already night." Anyone sees that the one possesses the power of
+realising the future as present, or past; the other now whatever it may
+have been once, does not exercise such power. A companion calls me at
+5.30 A.M., with the words, "Eke! me gong veto," (Hullo! it is night
+already). He means, "Why, we ought to be off, we shall never reach
+the end of our journey before dark." But how neatly and prettily he
+expresses his thought! I assure you, civilised languages, for
+common conversational purposes needed by travellers, &c., are clumsy
+contrivances! Of course you know all this a hundred times better than I
+do. I only illustrate my idea of a grammar as a means of teaching others
+the form of the mould in which the Melanesian's mind is cast. I think
+I ought to go farther, and seek for certain categories, under which
+thought may be classified (so to say), and beginning with the very
+simplest work on to the more complicated powers.
+
+'But I haven't the head to do this; and suppose that I did make such a
+framework, how am I to fill it in so as to be intelligible to outsiders?
+For practical purposes, I give numerals, personal, possessive, and
+demonstrative pronouns, the mode of qualifying nouns, e.g., some
+languages interpose a monosyllable between the substantive and
+adjective, others do not. The words used (as it is called) as
+prepositions and adverbs, the mode of changing a neuter verb into a
+transitive or causative verb, usually by a word prefixed, which means do
+or make, e.g., die, do-die, do-to-the-death, him.
+
+'Then I teach orally how the intonation, accentuation, pause in
+the utterance, gesticulation, supply the place of stops, marks of
+interrogation, &c.
+
+'Then giving certain nouns, verbs, &c., make my English pupils construct
+sentences; then give them a vocabulary and genuine native stories, not
+translations at all, least of all of religious books, which contain very
+few native ideas, but stories of sharks, cocoa-nuts, canoes, fights,
+&c. This is the apparatus. This gives but little idea of a Melanesian
+dialect to you. I know it, and am anxious to do more.
+
+'This last season I have had some three or four months, during which I
+determined that I must refuse to take so much English work, &c. I sat
+and growled in my den, and of course rather vexed people, and perhaps,
+for which I should be most heartily grieved, my dear friend and leader,
+the Bishop of New Zealand. But I stuck to my work. I wrote about a dozen
+papers of phrases in as many dialects, to show the mode of expressing in
+those dialects what we express by adverbs and prepositions, &c. This is,
+of course, the difficult part of a language for a stranger to find
+out. I also printed three, and have three more nearly finished in MS.,
+vocabularies of about 600 words with a true native sehdia on each word.
+The mere writing (for much was written twice over) took a long time. And
+there is this gained by these vocabularies for practical purposes: these
+are (with more exceptions, it is true, than I intended) the words which
+crop up most readily in a Melanesian mind. Much time I have wasted, and
+would fain save others from wasting, in trying to form a Melanesian
+mind into a given direction into which it ought, as I supposed, to have
+travelled, but which nevertheless it refused to follow. Just ten years'
+experience has, of course, taught me a good deal of the minds of these
+races; and when I catch a new fellow, as wild as a hawk, and set to work
+at a new language, it is a great gain to have even partially worked out
+the problem, "What words shall I try to get from this fellow?" Now I go
+straight to my mark, or rather I am enabling, I hope, my young friends
+with me to do so, for of course, I have learnt to do so myself, more
+or less, for some time past. Many words may surprise you, and many
+alterations I should make in any revision. I know a vast number of words
+not used in these vocabularies, in some languages I daresay five times
+the number, but I had a special reason for writing only these. The rest
+must come, if I live, by-and-by.
+
+'Of course these languages are very poor in respect of words belonging
+to civilised and literary and religious life, but exceedingly rich in
+all that pertains to the needs and habits of men circumstanced as
+they are. I draw naturally this inference, "Don't be in any hurry to
+translate, and don't attempt to use words as (assumed) equivalents of
+abstract ideas. Don't devise modes of expression unknown to the language
+as at present in use. They can't understand, and therefore don't use
+words to express definitions."
+
+But, as everywhere, our Lord gives us the model. A certain lawyer asked
+Him for a definition of his neighbour, but He gave no definition, only
+He spoke a simple and touching parable. So teach, not a technical word,
+but an actual thing.
+
+'Why do I write all this to you? It is wasting your time. But I prose
+on.--(A sheet follows on the structure of the languages.)
+
+'Well, I have inflicted a volume on you. We are almost becalmed after a
+weary fortnight of heavy weather, in which we have been knocked about
+in every direction in our tight little 90-ton schooner. And my head is
+hardly steady yet, so excuse a long letter, or rather long chatty set of
+desultory remarks, from
+
+'Your old affectionate Friend,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+A little scene from Mr. Atkin's journal shows how he had learnt to talk
+to natives. He went ashore with the Bishop and some others at Sesaki for
+yams:--
+
+'It has been by far the pleasantest day of the kind that I have seen
+here. The people are beginning to understand that they can do no better
+than trade fairly with us, and to-day they on the whole behaved very
+well. A very big fellow had been ringing all the changes between
+commanding and entreating me to give him a hatchet (I was holding the
+trade bag). When he found it was no use, he said, "I was a bad man, and
+never gave anything." I said "Yes, I was." He said the Bishops were very
+good men, they gave liberally. He had better go and ask the Bishop for
+something, for he was a good man, though I was not.'
+
+After landing Mr. Palmer at Mota, the vessel went onto the Solomon
+Isles, reaching Bauro on the 27th:--
+
+'About 8.30 in the evening the boat was lowered, and the party pulled
+towards the village, which was the home of Taroniara, in a fine clear
+moonlit night, by the fires which people had lit for the people on
+shore, and directed by Taroniara himself to the opening in the reef.
+They landed in the midst of a group of dark figures, some standing in a
+brook, some by the side under a large spreading tree, round a fire fed
+by dry cocoa-nut leaves; and in the background were tall cocoa-nuts with
+their gracefully drooping plumes, and the moon behind shining through
+them made the shade seem darker and deeper as the flashing crests of the
+surf, breaking on the reef, made the heaving sea beyond look murkier. It
+was a sight worth going a long way to see,' so says Mr. Atkin's journal.
+
+The next sight was, however, still more curious. The Bishop relented so
+far towards 'the Net,' as to write an account of it on purpose for it.
+Ysabel Island is, like almost all the rest, divided among many small
+communities of warlike habits. And some years previously the people of
+Mahaga, the place with which he was best acquainted, had laid an ambush
+for those of Hogirano, killed a good many, and, cutting off their
+heads, had placed them in a row upon stones, and danced round them in a
+victorious suit of white-coral lime. However, a more powerful tribe, not
+long after, came down upon Mahaga and fearfully avenged the massacre of
+Hogirano. All were slain who could not escape into the bush; and when
+the few survivors, after days and nights of hunger, ventured back, they
+found the dwellings burnt, the fruit trees cut down, the yam and taro
+grounds devastated, and more than a hundred headless bodies of their
+kindred lying scattered about.
+
+This outrage had led to the erection of places of refuge in the tops of
+trees; and Bishop Patteson, who had three Mahagan scholars, went ashore,
+with the hope of passing the night in one of these wonderful places,
+where the people always slept, though by day they lived in the ordinary
+open bamboo huts.
+
+After landing in a mangrove swamp, and wading through deep mud, he found
+that the Mahaga people had removed from their old site, and had built a
+strong fortification near the sea; and close above, so as to be reached
+by ladders resting on the wall, were six large tree-houses.
+
+It had been raining heavily for a day or two, and the paths were so deep
+in mud that the bed of a water-course was found preferable to them. The
+bush had been cleared for some distance before the steep rocky mound
+where the village stood, surrounded by a high wall of stones, in which
+one narrow entrance was left, approached by a fallen trunk of a tree
+lying over a hollow. The huts were made of bamboo canes, and the floors,
+raised above the ground, were nearly covered with mats and a kind of
+basket work.
+
+The tree-houses, six in number, were upon the tops of trees of great
+height, 50 feet round at the base, and all branches cleared off till
+near the summit, where two or three grew out at right angles, something
+after the manner of an Italian stone pine:--
+
+'From the top of the wall the ladder that led to one of these houses was
+60 feet long, but it was not quite upright, and the tree was growing at
+some little distance from the bottom of the rock, and the distance by
+a plumb line from the floor of the verandah to the ground on the lower
+side of the tree was 94 feet. The floor of the house, which is made
+first, was 23 feet long and about 11 broad; a narrow verandah is left at
+each end, and the inside length of the house is 18 feet, the breadth
+10 feet, the height to the ridge pole 6 feet. The floor was of bamboo
+matted, the roof and sides of palm-leaf thatch. The ladders were
+remarkable contrivances: a pole in the centre, from 4 to 6 inches in
+diameter, to which were lashed by vines cross pieces of wood, about
+two feet long. To steady these and hold on by were double shrouds of
+supple-jacks. The rungs of the ladder were at unequal distances, 42 upon
+the 50 feet ladder.'
+
+The Bishop and Pasvorang, who had gone ashore together, beheld men,
+women, and children running up and down these ladders, and walking about
+the bare branches, trusting entirely to their feet and not touching with
+their hands. The Bishop, in his wet slippery shoes, did not think it
+right to run the risk of an accident: and though Pasvorang, who was as
+much at home as a sailor among the ropes of the 'Southern Cross,' made
+the ascent, he came down saying, 'I was so afraid, my legs shook.
+Don't you go, going aloft is nothing to it;' but the people could not
+understand any dread; and when the Bishop said, 'I can't go up there.
+I am neither bird nor bat, and I have no wings if I fall,' they thought
+him joking. At the same time he saw a woman with a load on her back,
+quietly walking up a ladder to another tree, not indeed so lofty as that
+Pasvorang had tried, but as if it were the most natural thing in the
+world, and without attempting to catch hold with her hands.
+
+'At night,' says the Bishop, 'as I lay ignominiously on the ground in
+a hut, I heard the songs of the women aloft as voices from the clouds,
+while the loud croaking of the frogs, the shrill noise of countless
+cicadas, the scream of cockatoos and parrots, the cries of birds of many
+kinds, and the not unreasonable fear of scorpions, all combined to keep
+me awake. Solemn thoughts pass through the mind at such times, and from
+time to time I spoke to the people who were sleeping in the hut with me.
+It rained heavily in the night, and I was not sorry to find myself at 7
+A.M. on board the schooner.'
+
+The next day was spent in doing the honours of the ship, a crowd on
+board all day; and on July 2 the Bishop landed again with Mr. Atkin,
+and mounted up to this wonderful nest, where all these measurements
+were made. It proved much more agreeable to look at from below than
+to inhabit 'the low steaming bamboo huts--the crowds, the dirt, the
+squalling of babies--you can't sit or stand, or touch anything that is
+not grimy and sooty and muddy. It is silly to let these things really
+affect one, only that it now seems rather to knock me up. After such
+a day and night I am very tired, come back to our little ship as to a
+palace, wash, and sit down on a clean, if not a soft stool, and am free
+for a little while from continual noise and the necessity of making talk
+in an imperfectly known language.
+
+'It is really curious to see how in some way our civilised mode of life
+unfits one for living among these races. It is not to be denied that the
+want of such occupations as we are employed in is a large cause of their
+troubles. What are they to do during the long hours of night, and on
+wet, pouring days? They can't read, they can't see in their huts to do
+any work, making baskets, &c. They must lie about, talking scandal and
+acquiring listless indolent habits. Then comes a wild reaction. The
+younger people like excitement as much as our young men like hunting,
+fishing, shooting, &c. How can they get this? Why, they must quarrel and
+fight, and so they pass their time. It does seem almost impossible to do
+much for people so circumstanced; yet it was much the same in Mota and
+elsewhere, where things are altered for the better.'
+
+It was bad and trying weather, and it was well to have only two old
+Banks Islanders on board, besides three Ysabel lads. The Bishop
+had plenty of time for writing; and for the first time in his life
+'pronounced himself forward with that Report which was always on his
+mind.' He goes on: 'I read a good deal, but I don't say that my mind is
+very active all the time, and I have some schooling. Yet it is not easy
+to do very much mental work. I think that I feel the heat more than I
+used to do, but that may be only my fancy.
+
+'You meantime are, I hope, enjoying fine summer weather. Certainly it
+must be a charming place that you have, close to that grand Church
+and grand scenery. I think my idea of a cosy home is rather that of
+a cottage in the Isle of Wight, or, better still, a house near such a
+Cathedral as Wells, in one of the cottages close to the clear streams
+that wind through and about the Cathedral precincts. But I can form
+no real notions about such things. Only I am pretty sure that there
+is little happiness without real hard work. I do long sometimes for
+a glorious Cathedral service, for the old chants, anthems, not for
+"functions" and "processions," &c. I have read Freeman's pamphlet on
+"Ritual" with interest; he really knows what he writes about, and has
+one great object and a worthy one, the restoration of the universal
+practice of weekly communion as the special Sunday service. That all
+our preachifying is a wide departure from the very idea of worship
+is self-evident, when it is made more than a necessary part of the
+religious observance of the Lord's Day, and catechising is worth far
+more than preaching (in the technical sense of the word).'
+
+A first visit was paid to Savo; where numerous canoes came out to meet
+them, one a kind of state galley, with the stem and stern twelve feet
+high, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and ornamented with white shells
+(most likely the ovum or poached egg), and containing the chief men of
+the island. The people spoke the Ysabel language, and the place seemed
+promising.
+
+Some little time was spent in beating up to Bauro; where the Bishop
+again landed at Taroniara's village, and slept in his hut, which was as
+disagreeable as all such places were:--'Such a night always disturbs
+me for a time, throws everything out of regular working order; but it
+always pays, the people like it, and it shows a confidence in them which
+helps us on.
+
+'I was disappointed though in the morning, when Taroniara declined to
+come with me to this place.
+
+'My people say, "Why do you go away?"--the old stupid way of getting out
+of an engagement.' However, two others came to 'this place,' which was a
+hut in the village of Wango, which the Bishop had hired for ten days for
+the rent of a hatchet.
+
+'A very sufficient rent too, you would say, if you could see the place.
+I can only stand upright under the ridge pole, the whole of the oblong
+is made of bamboo, with a good roof that kept out a heavy shower last
+night. There is a fresh stream of water within fifteen yards, where I
+bathed at 9 P.M. yesterday; and as I managed to get rid of strangers
+by 8.30, it was not so difficult to manage a shift into a clean and dry
+sleeping shirt, and then, lying down on Aunt William's cork-bed (my old
+travelling companion), I slept very fairly.
+
+'People about the hut at earliest dawn; and the day seems long, the
+sustained effort of talking, the heat, the crowd, and the many little
+things that should not but do operate as an annoyance, all tire one
+very much. But I hope that by degrees I may get opportunities of talking
+about the matter that I come to talk about. Just now the trading with
+the vessel, which is detained here by the weather, and surprise at my
+half-dozen books, &c., prevent any attention being paid to anything
+else.
+
+'7 P.M.--The vessel went off at 10.30 A.M. I felt for a little while
+rather forlorn, and a little sinking at the heart. You see I confess it
+all, how silly! Can't I after so many years bear to be left in one sense
+alone? I read a little of you know what Book, and then found the feeling
+pass entirely away.
+
+'But, more than that, the extreme friendliness of the people, the real
+kindness was pleasant to me. One man brought his child, "The child of us
+two, Bishop." Another man, "These cocoa-nut trees are the property of us
+two, remember." A third, "When you want yams, don't you buy them, tell
+me."
+
+'But far better still. Many times already to-day have I spoken to the
+people; they have so far listened that they say, "Take this boy, and
+this boy, and this boy. We see now why you don't want big men, we see
+now that you can't stop here long, what for you wish for lads whom you
+may teach, we see that you want them for a long time. Keep these lads
+two years."
+
+'"Yes, two or three or four. By-and-by you will understand more and more
+my reason."
+
+'Then came the talks that you too may experience when dealing with some
+neglected child in London, or it may be in the country; but which, under
+the cocoa-nut tree, with dark naked men, have a special impressiveness.
+It was the old lesson, of the Eternal and Universal Father, who has not
+left Himself without witness in that He gives us all rain from Heaven,
+&c., and of our ingratitude, and His love; of His coming down to point
+out the way of life, and of His Death and Rising again; of another
+world, Resurrection, and Judgment. All interrupted, now and then, by
+exclamations of surprise, laughter, or by some one beginning to talk
+about something that jarred sadly on one's ear, and yet was but natural.
+But I do hope that a week may pass not unprofitably. In one sense, I
+shall no doubt be glad when it is over; but I think that it may, by
+God's great goodness, be a preparation for something more to come.
+
+'Last night, my little hired hut being crowded as usual, they all cried
+out at once "Numu" (earthquake). I should not the least have known that
+anything had occurred. I said I thought it was a pig pushing against the
+bamboo wall of the hut. They say that they have no serious shocks, but
+very many slight ones. Crocodiles they have too, but, they say, none in
+this stream.
+
+'July 22nd.--It is 9 P.M., the pleasantest time, in one sense, of my
+twenty-four hours, for there are only two people with me in the hut.
+
+'My arrangements are somewhat simple; but I am very comfortable.
+Delicious bathes I have in the stream: yams and fish are no bad fare;
+and I have some biscuit and essence of coffee, and a few books, and am
+perfectly well. The mode of life has become almost natural to me. I
+am on capital terms with the people, and even the babies are no longer
+afraid of me. Old and young, men and women, boys and girls about me of
+course all day; and small presents of yams, fish, bananas, almonds, show
+the friendliness of the people when properly treated. But the bunches of
+skulls remain slung up in the large canoe houses, and they can be wild
+enough when they are excited.'
+
+[The home diary continues, on the 26th]:--'I am expecting the schooner,
+and shall be glad to get off if it arrives to-day, for it is very fine.
+I don't think I could do any good by staying a few days more, so I might
+as well be on my way to Santa Cruz. If I were here for good, of course
+I should be busy about many things that it would be useless to attempt
+now, e.g., what good would it be to induce half-a-dozen boys to learn
+"a," when I should be gone before they could learn "b"? So I content
+myself with making friends with the people, observing their ways, and
+talking to them as I can. It is hot, now at 8.30 A.M. What will it be at
+2 P.M.? But I may perhaps be able to say something to cheer me up.
+One of the trials of this kind of thing is that one seems to be doing
+nothing. Simply I am here! Hardly in one hour out of the twenty-four am
+I sure to be speaking of religion. Yet the being here is something,
+the gaining the confidence and goodwill of the people. Then comes the
+thought, who is to carry this on? And yet I dare not ask men to come,
+for I am certain they would after all my pains find something different
+from what they expect.
+
+My death would very likely bring out some better men for the work, with
+energy and constructive power and executive genius, all of which, guided
+by Divine Wisdom, seem to be so much wanted! But just now, I don't see
+what would become of a large part of the work if I died. I am leaving
+books somewhat more in order; but it is one thing to have a book to help
+one in acquiring a language, quite another to speak it freely, and to be
+personally known to the people who speak it.
+
+'11th Sunday after Trinity.--Off Anudha Island, 4 P.M. Thermometer 88 deg.
+in the empty cabin, everyone being on deck. Well, dear old Joan and
+Fan, refreshed by--what do you think? O feast of Guildhall and Bristol
+mayors! Who would dream of turtle soup on board the "Southern Cross" in
+these unknown seas? Tell it not to Missionary Societies! Let no platform
+orator divulge the great secret of the luxurious self-indulgent life of
+the Missionary Bishop! What nuts for the "Pall Mall Gazette"! How would
+all subscriptions cease, and denunciations be launched upon my devoted
+head, because good Mr. Tilly bought, at San Cristoval, for the price of
+one tenpenny hatchet, a little turtle, a veritable turtle, with green
+fat and all the rest of it, upon which we have made to-day a most regal
+feast indeed.
+
+'But seriously. There has been much to make me hopeful, and something to
+disappoint me, since I last wrote.'
+
+The two days at Santa Cruz were hopeful--[Mr. Atkin says that the
+natives came on board with readiness and stole with equal readiness; but
+this was all in a friendly way]--and a small island, named Piteni, was
+visited, and judged likely to prove a means of reaching the larger isle.
+
+The disappointment is not here mentioned, unless it was the missing some
+of the Ysabel scholars, and bringing away only three; but this mattered
+the less, as the Banks Island party, which, as forming a nucleus, was
+far more important, was now considerable. Sixty-two scholars were the
+present freight, including nine little girls, between eight and twelve,
+mostly betrothed to old pupils.
+
+At Malanta, a new village called Saa was visited. The 'harbour' was a
+wall of coral, with the surf breaking upon it, but a large canoe showed
+the only accessible place, and this was exposed to the whole swell of
+the Pacific.
+
+'The natives,' writes Mr. Atkin, 'held the boat in water up to their
+knees, but the seas that broke thirty yards outside washed over their
+shoulders and sometimes their heads. We might have taken away half the
+people of the village, and had no trouble in getting two nice-looking
+little boys. About 320 miles from Norfolk Island, one of these little
+boys, Wate, playing, fell overboard: we were going ten knots at the
+time, right before the wind; it was a quarter of an hour before we
+picked him up, as it took five minutes to stop the vessel and ten to get
+to him. Wate seemed all the better for his ducking.' This little Wate
+became Mr. Atkin's especial child, his godson and devoted follower.
+
+On October 2, Norfolk Island was reached, and there, a wooden house
+having been conveyed thither by H.M.S. 'Falcon,' Mr. Palmer and fifteen
+scholars were placed to spend the winter. The Pitcairners welcomed
+the Mission, but were displeased at the Government assuming a right to
+dispose of the land which they had fancied entirely their own.
+
+One of the letters written separate from the journal during this voyage
+gives a commission for photographs from the best devotional prints, for
+the benefit chiefly of his young colonial staff:--'I have not the
+heart to send for my Lionardo da Vinci,' (he says), that much valued
+engraving, purchased at Florence, and he wishes for no modern ones, save
+Ary Scheffer's 'Christis Consolator,' mentioning a few of his special
+favourites to be procured if possible. For the Melanesians, pictures of
+ships, fishes, and if possible tropical vegetation, was all the art yet
+needed, and beads, red and blue, but dull ones; none not exactly like
+the samples would be of any use. 'It is no good sending out any "fancy"
+articles such as you would give English children. "Toys for savages" are
+all the fancies of those who manufacture such toys for sale. Of course,
+any manufacturer who wishes to give presents of knives, tools, hatchets,
+&c., would do a great benefit, but then the knives must be really strong
+and sharp.'
+
+I have concluded the letters of the island voyage, before giving
+those written on the homeward transit from Norfolk Island, whither the
+'Falcon' had conveyed the letters telling of the departure of both Mr.
+and Mrs. Keble. The first written under this impulse was of course to
+Sir John Coleridge, the oldest friend:--
+
+
+'At Sea, near Norfolk Island: October 3, 1866.
+
+'My dear, dear Uncle,--How can I thank you enough for telling me so much
+of dear saintly Mr. Keble and his wife? He has been, for my dear father
+and mother's sakes, very loving to me, and actually wrote me two short
+letters, one after his seizure, which I treasure. How I had grown
+to reverence and love him more and more you can easily believe; and
+yesterday at Norfolk Island, whither some letters had been sent, I read
+with a very full heart of the peaceful close of such a holy life. And
+I do love to think too of you and him, if I may speak freely of such as
+you; and the weight attached to all you say and do (you two I mean) in
+your several occupations seems at all events one hopeful sign among
+not a few gloomy ones. I suppose you and Mr. Keble little estimated the
+influence which even a casual word or sentence of yours exercises upon
+a man of my age, predisposed (it is true) to hearken with attention and
+reverence....
+
+'Is it possible that fifty years hence any similar event, should there
+be such, which should so "stir the heart of the country" (as you say
+about Mr. Keble's death), might stimulate people to raise large sums
+for the endowment of a Church about to be, or already separated from the
+State? I can't avoid feeling as if God may be permitting the extension
+of the Colonial Churches, partly and in a secondary sense that so the
+ground may be travelled over on a small scale before the Church at home
+may be thrown in like manner upon its own resources. The alliance is a
+very precarious one surely, and depends upon the solemn adherence to a
+fiction. It is extraordinary that some Colonial Bishops should seek to
+reproduce the state of things which is of course peculiar to England,
+the produce of certain historical events, and which can have no
+resemblance whatever to the circumstances of our Colonies.
+
+'The mail closes just after our arrival; and I am very busy at first
+coming on shore with such a party. Goodbye for the present, my dear dear
+Uncle,
+
+'Your loving and grateful Nephew, 'J. C. P.'
+
+
+To me the condolence was:--
+
+
+'October 6, 1866.
+
+'And so, my dear Cousin, the blow has fallen upon you, and dear Mr. and
+Mrs. Keble have passed away to their eternal rest. I found letters at
+Norfolk Island on October 2, not my April letters, which will tell me
+most about him, but my May budget.
+
+'How very touching the account is which my Uncle John sends me of dear
+Mrs. Keble, so thankful that he was taken first, so desirous to go, yet
+so content to stay! And how merciful it has all been. Such a calm holy
+close to the saintly life. May God bless and support all you who feel
+the bereavement! Even I feel that I would fain look for one more letter
+from him, but we have his "Christian Year," and other books. Is it not
+wonderful that all the wisdom and love and beauty of the "Christian
+Year," to say nothing of the exquisite and matured poetry, should have
+been given to him so early in life? Why, as I gather, the book was
+finished in the year 1825, though not published till 1827. He wrote it
+when he was only 33 years old, and for 45 years he lived after he was
+capable of such a work. Surely such a union of extreme learning, wisdom,
+and scholarship, with humility and purity of heart and life has very
+seldom been found. Everyone wishes to say something to everyone else of
+one so dear to all, and no one can say what each and all feel. We ought
+indeed to be thankful, who not only have in common with all men his
+books, but the memory of what he was personally to us.
+
+'The change must needs be a great one to you. I do feel much for you
+indeed. But you will bear it bravely; and many duties and the will and
+power to discharge them occupy the mind, and the elasticity comes back
+again after a time. I know nothing of the Keble family, not even how
+they were related to him, so that my interest in Hursley is connected
+with him only. Yet it will always be a hallowed spot in the memory of
+English Churchmen. You will hear the various rumours as to who is to
+write his life, &c. Let me know what is worth knowing about it.
+
+'Kohimarama. Anchored on October 8, after an absence of exactly six
+weeks; all well on board and ashore.
+
+'Thanks be to God for so many mercies. The mail is gone, and alas! all
+my letters and newspapers were sent off a few days since in the "Brisk"
+to Norfolk Island. We passed each other. They did not expect me back so
+soon, so I have no late news, and have no time to read newspapers.
+
+'May God bless you, my dear Cousin,
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin, 'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+In spite of this deep veneration for Mr. Keble and for his teachings,
+Bishop Patteson did not embrace to the full the doctrine which had been
+maintained in 'Eucharistic Adoration,' and which he rightly perceived to
+lie at the root of the whole Ritualistic question. His conclusions had
+been formed upon the teachings of the elder Anglican divines, and his
+predilections for the externals of worship upon the most reverent and
+beautiful forms to which he had been accustomed before he left home.
+
+After an All Saints' Communion, the following letter was written:--
+
+
+'All Saints' Day, 1866.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--You know why I write to you on this day. The Communion
+of Saints becomes ever a more and more real thing to us as holy and
+saintly servants of God pass beyond the veil, as also we learn to know
+and love more and more our dear fellow-labourers and fellow-pilgrims
+still among us in the flesh.
+
+'Such a day as this brings, thanks be to God, many calm, peaceful
+memories with it. Of how many we may both think humbly and thankfully
+whose trials and sorrows are over for ever, whose earthly work is done,
+who dwell now in Paradise and see His Face, and calmly wait for the
+great consummation. To you the sense of personal loss must be now--it
+will always be--mixed up with the true spirit of thankfulness and
+joy; but remember that as they greatly helped you, so you in no slight
+measure have received from God power to help others, a trust which I
+verily believe you are faithfully discharging, and that the brightness
+of the Christian life must be not lost sight of in our dealings
+with others, would we really seek to set forth the attractiveness of
+religion.
+
+'I don't mean that I miss this element in any of your writings; rather
+I am thankful to you because you teach so well how happiness and joy
+are the portion of the Christian in the midst of so much that the world
+counts sorrow and loss. But I think that depression of mind rapidly
+communicates itself, and you must be aware that you are through your
+books stamping your mind on many people.
+
+'Do you mind my saying all this to you? only I would fain say anything
+that at such a time may, if only for a minute, help to keep the bright
+side before you. The spirit of patience did seem so to rest upon him
+and his dear saintly wife. The motto of the Christian Year seemed to
+be inwoven into his life and character. I suppose he so well knew the
+insignificance of what to us mortals in our own generation seems so
+great, that he had learned to view eternal truths in the light of Him
+who is eternal. He fought manfully for the true eternal issues, and
+everything else fell into its subordinate place. Is not one continually
+struck with his keen sense of the proportion of things? He wastes no
+time nor strength in the accidents of religion; much that he liked and
+valued he never taught as essential, or even mentioned, lest it might
+interfere with essentials.
+
+'Oh! that his calm wise judgment, his spiritual discernment, may be
+poured out on many earnest men who I can't help thinking lack that
+instinct which divinely guided the early Church in the "selection of
+fundamentals." We must all grieve to see earnest, zealous men almost
+injuring the good cause, and placing its best and wisest champions in an
+unnecessarily difficult position, because they do not see what I suppose
+Mr. Keble did see so very clearly.
+
+'I know that these questions present themselves somewhat differently
+to those situated severally as you and we are. But it is, I suppose, by
+freely interchanging amongst ourselves thoughts that the general balance
+is best preserved. Pray, when you have time, write freely to me on such
+matters if you think it may be of use to do so. The Church everywhere
+ought to guard, and teach, and practise what is essential. In
+non-essentials I suppose the rule is clear. I will eat no meat, &c.
+
+'And now good-bye, my dear Cousin; and may God ever bless and comfort
+you.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Sir William and Lady Martin had just paid their last visit to
+Kohimarama, and here is the final record by Lady Martin's hand of the
+pleasant days there spent:--
+
+'One more visit we paid to our dear friend in November 1866, a few
+months before he left Kohimarama for Norfolk Island. He invited my dear
+husband specially for the purpose of working together at Hebrew,
+with the aid of the lights they thought our languages throw on its
+grammatical structure.
+
+'The Bishop was very happy and bright. He was in his new house, a great
+improvement upon the stuffy quarters in the quad. His sitting-room
+was large and lofty, and had French windows which opened on a little
+verandah facing the sea.
+
+'The Mission party were most co-operative, and would not let the Bishop
+come into school during the three weeks of our stay, so he had a working
+holiday which he thoroughly enjoyed. The weather was lovely, the boys
+were all well, and there was no drawback to the happiness of that time.
+At seven the chapel bell rang and we walked across with him to the
+pretty little chapel. The prayers and hymn were in Mota, the latter a
+translation by the Bishop of the hymn "Now that the daylight fills the
+sky." The boys all responded heartily and were reverent in demeanour.
+After breakfast the two wise men worked steadily till nearly one. We
+were not allowed to dine in Hall as the weather was very warm, and we
+inveigled the Bishop to stay out and be our host.
+
+'A quaint little procession of demure-looking little maidens brought our
+dinner over. They were grave and full of responsibility till some word
+from 'Bisop' would light up their faces with shy smiles.
+
+'What pleasant walks we had together before evening chapel under the
+wooded cliffs or through the green fields. Mr. Pritt had by this time
+brought the Mission farm into excellent working order by the aid of the
+elder lads alone. Abundance of good milk and butter (the latter getting
+ready sale in town) and of vegetables. His gifts too in school-keeping
+were invaluable.
+
+'I wish I could recall some of the conversations with our dear friend. A
+favourite topic was concerning the best modes of bringing the doctrines
+of the Christian religion clearly and fully within the comprehension
+of the converts. Some of their papers written after being taught by him
+showed that they did apprehend them in a thoughtful intelligent way.
+
+'At half-past six we had a short service, again in Mota, in chapel, and
+then we rarely saw our dear friend till nine. He would not neglect any
+of his night classes. At half-past nine the English workers gathered
+together in the Bishop's room for prayers and for a little friendly
+chat. Curiously enough, the conversation I most distinctly remember was
+one with him as we rode up one Saturday from Kohimarama to St. John's
+College. I got him to describe the game of tennis, and he warmed up and
+told me of games he had played at.
+
+'How that cheery talk came to mind as I drove down the same road last
+year just after fine weather had come! It was the same season, and the
+hedges on each side of the narrow lane were fragrant as then with may
+and sweet briar.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. ST. BARNABAS COLLEGE, NORFOLK ISLAND. 1867--1869.
+
+
+
+A new phase of Coleridge Patteson's life was beginning with the year
+1867, when he was in full preparation for the last of his many changes
+of home, namely, that to Norfolk Island, isolating him finally from
+those who had become almost as near kindred to him, and devoting him
+even more exclusively to his one great work. No doubt the separation
+from ordinary society was a relief, and the freedom from calls to
+irregular clerical duty at Auckland was an immense gain; but the lack
+of the close intercourse with the inner circle of his friends was often
+felt, and was enhanced by the lack of postal communication with Norfolk
+Island, so that, instead of security of home tidings by every mail,
+letters and parcels could only be transmitted by chance vessels touching
+at that inaccessible island, where there was no harbour for even the
+'Southern Cross' to lie.
+
+But the welfare of the Mission, and the possible benefit to the
+Pitcairners, outweighed everything. It is with some difficulty that the
+subject of this latter people is approached. They have long been the
+romance of all interested in Missionary effort, and precious has been
+the belief that so innocent and pious a community existed on the face
+of the earth. And it is quite true that when they are viewed as the
+offspring of English mutineers and heathen Tahitians, trained by a
+repentant old sailor, they are wonderful in many respects; and
+their attractive manners and manifest piety are sure to strike their
+occasional visitors, who have seldom stayed long enough to penetrate
+below the surface.
+
+But it has been their great disadvantage never to have had a much higher
+standard of religion, morals, civilisation, or industry set before them,
+than they had been able to evolve for themselves; and it is a law of
+nature that what is not progressive must be retrograde. The gentle
+Tahitian nature has entirely mastered the English turbulence, so that
+there is genuine absence of violence, there is no dishonesty; and
+drunkenness was then impossible; there is also a general habit of
+religious observance, but not including self-restraint as a duty, while
+the reaction of all the enthusiastic admiration expressed for this
+interesting people has gendered a self-complacency that makes them the
+harder to deal with. Parental authority seems to be entirely wanting
+among them, the young people grow up unrestrained; and the standard of
+morality and purity seems to be pretty much what it is in a neglected
+English parish, but, as before said, without the drunkenness and
+lawlessness, and with a universal custom of church-going, and a great
+desire not to expose their fault to the eyes of strangers. The fertile
+soil, to people of so few wants, and with no trade, prevents the
+necessity of exertion, and the dolce far niente prevails universally.
+The Government buildings have fallen into entire ruin, and the breed
+of cattle has been allowed to become worthless for want of care. The
+dwellings are uncleanly, and the people so undisciplined that only their
+native gentleness would make their present self-government possible; and
+it is a great problem how to deal with them.
+
+The English party who were to take up their abode on Norfolk Island
+consisted of the Bishop, the Rev. Mr. Palmer, who was there already,
+Mr. Atkin, and Mr. Brooke. The Rev. R. Codrington was on his way from
+England with Mr. Bice, a young student from St. Augustine's, Canterbury;
+but Mr. and Mrs. Pritt had received an appointment at the Waikato,
+and left the Mission. The next letter to myself tells something of the
+plans:--
+
+
+'January 29, 1867.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--I enclose a note to Miss Mackenzie, thanking her for
+her book about Mrs. Robertson. It does one good to read about such a
+couple. I almost feel as if I should like to write a line to the good
+man. There was the real genuine love for the people, the secret of
+course of all missionary success, the consideration for them, the power
+of sympathy, of seeing with the eyes of others, and putting oneself
+into their position. Many a time have I thought: "Yes, that's all right,
+that's the true spirit, that's the real thing."
+
+'Oh that men could be trained to act in that way. It seems as if mere
+common sense would enable societies and men to see that it must be so.
+And yet how sadly we mismanage men, and misuse opportunities.
+
+'Men should be made to understand that they cannot receive training for
+this special Mission work except on the spot; at the institution the
+aim should be to give them a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin, the
+elements of Divinity, leaving out all talk about experiences, and all
+that can minister to spiritual pride, and delude men into the idea that
+the desire (as they suppose) to be missionaries implies that they are
+one whit better than the baker and shoemaker next door.
+
+'The German system is very different. The Moravians don't handle their
+young candidates after this fashion.
+
+'Now Mr. Robertson and his good wife refresh one by the reality and
+simplicity of their life, the simple-mindedness, the absence of all cant
+and formalism. I mean the formal observance of a certain set of views
+about the Sabbath, about going to parties, about reading books, &c., the
+formal utterance of an accepted phraseology.
+
+'Would that there were hundreds such! Would that his and her example
+might stir the hearts of many young people, women as well as men! Well,
+I like all that helps me to know him and her in the book, and am much
+obliged to Miss Mackenzie for it.
+
+'We have had a trying month, unusually damp close weather, and influenza
+has been prevalent. Many boys had it, one little fellow died. He was
+very delirious at last, and as he lay day and night on my bed we had
+often to hold him. But one night he was calm and sensible, and with
+Henry Tagalana's help I obtained from him such a simple answer or two to
+our questions that I felt justified in baptizing him. He was about ten
+years old, I suppose one of our youngest.
+
+'Last Saturday, at 12.45 A.M., he passed away into what light, and
+peace, and knowledge, and calm rest in his Saviour's bosom! we humbly
+trust. God be praised for all His mercies! It was touching, indeed, to
+hear Henry speaking to his little friend. He spoke so as to make me feel
+very hopeful about his work as a teacher being blessed, his whole heart
+on his lips and in his voice and manner and expression of face.
+
+'But, my dear Cousin, often I think that I need more than ever your
+prayers that I may have the blessing for which we pray in our
+Collect for the First Sunday after Epiphany: grace to use the present
+opportunities aright. My time may be short; we are very few in number:
+now the young English and Melanesian teachers ought to be completely
+trained, that so, by God's blessing, the work may not come to nought.
+Codrington's coming ought to be a great gain in this way. A right-minded
+man of age and experience may well be regarded as invaluable indeed.
+I so often feel that I am distracted by multitudinous occupations, and
+can't think and act out my method of dealing with the elder ones, so
+as to use them aright. So many things distract--social, domestic,
+industrial matters and general superintendence, and my time is of course
+always given to anyone who wants it.
+
+'The change to Norfolk Island, too, brings many anxious thoughts and
+cares, and the state of the people there will be an additional cause of
+anxiety. I think that we shall move en masse in April or May, making two
+or three trips in the schooner. Palmer has sixteen now with him there. I
+shall perhaps leave ten more for the winter school and then go on to
+the islands, and return (D.V.) in October, not to New Zealand, but to
+Norfolk Island; though, as it is the year of the meeting of the General
+Synod, i.e., February 1868, I shall have to be in New Zealand during
+that summer. You shall have full information of all my and our
+movements, as soon as I know myself precisely the plan.
+
+'And now good-bye, my dear Cousin; and may God ever bless and keep you.
+I think much of you, and of how you must miss dear Mr. Keble.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+'Sunday, February 10, 1867.
+
+'My dear old Fan,--No time to write at length. We are pretty well, but
+coughs and colds abound, and I am a little anxious about one nice lad,
+Lelenga, but he is not very seriously ill.
+
+'I have of course occasional difficulties, as who has not?
+Irregularities, not (D. Gr.) of very serious nature, yet calling for
+reproof; a certain proportion of the boys, and a large proportion of the
+girls careless, and of course, like boys and girls such as you know of
+in Devonshire, not free from mischief.
+
+'Indeed, it is a matter for great thankfulness that, as far as we know,
+no immorality has taken place with fifteen young girls in the school.
+We take of course all precautions, rooms are carefully locked at
+night. Still really evil-minded young persons could doubtless get
+into mischief, if they were determined to do so. Only to-day I spoke
+severely, not on this point, but on account of some proof of want of
+real modesty and purity of feeling. But how can I be surprised at that?
+
+'All schoolmaster's work is anxious work. It is even more so than the
+ordinary clergyman's work, because you are parent and schoolmaster at
+once.
+
+'You may suppose that as time approaches for Codrington and Bice to
+arrive, and for our move to Norfolk Island, I am somewhat anxious, and
+have very much to do. Indeed, the Norfolk Island people do sadly want
+help.
+
+'Your affectionate Brother.
+
+'J. C. P.
+
+'P. S.--You may tell your boys at night school, if you think it well,
+that no Melanesian I ever had here would be so ungentlemanly as to throw
+stones or make a row when a lady was present.'
+
+
+'St. Matthias Day, 1867.
+
+'My dearest Joan and Fan,--The beginning of the seventh year of my
+Bishop's life! How quickly the time has gone, and a good deal seems to
+have taken place, and yet (though some experience has been gained) but
+little sense have I of real improvement in my own self, of "pressing
+onwards," and daily struggles against faults. But for some persons it is
+dangerous to talk of such things, and I am such a person. It would tend
+to make me unreal, and my words would be unreal, and soon my thoughts
+and life would become unreal too. I am conscious of very, very much that
+is very wrong, and would astonish many of even those who know me best,
+but I must use this consciousness, and not talk about it any more.
+
+'I am in harness again for English work. How can I refuse? I am writing
+now between two English services.
+
+'Indeed, no adequate provision is made here for married clergymen with
+families; L300 a year is starvation at present prices. Men can't live
+on it; and who can work vigorously with the thought ever present to him,
+"When I die, what of my wife and family?" What is to be done?
+
+'I solve the difficulty in Melanesian work by saying, "Use Melanesians."
+I tell people plainly, "I don't want white men."
+
+'I sum it all up thus: They cost about ten times as much as the
+Melanesian (literally), and but a very small proportion do the work as
+well.
+
+'I was amused at some things in your December letters. How things do
+unintentionally get exaggerated! I went up into the tree-house by a very
+good ladder of bamboos and supple-jacks, quite as easily as one goes
+up the rigging of a ship, and my ten days at Bauro were spent among
+a people whose language I know, and where my life was as safe and
+everybody was as disposed to be friendly as if I had been in your house
+at Weston. But, of course, it is all "missionary hardships and trials."
+I don't mean that you talk in this way.
+
+'Our first instalment of scholars with Messrs. Atkin and Brooke will go
+off (D.V.) about March 21. Then my house is taken down; the boys who
+now live in it having been sent off: and on the schooner's return about
+April 15, another set of things, books, houses, &c. Probably a third
+trip will be necessary, and then about May 5 or 6 I hope to go. It will
+be somewhat trying at the end. But I bargain for all this, which of
+course constitutes my hardest and most trying business. The special
+Mission work, as most people would regard it, is as nothing in
+comparison. Good-bye, and God bless you.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+On March 5 Mr. Codrington safely arrived, bringing with him Mr. Bice.
+The boon to the Bishop was immense, both in relief from care and in the
+companionship, for which he had henceforth to depend entirely on his own
+staff. The machinery of the routine had been so well set in order by Mr.
+Pritt that it could be continued without him; and though there was no
+English woman to superintend the girls, it was hoped that Sarah Sarawia
+had been prepared by Mrs. Pritt to be an efficient matron.
+
+
+'Kohimarama: March 23, 1867.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--Our last New Zealand season, for it may be our last,
+draws near its close. On Monday, only two days hence, the "Southern
+Cross" sails (weather permitting) with our first instalment. Mr. Palmer
+has got his house up, and they must stow themselves away in it, three
+whites and forty-five blacks, the best way they can. The vessel takes
+besides 14,000 feet of timber, 6,000 shingles for roofing, and boxes of
+books, &c., &c., without end.
+
+'I hope she may be here again to take me and the remaining goods, live
+and inanimate, in about eighteen or twenty days. I can't tell whether I
+am more likely to spend my Easter in New Zealand or Norfolk Island.
+
+'I see that in many ways the place is good for us. The first expense
+is heavy. I have spent about L1,000 already, sinking some of my private
+money in the fencing, building, &c., but very soon the cost of all
+the commissariat, exclusive of the stores for the voyage, and a little
+English food for the whites, will be provided. Palmer has abundance of
+sweet potatoes which have been planted in ground prepared by our lads
+since last October. The yam crop is coming on well: fish are always
+abundant.
+
+'I think that in twelve months' time we ought to provide ourselves with
+almost everything in the island. The ship and the clergymen's stipends
+and certain extras will always need subscriptions, but we ought at once
+to feed ourselves, and soon to export wool, potatoes, corn (maize I
+mean), &c.
+
+'I never forget about the idea of a chapel. At present the Norfolk
+Island Chapel will be only a wing of my house: which will consist of
+two rooms for myself, a spare room for a sick lad or two, and a large
+dormitory which, if need be, can be turned into a hospital, and the
+other end a wing in the chapel, 42 x 18 feet, quite large enough for
+eighty or more people. The entrance from without, and again a private
+door from my sitting room. All is very simple in the plan. It seem
+almost selfish having it thus as a part of my dwelling house; but it
+will be such a comfort, so convenient for Confirmation and Baptism and
+Holy Communion classes, and so nice for me. Some ladies in Melbourne
+give a velvet altar cloth, Lady S. in Sydney gives all the white linen:
+our Communion plate, you know, is very handsome. Some day Joan must send
+me a solid block of Devonshire serpentine for my Font, such a one as
+there is at Alfington, or Butterfield might now devise even a better.
+
+'But I think, though I have not thought enough yet, that in the diocese
+of Norfolk Island, and in the islands, the running stream of living
+water and the Catechumens "going down" into it is the right mode of
+administering the holy sacrament. The Lectern and the small Prayer-desk
+are of sandal-wood from Erromango.
+
+'It will be far more like a Church than anything the Pitcairners have
+ever seen. Perhaps next Christmas--but much may take place before
+then--I may ordain Palmer Priest, Atkin and Brooke Deacons, and there
+may be a goodly attendance of Melanesian communicants and candidates for
+baptism. If so, what a day of hope to look forward to! And then I think
+I see the day of dear George Sarawia's Ordination drawing nigh, if God
+grant him health and perseverance. He is, indeed, and so are others,
+younger than he, all that I could desire.
+
+'So, my dear Cousin, see what blessings I have, how small our trials
+are. They may yet come, but it is now just twelve years, exactly twelve
+years on Monday, since I saw my Father's and Sisters' faces, and how
+little have those years been marked with sorrows. My lot is cast in a
+good land indeed. I read and hear of others, such as that noble Central
+African band, and I wonder how men can go through it all. It comes to
+me as from a distance, not as to one who has experienced such things. We
+know nothing of war, or famine, or deadly fever; and we seem now to have
+a settled plan of work, one of the greatest comforts of all; but while
+I write thus brightly I don't forget that a little thing (humanly
+speaking) may cause great reverses, delays, and failures.
+
+'I am very glad you understand my unwillingness to write, and still more
+to print over much about our proceedings. I do speak pretty freely in
+New Zealand and Australia, from whence I profess and mean to draw our
+supplies.
+
+'Accurate information is all very well, but to convey an idea of our
+life and work is quite beyond my powers. Still, everything that helps
+the ordinary men and women of England to look out into the world a bit,
+and see that the Gospel is a power of God, is good.
+
+'And now, good-bye, my dear Cousin. May God bless and keep you.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+On Lady Day the Bishop wrote to his sisters:--
+
+'This day, twelve years ago, I saw your faces for the last time; and so
+I told Mary Atkin, my good young friend's only sister, as we stood on
+the beach just now, watching the 'Southern Cross' carrying away her only
+brother and some forty other people to Norfolk Island.
+
+The first detachment is therefore gone; I hope that we, the rest, will
+follow in about sixteen or eighteen days. I think back over these twelve
+years. On the whole, how smoothly and easily they have passed with
+me! Less of sorrow and anxiety than was crowded into one short year of
+Bishop Mackenzie's life. I have been reading Mr. Rowley's book on the
+University Mission to Central Africa, and am glad to have read it.
+They were indeed fine gallant fellows, full of faith and courage and
+endurance.
+
+'As I write, some dozen boys are on the roof, knocking away the
+shingles, i.e., the wooden tiles of roofing, a carpenter is taking down
+all that needs some more skilled handiwork. In a week the house will all
+be tied up in bundles of boarding, battens, about 14,000 or 15,000 feet
+of timber in all. Yesterday I was with the Primate; I went up indeed
+on Monday afternoon, as the "Southern Cross" sailed with thirty-one
+Melanesians at 11 A.M., and I could get away. It was rather a sad day. I
+was resigning trusts, and it made the departure from New Zealand appear
+very real.
+
+'April 1st.--My fortieth birthday. It brings solemn thoughts. Last night
+I had to take the service at St. Paul's, and as I came back I thought
+of many things, and principally of how very different I ought to be from
+what I am.
+
+'All are well here at Kohimarama. My house knocked down and arrangements
+going on, the place leased to Mr. Atkin, Joe Atkin's father, my trusts
+resigned, accounts almost made up, many letters written, business
+matters arranged.'
+
+
+In a few days more the last remnant of St. Andrew's was broken up; and
+the first letter to the Bishop of New Zealand was written from Norfolk
+Island before the close of the month:--
+
+
+'St. Barnabas' Mission School: April 29, 1867.
+
+My dear Primate,--We had a fair wind all the way, and having shortened
+sail during all Friday so as not to reach Norfolk Island in the
+night, made the lead at 5 A.M. on Saturday morning. But a sad casualty
+occurred; we lost a poor fellow overboard, one of the seamen. He ought
+not to have been lost, and I blame myself. He was under the davits of
+the boat doing something, and the rope by which he was holding parted;
+the life-buoy almost knocked him as he passed the quarter of the vessel,
+and I, instead of jumping overboard, and shouting to the Melanesians to
+do the same, rushed to the falls. The boat was on the spot where his cap
+was floating within two and a half minutes of the time he fell into the
+sea, but he was gone.
+
+'Fisher in the hurry tore his nail by letting the falls run through his
+hand too fast. I was binding it up, the boat making for the poor fellow
+faster than any swimmer could have done. How it was that he did not lay
+hold of the buoy, or sank so soon, I can't say; the great mistake was
+not jumping overboard at once. This is a gloomy beginning, and made us
+all feel very sad. He was not married and was a well-behaved man.
+
+'It was blowing fresh on Saturday, but we anchored under Nepean Island,
+and by hard work cleared the vessel by 5 P.M.; all worked hard, and all
+the things were landed safely. Palmer, with the cart and boys, was on
+the pier, and the things were carted and carried into the store as they
+arrived. I came on shore about 5, found all well and hearty, the
+people very friendly, nothing in their manner to indicate any change of
+feeling.
+
+'I walked up to our place. It is, indeed, a beautiful spot. Palmer has
+worked with a will. I was surprised to see what was done. Some three and
+a half acres of fine kumaras, maize, yams, growing well; a yam of ten
+pounds weight, smooth and altogether Melanesian, just taken up, not
+quite ripe, so the boys say they will grow much bigger. Abundant supply
+of water, though the summer has been dry.
+
+'Much of the timber has been carted up, more has been stacked at the top
+of the hill. This was carried by the boys, and will be carted along the
+pine avenue; a good deal is still near the pines, but properly stacked.
+I see nothing anywhere thrown about, even here not a chip to be seen,
+all buried or burnt, and the place quite neat though unfinished.
+
+'1. House, on the plan of my old house just taken down by Gray, but much
+larger.
+
+'2. Kitchen of good size.
+
+'3. Two raupo outhouses.
+
+'4. Cow-shed.
+
+'I find it quite assumed here that the question is settled about our
+property here; but I have not thought it desirable to talk expressly
+about it. They talk about school, doctor, and other public arrangements
+as usual.
+
+'It seems that it was on St. Barnabas Day that, after Holy Communion,
+we walked up here last year and chose the site of the house. The people
+have of their own accord taken to call the place St. Barnabas; and as
+this suits the Eton feeling also, and you and others never liked St.
+Andrew's, don't you think we may adopt the new name? Miss Yonge won't
+mind, I am sure.
+
+'I could not resist telling the people that you and Mrs. Selwyn might
+come for a short time in September next to see them, and they are really
+delighted; and so shall we be, I can tell you indeed....
+
+'Your affectionate
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The time for the island voyage was fully come; and, after a very brief
+stay in the new abode, the Bishop sailed again for Mota, where the old
+house was found (May 8) in a very dilapidated condition; and vigorous
+mending with branches was needed before a corner could be patched up
+for him to sleep on his table during a pouring wet night, having first
+supped on a cup of tea and a hot yam, the latter brought from the
+club-house by one of his faithful adherents; after which an hour and
+a half's reading of Lightfoot on the Epistle to the Galatians made him
+forget every discomfort.
+
+There had, however, been a renewal of fighting of late; and at a village
+called Tasmate, a man named Natungoe had ten days previously been shot
+in the breast with a poisoned arrow, and was beginning to show those
+first deadly symptoms of tetanus. He had been a well-conducted fellow,
+though he had hitherto shown indifference to the new teaching; and it
+had not been in a private quarrel that he was wounded, but in a sudden
+attack on his village by some enemies, when a feast was going on.
+
+On that first evening when the Bishop went to see him it was plain that
+far more of the recent instruction had taken root in him than had been
+supposed. 'He showed himself thoroughly ready to listen, and manifested
+a good deal of simple faith. He said he had no resentment against the
+person who had shot him, and that he did wish to know and think about
+the world to come. He accepted at once the story of God's love, shown in
+sending Jesus to die for us, and he seemed to have some apprehension of
+what God must be, and of what we are--how unlike Him, how unable to make
+ourselves fit to be with Him. He certainly spoke of Jesus as of a living
+Person close by him, willing and able to help him. He of his own accord
+made a little prayer to Him, "Help me, wake me, make my heart light,
+take away the darkness. I wish for you, I want to go to you, I don't
+want to think about this world."'
+
+Early the next morning the Bishop went again, taking George Sarawia with
+him. The man said, 'I have been thinking of what you said. I have been
+calling on the Saviour (i Vaesu) all night.' The Bishop spoke long
+to him, and left Sarawia with him, speaking and praying quietly and
+earnestly.
+
+Meanwhile continues the diary:--
+
+'I went to the men in the village, and spoke at length to them: "Yes,
+God will not cast out those who turn to Him when they are called, but
+you must not suppose that it is told us anywhere that He will save those
+who care nothing about Him through their years of health, and only
+think about Him and the world to come when this world is already passing
+away."
+
+'How utterly unable one feels to say or do the right thing, and the
+words fall so flat and dull upon careless ears!'
+
+Every day for ten days the poor sufferer Natungoe was visited, and he
+listened with evident faith and comprehension. On May 15 the entry is:--
+
+'I was so satisfied with his expressions of faith in the Saviour, of
+his hope of living with Him; he spoke so clearly of his belief in Jesus
+having been sent from the Great Creator and Father of all to lead us
+back to Him, and to cleanse us from sin, which had kept us from our
+Father, by His Death for us; he was so evidently convinced of the truth
+of our Lord's Resurrection and of the resurrection of us all at the last
+day--that I felt that I ought to baptize him. I had already spoken to
+him of Baptism, and he seemed to understand that, first, he must believe
+that the water is the sign of an inward cleansing, and that it has
+no magical efficacy, but that all depended on his having faith in the
+promise and power of God; and second, that Jesus had commanded those who
+wished to believe and love Him to be baptized.
+
+'The expression Nan ive Maroo i Vaesu, "I wish for the Saviour,"
+had been frequently used by him; and I baptized him by the name of
+Maroovaesu, a name instantly substituted for his old name Natungoe by
+those present.
+
+'I have seen him again to-day; he cannot recover, and at times the
+tetanus spasms are severe, but it is nothing like dear Fisher's case. He
+can still eat and speak; women sit around holding him, and a few people
+sit or lie about in the hut. It looks all misery and degradation of the
+lowest kind, but there is a blessed change, as I trust, for him.'
+
+On Sunday the 19th the last agony had come. He lay on a mat on the
+ground, in the middle of the village, terribly racked by convulsions,
+but still able in the intervals to speak intelligibly, and to express
+his full hope that he was going to his Saviour, and that his pain would
+soon be over, and he would be at rest with Him, listening earnestly to
+the Bishop's prayers. He died that night.
+
+In the meantime, the Bishop had not neglected the attacking party. Of
+them, one had been killed outright, and two more were recovering from
+their wounds, and it was necessary to act as pacificator.
+
+'Meanwhile, I think how very little religion has to do directly
+with keeping things quiet; in England (for example) men would avenge
+themselves, and steal and kill, were it not for the law, which is,
+indeed, an indirect result of religion; but religion simply does not
+produce the effect, i.e. men are not generally religious in England or
+Mota. I have Maine's Book of "Ancient Law" among the half-dozen books I
+have brought on shore, and it is extremely interesting to read here.'
+
+How he read, wrote, or did anything is the marvel, with the hut
+constantly crowded by men who had nothing to do but gather round, in
+suffocating numbers, to stare at his pen travelling over the paper.
+'They have done so a hundred times before,' he writes, actually under
+the oppression, 'but anything to pass an hour lazily. It is useless to
+talk about it, and one must humour them, or they will think I am vexed
+with them.'
+
+The scholars, neatly clothed, with orderly and industrious habits, were
+no small contrast: 'But I miss as yet the link between them and the
+resident heathen people. I trust and pray that George and others may,
+ere long, supply it.
+
+'But it is very difficult to know how to help them to change their mode
+of life. Very much, even if they did accept Christianity, must go on
+as before. Their daily occupations include work in the small gardens,
+cooking, &c., and this need not be changed.
+
+'Then as to clothing. I must be very careful lest they should think
+that wearing clothes is Christianity. Yet certain domestic changes
+are necessary, for a Christian life seems to need certain material
+arrangements for decency and propriety. There ought to be partition
+screens in the hut, for example, and some clothing is desirable no
+doubt. A resident missionary now could do a good deal towards showing
+the people why certain customs, &c., are incompatible with a Christian
+life. His daily teaching would show how Christ acted and taught, and
+how inconsistent such and such practices must be with the profession of
+faith in Him. But regulations imposed from without I rather dread, they
+produce so often an unreasoning obedience for a little while only.
+
+The rules for the new life should be very few and very simple, and
+carefully explained. "Love to God and man," explained and illustrated as
+the consequence of some elementary knowledge of God's love to us, shown
+of course prominently in the giving His own Son to us. There is no lack
+of power to understand simple teaching, a fair proportion of adults take
+it in very fairly. I was rather surprised on Friday evening (some sixty
+or seventy being present) to find that a few men answered really rather
+well questions which brought out the meaning of some of our Saviour's
+names.
+
+'"The Saviour?"
+
+'"The saving His people."
+
+'"Not all men? And why not all men? And from what poverty, sickness,
+&c., here below?"
+
+'"From their sins."
+
+'"What is sin?"
+
+'"All that God has forbidden."
+
+'"What has He forbidden? Why? Because He grudges us anything? Why do you
+forbid a child to taste vangarpal ('poison'), &c. &c.?"
+
+'"The Way," "the Mediator," "the Redeemer," "the Resurrection," "the
+Atoner," "the Word." Some eight days' teaching had preceded this; but I
+dare say there are ten or fifteen people here now, not our scholars,
+who can really answer on these points so as to make it clear that they
+understand something about the teaching involved in these names. Of
+course, I had carefully worked out the best way to accept these names
+and ideas in Mota; and the illustrations, &c., from their customs made
+me think that to some extent they understood this teaching.
+
+'Of course the personal feeling is as pleasant as can be, and I think
+there is something more: a real belief that our religion and our habits
+are good, and that some day they will be accepted here. A considerable
+number of people are leading very respectable lives on the whole. But
+I see that we must try to spend more time here. George Sarawia is being
+accepted to some extent as one whom they are to regard as a teacher.
+He has a fair amount of influence. But in this little spot, among about
+1,500 people, local jealousies and old animosities are so rife, that the
+stranger unconnected with any one of them has so far a better chance of
+being accepted by all; but then comes, on the other hand, his perfect
+knowledge and our comparative ignorance of the language and customs of
+the people. We want to combine both for a while, till the native teacher
+and clergyman is fully established in his true position.
+
+'It is a curious thing that the Solomon Islanders from the south-east
+part of that group should have dropped so much behind the Banks
+Islanders. I knew their language before I knew the language of Mota,
+they were (so to say) my favourites. But we can't as yet make any
+impression upon them. The Loyalty Islanders have been suffered to
+drop out; and so it is that all our leading scholars, all who set good
+examples, and are made responsible for various duties, are (with the
+sole exception of Soro, from Mai Island, New Hebrides) from the
+Banks group. Consequently, their language is the lingua franca of the
+school--not that we made it so, or wished it rather than any other to be
+so; indeed Bauro is easier, and so are some others: but so it is. It is
+an excellent thing, for any Melanesian soon acquires another Melanesian
+language, however different the vocabulary may be. Their ideas and
+thoughts and many of their customs are similar, the mode of life is
+similar, and their mode of expressing themselves similar. They think in
+the same way, and therefore speak in the same way. Their mode of life
+is natural; ours is highly artificial. We are the creatures of a
+troublesome civilisation to an extent that one realises here. When I go
+ashore for five weeks, though I could carry all my luggage, yet it
+must comprise a coffee-pot, sugar, biscuits, a cork bed, some tins of
+preserved meat, candles, books, and my hut has a table and a stool,
+and I have a cup, saucer, plate, knife, fork, and spoon. My good friend
+George, who I think is on the whole better dressed than I am, and
+who has adopted several of our signs of civilisation, finds the food,
+cooking, and many of the ways of the island natural and congenial, and
+would find them so throughout the Pacific.
+
+'May 2lst.--The morning and evening school here is very nice. I doubt if
+I am simple enough in my teaching. I think I teach too much at a time;
+there is so much to be taught, and I am so impatient, I don't go slowly
+enough, though I do travel over the same ground very often. Some few
+certainly do take in a good deal.
+
+'A very hot day, after much rain. This morning we took down our old
+wooden hut, that was put up here by us six years ago. Parts of it are
+useless, for in our absence the rain damaged it a good deal. I mean to
+take it across to Arau, Henry Tagalana's little island, for there, even
+in very wet weather, there is little fear of ague, the soil being light
+and sandy. It would be a great thing to escape from the rich soil and
+luxuriant vegetation in the wet months, if any one of us spent a long
+time here. It was hot work, but soon over. It only took about two and
+a half hours to take down, and stack all the planks, rafters, &c. Two
+fellows worked well, and some others looked on and helped now and then.
+
+'I have had some pleasant occupation for an hour or so each day in
+clearing away the bush, which in one year grows up surprisingly here.
+Many lemon, citron, and orange trees that we planted some years ago.
+cocoa-nut trees also, were almost, some quite overgrown, quite hidden,
+and our place looked and was quite small and close; but one or two hours
+for a few days, spent in clearing, have made a great difference. I have
+planted out about twenty-five lemon suckers, and as many pine-apples,
+for our old ones were growing everywhere in thick clumps, and I have to
+thin them out.
+
+'Yesterday was a great day; we cut down two large trees, round one of
+which I had carelessly planted orange, lemon, and cocoa-nut trees, so
+that we did not know how to fell it so as to avoid crushing some fine
+young trees; but the tree took the matter into its own hands, for it was
+hollow in the centre, and fell suddenly, so that the fellows holding the
+rope could not guide it, and it fell at right angles to the direction we
+had chosen, but right between all the trees, without seriously hurting
+one. It quite reminds me of old tree-cutting days at Feniton; only here
+I see no oaks, nor elms, nor beeches, nor firs, only bread-fruit trees
+and almond trees, and many fruit-bearing trees--oranges, &c., and guavas
+and custard-apples--growing up (all being introduced by us), and the two
+gigantic banyan trees, north and south of my little place. It is so very
+pretty!
+
+'I don't trouble myself much about cooking. My little canteen is
+capital; and I can make myself all sorts of good things, if I choose to
+take the trouble, and some days I do so. I bake a little bread now and
+then, and natter myself it is uncommonly good; and one four-pound tin of
+Bloxland's preserved meat from Queensland has already lasted me twelve
+days, and there is about half of it remaining. He reckons each pound
+well soaked and cooked to be equal to three pounds, and I think he is
+right. A very little of this, with a bit of yam deliciously cooked,
+and brought to me each day as a present by some one from their cooking
+ovens, makes a capital dinner. Then I have some rice and sugar for
+breakfast, a biscuit and coffee, and a bit of bread-fruit perhaps; and
+all the little delicacies are here--salt, pepper, mustard, even to a
+bottle of pickles--so I am pretty well off, I think.
+
+'I find that the white ant, or an insect like it, is here. The plates
+of our old hut are quite rotten, the outside still untouched, all within
+like tinder. They call the insect vanoa; it is not found in New Zealand,
+but it is a sad nuisance in Australia.
+
+'I do not read much here this time, so much of every day is taken up
+with talking to the people about me. That is all right, and I generally
+can turn the talk to something that I wish them to hear, so it is all
+in the way of business here. And I am glad to say that my school, and
+conversations and lessons, need some careful preparation. I have spent
+some time in drawing up for myself a little scheme of teaching for
+people in the state of my friends here. I ought of course to have done
+it long ago, and it is a poor thing now. I cannot take a real pleasure
+in teaching, and so I do it badly. I am always, almost always, glad when
+school is over, though sometimes I get much interested myself, though
+not often able to interest others.
+
+'I am reading some Hebrew nearly every day, and Lightfoot on the
+Galatians, Tyler's "Researches into the Early History of Mankind,"
+Dollinger's "First Ages of the Church," and "Ecce Homo." I tried Maine's
+"Ancient Law," but it is too tough for the tropics, unless I chance
+to feel very fresh. I generally get an hour in the evening, if I am
+sleeping at home.
+
+'May 23rd.--I suppose anyone who has lived in a dirty Irish
+village--pigs, fowls, and children equally noisy and filthy, and the
+parents wild, ignorant, and impulsive--may have some notion of this kind
+of thing. You never get a true account, much less a true illustration of
+the real thing. Did you happen to see a ridiculous engraving on one of
+the S. P. Gr. sheets some years ago, supposed to be me taking two Ambrym
+boys to the boat? (Footnote: No such engraving can be found by the S. P.
+Gr. It was probably put forth in some other publication.) Now it is much
+better not to draw at all than to draw something which can only mislead
+people. If Ambrym boys really looked like those two little fellows, and
+if the boat with bland-looking white men could quietly be pulled to the
+beach, and if I, in a respectable dress, could go to and from the boat
+and the shore, why the third stage of Mission work has been reached
+already! I don't suppose you can picture to yourselves the real state
+of things in this, and in many of these islands, and therefore the great
+difficulty there is in getting them out of their present social, or
+unsocial, state!
+
+'To follow Christian teaching out in detail, to carry it out from the
+school into the hut, into the actual daily life of the dirty naked
+women, and still dirtier though not more naked children; to get the men
+really to abandon old ways from a sense of responsibility and duty and
+love to God, this of course comes very slowly. I am writing very lazily,
+being indeed tired with heat and mosquitos. The sun is very hot again
+to-day. I have no thermometer here, but it feels as if it ought to be
+90 deg. in the shade.
+
+'May 25th.--George Sarawia spent yesterday here, and has just gone to
+his village. He and I had a good deal of conversation. I copied out for
+him the plan of teaching drawn up from books already printed in their
+language. He speaks encouragingly, and is certainly recognised as one
+who is intended to be the teacher here. No one is surprised that he
+should be treated by me in a very different way from anyone else, with
+a complete confidence and a mutual understanding of each other. He is a
+thoroughly good, simple-minded fellow, and I hope, by God's blessing, he
+may do much good. He told me that B---- wants to come with me again; but
+I cannot take him. As we have been living properly, and for the sake
+of the head school and our character in the eyes of the people here, I
+cannot take him until he shows proof of a real desire to do his duty. I
+am very sorry for it. I have all the old feeling about him; and he is
+so quick and intelligent, but he allows himself again and again to be
+overcome by temptation, hard I dare say to withstand; but this conduct
+does disqualify him for being chosen to go with us. I am leaving behind
+some good but dull boys, for I can't make room as yet for them, and I
+must not take an ill-conducted fellow because he is quick and clever. He
+has some sort of influence in the place from his quickness, and from his
+having acquired a good deal of riches while with us. He says nothing,
+according to Sarawia, for or against our teaching. Meanwhile, he lives
+much like a somewhat civilised native. Poor fellow! I sent a message to
+him by George that if he wished to see me, I should be very willing to
+have a talk with him.
+
+'Yesterday we made some sago. A tree is cut down in its proper stage of
+growth, just when it begins to flower. The pith is pulled and torn into
+shreds and fibres, then the juice is squeezed out so as to allow it to
+run or drip into some vessel, while water is poured on the pith by some
+one assisting the performer. The grounds (as say of coffee) remain at
+the bottom when the water is poured off, and an hour of such a sun as
+we had yesterday dries and hardens the sago. It is then fit for use. I
+suppose that it took an hour and a half to prepare about a slop-basin
+full of the dried hard sago. I have not used it vet. We brought tapioca
+here some years ago, and they used it in the same way, and they had
+abundance of arrow-root. On Monday I will make some, if all is well. Any
+fellow is willing to help for a few beads or fish-hooks, and they do all
+the heavy work, the fetching water, &c.
+
+'I never saw anything like the pigeons in the great banyan tree close
+by. They eat its berries, and I really think there are at times more
+than a hundred at once in it. Had I a gun here I think I might have
+brought down three or four at a shot yesterday, sitting shot of course,
+but then I should shoot "for the pot." Palmer had his gun here last
+year, and shot as many as he wanted at any time. The bats at night are
+innumerable; they too eat the banyan berries, but chiefly the ripening
+bread-fruit. The cats we brought here have nearly cleared the place of
+the small rats which used to abound here; but lizards abound in this
+hut, because it is not continually smoke-dried.
+
+'Last night I think some of the people here heard some rather new
+notions, to them, about the true relation of man and woman, parent and
+child, &c. They said, as they do often say, "Every word is true! how
+foolish we are!" But how to get any of them to start on a new course is
+the question.
+
+'Ascension Day, May 30th.--There is a good deal of discussion going on
+now among the people. I hear of it not only from our old scholars, but
+from some of the men. I have been speaking day by day more earnestly to
+the people; always reading here and there verses of the Gospels or the
+Acts, or paraphrasing some passage so that they may have the actual
+words in which the message is recorded. They say, "This is a heavy,
+a weighty word," and they are talking, as they say, night after night
+about it. Some few, and they elderly men, say, "Let us talk only about
+our customs here." Others say, "No, no; let us try to think out the
+meaning of what he said." A few come and ask me questions, only a few,
+not many are in earnest, and all are shy. Many every night meet in
+Robert Pantatun's house, twenty-five or thirty, and ask him all manner
+of questions, and he reads a little. They end with prayer.
+
+'They have many strange customs and superstitious observances peculiar
+to this group. They have curious clubs, confraternities with secret
+rites of initiation. The candidate for admission pays pigs and native
+money, and after many days' seclusion in a secret place is, with great
+ceremony, recognised as a member. No woman and none of the uninitiated
+may know anything of these things.
+
+'In every village there is a Sala Goro, a place for cooking, which only
+those who have "gazed at the sacred symbol" may frequent. Food cooked
+there may not be eaten by one uninitiated, or by women or children.
+The path to the Sala Goro is never trodden by any woman or matanomorous
+("eye closed"). When any ceremony is going on the whole of the precincts
+of the Sala Goro are sacred. At no time dare any woman eat with any man,
+no husband with his wife, no father with his daughter as soon as she is
+no longer a child.
+
+'Of course such a system can be used by us in two ways. I say, "You have
+your method of assembling together, and you observe certain customs in
+so doing; so do we, but yours is an exclusive and selfish system: your
+secret societies are like our clubs, with their entrance fees, &c. But
+Christ's society has its sacred rite of admission, and other mysteries
+too, and it is for all who wish to belong to it. He recognises no
+distinction of male or female, bond or free."
+
+'Some of the elder men are becoming suspicious of me. I tell them
+plainly that whatever there may be in their customs incompatible with
+the great law of Love to God and man must come to nought. "You beat and
+terrify matanomorous in order to make them give, that you may get pigs
+and native money from them. Such conduct is all wrong, for if you beat
+or frighten a youth or man, you certainly can't love him."
+
+'At the same time I can't tell how far this goes. If there were a real
+ceremony of an idol or prayer to it, of course it would be comparatively
+easy to act in the matter; but the ceremony consists in sticking a
+curious sort of mitre, pointed and worked with hair, on the head of the
+candidate, and covering his body with a sort of Jack-in-the green wicker
+work of leaves, &c., and they joke and laugh about it, and attach,
+apparently, no religious significance to it whatever.
+
+'I think it has the evil which attends all secret societies, that it
+tends to produce invidious distinctions and castes. An instinct impels
+men to form themselves into associations; but then Christ has satisfied
+that instinct legitimately in the Church.
+
+'Christianity does meet a human instinct; as, e.g., the Lord's Supper,
+whatever higher and deeper feelings it may have, has this simple, but
+most significant meaning to the primitive convert, of feasting as a
+child with his brethren and sisters at the Father's Board.
+
+'The significance of this to people living as more than half the human
+beings in the world are living still, is such as we have lost the power
+of conceiving; the Lord's Supper has so long had, so to say, other
+meanings for many of us. Yet to be admitted a member of God's family,
+and then solemnly at stated times to use this privilege of membership,
+strengthening the tie, and familiarising oneself more and more with the
+customs of that heavenly family, this surely is a very great deal of
+what human instinct, as exhibited in almost universal customs, requires.
+
+'There are depths for those who can dive into them; but I really think
+that in some of these theological questions we view the matter solely
+from our state of civilisation and thought, and forget the multitudes of
+uneducated, rude, unrefined people to whom all below the simple meaning
+is unmeaning. May I not say to Robert Pantatun, "Christ, you know, gave
+His Body and Blood for us on the Cross, He gives them to you now, for
+all purposes of saving you and strengthening your spiritual life, while
+you eat and drink as an adopted child at your Father's Table"?
+
+'It is the keeping alive the consciousness of the relation of all
+children to God through Christ that is needed so much. And with these
+actual sights before me, and you have them among you in the hundreds of
+thousands of poor ignorant creatures, I almost wonder that men should
+spend so much time in refining upon points which never can have a
+practical meaning for any persons not trained to habits of accurate
+thought and unusual devotion. But here I am very likely wrong, and
+committing the very fault of generalizing from my own particular
+position.
+
+'June 4th.--I was greatly pleased, on Friday evening last which George
+Sarawia spent here with me, to hear from him that he had been talking
+with the Banks Islanders at Norfolk Island, and on board ship, about
+a plan which he now proposed to me. I had indeed thought of it, but
+scarcely saw my way. It is a new proof of his real earnestness, and of
+his seeking the good of his people here. The plan is this:--
+
+'G. S. "Bishop, we have been talking together about your buying some
+land here, near your present place, where we all can live together,
+where we can let the people see what our mode of life is, what our
+customs are, which we have learnt from you."
+
+'J. C. P. "Capital, George, but are you all willing to give up your
+living in villages among your own particular relations?"
+
+'G. S. "Yes, we all agreed about it. You see, sir, if we live scattered
+about we are not strong enough to hold our ground, and some of the
+younger ones fall back into their old ways. The temptations are great,
+and what can be expected of one or two boys among eighty or ninety
+heathen people?"
+
+'J. C. P. "Of course you know what I think about it. It is the very
+thing I have always longed for. I did have a general school here, as you
+know."
+
+'G. S. "Yes, but things are different now. People are making enquiries.
+Many young fellows want to understand our teaching, and follow it. If we
+have a good large place of our own there, we can carry on our own mode
+of living without interfering with other people."
+
+'J. G. P. "Yes, and so we can, actually in the midst of them, let them
+see a Christian village, where none of the strange practices which are
+inconsistent with Christianity will be allowed, and where the comforts
+and advantages of our customs may be actually seen."
+
+'G. S. "By-and-by it will be a large village, and many will wish to live
+there, and not from many parts of Mota only."
+
+'Well, I have told you, I suppose, of the fertility of this island, and
+how it is far more than sufficient to supply the wants of the people.
+Food is wasted on all sides. This very day I have plucked ten large
+bread-fruits, and might have plucked forty now nearly ripe, simply that
+the bats may not get them. I gave them away, as I can't eat more than a
+third part of one at a meal.
+
+'So I went with George on Saturday, and we chose such a beautiful
+property, between Veverao and Maligo, I dare say about ten acres. Then
+I spoke to the people here, explaining my wishes and motives. To-day we
+have been over it with a large party, that all might be done publicly
+and everybody might hear and know. The land belongs to sixteen different
+owners; the cocoa-nut trees, breadfruit, almond, and other fruit-trees
+are bought separately.
+
+'They all agree; indeed, as they have abundance of space of spare land
+just as good all about, and they will get a good stock of hatchets,
+pigs, &c., from me, for this land, there is not much doubt about that.
+But it is pleasant to hear some of them say, "No, no, that is mine and
+my son's, and he is your boy. You can have that for nothing."
+
+'I shan't take it; it is safer to buy, but it is pleasant to see the
+kind feeling.
+
+'If it be God's will to prosper this undertaking, we should begin next
+year with about fifteen of our own scholars, and a goodly number of
+half-scholars, viz., those who are now our regular scholars here, but
+have not been taken to New Zealand.
+
+'Fencing, clearing, &c., could go on rapidly. Many would help, and small
+payments of beads and fish-hooks can always secure a man's services.
+
+'I should build the houses with the material of the island, save only
+windows, but adopt of course a different shape and style for them. The
+idea would be to have everything native fashion, but improved, so as to
+be clearly suitable for the wants of people sufficiently civilised. All
+that a Christian finds helpful and expedient we ought to have, but to
+adopt English notions and habits would defeat my object. The people
+could not adopt them, there would be no teaching for them. I want to be
+able to say: "Well, you see, there is nothing to prevent you from having
+this and that, and your doing this and that."
+
+'We must have some simple rules about cleanliness, working hours, &c.,
+but all that is already familiar to those who have been with us at
+Kohimarama and Norfolk Island. Above all, I rejoice in the thought that
+the people understand that very soon this plan is to be worked by George
+Sarawia. He is to be the, so to say, head of the Christian village. I
+shall be a kind of Visitor. Palmer will, of course, be wanted at first,
+but must avoid the fault of letting the people, our own pupils as well
+as others, become dependent upon us. The Paraguay Mission produced
+docile good-natured fags for the missionaries, but the natives had
+learnt no self-respect, manliness, nor positive strength of character.
+They fought well, and showed pluck when the missionaries armed them,
+but they seem to have had no power of perpetuating their newly-learnt
+customs, without the continual guidance of the missionaries. It may be
+that such supervision is necessary; but I do not think it is so, and I
+should be sorry to think it is so.'
+
+As usual, the Mota climate told on the health of the party, there was
+general influenza, and the Bishop had a swelling under his left arm;
+but on Whitsunday the 'Southern Cross,' which had been to set down the
+Solomon Islanders, returned, and carried him off. Vanua Lava was touched
+at, and a stone, carved by John Adams, put up at Fisher Young's grave,
+which was found, as before, well kept in order. Then the round of the
+New Hebrides was made; but new volunteers were refused, or told to wait
+ten moons, as it was an object to spend the first season in the new
+locality with tried scholars.
+
+At 'the grand island, miscalled Leper's,' the Bishop slept ashore for
+the first time, and so also at Whitsuntide.
+
+At Espiritu Santo much friendliness was shown, and a man would not take
+a present Mr. Atkin offered, because he had nothing, to pay for it.
+Santa Cruz, as usual, was disappointing, as, Mr. Atkin says, the only
+word in their mouths, the only thought in their heads, was 'iron;'
+they clamoured for this, and would not listen; moreover, their own
+pronunciation of their language was very indistinct, owing to their
+teeth being destroyed by the use of the betel-nut, so that they all
+spoke like a man with a hot potato in his mouth.
+
+'So again we leave this fine island without any advance, as far as we
+can see, having been made. I may live to think these islanders very
+wild, and their speech very difficult, yet I know no more of them
+now than I did years ago. Yet I hope that some unforeseen means for
+"entering in among" them may be given some day. Their time is to come,
+sooner or later, when He knows it to be the right time.'
+
+Savo was then touched at; and the Bishop slept ashore at Florida, and
+left Mr. Brooke there to the hospitality of three old scholars for a few
+days, by way of making a beginning. The observations on the plan show a
+strange sense of ageing at only forty:--
+
+'He speaks the language fairly; and his visit will, I hope, do good. Of
+course he will be tired, and will enjoy the quiet of the schooner after
+it. I know what that is pretty well, and it takes something to make one
+prefer the little vessel at sea to any kind of shore life. However,
+he has youth and cheery spirits at command, and that makes life on an
+island. A man whose tastes naturally are for books, &c., rather than
+for small talk, and who can't take much interest in the very trifling
+matters that engage the attention of these poor fellows, such a man
+finds it very tiring indeed sometimes, when a merry bright good-natured
+fellow would amuse himself and the natives too.
+
+'In these introductory visits, scarcely anything is done or said that
+resembles Mission work as invented in stories, and described by the very
+vivid imagination, of sensational writers. The crowd is great, the noise
+greater, the heat, the dirt, the inquisitiveness, the endless repetition
+of the same questions and remarks, the continual requests for a
+fish-hook, for beads, &c.--this is somewhat unlike the interesting
+pictures, in a Missionary Magazine, of an amiable individual very
+correctly got up in a white tie and black tailed coat, and a group of
+very attentive, decently-clothed and nicely-washed natives. They are
+wild with excitement, not to hear "the good news," but to hear how the
+trading went on: "How many axes did they sell? How many bits of iron?"
+
+'You say, "Why do you trade at all?" Answer: In the first visits that we
+make we should at once alienate all the goodwill of the people from us
+unless we so far complied with their desire to get iron tools, or to
+trade more or less with them. As soon as I can I give presents to three
+or four leading men, and then let the buying curiosities be carried on
+by the crew and others; but not to trade at all would be equivalent to
+giving up hope of establishing any intercourse with the people.
+
+'But in new islands, and upon our first visits, if we do get a chance
+of saying something amid the uproar, what can we say about religion
+that will be intelligible to men whose language has never been used to
+express any thought of ours that we long to communicate, and whose minds
+are pre-occupied by the visit of the vessel, and the longing for our
+articles of trade? Sometimes we do try to say a few words; sometimes
+we do a little better, we get a hearing, some persons listen with some
+interest; but usually, if we can merely explain that we don't come to
+trade, though we trade to please them, that we wish to take lads and
+teach them, we are obliged to be satisfied. "Teach them! teach them
+what?" think the natives. Why, one old hatchet would outweigh in their
+minds all that boy or man can gain from any teaching. What appreciable
+value can reading, writing, wearing clothes, &c., have in their eyes? So
+we must in first visits (of which I am now thinking) be thankful that
+we can in safety sleep on shore at all, and regard the merely making
+friends with the people as a small beginning of Mission work.
+
+'Poor fellows! they think it very strange! As you lie down in the dark
+and try to sleep, you presently feel hands stroking your arms and
+legs, and feeling you about to make sure that the stranger has the same
+allowance of arms and legs that they have; and you overhear such quaint
+remarks as you lie still, afraid to let them know that you are awake,
+lest they should oblige you to begin talking over again the same things
+that you have already said twenty times.'
+
+Mr. Brooke stayed four days at Florida; and came away with three former
+pupils, and four new ones, one of them grown up, a relative of the
+leading man of the island. Taroniara was the only Bauro scholar brought
+away this time; but so many were taken from Mota that the whole party
+numbered thirty-seven, seven of them girls, all betrothed to one or
+other of the lads. The entire colony at St. Barnabas, including English,
+was thus raised to seventy, when the 'Southern Cross' returned thither
+in August. On the 23rd, Bishop Patteson writes:--
+
+'I wish you could see this place and the view from this room. I have
+only got into it within this hour. The carpenters are just out of it.
+You know that I left Palmer here about eleven months ago, on the return
+from that island voyage. He had sixteen lads with him, of whom eleven
+were good stout fellows.
+
+'He did work wonderfully. The place I chose for the site of the station
+is about three miles from the settlement--the town, as the people call
+it. If you have a map of the island, you will see Longridge on the
+western part of it. Follow on the principal road, which goes on beyond
+Longridge in a N. and NW. direction, and about a mile beyond Longridge
+is our station. The top of Mount Pitt is nearly opposite our houses, of
+which two are now habitable, though not finished. The third, which is
+the house at Kohimarama which I had for one year, and in which Sir W.
+and Lady Martin spent ten days, will be begun on Monday next, I hope.
+The labour of getting all these things from New Zealand and then landing
+them (for there is no harbour), and then carting them up here (for there
+are no really good horses here, but the two I bought and sent down),
+was very considerable. Palmer and his boys worked admirably. He was
+industrious indeed. He and they lived at first in a little cottage,
+about three-quarters of a mile from our place, i.e., about a quarter of
+a mile from Longridge. During the first month, while they had no cart or
+horses as yet (for I had to send them down from Auckland), they
+fenced in some lands (the wire for which I had bought at Sydney, and
+a man-of-war brought it hither), planted yams (which grow excellently,
+such a crop never was seen here) and sweet potatoes, melons, vegetables,
+&c. Meanwhile, the timber for the houses was being sent as I had
+opportunity, a large quantity having been already taken to Norfolk
+Island in a man-of-war. Luckily, timber was selling very cheap at
+Auckland.
+
+'After this first month, Palmer set to work at house building. He built
+entirely by himself, save the chimney and some part of the shingling
+(wooden roofing). As yet, no rooms have any ceiling or lining; they
+might by innocent people be thought to resemble barns, but they are
+weather-proof, strong, and answer all present purposes. The verandah,
+about 8 feet broad, is another great room really.
+
+'I am still buying and sending down bricks, timber, &c. Two Auckland
+carpenters, thoroughly steady men, left Norfolk Island, about three
+weeks after we left it, for the Melanesian islands. They have been
+putting up my special building. We have no doors like hall doors, as
+all the rooms open with glass doors on to the verandah, and they are the
+doors for going in and out. Comprenez-vous? The ground slopes away from
+these two houses for some 200 yards or more to a little stream; and this
+slope is all covered with sweet potatoes and vegetables, and Codrington
+and Palmer have planted any number of trees, bushes, flowers, &c.
+Everything grows, and grows luxuriantly. Such soil, such a climate!
+
+'By-and-by I shall have, I hope, such myrtles and azaleas, kalmias and
+crotons, and pine-apples and almond trees, bananas and tree-ferns, and
+magnolias and camellias, &c., all in the open air.
+
+'The ground slopes up beyond the little stream, a beautiful wooded bank,
+wooded with many kinds of trees and bushes, large Norfolk Island pines;
+cattle and sheep stray about. Oh! how very pretty it is! And then beyond
+and above this first slope, the eye travels along the slopes of the Pitt
+to its summit, about 1,000 feet, a pretty little hill. It is, indeed,
+a calm peaceful scene, away from noise and bustle, plenty of pleasant
+sounds of merry boys working in the gardens, and employing themselves
+in divers ways. The prospect is (D. Gr.) a very happy one. It is some
+pleasure to work here, where the land gives "her increase" indeed.
+
+'All seem very happy and well pleased with the place. I don't see how
+it can be otherwise, and yet to the young people there may be something
+attractive in society. But the young ones must occasionally go to
+Auckland or Sydney, or whithersoever they please, for a two or three
+months' holiday. For me, what can I desire more than this place affords?
+More than half of each year spent here if I live, and quietly, with any
+amount of work, uninterrupted work, time for quiet reading and thought.
+This room of mine in which I now am sitting is magnifique, my dear Joan;
+seriously, a very good room. You see it will be full of boys and girls;
+and I must have in it many things, not books only, for the general use
+of all here, so that I determined to make it a nice place at once.
+
+'This room then, nicely lined, looking rather like a wooden box, it
+is true, but clean and airy, is 22 feet x 14 feet 6 in., and the wall
+plates 9 feet 6 in. high, the ceiling coved a little, so as to be nearly
+14 feet high in the centre. What do you think of that for a room? It
+has a fire-place, and wide verandah, which is nearly 6 feet above the
+ground, so that I am high and dry, and have all the better view too,
+quite a grand flight of steps--a broad ladder--up into my house. The
+Mahaga lads and I call it my tree-house.
+
+'Then I have one great luxury. I thought I would have it, and it is
+so nice. My room opens into the Chapel by red baize swinging doors; my
+private entrance, for there is a regular porch where the rest go in.
+
+'Service at 7 A.M. and 8 P.M. But it is always open, boys come in of a
+morning to say their private prayers, for sleeping together in one room
+they have little privacy there. And I can go in at all hours. Soon it
+will become a sacred spot to us. It is really like a Chapel.
+
+'August 27th.--Your birthday, my dear old Fan! God bless you, and
+grant you all true happiness, and the sense of being led onwards to the
+eternal peace and joy above. The parting here is a long one; and likely
+to be a parting for good, as far as this world is concerned.
+
+'Last night was the coldest night that they have had during the whole
+winter; the thermometer touched 43 deg.--Codrington has regular registering
+thermometers, so you see what a charming climate this is for us. Palmer
+was here all the summer, and he says that the heat, though great as
+marked by thermometer, was never trying, relaxing, and unfitting for
+work, as at Kohimarama.'
+
+Thus began the first period of the residence in Norfolk Island; where
+Mr. Codrington's account of the way of life shall supplement the
+above:--
+
+'When the Bishop returned in August 1867, our party consisted of
+himself, Mr. Palmer in Deacon's orders, and myself, Mr. Atkin and Mr.
+Brooke already experienced in the work, and Mr. Bice, who had with
+myself lately arrived from England. The whole number of Melanesians was
+about sixty; among the eldest of these the most intelligent and advanced
+of the few then baptized, George, Henry, B----, Robert and Edward. There
+were then, I think, thirteen baptized, and two Communicants. To this
+elder class, the Bishop, as far as I can recollect, devoted the greater
+part of his time. He said that now for the first time he was able
+without interruption to set to work to teach them, and he certainly made
+great progress in those months. I remember that every evening they used
+to sit in Chapel after prayers, and consider what difficulty or question
+they should propound to him; and he would come in after a time, and,
+after hearing the question, discuss the subject, discourse upon it, and
+end with prayer. They were at the time, I remember, much impressed by
+this; and those who were the most advanced took in a great deal of an
+elevated strain of doctrine which, no doubt, passed over the heads of
+the greater number, but not without stirring up their hearts.
+
+'It became a regular custom on the evening before the Communion Sunday,
+i.e., every other Sunday, to give the Communicants instruction and
+preparation after the Chapel service. At this time there was no Sunday
+sermon in Chapel. The Bishop used to say that the preaching was done
+in the school; but much of his school was of a hortatory kind in the
+Chapel, and often without taking off the surplice.
+
+'At this time I should add that he used from time to time to have other
+boys with him to school, and particularly Solomon Islanders, whose
+languages he alone could generally speak. He had also a good deal with
+him the second set of eight Banks Islanders, who were by this time
+recognised Catechumens.
+
+'There were other occupations of the Bishop's time, besides his school
+with Melanesians. The hour from 12 to 1 was devoted to instruction given
+to the two young men, one from New Zealand and one a son of Mr. Nobbs,
+who were working with the Mission; and on alternate days to the younger
+members of the Mission, who were being prepared for Ordination.
+
+'The reading with the younger clergy continued to be to the last one
+of the most regular and most fruitful of the Bishop's engagements. The
+education which Mr. Atkin had for many years received from the Bishop
+had set him considerably above the average of young English clergy,
+not only in scholarship and information, but also in habits of literary
+industry. The Bishop, with his own great interest in Hebrew, enjoyed
+very much his Hebrew reading with Mr. Atkin and Mr. Bice.
+
+'The Bishop also began as soon as he could to pay attention to the
+teaching of the young Norfolk Islanders. He preached very often in their
+Church, and went down on Wednesdays to take a class of candidates for
+Confirmation. He said, and I believe with truth, that he wasted a great
+deal of time in preparing his lessons with the candidates for Ordination
+or younger clergy; that is, he looked up the subject in some book, and
+read on and on till he had gone far beyond the point in search of which
+he started, and had no time left to take up the other points which
+belonged to the subject he had in view. I should say he was always a
+desultory scholar, reading very much and to very great purpose, but
+being led continually from one subject or one book to another long
+before coming to an end of the first. He was always so dissatisfied with
+what he did, that whereas there are remaining several beginnings of one
+or two pages on one subject or another, there is no paper of his which
+is more than a fragment--that is, in English. There is one series of
+Notes on the Catechism in Mota complete. In those days I was not myself
+able to converse sufficiently in Mota to learn much from the elder boys
+about the teaching they were receiving; but it was evident that they
+were much impressed and stirred up, they spent much time with their
+books by themselves, and one could not fail to form a high estimate of
+the work that was going on. Now they say they never had school like that
+before or since. The Bishop was, in fact, luxuriating in the unbroken
+opportunity of pouring out instruction to intelligent and interested
+scholars. I think it was altogether a happy time to him; he enjoyed the
+solitude, the advantages of the move to the island were apparent in the
+school work, and were anticipated in the farm, and the hope of doing
+something for the Pitcairn people, which I believe had much to do with
+fixing the Mission here, was fresh.'
+
+This judgment is thoroughly borne out by the Bishop's own letter to his
+sisters of October 27, wherein it appears how considerable an element of
+his enjoyment and comfort was Mr. Codrington's own companionship, partly
+as a link with the younger members of the little community:--
+
+'Do I feel doubtful about an early Communion Service, Codrington, when I
+broach the matter, takes it up more eagerly almost than I do; and then
+I leave him to talk with the others, who could hardly differ from me on
+such a point if they wished to do so, but will speak freely to him.
+Not that, mind, I am aware of there being anything like a feeling of
+distance between me and them, but necessarily they must just feel that
+I am forty and their Bishop, and so I might perhaps influence them too
+much, which would be undesirable.
+
+'Then I can talk with him on matters which of course have special
+interest for me, for somehow I find that I scarcely ever read or think
+on any points which do not concern directly my work as clergyman or
+language-monger. It is very seldom that I touch a book which is not a
+commentary on the Bible or a theological treatise, scarcely ever, and of
+course one likes to talk about those things of which one's mind is full.
+That made the talks with the Judge so delightful. Now young people, of
+course, have their heads full (as I used to have mine) of other things,
+and so my talk would be dull and heavy to them.
+
+'No doubt, if you had me at home you would find that I am pretty full of
+thoughts on some points, but not very well able to express myself, and
+to put my thoughts into shape. It is partly want of habit, because,
+except as one speaks somewhat dictatorially to pupils, I do not arrange
+my ideas by conversing with others--to a great extent, from want of
+inclination, i.e., indolence, and also I have not the brains to think
+out a really difficult subject. I am amused occasionally to see what a
+false estimate others form of me in that way. You see it has pleased
+God to give me one faculty in rather an unusual degree, that of learning
+languages, but in every other respect my abilities are very moderate
+indeed. Distance exaggerates of course, and I get credit with some folks
+for what if I had it would simply be a gift and no virtue in me; but
+I attain anything I work at with very considerable labour, and my mind
+moves very sluggishly, and I am often very dull and stupid. You may
+judge, therefore, of the great advantage of having a bright, cheery,
+intelligent, well-informed man among us, without whom every meal would
+be heavy and silent, and we should (by my fault) get into a mechanical
+grind....
+
+'As for your own worthy Brother, I don't think I knew what rest meant
+till I got here. I work, in one sense, as hard as before, i.e., from
+early morn till 10 P.M., with perhaps the intermission of a hour and
+a half for exercise, besides the twenty minutes for each of the three
+meals; and did my eyes allow it, I could go on devouring books much
+later. But then I am not interrupted and distracted by the endless
+occupation of the New Zealand life. Oh! how utterly distasteful to me
+were all those trustee meetings, those English duties of all kinds, and
+most of all, those invasions of Kohimarama by persons for whom I could
+get up no interest. I am not defending these idiosyncrasies as if they
+were all right, but stating what I felt and what I feel. I am indeed
+very happy here; I trust not less useful in my way. School of course
+flourishes. You would be surprised at the subjects that I and my first
+class work at. No lack of brains! Perhaps I can express it briefly by
+saying that I have felt for a year or more the need of giving them
+the Gospel of St. John. Because they were ready, thank God, for those
+marvellous discourses and arguments in that blessed Gospel, following
+upon the record of miracles wrought or events that happened.
+
+'Of course the knowledge of the facts must come first, but there was
+always in school with me--either they have it as a natural gift, or my
+teaching takes naturally that line--a tendency to go deeper than the
+mere apprehension of a fact, a miracle wrought, or a statement made.
+The moral meaning of the miracle, the principle involved in the less
+important expression of it, or particular manifestation of it, these
+points always of late I am able to talk about as to intelligent and
+interested listeners. I have these last six weeks been translating St.
+John; it is nearly done. Think, Fan, of reading, as I did last night, to
+a class of fifteen Melanesian Christians, the very words of St. John vi.
+for the first time in their ears! They had heard me paraphrase much of
+it at different times. I don't notice these things, unless (as now) I
+chance to write about them. After 6 P.M. Chapel, I remain with some of
+the lads, the first class of boys, men, and women, every night, and in
+addition, the second class every other night (not on the nights when I
+have had them from 7 to 8). I used to catechise them at first, starting
+the subject myself. Now, I rejoice to say, half goes very quickly in
+answering questions, of which they bring me plenty.
+
+Then, at about 8.50 or 9, I leave them alone in the Chapel (which opens,
+as you know, into my sitting-room), and there they stay till past 10,
+talking over points among themselves, often two or three coming in to
+me, "Bishop, we can't quite make out this." What do they know and ask?
+Well, take such a subject as the second Psalm, and they will answer you,
+if you ask them, about prophecy and the prophetic state. Test them as to
+the idea they form of a spiritual vision of something seen, but not with
+the fleshly eye, and they will say, "Yes, our minds have that power of
+seeing things. I speak of Mota, it is far off, but as I speak of it, I
+see my father and my mother and the whole place. My mind has travelled
+to it in an instant. I am there. Yes, I see. So David, so Moses, so St.
+Peter on the housetop, so St. Paul, caught up into the third heaven, so
+with his mind."
+
+'"But was it like one of our dreams?"
+
+'"Yes and No--Yes, because they were hardly like waking-men. No, because
+it was a real true vision which God made them see."
+
+'Ask them about the object of prophecy, and they will say, in quaint
+expression, it is true, what is tantamount to this--it was not only a
+prediction of things to come, but a chief means of keeping before the
+minds of the Jews the knowledge of God's true character as the moral
+Governor of their nation, and gradually the knowledge was given of His
+being the Lord and Ruler of all men. The Prophet was the teacher of the
+present generation as well as the utterer of truths that, when fulfilled
+in after ages, would teach future ages.
+
+'I mention these fragmentary sentiments, merely to show you how I can
+carry these fellows into a region where something more than memory must
+be exercised. The recurrence of the same principles upon which God deals
+with us is an illustration of what I mean; e.g., the Redemption out of
+Egypt from the Captivity and the Redemption involve the same principle.
+So the principle of Mediation runs through the Bible, the Prophet,
+Priest, King, &c. Then go into the particular Psalm, ask the meaning of
+the words, Anointed, Prophet, Priest, King--how our Lord discharged and
+discharges these offices. What was the decree? The Anointed is His Son.
+"This day have I begotten Thee"--the Eternal Generation--the Birth from
+the grave. His continual Intercession. Take up Psalm cx., the Priest,
+the Priest for ever, not after the order of Aaron. Go into the Aaronical
+Priesthood. Sacrifices, the idea of sacrifice, the Mosaic ritual, its
+fulfilment; the principle of obedience, as a consequence of Faith,
+common to Old and New Testaments, as, indeed, God's Moral Law is
+unchangeable, but the object of faith clearly revealed in the New
+Testament for the first time, &c., &c.
+
+'Christ's Mediatorial reign, His annihilation of all opposition in the
+appointed time, the practical Lesson the Wrath of the Lamb.
+
+'Often you would find that pupils who can be taught these things seem
+and are very ignorant of much simpler things; but they have no knowledge
+of books, as you are aware, and my object is to teach them pretty fully
+those matters which are really of the greatest importance, while I may
+fill up the intervening spaces some day, if I live. To spend such energy
+as they and I have upon the details of Jewish history, e.g., would be
+unwise. The great lessons must be taught, as, e.g., St. Paul in 1 Cor.
+x. uses Jewish history.
+
+'October 15, I finished my last chapter of St. John's Gospel in the
+Mota language; we have also a good many of the Collects and Gospels
+translated, and some printed. What is better than to follow the Church's
+selection of passages of Scripture, and then to teach them devotionally
+in connection with the Collects?
+
+'Brooke works away hard at his singing class in the afternoon. We sing
+the Venite, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, &c., in parts, to single and
+double chants, my old favourite "Jacob's" for the Venite, also a fine
+chant of G. Elvey's. They don't sing at all well, but nevertheless,
+though apt to get flat, and without good voices, there is a certain body
+of sound, and I like it. Brooke plays the harmonium nicely.
+
+'The Norfolk Island people, two or three only, have been here at evening
+service, and are extremely struck with the reverence of the Melanesians.
+
+'I work away with my Confirmation class, liking them personally, but
+finding no indication of their having been taught to think in the least.
+It is a relief to get back to the Melanesians.'
+
+The visit of the Bishop of New Zealand which had been hoped for, had
+been prevented by the invitation to attend the Synod of the Church held
+at Lambeth, in the autumn of 1867, and instead of himself welcoming his
+friends, Bishop Patteson was picturing them to himself staying with
+his sisters at Torquay, and joining in the Consecration Services of the
+Church of All Saints, at Babbicombe, where the altar stood, fragrant
+with the sandal wood of the Pacific isles. The letters sent off by an
+opportunity in November were to family and friends, both in England. The
+one to his sister Joanna narrates one of those incidents that touched
+the Bishop most deeply:--
+
+'On Friday last we had such a very, very solemn service in our little
+Chapel. Walter Hotaswol, from Matlavo Island, is dying--he has long been
+dying, I may say--of consumption. For two winters past he has remained
+with us rather than in his own island, as he well knew that without
+good food and care he would sink at once. Years ago he was baptized, and
+after much time spent in preparation, Tuesday, at 7.30 A.M., was the day
+when we met in Chapel. Walter leant back in a chair. The whole service
+was in the Mota language, and I administered the Holy Communion to
+eleven of our Melanesian scholars, and last of all to him. Three others
+I trust I may receive to Holy Communion Sunday next. Is not this a
+blessed thing? I think of it with thankfulness and fear. My old text
+comes into my mind--"Your heart shall fear and be enlarged." I think
+there is good hope that I may baptize soon seven or eight catechumens.'
+
+The letter to Bishop Selwyn despatched by the same vessel on November
+16, gives the first hint of that 'labour traffic' which soon became the
+chief obstacle to the Mission.
+
+After describing an interview with an American captain, he
+continues:--'Reports are rife of a semi-legalised slave-trading between
+the South Sea Islands and New Caledonia and the white settlers in
+Fiji. I have made a little move in the matter. I wrote to a Wesleyan
+Missionary in Fiji (Ovalau) who sent me some books. I am told that
+Government sanctions natives being brought upon agreement to work for
+pay, &c., and passage home in two years. We know the impossibility of
+making contracts with New Hebrides or Solomon natives. It is a
+mere sham, an evasion of some law, passed, I dare say, without any
+dishonourable intention, to procure colonial labour. If necessary I will
+go to Fiji or anywhere to obtain information. But I saw a letter in a
+Sydney paper which spoke strongly and properly of the necessity of the
+most stringent rules to prevent the white settlers from injuring the
+coloured men.'
+
+So first loomed the cloud that was to become so fatal a darkening of
+the hopes of the Mission, all the more sad because it was caused by
+Christian men, or men who ought to have been Christian. It will be seen,
+however, that Bishop Patteson did not indiscriminately set his face
+against all employment of natives. Occupation and training in civilised
+customs were the very things he desired for them, but the whole question
+lay in the manner of the thing. However, to him as yet it was but a
+report, and this Advent and Christmas of 1867 were a very happy time. A
+letter to me describes the crowning joy.
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: Christmas Day, 1867.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--One line to you to-day of Christmas feelings and
+blessings. Indeed, you are daily in my thoughts and prayers. You would
+have rejoiced could you have seen us last Sunday or this morning at 7
+A.M. Our fourteen Melanesian Communicants so reverent, and (apparently)
+earnest. On Sunday I ordained Mr. Palmer Priest, Mr. Atkin and Mr.
+Brooke Deacons.
+
+'The service was a solemn one, in the Norfolk Island Church, the people
+joining heartily in the first ordination they had seen; Codrington's
+sermon excellent, the singing good and thoroughly congregational,
+and the whole body of confirmed persons remaining to receive the Holy
+Communion. Our own little Chapel is very well decorated (Codrington
+again the leader) with fronds of tree-ferns, arums, and lilies;
+"Emmanuel, God amemina" (with us), in large letters over the altar.
+
+'And now (9.30P.M.) they are practising Christmas hymns in Mota for our
+11 A.M. service. Then we have a regular feast, and make the day a really
+memorable one for them. The change from the old to the new state of
+things, as far as our Banks Islanders are concerned, is indeed most
+thankworthy. I feel that there is great probability of George Sarawia's
+ordination before long. This next year he will be left alone (as far as
+we whites are concerned) at Mota, and I shall be able to judge, I hope,
+of his fitness for carrying on the work there. If it be God's will to
+give him health of body and the will and power to serve Him, then he
+ought to be ordained. He is an excellent fellow, thoughtful, sensible,
+and my right hand among the Melanesians for years. His wife, Sara
+Irotaviro, a nice gentle creature, with now a fine little boy some seven
+months old. She is not at all equal to George in intelligence, and is
+more native in habits, &c. But I think that she will do her best.
+
+'You know I have long felt that there is almost harm done by trying
+to make these islanders like English people. All that is needful for
+decency and propriety in the arrangement of houses, in dress, &c.,
+we must get them to adopt, but they are to be Melanesian, not English
+Christians. We are so far removed from them in matters not at
+all necessarily connected with Christianity, that unless we can
+denationalise ourselves and eliminate all that belongs to us as English,
+and not as Christians, we cannot be to them what a well-instructed
+fellow-countryman may be. He is nearer to them. They understand him. He
+brings the teaching to them in a practical and intelligible form.
+
+'I hope and pray that dear old George may be the first of such a band
+of fellow-workers. Others--Henry Tagalana, who is, I suppose, about
+eighteen, Fisher Pantatun, about twenty-one, Edward Wogale (George's own
+brother), about sixteen, Robert Pantatun, about eighteen--are excellent,
+all that I could wish; and many younger ones are coming up. They stay
+with us voluntarily two or three years now without any going home, and
+the little ones read and write surprisingly well. They come to me very
+often and say, "Bishop, I wish to stop here again this winter."
+
+'They come for help of the best kind. They have their little printed
+private prayers, but some are not content with this. Marosgagalo came
+last week with a slip of paper--
+
+'"Well, Maros, what is it?"
+
+'He is a shy little fellow who has been crippled with rheumatism.
+
+'"Please write me my prayer."
+
+'And as my room opens into the Chapel, and they are told to use that at
+all times (their sleeping-rooms not allowing much privacy), I know how
+they habitually come into it early (at 5 A.M.) and late at night for
+their private prayers. You cannot go into the Chapel between 5 and 6.30
+A.M. without seeing two or three kneeling about in different corners. As
+for their intelligence, I ought to find time to send you a full account
+of them, translations of their answers, papers, &c., but you must be
+content to know that I am sure they can reason well upon facts and
+statements, that they are (the first class) quite able to understand all
+the simpler theological teaching which you would expect Communicants and
+(I pray) future clergymen to understand. Of some six or seven I can thus
+speak with great confidence, but I think that the little fellows may
+be better educated still, for they are with us before they have so much
+lee-way to make up--jolly little fellows, bright and sharp. The whole
+of the third Banks Island class (eight of them) have been with me for
+eighteen months, and they have all volunteered to stay for eighteen
+months more. They ought to know a great deal at the end of that time,
+then they will go home almost to a certainty only for two or three
+months, and come back again for another long spell.
+
+'All this is hopeful, and we have much to be thankful for indeed; but I
+see no immediate prospect of anything like this in the other islands at
+present. We know very many of the islanders and more or less of their
+languages; we have scholars who read and write, and stop here with us,
+and who are learning a good deal individually, but I have as yet no
+sense of any hold gained upon the people generally. We are good friends,
+they like us, trust young people with us, but they don't understand our
+object in coming among them properly. The trade and the excitement of
+our visit has a good deal to do with their willingness to receive us and
+to give us children and young men. They behave very well when here, and
+their people treat us well when we are with them. But as yet I see no
+religious feeling, no apprehension of the reality of the teaching: they
+know in one sense, and they answer questions about the meaning of the
+Creed, &c., but they would soon fall again into heathen ways, and their
+people show no disposition to abandon heathen ways. In all this there is
+nothing to surprise or discourage us. It must be slow work, carried on
+without observation amidst many failures and losses and disappointments.
+If I wished to attribute to secondary causes any of the results we
+notice, I might say that our having lived at Mota two or three months
+each year has had a great deal to do with the difference between the
+Banks and the other islanders.
+
+'It may be that, could we manage to live in Bauro, or Anudha, or Mahaga,
+or Whitsuntide, or Lepers' Island, or Espiritu Santo, we might see
+soon some such change take place as we notice in Mota; but all that is
+uncertain, and such thoughts are useless. We must indeed live in those
+other islands as soon as we can, but it is hard to find men able to do
+so, and only a few of the islands are ripe for the attempt.
+
+'I feel often like a horse going his regular rounds, almost
+mechanically. Every part of the day is occupied, and I am too tired
+at night to think freshly. So that I am often like one in a dream,
+and scarcely realise what I am about. Then comes a time when I wish to
+write, e.g. (as to you now) about the Mission, and it seems so hard to
+myself to see my way, and so impossible to make others see what is in
+my mind about it. Sometimes I think these Banks Islanders may be
+evangelists beyond the limits of their own islands. So many of the
+natives of other islands live here with them, and speak the language of
+Mota, and then they have so much more in common with them than with us,
+and the climate and food and mode of life generally are familiar to them
+alike. I think this may come to pass some day; I feel almost sure that
+I had better work on with promising islanders than attempt to train up
+English boys, of which I once thought. I am more and more confirmed
+in my belief that what one wants is a few right-minded, well-educated
+English clergymen, and then for all the rest trust to native agency.
+
+'When I think of Mr. Robertson and such men, and think how they work
+on, it encourages me. And so, where do I hear of men who have so many
+comforts, so great immunity from hardship and danger as we enjoy? This
+is nothing to the case of a London parish.
+
+'Fanny has sent me out my old engravings, which I like to look at once
+more, although there is only one really good one among them, and yet
+I don't like to think of her no longer having them. I have also a nice
+selection of photographs just sent out, among which the cartoons from
+Hampton Court are especially good. That grand figure of St. Paul at
+Athens, which Raphael copied from Masaccio's fresco, always was a
+favourite of mine.
+
+'I feel at home here, more so than in any place since I left England;
+but I hope that I may be able to spend longer intervals in the islands
+than the mere sixteen or eighteen weeks of the voyage, if I have still
+my health and strength. But I think sometimes that I can't last always;
+I unconsciously leave off doing things, and wake up to find that I am
+shirking work.
+
+'Holy Innocents' Day.--I don't think I have sufficiently considered your
+feelings in suffering the change of name in the Mission School that
+took place, and I am rather troubled about it. I came back from the last
+voyage to find that as I had selected a site for the buildings on St.
+Barnabas Day, which was, by a coincidence, the day I spent here on my
+outward voyage in 1866, the people had all named the place St.
+Barnabas. Then came the thought of the meetings on St. Barnabas, and
+the appropriateness of the Missionary Apostle's name, and I, without
+thinking enough about it, acquiesced in the change of name. I should
+have consulted you,--not that you will feel yourself injured, I well
+know; but for all that, I ought to have done it. It was the more due
+to you, because you won't claim any right to be consulted. I am really
+sorry for it, and somewhat troubled in mind. (Footnote: 'He need not
+have been sorry. I give this to show his kind, scrupulous consideration;
+but I, like everyone else, could not help feeling that it was more
+fitting that the germ of a missionary theological college should not
+bear a name even in allusion to a work of fiction.)
+
+'The occasional notices of Mr. and Mrs. Keble in your letters, and the
+full account of him and her as their end drew nigh, is very touching.
+How much, how very much there is that I should like to ask him now! How
+I could sit at his feet and listen to him! These are great subjects that
+I have neither time nor brains to deal with, and there is no one
+here who can give me all the help I want. I think a good deal about
+Ritualism, more about Union, most about the Eucharistic question; but
+I need some one with whom to talk out these matters. When I have
+worked out the mind of Hooker, Bull, Waterland, &c., and read Freeman's
+"Principles," and Pusey's books, and Mr. Keble's, &c., then I want
+to think it out with the aid of a really well-read man. It is clearly
+better not to view such holy subjects in connection with controversy;
+but then comes the thought--"How is Christendom to be united when this
+diversity exists on so great a point?" And then one must know what the
+diversity really amounts to, and then the study becomes a very laborious
+and intricate enquiry into the ecclesiastical literature of centuries.
+Curiously enough, I am still waiting for the book I so much want, Mr.
+Keble's book on "Eucharistic Adoration." I had a copy, of course, but I
+lent it to some one. I lose a good many books in that way.
+
+'The extraordinary change in the last thirty years will of course mark
+this time hereafter as one of the most noticeable periods in the history
+of the Church, indeed one can't fail to see it, which is not always
+the case with persons living in the time of great events. The bold,
+outspoken conduct of earnest men, the searching deeply into principles,
+the comparative rejection of conventionalities, local prejudices,
+exclusive forms of thought and practice, must strike everyone. But
+one misses the guiding, restraining hand...the man in the Church
+corresponding to "the Duke" at one time in the State, the authority.
+
+'One thing I do think, that the being conversant only with thoughtful
+educated Christians may result in a person ignoring the simpler idea of
+the Eucharist which does not in the least divest it of its mysterious
+character, but rather, recognising the mystery, seeks for no solution of
+it. How can I teach my fifteen Melanesian Communicants the points which
+I suppose an advanced Ritualist would regard as most essential? But I
+can give them the actual words of some of the ancient, really ancient,
+Liturgies, and teach them what Christ said, and St. Paul said, and the
+Church of England says, and bid them acquiesce in the mystery.
+
+'Yet I would fain know more. I quite long for a talk with Mr. Keble.
+Predisposed on every account to think that he must be right, I am not
+sure that I know what he held to be the truth, nor am I quite sure that
+I would see it without much explanation; but to these holy men so much
+is revealed that one has no right to expect to know. What he held was in
+him at all events combined with all that a man may have of humility, and
+learning, and eagerness for union with God.'
+
+
+This letter was sent with these:--
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: December 16, 1867.
+
+'My dear Mr. Atkin,--The "Pacific" arrived on Friday after a quick
+passage. All our things came safely. She leaves to-morrow for Sydney,
+and we are in a great hurry. For (1) we have three mails all at once,
+and I have my full share of letters, public and private; and (2) we have
+had last week our first fall of rain for some three and a half months,
+and we are doing our best to plant kumaras, &c., which grow here
+wonderfully, if only they get anything like a fair chance.
+
+'Joe as usual is foremost at all work; fencing, well-sinking, &c. And
+he proves the truth of the old saying, that "the head does not suffer by
+the work of the hand." His knowledge of Scripture truth, of what I
+may fairly call the beginning of theological studies, gives me great
+comfort. I am quite sure that in all essentials, in all which by God's
+blessing tends to qualify a man for teaching faithfully, and with
+sufficient learning and knowledge of the Word of God, he is above the
+average of candidates for ordination in England.
+
+'I don't say that he would pass the kind of examination before an
+English Bishop so well as a great many--they insist a good deal on
+technical points of historical knowledge, &c.--but in all things really
+essential--in his clear perception of the unity of the teaching of the
+Bible; in his knowledge of the Greek Testament, in his reading with me
+the Articles, Prayer Book, &c., I am convinced that he is well fitted
+to do his work well and truly. We have had more than one talk on deeper
+matters still, on inward feelings and thoughts, on prayer and the
+devotional study of God's Word, and divinity in general. I feel
+the greatest possible thankfulness and happiness as I think of his
+ordination, and of what, by the grace of God, he may become to very many
+both heathens and Christians, if his life be spared.
+
+'Once again, my dear friends, I thank you for giving him to this work.
+He is the greatest conceivable comfort and help to me. I always feel
+when he is walking or working with others, that there is one on whose
+steadiness and strong sense of duty I can always rely. May God bless him
+with His richest blessings....
+
+'On Sunday next (D.V.) we shall not forget you, as I well know your
+thoughts and prayers will be with us; and we sing "Before JEHOVAH'S
+awful Throne" to the Old Hundredth; 2nd, No. 144 of the Hymnal, after
+third Collect; and before sermon, 3rd, No. 143; after sermon, 4th, No.
+19; after Litany, 5th, Veni Creator to All Saints.
+
+The ordination will be in the Norfolk Island Church.--My kind regards to
+Mrs. Atkin and Mary.
+
+'Always, my dear friend, very truly yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+'December 16, 1867.
+
+'My dear Miss Mackenzie,--Your brother's pedometer reached me safely
+three days ago. I feel most truly unworthy to receive such gifts. I have
+now his sextant, his pedometer, and, most precious of all, his "Thomas
+a Kempis"; they ought to help me to think more of him, and his holy
+example. Your letter commenting on the published life makes me know
+him pretty well. He was one to love and honour; indeed, the thorough
+humility and truthfulness, the single-mindedness of the man, the simple
+sense of duty and unwearied patience, energy, and gentleness--indeed
+you must love to dwell on the memory of such a brother, and look forward
+with hope and joy to the reunion.
+
+'We are fast settling ourselves into our headquarters here. Our
+buildings already sufficient to house eighty or one hundred Melanesians.
+We are fencing, planting, &c., &c., vigorously, and the soil here repays
+our labours well. The yam and sweet potatoes grow excellently, and
+the banana, orange, lemon, and nearly all semi-tropical fruits and
+vegetables. I think that our commissariat expenditure will soon be very
+small, and we ought to have an export before long.
+
+'Two things seem to be pretty clear: that there is no lack of capacity
+in the Melanesian, and no probability of any large supply of English
+teachers and clergymen, even if it were desirable to work the Mission
+with foreign rather than native clergymen. My own mind is, and has long
+been in favour of the native pastorate; but it needs much time to work
+up to such a result.
+
+'All our party are well in health, save one good fellow, Walter
+Hotaswol, who is dying of consumption, in faith and hope. "Better," he
+says, "to die here with a bright heart than to live in my own land with
+a dark one." It is a solemn Ember week for us.
+
+'I remain, dear Miss Mackenzie, very truly yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.
+
+'I quite agree with you that you cannot educate tropical and
+semi-tropical people in England; and you don't want to make them English
+Christians, you know.'
+
+
+Walter's history is here completed:--
+
+
+'January 22, 1868.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--I write you a line: I have not time for more in
+addition to my other epistle, to tell you that I purpose to baptize,
+on Sunday next, eight Melanesian youths and one girl. You will, I
+know, thank God for this. Indeed I hope (though I say it with a kind
+of trembling and wonder) that a succession of scholars is now regularly
+established from the Banks Islands.
+
+'These nine are being closely followed by some ten or twelve more,
+younger than they, averaging from seven to eleven years, who all read
+and write and know the elements of Christian teaching, but you should
+see them, bright merry little fellows, and the girls too, full of
+play and fun. Yet so docile, and obedient, and good-tempered. They all
+volunteer to stay here again this winter, though they have not been
+at home since they first left it, in July and August 1866. They have a
+generation of Christians--I mean one of our generations--some two dozen
+or more, to help them; they have not the brunt of the battle to bear,
+like dear George and Henry and others; and because, either here or
+there, they will be living with Christians; I need not, I think, subject
+them to a probation. Next year (D.V.) they may be baptized, and so the
+ranks are being filled up.
+
+'I would call the girl Charlotte were she a favourite of mine, but I
+wait in hopes that a nicer girl (though this one is good and nice too)
+may be baptized by your and Mrs. Keble's name. You may well believe that
+my heart and mind are very full of this. May God grant that they may
+continue His for ever!
+
+'I confirm on the same day fourteen Norfolk Islanders.
+
+'Walter Hotaswol, from Matlavo, the southern part of Saddle Island, died
+on the evening of the Epiphany: a true Epiphany to him, I trust. He
+was remarkably gentle and innocent for one born in a heathen land. His
+confession, very fully made to me before his first Communion, was very
+touching, simply given, and, thank God, he had been wonderfully kept
+from the sins of heathenism. With us, his life for years was blameless.
+He died almost without pain, after many weeks of lingering in
+consumption, I verily believe in full faith in his Saviour and his God.
+
+'During his last illness, and for a short time before he actually
+took to his bed, he frequently received the Holy Communion. And very
+remarkable were his words to me the day after his first Communion. I was
+sitting by him, when he said, apropos of nothing, "Very good!"
+
+'"What is very good, Walter?"
+
+'"The Lord's Supper."
+
+'"Why do you think so?"
+
+'"I can't talk about it. I feel it here (touching his heart), I don't
+feel as I did!"
+
+'"But you have long believed in Him."
+
+'"Yes, but I feel different from that; I don't feel afraid for death. My
+heart is calm (me masur kal, of a calm following a gale)." His look
+was very earnest as he added: "I do believe that I am going to Him."
+Presently, "Bishop!"
+
+'"Well."
+
+'"Last night--no, the night before I received the Lord's Supper, I saw a
+man standing there, a tanum liana (a man of rank, or authority). He said
+Your breath is bad, I will give you a new breath.'"
+
+'"Yes."
+
+'"I thought it meant, I will give you a new life. I thought it must be
+JESUS."
+
+'He was weak, but not wandering. "Yes, better to die here with a bright
+heart than to live in my old home with a dark one."
+
+'January 28th.--The nine young Christians were baptized on Sunday
+evening; a very touching and solemn service it was, very full of
+comfort. It may be that now, in full swing of work, I am too sanguine,
+but I try to be sober-minded, thankful, and hopeful. I try, I say--it is
+not easy.
+
+'God bless you, my dear Cousin, and as I pray for you, so I know you
+pray for us.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+A long letter to James Patteson, which was begun a few days later, goes
+into the man's retrospect of the boy's career:--
+
+
+'March 3rd.--I think often of your boys. Jack, in two or three years,
+will be old enough for school, and I suppose it must make you anxious
+sometimes. I look back on my early days, and see so much, so very much
+to regret and grieve over, such loss of opportunities, idleness, &c.,
+that I think much of the way to make lessons attractive to boys and
+girls. I think a good deal may be done simply by the lessons being given
+by the persons the children love most, and hence (where it can be done)
+the mother first, and the father too (if he can) are the best people.
+They know the ways of the child, they can take it at the right times. Of
+course, at first it is the memory, not the reasoning power, that must be
+brought into exercise. Young children must learn by heart, learn miles
+which they can't understand, or understand but very imperfectly. I think
+I forget this sometimes, and talk to my young Melanesians as I should to
+older persons. But I feel almost sure that children can follow a simple,
+lively account of the meaning and reasons of things much more than one
+is apt to fancy. And I don't know how anything can be really learnt
+that is not understood. A great secret of success here is an easy and
+accurate use of illustration--parabolic teaching.
+
+'Every day of my life I groan over the sad loss I daily experience in
+not having been grounded properly in Latin and Greek. I have gone on
+with my education in these things more than many persons, but I can
+never be a good scholar; I don't know what I would not give to have been
+well taught as a boy. And then at Eton, any little taste one might have
+had for languages, &c., was never called out.
+
+My fault again, but I can't help thinking that it was partly because
+the reason of a rule was never explained. Who ever taught in school the
+difference between an aorist and a perfect, e.g.? And at college I was
+never taught it, because it was assumed that I knew it. I know that
+at ten, fifteen, or twenty, I should not in any case have gone into
+languages as I do now. But I might have learnt a good deal, I think.
+A thoroughly good preparatory school is, I dare say, very difficult to
+find. I would make a great point, I think, to send a boy to a good
+one; not to cram him or make a prig of him, but simply to give him the
+advantage which will make his whole career in life different from what
+it will be if his opening days pass by unimproved. Cool of me, Jem, to
+write all this; but I think of this boy, and my boyish days, and what I
+might have been, and am not.
+
+'I was always shallow, learned things imperfectly, thought I knew a
+thing when I knew scarce any part of it, scrawling off common-place
+verses at Eton, and, unfortunately, getting sent up for them. I had a
+character which passed at school and at home for that of a fair scholar.
+Thence came my disgrace at being turned out of the select, my bad
+examination for the Balliol scholarship, my taking only a second, &c.
+Nothing was really known! Pretty quick in seizing upon a superficial
+view of a matter, I had little patience or determination to thoroughly
+master it. The fault follows me through life. I shall never, I fear, be
+really accurate and able to think out a matter fully. The same fault I
+see in my inner life. But it is not right to talk perhaps too much of
+that, only I know that I get credit for much that I don't do, and
+for qualities which I don't possess. This is simple truth, not false
+humility. Some gifts I have, which, I thank God, I have been now taught
+to employ with more or less of poverty in the service.'
+
+
+The vessel that took away the above despatches brought the tidings of
+New Zealand's beloved Primate being appointed to the See of Lichfield.
+It was another great wrench to the affectionate heart, as will be seen
+in this filial reply to the intelligence:--
+
+
+'2nd Sunday in Lent, 10 P.M.
+
+'My dear, dear Bishop,--I don't think I ever quite felt till now what
+you have been to me for many a long year. Indeed, I do thank God that I
+have been taught to know and dearly love you; and much I reproach myself
+(not now for the first time) that I have been wilful, and pained you
+much sometimes by choosing for myself when I ought to have followed your
+choice. I could say much, but I can't say it now, and you don't desire
+it. You know what I think and feel. Your letter of the 3rd reached me
+last night. I don't yet realise what it is to me, but I think much more
+still of those dear people at Taurarua. It is perfectly clear to my
+mind that you could not have acted otherwise. I don't grudge you to the
+Mother Church one atom!
+
+'I write at this time because I think you may possibly be soon beginning
+your first Ordination Service in your Cathedral. It was almost my first
+thought when I began to think quietly after our 8 P.M. prayers. And I
+pray for those whom you may be leading to their work, as so often you
+have laid your hands on me. I understand Bishop Andrewes' [Greek text]
+now.
+
+'What it must have been to you and still is!...
+
+'This move to Norfolk Island does make a great difference, no doubt. And
+full well I know that your prayers will be around us; and that you will
+do all that mortal man can do for us and for the islands. Indeed, you
+must not trouble yourself about me too much. I shall often need you,
+often sadly miss you, a just return for having undervalued the blessing
+of your presence. But I do feel that it is right. I humbly pray and
+trust that God's blessing may be on us all, and that a portion of your
+spirit may be with us.
+
+'More than ever affectionately yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The tidings had come simultaneously with the history of the Consecration
+of All Saints, Babbicombe, for indeed the Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn were
+staying with Joanna and Fanny Patteson for the Octave Services when
+the first offer arrived. So that the two mails whose contents were
+transported together to Norfolk Island contained matter almost
+overwhelming for the brother and friend, and he had only one day in
+which to write his answers. To the sisters the assurance is, 'Only be
+quite comforted about me!' and then again, 'No, I don't grudge him one
+bit. There is no room for small personal considerations when these great
+issues are at stake.'
+
+'I don't think I quite know yet what it is to me. I can't look at his
+photograph with quite dry eyes yet. But I don't feel at all sad or
+unhappy. You know the separation, if God, in His mercy, spare me at
+last, can't be long; and his prayers are always around us, and he is
+with us in spirit continually, and then it will be such joy and delight
+to me to watch his work.
+
+'I think with such thankfulness of the last Holy Week; the last Easter
+Sunday spent wholly with him. I think too, and that sadly enough, of
+having pained him sometimes by being self-willed, and doing just what he
+has not done, viz., chosen for myself when I ought to have followed him.
+
+'Do you remember when, on the morning of Mamma's death, we came into the
+study where Uncle and Aunt Frank were, and our dear Father in his great
+faith and resignation said, with broken voice, "I thank God, who spared
+her to me so long"? Surely I may with far greater ease say, "I thank God
+for the blessing for now thirteen, years of his example and loving care
+of me." Had he been taken away by death we must have borne it, and we
+can bear this now by His grace.'
+
+The thought engrossed him most completely. It is plain in all his
+letters that it was quite an effort to turn his mind to anything but the
+approaching change. His Primate had truly been a 'Father in God' to him.
+His affections had wound themselves about him and Mrs. Selwyn, and the
+society that they formed together with Sir William and Lady Martin had
+become the next thing to his home and family. Above all, the loneliness
+of sole responsibility was not complete while the Primate was near to
+be consulted. There had been an almost visible loss of youth and
+playfulness ever since the voyages had been made without the leader
+often literally at the helm; and though Bishop Patteson had followed his
+own judgment in two decided points--the removal to Norfolk Island, and
+the use of Mota language instead of English, and did not repent having
+done so, yet still the being left with none to whom to look up as an
+authority was a heavy trial and strain on mind and body, and brought on
+another stage in that premature age that the climate and constant toil
+were bringing upon him when most men are still in the fulness of their
+strength.
+
+The next letter spoke the trouble that was to mark the early part of the
+year 1868 as one of sickness and sorrow.
+
+
+'Our two Ambrym boys are coming out; and I am hopeful as to some more
+decided connection with the north face of the Island. Mahaga lads
+very promising, but at present Banks Islanders much ahead of the rest.
+Indeed, of some of them, I may say that while they have no knowledge of
+many things that an English lad ought to know, yet they have a very fair
+share of intelligence concentrated on the most important subject, and
+know a good deal about it. They think.'
+
+Then follows a working out of one of the difficult questions that always
+beset missionaries respecting the heathen notions--or no notions--about
+wedlock. Speaking of the persons concerned, the journal continues:--
+
+'They were not able to understand--and how can a man and woman, or
+rather a girl and boy, understand--what we understand by marriage.
+They always saw men and women exchanging husbands and wives when they
+pleased, and grew up in the midst of such ideas and practices, so that
+there never was a regular contract, nor a regularly well-conceived and
+clearly-understood notion of living together till "death us do part" in
+their minds. You will say, "And yet they were baptized." Yes, but I did
+not know so much about heathen ways then, and, besides, read St. Paul
+to the Corinthians, and see how the idea of sanctity of marriage, and
+of chastity in general is about the last idea that the heathen mind
+comprehends. Long after the heathen know that to break the sixth,
+eighth, even the ninth and tenth Commandments is wrong, and can
+understand and practically recognise it to be so, the seventh is a
+puzzle to them. At the best they only believe it because we say that it
+is a Commandment of God. Look at the Canons of the early Church on the
+question; look how Luther sanctioned the polygamy, the double marriage,
+of the Landgrave of Hesse! So that although now, thank God, our scholars
+understand more of what is meant by living with a woman, and the
+relation of husband and wife is not altogether strange to them, yet
+it was not so at first, and is not likely to be so with any but our
+well-trained scholars for a long time.'
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: March 26, 1868. 'My dearest Sisters,--How you are
+thinking of me this anniversary? Thirteen years since I saw your dear
+faces and his face. Oh! how thankful I am that it is so long ago. It
+was very hard to bear for a long long time. Last night as I lay awake
+I thought of that last Sunday, the words I said in church (how absurdly
+consequential they seem to me now), the walk home, calling to see C. L.,
+parting with the Vicar and M., the last evening--hearts too full to say
+what was in them, the sitting up at night and writing notes. And then
+black Monday! Well, I look back now and see that it was very hard at
+first, and I don't deny that I found the mere bodily roughnesses very
+trying at first, but that has long past. My present mode of life is
+agreeable to me altogether now. Servants and company would be a very
+great bore indeed. So even in smaller ways, you see, I have all that I
+can desire. I always try to remember that I may miss these things, and
+specially miss you if it should please God to send any heavy sickness
+upon me. I dare say I should be very impatient, and need kind soothing
+nurses. But I must hope for the best.
+
+'Just now we have some anxiety. There has been and is a bad typhoid
+fever among the Pitcairners: want of cleanliness, no sewerage, or very
+bad draining, crowded rooms, no ventilation, the large drain choked up,
+a dry season, so that the swampy ground near the settlement has been
+dry, these are secondary causes. For two months it has been going on. I
+never anticipated such a disease here.
+
+'But the fever is bad. Last night two died, both young women of about
+twenty. Two, one a married man of thirty, with five children, the other
+a girl of twelve, had died before. I have been backwards and forwards,
+but no one else of the party. The poor people like to see me. For three
+weeks I have felt some anxiety about four or five of our lads, and they
+have been with me in my room. I don't like the symptoms of one or two of
+them. But it is not yet a clear case of the fever.'
+
+
+'Easter Eve.--Dear Sisters, once more I write out of a sick hospital.
+This typhoid fever, strongly marked, as described in Dr. Watson's books,
+Graye's edition of Hooper's "Vade Mecum," and, as a very solemn lesson
+of Lent and Holy Week, seven Pitcairners have died. For many weeks the
+disease did not touch us; we established a regular quarantine, and used
+all precautions. We had, I think, none of the predisposing causes of
+fever at our place. It is high, well-drained, clean, no dirt near,
+excellent water, and an abundant supply of it; but I suppose the whole
+air is impregnated with it. Anyhow, the fever is here.
+
+'April 23rd.--My house consists, you know, of Chapel, my rooms, and
+hospital. This is the abode of the sick and suspected. The hospital is
+a large, lofty, well-ventilated room; a partition, 6 feet high, only
+divides it into two; on one side are the sick, on the other side sleep
+those who are sickening.
+
+'As yet twenty have been in my quarters. Of these seven are now in
+Codrington's house, half-way between hospital and ordinary school life.
+They are convalescents, real convalescents. You know how much so-called
+convalescents need care in recovering from fever, but these seven have
+had the fever very slightly indeed, thank God; the type of the disease
+is much less severe than it was at first. One lad of about sixteen, Hofe
+from Ysabel Island, died last Friday morning. The fever came on him with
+power from the first. He was very delirious for some days, restless,
+sleepless, then comatose. The symptoms are so very clearly marked, and
+my books are so clear in detail of treatment, that we don't feel much
+difficulty now about the treatment, and the nursery and hospital work we
+are pretty well used to.
+
+'Barasu, from Ysabel Island, who was near dying on Thursday week, a
+fortnight ago to-day, has hovered between life and death. I baptized him
+at 9 P.M. on Holy Thursday (the anniversary of Mr. Keble's death). John
+Keble: rather presumptuous to give such a name, but I thought he would
+not have been named here by it for many hours. He is now sitting by the
+hospital fire. I have just fed him with some rice and milk; and he is
+well enough to ask for a bit of sweet potato, which he cannot yet hold,
+nor guide his hand to his mouth. He has had the regular fever, and is
+now, thank God, becoming convalescent. No other patient is at present
+in a dangerous state; all have the fever signs more or less doubtful. No
+one is at present in a precarious state. It has been very severe in
+the town, and there are many cases yet. Partly it is owing to the utter
+ignorance or neglect of the most ordinary rules of caution and nursing.
+Children and men and women all lie on the ground together in the fever
+or out of it. The contagion fastens upon one after another. In Isaac
+Christian's house, the mother and five children were all at one time in
+a dangerous state, wandering, delirious, comatose. Yet the mortality has
+been small. Only seven have died; some few are still very ill, yet the
+character of the fever is less severe now. We had some sharp hospital
+work for a few days and nights, all the accompaniments of the decay of
+our frail bodies. Now we have a respite. Codrington, Palmer, and I take
+the nursing; better that the younger ones, always more liable to take
+fever, should be kept out of contagion; to no one but I have gone among
+the sick in town, or to town at all. We are all quite well.
+
+'Beef tea, chicken broth, mutton broth, wine, brandy, milk to any
+extent, rice, &c.--Palmer manufactures all. The Pitcairners, most
+improvident people, are short of all necessary stores. I give what I
+can, but I must be stingy, as I tell them, for I never anticipated an
+attack of typhus here. They will, I trust, learn a lesson from it, and
+not provoke a recurrence of it by going on in their old ways.
+
+'I don't deny that at times I have been a good deal depressed: about
+Holy Week and Easter Week was the worst time. Things are much brighter
+now; though I fully expect that several others, perhaps many others,
+will yet have the attack, but I trust and fancy it may be only in a
+modified form. We have regular Chapel and school, but the school is a
+mild affair now; I who am only in bed from 12.30 or 1 to 5, and in the
+hospital all day, cannot be very bright in school. I just open a little
+bit of my red baize door into Chapel, so that the sick in my room join
+in the service. Nice, is it not?
+
+'This will greatly unsettle plans for the voyage. The "Southern Cross"
+is expected here about May 10; but I can't leave any sick that may want
+my care then, and I can't take back to the islands any that are only
+just convalescent, or indeed any of the apparently healthy who may yet
+have the seeds of the fever in them. It would be fearful if it broke out
+on the islands. I must run no risk of that; so I think that very likely
+I may keep the whole party here another year, and make myself a short
+visitation. I suppose that the Bishop will come to New Zealand, and I
+must try to meet him; I should like to see his face once more; but if
+he doesn't come, or if I can't (by reason of this sickness) go to meet
+him--well, I shall be spared the parting if I don't have the joy of the
+meeting, and these things are not now what they once were.
+
+'April 28th.--Barasu (John Keble) died this morning as I read the
+Commendatory Prayer by his side. He had a relapse some five days ago,
+how we cannot say, he was always watched day and night. I had much
+comfort in him, he was a dear lad, and our most hopeful Ysabel scholar.
+His peaceful death, for it was very peaceful at the last, may work
+more than his life would have done; some twenty others convalescent, or
+ailing, or sick. At this moment another comes to say that he feels out
+of sorts; you know that sensation, and how one's heart seems to stop for
+a minute, and then one tries to look and speak cheerfully.
+
+'April 29th.--I read the Service over another child to-day, son of James
+and Priscilla Quintall, the second child they have lost within a few
+days, and Priscilla herself is lying ill of the fever. Poor people, I
+did what little I could to comfort them; the poor fellow is laid up
+too with a bad foot; a great many others are very ill, some young ones
+especially.
+
+'May 5th.--Jemima Young sent for me yesterday morning. I was with her
+the day before, and she was very ill. I reached the room at 11.45, and
+she died at noon. [Jemima Young had been particularly bright, pleasant,
+and helpful when Mrs. Selwyn was on the island].
+
+'May 7th.--The sick ones doing pretty well. You must not think it is all
+gloom, far from it, there is much to cheer and comfort us. The hearty
+co-operation of these excellent fellow-workers is such a support, and is
+brought out at such times.
+
+'We are going on with divers works, but not very vigorously just now. We
+are sawing the timber for our large hall: the building still to be put
+up, and then our arrangements will be complete for the present.
+
+'Then our fencing goes on. We have one large field of some ninety or one
+hundred acres enclosed, the sea and a stream bounding two sides, and two
+other fields of about forty and twenty acres. I have good cart mares and
+one cart horse, a riding mare which I bought of Mr. Pritt, and Atkin has
+one also, eleven cows, and as many calves, poultry (sadly destroyed
+by wild cats) and pigs, and two breeding sows, and a flock of fifty
+well-bred sheep imported. These cost me L4. 10s. a head; I hope they
+are the progenitors of a fine flock. The ram cost L12. We have plenty
+of work, and must go on fencing and subdividing our fields. Most of
+the land is wooded; but a considerable quantity can easily be cleared.
+Indeed 200 or 300 acres are clear now of all but some smaller stuff
+that can easily be removed. A thick couch-grass covers all. It is not
+so nutritious as the ordinary English grasses; but cattle, sheep, and
+horses like it, only a larger quantity is needed by each animal. It
+gives trouble when one wants to break it up, it is such a network of
+roots; but once out of the ground and the soil clear, and it will grow
+anything. Our crops of sweet potatoes are excellent. The ordinary potato
+does very well too; and maize, vegetables of all sorts, many fruit
+trees, all the semi-tropical things, capitally; guavas by the thousand,
+and very soon I hope oranges; lemons now by thousands, melons almost a
+weed, bananas abundant; by-and-by coffee, sugar-cane, pineapples (these
+last but small), arrowroot of excellent quality. Violets from my
+bed, and mignonette from Palmer's, scent my room at this minute. The
+gardeners, Codrington, Palmer, and Atkin, are so kind in making me
+tidy, devising little arrangements for my little plot of ground, and my
+comfort and pleasure generally. Well, that is a nice little chat with
+you. Now it is past 8 P.M., and the mutton broth for Clement and Mary is
+come. I must feed my chicks. Excellent patients they are, as good as can
+be. They don't make the fuss that I did in my low fever when I was so
+savage with your doves that would go on cooing at my window, don't you
+remember?
+
+'My dear Bishop will be touched by the confidence in him shown by
+his late Diocesan Synod in entrusting to him the nomination of his
+successor. It was clearly the right thing to do. As for me, no one who
+knows anything about it or me would dream of removing me from Melanesia,
+as long as I have health and strength, and still less of putting me into
+another diocese. When I break down, or give up, it will not be to hold
+any other office, as I think.
+
+'May 8th.--All going on pretty well, thank God. Mary is weak, but I
+think better; did not wander last night. Clement, with strong typhoid
+symptoms, yet, at all events, not worse. But he is a very powerful,
+thickset fellow, not a good subject for fever. I feel that I am
+beginning to recover my interest in things in general, books, &c. For
+two months I was entirely occupied with hospital work, and with visiting
+daily the sick Pitcairners, and I was weary and somewhat worn out. Now I
+am better in mind and body; some spring in me again. This may be to
+fit me for more trials in store; but I think that the sunshine has come
+again.'
+
+There were, however, two more deaths--the twins of Mwerlau. Clement died
+on the 24th of May; the other brother, Richard, followed him a fortnight
+later. They were about seventeen, strong and thick-set; Clement had made
+considerable progress during his two years of training, and had been
+a Communicant since Christmas. Before passing to the other topics with
+which, as the Bishop said, he could again be occupied, here is Mr.
+Codrington's account of this period of trouble:--
+
+'A great break in the first year was caused by the visitation of typhus
+fever in the earlier part of 1868. This disease, brought as I always
+believed by infection from a vessel that touched here, first attacked a
+Norfolk Islander who did not live in the town. He was ill in the middle
+of February, others of the Pitcairn people soon after. The Bishop began
+at once to visit the sick very diligently, and continued to visit them
+throughout, though after a time our own hospital was full. Our first
+case was on the llth of March, and our last convalescents did not go out
+until near the end of June. For some time there was hard work to be
+done with nursing the sick. The Bishop had the anxiety and the charge
+of medically treating the sick. Mr. Nobbs, as always, was most kind in
+giving the benefit of his experience, but he was too fully occupied with
+the care of his own flock to be able to help us much. It was agreed, as
+soon as we saw the disease was among us, that the three elder members of
+the Mission should alone come into communication with the sick. We kept
+watch in turns, but the Bishop insisted on taking a double share, i.e.,
+he allowed us only to take regular watches in the night, undertaking the
+whole of the day's work, except during the afternoon when he was away
+with the Pitcairn people. He seemed quite at home in the hospital,
+almost always cheerful, always very tender, and generally very decided
+as to what was to be done. He was fond of doctoring, read a good deal of
+medical books, and knew a good deal of medical practice; but the weight
+of such a responsibility as belonged to the charge of many patients in a
+fever of this kind was certainly heavy upon him. The daily visit to the
+Pitcairn people on foot or on horseback was no doubt a relief, though
+hard work in itself. Of the four lads we lost, two, twins, had been some
+time christened, one was baptized before his death, the first who died
+had not been long with the Mission. It is characteristic of Bishop
+Patteson that I never heard him say a word that I remember of religion
+to one of the sick. On such things he would not, unless he was obliged,
+speak except with the patient alone.
+
+'Before the sickness was quite over, the "Southern Cross" arrived for
+the winter voyage. The danger of carrying infection to the islands could
+not be incurred, and the vessel was sent back to Auckland for a time.'
+
+The letters she carried back refer again to the growing anxiety about
+the 'labour traffic.'
+
+'May 6th.--I am corresponding with a Wesleyan Missionary in Ovalau
+(Fiji) on a matter that you may see mentioned some day in the papers, a
+very questionable practice of importing from the Southern New Hebrides
+(principally Tanna) natives to work on the cotton plantations of white
+settlers in Fiji. It is all, as I am assured, under the regulation of
+the Consul at Ovalau, and "managed" properly. But I feel almost sure
+that there is, or will be, injuries done to the natives, who (I am sure)
+are taken away under false pretences. The traders don't know the Tannese
+language, and have no means of making the people understand any terms,
+and to talk of any contract is absurd. Yet, a large number of Tanna men,
+living on really well-conducted plantations, owned by good men, might
+lead to a nucleus of Christian Tannese. So says Mr. M. True, say I, if
+(!) you can find the good planters and well-conducted plantations. Mr.
+M. assures me that they (the Wesleyan Missionaries) are watching the
+whole thing carefully. He writes well and sensibly on the whole, and
+kindly asks me to visit his place, and judge for myself.
+
+'Tanna is in the hands of the Nova Scotia Presbyterians--Mr. Greddie,
+Inglis, and others; but the adjacent islands we have always visited and
+considered ours, and of course a plague of this kind soon spreads.
+My letter to Mr. Attwood on the matter was read by Sir John Young and
+Commodore Lambert, and they expressed a warm interest in the matter. Mr.
+M. says that they think it would be well to accept some rule of conduct
+in the matter from the Commodore, which is, I think, likely to do good.'
+
+By the 15th of June the glad intelligence was received that the hospital
+had been empty for a fortnight; and the house that was to have been
+carried to Mota was put up for the married couples, for whom it afforded
+separate sleeping rooms, though the large room was in common. Two
+weddings were preparing, and B---- and his wife had become reconciled.
+
+'We may hope that this time it is not a case of two children, then
+unbaptized, living together, heathen fashion, obeying mere passion,
+ignorant of true love, but a sober, somewhat sad reunion of two clever
+and fairly-educated grown-up people, knowing much of life and its sad
+experience, understanding what they are about, and trying to begin again
+with prayer to God and purposes of a good life.'
+
+This time of convalescence was a time of great progress. A deep
+impression had been made on many, and there was a strong spirit of
+enquiry among them. The Bishop then began a custom of preaching to his
+black scholars alone after the midday service, dismissing his five or
+six white companions after prayers, because he felt he could speak
+more freely and go more straight to the hearts of his converts and
+catechumens if he had no other audience.
+
+The other inhabitants of the island suffered long after the St. Barnabas
+scholars were free, and deaths continued. It was impossible to enforce
+on such an undisciplined race the needful attention to cleanliness, or
+even care of the sick; the healthy were not kept apart, nor was the food
+properly prepared for the sick. It was impossible to stir or convince
+the easy-going tropical nature, and there was no authority to enforce
+sanitary measures, so the fever smouldered on, taking first one, then
+another victim, and causing entire separation from St. Barnabas, except
+as far as the Bishop was concerned.
+
+Meantime, a house was being put up to receive Mr. Palmer's intended
+wife, the daughter of that Mr. Ashwell who had shared in the disastrous
+voyage when the 'Southern Cross' had been wrecked. She had been brought
+up to Mission work, and was likely to be valuable among the young girls.
+After this announcement, the Bishop continues:--
+
+'My mind is now made up to take the great step of ordaining dear George
+Sarawia, for nine years my pupil, and for the last three or four my
+friend and helper. Codrington is only surprised that he is not ordained
+already. Humanly speaking, there can be no doubt of his steadfastness.
+He is, indeed, a thoroughly good conscientious man, humble without
+servility, friendly and at his ease without any forwardness, and he has
+a large share of good sense and clear judgment. Moreover, he has long
+held a recognised position with all here and in New Zealand, and for the
+last two years the Mota people and the neighbouring islanders have quite
+regarded him as one whom they recognise as their leader and teacher, one
+of our own race, yet not like us--different; he knows and does what we
+can't do and don't know.
+
+'They quite look upon him as free from all the difficulties which attend
+a man's position as inheriting feuds, animosities, &c. He goes anywhere;
+when the island may be in a disturbed state, no one would hurt him; he
+is no partisan in their eyes, a man of other habits and thoughts and
+character, a teacher of all.
+
+'I think, oh! with such feelings of thankfulness and hope too, of
+the first Melanesian clergyman! I should almost like to take him to
+Auckland, that the Bishop might ordain him; but he ought to be ordained
+here, in the presence of the Melanesians; and in the hasty confusion of
+the few weeks in New Zealand, George would be at a sad loss what to do,
+and the month of October is cold and raw. But you may get this just in
+time to think of his Ordination, and how you will pray for him! His
+wife Sara is a weakly body, but good, and she and I are, and always
+have been, great friends. She has plenty of good sense. Their one
+child, Simon, born in Norfolk Island some fourteen months ago, is a very
+nice-looking child, and healthy enough.
+
+Meantime the spirit of enquiry and faith was making-marked progress.
+Mr. Codrington says: 'The stir in the hearts and minds of those already
+christened might be called a revival, and the enquiring and earnest
+spirit of many more seemed to be working towards conversions. During
+this time, there might be seen on the cliff or under the trees in the
+afternoon, or on Sundays, little groups gathered round some of the elder
+Christians, enquiring and getting help. It was the work that George
+evidently was enabled to do in this way that convinced everyone that the
+time had quite come for his Ordination. It is worth mentioning that
+the boys from one island, and one individual in particular, were much
+influenced by the last conversations of the first Christian who died
+here (Walter Hotaswol), who had told his friends to be "sure that all
+the Bishop had told them was true."'
+
+This quickening and its results are further described in the ensuing
+letter, wherein is mention of the Bauro man Taroniara, the most
+remarkable of the present conversions, and destined three years after to
+die with the Bishop and Mr. Atkin.
+
+
+'June 20, 9 P.M., 1868.
+
+'My dear Sisters,--You know how I am thinking of him to-day. Seven years
+ago! I think that he seems more and more present to my mind than ever.
+How grateful it is to me to find the dear Bishop ever recurring to
+him in his sermons, &c.; but indeed we all have the great blessing and
+responsibility of being his children. The thought of meeting him again,
+if God be so merciful, comes over me sometimes in an almost overpowering
+way: I quite seem to see and feel as if kneeling by his side before the
+Great Glory, and even then thinking almost most of him. And then, so
+many others too--Mamma, Uncle James, Frank, &c., and you, dear Joan,
+think of your dear Mother. It seems almost too much. And then the mind
+goes on to think of the Saints of God in every generation, from one
+of the last gathered in (dear Mr. Keble) to the very first; and as we
+realise the fact that we may, by God's wonderful mercy, be companions,
+though far beneath the feet, of Patriarchs, and Apostles, and Martyrs,
+and even see Him as He is--it is too great for thought! and yet, thank
+God, it is truth.
+
+'My heart is full too of other blessed thoughts. There seems to be a
+stirring of heart among our present set of scholars, the younger ones I
+mean; they come into my room after evening Chapel and school, one or
+two at a time, but very shy, sit silent, and at last say very softly,
+"Bishop, I wish to stop here for good."
+
+'"Why?"
+
+'"I do wish to be good, to learn, to be like George and Henry and the
+rest."
+
+'This morning I baptized Charlotte and Joanna. Charlotte will be married
+to Fisher on Wednesday, when Benjamin and Marion will also be married.
+Oh, what blessings are these! I spoke earnestly of the service in my
+preachment.
+
+'Taroniara, from San Cristoval, said to me the other night, "Bishop,
+why is it that now I think as I never thought before? I can't tell quite
+what I think. You know I used to be willing to learn, but I was easily
+led away on my own island; but I think that I shall never wish again
+to listen to anything but the Word of God. I know I may be wrong, but I
+think I shall never be inclined to listen to anything said to me by
+my people to keep me from you and from this teaching. I feel quite
+different: I like and wish for things I never really used to care for; I
+don't care for what I used to like and live for. What is it?"
+
+'"What do you think it is?"
+
+'"I think--but it is so (mava) great--I think it is the Spirit of God in
+my heart."
+
+'As for the Mota and Matlavo fellows, and the girls too, they have now
+good examples before them, and one and all wish to stop here as long
+as I please. And that being so, the return to their homes not being
+a return to purely heathen islands, I trust that they may soon be
+baptized. So my heart is full of thankfulness and wonder and awe.
+
+'All this time I write with a full sense of the uncertainty of this and
+every human work. I know the Bishop is preaching on failures, and I try
+to think he is preaching to me.
+
+'July 2nd, 8 A.M.--My dear Sisters, what a day we had yesterday! so
+full of happiness and thankfulness. It was the wedding-day of Fisher and
+Charlotte, Benjamin and Marion.
+
+'The chapel was so prettily dressed up by Mr. Codrington and Mr. Bice,
+under whose instructions some of the lads made evergreen ornaments, &c.,
+large white arums and red flowers also.
+
+'At 7 A.M. Morning-Prayers, as usual. At 9.30 the wedding. All the
+Melanesians in their places in Chapel; and as we came into the Chapel
+from my room, the 100th Psalm was chanted capitally. Mr. Codrington said
+he never was present at so thoroughly devotional a wedding. It was a
+really solemn religious service.
+
+'Then I gave good presents to everyone in the school, even the smallest
+boys came in for a knife, beads, &c. Then cricket, for the day was
+beautifully fine, though it is midwinter. And all sorts of fun we
+had. Then a capital dinner, puddings, &c. Then cricket, running races,
+running in sacks (all for prizes), then a great tea, 7 P.M. Chapel,
+then native dances by a great bonfire. Then at 10 P.M. hot coffee and
+biscuits, then my little speech, presenting all our good wishes to the
+married couples, and such cheering, I hope it may be well remembered.
+The deeper feeling of it all is bearing fruit. Already lads and young
+men from the Solomon Islands say, "We begin to see what is meant by a
+man and woman living together." The solemnity of the service struck them
+much.
+
+'The bridegrooms wore their Sunday dresses, nice tidy trousers of dark
+tweed, Crimean shirt, collar and tie, and blue serge coat. The brides,
+white jackets trimmed with a bit of red, white collar and blue skirts.
+All the answers quietly and reverently made; the whole congregation
+answering "Amen" to the word of blessing in an unmistakeable way. The
+67th Psalm was chanted, of course.
+
+'My plan is to have Psalms, with reading and singing to suit each day,
+regarded as commemorative of the great facts and doctrines, so that
+every week we read in chapel about forty Psalms, and sing about twelve
+hymns. These are pretty well known by heart, and form already a very
+considerable stock of Scriptural reference. The Resurrection and the
+Gift of the Spirit, the Nativity, Manifestation, Betrayal, Ascension,
+Crucifixion, Burial, with the doctrines connected with them, come in
+this way every week before their minds. I translated Psalms chosen with
+reference to this plan, and wrote hymns, &c. in the same way.
+
+'I wish you could have been with us yesterday. It was really a
+strikingly solemn service. Then our fortnightly 7 A.M. Communions, our
+daily 7 A.M. and 7 P.M. Services, our Baptisms, yes and our burials too,
+all are so quiet, and there is so much reverence. You see that they have
+never learnt bad habits. A Melanesian scholar wouldn't understand how
+one could pray in any other posture than kneeling.
+
+'The evening Catechumen classes, so happy. And then the dear fellows at
+their private prayers. The Chapel is always open, you know, and in the
+early morning and late evening little knots of three and four, or eight
+and ten, are kneeling about, quietly saying their prayers. The sick
+lads--dear Clement and Richard who died--as long as they could move,
+knelt up in hospital to say their prayers, and all but quite the new
+comers did the same. It was touching to see them, weak and in much pain,
+yet I did not of course tell them that they might as well pray as they
+lay on their rugs. Better for them even if it did a little exhaust them.
+It is no mere formal observance of a rule, for there never has been any
+rule about it. I have given them short simple prayers, and they first
+learn to kneel down with me here in my room, or with Codrington in his
+room, &c. But I merely said (long ago at Kohimarama), "You know you can
+always go into the Chapel whenever you like."
+
+'Sometimes I do wish you could see them; but then unless you could talk
+with them, and indeed unless you knew the Melanesian mind and nature,
+you couldn't estimate these things rightly.
+
+'But never did I feel so hopeful, though my old text is ever in my mind,
+Isaiah lx. 5: "Thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged." That's exactly
+it.
+
+'July 18th.--To-morrow I baptize Taroniara, of San Cristoval, a young
+man full of promise. He has a wife and little girl of about four years
+old. He may become, by God's blessing, the teacher of the people of his
+island.'
+
+(From a letter of the same date to myself, I add the further particulars
+about one who was to teach by his death instead of his life, and for
+whom the name of the first martyr was chosen):--
+
+'He has been with me for some years, always good and amiable; but too
+good-natured, too weak, so that he did not take a distinct line with his
+people. He is a person of some consequence in his neighbourhood. Now
+he gives all the proofs that can well be given of real sincerity. He
+wonders himself, as he contrasts his present with his former thoughts.
+I feel, humanly speaking, quite convinced that he is thoroughly in
+earnest. His wife and little child are in the islands. "How foolish of
+me not to have listened to you, and brought them here at once. Then we
+could stop here for good." But he will return with them, all being well,
+or without them, if anything has happened to them, and I see in him, as
+I hope and pray, the pioneer for San Cristoval at last.
+
+'(Resuming the home letter.) The language of Mota now is beginning to be
+a very fair channel for communicating accurate theological teaching.
+We have, of course, to a large extent made it so by assigning deeper
+meanings to existing words (we have introduced very few words). This is
+the case in every language. On Sunday night, if you had been here, and
+been able to understand my teaching on St. John vi. to the Communicants,
+you would have been surprised, I think. Something of Hooker's fifth book
+was being readily taken in by several of those present. An Old Testament
+history they don't learn merely as certain events. They quickly take up
+the meaning, the real connection. I use the "Sunday Teaching," or work
+them at all events on that plan. Well, you mustn't say too much of the
+bright side of the picture. It is so easy to misunderstand.
+
+'The time has been bad for our "lambing." We have thirty-five lambs,
+looking well, and have lost, I think, nine. Yesterday a great event
+occurred. One of the cart-mares foaled; great was the satisfaction of
+the Melanesians at the little filly. Calves are becoming too common, as
+we have now fourteen or fifteen cows, and five more are owing to us for
+goods which the people take in exchange--not money, which would not suit
+them as well. We have fenced in plenty of grass, and I don't wan't to
+pay any more for keep. Of course, we use a good deal of salt beef
+on shore here, as well as seek to supply the "Southern Cross" on her
+voyages.
+
+'It is pleasant to walk about and see the farm and gardens thriving.
+All being well, we shall have some 300 bananas next year, lots of
+sugar-canes; many fruit trees are being planted, pine-apples, coffee,
+&c. Guavas grow here like weeds. I don't care for these things; but the
+others do, and of course the scholars rejoice in them.
+
+'I think of the islands, and see them in my waking dreams, and it seems
+as if nothing was done. But I think again of what it was only a very
+short time ago, and oh! I do feel thankful indeed, and amazed, and
+almost fearful. I should like much, if I am alive and well, to see my
+way to spending more of my time on the islands. But the careful training
+of picked scholars for future missionaries is, I am sure, the most
+important part of our work (though it must be combined as much as
+possible with residence in the islands). If I could feel that the school
+was well able to get on without me, I would be off to the islands for
+a good spell. On the other hand, I feel most strongly that my chief
+business is to make such provision as I may for the multiplication of
+native missionaries, and the future permanent development and extension
+of the Mission; and to do this, our best scholars must be carefully
+trained, and then we may hope to secure a competent staff of native
+clergymen for the islands.
+
+'Mind, I am not disposed to act in a hasty way. Only I don't mean to
+let conventional notions about an English clergyman hinder my providing
+Melanesian islands with a Melanesian ministry. These scholars of ours
+know very much more, and I imagine possess qualifications of all
+kinds for their work in Melanesia, greater than the majority of the
+missionaries in the old missionary times.
+
+'How many men did good work who could hardly read, only repeat a few
+portions of the Service-book, &c.!
+
+'I need not say that we wish to educate them up to the maximum point
+of usefulness for their practical work. But, given earnestness and
+steadfastness of character, a fair amount of teaching power, and a sound
+knowledge of fundamental truths, of the Church Services, and the meaning
+and spirit of the Prayer-book, and we may surely trust that, by God's
+grace, they may execute the office of the Ministry to the glory of God,
+and the edification of the Church.
+
+'They have now in Mota, in print, St. Luke, the Acts; soon will have St.
+John, which is all ready; the Prayer-book, save some of the Psalms, and
+a few other small portions. And in MS. they have a kind of manual of
+the Catechism, abstract of the Books of the Old Testament, papers on
+Prophecy, &c., &c. All this work, once done in Mota, is, without very
+much labour, to be transferred into Bauro, Mahaga, Mara, &c., &c. as I
+hope; but that is in the future.'
+
+In the birthday letter to his sister Fanny, his chilly nature confesses
+that August cold was making itself felt; and it was becoming time for
+him to make a journey to the settled world, both on account of a small
+tumour under his eyelid, and of the state of his teeth. Moreover, no
+letters from home had reached him since the 2nd of March. But he writes
+on the 7th of September to his brother:--
+
+'This does not a bit distress me. I like the freedom from all external
+excitement. It gives me uninterrupted time from my own work; and the
+world does not suffer from my ignorance of its proceedings. How you
+exist with all the abominations of daily papers, I can't imagine. Your
+life in England seems to be one whirl and bustle, with no real time for
+quiet thought and patient meditation, &c. And yet men do think and do
+great things, and it doesn't wear them out soon either. Witness Bishops
+and Judges, &c., living to eighty and even ninety in our own days.
+
+'I like quiet and rest, and no railroads and no daily posts; and, above
+all, no visitors, mere consumers of time, mere idlers and producers of
+idleness. So, without any post, and nothing but a cart on wheels, save
+a wheelbarrow, and no visitors, and no shops, I get on very happily and
+contentedly. The life here is to me, I must confess, luxurious, because
+I have what I like, great punctuality, early hours, regular school work,
+regular reading, very simple living; the three daily meals in hall take
+about seventy minutes all put together, and so little time is lost; and
+then the climate is delightful. Too cold now, but then I ought to be in
+the islands. The thermometer has been as low as 56 deg. in my room; and I
+am standing in my room and writing now with my great coat on, the
+thermometer being 67 deg..
+
+'You know that I am not cut out for society, never was at my ease in
+it, and am glad to be out of it. I am seldom at my ease except among
+Melanesians: they and my books are my best companions. I never feel the
+very slightest desire for the old life. You know how I should like to
+see you dear ones, and...[others by name] but I couldn't stand more than
+a week in England, if I could transplant myself there in five minutes!
+I don't think this augurs any want of affection; but I have grown into
+this life; I couldn't change it without a most unpleasant wrench.'
+
+The letter was at this point, when the 'Southern Cross' arrived, on
+September 10, to carry off the Bishop and Mr. Palmer: the one to the
+General Synod, and to take leave of his most loved and venerated friend;
+the other, to fetch his bride.
+
+He arrived on the 18th of the month, looking ill, and much worn and even
+depressed, more so than Lady Martin had ever seen him, for the coming
+parting pressed heavily upon him. The eye and teeth were operated upon
+without loss of time, and successfully; but this, with the cold of the
+voyage, made him, in his own word, 'shaky,' and it was well that he was
+a guest at Taurarua, with Lady Martin to take care of him, feed him on
+food not solid, and prevent him on the ensuing Sunday from taking more
+than one of the three services which had been at once proffered to him.
+
+It was no small plunge from the calm of St. Barnabas. 'We agree,' said
+Lady Martin, in a note within his envelope, 'that we cannot attempt to
+write letters just now. We are in a whirl, mental and bodily; one bit
+of blue sky has just shown itself, viz. that Coley may possibly stay on
+with us for a week or two after the Selwyns have left us. This really is
+proeter spem, and I mean to think that it will come to pass.'
+
+But in all this bustle, he found time to enclose a kind little note to
+me; showing his sympathy with the sorrow of that summer, in my mother's
+illness:--
+
+
+'Auckland. October 3, 1868.
+
+'I add one line, my dear Cousin, to assure you of my prayers being
+offered for you, now more especially when a heavy trial is upon you and
+a deep sorrow awaiting you. May God comfort and bless you! Perhaps the
+full experience of such anxiety and the pressure of a constant weight
+may, in His good Providence, qualify you more than ever to help others
+by words put into your mouth out of your own heart-felt troubles.
+
+'Yet in whatever form the sorrow comes, there is the blessing of knowing
+that she is only being mysteriously prepared for the life of the world
+to come. There is no real sorrow where there is no remorse, nor misery
+for the falling away of those we love. You have, I dare say, known (as
+I have) some who have the bitterness of seeing children turn out badly,
+and this is the sorrow that breaks one down.'
+
+It was during these spring days of October, that last Sunday before the
+final parting, that being hindered by pouring rain from going with
+the Primate, who was holding a farewell service with the sick at the
+hospital, Bishop Patteson said the prayers in the private chapel. After
+these were ended (Lady Martin says), 'he spoke a few words to us.
+He spoke of our Lord standing on the shore of the Lake after His
+Resurrection; and he carried us, and I think himself too, out of the
+heaviness of sorrow into a region of peace and joy, where all conflict
+and partings and sin shall cease for ever. It was not only what he said,
+but the tones of his musical voice, and expression of peace on his own
+face, that hushed us into a great calm. One clergyman, who was present,
+told Sir William Martin that he had never known anything so wonderful.
+The words were like those of an inspired man.
+
+'Three days after, our dear friends sailed. I will not dwell on the
+last service at St. Paul's Church, when more than four hundred persons
+received the Holy Communion, where were four Bishops administering
+in the body of the church and the transepts; but in the chancel, the
+Primate and his beloved son in the faith were partaking together for the
+last time of the Bread of Life.
+
+'From the Church we accompanied our beloved friends to the ship, and
+drove back on a cold, dry evening, a forlorn party, to the desolate
+house. But from that time dear Bishop Patteson roused himself from his
+natural depression (for to whom could the loss be greater than to him?)
+and set himself to cheer and comfort us all. How gentle and sympathising
+he was! He let me give him nourishing things, even wine--which he had
+long refused to take--because I told him Mrs. Selwyn wished him to have
+it. Many hearts were drooping, and he no longer shrank from society, but
+went about from one to another in the kindest manner. I do not know how
+we could have got on without him. He loved to talk of the Bishop. In his
+humility he seemed to feel as if any power of usefulness in himself had
+been gained from him. It was like him to think of our Auckland poor at
+this time. They would so miss the Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn. He prayed me
+to draw L50 a year for the next year or two, to be spent in any way I
+should think best. And he put it as a gift from his dear Father, who
+would have wished that money of his invested here should be used in part
+for the good of the townspeople. This did not include his subscriptions
+to the Orphan Home and other charities.'
+
+To make his very liberal gifts in time of need in the name of his
+Father, was his favourite custom; as his former fellow-labourer, the
+Rev. B. T. Dudley, found when a case of distress in his own parish in
+the Canterbury Settlement called forth this ready assistance.
+
+Perhaps the young Church of New Zealand has never known so memorable or
+so sorrowful a day as that which took from her her first Bishop: a day
+truly to be likened to that when the Ephesians parted with their Apostle
+at Miletus. The history of this parting Bishop Patteson had himself to
+read on Saturday, October 17, the twenty-seventh anniversary of Bishop
+Selwyn's Consecration. It was at the Celebration preceding the last
+meeting of the Synod, when Collect, Epistle, and Gospel were taken from
+the Order for the Consecration of Bishops; and as the latter says,--'He
+has always told me to officiate with him, and I had, by his desire, to
+read Acts xx. for the Epistle. I did read it without a break-down, but
+it was hard work.' Then followed the Sunday, before described by Lady
+Martin; and on Tuesday the 20th, that service in St. Mary's--the parting
+feast:--
+
+'Then,' writes the younger Bishop, 'the crowded streets and wharf, for
+all business was suspended, public offices and shops shut, no power of
+moving about the wharf, horses taken from the carriage provided for the
+occasion, as a mixed crowd of English and Maoris drew them to the wharf.
+Then choking words and stifled efforts to say, "God bless you," and so
+we parted!
+
+'It is the end of a long chapter. I feel as if "my master was taken from
+my head."
+
+'Ah! well, they are gone, and we will try to do what we can.
+
+'I feel rather no-how, and can't yet settle down to anything!'
+
+But to the other sister on the same day comes an exhortation not to be
+alarmed if friends report him as 'not up to the mark.' How could it
+be otherwise at such a time? For truly it was the last great shock his
+affections sustained. In itself, it might not be all that the quitting
+home and family had been; but not only was there the difference between
+going and being left behind, but youth, with its spirit of enterprise
+and compensation, was past, and he was in a state to feel the pain of
+the separation almost more intensely than when he had walked from the
+door at Feniton, and gathered his last primrose at his mother's grave.
+Before leaving Auckland, the Bishop married the Rev. John Palmer to Miss
+Ashwell; and while they remained for a short time in New Zealand, he
+returned for the Ember Week.
+
+
+'St. Thomas, Norfolk Island: December 21, 1868.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--I must write you a few lines, not as yet in answer to
+your very interesting letter about Mr. Keble and about Ritualism, &c.,
+but about our great event of yesterday.
+
+'George Sarawia was ordained Deacon in our little chapel, in the
+presence of fifty-five Melanesians and a few Norfolk Islanders. With him
+Charles Bice, a very excellent man from St. Augustine's, was ordained
+Deacon also. He has uncommon gifts of making himself thoroughly at
+home with the Melanesians. It comes natural to him, there is no effort,
+nothing to overcome apparently, and they of course like him greatly. He
+speaks the language of Mota, the lingua franca here, you know.
+
+'But what am I to say of George that you cannot imagine for yourself? It
+was in the year 1857 that the Bishop and I first saw him at Vanua Lava
+Island. He has been with us now ten years; I can truly say, that he has
+never given me any uneasiness. He is not the cleverest of our scholars;
+but no one possesses the confidence of us all in the same degree. True,
+he is the oldest of the party, he can hardly be less than twenty-six
+years old, for he had been married a year when first we saw him; but it
+is his character rather than his age which gives him his position. For a
+long time he has been our link with the Melanesians themselves whenever
+there was something to be done by one of themselves rather than by us
+strangers. Somehow the other scholars get into a way of recognising
+him as the A 1 of the place, and so also in Mota and the neighbouring
+islands his character and reputation are well known. The people expect
+him to be a teacher among them, they all know that he is a person of
+weight.
+
+'The day was warm and fine.
+
+'At 7.20 A.M. we had the Morning Service, chanting the 2nd Psalm. I
+read Isa. xlii. 5-12 for the First Lesson, and 1 Tim. iii. 8-13 for the
+Second, and the Collect in the Ordination Service before the Prayer of
+St. Chrysostom. Mr. Codrington, as usual, read the prayers to the end of
+the third Collect, after which we sang our Sunday hymn.
+
+'At 11 A.M. we began the Ordination Service. One Epiphany hymn, my short
+sermon, then Mr. Codrington presented the candidates, speaking Mota for
+one and English for the other. The whole service was in Mota, except
+that I questioned Bice, and he answered in English, and I used the
+English words of Ordination in his case. George was questioned and
+answered in Mota, and then Bice in English, question by question. Mr.
+Nobbs was here and a few of the people, Mr. Atkin, Mr. Brooke, so we
+made a goodly little party of seven in our clerical supper.
+
+'What our thoughts were you can guess as we ordained the first
+Melanesian clergyman. How full of thankfulness, of awe, of wonderment,
+the fulfilment of so much, the pledge of it, if it be God's will, of so
+much more! And not a little of anxiety, too--yet the words of comfort
+are many; and it does not need much faith, with so evident a proof of
+God's Love and Power and Faithfulness before our very eyes, to trust
+George in His Hands.
+
+'The closing stanzas of the Ordination Hymn in the "Christian Year"
+comforted me as I read them at night; but I had peace and comfort, thank
+God, all through.
+
+'Others, too, are pressing on. I could say, with truth, to them in the
+evening in the Chapel, "This is the beginning, only the beginning, the
+first fruit. Many blossoms there are already. I know that God's Spirit
+is working in the hearts of some of you. Follow that holy guidance, I
+pray always that you may be kept in the right way, and that you may be
+enabled to point it out to others, and to guide them in it."
+
+'And yet no words can express what the recoil of the wave heathenism is,
+but "when the enemy shall come in like a flood," and it has indeed its
+own glorious word of Promise. It is like one who was once a drunkard and
+has left off drinking, and then once more tastes the old deadly poison,
+and becomes mad for drink; or like the wild furious struggles (as I
+suppose) of poor penitents in penitentiaries, when it seems as if the
+devil must whirl them back into sin. You know we see things which
+look like "possession," a black cloud settling down upon the soul,
+overwhelming all the hopeful signs for a time. And then, when I have my
+quiet talk with such an one (and only very few, and they not the best
+among us), he will say, "I can't tell, I didn't mean it. It was not I.
+What was it?" And I say, "It was the devil, seeking to devour you, to
+drag you back into the old evil dark ways." "It is awful, fearful."
+"Then you must gird your loins and pray the more, and remember that you
+are Christ's, that you belong to Him, that you are God's child, that
+Satan has no right to claim you now. Resist him in this name, in the
+strength of the Spirit whom Christ has sent to us from the Father, and
+he will flee from you."
+
+'It is of course the same more or less with us all, but it comes out
+in, a shape which gives it terrible reality and earnestness. Only think,
+then, more than ever, of them and of me, and pray that "the Spirit of
+the Lord may lift up a standard against the enemy." At times we do seem
+to realise that it is a downright personal struggle for life or death.'
+
+There the writer paused, and the next date is
+
+'Christmas Day, 1868.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--What a happy happy day! At 12.5 A.M. I was awoke
+by a party of some twenty Melanesians, headed by Mr. Bice, singing
+Christmas carols at my bedroom door. It is a glass window, opening on to
+the verandah. How delightful it was! I had gone to bed with the Book
+of Praise by my side, and Mr. Keble's hymn in my mind; and now the Mota
+versions, already familiar to us, of the Angels' Song and of the "Light
+to lighten the Gentiles," sung too by some of our heathen scholars, took
+up as it were the strain. Their voices sounded so fresh and clear in the
+still midnight, the perfectly clear sky, the calm moon, the warm genial
+climate.
+
+'I lay awake afterwards, thinking on the blessed change wrought in their
+minds, thinking of my happy happy lot, of how utterly undeserved it was
+and is, and (as is natural) losing myself in thoughts of God's wonderful
+goodness and mercy and love.
+
+'Then at 4.45 A.M. I got up, a little later perhaps than usual.
+Codrington and Brooke were very soon at work finishing the decorations
+in the Chapel; branches of Norfolk Island pines, divers evergreens,
+pomegranates and oleanders and lilies (in handfuls) and large snow-white
+arums; on the altar-table arums above, and below lilies and evergreens.
+Oleanders and pomegranates marked the chancel arch. The rugs looked very
+handsome, the whole floor at the east end is covered with a red baize or
+drugget to match the curtains.
+
+'7 A.M., Holy Communion. Six clergymen in surplices and fifteen other
+communicants. At 10 A.M., a short, very bright, joyful service, the
+regular Morning Prayers, Psalms xcv. xix. cx. all chanted. Proper
+Lessons, two Christmas hymns.
+
+'Then games, cricket, prisoner's base, running races. Beef, pork,
+plum-puddings.
+
+'Now we shall soon have evening Chapel, a great deal of singing, a
+few short words from me; then a happy, merry, innocent evening, native
+dances, coffee, biscuit, and snapdragons to finish with.
+
+'If you had been here to-day, you would indeed have been filled with
+surprise and thankfulness and hope. There is, I do think, a great deal
+to show that these scholars of ours so connect religion with all that
+is cheerful and happy. There is nothing, as I think, sanctimonious about
+them. They say, "We are so happy here! How different from our lands!"
+
+'And I think I can truly say that this is not from want of seriousness
+in those of an age to be serious.
+
+'I pour this out to you in my happy day--words of hope and joy and
+thankfulness! But remember that I feel that all this should make me
+thoughtful as well as hopeful. How can I say but what sorrow and trial
+may even now be on their way hither? But I thank God, oh! I do thank
+Him for his great love and mercy, and I do not think it wrong to give my
+feelings of joy some utterance.'
+
+With this year the Eucharist was administered weekly, the Melanesians
+still attending fortnightly; but it proved to have been a true
+foreboding that a sorrow was on its way:--
+
+'January 8th.--A very joyful Christmas, but a sad Epiphany!
+
+'U---, dearer to me than ever, has (I now hear from him) been putting
+himself in the way of temptation. I had noticed that he was not like
+himself, and spoke to him and warned him. I told him that if he wished
+to be married at once, I was quite willing to marry him; but he said
+they were too young, and yet he was always thinking of the young
+fiancee. Alas! he had too often (as he says) put himself in the way
+of temptation with his eyes open, and he fell. He was frightened,
+terrified, bewildered.
+
+'Alas! it is our first great sorrow of the kind, for he was a
+Communicant of nearly three years' standing. Yet I have much comfort.
+
+'I can have no doubt, 1st, that a fall was necessary, I believe fully.
+His own words (not suggested by me) were, "I tempted God often, and He
+let me fall; I don't mean He was the cause of it, it is of course only
+my fault; but I think I see that I might have gone on getting more and
+more careless and wandering further and further from Him unless I had
+been startled and frightened." And then he burst out, "Oh! don't send me
+away for ever. I know I have made the young ones stumble, and destroyed
+the happiness of our settlement here. I know I must not be with you all
+in Chapel and school and hall. I know I can't teach any more, I know
+that, and I am miserable, miserable. But don't tell me I must go away
+for ever. I can't bear it!"
+
+'I did manage to answer almost coldly, for I felt that if I once let
+loose my longing desire to let him see my real feeling, I could not
+restrain myself at all. "Who wishes to send you away, U--? It is not me
+whom you have displeased and injured."
+
+'"I know. It is terrible! But I think of the Prodigal Son. Oh! I do long
+to go back! Oh! do tell me that He loves me still."
+
+'Poor dear fellow! I thought I must leave him to bear his burthen for a
+time. We prayed together, and I left him, or rather sent him away from
+my room, but he could neither eat nor sleep.
+
+'The next day his whole manner, look, everything made one sure (humanly
+speaking) that he was indeed truly penitent; and then when I began to
+speak words of comfort, of God's tender love and compassion, and told
+him how to think of the Lord's gentle pity when He appeared first to
+the Magdalene and Peter, and when I took his hand in the old loving way,
+poor fellow, he broke down more than ever, and cried like a child.
+
+'Ah! it is very sad; but I do think he will be a better, more steadfast
+man: he has learnt his weakness, and where to find strength, as he
+never had before. And the effect on the school is remarkable. That there
+should be so much tenderness of conscience and apprehension of the guilt
+of impurity among the children of the heathen in among many brought up
+in familiarity with sin, is a matter for much thankfulness.'
+
+To this may well be added an extract from Joseph Atkin's journal,
+showing his likemindedness both in thoughtfulness and charity:--
+
+'I feel quite sure that we must be prepared for many such cases. The
+whole associations and training of the early lives of these people must
+influence them as long as they live. The thought of what my mother and
+sister would think, never occur to them as any influence for good; and
+although this may be said to be a low motive for doing right, it is a
+very powerful one, and it is more tangible because it is lower.
+
+'The Bishop, in speaking of it to-day, told the boys that they ought not
+to do right to please him, but because it was right to please God; but I
+can't help thinking that pleasing the Bishop may and can help the
+other very much. Is it not right for a child to do right to please its
+parents, and for older children too to be helped by the thought that
+they are pleasing those they love and honour?
+
+'We had a council to-day of all the Church members to talk about how
+U---- was to be treated. For himself, poor fellow, I should think
+kindness would be harder to bear than neglect.
+
+'Mr. Codrington says, "On this occasion all the male Communicants went
+together to some little distance, where a group of boulders under the
+pines gave a convenient seat. The Bishop set out the case, and asked
+what was the opinion of the elder boys as to the treatment of the
+offender. They were left alone to consider; and when we came back, they
+gave their judgment, that he should not eat in the hall at what may be
+called the high table, that he should not teach in school, and should
+not come into Chapel."
+
+'This was of course what was intended, but the weight of the sentence so
+given was greater with the school, and a wholesome lesson given to the
+judges. How soon the Bishop's severity, which never covered his pity,
+gave way to his affection for one of his oldest and dearest pupils, and
+his tenderness for the penitent, and how he took a large share of blame
+upon himself, just where it was not due, can well be understood by all
+who knew him.'
+
+There was soon a brighter day. On January 25, writes Mr. Atkin:--
+
+'We had a great day. In the morning some who were baptized last summer
+were confirmed, and at night there were baptized three girls and
+thirteen boys. Most of them were quite little fellows. I don't think any
+of us will easily forget their grave and sober but not shy looks, as one
+by one they stepped up to the Bishop. I think that all understood and
+meant what they said, that Baptism was no mere form with them, but a
+real solemn compact. All who were in my class (nine), or the Sunday
+morning school, were baptized in the evening. While we were standing
+round the font, I thought of you at home, and half wished that you
+could have seen us there. I was witness for my son (Wate); he was called
+Joseph, so that I shall lose my name that I have kept so long.'
+
+Joseph Wate, the little Malanta boy, was always viewed by the Atkin
+family as a kind of child, and kept up a correspondence with his
+godfather's sister, Mother Mary as he called her.
+
+On the same day the Bishop wrote to Judge Pohlman:--
+
+'My very dear Friend,--I must not let our correspondence drop, and the
+less likely it seems to be that we may meet, the more I must seek to
+retain your friendship, by letting you know not only the facts that
+occur here, but my thoughts and hopes and fears about them.'
+
+(Then, after mentioning the recent transgression, the letter continues
+respecting the youth.)
+
+'His fright and terror, his misery and deep sorrow, and (I do believe)
+godly repentance, make me say that he is still, as I trust, one of our
+best scholars. But it is very sad. For three weeks he did not come even
+into chapel with us. He not only acquiesced, but wished that it should
+be so.
+
+'Last Saturday evening he was readmitted, without any using of fine
+names. I did as a matter of fact do what was the practice of the early
+Christians, and is recognised in our Ash Wednesday service now. It was
+very desirable that great notice should be taken of the commission of
+an act which it is hard for a heathen to understand to be an act of sin,
+and the effect upon the whole school of the sad and serious way in which
+this offence was regarded has been very good.
+
+'In the circumstances it is so easy to see how the discipline of the
+early Church was not an artificial, but a necessary system, though by
+degrees elaborated in a more complicated manner. But I find, not seldom,
+that common sense dictates some course which afterwards I come across
+in Bingham, or some such writer, described as a usage of the early
+Christians.
+
+'In our English nineteenth century life such practices could hardly be
+reintroduced with benefit. Yet something which might mark open offences
+with the censure of the Christian Body is clearly desirable when you can
+have it; and of course with us there is no difficulty whatever.
+
+'I cannot be surprised, however deeply grieved at this sad occurrence;
+and though it is no comfort to think how many English persons would
+think nothing of this, and certainly not show the deep compunction and
+sorrow which this poor fellow shows, yet, as a matter of fact, how few
+young Englishmen are there who would think such an act, as this young
+Melanesian thinks it to be, a grievous sin against God, and matter for
+continual sorrow and humiliation. So I do rejoice that he is sorrowing
+after a godly sort.
+
+'In other respects there is a very hopeful promising appearance just
+now. We number seven clergymen, including myself. We have a very
+efficient band of Melanesian teachers, and could at this moment work a
+school of 150 scholars.
+
+'George Sarawia will (D.V.) start with a little company of Christian
+friends at his own island. The scholars from all the different islands
+fraternise excellently well, and in many cases the older and more
+advanced have their regular chums, by private arrangement among
+themselves, whom they help, and to whose islands they are quite prepared
+to be sent, if I think fit so to arrange; and I really do believe that
+from the Banks Islands we may send out missionaries to many of the
+Melanesian islands, as from Samoa and Karotonga they have gone out
+to the islands of the Eastern Pacific. Humanly speaking, I see no
+difficulty in our drawing into our central school here any number of
+natives that we can support, from the New Hebrides, Banks and Solomon
+Islands, and I trust soon from the Santa Cruz Islands also.
+
+'Here must be the principal work, the training up missionaries and
+steadfast Christian men and women, not of ability sufficient to become
+themselves missionaries, but necessary to strengthen the hands of their
+more gifted countrymen. This training must be carried on here, but with
+it must be combined a frequent visitation and as lengthened sojourns in
+the islands as possible. The next winter we hope that the Rev. J. Atkin
+will be some time at San Cristoval, the Rev. C. H. Brooke at Florida,
+the Rev. J. Palmer at Mota. But I am more than ever convinced that
+the chiefest part of our work is to consist in training up Melanesian
+clergymen, and educating them up to the point of faithfully reproducing
+our simple teaching. We must hope to see native self-supporting
+Melanesian Churches, not weak indolent Melanesians dependent always
+on an English missionary, but steadfast, thoughtful men and women,
+retaining the characteristics of their race so far as they can
+be sanctified by the Word of God in prayer, and not force useless
+imitations of English modes of thought and nineteenth century
+civilisation.
+
+'It is sometimes a consequence of our national self-conceit, sometimes
+of want of thought, that no consideration is shown to the characteristic
+native way of regarding things. But Christianity is a universal
+religion, and assimilates and interpolates into its system all that is
+capable of regeneration and sanctification anywhere.
+
+'Before long I hope to get something more respectable in the way of
+a report printed and circulated. It seems unreasonable to say so, but
+really I have very little time that I can spare from directly Melanesian
+work, what with school, translations, working out languages, and (thank
+God) the many, many hours spent in quiet interviews with Melanesians
+of all ages and islands, who come to have private talks with me, and to
+tell me of their thoughts and feelings. These are happy hours indeed. I
+must end. Always, my dear friend, affectionately and sincerely yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The readmission thus mentioned was by the imposition of hands, when the
+penitent was again received, and his conduct ever since has proved his
+repentance true.
+
+February brought Mr. and Mrs. Palmer to their new home, and carried
+away Mr. Codrington for a holiday. The budget of letters sent by this
+opportunity contained a remarkable one from young Atkin. Like master,
+like scholar:--
+
+
+'February 24, 1869.
+
+'My dear Mother,--You must not think about my coming back; I may have to
+do it, but if I do, it will seem like giving up the object of my life.
+I did not enter upon this work with any enthusiasm, and it is perhaps
+partly from that cause that I am now so attached to it that little short
+of necessity would take me away; my own choice, I think, never. I know
+it is much harder for you than for me. I wish I could lighten it to you,
+but it cannot be. It is a great deal more self-denial for you to spare
+me to come away than for me to come away. You must think, like David, "I
+will not offer unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing."
+If you willingly give Him what you prize most, however worthless the
+gift may be, He will prize it for the willingness with which it is
+given. If it had been of my own choosing that I came away, I should
+often blame myself for having made a selfish choice in not taking harder
+and more irksome work nearer home, but it came to me without choosing. I
+can only be thankful that God has been so good to me.'
+
+
+Well might the Bishop write to the father, 'I thank you in my heart for
+Joe's promise.'
+
+How exactly his own spirit, in simple, unconscious self-abnegation and
+thorough devotion to the work. How it chimes in with this, written on
+the self-same morning to the Bishop of Lichfield:--
+
+
+'St. Matthias Day, 6.45 A.M., 1869.
+
+My dear Bishop,--You do not doubt that I think continually of you, yet
+I like you to have a line from me to-day. We are just going into Chapel,
+altering our usual service to-day that we may receive the Holy Communion
+with special remembrance of my Consecration and special prayer for a
+blessing on the Mission. There is much to be thankful for indeed,
+much also that may well make the retrospect of the last eight years a
+somewhat sad and painful one as far as I am myself concerned. It
+does seem wonderful that good on the whole is done. But everything is
+wonderful and full of mystery....
+
+'It is rather mean of me, I fear, to get out of nearly all troubles by
+being here. Yet it seems to me very clear that the special work of the
+Mission is carried on more conveniently (one doesn't like to say more
+successfully) here, and my presence or absence is of no consequence when
+general questions are under discussion....
+
+'Your very affectionate
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The same mail brought a letter to Miss Mackenzie, with much valuable
+matter on Mission work:--
+
+
+'February 26, 1869.
+
+'Dear Miss Mackenzie,--I have just read your letter to me of April 1867,
+which I acknowledged, rather than answered, long ago.
+
+'I can't answer it as it deserves to be answered now. I think I have
+already written about thirty-five letters to go by this mail, and my
+usual work seldom leaves me a spare hour.
+
+'But I am truly thankful for the hopes that seem to show themselves
+through the mists, in places where all Christian men must feel so
+strong an interest. I do hope to hear that the new Bishopric may soon
+be founded, on which Mr. Robertson and you and others have so set your
+hearts. That good man! I often think of him, and hope soon to send him,
+through you, L10 from our Melanesian offertory.
+
+'You know we have, thank God, thirty-nine baptized Melanesians here, of
+whom fifteen are communicants, and one, George Sarawia, a clergyman. He
+was ordained on December 20.
+
+'There are many little works usually going ons which I don't consider it
+fair to reckon among the regular industrial work of the Mission. I pay
+the young men and lads and boys small sums for such things, and I
+think it right to teach the elder ones the use of money by giving them
+allowances, out of which they buy their clothing, &c., when necessary,
+all under certain regulations. I say this that you may know that our
+weekly offertory is not a sham. No one knows what they give, or whether
+they give or not. A Melanesian takes the offertory bason, and they give
+or not as they please. I take care that such moneys as are due to them
+shall be given in 3d., 4d., and 6d. pieces.
+
+'Last year our offertory rather exceeded L40, and it is out of this that
+my brother will now pay you L10 for the Mackenzie fund. I write all this
+because you will like to think that some of this little offertory comes
+bond fide from Melanesians.
+
+'...You take me to mean, I hope, that Christianity is the religion for
+mankind at large, capable of dealing with the spiritual and bodily needs
+of man everywhere.
+
+'It is easy for us now to say that some of the early English Missions,
+without thinking at all about it, in all probability, sought to impose
+an English line of thought and religion on Indians and Africans. Even
+English dress was thought to be almost essential, and English habits,
+&c., were regarded as part of the education of persons converted through
+the agency of English Missions. All this seems to be burdening the
+message of the Gospel with unnecessary difficulties. The teacher
+everywhere, in England or out of it, must learn to discriminate between
+essentials and non-essentials. It seems to me self-evident that
+the native scholar must be educated up to the highest point that is
+possible, and that unless one is (humanly speaking) quite sure that he
+can and will reproduce faithfully the simple teaching he has received,
+he ought not to teach, much less to be ordained.
+
+'All our elder lads and girls here teach the younger ones, and we know
+what they teach. Their notes of our lessons are brought to me, books
+full of them, and there I see what they know; for if they can write down
+a plain account of facts and doctrines, that is a good test of their
+having taken in the teaching. George Sarawia's little essay on the
+doctrine of the Communion is to me perfectly satisfactory. It was
+written without my knowledge. I found it in one of his many note-books
+accidentally.
+
+'As for civilisation, they all live entirely with us, and every
+Melanesian in the place, men and women, boys and girls, three times a
+day take their places with all of us in hall, and use their knives and
+forks, plates, cups and saucers (or, for the passage, one's pannikins)
+just as we do. George and two others, speaking for themselves and their
+wives, have just written out, among other things, in a list which I told
+them to make out: plates, cups, saucers, knives, forks, spoons, tubs,
+saucepans, kettles, soap, towels, domestic things for washing, ironing,
+&c.
+
+'The common presents that our elder scholars take or send to their
+friends include large iron pots for cooking, clothing, &c. They build
+improved houses, and ask for small windows, &c., to put in them, boxes,
+carpet bags for their clothes, small writing desks, note-books, ink,
+pens. They keep their best clothes very carefully, and on Sundays and
+great days look highly respectable. And for years we know no instance
+of a baptized Melanesian throwing aside his clothing when taking his
+holiday at home.
+
+'As far as I can see my way to any rule in the matter, it is this: all
+that is necessary to secure decency, propriety, cleanliness, health,
+&c., must be provided for them. This at once involves alteration of the
+houses, divisions, partitions. People who can read and write, and cut
+out and sew clothes, must have light in their houses. This involves a
+change of the shape and structure of the hut. They can't sit in clean
+clothes on a dirty floor, and they can't write, or eat out of plates
+and use cups, &c., without tables or benches, and as they don't want
+to spend ten hours in sleep or idle talk, they must have lamps for
+cocoa-nut and almond oil.
+
+'These people are not taught to adopt these habits by word of mouth.
+They live with us and do as we do. Two young married women are sitting
+in my room now. I didn't call them in, nor tell them what to do. "We
+didn't quite understand what you said last night." "Well, I have written
+it out,--there it is." They took, as usual, the MS., sat down, just
+as you or anyone would do, at the table to read it, and are now making
+their short notes of it. Anyone comes in and out at any time, when not
+at school, chapel, or work, just as they please. We each have our own
+sitting-room, which is in this sense public property, and of course they
+fall into our ways.
+
+'There is perhaps no such thing as teaching civilisation by word
+of command, nor religion either. The sine qua non for the
+missionary--religious and moral character assumed to exist--is the
+living with his scholars as children of his own. And the aim is to lift
+them up, not by words, but by the daily life, to the sense of their
+capacity for becoming by God's grace all that we are, and I pray God a
+great deal more; not as literary men or scholars, but as Christian men
+and women, better suited than we are for work among their own people.
+"They shall be saved even as we." They have a strong sense of and
+acquiescence in, their own inferiority. If we treat them as inferiors,
+they will always remain in that position of inferiority.
+
+'But Christ humbled Himself and became the servant and minister that He
+might make us children of God and exalt us.
+
+'It is surely very simple, but if we do thus live among them, they must
+necessarily accept and adopt some of our habits. Our Lord led the life
+of a poor man, but He raised His disciples to the highest pitch of
+excellence by His Life, His Words, and His Spirit, the highest that
+man could receive and follow. The analogy is surely a true one.
+And exclusiveness, all the pride of race must disappear before such
+considerations.
+
+'But it is not the less true that He did not make very small demands
+upon His disciples, and teach them and us that it needs but little
+care and toil and preparation to be a Christian and a teacher of
+Christianity. The direct contrary to this is the truth.
+
+'The teacher's duty is to be always leading on his pupils to higher
+conceptions of their work in life, and to a more diligent performance
+of it. How can he do this if he himself acquiesces in a very imperfect
+knowledge and practice of his duty?
+
+'"And yet the mass of mediaeval missionaries could perhaps scarce read."
+That may be true, but that was not an excellence but a defect, and the
+mass of the gentry and nobility could not do so much. They did a great
+work then. It does not follow that we are to imitate their ignorance
+when we can have knowledge.
+
+'But I am wasting your time and mine.
+
+'Yours very truly,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.
+
+'P.S.--George and his wife and child, Charles and his wife, Benjamin and
+his wife, will live together at Mota on some land I have bought. A good
+wooden house is to be put up by us this winter (D.V.) with one large
+room for common use, school, &c., and three small bed-rooms opening on
+to a verandah. One small bed-room at the other end which any one, two or
+three of us English folks can occupy when at Mota. I dare say, first and
+last, this house will cost seventy or eighty pounds.
+
+'Then we hope to have everything that can be sown and planted with
+profit in a tropical climate, first-class breed of pigs, poultry, &c.,
+so that all the people may see that such things are not neglected. These
+things will be given away freely-settings of eggs, young sows, seeds,
+plants, young trees, &c. All this involves expense, quite rightly too,
+and after all, I dare say that dear old George will cost about a sixth
+or an eighth of what we English clergymen think necessary. I dare say
+L25 per annum will cover his expenses.'
+
+
+On Easter Sunday the penitent was readmitted to the Lord's Table. A
+happy letter followed:--
+
+
+'Easter Tuesday, 1869.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--Another opportunity of writing. I will only say a
+word about two things. First, our Easter and the Holy Week preceding
+it; secondly, how full my mind has been of Mr. Keble, on his two
+anniversaries, Holy Thursday and March 29. And I have read much of the
+"Christian Year," and the two letters I had from him I have read again,
+and looked at the picture of him, and felt helped by the memory of his
+holy saintly life, and I dared to think that it might be that by God's
+great mercy in Christ, I might yet know him and other blessed Saints in
+the Life to come.
+
+'Our Holy Week was a calm solemn season. All the services have long been
+in print. Day by day in school and chapel we followed the holy services
+and acts of each day, taking Ellicott's "Historical Lectures" as a
+guide.
+
+'Each evening I had my short sermonet, and we sought to deepen the
+impressions made evidently upon our scholars by whatever could make it a
+real matter of life and death to them and us. Then came Good Friday and
+Easter Eve, during which the Melanesians with Mr. Brooke were busily
+engaged in decorating the Chapel with fronds of tree-ferns, bamboo,
+arums, and oleander blossoms.
+
+'Then, at 7 A.M. on Easter Morning, thirty of us--twenty-one, thank God,
+being Melanesians--met in Chapel for the true Easter Feast.
+
+'Then, at 11 A.M., how we chanted Psalms ii, cxiii, cxiv, and Hymn, and
+the old Easter Hallelujah hymn to the old tune with Mota words. Then at
+7 P.M. Psalms cxviii, cxlviii, to joyful chants, and singing Easter and
+other hymns.
+
+'So yesterday and so to-day. The short Communion Service in the morning
+with hymn, and in the evening we chant Psalm cxviii, and sing out our
+Easter hymn. Ah well! it makes my heart very full. It is the season of
+refreshing, perhaps before more trails.
+
+'Dear U---- was with us again on Easter morn, a truly repentant young
+man, I verily believe, feeling deeply what in our country districts is
+often not counted a sin at all to be a foul offence against his Father
+and Saviour and Sanctifier.
+
+'Six were there for their first Communion, among them honest old Stephen
+Taroniara, the first and only communicant of all the Solomon Isles--of
+all the world west of Mota, or east of any of the Bishop of Labuan's
+communicants. Think of that! What a blessing! What a thought for praise
+and hope and meditation!
+
+'I sit in my verandah in the moonlight and I do feel happy in spite of
+many thoughts of early days which may well make me feel unhappy.
+
+'But I do feel an almost overpowering sensation of thankfulness and
+peace and calm tranquil happiness, which I know cannot last long. It
+would not, I suppose, be good: anyhow it will soon be broken by some
+trial which may show much of my present state to be a delusion. Yet
+I like to tell you what I think, and I know you will keep it to
+yourselves.
+
+'Good-bye, and all Easter blessings be with you.
+
+'Your loving brother,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON '
+
+
+The island voyage was coming near, and was to be conducted, on a larger
+scale, after the intermission of a whole year. Mr. Brooke was to make
+some stay at Florida, Mr. Atkin at Wango in Bauro, and the Bishop
+himself was to take the party who were to commence the Christian
+village at Mota, while Mr. Codrington and Mr. Bice remained in charge
+of twenty-seven Melanesians. The reports of the effects of the labour
+traffic were becoming a great anxiety, and not only the Fiji settlers,
+but those in Queensland were becoming concerned in it.
+
+The 'Southern Cross' arrived in June, but the weather was so bad that,
+knocking about outside the rocks, she sustained some damage, and could
+not put her freight ashore for a week. However, on the 24th she sailed,
+and put down Mr. Atkin at Wango, the village in Bauro where the Bishop
+had stayed two years previously.
+
+Mr. Atkin gives a touching description of Taroniara's arrival:--
+
+'Stephen was not long in finding his little girl, Paraiteka. She was
+soon in his arms. The old fellow just held her up for the Bishop to
+see, and then turned away with her, and I saw a handkerchief come out
+privately and brush quickly across his eyes, and in a few minutes he
+came back to us.'
+
+The little girl's mother, for whose sake Taroniara had once refused
+to return to school, had been carried off by a Maran man; and as the
+heathen connection had been so slight, and a proper marriage so entirely
+beyond the ideas of the native state, it was thought advisable to leave
+this as a thing of heathen darkness, and let him select a girl to be
+educated into becoming fit for his true wife.
+
+Besides Stephen, Joseph Wate and two other Christian lads were with Mr.
+Atkin, and he made an expedition of two days' visit to Wate's father. At
+Ulava he found that dysentery had swept off nearly all the natives, and
+he thought these races, even while left to themselves, were dying out.
+'But,' adds the brave man in his journal, 'I will never, I hope, allow
+that because these people are dying out, it is of no use or a waste of
+time carrying the Gospel to them. It is, I should rather say, a case
+where we ought to be the more anxious to gather up the fragments.'
+
+So he worked on bravely, making it an object, if he could do no more, to
+teach enough to give new scholars a start in the school, and to see who
+were most worth choosing there. He suffered a little loss of popularity
+when it was found that he was not a perpetual fountain of beads,
+hatchets, and tobacco, but he did the good work of effecting a
+reconciliation between Wango and another village named Hane, where he
+made a visit, and heard a song in honour of Taroniara. He was invited
+to a great reconciliation feast; which he thus describes, beginning with
+his walk to Hane by short marches:--
+
+'We waited where we overtook Taki, until the main body from Wango came
+up. They charged past in fine style, looking very well in their holiday
+dress, each with his left hand full of spears, and one brandished in the
+right. It looked much more like a fighting party than a peace party;
+but it is the custom to make peace with the whole army, to convince the
+enemy that it is only for his accommodation that they are making peace,
+and not because they are afraid to fight him. It was about 12 o'clock
+when we reached the rendezvous. There was a fine charge of all, except
+a dozen of the more sedate of the party; they rattled their spears, and
+ran, and shouted, and jumped, even crossing the stream which was the
+neutral ground. We halted by the stream for some time; at last some Hane
+people came to their side; there was a charge again almost up to them,
+but they took it coolly. At about 10 o'clock the whole body of the Hane
+men came, and two or three from Wango went across to them. I was tired
+of waiting, and asked Taki if I should go. "Yes, and tell them to bring
+the money," he said.
+
+'While I was wading through the stream, the Hane men gathered up and
+advanced; I turned back with them. They rushed, brandishing their
+spears, to within ten or twelve paces of the Wango party, who had joined
+into a compact body, and so seated themselves as soon as they saw the
+movement.
+
+'Kara, a Hane man, made his speech, first running forwards and
+backwards, shaking his spear all the time; and at the end, he took out
+four strings of Makira money, and gave it to Taki. Hane went back across
+the stream; and Wango went through the same performance, Taki making the
+speech. He seemed a great orator, and went on until one standing by
+him said, "That's enough," when he laughed, and gave over. He gave four
+strings of money, two shorter than the others, and the shortest was
+returned to him, I don't know why; but in this way the peace was
+signed.'
+
+After nineteen days, during which the Bishop had been cruising about,
+Mr. Atkin and his scholars were picked up again, and likewise Mr.
+Brooke, who had been spending ten days at Florida with his scholars,
+in all thirty-five; and then ensued a very tedious passage to the
+Banks Islands, for the vessel had been crippled by the gale off Norfolk
+Island, and could not be pressed; little canvas was carried, and the
+weather was unfavourable.
+
+However, on September 6, Mota was safely reached; and great was the joy,
+warm the welcome of the natives, who eagerly assisted in unloading the
+vessel, through storms of rain and surf.
+
+The old station house was in entire decay; but the orange and lemon
+trees were thirty feet high, though only the latter in bearing.
+
+The new village, it was agreed, should bear the name of Kohimarama,
+after the old home in New Zealand, meaning, in Maori, 'Focus of Light.'
+After landing the goats, the Bishop, Mr. Atkin, and five more crossed
+to Valua. They were warmly welcomed at Ara, where their long absence
+had made the natives fancy they must all be dead. The parents of Henry,
+Lydia, and Edwin were the first to approach the boat, eager to hear
+of their children left in Norfolk Island; and the mother walked up the
+beach with her arm round Mr. Atkin's neck. But here it appeared that the
+vessels of the labour traffic had come to obtain people to work in the
+cotton plantations in Queensland, and that they had already begun to
+invite them in the name of the Bishop, whose absence they accounted for
+by saying his ship had been wrecked, he had broken his leg, he had gone
+to England, and sent them to fetch natives to him. No force had been
+used as yet, but there was evident dread of them; and one vessel had
+a Mota man on board, who persuaded the people to go to Sydney. About
+a hundred natives had been taken from the islands of Valua, Ara, and
+Matlavo, and from Bligh Island twenty-three were just gone, but Mota's
+inaccessibility had apparently protected it. It will be remembered that
+it has a high fortification of coral all round the beach, with but one
+inconvenient entrance, and that the people are little apt to resort to
+canoes. This really has hitherto seemed a special Providence for this
+nucleus of Christianity.
+
+They spent the night at Ara, making a fire on the sandy beach, where
+they boiled their chocolate, and made gravy of some extract of meat
+to season their yam, and supped in public by firelight, reclining upon
+mats. Afterwards they went up to the Ogamal, or barrack tent: it was not
+an inviting bed-chamber, being so low that they could only kneel upright
+in it, and so smoky that Stephen remarked, 'We shall be cooked ourselves
+if we stay here,' proving an advance in civilisation. One of the private
+houses was equally unattractive, and the party slept on the beach.
+
+The next morning they started to walk round the island: taking two cork
+beds, a portmanteau and a basket of provisions; stopping wherever a few
+people were found, but it was a thinly peopled place, and the loss of
+the men carried off was sensibly felt.
+
+One village had had a fight with a boat's crew from Sydney. They made no
+secret of it, saying that they would not have their men taken away; and
+they had been sharp enough to pour water into the guns before provoking
+the quarrel.
+
+Further on there was a closer population, where the Bishop was
+enthusiastically welcomed, and an Ogamal was found, making a good
+shelter for the night. Then they returned to Ara, where Mr. Atkin notes,
+in the very centre of the island, a curious rock, about 200 feet high,
+and on the top, 20 or 30 feet from the nearest visible soil, a she-oak
+stump, and two more green and flourishing a little below. The rock was
+of black scoriae, too hot in the middle of the day to sit upon, and near
+it was a pool of water. 'Such water, so rotten.' The water used by the
+visitors had been brought from Auckland. The natives do not trouble
+water much, I don't think they ever drink it, and they certainly don't
+look as if they ever washed.
+
+On the following day they recrossed to Vanua Lava, where they spent a
+quiet calm Sunday in the vessel, landing in the afternoon to see Fisher
+Young's grave, which they found well kept and covered with a pretty blue
+creeper.
+
+The next Sunday they spent at Kohimarama: beginning with Celebration at
+7.30 A.M., and in the afternoon making the circuit of the island, about
+ten miles. In one place Mr. Atkin bent over the edge of the natural sea
+wall, and saw the sea breaking 150 or 200 feet below!
+
+After a fortnight spent in this manner, he and the other two clergymen
+carried off their Melanesians to Norfolk Island, leaving the Bishop to
+be fetched away in a month's time. Here is the letter written during his
+solitude:--
+
+
+'Kohimarama, Mota Island: September 23, 1869.
+
+'My dearest Joan and Fan,--Here I am sitting in a most comfortable house
+in our new Kohimarama, for so the Melanesians determine to call our
+station in Mota. The house is 48 feet by 18, with a 9-foot verandah on
+two sides. It has one large room, a partition at each end, one of which
+is subdivided into two small sleeping rooms for George and his wife,
+and Charles and his wife. There is no ceiling, so that we have the full
+advantage of the height of the house, and plenty of ventilation, as
+the space beyond where the roof comes down upon the wall plates is left
+open.
+
+'The verandah is a grand lounging place; very commodious for school
+also, when other classes fill the large room, and a delightful place to
+sit or lie about on in this genial warm climate. These bright moonlight
+nights are indeed delicious. The mosquito gives no trouble here to speak
+of. The cocoa-nut trees, the bread-fruit trees, yam gardens, and many
+kinds of native trees and shrubs, are all around us; the fine wooded
+hill of Mota shows well over the house. The breeze always plays round
+it; and though it is very hot, it is only when the wind comes from
+the north and north-west, as in the midsummer, that the heat is of an
+oppressive and sickly nature.
+
+'About twenty lads and young men live here, and about forty attend daily
+school; but I think there is every indication of all Mota sending its
+young people here as soon as we have our crops of yams, &c., &c., to
+provide sufficient food. Improved native huts will, I think, soon be
+built over our little estate here.
+
+'Many girls I hope to take to Norfolk Island. They could hardly be
+brought together with safety to this place yet. The parents see and
+admit this, and consent to my taking them. I tell them that their sons
+will not marry ignorant heathen girls (their sons I mean who have
+been and are still with us); that all the young fellows growing up at
+Kohimarama must have educated wives provided for them, and that I must
+therefore take away many young girls with me to Norfolk Island. The
+fashion here is to buy at an early age young girls for their sons,
+though occasionally a girl may be found not already betrothed, but
+almost grown up. I now say, "I want to train up wives for my sons," and
+the fashion of the place allows of my buying or appropriating them. You
+would be amused to see me engaged in this match-making. It is all the
+same a very important matter, for clearly it is the best way to secure,
+as I trust, the introduction of Christian family life among these
+people.
+
+'George and I are satisfied that things are really very promising here.
+Of course, much old heathen ignorance, and much that is very wrong, will
+long survive. So you recollect perhaps old Joe (great-Uncle Edward's
+coachman) declaring that C. S. as a witch, and there is little proof of
+practical Christianity in the morals of our peasants of the west, and of
+Wales especially.
+
+'It is not that one should acquiesce in what is wrong here, but one
+ought not to be surprised at it. Public opinion, the constraint of law,
+hereditary notions, are more effective in preventing the outbreak of
+evil passions into criminal acts in very many cases and districts in
+England.
+
+'Now these restraints are, indeed, indirect consequences of
+Christianity, but do not imply any religion in the individuals who are
+influenced by them. These restraints don't exist here. If they did, I
+think these Mota people now would live just as orderly decent lives as
+average English folk. Christianity would not be a vigorous power in the
+one case or in the other. Exceptional cases would occur here and there.
+
+'If I am asked for proofs of the "conversion" of this people, I should
+say, "Conversion from what to what?" and then I should say, "Ask any
+close observer in England about the commercial and social morality
+existing in not only the most ignorant ranks of society: how much is
+merely formal, and therefore, perhaps, actually detrimental to a true
+spirit of religion!" Here you don't find much that you associate with
+religion in England, in the external observances of it; but there are
+not a few ignorant people (I am not speaking of our trained scholars)
+who are giving up their old habits, adopting new ways, accepting a
+stricter mode of life, foregoing advantages of one kind and another,
+because they believe that this "Good news," this Gospel, is true, and
+because the simple truths of Christianity are, thank God, finding some
+entrance into their hearts.
+
+'I dread the imposition from without of some formal compliances with the
+externals of religion while I know that the meaning and spirit of
+them cannot as yet be understood. Can there be conceived anything more
+formal, more mischievous, than inculcating a rigid Sabbatarian view of
+the Lord's Day upon a people who don't know anything about the Cross
+and the Resurrection? Time enough to talk about the observance when
+the people have some knowledge of the vital living truth of a spiritual
+religion.
+
+'So about clothing. If I tried to do it, I think I could make the people
+here buy, certainly accept, and wear, clothing. With what result at
+present? That they would think that wearing a yard of unbleached calico
+was a real evidence of the reception of the new teaching.
+
+'Such things are, in this stage of Mission work, actually hurtful. The
+mind naturally takes in and accepts the easy outward form, and by such
+treatment you actually encourage it to do so, and to save itself the
+trouble of thinking out the real meaning and teaching which must of
+course be addressed to the spirit.
+
+'These outward things all follow as a matter of course after a time, as
+consequences of the new power and light felt in the soul; but they may
+be so spoken of as to become substitutes for the true spiritual life,
+and train up a people in hypocrisy.
+
+'I beg your pardon really for parading all these truisms. Throw it in
+the fire.
+
+'I don't for a moment mean or think that religion is to be taught by
+mere prudence and common sense. But a spiritual religion is imperilled
+the moment that you insist upon an unspiritual people observing outward
+forms which are to them the essence of the new teaching. Anything
+better than turning heathens into Pharisees! What did our Lord call the
+proselytes of the Pharisee and the Scribe?
+
+'And while I see and love the beauty of the outward form when it is
+known and felt to be no more than the shrine of the inward spiritual
+power; while I know that for highly advanced Christians, or for persons
+trained in accurate habits of thought, all that beauty of holiness is
+needful; yet I think I see that the Divine wisdom of the Gospel would
+guard the teacher against presenting the formal side of religion to the
+untaught and ignorant convert. "God is a Spirit, and they that worship
+Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," is the great lesson for
+the heathen mind chained down as it is to things of sense.
+
+'"He that hateth his brother is a murderer:" not the outward act, but
+the inward motive justifies or condemns the man. Every day convinces
+me more and more of the need of a different mode of teaching than
+that usually adopted for imperfectly taught people. How many of your
+(ordinary) parishioners even understand the simple meaning of the
+Prayer-book, nay, of their well-known (as they think) Gospel miracles
+and parables? Who teaches in ordinary parishes the Christian use of the
+Psalms? Who puts simply before peasant and stone-cutter the Jew and his
+religion, and what he and it were intended to be, and the real error and
+sin and failure?--the true nature of prophecy, the progressive teaching
+of the Bible, never in any age compromising truth, but never ignoring
+the state, so often the unreceptive state, of those to whom the truth
+must therefore be presented partially, and in a manner adapted to rude
+and unspiritual natures? What an amount of preparatory teaching is
+needed! What labour must be spent in struggling to bring forth things
+new and old, and present things simply before the indolent, unthinking,
+vacant mind! How much need there is of a more special training of the
+Clergy even now! Many men are striving nobly to do all this. But think
+of the rubbish that most of us chuck lazily out of our minds twice a
+week without method or order. It is such downright hard work to teach
+well. Oh! how weary it makes me to try. I feel as if I were at once
+aware of what should be attempted, and yet quite unable to do it!
+
+'St. Michael's Day.--[After an affectionate review of most of his
+relations at home.]--When the Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn pressed me a good
+deal to go with them to England, it obliged me a little to analyse my
+feelings. You won't suspect me of any want of longing to see you, when
+I say that it never was a doubtful matter to me for five minutes. I saw
+nothing to make me wish to go to England in comparison with the crowd
+of reasons for not doing so. They, good people, thought it would be rest
+and refreshment to me. Little they know how a man so unlike them takes
+his rest! I am getting it here, hundreds of miles out of reach of any
+white man or woman, free from what is to me the bother of society. I am
+not defending myself; but it is true that to me it is a bore, the very
+opposite of rest, to be in society. I like a good talk with Sir William
+Martin above anything, but I declare that even that is dearly purchased
+by the other accompaniments of society.
+
+'And I could not spend a quiet month with you at Weston. I should have
+people calling, the greatest of all nuisances, except that of having
+to go out to dinner. I should have to preach, and perhaps to go to
+meetings, all in the way of my business, but not tending to promote
+rest.
+
+'Seriously, I am very well now; looking, I am sure, and feeling stronger
+and stouter than I was in New Zealand in the winter. So don't fret
+yourself about me, and don't think that I shouldn't dearly love to chat
+awhile with you. What an idle, lazy letter. You see I am taking my rest
+with you, writing without effort.'
+
+He was looking well. Kohimarama must be more healthily situated than the
+first station, for all his three visits there were beneficial to him;
+and there seems to have been none of the tendency to ague and low fever
+which had been the trouble of the first abode.
+
+Mr. Codrington and Mr. Bice came back in the schooner early in October,
+and were landed at Mota, while the Bishop went for a cruise in the New
+Hebrides; but the lateness of the season and the state of the vessel
+made it a short one, and he soon came back with thirty-five boys.
+Meanwhile, a small harmonium, which was to be left with the Christian
+settlement, had caused such an excitement that Mr. Bice was nearly
+squeezed to death by the crowds that came to hear it. He played nearly
+all day to successive throngs of men, but when the women arrived, they
+made such a clatter that he was fain to close the instrument. Unbleached
+calico clothing had been made for such of the young ladies as were to be
+taken on board for Norfolk Island, cut out by the Bishop and made up by
+Robert, William, and Benjamin, his scholars; and Mr. Codrington says,
+'It was an odd sight to see the Bishop on the beach with the group of
+girls round him, and a number of garments over his arm. As each bride
+was brought by her friends, she was clothed and added to the group.
+
+'Esthetically, clothes were no improvement. "A Melanesian clothed,"
+the Bishop observes, "never looks well; there is almost always a stiff,
+shabby-genteel look. A good specimen, not disfigured by sores and
+ulcers, the well-shaped form, the rich warm colour of the skin, and
+the easy, graceful play of every limb, unhurt by shoe or tight-fitting
+dress, the flower stuck naturally into the hair, &c., make them look
+pleasant enough to my eye. You see in Picture Bibles figures draped as I
+could wish the Melanesians to be clothed."'
+
+To continue Mr. Codrington's recollections of this stay in Mota:--
+
+'I remember noticing how different his manner was from what was common
+at home. His eyes were cast all about him, keeping a sharp look-out, and
+all his movements and tones were quick and decisive. In that steaming
+climate, and those narrow paths, he walked faster than was at all
+agreeable to his companions, and was dressed moreover in a woollen coat
+and waistcoat all the time. In fact, he thoroughly enjoyed the heat,
+though no doubt it was weakening him; he liked the food, which gave him
+no trouble at all to eat, and he liked the natives.
+
+'He felt, of course, that he was doing his work all the while; but the
+expression of his countenance was very different while sitting with a
+party of men over their food at Mota, and when sitting with a party in
+Norfolk Island.
+
+'The contrast struck me very much between his recluse studious life
+there, and his very active one at Mota, with almost no leisure to read,
+and very little to write, and with an abundance of society which was a
+pleasure instead of a burthen.
+
+'I think that the alert and decisive tone and habit which was so
+conspicuous in the islands, and came out whenever he was roused, was not
+natural to his disposition, but had been acquired in early years in a
+public school, and faded down in the quiet routine of St. Barnabas, and
+was recalled as occasion required with more effort as time went on. No
+doubt, his habitual gentleness made his occasional severity more felt,
+but at Mota his capacity for scolding was held in respect. I was told
+when I was last there, that I was no good, for I did not know how to
+scold, but that the Bishop perfectly well understood how to do it.
+Words certainly would never fail him in twenty languages to express his
+indignation, but how seldom among his own scholars had he to do it in
+one!'
+
+This voyage is best summed up in the ensuing letter to one of the
+Norfolk relations:--
+
+
+'"Southern Cross" Schooner, 20 miles East of Star Island.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--We are drawing near the end of a rather long cruise,
+as I trust, in safety. We left Norfolk Island on the 24th June, and we
+hope to reach it in about ten days. We should have moved about in less
+time, but for the crippled state of the schooner. She fell in with a
+heavy gale off Norfolk Island about June 20th-23rd; and we have been
+obliged to be very careful of our spars, which were much strained.
+Indeed, we still need a new mainmast, main boom, and gaff, a main
+topmast, foretopmast, and probably new wire rigging, besides repairs of
+other kinds, and possibly new coppering. Thank God, the voyage has been
+so far safe, and, on the whole, prosperous. We sailed first of all to
+the Banks Islands, only dropping two lads at Ambrym Island on our way.
+We spent a week or more at Mota, while the vessel was being overhauled
+at the harbour in Vanua Lava Island, seven miles from Mota. It was a
+great relief to us to get the house for the station at Mota out of the
+vessel, the weight of timber, &c., was too much for a vessel not built
+for carrying freight. After a few days we left Mr. Palmer, George
+Sarawia, and others at Mota, busily engaged in putting up the house, a
+very serious matter for us, as you may suppose.
+
+'Our party was made up of Mr. Atkin, Mr. Brooke, and two Mota volunteers
+for boat work, and divers Solomon Islanders. We were absent from Mota
+about seven years, during which time we visited Santa Cruz, and many of
+the Solomon Isles. Mr. Atkin spent three weeks in one of the isles,
+and Mr. Brooke in another, and we had more than thirty natives of the
+Solomon Islands on board, including old scholars, when we left Ulava,
+the last island of the Solomon group at which we called.
+
+'Mr. Palmer, Mr. Atkin, and Mr. Brooke went on to Norfolk Island, the
+whole number of Melanesians on board being sixty-two. I had spent a very
+happy month at Mota when the vessel returned from Norfolk Island
+both with Mr. Codrington and Mr. Bice on board, bringing those of the
+Melanesians (nearly thirty in all) who chose to stay on Norfolk Island.
+Then followed a fortnight's cruise in the New Hebrides, and now with
+exactly fifty Melanesians on board from divers islands, we are on our
+way to Norfolk Island. We have fourteen girls, two married, on board,
+and there are ten already at Norfolk Island. This is an unusual number;
+but the people understand that the young men and lads who have been
+with us for some time, who are baptized and accustomed to decent orderly
+ways, are not going to marry heathen wild girls, so they give up these
+young ones to be taught and qualify to become fit wives for our rapidly
+increasing party of young men.
+
+'It is quite clear that we must aim at exhibiting, by God's blessing,
+Christian family life in the islands, and this can only be done by
+training up young men and women.
+
+'Three married couples, all Communicants, live now at Kohimarama, the
+station at Mota. George has two children, Benjamin one. It is already
+a small specimen of a little Christian community, and it must be
+reinforced, year by year, by accessions of new couples of Christian men
+and women.
+
+'About twenty lads live at the station, and about forty more come daily
+to school. It may grow soon into a real working school, from which the
+most intelligent and best conducted boys may be taken to Norfolk Island
+for a more complete education. I am hopeful about a real improvement in
+Mota and elsewhere.
+
+'But a new difficulty has lately been caused by the traders from Sydney
+and elsewhere, who have taken many people to work in the plantations
+at Brisbane, Mimea, (New Caledonia), and the Fiji Islands, actual
+kidnapping, and this is a sad hindrance to us. I know of no case of
+actual violence in the Banks Islands; but in every case, they took
+people away under false pretences, asserting that "the Bishop is ill
+and can't come; he has sent us to bring you to him." "The Bishop is in
+Sydney, he broke his leg getting into his boat, and has sent us to take
+you to him," &c., &c. In many of these places some of our old scholars
+are found who speak a little English, and the traders communicated with
+them.
+
+'In most places where any of our young people happened to be on shore,
+they warned their companions against these men, but not always with
+success. Hindrances there must be always in the way of all attempts to
+do some good. But this is a sad business, and very discreditable to the
+persons employed in it and the Government which sanctions it, for they
+must know that they cannot control the masters of the vessels engaged
+in the trade; they may pass laws as to the treatment the natives are to
+receive on the plantations, as to food, pay, &c., the time of service,
+the date of their being taken home, but they know that the whole thing
+is dishonest. The natives don't intend or know anything about any
+service or labour; they don't know that they will have to work hard, and
+any regular steady work is hard work to South Sea Islanders. They are
+brought away under false pretences, else why tell lies to induce them to
+go on board?
+
+'I dare say that many young fellows go on board without much persuasion.
+Many causes may be at work to induce them to do so, e.g., sickness in
+the island, quarrels, love of excitement, spirit of enterprise, &c., but
+if they knew what they were taken for, I don't think they would go.
+
+'November 2nd.--In sight of Norfolk Island. All well on board.
+
+'November 6th.--Yesterday we all landed safely, and found our whole
+party quite well. Our new hall is finished, and in good time to receive
+134 Melanesians.'
+
+Before the full accumulation of letters arrived from Auckland, a report
+by a passing ship from Sydney stirred the hermit Bishop deeply, and
+elicited the following warm congratulation:--
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: November 17, 1869.
+
+'My dear Dr. Moberly,--Since my return--a fortnight since--from the
+islands a rumour has reached us, brought hither in a small trader, that
+the Bishop of Winchester has resigned his see, and that you are his
+successor. It is almost too good to be true. I am waiting with great
+anxiety for a vessel expected soon; I have had no English news since
+letters of April. But in all seriousness, private news is of small
+moment compared with the news of what is to become of that great
+Diocese. And especially now, when almost all the south of England is so
+sadly in want of officers to command the Church's army. Exeter, Bath and
+Wells, Salisbury, Chichester (very old), and till now (if this rumour be
+true) Winchester, from old age or sickness almost, if not quite, unfit
+for work. If indeed I hear that God's Providence has placed you in
+charge of that great see, it will give a different hue to the prospect,
+dreary enough, I confess, to me; though I hope I am mistaken in my
+gloomy forebodings of the results of all those many Dioceses being
+so long without active Bishops. Salisbury of course I except, and
+Chichester is a small Diocese comparatively, and the good Bishop, I
+know, works up to the maximum of his age and strength. But if this be a
+true rumour, and I do sincerely trust and pray that it may be so, indeed
+it will give hope and courage and fresh life and power to many and many
+a fainting soul. If I may presume to say so, it is (as Mrs. Selwyn wrote
+to me when he was appointed to Lichfield) "a solemn and anxious thing
+to undertake a great charge on the top of such great expectations." But
+already there is one out here anyhow who feels cheered and strengthened
+by the mere hope that this story is true; and everywhere many anxious
+men and women will lift up their hearts to God in thankfulness, and in
+earnest prayers that you may indeed do a great work to His glory and to
+the good of His Church in a new and even greater sphere of usefulness.
+No doubt much of my thoughts and apprehensions about the religious and
+social state of England is very erroneous. I have but little time
+for reading about what is going on, and though I have the blessing of
+Codrington's good sense and ability, yet I should like to have more
+persons to learn from on such matters. I am willing and anxious to
+believe that I am not cheerful and faithful enough to see the bright
+side as clearly as I ought. Your letters have always been a very great
+help to me; not only a great pleasure, much more than a pleasure. I felt
+that I accepted, occasionally even that I had anticipated, your remarks
+on the questions of the day, the conduct of parties and public men,
+books, &c. It has been a great thing for me to have my thoughts guided
+or corrected in this way.
+
+'Your last present to me was your volume of "Bampton Lectures," of which
+I need not say how both the subject and the mode of treating it make
+them especially valuable just now. And there is a strong personal
+feeling about the work and writings of one where the public man is
+also the private friend, which gives a special zest to the enjoyment of
+reading a work of this kind.
+
+'Certainly it is one of the many blessings of my life that I should
+somehow have been allowed to grow into this degree of intimacy with you,
+whom I have always known by name, though I don't remember ever to have
+seen you. I think I first as a child became familiar with your name
+through good Miss Rennell, whom I dare say you remember: the old Dean's
+daughter. What a joy this would have been to dear Mr. and Mrs. Keble;
+what a joy it is to Charlotte Yonge; and there may be others close to
+Winchester whose lives have been closely bound tip with yours.
+
+'But, humanly speaking, the thing is to have Bishops who can command the
+respect and love and dutiful obedience of their clergy and laity alike.
+
+'One wants men who, by solid learning, and by acquaintance too with
+modern modes of criticism and speculation, by scholarship, force of
+character, largeness of mind, as well as by their goodness, can secure
+respect and exercise authority. It is the lawlessness of men that
+one deplores; the presumption of individual priests striking out for
+themselves unauthorised ways of managing their parishes and officiating
+in their churches. And, if I may dare to touch on such a subject, is
+there not a mode of speaking and writing on the Holy Eucharist prevalent
+among some men now, which has no parallel in the Church of England,
+except, it may be, in some of the non-jurors, and which does not express
+the Church of England's mind; which is not the language of Pearson, and
+Jackson, and Waterland, and Hooker, no, nor of Bull, and Andrewes, and
+Taylor, &c.? I know very little of such things--very little indeed.
+But it is oftentimes a sad grief to me that I cannot accept some of the
+reasonings and opinions of dear Mr. Keble in his book on "Eucharistic
+Adoration." I know that I have no right to expect to see things as such
+a man saw them: that most probably the instinctive power of discerning
+truth--the reward of a holy life from early childhood--guided him where
+men without such power feel all astray. But yet, there is something
+about the book which may be quite right and true, but does not to me
+quite savour of the healthy sound theology of the Church of England;
+the fragrance is rather that of an exotic plant; here and there I
+mean--though I feel angry with myself for daring to think this, and to
+say it to you, who can understand him.
+
+'November 27th.--I leave this as I wrote it, though now I know from our
+mails, which have come to us, that you are Bishop of Salisbury, not
+of Winchester. I hardly stop to think whether it is Winchester or
+Salisbury, so great is my thankfulness and joy at the report being
+substantially true. Though it did seem that Winchester was a natural
+sphere for you, I can't help feeling that at Salisbury you can do (D.V.)
+what perhaps scarcely any one else could do. And now I rejoice that you
+have had the opportunity of speaking with no uncertain sound in your
+"Bampton Lectures." Anyone can tell what the Bishop of Salisbury holds
+on the great questions of Church Doctrine and Church Government. The
+diocese knows already its Bishop, not only by many former but by his
+latest book. Surely you will have the confidence of all Churchmen, and
+be blessed to do a great work for the glory of God and the edification
+of the Church.
+
+'And now, my dear Bishop of Salisbury, you will excuse my writing on
+so freely, too freely I fear. I do like to think of you in that most
+perfect of Cathedrals. I hope and trust that you will have ere long,
+right good fellow-workers in Exeter, Winton, and Bath and Wells.
+
+'But in the colonies you have a congeries of men from all countries, and
+with every variety of creed, jumbled up together, with nothing whatever
+to hold them together--no reverence--no thoughts of the old parish
+church, &c. They are restless, worldly people to a great extent,
+thinking of getting on, making money. To such men the very idea of the
+Church as a Divine Institution, the mystical Body of the Lord, on which
+all graces are bestowed, and through whose ministrations men are trained
+in holiness and truth, is wholly unknown. The personal religion of many
+a man is sincere; his position and duty as a Churchman he has never
+thought about. I wish the clergy would master that part, at all events,
+of your Lectures which deals with this great fundamental point, and
+then, as they have opportunity, teach it to their people. And by-and-by,
+through the collective life of the Church in its synods, &c., many will
+come to see it, we may hope.
+
+'I think that I may give you a cheering account of ourselves. I was
+nineteen weeks in the islands--met with no adventures worth mentioning,
+only one little affair which was rather critical for a few minutes, but
+ended very well--and in some of the Solomon Islands made more way than
+heretofore with the people. We have 134 Melanesians here and a baby.
+George Sarawia and his wife and two children, and two other married
+couples--all Communicants--are at Mota, in a nice place, with some
+twenty-two lads "boarding" with them, and about thirty more coming to
+daily school.
+
+'The vessel was much knocked about in a violent gale in June off Norfolk
+Island, and we had to handle her very carefully. The whole voyage was
+made with a mainmast badly sprung, and fore topmast very shaky. Mr.
+Tilly was very watchful over the spars, and though we had a large share
+of squally weather, and for some days, at different times, were becalmed
+in a heavy swell, the most trying of all situations to the gear of a
+vessel, yet, thank God, all went well, and I have heard of the schooner
+safe in Auckland harbour. About forty of our Melanesians here are
+Solomon Islanders, from seven different islands; a few came from the New
+Hebrides, the rest from the Banks Islands. We are already pretty well
+settled down to our work. Indeed, it took only a day or two to get
+to work; our old scholars are such great helpers to us. We number six
+clergymen here (G. Sarawia being at Mota). Ten or twelve of the sixth
+form are teachers. If you care to hear more; I must refer you to a
+letter just written to Miss Yonge. But it is not easy to write details
+about 134 young people. Their temptations are very great when they
+return to their islands; every inducement to profligacy, &c., is held
+out to them. One of our young baptized lads fell into sinful ways, and
+is not now with us. He was not one of whom we had great expectations,
+though we trusted that he would go on steadily. Many others, thank God,
+were kept pure and truthful in the midst of it all, refusing even to
+sleep one night away from our little hut, and in some cases refusing
+even to leave the schooner. "No, I will wait till I am married," said
+two lads to me, who were married here to Christian girls on November
+24th, "and then go ashore for a time with my young wife. I don't think
+I should yield, but I don't want to put myself in the way of such
+temptations." And so, when I had naturally expected that they would take
+their six weeks' holiday on shore, while the "Southern Cross" went from
+Mota to Norfolk Island and back (during my stay at Mota), they remained
+on board, rejoining me, as they were two of my boating crew, for the
+New Hebrides trip! This was very comforting. And when I married three
+couples on November 24th, and knew that they were pure, youths and girls
+alike, from the great sin of heathenism, you can well think that my
+heart was very full of thankfulness and hope.
+
+'I must end my long letter. How will you find time to read it? Send me
+some day a photograph of your beautiful Cathedral.
+
+'Yours very faithfully,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Before the letter to which Bishop Moberly is referred, Mr. Codrington's
+bit about the weddings seems appropriate:--
+
+'These wedding days were great festivals, especially before many had
+been seen. The Chapel was dressed with flowers, the wedding party in
+as new and cheerful attire as could be procured, the English Marriage
+Service translated into Mota. We make rings out of sixpences or
+threepenny bits. The place before is full of the sound of the hammer
+tapping the silver on the marlingspike. The wedding ceremony is
+performed with as much solemnity as possible, all the school present in
+their new clothes and with flowers in their hair. There is even a kind
+of processional Psalm as the wedding party enters the Chapel. There is
+of course a holiday, and after the service they all go off, taking with
+them the pig that has been killed for the feast. An enormous quantity of
+plum pudding awaits them when, in the evening, they come back to prayers
+and supper. Rounds of hearty cheers, led off by the Bishop, used
+to complete the day. Weddings of this kind between old scholars,
+christened, confirmed, and trustworthy, represented much anxiety and
+much teaching and expense, but they promise so much, and that so near of
+what has been worked for, that they have brought with them extraordinary
+pleasure and satisfaction.'
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: November 24, 1869.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--To-day we married three young couples: the
+bridegrooms. Robert Pantatun, William Pasvorang, and Marsden Sawa, who
+have been many years with us, and are all Communicants; the brides,
+Emily Milerauwe, Lydia Lastitia, and Rhoda Titrakrauwe, who were
+baptized a year ago.
+
+'The Chapel was very prettily dressed up with lilies and many other
+flowers. The bridegrooms wore white trousers, shirts, &c., the brides
+wore pretty simple dresses and flowers in their hair. We crowded as many
+persons as possible into our little Chapel. Mr. Nobbs and some ten
+or twelve of our Pitcairn friends were all the visitors that we could
+manage to make room for.
+
+'Great festivities followed, a large pig was killed yesterday and eaten
+to-day, and Mr. Palmer had manufactured puddings without end, a new kind
+of food to many of the present set of scholars, but highly appreciated
+by most of them. Then followed in the evening native dances and songs,
+and a supper to end with, with cheers for the brides and bridegrooms.
+
+'There are now six married couples here, three more at Mota, and one or
+two more weddings will take place soon. Very fortunately, a vessel came
+from Auckland only three or four days ago, the first since the "Southern
+Cross," in June, It brought not only five mails for us English folk,
+but endless packages and boxes for the Mission, ordered by us long ago,
+stores, clothing, &c. We had all ordered more or less in the way of
+presents for scholars, and though we keep most of these treasures for
+Christmas gifts, yet some are distributed now.
+
+'These presents are for the most part really good things. It is quite
+useless for kind friends to send presents to Melanesians as they would
+do to an English lad or girl. To begin with, most of our scholars are
+grown up, and are more like English young people of twenty or eighteen
+years old than like boys and girls, and not a few are older still; and
+secondly, no Melanesian, old or young, cares a rush about a toy. They,
+boys and girls, men and women, take a practical view of a present, and
+are the very reverse of sentimental about it, though they really do like
+a photograph of a friend. But a mere Brummagem article that won't stand
+wear is quite valueless in their eyes.
+
+'Whatever is given them, cheap or dear, is estimated according to its
+usefulness; and whatever is given, though it may cost but a shilling,
+must be good of its kind. For example, a rough-handled, single-bladed
+knife, bought for a shilling, they fully appreciate; but a knife with
+half-a-dozen blades, bought for eighteen-pence, they would almost throw
+away. And so about everything else. I mention this as a hint to kind
+friends. They do like to hear that people think of them and are kind to
+them, but they don't understand why useless things should be sent from
+the other end of the world when they could buy much better things with
+their own money out of the mission store here.
+
+'They are very fond of anything in the way of notebooks, 8vo and 12mo
+sizes (good paper), writing-cases (which must be good if given at all),
+patent safety inkstands--these things are useful on board ship, and can
+be carried to the islands and brought back again safely. Work-baskets
+or boxes for the girls, with good serviceable needles, pins, thread,
+scissors, thimbles, tapes, &c. &c., not a plaything. Here we can buy for
+them, or keep in the store for them to buy, many things that are much
+too bulky to send from a distance, the freight would be ruinous. The
+"Southern Cross" brings them usually to us. Such things I mean as good
+carpet-bags, from 5s. to 10s., stout tin boxes with locks and keys,
+axes, tools, straw hats, saucepans, good strong stuff (tweed or
+moleskin) for trousers and shirts, which they cut out and make up for
+themselves, quite understanding the inferior character of "slop" work,
+good flannel for under-shirts, or for making up into Crimean shirts,
+Nottingham drill, good towelling, huckaback, &c., ought to be
+worth while to send out, and if bought in large quantities at the
+manufacturer's, it would pay us to get it in England, especially if the
+said manufacturer reduced the price a little in consequence of the use
+to be made of his goods.
+
+'Dull small blue beads are always useful, ditto red. Bright glittering
+ones are no use, few Melanesians would take them as a gift. Some
+islanders like large beads, as big or bigger than boys' marbles. These
+are some hints to any kind people who may wish to contribute in kind
+rather than in money.
+
+'Mr. Codrington has given these fellows a great taste for gardening.
+Much of their spare hours (which are not many) are spent in digging up,
+fencing in and preparing little pieces of land close about the station,
+two or three lads generally making up a party, and frequently the party
+consists of lads and young men from different islands. Then they have
+presents of seeds, cuttings, bulbs, &c., from Mr. Codrington chiefly,
+and Mrs. Palmer and others contribute. Some of these little gardens are
+really very nicely laid out in good taste and well looked after. They
+have an eye to the practically useful here too, as every garden has its
+stock of bananas, and here and there we see the sugar-cane too.
+
+'From 3.30 P.M. to 6 P.M. is the play time, although they do not all
+have this time to themselves. For three lads must milk from 5 to 6, one
+or two must drive in the cows, seven or eight are in the kitchen, three
+or four must wash the horses, one must drive the sheep into the
+fold, all but the milkers have only their one week of these diverse
+occupations. There are about twelve head cooks, who choose their helpers
+(the whole school, minus the milkers and two or three overlookers, being
+included), and so the cooking work comes only once in twelve weeks. The
+cooks of the one week drive up the cows and water the horses the next
+week, and then there is no extra work, that is, nothing but the
+regular daily work from 9.30 A.M. after school to 1 P.M. Wednesday is
+a half-holiday, Saturday a whole holiday. There are six milkers, one of
+whom is responsible for the whole. One receives 2s. 0d. per week, his
+chief mate 1s. 6d., and the other four 1s. each. They take it in turns,
+three each week. This is the hardest work in one sense; it brings them
+in from their play and fishing, or gardening, &c., and so they are paid
+for it. We do not approve of the white man being paid for everything,
+and the Melanesian being expected to work habitually extra hours for
+nothing. There are many other little extra occupations for which we take
+care that those engaged in them shall have some reward, and as a
+matter of fact a good deal of money finds its way into the hands of the
+storekeeper, and a very fair amount of 3d., 4d. and 6d. pieces may be
+seen every Sunday in the offertory bason.
+
+'Perhaps I should say that we have seldom seen here any indications of
+these Melanesians expecting money or presents; but we want to destroy
+the idea in their minds of their being fags by nature, and to help them
+to have some proper self-respect and independence of character. We see
+very little in them to make us apprehensive of their being covetous or
+stingy, and indisposed to give service freely.
+
+'School hours 8-9.20, 2-3.30, singing 7-8 P.M., chapel 6.45 A.M., 6.30
+P.M.
+
+'Of the 134 Melanesians, besides the baby, ten are teachers, and with
+their help we get on very fairly. There are sixteen of us teachers in
+all, so that the classes are not too large.
+
+'Mr. Codrington takes at present the elder Banks Islanders, Mr. Palmer
+the next class, and Mr. Bice the youngest set of boys from the same
+group.
+
+'Mr. Atkin takes the Southern Solomon Islanders, and Mr. Brooke those
+from the northern parts of the same group. I have been taking some
+Leper's Islanders and Maiwo or Aurora Islanders as new comers, and other
+classes occasionally.
+
+'Out of so many we shall weed out a good number no doubt. At present we
+don't condemn any as hopelessly dull, but it will not be worth while to
+spend much time upon lads who in five months must go home for good, and
+some such there must be; we cannot attempt to teach all, dull and clever
+alike. We must make selections, and in so doing often, I dare say, make
+mistakes. But what can we do?
+
+'Our new hall is a great success. We had all the framework sawn out
+here; it is solid, almost massive work, very unlike the flimsy wooden
+buildings that are run up in a week or two in most colonial villages.
+It is so large that our party of 145, plus 9 English, sit in the aisles
+without occupying any part of the middle of the room. This gives us
+ample accommodation for the present. Indeed we might increase our
+numbers to 200 without any more buildings being necessary. The married
+people give the most trouble in this respect, as they have their
+separate rooms, and four or five married couples take up more room than
+three times the number of single folk. However we have here room for
+all, I am thankful to say, though we must build again if more of our
+young people take it into their heads to be married. They pass on
+quickly, however, when married, into the next stage, the life in their
+own islands, and so they leave their quarters here for some successors.
+
+'I hope you can understand this attempt at a description, but I never
+could write properly about such things, and never shall do so, I
+suppose. I like the life, I know, a great deal better than I can write
+about it. Indeed, it is a quiet restful life here, comparatively. Some
+anxieties always, of course, but, as compared with the distractions of
+New Zealand life, it is pleasant indeed. We have very few interruptions
+here to the regular employment of our time, and need not waste any of
+it in visits or small talk, which seems to be a necessary, though most
+wearisome part of civilised life.
+
+'Your namesake goes on well; not a clever girl, but very steady and
+good; her sister and brother are here; the sisters are much alike
+in character and ability, the brother is sharper. You will, I know,
+specially think of George Sarawia and his wife Sarah at Mota, with
+Charles and Ellen, Benjamin and Marion. They are all Communicants,
+but the temptations which surround them are very great, and early
+familiarity with heathen practices and modes of thought may yet deaden
+the conscience to the quick apprehension of the first approaches of sin.
+They do indeed need the earnest prayers of all.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+How many sons who have lost a mother at fifteen or sixteen dwell on the
+thought like this affectionate spirit, twenty-seven years later?
+
+
+'Advent Sunday, November 20, 1869.
+
+'It is a solemn thing to begin a new year on the anniversary of our dear
+Mother's death. I often think whether she would approve of this or that
+opinion, action, &c. Wright's painting is pleasant to look upon. I stand
+in a corner of my room, at father's old mahogany desk. Her picture and
+his, the large framed photographs from Richmond's drawing, and a good
+photograph of the Bishop are just above. I wish you could see my room. I
+write now on December 3, a bright summer day, but my room with its
+deep verandah is cool and shady. It is true that I refuse carpet and
+curtains. They only hold dust and make the room fusty. But the whole
+room is filled with books, and those pictures, and the Lionardo da Vinci
+over the fireplace, and Mr. Boxall's photograph over it, and his
+drawing vis-a-vis to it at the other end of the room, and by my window a
+splendid gloxinia with fine full flowers out in a very pretty porcelain
+pot, both Mr. Codrington's gift. On another glass stand (also his
+present) a Mota flower imported here, a brilliant scarlet hibiscus,
+and blossoms of my creepers and bignonia, most beautiful. So fresh
+and pretty. The steps of the verandah are a mass of honeysuckle. The
+stephanotis, with the beautiful scented white flowers and glossy leaves,
+covers one of the posts. How pleasant it is. Everyone is kind, all are
+well, all are going on well just now. Such are missionary comforts.
+Where the hardships are I have not yet discovered. Your chain, dear
+Joan, is round my neck, and the locket (Mamma's) in which you, Fan, put
+the hair of you five, hangs on it.
+
+'I am dipping my pen into the old silver inkstand which used to be in
+the front drawing-room. Every morning at about 5 A.M. I have a cup
+of tea or coffee, and use Grandmamma Coleridge's old-fashioned silver
+cream-jug, and the cup and saucer which Augusta sent out years ago,
+my old christening spoon, and the old silver tea-pot and salver. Very
+grand, but I like the old things.
+
+'This day fortnight (D.V.) I ordain J. Atkin and C. H. Brooke Priests.
+
+'I have no time to answer your April and September letters. I rejoice
+with all my heart to hear of Dr. Moberly's appointment. What a joyful
+event for Charlotte Yonge. That child Pena sent me Shairp's (dear old
+Shairp) book, which I wanted. I must write to Sophy as soon as I can.
+You will forgive if I have seemed to be, or really have been, unmindful
+of your sorrows and anxieties. Sometimes I think I am in too great a
+whirl to think long enough to realise and enter into all your doings.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+The intended letter to Mrs. Martyn was soon written. The death there
+referred to was that of Mrs. William Coleridge, widow of the Bishop of
+Barbadoes:--
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: December 14, 1869.
+
+'My dear Sophy,--I should be specially thinking of you as Christmas
+draws nigh with its blessed thoughts, and hopes, and the St. Stephen's
+memories in any case I should be thinking of you. But now I have lately
+received your long loving letter of last Eastertide, partly written in
+bed.
+
+Then your dear child's illness makes me think greatly (and how
+lovingly!) of you three of the three generations. Lastly, I hear of dear
+Aunt William's death. You know that I had a very great affection for
+her, and I feel that this is a great blow probably to you all, though
+dear Aunty (as I have noticed in all old persons, especially when good
+as well as old) takes this quietly, I dare say. The feeling must be,
+"Well, I shall soon meet her again; a few short days only remain."
+
+'I suppose that you, with your quarter of a century's widowhood, still
+feel as if the waiting time was all sanctified by the thought of the
+reunion. Oh! what a thought it is: too much almost to think that by
+His wonderful mercy, one may hope to be with them all, and for ever;
+to behold the faces of Apostles, and Apostolic men, and Prophets, and
+Saints, holy men and women; and, as if this were not enough, to see
+Him as He is, in His essential perfections, and to know Him. One can't
+sustain the effort of such a thought, which shows how great a change
+must pass on one before the great Consummation. Well, the more one can
+think of dear Father and Mother, and dear dear Uncle James and Uncle
+Frank, and Cousin George, and Uncle and Aunt William, others too, uncles
+and aunts, and your dear Fanny, and your husband, though it would be
+untrue to say I knew him, taken so early--the more one thinks of them
+all the better. And I have, Sophy, so many very different ones to think
+of Edwin and Fisher, and so many Melanesians taken away in the very
+first earnestness and simplicity of a new convert's faith. How many have
+died in my arms--God be thanked--in good hope!
+
+'If by His great mercy there be a place for me there, I feel persuaded
+that I shall there find many of those dear lads, whom indeed I think of
+with a full heart, full of affection and thankfulness.
+
+'I have been reading the "Memoir of Mr. Keble," of course with extreme
+interest. It is all about events and chiefly about persons that one has
+heard about or even known. I think we get a little autobiography of our
+dear Uncle John in it too, for which I don't like it the less.
+
+There are passages, as against going to Borne, which I am glad to see in
+print; they are wanted now again, I fear. I am glad you like Moberly's
+"Bampton Lectures." His book on "The Great Forty Days," his best
+book (?) after all, has the germ of it all. I am so thankful for his
+appointment to Salisbury. I dare say you know that he is kind enough to
+write to me occasionally; and he sends me his books, one of the greatest
+of the indirect blessings of being known to Mr. Keble. I do very little
+in the way of reading, save that I get a quiet hour for Hebrew, 5-6
+A.M., and I do read some theology. In one sense it is easier reading to
+me than other books, history, poetry, because, though I don't know much
+about it, I know nothing about them.
+
+'My pleasure would be, if with you, in talking over such little insight
+as I may have received into the wondrous harmony and symmetry of the
+whole Bible, by tolerably close examination of the text of the Greek,
+and to some extent of the Hebrew. The way in which a peculiar word
+brings a whole passage or argument en rapport with a train of historical
+associations or previous statements is wonderful; e.g., the verb of
+which Moses is formed occurs only in Exodus ii. 10, 2 Samuel xxii. 17,
+Psalm xviii. 16. See how the magnificent description of the Passage of
+the Red Sea in Psalm xviii. is connected with Moses by this one word.
+These undesigned coincidences, and (surely) proofs of inspiration are
+innumerable.
+
+'I do delight in it: only I want more help, far more. We have great
+advantages in this generation. Dear Uncle James had no Commentary,
+one might almost say, on Old Testament or New Testament. Ellicott,
+Wordsworth, and Alford on the New Testament were not in existence; and
+the Germans, used with discrimination, are great helps. An orthodox
+Lutheran, one Delitzsch (of whom Liddon wrote that Dr. Pusey thinks
+highly of his Hebrew scholarship), helps me much in Isaiah. He has
+sucked all the best part out of Vitringa's enormous book, and added
+much minute, and I am told correct criticism. And how grand it is! This
+morning--it is now 6.15 A.M.--I have been reading part of that wonderful
+chapter xxvi.
+
+'It strikes me that the way to teach a class or a congregation is to
+bring out the doctrine from the very words of Scripture carefully,
+critically examined and explained. Only think, Sophy, of the vague
+desultory way in which we all, more or less, read; and we have accepted
+a phraseology without enquiring to a great extent, and use words to
+which we attach no definite meaning. Few in the congregation could
+draw out in clear words what they mean when they talk of faith,
+justification, regeneration, conversion, &c. &c. All language denoting
+ideas and thoughts is transferred to the region of the mind from
+denoting at first only external objects and sensations. This is in
+accordance with the mystery of all, the union of mind and matter--which
+no pagan philosopher could comprehend--the extreme difficulty of solving
+which caused Dualism and Asceticism on the one hand, and neglect of all
+bodily discipline on the other. Mind and matter must be antagonistic,
+the work of different beings: man must get rid of his material part to
+arrive at his true end and perfection.
+
+'So some said, "Mortify, worry the body, which is essentially and
+inherently evil." "No," said others, "the sins of the body don't hurt
+the mind; the two things are distinct, don't react on one another."
+(St. Paul deals with all this in the Colossians.) The Incarnation is the
+solution or the culmination of the mystery.
+
+'What a prose! but I meant, that people so often use words as if the use
+of a word was equivalent to the knowledge of the thought which, in the
+mind of an accurate thinker, accompanies the utterance of the word.
+
+'I should think that three-fourths of what we clergymen say is
+unintelligible to the mass of the congregation. We assume an
+acquaintance with the Bible and Prayer-book, thought, and a knowledge of
+the meaning of words which few, alas! possess. We must begin, then, with
+the little ones; as far as I see, all children are apt to fail at the
+point when they ought to be passing from merely employing the memory (in
+learning by heart, e.g., the Catechism) by exercising the reasoning and
+thinking faculty.
+
+'"Well now, you have said that very well, now let us think what it
+means."
+
+'How well Dr. Pusey says, in his Sermons, "Not altogether intentional
+deliberate vice, but thoughtlessness is destroying souls."
+
+'I run on at random, dear Sophy, hoping to give you one and a half
+hour's occupation on a sick bed or couch, and because, as you say, this
+is the only converse we are likely to have on earth.
+
+'I think I am too exclusively fond of this reading, very little else
+interests me. I take up a theological book as a recreation, which is,
+perhaps, hardly reverent, and may narrow the mind; but even Church
+history is not very attractive to me. I like Jackson and Hooker, and
+some of the moderns, of whom I read a good many; and I lose a good deal
+of time in diving into things too deep by half for me, while I forget or
+don't learn simple things.
+
+'All this modern rage for reviews, serials, magazines, I can't abide.
+My mind is far too much distracted already, and that fragmentary mode of
+reading is very bad for many people, I am sure.
+
+'Naturally enough at forty-two years of age ninety-nine hundredths
+of the "lighter" books seem to me mere rubbish. They come to me
+occasionally. However, there are younger ones here, so it isn't sheer
+waste to receive such donations: they soon get out of my room. Not,
+mind you, that I think this the least evidence of my being wiser, or
+employing my time more carefully than other folk. Only I want you to
+know what I am, and what I think.
+
+'Pena has sent me a nice book which I wanted: 1st. Because I have a
+great personal liking for Shairp, a simple-minded, affectionate man,
+with much poetical feeling and good taste-a kindly-natured man. 2nd.
+Because he writes in an appreciative kind of way, and is the
+very opposite of .... whom I can't stand with his insufferable
+self-sufficiency, and incapacity for appreciating the nobler, simpler,
+more generous natures who are unlike him. Well! that is fierce. But
+there is a school of men whom I can't stand. Their nature repels me, and
+I hardly wish to like them; which is an evil feeling.
+
+'I shall add a line in a few days.
+
+'My very dearest love to Aunty--dear Aunty; and if I can't write to
+Pena, give her my best love and thanks for her book.
+
+'Dear Sophy, your loving Cousin,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+
+Two other letters, one to each of the sisters, were in progress at
+this time. To Joanna, who had been grieved for the poor girl whose
+transgression had occurred in the beginning of the year, he says:--
+
+'About Semtingvat, you must be comforted about her. For a poor child
+who, two short years before, had assumed as a matter of course that a
+woman simply existed to be a man's slave in every kind of way, her fault
+could not, I think, be regarded as very great. Indeed, there was much
+comfort from the first; and since that time they not only have gone
+on well, but I do believe that their religious character has been
+much strengthened by the kind of revelation they then obtained of what
+Christianity really does mean. Anyhow, all notice the fact that U----
+has improved very much, and they all sing Semtingvat's praises. I had no
+difficulty about marrying them after a little while. I spoke openly in
+chapel to everyone about it. Their wedding was not as other weddings--no
+festivity, no dressing of the chapel, no feast, no supper and fun and
+holiday. It was perfectly understood to be in all respects different
+from a bright, happy wedding. But it was quite as much for the sake of
+all, for the sake of enforcing the new teaching about the sanctity of
+marriage, that we made so very much of what (as men speak) was under the
+circumstances a comparatively light fault, less than an impure thought
+on the part of such as have been taught their duty from their childhood.
+
+'I am almost confused with the accounts from England. All seems in a
+state of turmoil and confusion; all the old landmarks being swept away
+by a deluge of new opinions as to all matters civil and ecclesiastical.
+I don't think that we ought to refuse to see these signs of a change in
+men's mode of regarding great political and religious questions. A man
+left high and dry on the sand-bank of his antiquated notions will do
+little good to the poor folk struggling in the sea way, though he is
+safer as far as he is himself concerned by staying where he is than by
+plunging in to help them.
+
+'It is a critical time in every sense. Men and women can hardly be
+indifferent; they must be at the pains of making up their minds. As for
+us clergy, everywhere but in Norfolk Island, we must know that people
+are thinking of matters which all were content a few years ago to
+keep back in silence, and that they expect us to speak about them. How
+thankful I am that we fortunate ones are exempt from this. Yet in my way
+I, too, try to think a bit about what is going on; and I don't want
+to be too gloomy, or to ignore some good in all this ferment in men's
+minds. It is better than stagnation and indolent respectability. There
+is everywhere a consciousness of a vast work to be done, and sincere
+efforts are made to do it. I suppose that is a fact; many, many poor
+souls are being taught and trained for heaven through all these various
+agencies which seem to a distant and idle critic to be so questionable
+in some ways.
+
+'Of old one thought that the sober standard of Church of England
+divinity was the rule to which all speculations should be reduced; and
+one thought that Pearson, Hooker, Waterland, Jeremy Taylor also, and
+Andrewes, and Bull, and Jackson, and Barrow, &c., stood for the idea of
+English divinity. Now we are launched upon a wider sea. Catholic usage
+and doctrine take the place of Church of England teaching and practice;
+rightly, I dare say, only it may be well to remember that men who can
+perhaps understand a good deal of the English divines, can hardly be
+supposed to be equally capable of understanding the far wider and
+more difficult range of ecclesiastical literature of all ages and all
+writers.
+
+'Everyone knows and is struck by the fact that passages of old writers
+are continually quoted by men of quite different schools of thought
+in favour of their own (different) views. Clearly they can't both
+understand the mind and spirit of these writers; and the truth is, isn't
+it, that only they who by very long study, and from a large share of the
+true historical imagination, sympathise with and really enter into the
+hearts and minds of these writers, are competent to deal with and decide
+upon such wide and weighty matters?
+
+'It seems to me as if men who are in no sense divines, theologians, or
+well read, speak strongly and use expressions and teach doctrines which,
+indeed, only very few men should think of uttering or teaching.
+
+'And yet, don't think I wish to be only an exclusive Anglican, without
+sympathy for East or West; still less that I wish to ignore the Catholic
+Church of the truly primitive times; but I take the real, so to say,
+representative teaching of the Church of England to be the divinity
+of the truly primitive Church, to which our formularies and reformers
+appeal. I know, moreover, that our dear Father accepted Jackson and
+Waterland; and I don't feel disposed to disparage them, as it is the
+fashion to do nowadays. Few men, in spite of occasional scholastic
+subtlety, go so deep in their search right down into principles as
+Jackson. Few men so analyse, dissect, search out the precise, exact
+meaning of words and phrases, so carry you away from vague generalities
+to accurate defined meanings and doctrines. He had an honest and clear
+brain of his own, though he was a tremendous book-worm; and I think
+he is a great authority, though I know about him and his antagonism to
+Rome. I don't fear to weary you by this kind of talk; but don't I wish
+I could hear three or four of our very best men discuss these points
+thoroughly. In all sincerity I believe that I should be continually
+convinced of error, shallow judgments, and ignorance. But then I should
+most likely get real light on some points where I would fain have it.'
+
+To this unconscious token of humility, another must be added, from the
+same letter, speaking of two New Zealand friends:--'To me she has always
+been kindness itself, with her husband overrating me to such an amusing
+extent that I don't think it hurt even my vanity.'
+
+Full preparation was going on for the ordination, of the two priests.
+
+No special account of the actual service seems to have been written; and
+the first letter of January was nearly absorbed by the tidings of the
+three Episcopal appointments of the close of 1869, the Oxford choice
+coming near to Bishop Patteson by his family affections, and the
+appointment to Exeter as dealing with his beloved county at home.
+
+And now, before turning the page, and leaving the period that had, on
+the whole, been full of brightness, will be the best time to give Mr.
+Codrington's account of the manner of life at St. Barnabas, while the
+Bishop was still in his strength:--
+
+'Certainly one of the most striking points to a stranger would have been
+the familiar intercourse between the Bishop and his boys, not only
+the advanced scholars, but the last and newest comers. The kindly and
+friendly disposition of the Melanesians leads to a great deal of free
+and equal familiarity even where there are chiefs, and the obsequious
+familiarity of which one hears in India is here quite unknown.
+Nevertheless, I doubt very much whether other Melanesians live in
+the same familiarity with their missionaries--e.g., Carry, wife of
+Wadrokala, writes thus:--"I tremble very much to write to you, I am not
+fit to write to you, because, does an ant know how to speak to a cow? We
+at Nengone would not speak to a great man like you; no, our language is
+different to a chief and a missionary."
+
+'Making every allowance, and, looking at the matter from within, that
+perfect freedom and affectionateness of intercourse that existed with
+him seems very remarkable.
+
+'The secret of it is not far to seek. It did not lie in any singular
+attractiveness of his manner only, but in the experience that everyone
+attracted gained that he sought nothing for himself; he was entirely
+free from any desire to be admired, or love of being thought much of, as
+he was from love of commanding for the sake of being obeyed. The great
+temptations to missionaries among savage people, as it seems, are
+to self-esteem, from a comparison of themselves with their European
+advantages and the natives among whom they live; and to a domineering
+temper, because they find an obedience ready, and it is delightful to be
+obeyed. Bishop Patteson's natural disposition was averse to either, and
+the principles of missionary work which he took up suited at once his
+natural temper and his religious character. He was able naturally,
+without effort, to live as a brother among his black brothers, to be the
+servant of those he lived to teach. The natural consequence of this was,
+the unquestioned authority which he possessed over those with whom he
+lived on equal terms. No one could entertain the idea that anything was
+ordered from a selfish motive, for any advantage to himself, or that
+anything was forbidden without some very good reason. This familiarity
+with a superior, which is natural with Melanesians, is accompanied,
+especially in Banks Islanders, with a very great reserve about anything
+that touches the feelings or concerns character. Thus a boy, who would
+use the Bishop's room as if it were his own, coming in unasked, to read
+or write, or sit by the fire there, would with very great difficulty get
+over the physical trembling, which their language implies, that would
+come upon him, if he wished to speak about his own feelings on religious
+matters, or to tell him something which he well knew it was his duty to
+make known. When one knows how difficult it is to them to speak openly,
+their openness with the Bishop is more appreciated, though he indeed
+often enough complained of their closeness with him. The real affection
+between the boys and the Bishop required no acquaintance with the
+character of either to discern, and could surprise no one who knew
+anything of the history of their relation one to another. It is well
+known that he wished his elder boys to stand in the place of the sixth
+form of a public school; and to some extent they did so, but being
+mostly Banks Islanders, and Banks Islanders being peculiarly afraid of
+interfering with one another, his idea was never reached. Still no
+doubt a good deal is attained when they arrive rather at the position of
+pupil-teacher in a National School; and this at least they occupy very
+satisfactorily, as is shown by the success with which so large a school
+has been carried on since the Bishop's death. No doubt the Ordination
+of more from among their number would go far to raise them in their own
+estimation.
+
+'In truth, the carrying out of the principle of the equality of black
+and white in a missionary work, which is the principle of this mission,
+is very difficult, and cannot be done in all particulars in practice
+by anyone, and by most people, unless brought up to it, probably not at
+all. Nevertheless, it is practicable, and, as we think, essential, and
+was in all main points carried out by Bishop Patteson. But the effect of
+this must not be exaggerated. It is true that we have no servants, yet a
+boy regularly brought water, &c., for the Bishop, and a woman regularly
+swept and cleaned his rooms, and received regular wages for it.
+The Bishop never cooked his dinner or did any such work except upon
+occasions on which a bachelor curate in England does much of the kind,
+as a matter of course. The extraordinary thing is that it is, as he at
+any rate supposed, the custom in other missions to make scholars and
+converts servants as a matter of course; and the difference lies not in
+the work which is done or not done by the one party or the other, but
+in the social relation of equality which subsists between them, and the
+spirit in which the work is asked for and rendered.
+
+'The main thing to notice about the Bishop is that there was nothing
+forced or unnatural in his manner of taking a position of equality, and
+equality as real in any way as his superiority in another. Consequently,
+there was never the least loss of dignity or authority on his part.
+
+'There never was visible the smallest diminution of freedom and
+affection in the intercourse that went on. It required some knowledge
+in one respect to appreciate the extraordinary facility with which he
+conversed with boys from various islands. A stranger would be struck
+with his bright smiles and sweet tones as he would address some little
+stranger who came into his room; but one who knew a little of the
+languages alone could know with what extraordinary quickness he
+passed from one language to another, talking to many boys in their own
+language, but accommodating his tongue with wonderful readiness to
+each in succession. It would be hard to say how many languages he could
+speak; those which he spoke quite freely, to my knowledge, were not so
+many: Mota, Bauro, Mahaga, and Nengone, certainly; some others no doubt
+quite readily when among the people who spoke them; and very many only
+with a small vocabulary which was every instant being enlarged. It does
+not appear to me that his scientific philological acquirements were
+extraordinary; but that his memory for words giving him such a command
+of vocabulary, and so wide a scope for comparison, and his accurate and
+delicate ear to catch the sounds, and power of reproducing them, were
+altogether wonderful and very rarely equalled. A man of his faculty of
+expression and powers of mind could not speak like a native; he spoke
+better than a native, than a native of Mota at least. That is that,
+although no doubt he never was quite master of the little delicate
+points of Mota scholarship, which no one not a native can keep quite
+right, and no native can account for, yet his vocabulary was so large
+and accurate, and his feeling of the native ways of looking at things
+and representing them in words so true, that he spoke to them more
+clearly and forcibly than even any native spoke, and with the power of
+an educated mind controlling while following the native taste. He was an
+enthusiast, no doubt, about these languages, and jealous of their claim
+to be considered true language, and not what people suppose them to be,
+the uncouth jargon of savages. I will only say that his translations
+of some of the Psalms into Mota are as lofty in their diction and as
+harmonious in their rhythm, in my estimation, as anything almost I read
+in any language. This no doubt sounds exaggerated, and must be taken
+only for what it is worth.
+
+'It was probably in a great measure because his natural power of
+acquiring languages was so extraordinary, and needed so very little
+labour in him, that he did so very little to put on paper what he knew
+of all those many tongues. All there is in print I have put together.
+Besides this, he carried the same unfortunate way of leaving off what he
+had begun into these notes on language also. In the year '63-'64 he got
+printed a number of small grammatical papers in almost all the languages
+he knew, because he felt he ought not to subject them to the risk
+of being lost. Another reason why he did not go into any laborious
+manuscript or printing work with the various languages was, that he
+saw as time went on, first, that it was so very uncertain what language
+would come in practice into request; and, secondly, that one
+language would suffice for the use, in practice, of all natives of a
+neighbourhood. For example, the language of part of Mae (Three Hills),
+in the New Hebrides, was once studied and well known. Nothing whatever
+came of the intercourse with that island, once so constant, I don't know
+why, and now the people themselves are destroyed almost, and hopes of
+doing them good destroyed by the slave trade. And, secondly, the use
+of the Mota language in our ordinary intercourse here has very much
+diminished the need for any one's knowing a particular language beyond
+the missionary who has charge of the boys who speak it. Thus the Bishop
+rather handed over the language of Bauro to Mr. Atkin, of Florida to Mr.
+Brooke, of Leper's Island to Mr. Price; and as the common teaching of
+all boys who belonged to either of the principal groups into which the
+school fell went on in Mota, there was no practical use in the other
+tongues the Bishop knew, except in his voyages, and in giving him more
+effectual powers of influencing those to whom he could speak in their
+own tongue. Besides, he saw so clearly the great advantage, on the one
+hand, of throwing together in every possible way the boys from all the
+islands, which was much helped by the use of one language, and, on the
+other hand, the natural tendency in a group of boys from one island or
+neighbourhood to keep separate, and of the teacher of a particular set
+to keep them separate with himself, that, without saying much about
+it, he discouraged the printing of other languages besides Mota, and
+in other ways kept them rather in the background. How things would have
+arranged themselves if Mota had not by circumstances come into such
+prominence I cannot say, but the predominance of Mota came in with the
+internal organisation of the Mission by Mr. Pritt. It is impossible for
+one who knew Bishop Patteson intimately, and the later condition of the
+Mission intimately, to lose sight for long of Mr. Pritt's influence and
+his useful work.'
+
+Perhaps this chapter can best be completed by the external testimony
+of a visitor to Norfolk Island, given in a letter to the Editor of the
+'Australian Churchman':--
+
+'Daily at 7 A.M. the bell rings for chapel about one minute, and
+all hands promptly repair thither. In spite of the vast varieties of
+language and dialect spoken by fifty or sixty human beings, collected
+from twenty or thirty islets of the Pacific main, no practical
+difficulty has been found in using the Mota as the general language
+in Chapel and school, so that in a short time a congregation of twenty
+languages are able to join in worship in the one Mota tongue, more or
+less akin to all the rest, and a class of, say, nine boys, speaking
+by nature five different languages, easily join in using the one Mota
+language, just as a Frenchman, a German, a Russian, a Pole, an Italian,
+and an Englishman, all meeting in the same cafe or railway carriage, on
+the same glacier or mountain top, might harmoniously agree to use the
+French language as their medium of communication. So the service is
+conducted in Mota with one exception only. The collect for the day is
+read in English, as a brief allowable concession to the ears and hearts
+of the English members of the Mission. The service consists of
+the greater part of the Church of England Service translated.
+Some modifications have been made to suit the course of religious
+instruction. The Psalms are chanted and hymns sung in parts, and always
+in admirable tune, by the congregation. Noteworthy are the perfect
+attention, the reverent attitude, the hearty swing and unison of the
+little congregation, a lesson, I felt with shame, to many of our white
+congregations.
+
+'Immediately after service clinks out the breakfast bell, and, with
+marvellous promptitude and punctuality, whites and blacks, lay and
+clerical, are seen flocking to the mess-room. The whites sit at the
+upper end of the table, but beyond the special privilege of tea, all
+fare alike, chiefly on vegetables: yams or sweet potatoes, and carrots
+or vegetable marrows, as may suit the season, with plenty of biscuit
+for more ambitious teeth, and plenty of milk to wash it down. Soon
+afterwards comes school for an hour and a half. Then work for the boys
+and men, planting yams, reaping wheat, mowing oats, fencing, carting,
+building, as the call may be, only no caste distinction or ordering
+about; it is not go and do that, but come and do this, whether the
+leader be an ordained clergyman, a white farm bailiff, or a white
+carpenter. This is noteworthy, and your readers will gain no clear idea
+of the Mission if they do not seize this point, for it is no matter of
+mere detail, but one of principle. The system is not that of the ship
+or the regiment, of the farm or the manufactory of the old country, but
+essentially of the family. It is not the officer or master saying "Go"
+but the father or the brother saying "Come." And to this, I firmly
+believe, is the hearty cheerful following and merry work of the blacks
+chiefly due. At 1 P.M. is dinner, much the same as breakfast. Meat,
+though not unknown, is the weak point of the Mission dietary. In the
+afternoon, work. At 6, tea. In the evening, class again for an hour
+or two; this evening class being sometimes a singing lesson, heartily
+enjoyed by the teacher. I forget precisely when the boys have to prepare
+matter arising out of the lessons they have received viva voce.
+
+'There are evening prayers, and bed-time is early. Noteworthy are the
+happy conjunctions of perfect discipline with perfect jollity, the
+marvellous attainment of a happy familiarity which does not "breed
+contempt."
+
+'I presume I need scarcely say to your readers that besides education
+in reading, writing, and arithmetic, through the medium of the Mota
+language, instruction in the Holy Scriptures and the most careful
+explanations of their meaning and mutual relation, forms a main part of
+the teaching given. The men and boys of the senior classes take notes;
+notes not by order expressly to be inspected, but, so to say, private
+notes for the aid of their memories; and from the translation given to
+me by Bishop Patteson of some of these, I should say that few, if any,
+of the senior class of an English Sunday School could give anything like
+so close, and sometimes philosophical, an explanation of Scripture, and
+that sometimes in remarkably few words.
+
+'There remains to be noticed one most effectual means of doing good.
+After evening school, the Bishop, his clergy, and his aides, retire
+mostly into their own rooms. Then, quietly and shyly, on this night or
+the other night, one or two, three or four of the more intelligent of
+the black boys steal silently up to the Bishop's side, and by fits
+and starts, slowly, often painfully, tell their feelings, state their
+difficulties, ask for help, and, I believe, with God's blessing, rarely
+fail to find it. They are not gushing as negroes, but shy as Englishmen;
+we Englishmen ought, indeed, to have a fellow-feeling for these poor
+black boys and help them with all our hearts.
+
+'Such is the routine for five of the six work days. Saturday is whole
+holiday, and all hands go to fish if the sea permits; if not, to play
+rounders or what not. Merry lads they are, as ever gladdened an English
+playground.
+
+'On Sunday, the early Chapel is omitted. The full Liturgy is divided
+into two services--I forget the laws--and a kind of sermon in Mota is
+given; and in the afternoon, the Bishop, or one of the ordained members
+of the Mission, usually goes down to the town to relieve Mr. Nobbs in
+his service for the Pitcairners.
+
+'As regards the manual work of the station, this general principle is
+observed--women for washing and house-work; the men for planting and
+out-of-door work; but no one, white or black, is to be too grand to do
+his share. The Bishop's share, indeed, is to study and investigate and
+compare the languages and necessary translations, but no one is to
+be above manual labour. No one, because he is a white man, is to say,
+"Here, black fellow, come and clean my boots." "Here, black people,
+believe that I have come to give you a treasure of inestimable price.
+Meantime, work for me, am I not your superior? Can I not give you money,
+calico, what not?"
+
+'This Christian democracy, if I may so call it, has worked well in the
+long run.'
+
+This observer does seem to have entered well into the spirit of the
+place; and there can be no doubt that the plan and organisation of the
+Mission had by this time been well tested and both found practicable,
+and, as at present worked, more than ordinarily successful. The college
+was in full working order, with a staff of clergy, all save one formed
+under the Bishop, one native deacon and two teachers living with their
+wives in a population that was fast becoming moulded by the influence
+of Christianity, many more being trained up, and several more islands
+in course of gradual preparation by the same process as was further
+advanced in Mota.
+
+Such were the achievements which could be thankfully recounted by the
+end of 1869.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE LAST EIGHTEEN MONTHS. 1870-1871.
+
+
+
+The prosperous days of every life pass away at last. Suffering and
+sorrow, failure and reverse are sure to await all who live out anything
+like their term of years, and the missionary is perhaps more liable than
+other men to meet with a great disappointment. 'Success but signifies
+vicissitude,' and looking at the history of the growth of the Church, it
+is impossible not to observe that almost in all cases, immediately upon
+any extensive progress, there has followed what seems like a strong
+effort of the Evil One at its frustration, either by external
+persecution, reaction of heathenism, or, most fatally and frequently
+during the last 300 years, from the reckless misdoings of unscrupulous
+sailors and colonists. The West Indies, Japan, America, all have the
+same shameful tale to tell--what wonder if the same shadow were to be
+cast over the Isles of the South?
+
+It is one of the misfortunes, perhaps the temptations of this modern
+world, that two of its chief necessaries, sugar and cotton, require a
+climate too hot for the labour of men who have intelligence enough to
+grow and export them on a large scale, and who are therefore compelled,
+as they consider, to employ the forced toil of races able to endure
+heat. The Australian colony of Queensland is unfit to produce wheat, but
+well able to grow sugar, and the islands of Fiji, which the natives have
+implored England to annex, have become the resort of numerous planters
+and speculators. There were 300 white inhabitants in the latter at the
+time of the visit of the 'Curacoa' in 1865. In 1871 the numbers were
+from 5,000 to 6,000. Large sheep farms have been laid out, and sugar
+plantations established.
+
+South Sea Islanders are found to have much of the negro toughness and
+docility, and, as has been seen, when away from their homes they are
+easily amenable, and generally pleasant in manner, and intelligent.
+Often too they have a spirit of enterprise, which makes them willing to
+leave home, or some feud with a neighbour renders it convenient. Thus
+the earlier planters did not find it difficult to procure willing
+labourers, chiefly from those southern New Hebrides, Anaiteum, Tanna,
+Erromango, &c., which were already accustomed to intercourse with
+sandal-wood traders, had resident Scottish or London missionaries, and
+might have a fair understanding of what they were undertaking.
+
+The Fiji islanders themselves had been converted by Wesleyan
+Missionaries, and these, while the numbers of imported labourers were
+small, did not think ill of the system, since it provided the islanders
+with their great need, work, and might give them habits of industry.
+But in the years 1868 and 1869 the demand began, both in Queensland and
+Fiji, to increase beyond what could be supplied by willing labour, and
+the premium, L8 a head, on an able-bodied black, was sufficient to tempt
+the masters of small craft to obtain the desired article by all possible
+means. Neither in the colony nor in Fiji were the planters desirous of
+obtaining workers by foul means, but labour they must have, and they
+were willing to pay for it. Queensland, anxious to free herself from
+any imputation of slave-hunting, has drawn up a set of regulations,
+requiring a regular contract to be made with the natives before they are
+shipped, for so many years, engaging that they shall receive wages, and
+be sent home again at the end of the specified time. No one denies that
+when once the labourer has arrived, these rules are carried out; he is
+well fed, kindly treated, not over worked, and at the end of three or
+five years sent home again with the property he has earned.
+
+A recent traveller has argued that this is all that can be desired, and
+that no true friend of the poor islander can object to his being taught
+industry and civilisation. Complaints are all 'missionary exaggeration,'
+that easy term for disposing of all defence of the dark races, and as
+to the difficulty of making a man, whose language is not understood,
+understand the terms of a contract--why, we continually sign legal
+documents we do not understand! Perhaps not, but we do understand enough
+not to find ourselves bound to five years' labour when we thought we
+were selling yams, or taking a pleasure trip. And we have some means
+of ascertaining the signification of such documents, and of obtaining
+redress if we have been deceived.
+
+As to the boasted civilisation, a sugar plantation has not been found
+a very advanced school for the American or West Indian negro, and as a
+matter of fact, the islander who has fulfilled his term and comes home,
+bringing tobacco, clothes, and fire-arms, only becomes a more dangerous
+and licentious savage than he was in his simplicity. It is absolutely
+impossible, even if the planters wished it, to give any instruction to
+these poor fellows, so scattered are the settlements, so various the
+languages on each, and to send a man home with guns and gunpowder, and
+no touch of Christian teaching, is surely suicidal policy.
+
+Yet, as long as the natives went in any degree willingly, though the
+Missionaries might deplore their so doing for the men's own sakes, and
+for that of their islands, it was only like a clergyman at home seeing
+his lads engage themselves to some occupation more undesirable than they
+knew. Therefore, the only thing that has been entreated for by all the
+missions of every denomination alike in the South Seas, has been such
+sufficient supervision of the labour traffic as may prevent deceit or
+violence from being used.
+
+For, in the years 1869 and 1870, if not before, the captains of the
+labour ships, finding that a sufficient supply of willing natives could
+not be procured, had begun to cajole them on board. When they went
+to trade, they were thrust under hatches, and carried off, and if the
+Southern New Hebrides became exhausted, and the labour ships entered
+on those seas where the 'Southern Cross' was a welcome visitor, these
+captains sometimes told the men that 'the Bishop gave no pipes and
+tobacco, he was bad, they had better hold with them.' Or else 'the
+Bishop could not come himself, but had sent this vessel to fetch them.'
+Sometimes even a figure was placed on deck dressed in a black coat, with
+a book in his hand, according to the sailors' notion of a missionary,
+to induce the natives to come on deck, and there they were clapped under
+hatches and carried off.
+
+In 1870, H.M.S. 'Rosario,' Captain Palmer, brought one of these vessels,
+the 'Daphne,' into Sydney, where the master was tried for acts of
+violence, but a conviction could not be procured, and, as will be seen
+in the correspondence, Bishop Patteson did not regret the failure, as he
+was anxious that ships of a fair size, with respectable owners, should
+not be deterred from the traffic, since the more it became a smuggling,
+unrecognised business, the worse and more unscrupulous men would be
+employed in it.
+
+But decoying without violence began to fail; the natives were becoming
+too cautious, so the canoes were upset, and the men picked up while
+struggling in the water. If they tried to resist, they were shot at, and
+all endeavours at a rescue were met with the use of firearms.
+
+They were thus swept off in such numbers, that small islands lost almost
+all their able-bodied inhabitants, and were in danger of famine for
+want of their workers. Also, the Fiji planters, thinking to make the men
+happier by bringing their wives, desired that this might be done, but it
+was not easy to make out the married couples, nor did the crews trouble
+themselves to do so, but took any woman they could lay hands on.
+Husbands pursued to save the wives, and were shot down, and a deadly
+spirit of hatred and terror against all that was white was aroused.
+
+There is a still lower depth of atrocity, but as far as enquiry of the
+Government at Sydney can make out, unconnected with labour traffic, but
+with the tortoise-shell trade. Skulls, it will be remembered, were the
+ornament of old Iri's house at Bauro, and skulls are still the trophies
+in the more savage islands. It seems that some of the traders in
+tortoise-shell are in the habit of assisting their clients by conveying
+them in their vessels in pursuit of heads. There is no evidence that
+they actually do the work of slaughter themselves, though suspicion
+is strong, but these are the 'kill-kill' vessels in the patois of the
+Pacific, while the kidnappers are the 'snatch-snatch.' Both together,
+these causes were working up the islanders to a perilous pitch of
+suspicion and exasperation during the years 1870, 1871, and thus were
+destroying many of the best hopes of the fruit of the toils of all these
+years. But the full extent of the mischief was still unknown in Norfolk
+Island, when in the midst of the Bishop's plans for the expedition of
+1870 came the illness from which he never wholly recovered.
+
+Already he had often felt and spoken of himself as an elderly man. Most
+men of a year or two past forty are at the most vigorous period of their
+existence, generally indeed with the really individual and effective
+work of their lives before them, having hitherto been only serving their
+apprenticeship; but Coleridge Patteson had begun his task while in early
+youth, and had been obliged to bear at once responsibility and active
+toil in no ordinary degree. Few have had to be at once head of a
+college, sole tutor and steward, as well as primary schoolmaster all at
+once, or afterwards united these charges with those of Bishop, examining
+chaplain and theological professor, with the interludes of voyages which
+involved intense anxiety and watchfulness, as well as the hardships
+of those unrestful nights in native huts, and the exhaustion of the
+tropical climate. No wonder then that he was already as one whose work
+was well-nigh done, and to whom rest was near. And though the entrance
+into that rest was by a sudden stroke, it was one that mercifully spared
+the sufferings of a protracted illness, and even if his friends pause to
+claim for it the actual honours (on earth) of martyrdom, yet it was no
+doubt such a death as he was most willing to die, full in his Master's
+service--such a death as all can be thankful to think of. And for
+the like-minded young man who shared his death, only with more of the
+bitterness thereof, the spirit in which he went forth may best be seen
+in part of a letter written in the January of 1870, just after his
+Ordination:--
+
+'The right way must be to have a general idea of what to aim at, and to
+make for the goal by what seem, as you go, the best ways, not to go on a
+course you fixed to yourself before starting without having seen it. It
+is so easy for people to hold theories, and excellent ones too, of the
+way to manage or deal with the native races, but the worst is that when
+you come to work the theory, the native race will never be found what it
+ought to be for properly carrying it out. I am quite sure that nothing
+is to be done in a hurry; a good and zealous man in ignorance and haste
+might do more harm in one year than could be remedied in ten. I would
+not root out a single superstition until I had something better to put
+in its place, lest if all the weeds were rooted up, what had before been
+fertile should become desert, barren, disbelieving in anything. Is not
+the right way to plant the true seed and nourish it that it may take
+root, and out-grow and choke the weeds? My objection to Mission reports
+has always been that the readers want to hear of "progress," and the
+writers are thus tempted to write of it, and may they not, without
+knowing it, be at times hasty that they may seem to be progressing?
+People expect too much. Those do so who see the results of Mission work,
+who are engaged in it; those do so who send them. We have the precious
+seed to sow, and must sow it when and where we can, but we must not
+always be looking out to reap what we have sown. We shall do that
+"in due time" if we "faint not." Because missionary work looks like a
+failure, it does not follow that it is.
+
+'Our Saviour, the first of all Christian Missionaries, was thirty years
+of His life preparing and being prepared for His work. Three years
+He spake as never man spake, and did not His work at that time look
+a failure? He made no mistakes either in what He taught or the way of
+teaching it, and He succeeded, though not to the eyes of men. Should not
+we be contented with success like His? And with how much less ought we
+not to be contented! So! The wonder is that by our means any result is
+accomplished at all.'
+
+These are remarkable words for a young man of twenty-seven, full of
+life, health, and vigour, and go far to prove the early ripening of a
+spirit chastened in hopes, even while all was bright.
+
+In the latter part of February, Bishop Patteson, after about six days
+of warning, was prostrated by a very severe attack of internal
+inflammation, and for three days--from the 20th to the 22nd--was in
+considerable danger as well as suffering. Mr. Nobbs's medical knowledge
+seems, humanly speaking, to have brought him through, and on the 28th,
+when an opportunity occurred of sending letters, he was able to write
+a note to his brother and sisters--weak and shattered-looking writing
+indeed, but telling all that needed to be told, and finishing with 'in
+a few days (D.V.) I may be quite well;' then in a postscript: 'Our most
+merciful Father, Redeemer and Sanctifier is merciful indeed. There was a
+time when I felt drawing near the dark valley, and I thought of Father,
+Mother, of Uncle Frank, and our little ones, Frankie and Dolly,'--a
+brother and sister who had died in early infancy.
+
+But it was not the Divine will that he should be well in a few days. Day
+after day he continued feeble; and suffering much, though not so acutely
+as in the first attack, Mr. Nobbs continued to attend him, and the
+treatment was approved afterwards by the physicians consulted. All the
+clergy took their part in nursing, and the Melanesian youths in turn
+watched him day and night. He did not leave his room till the beginning
+of April, and then was only equal to the exertion of preparing two lads
+for Baptism and a few more for Confirmation. On Easter Sunday he was
+able to baptize the first mentioned, and confirm the others; and, the
+'Southern Cross' having by this time arrived for the regular voyage, he
+embarked in her to obtain further advice at Auckland.
+
+Lady Martin, his kind and tender hostess and nurse, thus describes his
+arrival:--
+
+'We had heard of his illness from himself and others, and of his being
+out of danger in the middle of March. We were therefore much surprised
+when the "Southern Cross," which had sailed a fortnight before for
+Norfolk Island, came into the harbour on the morning of the 25th of
+April, and anchored in our bay with the Bishop's flag flying. We went
+down to the beach with anxious hearts to receive the dear invalid, and
+were greatly shocked at his appearance. His beard, which he had allowed
+to grow since his illness, and his hair were streaked with grey; his
+complexion was very dark, and his frame was bowed like an old man's.
+
+'The Captain and Mr. Bice almost carried him up the hill to our house.
+He was very thankful to be on shore, and spoke cheerfully about the
+improvement he had made on the voyage. It was not very apparent to us
+who had not seen him for two years. Even then he was looking worn and
+ill, but still was a young active man. He seemed now quite a wreck. For
+the first fortnight his faithful attendant Malagona slept in his room,
+and was ready at all hours to wait upon his beloved Bishop. Day by day
+he used to sit by the fire in an easy chair, too weak to move or to
+attend to reading. He got up very early, being tired of bed. His books
+and papers were all brought out, but he did little but doze.'
+
+Yet, in his despatch of the 2nd of May, where the manuscript is as firm,
+clear, and beautiful as ever, only somewhat less minute, he says that he
+had improved wonderfully on the voyage, though he adds that the doctor
+told him, 'At an office, they would insure your life at fifty, instead
+of forty-three years of age.'
+
+Dr. Goldsboro had, on examination, discovered a chronic ailment, not
+likely, with care and treatment, to be dangerous to life, but forbidding
+active exertion or horse exercise, and warning him that a sudden jar
+or slip or fall on rugged ground would probably bring on acute
+inflammation, which might prove fatal after hours of suffering.
+
+After, in the above-mentioned letter, communicating his exact state, he
+adds:--'The pain has been at times very severe, and yet I can't tell
+you of the very great happiness and actual enjoyment of many of those
+sleepless nights; when, perhaps at 2 A.M., I felt the pain subsiding,
+and prayer for rest, if it were His will, was changed into thanksgiving
+for the relief; then, as the fire flickered, came restful, peaceful,
+happy thoughts, mingled with much, I trust, heart-felt sorrow and
+remorse. And Psalms seemed to have a new meaning, and prayers to be so
+real, and somehow there was a sense of a very near Presence, and I felt
+almost sorry when it was 5.30, and I got up, and my kind Melanesian
+nurse made me my morning cup of weak tea, so good to the dry, furred
+tongue.
+
+'Well, that is all past and gone; and now the hope and prayer is, that
+when my time is really come, I may be better prepared to go.
+
+'Sir William and Lady Martin are pretty well; and I am in clover here,
+getting real rest, and gaining ground pretty well. I have all confidence
+in the prudence of the other missionaries and leave the work thankfully
+in their hands, knowing well Whose work it is, and to Whose guidance and
+protection we all trust.'
+
+On the 9th, in a letter sent by a different route, he adds:--
+
+'So I think it will come to my doing my work on Norfolk Island just as
+usual, with only occasional inconvenience or discomfort. But I think I
+shall have to forego some of the more risky and adventurous part of the
+work in the islands. This is all right. It is a sign that the time is
+come for me to delegate it to others. I don't mean that I shall not take
+the voyages, and stop about on the islands (D.V.) as before. But I must
+do it all more carefully, and avoid much that of old I never thought
+about. Yet I think it will not, as a matter of fact, much interfere with
+my work.
+
+'I have, you understand, no pain now, only some discomfort. The fact
+that I can't do things, move about, &c., like a sound healthy person
+is not a trial. The relief from pain, the _resty_ feeling, is such a
+blessing and enjoyment that I don't seem, as yet at all events, to care
+about the other.'
+
+So of that restful state Lady Martin says: 'Indeed it was a most happy
+time to us, and I think on the whole to him. It was a new state of
+things to keep him without any pricks of conscience or restlessness on
+his part. He liked to have a quiet half-hour by the fire at night;
+and before I left him I used to put his books near him: his Bible, his
+Hebrew Psalter, his father's copy of Bishop Andrewes. Sometimes I would
+linger for a few minutes to talk about his past illness. He used to
+dwell specially on his dear father's nearness to him at that time.
+He spoke once or twice with a reverent holy awe and joy of sleepless
+nights, when thoughts of God had filled his soul and sustained him.
+
+'His face, always beautiful from the unworldly purity of its expression,
+was really as the face of an angel while he spoke of these things and of
+the love and kindness he had received. He seemed to have been standing
+on the very brink of the river, and it was yet doubtful whether he was
+to abide with us. Now, looking back, we can see how mercifully God was
+dealing with His servant. A time of quiet and of preparation for death
+given to him apart from the hurry of his daily life, then a few months
+of active service, and then the crown.
+
+'At the end of a fortnight (?--you must please to rectify dates) the
+"Southern Cross" sailed again, with Mr. Bice and Malagona on board;
+when, just as we were expecting she would have reached Norfolk Island,
+she was driving back into the harbour.'
+
+The following letter to the Bishop of Lichfield gives an account of her
+peril:--
+
+
+'Taurarua: May 11, 1870.
+
+'My dear Bishop,--I have to tell you of another great mercy. The
+"Southern Cross" left Auckland on May 3--fair wind and fine weather.
+
+'On May 5 she was within 185 miles of Norfolk Island.
+
+'Then came on a fearful gale from the east and northeast to north-west.
+They were hove-to for three days, everything battened down; port boat
+and davits carried away by a sea; after a while the starboard boat
+dashed to pieces.
+
+'Malagona, my nurse at Norfolk Island, who was brought up for a treat,
+was thrown completely across the cabin by one lurch, when she seemed
+almost settling down. It was dark. The water in the cabin, which
+had come through the dead-light, showed a little phosphoric glimmer.
+"Brother," he said to Bice, "are we dying?" "I don't know; it seems like
+it. We are in God's hands." "Yes, I know."
+
+'Mr. (Captain) Jacobs was calm and self-possessed. He even behaved
+excellently. Once, all on deck were washed into the lee scuppers, and
+one man washed overboard; but he held a rope, and with it and the recoil
+was borne in again upon the deck. Lowest barometer, 28 deg. 65'! We were
+startled yesterday at about 4 P.M. with the news of the reappearance of
+the vessel. I think that some L30 and the replacing the boats will pay
+damages, but one doesn't think of that.
+
+'We hope to get, at all events, one ready-made boat, so as to cause no
+delay. The good people at Norfolk Island will be anxious if the vessel
+does not reappear soon.
+
+'Auckland, June 6th--"Southern Cross" could not sail till May 23. If I
+am not found by them at Norfolk Island on their return, they are to come
+on for me. I hope to make a two months' cruise.
+
+'General health quite well, no pain for weeks past. Dr. Goldsboro' says
+I shall be better in a hot climate; but he won't let me out of his hands
+yet.
+
+'I really think I shall do very well by-and-by.
+
+'Your very affectionate
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+'The repairs took some time (continues Lady Martin). The delay must have
+been very trying to the Bishop in his weak state, as it threw out all
+the plans for the winter voyage; but he showed no signs of fretfulness
+or of a restless desire to go himself to see after matters. The winter
+was unusually cold after the vessel sailed again; and I used to wonder
+sometimes whether he lay awake listening to the wind that howled in
+gusts round the house; he may have, but certainly there was always a
+look of unruffled calm and peace on his face when we met in the morning.
+
+
+'Tis enough that Thou shouldst care Why should I the burden bear?
+
+
+'Our dear friend mended very slowly. It was more than a month before he
+could bear even to be driven up to Bishop's Court to receive the Holy
+Communion in the private Chapel, and some time longer before he could
+sit through the Sunday services. I cannot be sure whether he went first
+on Ascension Day. His own letters may inform you. I only remember how
+thankful and happy he was to be able to get there. He had felt the
+loss of the frequent Communions in which he could join all through his
+illness.'
+
+He was making a real step towards recovery, and by the 10th of June he
+was able to go and stay at St. Sepulchre's parsonage with Mr. Dudley,
+and attend the gathering at the Bishop of Auckland's Chapel on St.
+Barnabas Day; but the calm enjoyment and soothing indifference which
+seems so often a privilege of the weakness of recovery was broken by
+fuller tidings respecting the labour traffic that imperilled his work. A
+schooner had come in from Fate with from fifteen to twenty natives
+from that and other islands to work in flax mills; and a little later a
+letter arrived from his correspondent in Fiji, showing to what an extent
+the immigration thither had come, and how large a proportion of the
+young men working in the sugar plantations had been decoyed from home on
+false pretences.
+
+This was the point, as far as at the time appeared in New Zealand. If
+violence had then begun, no very flagrant instances were known; and the
+Bishop was not at all averse to the employment of natives, well knowing
+how great an agent in improvement is civilisation. But to have them
+carried off without understanding what they were about, and then set to
+hard labour, was quite a different thing.
+
+'The difficulty is (he writes) to prove in a court of law what everyone
+acknowledges to be the case, viz., that the natives of the islands are
+inveigled on board these vessels by divers means, then put under the
+hatches and sold, ignorant of their destination or future employment,
+and without any promises of being returned home.
+
+'It comes to this, though of course it is denied by the planters and the
+Queensland Government, which is concerned in keeping up the trade.
+
+'There will always be some islanders who from a roving nature, or from a
+necessity of escaping retaliation for some injury done by them, or from
+mere curiosity, will paddle off to a ship and go on board. But they
+can't understand the white men: they are tempted below to look at some
+presents, or, if the vessel be at anchor, are allowed to sleep on board.
+Then, in the one case, the hatches are clapped on; in the other, sail is
+made in the night, and so they are taken off to a labour of which they
+know nothing, among people of whom they know nothing!
+
+'It is the regulation rather than the suppression of the employment of
+native labourers that I advocate. There is no reason why some of these
+islanders should not go to a plantation under proper regulations. My
+notion is that--
+
+'1. A few vessels should be licensed for the purpose of conveying these
+islanders backwards and forwards.
+
+'2. That such vessels should be in charge of fit persons, heavily bound
+to observe certain rules, and punishable summarily for violating them.
+
+'3. That the missionaries, wherever they be situated, should be informed
+of the names of the vessels thus licensed, of the sailing masters, &c.
+
+'4. That all other vessels engaged in the trade should be treated as
+pirates, and confiscated summarily when caught.
+
+'5. That a small man-of-war, commanded by a man fit for such work,
+should cruise among the islands from which islanders are being taken.
+
+'6. That special legislative enactments should be passed enabling the
+Sydney Court to deal with the matter equitably.
+
+'Something of this kind is the best plan I can suggest.
+
+'It is right and good that the "Galatea" should undertake such work; and
+yet we want a little tender to the "Galatea" rather than the big vessel,
+as I think my experience of large vessels is that there is too much of
+routine; and great delay is occasioned by the difficulty of turning a
+great ship round, and you can't work near the shore, and even if chasing
+a little vessel which could be caught at once in the open sea, you
+may be dodged by her among islands. Yet the sense of the country is
+expressed very well by sending "Captain Edinburgh" himself to cruise
+between New Caledonia, Fiji, and the Kingsmill Islands, for the
+suppression of the illegal deportation of natives. So reads the despatch
+which the Governor showed me the other day. He asked me to give such
+information as might be useful to the "Galatea."'
+
+With the Governor, Sir George Bowen, an old Oxford friend, Bishop
+Patteson spent several days, and submitted to him a memorial to
+Government, on the subject, both at home and in Queensland, stating the
+regulations, as above expressed.
+
+The 'Rosario,' Captain Palmer, had actually captured the 'Daphne,' a
+vessel engaged in capturing natives, and brought her into Sydney, where
+the master was tried; but though there was no doubt of the outrage, it
+was not possible to obtain a conviction; and a Fiji planter whom the
+Bishop met in Auckland told him that the seizure of the 'Daphne' would
+merely lead to the exclusion of the better class of men from the trade,
+and that it would not stop the demand for native labourers. It would
+always pay to 'run' cargoes of natives into the many islets of Fiji; and
+they would be smuggled into the plantations. And there the government
+was almost necessarily by the whip. 'I can't talk to them,' said the
+planter; 'I can only point to what they are to do; and if they are lazy,
+I whip them.'
+
+It was no wonder that Mr. Dudley thought the Bishop depressed; and,
+moreover, he over-exerted himself, walking a mile and a half one day,
+and preaching in the little Church of St. Sepulchre's. He longed to
+return to St. Barnabas, but was in no state to rough it in a common
+little sailing vessel, so he waited on. 'I am very lazy,' he says: 'I
+can't do much work. Sir William and I read Hebrew, and discuss many
+questions in which his opinion is most valuable. I have business letters
+to write, e.g., about the deportation of islanders and about a clergyman
+whom the Melbourne people are helping to go to Fiji.... This is perhaps
+a good trial for me, to be sitting lazily here and thinking of others at
+work!'
+
+This was written about the middle of July, when the convalescent had
+regained much more strength, and could walk into town, or stand to read
+and write according to his favourite custom, as well as thoroughly enjoy
+conversations with his hosts at Taurarua.
+
+'I never saw (observes Lady Martin) a larger charity united to a more
+living faith. He knew in Whom he believed; and this unclouded confidence
+seemed to enable him to be gentle and discriminating in his judgments on
+those whose minds are clouded with doubt.
+
+'It was pleasant to see how at this time his mind went back to the
+interests which he had laid aside for years. He liked to hear bits of
+Handel, and other old masters, and would go back to recollections of
+foreign travels and of his enthusiasm for music and art as freshly and
+brightly as he had done in the first days of our acquaintance. But this
+was only in the "gloaming" or late in the evening when he was resting in
+his easy chair.
+
+'At the end of July we were expecting a young relation and his bride to
+spend a week with us before returning to England, and we gave the Bishop
+the option of going to Bishop's Court for the time, where he was always
+warmly welcomed. Some years before, he would certainly have slipped away
+from the chatter and bustle; but now he decided to remain with us, and
+throw himself into the small interests around, in a way which touched
+and delighted the young couple greatly. He put away his natural
+shrinking from society and his student ways, and was willing to enjoy
+everything as it came. We had a curious instance at this time of the
+real difficulty the Bishop felt about writing sermons. He had not
+attempted to preach, save at Mr. Dudley's Church; but a week or two
+before he left us, Archdeacon Maunsell came to beg of him to preach at
+St. Mary's, where he had often taken service formerly. He promised to
+do so without any apparent hesitation, and said afterwards to us that he
+could not refuse such a request. So on Wednesday he began to prepare a
+sermon. He was sitting each morning in the room where I was at work, and
+he talked to me from time to time of the thoughts that were in his mind.
+The subject was all that was implied in the words, "I have called thee
+by thy name," the personal knowledge, interest, &c.; and I was rejoicing
+in the treat in store, when, to my dismay, I saw sheet after sheet,
+which had been written in his neat, clear hand as though the thoughts
+flowed on without effort, flung into the fire. "I can't write," was
+said again and again, and the work put by for another day. At last, on
+Saturday morning, he walked up to the parsonage to make his excuses.
+Happily Dr. Maunsell would not let him off, so on Sunday the Bishop,
+without any notes or sermon, spoke to us out of the fulness of his heart
+about the Mission work, of its encouragements and its difficulties. He
+described, in a way that none can ever forget who heard the plaintive
+tones of his voice and saw his worn face that day, what it was to be
+alone on an island for weeks, surrounded by noisy heathen, and the
+comfort and strength gained then by the thought that we who have the
+full privileges of Christian worship and communion were remembering such
+in our prayers.
+
+'Our young friends sailed on Sunday, August 7; and we expected the
+Bishop to sail the next day, but the winds were foul and boisterous, and
+we had him with us till Friday morning, the 12th. Those last days were
+very happy ones. His thoughts went back to Melanesia and to his work;
+and every evening we drew him to tell of adventures and perils, and to
+describe the islands to us in a way he had scarcely ever done before. I
+think it was partly to please our Maori maiden, who sat by his side on a
+footstool in the twilight, plying him with questions with so much lively
+natural interest that he warmed up in return. Generally, he shrank
+into himself, and became reserved at once if pressed to tell of his
+own doings. He spoke one evening quite openly about his dislike to ship
+life. We were laughing at some remembrance of the Bishop of Lichfield's
+satisfaction when once afloat; and he burst into an expression of
+wonder, how anyone could go to sea for pleasure. I asked him what he
+disliked in particular, and he answered, Everything. That he always felt
+dizzy, headachy, and unable to read with comfort; the food was greasy,
+and there was a general sense of dirt and discomfort. As the time drew
+nigh for sailing, he talked a good deal about the rapidly growing evil
+of the labour trade. He grew very depressed one day, and spoke quite
+despondingly of the future prospects of the Mission. He told us of one
+island, Vanua Lava, I think, where, a few years ago, 300 men used to
+assemble on the beach to welcome him. Now, only thirty or forty were
+left. He saw that if the trade went on at the same rate as it had been
+doing for the last year or two, many islands would be depopulated, and
+everywhere he must expect to meet with suspicion or open ill will.'
+
+'The next morning the cloud had rolled away, and he was ready to go
+forth in faith to do the work appointed him, leaving the result in God's
+hands. We accompanied him to the boat on Friday morning. Bishop and Mrs.
+Cowie came down, and one or two of the clergy, and his two English boys
+who were to go with him.
+
+'It was a lovely morning. We rejoiced to see how much he had improved
+in his health during his stay. He had been very good and tractable about
+taking nourishment, and certainly looked and was all the better for
+generous diet. He had almost grown stout, and walked upright and
+briskly. Sir William parted with him on the beach, where we have had
+so many partings; and I meant to do so too, but a friend had brought
+another boat, and invited me to come, so I gladly went off to the
+"Southern Cross," which was lying about half-a-mile off. The Cowies were
+very anxious to see the vessel, and the Bishop showed them all about. I
+was anxious to go down to his cabin, and arrange in safe nooks comforts
+for his use on the voyage. In half an hour the vessel was ready to sail.
+One last grasp of the hand, one loving smile, and we parted--never to
+meet again on earth.'
+
+
+So far this kind and much-loved friend! And to this I cannot but add an
+extract from the letter she wrote to his sisters immediately after the
+parting, since it adds another touch to the character now ripened:--
+
+'I think you are a little mistaken in your notion that your brother
+would feel no interest in your home doings. He has quite passed out of
+that early stage when the mind can dwell on nothing but its own sphere
+of work. He takes a lively interest in all that is going on at home,
+specially in Church matters, and came back quite refreshed from Bishop's
+Court with all that Bishop Cowie had told him.
+
+'What he would really dread in England would be the being lionised, and
+being compelled to speak and preach here, there, and everywhere. And yet
+he would have no power to say nay. But the cold would shrivel him up,
+and society--dinners, table talk--would bore him, and he would pine for
+his warmth and his books. Not a bit the less does he dearly love you
+all.'
+
+The brother and sisters knew it, and forebore to harass him with
+remonstrances, but resigned themselves to the knowledge that nothing
+would bring him home save absolute disqualification for his mission.
+
+His own last letter from Taurarua dwells upon the enjoyment of his
+conversations with Sir William Martin and Bishop Cowie; and then goes
+into details of a vision of obtaining young English boys to whom a good
+education would be a boon, bringing them up at St. Barnabas, and then,
+if they turned out fit for the Mission there, they would be prepared--if
+not, they would have had the benefit of the schooling.
+
+Meantime the 'Southern Cross,' with three of the clergy, had made the
+voyage according to minute directions from the Bishop. Mr. Atkin made
+his yearly visit to Bauro. He says:--
+
+'I hardly expected that when we came back we should have found the peace
+still unbroken between Wango and Hane, but it is. Though not very good
+friends, they are still at peace. In the chief's house I was presented
+with a piece of pork, about two pounds, and a dish of tauma (their
+favourite), a pudding made of yams, nuts, and cocoa-nut milk, and cooked
+by steaming. Fortunately, good manners allowed me to take it away.
+Before we left the village, it took two women to carry our provisions. A
+little boy came back with us, to stay with Taki. The two boys who ought
+to have come last year are very anxious to do so still.
+
+'July 12th.--We anchored the boat on the beach at Tawatana, and I went
+into the oka (public house) to see the tauma prepared for the feast.
+There were thirty-eight dishes. The largest, about four feet long, stood
+nearly three feet high. I tried to lift one from the ground, but could
+not; it must have been five hundredweight; the smallest daras held
+eighty or a hundred pounds. I calculated that there was at least two
+tons. When freshly made it is very good, but at these feasts it is
+always old and sour, and dripping with cocoa-nut oil. The daras, or
+wooden bowls, into which it is put, are almost always carved and inlaid
+with mother-of-pearl shell.
+
+'There was a great crowd at the landing-place at Saa (Malanta) to meet
+us. Nobody knew Wate at first, but he was soon recognised. The boat was
+pulled up into a little river, and everything stealable taken out. We
+then went up to the village, passing some women crying on the way; here,
+as at Uleawa, crying seems to be the sign of joy, or welcome. Wate's
+father's new house is the best I have seen in any of these islands. It
+has two rooms; the drawing-room is about forty-five feet long by thirty
+wide, with a roof projecting about six feet outside the wall at the end
+and four feet at the eaves; the bed-room is about eighteen feet wide,
+so that the whole roof covers about seventy feet by forty. Wate's father
+lives like a chief of the olden time, with large property, but nothing
+of his own; all that he has or gets goes as soon as he gets it to his
+retainers.
+
+'August 3rd.--Went to Heuru. The bwea began about ten o'clock. A bwea
+means a stage, but the word is used as we speak of "the stage." There
+is a stage in this case about three feet square, twenty feet from the
+ground, walled in to three feet height on three sides, with a ladder of
+two stout poles. On the bwea sit or stand two or three men, on either
+side having a bag; visitors run up the ladder, put their money or
+porpoise teeth into the bags if small, give it to the men if large;
+and, if their present is worth it, make a speech a little way down the
+ladder. A party from a village generally send up a spokesman, and when
+he has done go up in a body and give their money. Taki was orator for
+Waiio, and I led the party with my present of beads, which if red or
+white pass as money. The object of a bwea is to get money, but it may
+only be held on proper occasions. The occasion of this was the adoption
+of a Mara lad by the chief man at Heuru; to get money to pay the lad's
+friends he held a bwea that all his friends might help him. As he was
+a connection of Taki's, and Waiio is the richest of the settlements,
+he got great spoils from thence.... At Tawatana the young men put on
+petticoats of cocoa-nut leaves, and danced their graceful "mao." I had
+only seen it before at Norfolk Island; it is very pretty, but must be
+very difficult to learn; they say that not many know it. At Nora they
+danced another most dirty dance: all the performers were daubed from
+head to foot with mud, and wore masks covered with mud and ashes; the
+aim of the dance, as far as I could see, was to ridicule all sorts
+of infirmities and imbecilities, tottering, limping, staggering, and
+reeling, but in time and order. One man had a basket of dripping mud
+on his head which was streaming down his face and back all the time. A
+great point is that the actors should not be recognised. Mr. Brooke was
+likewise dropped at Florida. After this the rest of the party had gone
+on to Mota, where George Sarawia was found working away well at
+his school, plenty of attendants, and the whole place clean,
+well-ventilated, and well-regulated.
+
+A watch sent out as a present to Sarawia was a delight which he could
+quite appreciate, and he had sent back very sensible right-minded
+letters. Of Bishop Patteson's voyage the history is pieced together from
+two letters, one to the sisters, the other to the Bishop of Lichfield.
+Neither was begun till September, after which they make a tolerably full
+diary.
+
+'More than five weeks have passed since I left New Zealand, more than
+three since I left Norfolk Island. Mr. Codrington and I reached Mota on
+the morning of the eighth day after leaving Norfolk Island. I spent but
+half an hour on shore with George Sarawia and his people; sailed across
+to Aroa and Matlavo, where I landed eight or ten of our scholars; and
+came on at once to the Solomon Islands. On Sunday morning (September 4)
+what joy to find Mr. Atkin well and hearty!
+
+'Mr. Brooke, who took up his abode at the village of Mboli, had with him
+Dudley Lankana and Richard Maru, but they were a good deal absorbed by
+their relations, and not so useful to him as had been hoped, though they
+kept out of heathen habits, and remained constant to their intention of
+returning.
+
+'"Brooke," says the Bishop, "knows and speaks the one language of
+Anudha very well, for there is but one language, with a few dialectical
+varieties of course."
+
+'A nice little house was built for him at Mboli, which I have always
+thought to be a very healthy place.
+
+'The coral grit and sand runs a long way in shore under cocoa-nut
+groves, but there is no very dense undergrowth. The wind when easterly
+blows freely along and is drawn rather upon the shore there. Two miles
+to windward of Mboli is the good harbour of Sara, where the vessel
+anchored with us.
+
+'Brooke's house was raised on poles, five feet from the ground; the
+floor made of neat smooth bamboos, basket-worked. He had his table and
+two benches, one easy cane chair, cork bed, boxes, harmonium, and plenty
+of food.
+
+'Close to his house is the magnificent kiala, or boat house, about
+180 feet long, 42 high, and about as many feet broad, a really grand,
+imposing place. Here Brooke, in surplice, with his little band, had his
+Sunday services, singing hymns, and chanting Psalms, in parts, in the
+presence of from 150 to 300, once nearly 400 people, to whom he spoke of
+course, usually twice, making two sermonets.
+
+'The island is unlike any other; much more open, much less bush, but it
+is not coral crag that crops out, but almost bare reddish rock, with but
+little soil on it, and the population, which is large, finds it hard to
+procure food.
+
+'Three brothers, Takua, Savai, and Dikea, are the principal men. Local
+chiefs exercise some small authority in each village. Anudha, or Aunta,
+is properly the name of a small island, for there is no one great
+mainland, but many islands separated by very narrow salt-water creeks
+and rivers, along which a skiff may be sculled.
+
+'Brooke has been over every part of it. His only difficulties arose from
+jealousy on the part of Takua and Savai, who, living at Mboli, were
+very wroth at his not being their tame Pakeha, at his asserting his
+independence, his motive in coming to teach all, and make known to all
+alike a common message. Especially they were indignant at his making
+up small parties of boys from different parts of the island, as they
+of course wanted to monopolise him, and through him the trade. He has
+evidently been firm and friendly too, keeping his temper, yet speaking
+out very plainly. The result, as far as bringing boys goes, is that
+we have now thirteen on board, including Dudley and Richard, from six
+different parts of the island. But so vexed was Takua, that he would not
+fulfil his promise of sending his two little girls.
+
+'The fortnight spent in the Solomon Islands has been very fine;
+winds very light, and very little rain. We have at length got Stephen
+Taroniara's child, a little girl of about seven years old, Paraitaku,
+from the old grandmother and aunts. So, thank God, she will be brought
+up as a Christian child. She is a dear little thing.
+
+'This work of Mr. Atkin and Mr. Brooke in the easterly and more
+north-westerly parts of the Solomon Islands respectively, is the nearest
+approach that has yet been made to regular missionary operations there.
+Our short visits in the "Southern Cross," or my short three to ten days'
+visits on shore are all useful as preparing the way for something more.
+But it is the quiet, lengthened staying for some months among these
+islanders that gives opportunities for knowing them and their ways. They
+do everything with endless talk and discussion about it; and it is only
+by living with, and moving about constantly among them, that any hold
+can be gained over them. I think that the Mission is now in a more
+hopeful state than ever before in these islands.
+
+'Our parties of scholars are large. They trust quite little fellows
+with us, and for any length of time. True, these little fellows cannot
+exercise any influence for years to come; but if we take young men or
+lads of sixteen or eighteen years old, it needs as many years to qualify
+them (with heathen habits to be unlearned, and with the quickness of
+apprehension of new teaching already gone) for being useful among their
+people as would suffice for the arrival of these young children at
+mature age.'
+
+Three Tikopian giants had made a visit at Mota in the course of this
+year, attracted by the fame of the hospitality and fertility of the
+place. George Sarawia had got on well with them, and tried to keep them
+to meet the Bishop, but one of them fell sick, and the others took him
+away. This was hailed as a possible opening to those two curious
+isles, Oanuta and Tikopia, in so far as the 'Southern Cross' work was
+concerned. The Bishop continues, to his former Primate:--
+
+'On the whole, things seem to be going on favourably. The Banks
+Islanders are very shy now of the vessels sent to carry off men to Fiji
+or Queensland. They will find their way into the Solomon Islands soon.
+One, indeed, a cutter, has taken about twenty men from Ulava. They were
+all kept under hatches. We warn the people wherever we go.
+
+'The pressing question now is how to supply our young men and women,
+married Christian couples, with proper occupations to prevent their
+acquiescing in an indolent, useless, selfish life.
+
+'When their "education is finished," they have no profession, no need
+to work to obtain a livelihood for themselves, wives, and children. They
+can't all be clergymen, nor all even teachers in such a sense as to make
+it a calling and occupation.
+
+'Some wants they have--houses fit for persons who like reading and
+writing, a table, a bench, a window becomes necessary. Coral lime houses
+would be good for them. They make and wear light clothing, they wash and
+cook on new principles, &c.; but these wants are soon supplied. Only
+a practical sense of the duty of helping others to know what they have
+been taught will keep them from idleness and its consequences. And how
+few of us, with no other safeguard against idleness, would be other than
+idle!
+
+'Some, I think, may be helped by being associated with us, and with
+their friends of the Solomon Isles, New Hebrides, in spending some
+months on shore, where they would soon acquire a fair knowledge of the
+language, and might be of great use to less advanced friends. This would
+be a real work for them. Just as Mission work is the safeguard of
+the settled Church, so it must be the safeguard of these young native
+Churches.
+
+'No doubt the Missionary spirit infused into the Samoan and Karotongan
+Churches kept them living and fruitful. I am trying to think upon these
+points.
+
+'If the contrast be too violent between the Mission station with its
+daily occupations and the island life, it becomes very difficult for the
+natives to perpetuate the habits of the one amidst the circumstances of
+the other.
+
+'The habits acquired at Norfolk Island ought to be capable of being
+easily transferred to the conditions of the Melanesian isles.
+
+'They ought, I think, to wear (in the hot summer and on week days) light
+loose clothing, which could be worn at home; or clothing of the same
+shape and fit (though perhaps of warm materials) might be worn.
+
+'The circumstances of the two places must be different, but we must
+minimise the difference as much as possible.
+
+'I often think of the steady-going English family, with regular family
+prayers, and attendance twice at Church on Sunday, and the same people
+spending two months on the Continent. No opportunity is made for family
+prayers before the table d'hote breakfast; and at least one part of the
+Sunday is spent in the Roman Catholic Cathedral, or in a different way
+from the home use. And if this be so with good respectable folk among
+ourselves, what must be the effect of altered circumstances on our
+Melanesians?
+
+'It is not easy to keep up the devotional life on shore at home, or in
+the islands, or on board ship with the same regularity. And where
+the convert must be more dependent than we ought to be on external
+opportunities, the difficulty is increased. So if the alteration be as
+little as possible, we gain something, we make it easier to our scholars
+to perpetuate uninterruptedly the Norfolk Island life.
+
+'To live with them and try to show them how, on their island, to keep up
+the religious life unchanged amidst the changed outward circumstances is
+a good way, but then we can't live among them very long, and our example
+is so often faulty.
+
+'Curiously do these practical difficulties make us realise that there
+may really be some benefit in artificial wants; and that probably the
+most favourable situation for the development of the human character is
+a climate where the necessaries of life are just sufficiently difficult
+of production to require steady industry, and yet that nature should not
+be so rigorous as to make living so hard a matter as to occupy the whole
+attention, and dwarf the mental faculties.'
+
+How remarkable, is the date of the following thoughts, almost like a
+foreboding:--
+
+'September 19th, 10 A.M. (to the sisters).--We are drawing near Santa
+Cruz, about 100 miles off. How my mind is filled with hopes, not
+unmingled with anxiety. It is more than eleven years since we sought to
+make an opening here, and as yet we have no scholar. Last year, I went
+ashore at a large village called Taive, about seven miles from the scene
+of our disaster. Many canoes came to us from that spot, and we stood in
+quite close in the vessel, so that people swam off to us.
+
+'They are all fighting among the various villages and neighbouring
+islets of the Reef Archipelago, twenty miles north of the main island.
+It is very difficult what to do or how to try to make a beginning.
+God will open a door in His own good time. Yet to see and seize on the
+opportunity when given is difficult. How these things make one feel more
+than ever the need of Divine guidance, the gift of the Spirit of
+Wisdom and Counsel and ghostly strength. To human eyes it seems almost
+hopeless. Yet other islanders were in a state almost as hopeless
+apparently. Only there is a something about Santa Cruz which is probably
+very unreal and imaginary, which seems to present unusual difficulties.
+In a few days, I may, by God's goodness, be writing to you again about
+our visit to the group. And if the time be come, may God grant us some
+opening, and grace to use it aright!
+
+'At Piteni, Matama, Nupani, Analogo, I can talk somewhat to the people,
+who are Polynesians, and speak a dialect connected with the Maori of New
+Zealand. I think that the people of Indeni (the native name for Santa
+Cruz) are also more than half Polynesians; but I don't know a single
+sentence of their language properly. I can say nothing about it. They
+destroy and distort their organs of pronunciation by excessive use of
+the betel-nut and pepper leaf and lime, so that no word is articulately
+pronounced. It is very hard to catch the sounds they make amidst the
+hubbub on deck or the crowds on shore; yet I think that if we had two
+or three lads quietly with us at Norfolk Island, we should soon make out
+something.
+
+'Don't think I am depressed by this. I only feel troubled by the sense
+that I frequently lose opportunities from indolence and other faults. I
+am quite aware that we can do very little to bring about an introduction
+to these islanders; and I fully believe that in some quite unexpected
+way, or at all events in some way brought about independently of our
+efforts, a work will be begun here some day, in the day when God sees it
+to be fit and right.
+
+
+(To the Bishop of Lichfield.)
+
+
+'September 27th.--Leaving Santa Cruz we came to this group from Ulava
+with light fair winds; left Ulava on Saturday at 6 P.M., and sighted the
+island, making the west side of Graciosa Bay on the next Wednesday; sea
+quite smooth; thermometer reached 92 degrees.
+
+'Sunday.--Very calm, but a light breeze took us into Nukapu. A canoe
+came off, I made them understand that it was our day of rest, and that
+I would visit them atainu (to-morrow), a curious word. I gave a few
+presents, and we slowly sailed on.
+
+'Monday, 6 A.M.--Off Piteni, canoe off, went ashore, low tide, got into
+a canoe, and so reached the beach, people well behaved, much talk of
+taking lads, quite well understood. The speech is (you remember) very
+Maori indeed. There were some nice lads, but no one came away. Four
+canoes from Taumaho were here, and two Piteni men came back from Taumaho
+while I was on shore.
+
+'At Nukapu at 2.30 P.M. High water, went in easily over the reef by a
+short cut, not by our old winding narrow passage. I was greatly pleased
+by the people asking me on board, "Where is Bisambe?" "Here I am." "No,
+no, the Bisambe tuai (of old). Your mutua (father). Is he below? Why
+doesn't he come up with some hatchets?"
+
+'So you see they remember you. A tall middle-aged man, Moto, said that
+he was with us in the boat in 1859, and he and I remembered the one-eyed
+man who piloted us.
+
+'I went here also into the houses. Here is a quaint place; many things,
+not altogether idols, but uncanny, and feared by the people. Women
+danced in my honour, people gave small presents, &c., but no volunteers.
+I could talk with them with sufficient ease; and took my time, lying at
+my ease on a good mat with cane pillow, Anaiteum fashion. I told them
+that they had seen on board many little fellows from many islands; that
+they need not fear to let their children go; that I could not spend time
+and property in coming year by year and giving presents when they were
+unwilling to listen to what I said, but they only made unreal promises,
+put boys in the boat merely to take them out again, and so we went away
+atrakoi.'
+
+There is a little weariness of spirits--not of spirit--in the
+contemporaneous words to the home party:--
+
+'I don't know what to write about this voyage. You have heard all about
+tropical vegetation, Santa Cruz canoes, houses, customs, &c. If indeed I
+could draw these fellows, among whom I was lying on a mat on Monday; if
+you could see the fuzzy heads, stained white and red, the great shell
+ornaments on the arms, the round plate of shell as big as a small dinner
+plate hanging over the chest, the large holes in the lobes of the ears
+rilled with perhaps fifteen or twenty rings of tortoise-shell hung on to
+one another; the woven scarves and girdles stained yellow with turmeric
+and stamped with a black pattern: then it would make a curious sight for
+you; and your worthy brother, much at his ease, lying flat on his back
+on two or three mats, talking to the people about his great wish to take
+away some of the jolly little fellows to whom he was giving fish-hooks,
+would no doubt be very "interesting." But really all this has become so
+commonplace, that I can't write about it with any freshness. The volcano
+in this group, Tenakulu, is now active, and was a fine sight at night,
+though the eruption is not continuous as it was in 1859.
+
+'October 9th--Near Ambrym [to the Bishop]. Some people from Aruas, the
+large western bay of Vanua Lava, had been taken by force to Queensland
+or Fiji. The natives simply speak of "a ship of Sydney."
+
+'Wednesday.--Aroa and Matlavo. 'Henry Tagalana and Joanna and their baby
+Elizabeth, William Pasvorang and Lydia, and six others, all baptized,
+and four communicants among them, had spent five weeks on shore; a very
+nice set. Six of them lived together at Aroa, had regular morning and
+evening prayers, sang their hymns, and did what they could, talking to
+their people. Codrington went over in a canoe, and spent four days with
+them, much pleased. We brought three scholars for George from thence.
+
+'Thursday, Mota.--Codrington says the time is come, in his opinion, for
+some steps to be taken to further the movement in Mota. Grown-up people
+much changed, improved, some almost to be regarded as catechumens.
+
+'We left Mota, bringing all that were to come; indeed, we scarcely know
+what it is nowadays to lose a boy or man--a great blessing. There had
+been another visit of eleven canoes of Tikopians; friendly, though
+unable to converse, and promising to return again in two months.
+
+'October 11th.--A topsail schooner in sight, between Ambrym and
+Paama--one of those kidnapping vessels. I have any amount of (to me)
+conclusive evidence of downright kidnapping. But I don't think I could
+prove any case in a Sydney Court. They have no names painted on some of
+their vessels, and the natives can't catch nor pronounce the names of
+the white men on board. They describe their appearance accurately, and
+we have more than suspicions about some of these fellows.
+
+'The planters in Queensland and Fiji, who create the demand for
+labourers, say that they don't like the kidnapping any more than I do.
+They pay occasionally from L6 to L12 for an "imported labourer," and
+they don't want to have him put into their hands in a sullen irritable
+state of mind.'
+
+Touching at Nengone, the Bishop saw Mr. Creagh, who had recently visited
+New Caledonia, whither Basset, the poor chief who had been banished
+to Tahiti for refusing to receive a French priest, had been allowed to
+return, on the Emperor Napoleon forbidding interference with Protestant
+missionaries or their converts.
+
+Wadrokala and his wife and child were brought away, making up a number
+of 65 black passengers, besides the 60 scholars already at Norfolk
+Island. The weather throughout the voyage had been unusually still, with
+frequent calms, the sea with hardly any swell. And this had been
+very happy for the Bishop; but he was less well than when he had left
+Taurarua, and was unequal to attending the General Synod in New Zealand,
+far more so to another campaign in Australia, though he cherished the
+design of going to see after the condition of the labourers in Fiji.
+
+He finishes his long letter to his former Primate:--
+
+It is perhaps cowardly to say that I am thankful that I am not a
+clergyman in England. I am not the man even in a small parish to stand
+up and fight against so many many-headed monsters. I should give in, and
+shirk the contest. The more I pray that you may have strength to endure
+it. I don't think I was ever pugnacious in the way of controversy; and I
+am very very thankful to be out of it.'
+
+Indeed, the tone of the references to Church matters at home had become
+increasingly cautious; and one long letter to Mrs. Martyn he actually
+tore up, lest it should do harm. His feeling more and more was to wish
+for patience and forbearance, and to deprecate violent words or hasty
+actions--looking from his hermit life upon all the present distress more
+as a phase of Church history that would develop into some form of good,
+and perhaps hardly sensible of the urgency of the struggle and defence.
+For peace and shelter from the strife of tongues was surely one of the
+compensating blessings conferred on him. But, as all his companions
+agree, he was never the same man again after his illness. There was a
+lower level of spirits and of energy, a sensitiveness to annoyances, and
+an indisposition to active exertion, which distressed him.
+
+His day began as early as ever, and was mapped out as before, for
+classes of all kinds, Hebrew and reading; but he seldom left his
+room, except for Chapel and meals, being unable to take much out-door
+exercise. He did not see so much of his elder scholars as before,
+chiefly because the very large number of newer pupils made it necessary
+to employ them more constantly; but he never failed to give each of them
+some instruction for a short time every day, though with more
+effort, for indeed almost everything had become a burthen to him. Mr.
+Codrington's photograph taken at this time shows how much changed and
+aged he had become. The quiet in which he now lived resulted in much
+letter-writing, taking up correspondences that had slumbered in more
+busy times, as his mind flew back to old friends: though, indeed, the
+letters given in the preceding Memoir must not be taken by any means to
+represent the numbers he wrote. When he speaks of sending thirty-five by
+one mail, perhaps only one or two have come into my hands; and of those
+only such portions are of course taken as illustrate his life, work,
+character, and opinions without trenching on the reserve due to
+survivors. Thus multitudes of affectionate letters, participating in
+the joys and sorrows of his brother, his cousins and friends, can
+necessarily find no place here; though the idea of his character is
+hardly complete without direct evidence of the unbroken or more truly
+increasing sympathy he had with those whom he had not met for sixteen
+years, and his love for his brother's wife and children whom he had
+never seen.
+
+Soon after his return to Norfolk Island came a packet with a three
+months' accumulation of home despatches. He read and replied in his old
+conversational way, with occasionally a revelation of his deep inner
+self:--
+
+'I have been thinking, dear old Fan, about your words, "there would be
+a good deal to give and take if you came home for a time;" less perhaps
+now than before I was somewhat tamed by my illness. I see more of the
+meaning of that petition, "from all blindness of heart, from pride,
+vainglory, and hypocrisy; and from all uncharitableness."
+
+'Alas! you don't know what a misspent life I looked back upon, never
+losing hold, God be praised, of the sure belief in His promises
+of pardon and acceptance in Christ. I certainly saw that a want
+of sympathy, an indifference to the feelings of others, want of
+consideration, selfishness, in short, lay at the bottom of very much
+that I mourned over.
+
+'There is one thing, that I don't mention as an excuse for a fault which
+really does exist, but simply as a fact, viz., that being always, even
+now, pressed for time, I write very abruptly, and so seem to be much
+more positive and dogmatic than I hope, and really think, is the case.
+I don't remember ever writing you a letter in which I was able to write
+but as I would have talked out the matter under discussion in all its
+bearings. This arises partly from impatience, my pen won't go fast
+enough; but as I state shortly my opinion, without going through the
+reasons which lead me to adopt it, no doubt much that I say seems to be
+without reason, and some of it no doubt is.'
+
+I need make no excuse for giving as much as possible of the
+correspondence of these last few months, when--though the manner of his
+actual departure was violent, there was already the shadow, as it were,
+of death upon him.
+
+To Sir J. T. Coleridge the letter was:--
+
+
+'December 9, 1870.
+
+'My dearest Uncle,--How long it is since I wrote to you!... And yet it
+is true that I think more often of you than of anyone, except Jem, Joan
+and Fan. In fact, your name meets me so often in one way or another--in
+papers from England, and much more in books continually in use, that
+I could not fail to think of you if I had not the true, deep love that
+brings up the old familiar face and voice so often before my eyes....
+
+'I wish I could talk with you, or rather hear you answer my many
+questions on so many points. I get quite bewildered sometimes. It is
+hard to read the signs of our times; so hard to see where charity
+ends and compromise begins, where the old opinion is to be stoutly
+maintained, and where the new mode of thought is to be accepted. I
+suppose there always was some little difference among divines as to
+"fundamentals," and no ready-made solution exists of each difficult
+question as it emerges.
+
+'There is reason for that being so, because it is part of our duty and
+trial to exercise our own power of discretion and judgment. But so
+much now seems to be left to individuals, and so little is accepted on
+authority. In Church matters I have for years thought Synods to be
+the one remedy. If men meet and talk over a difficulty, there is a
+probability of men's understanding each other's motives, and thus
+preserving charity. If one-twentieth part of a diocese insists upon
+certain observances which nineteen-twentieths repudiate, it seems clear
+that the very small minority is put out of court. Yet how often the
+small minority contains more salt than the large majority!
+
+'I know indeed I am speaking honestly, that I am not worthy to
+understand dear Mr. Keble on many points. "The secret of our Lord"
+is with such men, and we fail to understand him, nous autres I mean,
+outside the sanctuary. Yet there is, I must confess it to you, my dear
+uncle, a something about his book on Eucharistic Adoration which has the
+character to me of foreign rather than of English divinity. I don't
+want to be exclusive, far from it. I don't want to be Anglican versus
+Primitive; but yet somehow, to me, there is a something which belongs
+more to French or Italian than to English character about some parts of
+the book. It is no doubt because I can't see what to his eye was plain.'
+
+[An account of the voyage follows as before given.] 'The islanders
+are beginning to find out the true character of the many small
+vessels cruising among them, taking away people to the plantations in
+Queensland, Fiji, &c. So now force is substituted for deceit. Natives
+are enticed on board under promises (by signs of course, for nowhere can
+they talk to them) of presents, tempted down below into the hold to get
+tomahawks, beads, biscuit, &c., then the hatches are clapped on, and
+they are stolen away. I have to try and write a statement about it,
+which is the last thing I can do properly.'
+
+[Then the history of the weddings and baptisms.] 'There is another
+pleasant feature to be noticed. The older scholars, almost all of whom
+are Banks Islanders, talk and arrange among themselves plans for helping
+natives of the islands. Thus Edward Wogale, of Mota, volunteers to go
+to Anudha, 300 or 400 miles off, to stay there with his friend Charles
+Sapinamba of that island, to aid him in working among his people. Edward
+is older and knows more than Charles. They talk in Mota, but Edward will
+soon have to speak the tongue of Anudha when living there. B---- and his
+wife offer to go to Santa Maria, Robert Pantatun and his wife to go to
+Matlavo, John Nonono to go to Savo, and Andrew Lalena also. This is
+very comforting to me. It is bona fide giving up country and home. It is
+indicative of a real desire to make known the Gospel to other lands.
+So long as they will do this, so long I think we may have the blessed
+assurance that God's Holy Spirit is indeed working in their hearts. Dear
+fellows! It makes me very thankful.
+
+'My clerical staff is increased by a Mr. Jackson, long a friend and
+supporter of the Mission....
+
+'Atkin is a steady-going fellow, most conscientious, with a good
+head-piece of his own, diligent and thoughtful rather than quick. He
+and Bice read Hebrew daily with me, and they will have soon a very fair
+knowledge of it. Joe Atkin knows his Greek Testament very fairly indeed:
+Ellicott, Trench, Alford, Wordsworth and others are in use among us.
+
+'I wish you could see some of these little fellows. It is, I suppose,
+natural that an old bachelor should have pleasure in young things about
+him, ready-made substitutes for children of his own. I do like them.
+With English children, save and except Pena, I never was at my ease,
+partly I think from a worse than foolish self-consciousness about so
+ugly a fellow not being acceptable to children. Anyhow, I don't feel
+shy with Melanesians; and I do like the little things about me, even
+the babies come to me away from almost anyone, chiefly, perhaps, because
+they are acquainted at a very early age with a corner of my room where
+dwells a tin of biscuits.
+
+'To this day I shut up and draw into my shell when any white specimen
+of humanity looms in sight. How seldom do one's natural tastes coincide
+with one's work. And I may be deceiving myself all along. It is true
+that I have a very small acquaintance with men; not so very small an
+acquaintance with men passed from this world who live in their books;
+and some living authors I read--our English Commentators are almost all
+alive.
+
+'I think that I read too exclusively one class of books. I am not drawn
+out of this particular kind of reading, which is alone really pleasant
+and delightful to me, by meeting with persons who discuss other matters.
+So I read divinity almost if not quite exclusively. I make dutiful
+efforts to read a bit of history or poetry, but it won't do. My
+relaxation is in reading some old favourite, Jackson, Hooker, Jeremy
+Taylor, &c. Not that I know much about them, for my real studying time
+is occupied in translating and teaching. And so I read these books,
+and others some German, occasionally (but seldom) French: Reuss, for
+example, and Guizot. And on the whole I read a fair amount of Hebrew;
+though even now it is only the narrative books that I read, so to say,
+rapidly and with ease.
+
+'I wish some of our good Hebrew scholars were sound Poly- and Melanesian
+scholars also. I believe it to be quite true that the mode of thought of
+a South Sea islander resembles very closely that of a Semitic man. And
+their state of mental knowledge or ignorance, too. It is certainly a
+mistake to make the Hebrew language do the work of one of our elaborated
+European languages, the products of thoughts and education and literary
+knowledge which the Hebrew knew nothing of. A Hebrew grammar constructed
+on the principle of a Greek or a Latin grammar is simply a huge
+anachronism.
+
+'How did the people of the time of Moses, or David, or Jeremiah think?
+is the first question. How did they express their thoughts? is the
+second. The grammar is but the mode adapted in speech for notifying and
+communicating thoughts. That the Jew did not think, consequently did
+not speak, like a European is self-evident. Where are we to find people,
+children in thought, keenly alive to the outer world, impressible,
+emotional, but devoid of the power of abstract thought, to whom long
+involved processes of thought and long involved sentences of speech are
+unknown? Consequently, the contrivances for stringing together dependent
+clauses don't exist. Then some wiseacre of an 18th or 19th century
+German writes a grammar on the assumption that a paulo-post-futurum is
+necessarily to be provided for the unfortunate Israelite who thought and
+talked child's language. Now, we Melanesians habitually think and
+speak such languages. I assure you the Hebrew narrative viewed from the
+Melanesian point of thought is wonderfully graphic and lifelike. The
+English version is dull and lifeless in comparison. No modern Hebrew
+scholar agrees with any other as to the mode of construing Hebrew.
+Anyone makes anything out of those unfortunately misused tenses.
+Delitzsch, Ewald, Gesenius, Perowne, Thrupp, Kay too, give no rule by
+which the scholar is to know from the grammar whether the time is past,
+present, or future, i.e., whether such and such a verse is a narrative
+of a past fact or the prophecy of a future one. It is much a matter of
+exegesis; but exegesis not based on grammar is worth very little.
+
+'Really the time is not inherent in the tense at all. But that is a
+strong assertion, which I think I could prove, give me time and a power
+of writing clearly. Sir William Martin is trying to prove it.
+
+'All languages of the South Seas are constructed on the same principle.
+We say, "When I get there, it will be right." But all South Sea
+Islanders, "I am there, and it is right." The time is given by something
+in the context which indicates that the speaker's mind is in past,
+present, or future time. "In the beginning God made" rightly, so, but
+not because the tense gives the past sense, for the same tense very
+often can't have anything to do with a past sense, but in the beginning
+indicates a past time.
+
+'The doctrine of the Vaw conversive is simply a figment of so-called
+grammarians; language is not an artificial product, but a natural mode
+of expressing ideas.
+
+'And if they assume that Hebrew has a perfect and imperfect, or past and
+future (for the grammars use all kinds of names), why on earth
+should people who have, on their showing, a past tense, use a clumsy
+contrivance of turning a future tense into a past, and vice versa?
+
+'If people had remembered that language is not a trick invented and
+contrived by scholars at their desks, but a natural gift, simple at
+first, and elaborated by degrees, they could not have made such a mess.
+
+'The truth is, I think, that such a contrivance was devised to make
+Hebrew do what European scholars decided it must do, these very men
+being ignorant of languages in a simple uncivilised form.
+
+'But, my dear Uncle, what a prose! Only, as I think a good deal about
+it, you will excuse it, I know.
+
+'Well, it is time for the weddings! The Chapel looks so pretty, and
+(you can't believe it) so do the girls, Emma, Eliza, and Minnie, to be
+married to Edwin, Mulewasawasa, Thomas. The native name is a baptismal
+one, nevertheless, and a good fellow he is, my head nurse in my illness.
+
+'I can't write about politics. Then comes the astounding news of this
+fearful war. What am I to say to my Melanesians about it? Do these
+nations believe in the Gospel of peace and goodwill? Is the Sermon
+on the Mount a reality or not? Is such conduct a repudiation of
+Christianity or not? Are nations less responsible than individuals? What
+possible justification is there for this war? It is fearful, fearful on
+every ground. Oh, this mighty belauded nineteenth-century civilisation!
+
+'Yet society has improved in some ways. Even war is not without its
+accompaniment of religion. And it brings out kindly sympathy and
+stimulates works of charity. But what a fearful responsibility lies
+upon the cause of the war. It is hard to acquit Louis Napoleon of being
+really the cause.
+
+'There would be great pleasure in seeing all the younger ones, not equal
+of course to that of seeing you all; but as I get older in my ways and
+habits, I think that my mind goes back more to the young ones. True, I
+have a large family about me, 145 Melanesians here now. Yet there is
+the want of community of thought on some subjects, and the difficulty
+of perfectly easy communication with them. No Melanesian tongue is like
+English to me.
+
+'I wrote a first sheet, but filled it up with mere stupid thoughts about
+questions of the day, not worth sending. And this long letter, badly
+written, too, will weary your eyes.
+
+'I must end. My kindest love to Aunt, Mary, and all. Always, my dearest
+Uncle,
+
+'Your loving and grateful Nephew,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Two letters of December 12 follow; the first to Bishop Abraham.
+
+
+Mrs. Palmer's picture of the brides, at the last of the weddings the
+Bishop so enjoyed, may be acceptable. It went to Mrs. Abraham by the
+same opportunity:--
+
+'Three were married a short time before Christmas; they, with five
+others, were baptized on Advent Sunday. They had been here about
+thirteen months, and had got on very well during that time, improved in
+every way. I think some of them are loveable girls, and it is pleasant
+to see them so happy and at home here.
+
+'They were a queer-looking set when they first came, or I suppose I
+thought them so.
+
+'I got some of the older girls to give them a good wash all over in warm
+water, and then gave them the new clothes. They looked at me in such a
+curious way. They had heard of me, "Palmer's wife," from the others, but
+had not seen an Englishwoman before. A few days after they came, I ran
+into their room with my hair down, and they exclaimed with wonder "We
+ura ras" ("very good"), almost shouting, and then I told them to
+feel it, and some kissed it with gentle reverence, as though it were
+something very extraordinary.
+
+'They are very kind and obliging in doing anything I want. They have
+to be looked after a good bit, but are very obedient. I did not imagine
+they would give so little trouble. They are great chatterboxes, and very
+noisy, but all in an innocent way. They seldom quarrel among themselves.
+I don't think their feelings are so strong as those of the Maoris,
+either of love or hate.
+
+'I wish you could have been present at the baptism. They looked so
+solemn, and spoke out very distinctly. They wore white calico jackets,
+and the Font was prettily decorated. The whole service was impressive,
+and not less so our good Bishop's voice and manner. They looked very
+nice, and it was amusing to see how they took it. Only one could I get
+to look in the glass; and she said the flowers were too large: the other
+two only submitted to being beautified.'
+
+
+I return to the Bishop's correspondence:--
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: Fourth Sunday in Advent, 1870.
+
+'My dearest Joan,--I am choosing--a strange moment to write in. It is
+8.30 A.M., and in an hour I am going to the New Church, built by the
+Pitcairners, to ordain Mr. C. Bice, Priest. I was up as usual early this
+morning, and I am not well, and feeling queer, and having already
+read and had Morning Chapel Service, I take now this means of quieting
+myself. You see it is nearly three miles to the "town;" the service will
+be nearly three hours; I don't quite know how I shall get through it.
+I thought of having the service here; but our little Chapel won't hold
+even our Melanesian party (80 out of 145) who attend public prayers, and
+of course the islanders want to see, and it is good for them to see an
+ordination.
+
+'This is my first expedition to the town since I came from the islands,
+I shall have a horse in case I am very tired, but I would rather walk
+all the way if I can.
+
+'Just now I am headachy, and seedy too; but I think it is all coming
+right again. I hope to have a bright happy Christmas.
+
+'After this day's Ordination we shall number one Bishop, six Priests,
+and one Deacon. There are three or four Melanesians who ought soon to be
+ordained; and if it is possible for me to spend two or three months this
+next winter at Mota, I must read with George, and perhaps ordain him
+Priest. It troubles me much that during all these summer months there
+can be no administration of the Holy Communion, though there are six
+communicants, besides George, now living for good at Mota. There will be
+four or five next year taking up their abode at the neighbouring island
+of Aroa.
+
+'Dear Joan! At such times as these, when one is engaged in a specially
+solemn work, there is much heart-searching, and I can't tell you how my
+conscience accuses me of such systematic selfishness during many long
+years. I do see it now, though only in part. I mean, I see how I was all
+along making self the centre, and neglecting all kinds of duties, social
+and others, in consequence.
+
+'I think that self-consciousness, a terrible malady, is one's misfortune
+as well as one's fault. But the want of any earnest effort at correcting
+a fault is worse perhaps than the fault itself. And I feel such great,
+such very great need for amendment here. This great fault brings its
+punishment in part even now. I mean, there is a want of brightness,
+cheerfulness, elasticity of mind about the conscious man or woman. He
+is prone to have gloomy, narrow, sullen thoughts, to brood over fancied
+troubles and difficulties; because, making everything refer to and
+depend on self, he naturally can get none of that comfort which they
+enjoy whose minds naturally turn upwards for help and light.
+
+'In this way I do suffer a good deal. My chariot-wheels often drag very
+heavily. I am not often in what you may call good spirits. And yet I
+am aware that I am writing now under the influence of a specially
+depressing disorder, and that I may misinterpret my real state of mind.
+No one ought to be happier, as far as advantages of employment in a good
+service, and kindness of friends, &c., can contribute to make one happy.
+And, on the whole, I know my life is a happy one. I am sure that I have
+a far larger share of happiness than falls to the lot of most people.
+Only I do feel very much the lack, almost the utter lack of just that
+grace which was so characteristic of our dear Father, that simplicity
+and real humility and truthfulness of character!
+
+'Well, one doesn't often say these things to another person! But it is
+a relief to say them. I know the remedy quite well. It is a very
+simple case for the doctor to deal with; but it costs the patient just
+everything short of life, when you have to dig right down and cut out by
+the roots an evil of a whole life standing. I assure you that it is hard
+work, because these feelings of ours are such intangible, untractable
+things! It is hard to lay hold of, and mould and direct them.
+
+'But I pray God that I may not willingly yield to these gloomy unloving
+feelings. As often as I look out of myself upon Him, His love and
+goodness, then I catch a bright gleam. I think that you will not suspect
+me of being in a morbid state of mind. You will say, "Poor old fellow!
+he was seedy and depressed when he wrote all that." And that's true, but
+not the whole truth. I have much need of your prayers, indeed, for grace
+and strength to correct faults of which I am conscious, to say nothing
+of unknown sin.
+
+'The Ordination is over, a quiet solemn service. The new Church, which I
+had not seen, is very creditable to the people, who built it themselves.
+It is wooden, about thirty-six or thirty-eight feet high, will hold 500
+people well.
+
+'Mr. Nobbs preached a very good sermon. I got on very well. Singing very
+good. Five Priests assisting in this little place!
+
+'Christmas Eve.--What a meaning one of my favourite hymns (xxxviii. in
+"Book of Praise") has, when one thinks of this awful war, how hard to
+realize the suffering and misery; the rage and exasperation; the pride
+and exaltation! How hard to be thankful enough for the blessings of
+peace in this little spot!
+
+'Our Chapel is beautifully decorated. A star at the east end over
+the word Emmanuel, all in golden everlasting flame, with lilies and
+oleanders in front of young Norfolk Island pines and evergreens.
+
+'Seven new Communicants to-morrow morning. And all things, God be
+praised, happy and peaceful about us. All Christmas blessings and joys
+to you, dear ones!
+
+'Christmas Day, 3 P.M.--Such a happy day! Such a solemn, quiet service
+at 7 A.M., followed by a short joyous 11 A.M. service. Christmas Hymn,
+one with words set to the tune for "Hark! the herald Angels sing."
+
+'You know we never have the Litany on Sundays, because everybody is in
+Chapel twice a day, and we of course have it on Wednesday and Friday,
+and every native Communion Sunday, i.e., every alternate Sunday; we have
+no Communion Service at 11 A.M. as our Communicants have been in Chapel
+at the 7 o'clock service; so to-day, the Lessons being short, the
+service, including my short service, was over by 11.20.
+
+'Now we have a week's holiday, that is, no school; though I think it
+is hard work, inasmuch as the preparing plans for school lessons,
+rearranging classes, sketching out the work, is tiring to me.
+
+'Then I have such heaps of letters, which do worry me. But, on the other
+hand, I get much quiet time for some reading, and I enjoy that more than
+anything. Ten of our party were in Chapel at 11 A.M. with us for the
+first time. You know that we don't allow everyone to come, but only
+those that we believe to be aware of the meaning of Prayer, and who can
+read, and are in a fair way to be Catechumens. All these ten will, I
+hope, be baptized this summer.
+
+'We are obliged, seriously, to think of a proper Chapel. The present one
+is 45 ft. by 19 ft. and too small. It is only a temporary oblong room;
+very nice, because we have the crimson hangings, handsome sandal-wood
+lectern, and some good carving. But we have to cram about eighty
+persons into it, and on occasions (Baptisms and Confirmations, or at
+an Ordination) when others come, we have no room. Mr. Codrington
+understands these things well, and not only as an amateur archaeologist;
+he knows the principle of building well in stone and wood. Especially
+useful in this knowledge here, where we work up our own material to
+a great extent. Our notion--his notion rather--is to have stone
+foundations and solid stone buttresses to carry a light roof. Then the
+rest will be wood. It ought to be about sixty feet by thirty, exclusive
+of chancel and apse. When we get all the measurements carefully made,
+we shall send exact accounts of the shape and size of the windows, and
+suggest subjects for stained glass by Hardman, or whoever might now be
+the best man. I hope that it won't cost very much, Lperhaps 500.
+
+December 21st.--We have not had a fine Christmas week, heavy rain and
+hot winds. But the rain has done much good. The Norfolk Islanders have
+much influenza, but we are at present quite free from it.
+
+'Yesterday I spent two hours in training and putting to rights my
+stephanotis, which now climbs over half my verandah. I have such
+Japanese lilies making ready to put forth their splendours. Two or three
+azaleas grow well. Rhododendrons won't grow well. My little pines grow
+well, and are about seven feet high. It is very pleasant to see the
+growth of these things when I return from the voyage. The "pottering
+about" the little gardens, the park-like paddocks, with our sheep and
+cattle and horses, gives me some exercise every day. I go about quietly,
+and very often by myself, with a book. After thinking of all kinds
+of things and persons, I think that my increased and increasing
+unwillingness to write is one proof of my not being so strong or
+vigorous. I can't tell you what an effort it is to me to write a
+business letter; and I almost dread a long effusion from anyone,
+because, though I like reading it, I have the thought of the labour of
+answering it in my mind.
+
+'Then again, I who used to be so very talkative, am taciturn now.
+Occasionally, I victimize some unfortunate with a flow of language about
+some point of divinity, or if I get a hearer on South Sea languages, I
+can bore him with much satisfaction to myself. But I am so stupid about
+small talk. I cannot make it. When I have to try with some Norfolk
+Islander, e.g. it does weary me so! Mind, I don't despise it. But
+instead of being a relaxation, it is of all things the hardest work to
+me. I am very dull in that way, you know. And sometimes I think people
+must take me to be sullen, for I never know how to keep the talk going.
+Then if I do talk, I get upon some point that no one cares for, and bore
+everybody. So here, too, I fall back on my own set of friends, who are
+most tolerant of my idiosyncrasies, and on my Melanesians who don't
+notice them.
+
+'Your loving Brother,
+
+'J. C. P.'
+
+In spite of this distaste for writing, a good many letters were sent
+forth during the early months of 1871, most of them the final ones to
+each correspondent. The next, to Miss Mackenzie, is a reply to one
+in which, by Bishop Wilkinson's desire, she had sought for counsel
+regarding the Zulu Mission, especially on questions that she knew by
+experience to be most difficult, i.e., of inculcating Christian modesty,
+and likewise on the qualifications of a native ministry:--
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: Jan. 26, 1871.
+
+'My dear Miss Mackenzie,--In addition to a very long and interesting
+letter of yours, I have a letter from my sister, who has just seen you
+at Havant, so I must lose no more time in writing.
+
+'First, let me say that I am as sure as I can be of anything that I
+have not registered, that I wrote to thank you for the prints long ago.
+Indeed, all these many gifts of yours are specially valuable as having
+been once the property of your brother, of whom it seems presumptuous
+for me to speak, and as having actually been used in Mission work in so
+distant a part of the world.
+
+'I need not say that "Thomas a Kempis," his sextant, and his pedometer,
+are among my few real valuables. For the use of the prints, I can't say
+much on my own knowledge. My classes are for the most part made up of
+lads and young men, teachers, or preparing for Confirmation or Holy
+Communion; one class, always of younger ones, being prepared for
+Baptism; and sometimes youths, newcomers, when we have to take in hand a
+new language. Those prints are not of much use, therefore, to my special
+classes. Most of them have passed beyond the stage of being taught by
+pictures, though they like to look at them. But Mrs. Palmer has been
+using them constantly with the girls' classes, and so with the less
+advanced classes throughout the school.
+
+'One difficulty will to the end be, that by the time we can talk freely
+to our scholars, and they can understand their own language employed
+as a vehicle for religious teaching, they are not sufficiently supplied
+with books. True, we have translations of such parts of the Bible as
+quite enable us to teach all that a Christian need know and do; but I
+often wish for plenty of good useful little books on other subjects,
+and I don't see my way to this. Our own press is always at work printing
+translations, &c. It is not easy to write the proper kind of book in
+these languages, and how are they to be printed? We haven't time to
+print them here, and who is to correct the press elsewhere? The great
+fact in your letter is the account of Bishop Wilkinson's Consecration. I
+am heartily glad to hear of it, and I will send, if I can, now, if not,
+soon, an enclosure to him for you to forward. I doubt if I can help him
+by any means as to qualifications of candidates for Holy Orders, &c. Our
+work is quite in a tentative state, and I am sometimes troubled to see
+that this Mission is supposed to be in a more advanced state than is
+really the case.
+
+'For example, the report of a man going ashore dressed as a Bishop with
+a Bible in his hand to entice the natives away, assumes islands to be
+in a state where the conventional man in white tie and black-tail coat
+preaches to the natives. My costume, when I go ashore, is an old Crimean
+shirt, a very ancient wide-awake. Not a syllable has in all probability
+ever been written, except in our small note-books, of the language of
+the island. My attention is turned to keeping the crowd in good-humour
+by a few simple presents of fish-hooks, beads, &c. Only at Mota is there
+a resident Christian; and even there, people who don't know what Mota
+was, and what a Melanesian island, for the most part, alas! still is,
+would see nothing to indicate a change for the better, except that the
+people are unarmed, and would be friendly and confiding in their manner
+to a stranger.
+
+'I hardly know how to bring my Melanesian experience to bear upon
+Zululand. The immorality, infanticide, superstition, &c., seem to be as
+great in a Melanesian island as in any part of the heathen world. And
+with our many languages, it is not possible for us to-know the "slang"
+of the various islands.
+
+'We must be cheery about it all. Just see what the old writers, e.g.
+Chrysostom, say about Christian (nominally) morals and manners at
+wedding feasts, and generally. Impurity is the sin, par excellence, of
+all unchristian people. Look at St. Paul's words to the Corinthians and
+others. And we must not expect, though we must aim at, and hope, and
+pray for much that we don't see yet.
+
+'What opportunity will Bishop Wilkinson have for testing the practical
+teaching power and steady conduct of his converts?
+
+'Many of our Melanesians have their classes here, and we can form an
+opinion of their available knowledge, how far they can reproduce what
+they know, &c. We can see, too, whether they exercise any influence over
+the younger ones.
+
+'Twelve (this season) are counted as sixth form, or monitors, or
+whatever you please to call them. [Then ensues an account of the
+rotation of industrial work, &c.]
+
+'The other day I was examining an Ysabel lad, not formally in school,
+but he happened to be in my room, as they are always hanging about (as
+you know). He knew much more than I expected: "Who taught you all this?
+I am very well pleased."
+
+'"Wogale," was the answer.
+
+'Edward Wogale is George Sarawai's own brother, volunteering now to go
+to Anudha (Florida), near Ysabel Island. If I see that a young man
+(by his written notes, little essays so to say, analysis of lessons)
+understands what he has been taught; and if I see (by the proficiency
+of his pupils) that he can reproduce and communicate this teaching to
+others, then one part of the question of his fitness is answered. If
+he has been here for years, always well conducted, and if when at home
+occasionally he has always behaved well and resisted temptation; and
+perhaps I should add, if he is respectably married, or about to be
+married, to a decent Christian girl, then we may hope that the matter of
+moral fitness may be hopefully settled. Assuming this, and thank God, I
+believe I may assume that it is the case with several here now, as soon
+as a Deacon is required in any place that he is willing to work in, I
+should not hesitate to ordain him; but I can't specify exactly what
+his qualifications ought to be, because I can't undertake to settle the
+difficult question of what constitutes absolutely essential teaching
+for a Christian, i.e., the doctrine of fundamentals. Practically one
+can settle it; and that quite as well as in England, where there is, and
+must be any amount of inequality in the attainments and earnestness of
+the candidates, and where no examination can secure the fitness or even
+the mental capacity of the minister.
+
+'I say to myself, "Here is an island or a part of an island from which
+we have had a good many scholars. Some married ones are going back to
+live permanently. They are Christians, and some are Communicants. They
+wish to do what they can to get the young ones about them for regular
+school and to talk to the older people. They all have and can use their
+Prayer-books. The people are friendly. Is there one among them of whom I
+can (humanly speaking) feel sure that, by God's blessing, he will lead a
+good life among them, and that he can and will teach them faithfully the
+elements of Christian truth and practice? If we all agree that there is
+such a one, why not ordain him?"
+
+'But I want to see people recognising the office of Deacon as something
+very distinct indeed from that of the Priest. It is a very different
+matter indeed, when we come to talk about candidates for Priest's
+orders.
+
+'Again, look at the missionary clergy of old times. No doubt in
+mediaeval times so much stress was laid upon the mere perfunctory
+performance of the ministerial act, as apart from careful teaching of
+the meaning and purport of the act, that the mediaeval missionary is so
+far not a very safe model for us to imitate.
+
+'But I suppose that multitudes of men did good work who could no more
+comprehend nor write out the result of lessons that Edward, Henry,
+Edmund, Robert and twenty others here are writing out, than our English
+peasant can comprehend a learned theological treatise.
+
+'And we must consider the qualifications of one's native clergy in
+relation to the work that they have to do. They have not to teach
+theology to educated Christians, but to make known the elements of
+Gospel truth to ignorant heathen people. If they can state clearly and
+forcibly the very primary leading fundamental truths of the Gospel, and
+live as simple-minded humble Christians, that is enough indeed.
+
+'Perhaps this is as likely to make the Bishop understand my notions on
+the subject as any more detailed account of the course of instruction. I
+really have not time to copy out some ten or twelve pages of some older
+lad's note-book. I think you would be satisfied with their work. I don't
+mean, of course, the mere writing, which is almost always excellent, but
+there is a ready apprehension of the meaning of any point clearly put
+before them, which is very satisfactory. I am now thinking of the
+twenty or thirty best among our 145 scholars. This is a confused, almost
+unintelligible scrawl; but I am busy, and not very fresh for work.
+
+'Yours very truly,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+A letter to Bishop Abraham was in hand at the same time, full of replies
+to the information in one newly received from this much valued friend.
+After deploring an attack of illness from which Mrs. Abraham had been
+suffering, comes the remark--
+
+'You know what one always feels, that one can't be unhappy about good
+people, whatever happens to them. I do so enjoy your talk about Church
+works in England. It makes the modern phraseology intelligible. I know
+now what is meant by "missions" and "missioners" and "retreats."
+
+'I was thinking lately of George Herbert at Hereford, as I read the four
+sermons which Vaughan lately preached there, one on the Atonement, which
+I liked very much indeed. The Cathedral has been beautifully restored,
+has it not? Then, I think of you in York Minster on November 20, with
+that good text from Psalm xcvi. I read your letter on Tuesday; on which
+day our morning Psalms in Chapel are always chanted, xcv., xcvi., xcvii.
+The application seems very natural, but to work out those applications
+is difficult. The more I read sermons, and I read a good many, the more
+I wonder how men can write them!
+
+'Mind, I will gladly pay Charley ten shillings a sermon, if he will copy
+it out for me. It will do the boy good. Dear old Tutor used to fag me
+to write copies of the Bishop's long New Zealand letters, as I wrote a
+decent hand then. Don't I remember a long one from Anaiteum, and how I
+wondered where on earth or sea Anaiteum could be!
+
+'I want to hear men talk on these matters (the Eucharistic question) who
+represent the view that is least familiar to me. And then I feel, when
+it comes to a point of Greek criticism, sad regret and almost remorse at
+my old idleness and foolish waste of time when I might have made myself
+a decent scholar. I cram up passages, instead of applying a scholarly
+habit of mind to the examination of them. And now too, it is harder than
+ever to correct bad habits of inattention, inaccuracy, &c. I am almost
+too weary oftentimes to do my work anyhow, much less can I make an
+effort to improve my way of doing it. But I must be content, thankful to
+get on somehow or other, and to be able to teach the fellows something.
+
+'It is quite curious to see how often one is baffled in one's attempts
+to put oneself en rapport with the Melanesian mind. If one can manage
+it, they really show one that they know a good deal, not merely by
+heart, or as matter of memory, that is worth little; but they show that
+they can think. But often they seem utterly stupid and lost, and one is
+perplexed to know what their difficulty can possibly be. One thing is
+clear, that they have little faculty of generalization. As you know,
+they seldom have a name for their island, but only names for each tiny
+headland, and bay, and village. The name for the island you must learn
+from the inhabitants of another island who view the one whose name you
+are seeking as one because, being distant, it must appear to them in
+its oneness, not in its many various parts. Just so, they find it very
+difficult to classify any ideas under general heads. Ask for details,
+and you get a whole list of them. Ask for general principles, and only a
+few can answer.
+
+'For example, it is not easy to make them see how all temptations to sin
+were overcome in the three representative assaults made upon Him in the
+wilderness; how love is the fulfilling of the Law; or how the violation
+of one Commandment is the violation (of the principle) of all.
+
+'Then they have much difficulty (from shyness partly, and a want of
+teaching when young) in expressing themselves. They really know much
+that only skilful questioning, much more skilful than mine, can get out
+of them. It wants--all teaching does--a man with lots of animal spirits,
+health, pluck, vigour, &c. Every year I find it more difficult.'
+
+
+To another of the New Zealand friends who had returned to England there
+was a letter on Jan. 31:--
+
+
+'My dear Mr. Lloyd,--I must send you a line, though I have little to
+say. And I should be very sorry if we did not correspond with some
+attempt at regularity.
+
+'What can one think of long without the mind running off to France? What
+a wonderful story it is! Only Old Testament language can describe
+it, only a Prophet can moralise upon it. It is too dreadful in its
+suddenness and extent. One fears that vice and luxury and ungodliness
+have destroyed whatever of chivalry and patriotism there once was in
+the French character. To think that this is the country of St. Louis
+and Bayard! The Empire seems almost systematically to have completed
+the demoralisation of the people. There is nothing left to appeal to,
+nothing on which to rally. It is an awful thing to see such judgments
+passing before our very eyes. So fearful a humiliation may do something
+yet for the French people, but I dread even worse news. It nearly came
+the other day to a repetition of the old Danton and Robespierre days.
+
+'Here we are going on happily.... I would give something to spend a
+quiet Sunday with you in your old Church. How pleasant to have an old
+Church.
+
+'Always yours affectionately,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+My own last letter came at the same time:--
+
+
+'Norfolk Island: February 16th, 1871.
+
+'My dear Cousin,--I must not leave your letter of last October without
+an instalment of an answer, though this is only a chance opportunity of
+sending letters by a whaler, and I have only ten minutes.
+
+'Your account of the Southampton Congress is a regular picture. I thinly
+I can see the Bishops of Winton, Sarum, and Oxon; and all that you say
+by way of comment on what is going off in the Church at home interests
+me exceedingly. You can't think what a treat your letters are.
+
+'You see Mr. Codrington is the only one of my age, and (so to say)
+education here, and so to commune with one who thinks much on these
+matters, which of course have the deepest interest for me, is very
+pleasant and useful. On this account I do so value the Bishop of
+Salisbury's letters, and it is so very kind of him to write to me in the
+midst of the overwhelming occupations of an English diocese.
+
+'I don't think you have mentioned Dr. Vaughan. I read his books with
+much interest. He doesn't belong to the Keble theology; but he seems to
+me to be a thoughtful, useful, and eminently practical writer. He
+seems to know what men are thinking of, and to grapple with their
+difficulties. I am pleased with a little book, by Canon Norris, "Key
+to the New Testament": the work of a man who has read a good deal, and
+thought much.
+
+'He condenses into a 2s. 6d. book the work of years.
+
+'You are all alive now, trying to work up your parochial schools to
+"efficiency" mark--rather you were doing so, for I think there was
+only time allowed up to December 31, 1870. I hope that the efforts were
+successful. At such times one wishes to see great noble gifts, men of
+great riches giving their L10,000 to a common fund. Then I remember that
+the claims and calls are so numerous in England, that very wealthy men
+can hardly give in that way.
+
+'Certainly I am spared the temptation myself of seeing the luxury and
+extravagance which must tempt one to feel hard and bitter, I should
+fear. We go on quietly and happily. You know our school is large. Thank
+God, we are all well, save dear old Fisher, who met with a sad boating
+accident last week. A coil of the boat raft caught his ankle as the
+strain was suddenly tightened by a rather heavy sea, and literally
+tore the front part of his foot completely off, besides dislocating and
+fracturing the ankle-bone. He bears the pain well, and he is doing very
+well; but there may be latent tetanus, and I shall not feel easy for ten
+days more yet.
+
+'His smile was pleasant, and his grasp of the hand was an indication of
+his faith and trust, as he answered my remark, "You know Fisher, He does
+nothing without a reason: you remember our talk about the sparrows and
+the hairs of our heads."
+
+'"I know," was all he said; but the look was a whole volume....
+
+'Your Charlotte is Fisher's wife, you know, and a worthy good creature
+she is. Poor old Fisher, the first time I saw tears on his cheeks was
+when his wife met him being carried up, and I took her to him.
+
+'The mail goes. Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+It may as well be here mentioned that Fisher Pantatun escaped tetanus,
+lived to have his limb amputated by a medical man, who has since come to
+reside at Norfolk Island, and that he has been further provided with a
+wooden leg, to the extreme wonder and admiration of his countrymen at
+Mota, where he has since joined the Christian community.
+
+The home letter, finished the last, had been begun before the first, on
+Feb. 11, 'My birthday,' as the Bishop writes, adding:--'How as time goes
+on we think more and more of him and miss him. Especially now in these
+times, with so many difficult questions distressing and perplexing men,
+his wise calm judgment would have been such a strength and support. You
+know I have all his letters since I left England, and he never missed
+a mail. And now it is nearly ten years since he passed away from this
+world. What would he say to us all? What would he think of all that has
+taken place in the interval? Thank God, he would certainly rejoice in
+seeing all his children loving each other more and more as they grow
+older and learn from experience the blessedness and infrequency of such
+a thoroughly united, happy set of brothers and sisters. Why, you have
+never missed a single mail in all these sixteen years; and I know, in
+spite of occasional differences of opinion, that there is really more
+than ever of mutual love, and much more of mutual esteem than ever.
+There is no blessing like this. And it is a special and unusual
+blessing. And surely, next to God, we owe it to our dear parents, and
+perhaps especially to him who was the one to live on as we grew up into
+men and women. What should I have done out here without a perfect trust
+in you three, and without your letters and loving remembrances in boxes,
+&c.? I fancy that I should have broken down altogether, or else have
+hardened (more than I have become) to the soft and restful influences of
+the home life. I see some people really alone in these countries, really
+expatriated. Now I never feel that; partly because I have your letters,
+partly because I have the knowledge that, if ever I did have to go to
+England, I should find all the old family love, only intensified and
+deepened. I can tell you that the consciousness of all this is a great
+help, and carries one along famously. And then the hope of meeting
+by-and-by and for ever!'
+
+
+'True to the kindred points of heaven and home.' Surely such loyalty of
+heart, making a living influence of parents so long in their graves, has
+been seldom, at least, put on record, though maybe it often and often
+has existed.
+
+
+Again, on March 8:--'Such a fit came over me yesterday of old memories.
+I was reading a bit of Wordsworth (the poet).
+
+I remembered dear dear Uncle Frank telling me how Wordsworth came over
+to Ottery, and called on him, and how he felt so honoured; and so I felt
+on thinking of him, and the old (pet) names, and most of all, of course,
+of Father and Mother, I seemed to see them all with unusual clearness.
+Then I read one of the two little notes I had from Mr. Keble, which live
+in my "Christian Year," and so I went on dreaming and thinking.
+
+'Yes, if by His mercy I may indeed be brought to the home where they
+dwell! But as the power of keen enjoyment of this world was never mine,
+as it is given to bright healthy creatures with eyes and teeth and limbs
+sound and firm, so I try to remember dear Father's words, that "he did
+not mean that he was fit to go because there was little that he cared
+to stop here for." And I don't feel morbid like, only with a diminished
+capacity for enjoying things here. Of the mere animal pleasures, eating
+and drinking are a serious trouble. My eyes don't allow me to look about
+much, and I walk with "unshowing eye turned towards the earth." I don't
+converse with ease; there is the feeling of difficulty in framing words.
+I prefer to be alone and silent. If I must talk, I like the English
+tongue least of all. Melanesia doesn't have such combinations of
+consonants and harsh sounds as our vernacular rejoices in. If I speak
+loud, as in preaching, I am pretty clear still; but I can't read at all
+properly now without real awkwardness.
+
+'I am delighted with Shairp's "Essays" that Pena sent me. He has the
+very nature to make him capable of appreciating the best and most
+thoughtful writers, especially those who have a thoughtful spirit of
+piety in them. He gives me many a very happy quiet hour. I wish such a
+book had come in my way while I was young. I more than ever regret that
+Mr. Keble's "Praelectiones" was never translated into English. I am sure
+that I have neglected poetry all my life for want of some guide to the
+appreciation and criticism of it, and that I am the worse for it. If you
+don't use Uncle Sam's "Biographia Literaria," and "Literary Remains," I
+should much like to have them.
+
+'Do you, Fan, care to have any of my German books? I have, indeed,
+scarce any but theological ones. But no one else reads German here, and
+I read none but the divinity; and, indeed, I almost wish I had them in
+translations, for the sake of the English type and paper. My eyes don't
+like the German type at all.
+
+'Moreover, now (it was not so years ago), all that is worth reading
+in their language is in a good serviceable English dress, and passed,
+moreover, through the minds of clear English thinkers--and the Germans
+are such wordy, clumsy, involved writers. A man need not be a German
+scholar to be well acquainted with all useful German theology. Doellinger
+is almost the only clear, plain writer I know among them. Dorner, the
+great Lutheran divine, gives you about two pages and a half of close
+print for a single sentence--awful work, worse than my English!... But I
+know that if I read less, and thought more, it would be better. Only it
+is such hard work thinking, and I am so lazy! I was amused at hearing,
+through another lad, of Edward Wogale's remark, "This helping in
+translation" (a revisal of the "Acts" in Mota) "is such hard work!"
+"Yes, my boy, brain work takes it out of you." I wish I had Jem's power
+of writing reports, condensing evidence into clear reliable statements.
+Lawyers get that power; while we Clergymen are careless and inaccurate,
+because, as old Lord Campbell said, "there is no reply to our sermons."
+
+'What would I give to have been well drilled in grammar, and made an
+accurate scholar in old days! Ottery School and Eton didn't do much for
+me in that way, though of course the fault was chiefly in myself.
+
+'But most of all, I think that I regret the real loss to us Eton boys
+of the weekly help that Winchester, Rugby, and Harrow boys had from
+Moberly, Arnold, and Vaughan in their sermons! I really think that might
+have helped to keep us out of harm!
+
+'It is now 4.30 P.M., calm and hot. Such a tiger-lily on my table,
+and the pretty delicate achimenes, and the stephanotis climbing up the
+verandah, and a bignonia by its side, with honeysuckle all over the
+steps, and jessamine all over the two water-tanks at the angle of the
+verandah. The Melanesians have, I think, twenty-nine flower gardens, and
+they bring the flowers, &c.--lots of flowers, and the oleanders are a
+sight! Some azaleas are doing well, verbenas, hibiscus of all kinds.
+Roses and, alas! clove carnations, and stocks, and many of the dear old
+cottage things won't grow well. Scarlet passion flowers and splendid
+Japanese lilies of perfect white or pink or spotted. The golden one I
+have not yet dared to buy. They are most beautiful. I like both the
+red and the yellow tritoma; we have both. But I don't think we have the
+perfume of the English flowers, and I miss the clover and buttercup. And
+what would I give for an old-fashioned cabbage rose, as big as a saucer,
+and for fresh violets, which grow here but have little scent, and lilies
+of the valley! Still more, fancy seeing a Devonshire bank in spring,
+with primroses and daisies, or meadows with cowslip and clover and
+buttercups, and hearing thrushes and blackbirds and larks and cuckoos,
+and seeing trout rise to the flies on the water! There is much
+exaggeration in second-rate books about tropical vegetation. You
+are really much better off than we are. No trees equal English oaks,
+beeches, and elms, and chestnuts; and with very little expense and
+some care, you have any flowers you like, growing out of doors or in a
+greenhouse. You can make a warmer climate, and we can't a colder one.
+But we have plenty to look at for all that. There, what a nice hour I
+have spent in chatting with you!'
+
+This same dreamy kind of 'chat,' full of the past, and of quiet
+meditation over the present, reminding one of Bunyan's Pilgrims in the
+Land of Beulah, continues at intervals through the sheets written while
+waiting for the 'Southern Cross.' Here is a note (March 14) of the
+teaching:--
+
+'I am working at the Miracles with the second set, and I am able to
+venture upon serious questions, viz. the connection between sin and
+physical infirmity or sickness, the Demoniacs, the power of working
+miracles as essential to the Second Adam, in whom the prerogative of the
+Man (the ideal man according to the idea of his original condition) was
+restored. Then we go pretty closely into detail on each miracle, and try
+to work away till we reach a general principle or law.
+
+'With another class I am making a kind of Commentary on St. Luke. With a
+third, trying to draw out in full the meaning of the Lord's Prayer.
+With a fourth, Old Testament history. It is often very interesting; but,
+apart from all sham, I am a very poor teacher. I can discourse, or talk
+with equals, but I can't teach. So I don't do justice to these or any
+other pupils I may chance to have. But they learn something among us
+all.'
+
+He speaks of himself as being remarkably well and free from the
+discomforts of illness during the months of March and April: and these
+letters show perfect peace and serenity of spirit; but his silence and
+inadequacy for 'small talk' were felt like depression or melancholy by
+some of his white companions, and he always seemed to feel it difficult
+to rouse himself. To sit and study his Hebrew Isaiah with Delitzsch's
+comment was his chief pleasure; and on his birthday, April 1, Easter
+Eve, and the ensuing holy days, he read over all his Father's letters
+to him, and dwelt, in the remarks to his sisters, upon their wisdom and
+tenderness.
+
+Mr. Codrington says: 'Before starting on the voyage he had confirmed
+some candidates in the Church in town: on which occasion he seemed to
+rouse himself with difficulty for the walk, and would go by himself;
+but he was roused again by the service, and gave a spirited and eloquent
+address, and came back, after a hearty meal and lively conversation,
+much refreshed in mind and body. This was on Palm Sunday. On Easter
+Day he held his last confirmation of three girls and two Solomon Island
+boys.
+
+Then came the 'Southern Cross,' bringing with her from New Zealand a box
+with numerous books and other treasures, the pillow that the old Bishop
+of Exeter was leaning on when he died; a photograph, from the Bishop
+of Salisbury, of his Cathedral, and among the gifts for the younger
+Melanesians, a large Noah's ark, which elicited great shouts of delight.
+
+'Well! [after mentioning the articles in order] all these things, and
+still more the thought of the pains taken and the many loving feelings
+engaged in getting them together, will help me much during the coming
+months. All the little unexpected things are so many little signs of the
+care and love you always have for me, and that is more than their own
+value, after all. I always feel it solemn to go off on these voyages.
+We have had such mercies. Fisher is doing quite well, getting about
+on crutches; and that is the only hospital case we have had during the
+whole summer.'
+
+Then follows:--
+
+'April 27th.--We start in a few hours (D.V.). The weather is better.
+You have my thoughts and hopes and prayers. I am really pretty well: and
+though often distressed by the thought of past sins and present ones,
+yet I have a firm trust in God's mercy through Christ, and a reasonable
+hope that the Holy Spirit is guiding and influencing me. What more can I
+say to make you think contentedly and cheerfully about me? God bless you
+all!'
+
+So the last voyage was begun. The plan was much the same as usual. On
+the way to Mota, the Bishop landed on Whitsuntide Island, and there was
+told that what the people called a 'thief ship' had carried off some of
+their people. Star Island was found nearly depopulated. On May 16,
+the Bishop, with Mr. Bice and their scholars, landed at Mota, and the
+'Southern Cross' went on with Mr. Brooke to Florida, where he found that
+the 'Snatch-snatch' vessels, as they were there called, had carried off
+fifty men. They had gone on board to trade, but were instantly clapped
+under hatches, while tobacco and a hatchet were thrown to their friends
+in the canoe. Some canoes had been upset by a noose from the vessel,
+then a gun was fired, and while the natives tried to swim away, a boat
+was lowered, which picked up the swimmers, and carried them off. One man
+named Lave, who jumped overboard and escaped, had had two fingers held
+up to him, which he supposed to mean two months, but which did mean two
+years.
+
+It was plain that enticing having failed, violence was being resorted
+to; and Mr. Brooke was left to an anxious sojourn, while Mr. Atkin
+returned to Mota on his way to his own special charge at Bauro. He says,
+on June 9:--
+
+'The Bishop had just come back from a week's journeying with William in
+his boat. They had been to Santa Maria, Vanua Lava, and Saddle Island;
+the weather was bad, but the Bishop, although he is tired, does not
+think he is any the worse for his knocking about. He is not at all well;
+he is in low spirits, and has lost almost all his energy. He said, while
+talking about the deportation of islanders to Fiji, that he didn't know
+what was to be done; all this time had been spent in preparing teachers
+qualified to teach their own people, but now when the teachers were
+provided, all the people were taken away. The extent to which the
+carrying off of the natives has gone is startling. It certainly is time
+for us to think what is to be done next. I do not think that it is an
+exaggerated estimate, others would say it is under the mark, that one
+half the population of the Banks Islands over ten years of age have been
+taken away. I am trying not to expect anything about the Solomon Islands
+before we are there, but we have heard that several vessels have
+cargoes from there. If the people have escaped a little longer for their
+wildness, it will not be for long.
+
+'The Bishop still remained at Mota, while I went back to the Solomon
+Islanders. The cliffs of Mota, and perhaps the intelligence of the
+people, had comparatively protected it, though Port Patteson had become
+a station of the "labour ships." The village of Kohimarama was not a
+disappointment.'
+
+Bishop Patteson proceeds:--
+
+'Things are very different. I think that we may, without danger, baptize
+a great many infants and quite young children--so many parents are
+actually seeking Christian teaching themselves, or willing to give
+their children to be taught. I think that some adults, married men, may
+possibly be baptized. I should think that not less than forty or fifty
+are daily being taught twice a day, as a distinct set of Catechumens.
+Besides this, some of the women seem to be in earnest.
+
+'About two hours and a half are spent daily by me with about
+twenty-three grown-up men. They come, too, at all hours, in small
+parties, two or three, to tell their thoughts and feelings, how they are
+beginning to pray, what they say, what they wish and hope, &c.
+
+'There is more indication than I ever saw here before of a "movement,"
+a distinct advance, towards Christianity. The distinction between
+passively listening to our teaching, and accepting it as God's Word
+and acting upon it, seems to be clearly felt. I speak strongly and
+habitually about the necessity of baptism. "He that believeth, and is
+baptized" &c. Independently of the doctrinal truth about baptism,
+the call to the heathen man to take some step, to enter into some
+engagement, to ally himself with a body of Christian believers by some
+distinct act of his own, needing careful preparation, &c., has a meaning
+and a value incalculably great.
+
+'"Yes, JESUS is to us all a source of pardon, light, and life, all these
+treasures are in Him. But he distributes these gifts by His Spirit in
+His appointed ways. You can't understand or receive the Gospel with a
+heart clinging to your old ways. And you can't remake your hearts. He
+must do it, and this is His way of doing it. You must be born again. You
+must be made new men."
+
+'But why write all this, which is so commonplace?
+
+'I feel more than ever the need of very simple, very short services for
+ignorant Catechumens.
+
+'They used to throng our morning and evening prayer, perhaps 130 being
+present, for about that number attend our daily school; but they could
+not understand one sentence in ten of the Common Prayer-book. And it is
+bad for people to accustom themselves to a "formal" service. So I have
+stopped that. We baptized people have our regular service and at the end
+of my school, held in the dark, 7-8.30 P.M., in the verandah, we kneel
+down, and I pray extempore, touching the points which have formed the
+lesson.
+
+'I don't like teaching these adults who can't read a form of private
+prayer. I try to make them understand that to wish earnestly is to pray;
+that they must put what they wish for clearly before their own minds,
+and then pray to God for it, through Christ. But I must try to supply
+progressive lessons for the Catechumens and others, with short prayers
+to be read by the teacher at the end (and beginning, too, perhaps) of
+the lesson. Much must depend on the individual teacher's unction and
+force.
+
+'Well, I hope and trust to be able to tell you two months hence of some
+of these people being baptized. Only three adults have been baptized
+here on the island, and all three were dying.
+
+'It is very comforting to think that all of us have been engaged in this
+Mota work, Dudley, and Mr. Pritt, and Mr. Kerr, too, and all our present
+staff have had much to do with it. Especially I think now of three young
+men, all married, who came to me lately, saying, "All these years (an
+interval of six or seven years) we have been thinking now and then about
+what we heard years ago, when we were with you in New Zealand for a few
+months." They are now thoroughly in earnest, as far as I can judge, and
+their wives, as I hope, move along with them. How one old set must have
+influenced them a long time ago. Bice, who speaks Mota very well, was
+very energetic during his fortnight here. He is now gone on with Mr.
+Brooke and Mr. Atkin that he may see the work in the Solomon Isles. I
+meant to go; but there seemed to be a special reason why I should stay
+here just now, vessels seeking labourers for Fiji and Queensland are
+very frequently calling at these islands.
+
+'Mr. Thurston, late Acting Consul at Fiji, was with me the day before
+yesterday. He has taken a very proper view of this labour question;
+and he assures me that the great majority of the Fiji planters are very
+anxious that there should be no kidnapping, no unfair treatment of the
+islanders. I have engaged to go to Fiji (D.V.) at the end of my island
+work, i.e., on my return to Norfolk Island, probably about the end of
+September. I shall go there in the "Southern Cross," send her on to her
+summer quarters in New Zealand, and get from Fiji to New Zealand, after
+six or eight weeks in Fiji, in some vessel or other. There are about
+4,000 or 5,000 white people in Fiji, mostly Church of England people,
+but (as I suppose) not very clearly understanding what is really meant
+by that designation. It is assumed that I am to act as their Bishop; and
+I ought to have been there before. But really a competent man might work
+these islands into a Bishopric before long.
+
+'We must try to follow these islanders into Fiji or Queensland. But how
+to do it? On a plantation of, say, one hundred labourers, you may find
+natives of eight or ten islands. How can we supply teachers at the rate
+of one for every fifteen or twenty people? And there are some 6,000 or
+7,000 islanders already on the Fiji plantations, and I suppose as many
+in Queensland.
+
+'Some one knowing several languages, and continually itinerating from
+one plantation to another, might do something; but I don't think a
+native clergyman could do that. He must move about among white people
+continually in the boats, &c. I ought to do it; but I think my day has
+gone by for that kind of thing.
+
+'I hope to judge of all this by-and-by. It might end in my dividing
+my year into Melanesian work as of old, and Melanesian work in Fiji,
+combined with the attempt to organise the white Church of England
+community, and only a month or two's work in Norfolk Island. To do this
+I must be in pretty good health. I may soon find out the limit of my
+powers of work, and then confine myself to whatever I find I can do with
+some degree of usefulness. We ought to make no attempt to proselytise
+among the Fiji natives, who have been evangelised by the Wesleyans. But
+there is work among our Western Pacific imported islanders and the white
+people.
+
+'Norfolk Island could be quite well managed without me. Mr. Codrington
+could take that entirely into his own hands. I might spend a month or
+two there, and confirm Melanesians and Norfolk Islanders, and quietly
+fall into a less responsible position and be a moveable clergyman in
+Fiji or anywhere else, as long as my strength lasts.
+
+'Norfolk Island certainly was rather my resting-place. But I think I
+am becoming more and more indifferent to that kind of thing. A tropical
+climate suits me, and Fiji is healthy--no ague. Dysentery is the chief
+trouble there. These are notions, flying thoughts, most likely never to
+be fully realised. Indeed, who can say what may befall me?'
+
+Never to be fully realised! No. He, who in broken health so freely and
+simply sacrificed in will his cherished nook of rest on earth for a life
+so trying and distasteful, was very near the 'Rest that remaineth for
+the people of God.'
+
+On June 26, the first public baptism in Mota took place, of one man, the
+Bishop and Sarawia in surplices in front of their verandah, the people
+standing round; but unfortunately it was a very wet day, and the rush of
+rain drowned the voices, as the Bishop made his convert Wilgan renounce
+individually and by name individual evil fashions of heathenism, just as
+St. Boniface made the Germans forsake Thor and Odin by name. There were
+twenty-five more nearly ready, and a coral-lime building was finished,
+'like a cob wall, only white plaster instead of red mud,' says the
+Devonshire man. It was the first Church of Mota, again reminding us of
+the many 'white churches' of our ancestors; and on the 25th of June at
+7 A.M., the first Holy Eucharist was celebrated there. It is also
+the place of private prayer for the Christians and Catechumens of
+Kohimarama.
+
+The weather was exceedingly bad, drenching rain continually, yet the
+Bishop continued unusually well. His heart might well be cheered, when,
+on that Sunday evening in the dark, he was thus accosted:--
+
+'I have for days been watching for a chance of speaking to you alone!
+Always so many people about you. My heart is so full, so hot every word
+goes into it, deep deep. The old life seems a dream. Everything seems to
+be new. When a month ago I followed you out of the Said Goro, you said
+that if I wanted to know the meaning and power of this teaching, I must
+pray! And I tried to pray, and it becomes easier as every day I pray as
+I go about, and in the morning and evening; and I don't know how to pray
+as I ought, but my heart is light, and I know it's all true, and my mind
+is made up, and I have been wanting to tell you, and so is Sogoivnowut,
+and we four talk together, and all want to be baptized.'
+
+This man had spent one season at St. John's, seven years before; but on
+his return home had gone back to the ordinary island life, until at last
+the good seed was beginning to take root.
+
+The next Sunday, the 2nd of July, ninety-seven children were baptized,
+at four villages, chosen as centres to which the adjacent ones could
+bring their children. It was again a wet day, but the rain held up at
+the first two places. The people stood or sat in a great half-circle,
+from which the eldest children, four or five years old, walked out in a
+most orderly manner, the lesser ones were carried up by their parents,
+and out of the whole ninety-seven only four cried! The people all
+behaved admirably, and made not a sound. At the last two places there
+was a deluge of rain; but as sickness prevailed in them, it was not
+thought well to defer the Baptism.
+
+'It was a day full of thankful and anxious feelings. I was too tired,
+and too much concerned with details of arrangements, new names, &c., to
+feel the more contemplative devotional part of the whole day's services
+till the evening. Then, for I could not sleep for some hours, it came on
+me; and I thought of the old times too, the dear Bishop's early visits,
+my own fourteen years' acquaintance with this place, the care taken
+by many friends, past and present members of the Mission. The Sunday
+Collects as we call them, St. Michael's, All Saints', Saint Simon and
+St. Jude's calmed me, and my Sunday prayer, (that beautiful prayer in
+the Ordination of Priests, 'Almighty God and Heavenly Father,' slightly
+altered) was very full of meaning. So, thank God, one great step has
+been taken, a great responsibility indeed, but I trust not rashly
+undertaken.'
+
+On July 4 the 'Southern Cross' returned, and the cruise among the New
+Hebrides was commenced. Mr. Bice was left to make a fortnight's visit at
+Leper's Island; and the Bishop, going on to Mai, found only three men on
+the beach, where there used to be hundreds, and was advised not to go to
+Tariko, as there had been fighting.
+
+At Ambrym there was a schooner with Mr. Thurston on board, and
+fifty-five natives for Fiji. On the north coast was the 'Isabella,'
+with twenty-five for Queensland. The master gave Captain Jacob his
+credentials to show to the Bishop, and said the Bishop might come on
+board and talk to the people, so as to be convinced they came willingly,
+but weighed anchor immediately after, and gave no opportunity; and one
+man who stood on the rail calling out 'Pishopa, Pishopa,' was dragged
+back.
+
+Mr. Bice was picked up again on the 17th, having been unmolested during
+his visit; but two of the 'Lepers,' who had been at Espiritu Santo, had
+brought back a fearful story that a small two-masted vessel had there
+been mastered by the natives, and the crew killed and eaten in revenge
+for the slaughter of some men of their own by another ship's company
+some time back.
+
+On the voyage he wrote to the Bishop of Lichfield:--
+
+
+'Off Tariko. Sloop: July 8, 1871.
+
+'My dear Bishop,--Towards the end of April I left Norfolk Island, and
+after a six days' passage reached Mota. I called at Ambrym (dropping
+three boys) at three places; at Whitsuntide; at Leper's Island, dropping
+seven boys; Aurora, two places; Santa Maria, where I left B----, and
+so to Mota on the day before Ascension Day, and sent the vessel back at
+once to Norfolk Island for the Solomon Island scholars. All our Aroa
+and Matlavo party wished to spend Ascension Day with us; and after Holy
+Communion they went across with Commodore William Pasvorang in a good
+whale boat, which I brought down on the deck of the schooner, and which
+Willy looks after at Aroa. We want it for keeping up a visitation of the
+group.
+
+'Bice, ordained Priest last Christmas, was with me. We found George and
+all well, George very steady and much respected. Charles Woleg, Benjamin
+Vassil and James Neropa, all going on well. The wives have done less
+than I hoped; true, they all had children to look after, yet they might
+have done more with the women. [Then as before about the movement.]
+
+'After a week I went off in the boat, leaving Bice at Kohimarama,
+the Mota station. I went to B---- first at the north-east part of the
+island; back to Tarasagi (north-east point); sailed round to Lakona, our
+old Cock Sparrow Point, where B---- and I selected one or two boys to
+stay with him at Tarasagi. Thence we sailed to Avreas Bay, the great bay
+of Vanua Lava, B---- going back to Tarasagi by land. Heavy sea and rain;
+reached land in the dark 8 P.M., thankful to be safe on shore.
+
+'On to Aroa, where I spent two days; Willie and Edwin doing what they
+can. Twenty children at school; but the island is almost depopulated,
+some seven hundred gone to Brisbane and Fiji. I did not go to
+Uvaparapara; the weather was bad, I was not well, and I expected the
+"Southern Cross" from Norfolk Island. Next day, after just a week's
+trip in the boat, I got to Mota; and the next day the "Southern
+Cross" arrived with Joe Atkin and Brooke and some twenty-four Solomon
+Islanders, many of them pressing to stay at Norfolk Island, where about
+eighty scholars in all are under the charge of Codrington, Palmer, and
+Jackson.
+
+'I sent Bice on in the "Southern Cross," as he ought to see something of
+his brethren's work in the north and west. I had just a month at Mota,
+very interesting.
+
+'I hope to spend three weeks more at Mota, if this New Hebrides trip
+is safely accomplished, and to baptize the rest of the children, and
+probably some ten or fifteen adults. All seem thoroughly in earnest.
+Some of the first scholars, who for years have seemed indifferent, are
+now among my class of thirty-three adults. It would be too long a story
+to tell you of their frequent private conversations, their stories,
+their private prayers, their expressions of earnest thankfulness that
+they are being led into the light.
+
+'Some of the women, wives of the men, are hopeful. George's old mother
+said to me, "My boys are gone; George, Woleg, Wogale--Lehna died a
+Christian; Wowetaraka (the first-born) is going. I must follow. I listen
+to it all, and believe it all. When you think fit, I must join you,"
+i.e. be baptized.
+
+'It is very comforting that all the old party from the beginning are
+directly (of course indirectly also) connected with this movement.
+Some of those most in earnest now came under the influence of the early
+workers, Dudley, Mr. Pritt, &c.
+
+'We need this comfort.
+
+'From Mota some thirty or more have gone or been taken away, but the
+other islands are almost depopulated. Mr. Thurston, late Acting Consul
+in Fiji, was at Mota the other day seeking labourers. He says that about
+3,000 natives from Tanna and Uvaparapara are now in Fiji, and Queensland
+has almost as many.
+
+'He admits that much kidnapping goes on. He, with all his advantages of
+personal acquaintance with the people and with native interpreters
+on board, could only get about thirty. Another, Captain Weston, a
+respectable man who would not kidnap, cruised for some weeks, and left
+for Fiji without a single native on board. How then do others obtain
+seventy or one hundred more?
+
+'But the majority of the Fiji settlers, I am assured, do not like these
+kidnapping practices, and would prefer some honest way of obtaining men.
+Indeed, many natives go voluntarily.
+
+'In the Solomon Isles a steamer has been at Savo and other places,
+trying to get men.
+
+'Three or four of these vessels called at Mota while I was there. On one
+day three were in sight. They told me they were shot at at Whitsuntide,
+Sta. Maria, Vanua Lava, &c. And, indeed, I am obliged to be very
+careful, more so than at any time; and here, in the North Hebrides, I
+never know what may happen, though of course in many places they know
+me.
+
+'We are now at our maximum point of dispersion: Brooke at Anudha, J.
+Atkin at or near San Cristoval, Gr. Sarawia at Mota, B---- at Santa
+Maria, Bice at Leper's Island, Codrington at Norfolk Island, I on board
+"Southern Cross."
+
+'Leper's Island is very pleasant; I longed to stay there. All the people
+wanting to come with us, and already discriminating between us and the
+other white visitors, who seem to have had little or no success there.
+
+'July 21st.--At anchor, Lakona, west side of Santa Maria. Pleasant to
+be quietly at anchor on our old "shooting ground." We anchored for a day
+and a night at Ambrym, near the east point, very safe and comfortable
+place. Nine lads from five villages are on board. I bought about three
+and a half tons of yams there. Anchored again at the end of Whitsuntide,
+where I am thankful to say we have at last received two lads, one a
+very pleasant-looking fellow. That sad year of the dysentery, 1862, when
+Tanau died and Tarivai was so ill, two out of only three scholars from
+the island, made them always unwilling to give up lads.
+
+'Next day at Leper's Island. Anchored a night off Wehurigi, the east end
+of the high land, the centre part of the island.
+
+'Bice was quite feted by the people. We brought away three old and
+twelve new scholars, refusing the unpromising old scholars. There is, I
+hope, a sufficient opening now at Ambrym and Leper's Island to justify
+my assigning these islands to Jackson and Bice respectively.
+
+'Our plan now is to take very few people indeed from the Banks Islands
+to Norfolk Island, as they have a permanent school and resident
+clergyman at Mota. The lads who may turn out clever and competent
+teachers are taken to Norfolk Island, none others.
+
+'We must take our large parties from islands where there is as yet no
+permanent teacher: Ambrym, Leper's Island, the Solomon Islands.
+
+'Meanwhile the traders are infesting these islands, as Captain Jacobs
+says, "like mosquitoes." Three vessels anchored at Mai during the day
+I was there. Three different vessels were at Ambrym. To-day I saw four,
+three anchored together near the north-east side of Santa Maria. B----
+saw six yesterday.
+
+'The people now refuse to go in them, they are much exasperated at their
+people being kept away so long. Sad scenes are occurring. Several white
+men have been killed, boats' crews cut off, vessels wrecked.
+
+'We shall hear more of such doings; and really I can't blame the
+islanders. They are perfectly friendly to friends; though there is much
+suspicion shown even towards us, where we are not well known.
+
+'As far as I can speak of my own plans, I hope to stay at Mota for a
+time, till the "Southern Cross" returns from Norfolk Island; then go to
+the Solomon Islands; return by way of Santa Cruz and probably Tikopia,
+to Mota; thence to Norfolk Island; thence probably to New Zealand, to
+take the steamer for Fiji. We have no chart on board of Fiji; and I
+don't think it right to run the risk of getting somehow to Levuka with
+only the general chart of the South Pacific, so I must go, as I think,
+to New Zealand, and either take the steamer or procure charts, and
+perhaps take Mr. Tilly as pilot. I don't like it; it will be very cold;
+but then I shall (D.V.) see our dear Taurarua friends, the good Bishop
+and others, and get advice about my Fiji movements. The Church of
+England folk there regard me as their Bishop, I understand; and the
+Bishops of Sydney and Melbourne assume this to be the fitting course. A
+really able energetic man might do much there, and, in five years, would
+be Bishop of Levuka.
+
+'This is all of Melanesia and myself; but you will like to have this
+scrawl read to you.
+
+'How I think of you as I cruise about the old familiar places, and think
+that you would like to have another trip, and see the old scenes with
+here and there, thank God, some little changes for the better. Best
+love, my dear dear Bishop, to Mrs. Selwyn, William and John.
+
+'Your very affectionate
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+About forty, old scholars and new, had been collected and brought back
+to Mota; where, after landing the Bishop, Captain Jacobs sailed back
+to Norfolk Island, carrying with him the last letters that were to be
+received and read as from a living man. All that follow only came in
+after the telegram which announced that the hand that had written them
+was resting beneath the Pacific waters. But this was not until it had
+been granted to him to gather in his harvest in Mota, as will be seen:--
+
+
+'Mota: July 31, 1871.
+
+'My dearest Sisters,--You will be glad to know that on my return hither
+after three weeks' absence, I found no diminution of strong earnest
+feeling among the people. George Sarawia had, indeed, been unable to do
+very much in the way of teaching 60 or 90 men and women, but he had done
+his best, and the 100 younger people were going on with their schooling
+regularly. I at once told the people that those who wished to be
+baptized must let me know; and out of some 30 or 40 who are all, I
+think, in earnest, 15, and some few women are to be baptized next
+Sunday. These will be the first grown-up people, save John Wilgan,
+baptized in Mota, except a few when in an almost dying state. They think
+and speak much of the fact that so many of their children have been
+baptized, they wish to belong to the same set. But I believe them all
+to be fairly well instructed in the great elementary truths. They can't
+read; all the teaching is oral, no objection in my eyes. It may be
+dangerous to admit it, but I am convinced that all that we can do is to
+elevate some few of the most intelligent islanders well, so that they
+can teach others, and be content with careful oral teaching for the
+rest. How few persons even among ourselves know how to use a book! And
+these poor fellows, for I can only except a percentage of our scholars,
+have not so completely mastered the mechanical difficulty of reading as
+to leave their minds free for examination of the meaning and sense of
+what they read. I don't undervalue a good education, as you know. But
+I feel that but few of these islanders can ever be book-learned; and
+I would sooner see them content to be taught plain truths by qualified
+persons than puzzling themselves to no purpose by the doubtful use of
+their little learning. You know that I don't want to act the Romish
+Priest amongst them. I don't want to domineer at all. And I do teach
+reading and writing to all who come into our regular school, and I make
+them read passages to verify my teaching. At the same time, I feel that
+the Protestant complaint of "shutting up the Bible from the laity," is
+the complaint of educated persons, able to read, think, and reflect.
+
+'The main difficulty is, of course, to secure a supply of really
+competent teachers. George, Edward, Henry, Robert, and some three or
+four others are trustworthy. I comfort myself by thinking that a great
+many of the mediaeval Clergy certainly did not know as much nor teach as
+well.
+
+'Yesterday I baptized 41 more children and infants on again an
+unpropitious day. I was obliged to leave 42 to be baptized at some
+future time. The rain poured down. The people will bring them over
+to-morrow. The whole number of infants and children will amount to 230
+or more, of adults to perhaps 25 or 30. You will pray earnestly for
+them that they may lead the rest of their lives "according to this
+beginning."
+
+'There is much talk, something more than talk, I think, about putting up
+a large church-house here, on this side of the island (north-west side)
+and of a school-house, for church also, on the south-east side.
+
+'We have all heavy coughs and colds; and I have had two or three very
+disturbed nights, owing to the illness of one of the many babies. The
+little thing howls all night.
+
+'All our means of housing people are exhausted. People flock here for
+the sake of being taught. Four new houses have been built, three are
+being built. We shall have a large Christian village here soon, I hope
+and trust. At present every place is crammed, and 25 or 30 sleep on the
+verandah. The little cooking house holds somehow or other about 24 boys;
+they pack close, not being burdened with clothes and four-posters. I
+sleep on a table, people under and around it. I am very well, barring
+this heavy cold and almost total loss of voice for a few hours in the
+morning and evening.
+
+'August 1st.--Very tired 7 A.M., Prayers 7.20-8.20, school 8.20-10;
+baptized 55 infants and young children. Now it is past 1; a boisterous
+day, though as yet no rain. I had a cup of cocoa at 6.30, and at 10.30
+a plate of rice and a couple of eggs, nice clean fare. The weather is
+against me, so cold, wet, and so boisterous. I got a good night though,
+for I sent Mrs. Rhoda and her squalling baby to another house, and so
+slept quietly.
+
+'I am sorry that teaching is so irksome to me. I am, in a sense, at it
+all day. But there is so much to be done, and the people, worthy souls,
+have no idea that one can ever be tired. After I was laid down on my
+table, with my air-pillow under my head and my plaid over me, I woke up
+from a doze to find the worthy Tanoagnene sitting with his face towards
+me, waiting for a talk about the rather comprehensive subject of
+Baptism.
+
+'And at all odd times I ought to be teaching George and others how to
+teach, the hardest work of all. I think what a life a real pedagogue
+must have of it. There is so much variety with me, so much change and
+holiday, and so much that has its special interest.
+
+'The "Southern Cross" has been gone a week. I hope they have not this
+kind of weather. If they have, they are getting a good knocking about,
+and they number about 55 on board.
+
+'August 6th.--To-day there is no rain, for the first time for weeks. It
+blew a heavy gale all night, and had done so with heavy rain for some
+days before.
+
+'At 8 A.M. to-day I baptized 14 grown men, one an old bald man, and
+another with a son of sixteen or so, five women and six lads, taught
+entirely in George's school. Afterwards, at a different service, 7
+infants and little children were baptized. 238 + 5 who have died have
+now been baptized since the beginning of July. To-day's service was very
+comforting. I pray and trust that these grown-up men and women may be
+kept steadfast to their profession. It is a great blessing that I could
+think it right to take this step. You will, I know, pray for them; their
+position is necessarily a difficult one.
+
+'It is 2 P.M., and I feel tired: the crowds are gone, though little
+fellows are as usual sitting all round one. I tell them I can't talk;
+I must sit quietly, with Charlotte Yonge's "Pupils of St. John the
+Divine." Dear me, what advantage young folks have nowadays, though
+indeed the dangers of these times far outweigh those of our young days.
+
+'I suppose Lightfoot's "Commentaries" hardly come in your way. They are
+critical and learned on the Greek of St. Paul's Epistles. But there are
+dissertations which may be read by the English reader. He seems to me to
+be a very valuable man, well fitted by his learning, and moderation, and
+impartiality, and uncontroversial temper to do much good. His sympathies
+with the modern school of thought are, I fancy, beyond me.
+
+'There is no doubt that Matthew Arnold says much that is true of the
+narrowness, bigotry, and jealous un-Christian temper of Puritanism; and
+I suppose no one doubts that they do misrepresent the true doctrine of
+Christianity, both by their exclusive devotion to one side only of the
+teaching of the Bible, and by their misconception of their own favourite
+portions of Scripture. The doctrine of the Atonement was never in
+ancient times, I believe, drawn out in the form in which Luther, Calvin,
+Wesley, and others have lately stated it.
+
+'The fact of the Atonement through the Death of Christ was always
+clearly stated; the manner, the "why," the "how" man's Redemption and
+Reconciliation to God is thus brought about, was not taught, if at all,
+after the Protestant fashion.
+
+'Oxenham's "History of the Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement" is a
+fairly-written statement of what was formerly held and taught. Such
+words as "substitution," "satisfaction," with all the ideas introduced
+into the subject from the use of illustrations, e.g. of criminals
+acquitted, debts discharged, have perplexed it perhaps, rather than
+explained, what must be beyond explanation.
+
+'The ultra-Calvinistic view becomes in the mind and language of the
+hot-headed ignorant fanatic a denial of God's Unity. "The merciful Son
+appeasing the wrath of the angry Father" is language which implies two
+Wills, two Counsels in the Divine Mind (compare with this John iii. 16).
+
+I suppose that an irreverent man, being partly disgusted with the
+popular theology, having no scruples about putting aside Inspiration,
+&c., and conceiving that he himself is an adequate representative of
+the nineteenth century's intelligence, and that the nineteenth century's
+intelligence is most profound and infallible, sets to work to demolish
+what is distasteful to himself, and what the unerring criticism of the
+day rejects, correcting St. Paul's mistakes, patronising him whenever he
+is fortunate enough to receive the approbation of the great thinkers
+of our day, and so constructs a vague "human" religion out of the
+Christianity which he criticises, eliminating all that lies beyond
+the speculative range of the mind, and that demands assent by its own
+authority as God's Revelation. I don't know how to state briefly what I
+mean.
+
+'I think I can understand that this temper of mind is very prevalent in
+England now, and that I can partly trace the growth of it. Moreover, I
+feel that to ignore, despise, or denounce it, will do no good.
+
+'As a matter of fact, thousands of educated men are thinking on these
+great matters as our fathers did not think of them. Simplicity of
+belief is a great gift; but then the teaching submitted to such simple
+believers ought to be true, otherwise the simple belief leads them into
+error. How much that common Protestant writers and preachers teach is
+not true! Perhaps some of their teaching is untrue absolutely, but it is
+certainly untrue relatively, because they do not hold the "proportion
+of the faith," and by excluding some truths and presenting others in an
+extravagant form they distort the whole body of truth.
+
+'But when a man not only points out some of the popular errors,
+but claims to correct St. Paul when he Judaizes, and to do a little
+judicious Hellenizing for an inspired Apostle, one may well distrust the
+nineteenth century tone and spirit.
+
+'I do really and seriously think that a great and reverently-minded man,
+conscious of the limits of human reason--a man like Butler--would find
+his true and proper task now in presenting Christian teaching in an
+unconventional form, stripped of much error that the terms which we all
+employ when speaking doctrine seem unavoidably to carry with them.
+
+'Such a man might ask, "What do you mean by your theory of Substitution,
+Satisfaction, &c.?" "Where do you find it?" "Prove it logically from the
+Bible." "Show that the early Church held it."
+
+'Butler, as you know, reproved the curiosity of men who sought to find
+out the manner of the Atonement. "I do not find," he says, "that it is
+declared in the Scriptures." He believed the fact, of course, as his
+very soul's treasure. "Our ignorance," he says, "is the proper answer to
+such enquiries."
+
+'At the same time, no one now can do, it seems, what another
+Butler might do, viz., deal with the Bible as the best of the
+nineteenth-century men wish to hear a divine deal with it. He would
+never make mere assertions. He would never state as a proved truth, to
+be presented to a congregation's acceptance, a statement or a doctrine
+which really equalled only an opinion of Wesley or any other human
+teacher. He would never make arbitrary quotations from Scripture, and
+try to prove points by illogical reasoning, and unduly pressing
+texts which a more careful collation of MSS. has shown to be at least
+doubtful. And by fairness and learning he would win or conciliate
+right-minded men of the critical school. What offends these men is the
+cool reckless way in which so many preachers make the most audacious
+statements, wholly unsupported by any sound learning and logical
+reasoning. A man makes a statement, quotes a text or two, which he
+doesn't even know to be capable of at least one interpretation different
+from that which he gives to it; and so the critical hearer is disgusted,
+and no wonder.
+
+'One gain of this critical spirit is, that it makes all of us Clergy
+more circumspect in what we say, and many a man looks at his Greek
+Testament nowadays, and at a good Commentary too, before he ventures to
+quote a text which formerly would have done duty in its English dress
+and passed muster among an uncritical congregation. Nowadays every
+clergyman knows that there are probably men in his congregation who
+know their Bible better than he does, and as practical lawyers, men of
+business, &c., are more than his match at an argument. It offends such
+men to have a shallow-minded preacher taking for granted the very points
+that he ought to prove, giving a sentence from some divine of his school
+as if it settled the question without further reference even to the
+Bible.
+
+'This critical spirit becomes very easily captious; and a man needn't be
+unbelieving because he doesn't like to be credulous. Campbell's book
+on the Atonement is very hard, chiefly because the man writes such
+unintelligible English. I think Shairp in his "Essays," gives a good
+critique as far as it goes on the philosophical and religious manner of
+our day.
+
+'Alexander Knox says somewhere in his correspondence with Bishop Jebb
+that he couldn't understand the Protestant theory of Justification. And
+it does seem to be often stated as if the terms employed in describing a
+mere transaction could adequately convey the true power and meaning of a
+Divine mystery.
+
+'But I only puzzle you, I dare say, and certainly I am liable to the
+charge of not writing intelligible English. I can tell you I am glad
+enough that I am not called on to preach on these subjects after the
+fashion that a preacher in England must go to work.
+
+'It is a cool thing to say, but I do believe that what half our
+English congregations want is just the plain simple teaching that our
+Melanesians get, only the English congregations wouldn't stand it.'
+
+
+A letter to Arthur Coleridge is of the same date:--
+
+
+'Mota Island: August 6, 1871--
+
+'My dear Arthur,--I have had a busy day, having baptized thirty-two
+persons, of whom twenty-five are adults; and then the crowd, the
+incessant talking, teaching, and the anxious feeling which attend any
+step of so much importance as the Baptism from heathenism. Fourteen
+of the men are married, two are elderly, several are middle-aged,
+five women are among the number. I believe that God's spirit is indeed
+working in the hearts of these people. Some twelve or thirteen years
+have passed, and only now have I felt that I could take the step of
+baptizing the infants and young children here, the parents promising
+that they shall be sent to school as they grow up. About 200 young
+children have during the past month been baptized: things seem hopeful.
+It is very happy work; and I get on pretty well, often very tired, but
+that doesn't matter.
+
+'I could wish all my good friends were here, that those who have been
+enabled to contribute to this end might see for themselves something
+of the long hoped for beginning of a new state of things in this little
+island.
+
+'August 11.--In a little more than a month 248 persons have been
+baptized here, twenty-five of them adults, the rest infants and young
+children. I am very sorry to think that I must leave them soon, for I
+expect the "Southern Cross" in a few days; and I must go to the Solomon
+Islands, from them to Santa Cruz Island, and so to Norfolk Island,
+calling here on the way. Then I am off to the Fiji Islands for, I
+suppose, a month or six weeks. There are some 6,000 or 7,000 white
+people there, and it is assumed by them and the Church people in this
+part of the world that I must be regarded as their Bishop. Very soon a
+separate Bishop ought to be at work there, and I shall probably have to
+make some arrangement with the settlers. Then, on the other hand, I want
+to look into the question of South Sea Islanders who are taken to the
+Fiji plantations.
+
+'How far I can really examine into the matter, I hardly know. But many
+of the settlers invite me to consider the matter with them.
+
+'I believe that for the most part the islanders receive good treatment
+when on the plantations, but I know that many of them are taken away
+from their islands by unfair means.
+
+'The settlers are only indirectly responsible for this. The traders and
+sailing masters of the vessels who take away the islanders are the most
+culpable. But the demand creates the supply.
+
+'Among all my multifarious occupations here, I have not much time for
+reading; I am never alone night or day. I sleep on a table, with some
+twelve or more fellows around me; and all day long people are about me,
+in and out of school hours. But I have read, for the third time I think,
+Lightfoot's "Galatians"--and I am looking forward to receiving his book
+on the Ephesians. He doesn't lay himself out to do exactly the work
+that Bishop Ellicott has done so excellently, and his dissertations are
+perhaps the most valuable part of his work. He will gain the ear of the
+men of this generation, rather than Ellicott; he sympathises more with
+modern modes of thought, and is less rigid than Ellicott. But he seems
+very firm on all the most essential and primary points, and I am indeed
+thankful for such a man. I don't find much time for difficult reading;
+I go on quietly, Hebrew, &c. I have many good books on both Old and New
+Testaments, English and German, and some French, e.g. Keuss and Guizot.
+
+'I like to hear something of what this restless speculative scientific
+generation is thinking and doing. But I can't read with much pleasure
+the fragmentary review literature of the day. The "Cornhill" and that
+class of books I can't stand, and sketchy writings. The best specimens
+of light reading I have seen of late are Charlotte Yonge's "Pupils of
+St. John the Divine," and Guizot's "St. Louis," excellent.
+
+'I did read, for it was put on board, Disraeli's novel. I was on my back
+sea-sick for four days; what utter rubbish! clever nonsense! And I have
+read Mr. Arnold's "St. Paul and Protestantism." He says some clever
+things about the Puritan mind, no doubt. But what a painful book it is:
+can't he see that he is reducing all that the spirit of a man must needs
+rest on to the level of human criticism? simply eliminating from the
+writings of the Apostles, and I suppose from the words of the Saviour,
+all that is properly and strictly Divine.--[Then follows much that has
+been before given.]--How [winding up thus] thankful I am that I am far
+away from the noise and worry of this sceptical yet earnest age!
+
+'There is something hazy about your friend Davis's writings. I know some
+of his publications, and sympathise to a very considerable extent with
+him. But I can't be sure that I always understand him: that school has a
+language of its own, and I am not so far initiated as to follow.
+
+'I can't understand Maurice, much as I respect him. It is simply wasting
+my time and my brains to attempt to read him; he has great thoughts,
+and he makes them intelligible to people less stupid than me, and many
+writers whom I like and understand have taken their ideas from him; but
+I cannot understand him. And I think many of his men have his faults. At
+least I am so conceited as to think it is not all my fault.
+
+'Do you know two little books by Norris, Canon of Bristol, "Key to the
+Gospel History," and a Manual on the Catechism?
+
+'They are well worth reading, indeed I should almost say studying, so as
+to mould the teaching of your young ones upon them.
+
+'How you would be amused could you see the figures and scenes which
+surround me here! To-day about 140 men, women, lads and girls are
+working voluntarily here, clearing and fencing the gardens, and digging
+the holes for the yams, and they do this to help us in the school; we
+have two pigs killed, and give them a bit of a feast. The feeling is
+very friendly. A sculptor might study them to great advantage, though
+clothing is becoming common here now. Our thirty-four baptized adults
+and our sixteen or twenty old scholars wear decent clothing, of course.
+
+'Well, I must leave off.
+
+'I think very often of you, your wife and children, and, indeed, of you
+all. It would be very nice to spend a few weeks with you, but I should
+not get on well in your climate.
+
+'The heat seems to suit me better, and I am pretty well here. Indeed I
+am better than I have been for more than a year, though I have a good
+deal of discomfort.
+
+'Good-bye, dear Arthur. How often I think of your dear dear Father.
+
+'Your affectionate Cousin,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+To the sisters, the journal continues--recording, on August 14, the
+Baptism of twelve men and women the day before, the Communion of
+sixteen at 7 A.M., the presence of fifty-six baptized persons at morning
+service. More than 100 were working away the ensuing day in preparing
+yam gardens for Kohimarama, while two pigs were stewing in native ovens
+to feast them afterwards; and the Bishop was planting cocoa-nut trees
+and sowing flower seeds, or trying experiments with a machine for
+condensing water, in his moments of relaxation, which were few, though
+he was fairly well, and very happy, as no one can doubt on reading
+this:--
+
+'Lots of jolly little children, and many of them know me quite well and
+are not a bit shy. They are often very sad-looking objects, and as they
+don't get regularly washed, they often have large sores and abscesses,
+poor little things. But there are many others--clean-skinned, reddish
+brown, black-eyed, merry little souls among them. The colour of the
+people is just what Titian and the Venetian painters delighted in, the
+colour of their own weather-beaten Venetian boatmen, glowing warm rich
+colour. White folks look as if they were bleached and had all the colour
+washed out of them.
+
+'Some of the Solomon Islanders are black, and some of the New Hebrides
+people glossy and smooth and strong-looking; but here you seldom see any
+very dark people, and there are some who have the yellow, almost olive
+complexion of the South European. Many of the women are tattooed from
+head to foot, a regular network of a bluish inlaid pattern. It is not
+so common with the men, rather I ought to say very unusual with them,
+though many have their bodies marked pretty freely.'
+
+On the 17th sixteen more adults were baptized, elderly men, whose sons
+had been baptized in New Zealand coming in, and enemies resigning deadly
+feuds.
+
+The work in Mota is best summed up in this last letter to Bishop
+Abraham, begun the day after what proved the final farewell to the flock
+there, for the 'Southern Cross' came in on the 19th, and the last voyage
+was at once commenced:--
+
+
+"'Southern Cross": Sunday, August 20, 1871.
+
+'My dear dear Friends,--Yesterday the "Southern Cross" came to me at
+Mota, twenty-seven days after leaving that island for Norfolk Island
+with some fifty Melanesians on board under charge of Bice.
+
+'Into what a new world your many kind affectionate letters take me!
+And how good it must be for me to be taught to think more than I, alas!
+usually do, about the trials and sorrows of others.
+
+'I have had such a seven weeks at Mota, broken by a three weeks' course
+in the New Hebrides, into two portions of three and four weeks.
+
+'Last year we said in our Report, that the time seemed to be come when
+we should seek to move the people in Mota to do more than assent to the
+truth of our words and the blessings promised in the Gospel, when
+we should urge them to appropriate to themselves those blessings, by
+abandoning their ignorant heathen ways, and embracing Christianity.
+
+'That time has come in the good Providence of God, in answer to His
+all-prevailing Intercession, and hastened (who can doubt it?) by the
+prayers of the faithful everywhere--your Whit-Sunday thoughts and
+prayers, your daily thoughts and prayers, all contributing to bring
+about a blessed change indeed in the little island.
+
+'In these two months I have baptized 289 persons in Mota, 231 children
+and infants, seventeen of the lads and boys at Kohimarama, George
+Sarawia's school, and forty-one grown and almost all married men and
+women.
+
+'I have tried to proceed cautiously and to act only when I had every
+human probability of a personal conviction and sincere desire to embrace
+Christian teaching and to lead a Christian life. I think the adult
+candidates were all competently instructed in the great truths.
+
+'I feel satisfied of their earnestness, and I think it looks like a
+stable, permanent work. Yet I need not tell you how my old text is ever
+in my mind, "Thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged." Now more than
+ever are your prayers needed for dear old George Sarawia and his infant
+Church.
+
+'I never had such an experience before. It is something quite new to me.
+Classes regularly, morning and evening, and all day parties coming to
+talk and ask questions, some bringing a wife or child, some a brother,
+some a friend. We were 150 sleeping on the Mission premises, houses
+being put up all round by people coming from a distance.
+
+'Scarce a moment's rest, but the work so interesting and absorbing, that
+I could scarcely feel weariness. The weather for six out of the seven
+weeks was very rainy and bad generally; but I am and was well, very
+well--not very strong, yet walking to Gatava and back, five or six
+miles, on slippery and wet paths, and schooling and talking all day.
+
+'The actual services were somewhat striking. The behaviour of the people
+reverent and quiet during the infants' and children's baptisms; and
+remarkably so during the baptisms of adults.
+
+'You can understand the drift of my teaching: trying to keep to the
+great main truths, so as not to perplex their minds with a multiplicity
+of new thoughts.
+
+'I think that I shall have to stay a few days at Mota on my return
+(D.V.) from Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands, as there are still many
+Catechumens.
+
+'I am half disposed to ordain George Priest on my return (D.V.) Yet on
+the whole I think it may be better to wait till another year. But I am
+balancing considerations. Should any delay occur from my incapacity to
+go to Mota, which I don't at all anticipate, it would be a serious thing
+to leave such a work in the hands of a Deacon, e.g. ten communicants are
+permanent dwellers now in Mota; and I really believe that George, though
+not learned, is in all essentials quite a fit person to be ordained
+Priest. This growth of the work, owing, no doubt, much to him, is a
+proof of God's blessing on him.
+
+'I pray God that this may be a little gleam of light to cheer you, dear
+friends, on your far more toilsome and darksome path. It is a little
+indeed in one sense; yet to me, who know the insufficiency of the
+human agency, it is a proof indeed that the Gospel is dunamis Theou eis
+soterian.
+
+'I can hardly realize it all yet. It is good to be called away from it
+for a month or two. I often wished that Codrington, Palmer, and the rest
+could be with me: it seemed selfish to be witnessing by myself all this
+great happiness--that almost visible victory over powers of darkness.
+
+'There is little excitement, no impulsive vehement outpouring of
+feeling. People come and say, "I do see the evil of the old life; I
+do believe in what you teach us. I feel in my heart new desires, new
+wishes, new hopes. The old life has become hateful to me; the new life
+is full of joy. But it is so mawa (weighty), I am afraid. What if after
+making these promises I go back?"
+
+"What do you doubt--God's power and love, or your own weakness?"
+
+'"I don't doubt His power and love; but I am afraid."
+
+'"Afraid of what?" '"Of falling away."
+
+'"Doesn't He promise His help to those who need it?"
+
+'"Yes, I know that." '"Do you pray?"
+
+'"I don't know how to pray properly, but I and my wife say--God, make
+our hearts light. Take away the darkness. We believe that you love us
+because you sent JESUS to become a Man and die for us, but we can't
+understand it all. Make us fit to be baptized."
+
+'"If you really long to lead a new life, and pray to God to strengthen
+you, come in faith, without doubting."
+
+'Evening by evening my school with the baptized men and women is the
+saying by heart (at first sentence by sentence after me, now they know
+them well) the General Confession, which they are taught to use in the
+singular number, as a private prayer, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the
+ten Commandments (a short version). They are learning the Te Deum. They
+use a short prayer for grace to keep their baptismal vows.
+
+'I think that they know fairly well the simpler meaning of these various
+compendiums of Prayer, Faith and Duty. But why enter into details? You
+know all about it. And, indeed, you have all had your large share, so to
+say, in bringing about this happy change.
+
+'And then I turn from all this little secluded work to the thoughts of
+England and France, the Church at home, &c....
+
+'I have now read the "Guardian's" account of the civil war in France.
+There is nothing like it to be read of, except in the Old Testament
+perhaps. It is like the taking of Jerusalem.
+
+'It is an awful thing! most awful! I never read anything like it. Will
+they ever learn to be humble? I don't suppose that even now they admit
+their sins to have brought this chastening on them. It is hard to say
+this without indulging a Pharisaic spirit, but I don't mean to palliate
+our national sins by exaggerating theirs. Yet I hardly think any mob but
+a French or Irish mob could have done what these men did.
+
+'And what will be the result? Will it check the tendency to
+Republicanism? Will Governments unite to put down the many-headed
+monster? Will they take a lesson from the fate of Paris and France? Of
+course Republicanism is not the same thing as Communism. But where are
+we to look for the good effects of Republicanism?
+
+'August 22nd.--The seventh anniversary of dear Fisher's death. May God
+grant us this year a blessing at Santa Cruz!
+
+'Your affectionate
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+The last letter to the beloved sister Fanny opened with the date of her
+never-forgotten birthday, the 27th of August, though it was carried
+on during the following weeks; and in the meantime Mr. Atkin, Stephen,
+Joseph and the rest were called for from Wango, in Bauro, where they had
+had a fairly peaceable stay, in spite of a visit from a labour traffic
+vessel, called the 'Emma Bell,' with twenty-nine natives under hatches,
+and, alas! on her way for more. After picking the Bauro party up, the
+Bishop wrote to the elder Mr. Atkin:--
+
+
+'Wango Bay (at anchor): August 25, 1871.
+
+'My dear Mr. Atkin,--You may imagine my joy at finding Joe looking
+really well when we reached this part of the world on the 23rd. I
+thought him looking unwell when he spent an hour or two with me at Mota,
+about ten weeks since, and I begged him to be careful, to use quinine
+freely, &c. He is certainly looking now far better than he was then, and
+he says that he feels quite well and strong. There is the more reason to
+be thankful for this, because the weather has been very rough, and
+rain has been falling continually. I had the same weather in the Banks
+Islands; scarcely a day for weeks without heavy rain. Here the sandy
+soil soon becomes dry again, it does not retain the moisture, and so far
+it has the advantage over the very tenacious clayey soil of Mota.
+
+'Nearly all the time of the people here has been spent--wasted, perhaps,
+we should say--in making preparations for a great feast: so that Joe
+found it very hard to gain the attention of the people, when he tried
+to point out to them better things to think of than pigs, native money,
+tobacco and pipes. Such advance as has been made is rather in the
+direction of gaining the confidence and good-will of the people all
+about, and in becoming very popular among all the young folks. Nearly
+all the young people would come away with him, if the elders would allow
+them to do so. I have no doubt that much more has been really effected
+than is apparent to us now. Words have been said that have not been
+lost, and seed sown that will spring up some day. Just as at Mota, now,
+after some twelve or thirteen years, we first see the result in the
+movement now going on there, so it will be, by God's goodness, some day
+here. There at Mota the good example of George Sarawia, the collective
+result of the teaching of many years, and the steady conduct, with one
+exception, of the returned scholars, have now been blessed by God to
+the conversion of many of the people. We no longer hesitate to baptize
+infants and young children, for the parents engage to send them to
+school when they grow up, and are themselves receiving instruction in a
+really earnest spirit.
+
+'Many, too, of those who have for some time abandoned the old ways, but
+yet did not distinctly accept the new teaching, have now felt the "power
+of the Gospel;" and though many candidates are still under probation,
+and I sought to act with caution, and to do all that lay in my power
+to make them perceive the exceeding solemnity of being baptized, the
+weighty promises, the great responsibility, yet I thought it right to
+baptize not less than forty-one grown men and women, besides seventeen
+lads of George's school, about whom there could be no hesitation. It
+has, indeed, been a very remarkable season there. I spent seven weeks
+broken by a New Hebrides trip of three weeks' duration into two periods
+of three and four weeks. Bice was with me for the first three weeks;
+and with a good many of our scholars turned into teachers here, we three
+(Bice, George, and I) kept up very vigorous school: a continual talking,
+questioning, &c., about religion, were always going on day and night.
+Many young children and infants were baptized, about 240 in all + 41 +
+17.
+
+'You will, I am sure, pray more than ever for George and all these
+converts to Christianity, that they may be strengthened and guarded
+against all evil, and live lives worthy of their profession. We hope to
+spend two or three days there on our return (D.V.); and if so, Joe will
+write you his impressions. Meanwhile, I tell him what I fully believe,
+that no one hearty effort of his to benefit these poor people is thrown
+away. Already they allow us to take boys, and perhaps this very day we
+may go off with two young girls also. And all this will result in some
+great change for the better some day.
+
+'You will want to hear a word about myself. I am much better, partly I
+confess owing to the warmth of the climate, which certainly agrees with
+me. I may feel less well as we draw by-and-by to the south once more.
+
+'I can't take strong exercise, and that is a privation. It did me good,
+and I feel the want of it; but I am much better than I was a year or ten
+months ago, and I do my work very fairly, and get about better than I
+expected. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Atkin and Mary, and believe me to
+be
+
+'Your very sincere Friend,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+Mr. Brooke and Edward Wogale had had a far more trying sojourn at
+Florida.
+
+'Wogale suffered much from his eyes; and the labour ships were
+frequently on the coast--all the three varieties: the fairly conducted
+one with a Government agent on board; the "Snatch-snatch," which only
+inveigled, but did not kill without necessity; and the "Kill-kill,"
+which absolutely came head-hunting. It was a dreary eleven weeks.
+
+'On July 11, a "Sydney vessel," as the natives called it, was on the
+west of the island, and nine natives were reported to Mr Brooke as
+having been killed, and with so much evidence that he had no doubt on
+the subject.
+
+'On the 13th Takua came to him to say the "Kill-kill" vessel had
+anchored four miles off. What was he to do?
+
+'"How was it you and Bisope came first, and then these slaughterers? Do
+you send them?"
+
+'Mr. Brooke advised them to remain on shore; but if the strangers landed
+and wanted to kill or burn them, to fight for their lives. "Your words
+are the words of a chief," said Takua.
+
+'This ship, however, sailed away; but on August 13 another came, much
+like the "Southern Cross," and canoes went out to her, in one of them
+Dudley Lankona. These returned safely, but without selling their fruit;
+and Dudley related that the men said, "Bishop and Brooke were bad, but
+they themselves were good, and had pipes and tobacco for those who would
+go with them."
+
+'These, however, went away without doing them harm, only warning them
+that another vessel which was becalmed near at hand was a "killer," and
+the people were so uneasy about her that Mr. Brooke went on board,
+and was taken by the captain for a maker of cocoa-nut oil. He was
+a Scotchman, from Tanna, where he had settled, and was in search of
+labourers; a good-natured friendly kind of person on the whole, though
+regarding natives as creatures for capture.
+
+'"If I get a chance to carry a lot of them off," he said, "I'll do it;
+but killing is not my creed."
+
+'Mr. Brooke hinted that the natives might attack him, and he pointed to
+six muskets. "That's only a few of them. Let them come. We'll give it
+them pretty strong."
+
+'He was rather taken aback when he found that he was talking to a
+clergyman. "Well, wherever you go nowadays there's missionaries. Who
+would have thought you'd got so far down?"
+
+'And he looked with regret at Mr. Brooke's party of natives in their
+canoes, and observed, "Ah! my fine fellows, if your friend was not here
+I'd have the whole lot of you: what a haul!"
+
+'He said the other ship was from Queensland, and had a Government agent
+on board, of whom he spoke with evident awe.
+
+'On Mr. Brooke's return, Takua and Dikea were furbishing up old guns
+which some incautious person on board the "Curacoa" had given them,
+and they were disappointed to find that there could be no attack on the
+vessel.'
+
+She, however, was scarcely gone before, at the other end of the island,
+Vara, four out of five men were killed by a boat's crew. The survivor,
+Sorova, told Mr. Brooke that he and one companion had gone out in one
+canoe, and three more in another, to a vessel that lay near the shore.
+He saw four blacks in her, as he thought Ysabel men. A white man came
+down from the boat, and sat in the bow of Sorova's canoe, but presently
+stood up and capsized both canoes, catching at Sorova's belt, which
+broke, and the poor fellow was thus enabled to get away, and shelter
+himself under the stern of the canoe, till he could strike out for land;
+but he saw a boat come round from the other side of the ship, with four
+men--whether whites or light-coloured islanders was not clear--but they
+proceeded to beat his companions with oars, then to fall on them with
+tomahawks, and finally cut off their heads, which were taken on board,
+and their bodies thrown to the sharks.
+
+These men evidently belonged to that lowest and most horrible class
+of men-stealers, who propitiate the chiefs by assisting them in
+head-hunting.
+
+Of course the island was full of rage, and on the 26th again another
+brig was in sight. Spite of warning, desire to trade induced five men to
+put off in a canoe. Two boats came down, and placed themselves on either
+side. Mr. Brooke could not watch, but a fierce shout arose from the
+crowd on shore, they rushed to the great canoe house, and a war fleet
+was launched, Dikea standing up in the foremost, with a long ebony spear
+in his hand. Fortunately they were too late: the boats were hauled up,
+and the brig went off at full sail. Whether the five were killed or
+carried captive is not clear.
+
+The whole place was full of wailing. Revenge was all the cry. 'Let not
+their pigs be killed,' said Takua; 'we will give them to Bisope, he
+shall avenge us.' His brother Dikea broke out: 'My humour is bad because
+Bisope does not take us about in his vessel to kill-kill these people!'
+
+When, two days later, the 'Southern Cross' was unmistakeably in sight,
+Takua said, 'Let Bisope only bring a man-of-war, and get me vengeance
+on my adversaries, and I shall be exalted like--like--like our Father
+above!'
+
+The residence of Mr. Brooke in the island, and the testimony of their
+own countrymen to the way of life in Norfolk Island, had taught the
+Floridians to separate the Bishop from their foes; but it could scarcely
+be thus in places where confidence in him had not been established.
+
+The Bishop meanwhile wrote on:--
+
+'The New Zealand Bishops have sent me a kind letter, a round robin,
+urging me to go to England; but they are ignorant of two things:-- 1st,
+that I am already much better; 2nd, that I should not derive the benefit
+generally to my spirits, &c. from a visit to England as they would, and
+take it for granted that I should do so.
+
+'They use only one other argument, viz., that I must rest after some
+years' work. That is not so. I don't feel the pressure of work for a
+very simple reason, viz., that I don't attempt to work as I used to do.
+
+'But just now, it is quite clear that I must not go, unless there were a
+very obvious necessity for it. For, 1st, Mota needs all the help we can
+give; 2nd, several Melanesians are coming on rapidly to the state
+when they ought to be ordained; 3rd, we are about to start (D.V.) new
+stations at Ambrym, Leper's Island, and Savo; 4th, the school is so
+large that we want "all hands" to work it; 5th, I must go to Fiji, and
+watch both Fiji and Queensland; 6th, after the 1872 voyage, we shall
+need, as I think, to sell this vessel, and have another new one built
+in Auckland. The funds will need careful nursing for this. But I will
+really not be foolish. If I have a return of the bad symptoms, I will go
+to Dr. Goldsboro', and if he advises it strongly, will go to England.
+
+'The deportation of natives is going on to a very great extent here, as
+in the New Hebrides and Banks Islands. Means of all kinds are employed:
+sinking canoes and capturing the natives, enticing men on board, and
+getting them below, and then securing hatches and imprisoning them.
+Natives are retaliating. Lately, two or three vessels have been taken
+and all hands killed, besides boats' crews shot at continually. A man
+called on me at Mota the other day, who said that five out of seven in
+the boat were struck by arrows a few days before. The arrows were
+not poisoned, but one man was very ill. It makes even our work rather
+hazardous, except where we are thoroughly well known. I hear that a
+vessel has gone to Santa Cruz, and I must be very cautious there, for
+there has been some disturbance almost to a certainty.
+
+'Whatever regulations the Government of Queensland or the Consul of Fiji
+may make, they can't restrain the traders from employing unlawful
+means to get hold of the natives. And I know that many of these men
+are utterly unscrupulous. But I can't get proofs that are sufficient to
+obtain a verdict in a court of law.
+
+'Some islands are almost depopulated; and I dread the return of these
+"labourers," when they are brought back. They bring guns and other
+things, which enable them to carry out with impunity all kinds of
+rascality. They learn nothing that can influence them for good. They are
+like squatters in the bush, coming into the town to have their fling.
+These poor fellows come back to run riot, steal men's wives, shoot,
+fight, and use their newly acquired possessions to carry out more
+vigorously all heathen practices.
+
+'September 3rd.--At anchor: Savo Island: Sunday. The experiment of
+anchoring at Sara (Florida) and this place answers well. The decks
+were crowded and crammed; but the people behaved very well, barring the
+picking up of everything they could lay hands upon, as is natural to
+many persons whose education has been neglected.
+
+'Yesterday I took Wadrokala (of Nengone) to the village here, where he
+is to live with some of our old scholars from these parts, and try to
+begin a good work among the people. He has four baptized friends, a
+married couple being two, and three other very good lads, to start with.
+It was a long and very hot walk. A year ago I could not have got through
+it. I was tired, but not over-tired.
+
+'And now we have had Holy Communion; and this afternoon we take our
+party on shore: Wadrokala's wife Carry, and Jemima, their daughter of
+eight or nine. There is no fighting or quarrelling here now. I know all
+the people, so I leave them with good hope.'
+
+
+On the 7th, Joseph Atkin began a letter as follows:--
+
+
+'Our Bishop is much improved in health and strength. His stay at Mota
+has put new life into him again; the whole island is becoming Christian.
+
+'The Bishop is now very strong and clear about establishing permanent
+schools on the islands; I fear in almost too great a hurry. The great
+requisite for a school is a native teacher; and generally, if not
+always, a teacher ought, as George was at Mota, to be well supported by
+a little band of native converts, who, if their teaching, in the common
+use of the word, is not much, can, by their consistent lives, preach a
+continual sermon, that all who see may understand. What is the use of
+preaching an eloquent sermon on truth to a people who do not know what
+it means, or purity of which they have never dreamt? Their ears take
+in the words, they sound very pleasant, and they go away again to their
+sin; and the preacher is surprised that they can do so. I do not forget
+the power of the Spirit to change men's hearts, but do not expect the
+Holy Spirit to work with you as He never worked with anyone else, but
+rather as He always has worked with others.... If in looking into the
+history of Missions, you find no heathen people has been even nominally
+and professionally Christianised within, say, ten or fifteen years, why
+not be content to set to work to try that the conversion of those to
+whom you are sent may be as thorough and real as possible in that time,
+and not to fret at being unable to hurry the work some years?'....
+
+
+This letter too was destined never to be finished, though it was
+continued later, as will be seen.
+
+
+The Bishop's next letter is dated--
+
+'September 16th.--Off the Santa Cruz group, some twenty miles distant.
+To-morrow, being Sunday, we stay quietly some way off the islands;
+and on Monday (D.V.) we go to Nukapu, and perhaps to Piteni too, wind
+permitting. You can enter into my thoughts, how I pray God that if it be
+His will, and if it be the appointed time, He may enable us in His
+own way to begin some little work among these very wild but vigorous
+energetic islanders. I am fully alive to the probability that some
+outrage has been committed here by one or more vessels. The master of
+the vessel that Atkin saw did not deny his intention of taking away from
+these or from any other islands any men or boys he could induce to come
+on board. I am quite aware that we may be exposed to considerable risk
+on this account. I trust that all may be well; that if it be His will
+that any trouble should come upon us, dear Joseph Atkin, his father and
+mother's only son, may be spared. But I don't think there is very much
+cause for fear; first, because at these small reef islands they know me
+pretty well, though they don't understand as yet our object in coming
+to them, and they may very easily connect us white people with the other
+white people who have been ill-using them; second, last year I was on
+shore at Nukapu and Piteni for some time, and I can talk somewhat with
+the people; third, I think that if any violence has been used to the
+natives of the north face of the large island, Santa Cruz, I shall hear
+of it from these inhabitants of the small islets to the north, Nukapu,
+and Piteni, and so be forewarned.
+
+'If any violence has been used, it will make it impossible for us to go
+thither now. It would simply be provoking retaliation. One must say,
+as Newman of the New Dogma, that the progress of truth and religion
+is delayed, no one can say how long. It is very sad. But the Evil One
+everywhere and always stirs up opposition and hindrance to every attempt
+to do good. And we are not so sorely tried in this way as many others.'
+
+Contrary winds--or rather a calm, with such light wind as there was,
+contrary--kept the vessel from approaching the island for four days
+more, while the volcano made every night brilliant, and the untiring pen
+ran on with affectionate responses to all that the last home packet had
+contained, and then proceeded to public interests:--
+
+'Then the great matters you write about--the great social and religious
+crisis in England now. Moreover, who can estimate the effect of this
+German and French war upon the social state of Europe? Possibly a
+temporary violent suppression in North Germany of Republican principles,
+a reaction, an attempt to use the neutrality of England as a focus for
+political agitation. And then the extravagant luxury side by side with
+degrading poverty! It is a sad picture; and you who have to contemplate
+it have many trials and troubles that are in one sense far away from me.
+
+'September 19th.--Here we are becalmed; for three days we have scarcely
+made ten miles in the direction we want to go. It is not prudent to go
+near the large island, unless we have a good breeze, and can get away
+from the fleets of canoes if we see reason for so doing. We may have one
+hundred and fifty canoes around us, and perhaps sixty or eighty strong
+men on deck, as we had last year; and this year we have good reason
+for fearing that labour vessels have been here. Many of the people here
+would distinguish between us and them; but it is quite uncertain, for
+we can't talk to the people of the large island, and can't therefore
+explain our object in so doing. 'Yesterday, being becalmed, a large
+canoe, passing (for there was occasionally a light air from the north)
+from Nupani to Santa Cruz, came near us. It could not get away, and the
+"Southern Cross" could not get near it. So we went to it in the boat. I
+can talk to these Nupani people, and we had a pleasant visit. They knew
+my name directly, and were quite at ease the moment they were satisfied
+it was the Bishop. They will advertise us, I dare say, and say a good
+word for us, and we gave them presents, &c.
+
+'I shall be thankful if this visit ends favourably, and oh! how thankful
+if we obtain any lads. It seems so sad to leave this fine people year
+after year in ignorance and darkness, but He knows and cares for them
+more than we do. 'The sun is nearly vertical; thermometer 91 deg., and 88 deg.
+at night; I am lazy, but not otherwise affected by it, and spend my day
+having some, about an hour's, school, and in writing and reading.
+
+'I think that the Education question has been more satisfactorily
+settled than I dared to hope a year ago. A religious, as opposed to
+an irreligious education has been advisedly chosen by the country, and
+denominationalism (what a word!) as against secularism. Well, that's
+not much from a Christian country; but it isn't the choice of an
+anti-Christian, or even of a country indifferent to Christianity.
+
+'Mrs. Abraham and Pena have sent me Shairp's little book on "Religion
+and Culture." It is capital; and if you knew the man you would not
+wonder at his writing such sensible, thoughtful books. He is one of the
+most "loveable" beings I ever knew. His good wholesome teaching is about
+the best antidote I have seen to much of the poison circulating about in
+magazines and alluring ignorant, unsound people with the specious name
+of philosophy. And he is always fair, and credits his opponents with all
+that can possibly be imagined to extenuate the injury they are doing by
+their false and faithless teaching.'
+
+
+Here the letter suddenly ceases. No doubt this last sentence had given
+the last impulse towards addressing the old Balliol friend above named,
+now Principal of St. Andrew's, in the following:--
+
+
+'"Southern Cross" Mission Schooner,
+
+'In the Santa Cruz Group, S.W. Pacific: September 19.
+
+'My dear Principal,--You won't remember my name, and it is not likely
+that you can know anything about me, but I must write you a line and
+thank you for writing your two books (for I have but two) on "Studies on
+Poetry and Philosophy," and "Religion and Culture."
+
+'The "Moral Dynamic" and the latter book are indeed the very books
+I have longed to see; books that one can put with confidence and
+satisfaction into the hands of men, young and old, in these stirring and
+dangerous times.
+
+'Then it did me good to be recalled to old scenes and to dream of old
+faces.
+
+'I was almost a freshman when you came up to keep your M.A. term; and as
+I knew some of the men you knew, you kindly, as I well remember, gave
+me the benefit of it. As John Coleridge's cousin and the acquaintance
+of John Keate, Cumin, Palmer, and dear James Eiddell, I came to know men
+whom otherwise I could not have known, and of these how many there still
+are that I have thought of and cared for ever since!
+
+'You must have thought of Riddell, dear James Riddell, when you wrote
+the words in p. 76 of your book on "Religion and Culture": "We have
+known such." Yes, there was indeed about him a beauty of character that
+is very very rare. Sellar is in the north somewhere, I think I have seen
+Essays by him on Lucretius.
+
+'I think that he is Professor at some University. I am ashamed to know
+so little about him. Should you see him, pray remember me most kindly
+to him. As year after year passes on, it is very pleasant to think there
+are men on the other side of the world that I can with a certainty count
+upon as friends.
+
+'I find it difficult to read much of what is worth reading nowadays, and
+I have little taste for magazines, &c., I confess.
+
+'But I know enough of what is working in men's minds in Europe to be
+heartily thankful for such thoughtful wholesome teaching as yours.
+
+'Indeed, you are doing a good work, and I pray God it may be abundantly
+blessed.
+
+'I remain, my dear Friend,
+
+'Very sincerely yours,
+
+'J. C. PATTESON.'
+
+
+This is the last letter apparently finished and signed!
+
+To the Bishop of Lichfield the long journal-letter says:--
+
+
+'Tenakulu (the volcano) was fine last night, but not so fine as on that
+night we saw it together. But it was very solemn to look at it, and
+think how puny all man's works are in comparison with this little
+volcano. What is all the bombardment of Paris to those masses of fire
+and hundreds of tons of rock cast out into the sea? "If He do but touch
+the hills, they shall smoke."
+
+'And now what will the next few days bring forth? It may be God's will
+that the opening for the Gospel may be given to us now. Sometimes I feel
+as if I were almost too importunate in my longings for some beginning
+here; and I try not to be impatient, and to wait His good time, knowing
+that it will come when it is the fulness of time. Then, again, I am
+tempted to think, "If not soon, if not now, the trading vessels will
+make it almost impossible, as men think, to obtain any opening here."
+But I am on the whole hopeful, though sometimes faint-hearted.
+
+'To day's First Lesson has a good verse: Haggai, ii. 4;l and there is
+Psalm xci. also.'
+
+Then follows a good deal about further plans, and need of men; ending
+with the decision that the present 'Southern Cross' ought to be sold,
+and that a new one could be built at Auckland for L2,000, which the
+Bishop thought he could obtain in New Zealand and Australia.
+
+'Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O
+Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people
+of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord
+of hosts.'
+
+A much smaller additional vessel would be useful; and he merrily says:--
+
+'You don't know an amiable millionaire, with a nice quick yacht from 70
+to 120 tons, to be given away, and sent out to Auckland free of expense,
+I suppose.
+
+'We must give up all idea of our Chapel for a time, but we can do
+without it. And a vessel is necessary.'
+
+The last of this letter is on Delitzsch and Biblical criticism, but too
+much mixed up with other persons' private affairs for quotation.
+
+Reading Hebrew with Mr. Atkin, or studying Isaiah alone, had been the
+special recreation throughout the voyage.
+
+His scholar Edward Wogale has given a touch of that last morning of the
+20th:--
+
+'And as we were going to that island where he died, but were still in
+the open sea, he schooled us continually upon Luke ii. iii. up to
+vi., but he left off with us with his death. And he preached to us
+continually at Prayers in the morning, every day, and every evening on
+the Acts of the Apostles, and he spoke as far as to the seventh chapter,
+and then we reached that island. And he had spoken admirably and very
+strongly indeed to us, about the death of Stephen, and then he went up
+ashore on that island Nukapu.'
+
+That island Nukapu lay with the blue waves breaking over the circling
+reef, the white line of coral sand, the trees coming down to it; and
+in the glowing sun of September 20, the equatorial midsummer eve, four
+canoes were seen hovering about the reef, as the 'Southern Cross' tried
+to make for the islet.
+
+Mr. Brooke says that this lingering had seemed to intensify the Bishop's
+prayer and anxiety for these poor people; and, thinking that the unusual
+movements of the vessel puzzled the people in the canoes, and that they
+might be afraid to approach, he desired that at 11.30 A.M. the boat
+should be lowered, and entered it with Mr. Atkin, Stephen Taroniara,
+James Minipa, and John Nonono. He sat in the stern sheets, and called
+back to Mr. Brooke: 'Tell the captain I may have to go ashore.' Then he
+waited to collect more things as presents to take on shore, and pulled
+towards the canoes; But they did not come to meet the boat, and seemed
+undecided whether to pull away or not. The people recognized the Bishop;
+and when he offered to go on shore they assented, and the boat went on
+to a part of the reef about two miles from the island, and there met two
+more canoes, making six in all. The natives were very anxious that they
+should haul the boat up on the reef, the tide being too low for her to
+cross it, but, when this was not consented to, two men proposed to take
+the Bishop into their boat.
+
+It will be remembered that he had always found the entering one of their
+canoes a sure way of disarming suspicion, and he at once complied. Mr.
+Atkin afterwards said he thought he caught the word 'Tabu,' as if in
+warning, and saw a basket with yams and other fruits presented; and
+those acquainted with the customs of the Polynesians--the race to
+which these islanders belonged--say that this is sometimes done that
+an intended victim may unconsciously touch something tabu, and thus may
+become a lawful subject for a blow, and someone may have tried to warn
+him.
+
+There was a delay of about twenty minutes; and then two canoes went with
+the one containing the Bishop, the two chiefs, Moto and Taula, who had
+before been so friendly to him, being in them. The tide was so low that
+it was necessary to wade over the reef, and drag the canoes across to
+the deeper lagoon within. The boat's crew could not follow; but they
+could see the Bishop land on the beach, and there lost sight of him.
+
+The boat had been about half-an-hour drifting about in company with the
+canoes, and there had been some attempt at talk, when suddenly, at about
+ten yards off, without any warning, a man stood up in one of them,
+and calling out, 'Have you anything like this?' shot off one of the
+yard-long arrows, and his companions in the other two canoes began
+shooting as quickly as possible, calling out, as they aimed, 'This for
+New Zealand man! This for Bauro man! This for Mota man!' The boat was
+pulled back rapidly, and was soon out of range, but not before three out
+of the four had been struck; James only escaped by throwing himself back
+on the seat, while an arrow had nailed John's cap to his head, Mr. Atkin
+had one in his left shoulder, and poor Stephen lay in the bottom of
+the boat, 'trussed,' as Mr. Brooke described it, with six arrows in the
+chest and shoulders.
+
+It was about two hours since they had left the ship when they reached
+it again: and Mr. Atkin said, 'We are all hurt? as they were helped
+on board; but no sooner had the arrow-head, formed of human bone, and
+acutely sharp, been extracted, than he insisted on going back to find
+his Bishop. He alone knew the way by which the reef could be crossed in
+the now rising tide, so that his presence was necessary. Meantime Mr.
+Brooke extracted as best he might the arrows from poor Stephen.
+
+'We two Bisope,' said the poor fellow, meaning that he shared the same
+fate as the Bishop.
+
+As Joseph Wate, a lad of fifteen, Mr. Atkin's Malanta godson and pupil,
+wrote afterwards, 'Joe said to me and Sapi, "We are going to look for
+the Bishop, are you two afraid?"
+
+'"No, why should I be afraid?"
+
+'"Very well, you two go and get food for yourselves, and bring a beaker
+full of water for us all, for we shall have to lie on our oars a long
+time to-day."'
+
+The others who pulled the boat were Charles Sapinamba, a sailor, and
+Mr. Bongarde, the mate, who carried a pistol, for the first time in the
+records of the 'Southern Cross.'
+
+They had long to wait till the tide was high enough to carry them
+across the reef, and they could see people on shore, at whom they gazed
+anxiously with a glass.
+
+About half-past four it became possible to cross the reef, and then two
+canoes rowed towards them: one cast off the other and went back; the
+other, with a heap in the middle, drifted towards them, and they rowed
+towards it.
+
+'But' (says Wate), 'when we came near we two were afraid, and I said to
+Joe, "If there is a man inside to attack us, when he rises up, we shall
+see him."'
+
+Then the mate took up his pistol, but the sailor said, 'Those are the
+Bishop's shoes.'
+
+As they came up with it, and lifted the bundle wrapped in matting into
+the boat, a shout or yell arose from the shore. Wate says four canoes
+put off in pursuit; but the others think their only object was to secure
+the now empty canoe as it drifted away. The boat came alongside, and
+two words passed, 'The body!' Then it was lifted up, and laid across the
+skylight, rolled in the native mat, which was secured at the head and
+feet. The placid smile was still on the face; there was a palm leaf
+fastened over the breast, and when the mat was opened there were five
+wounds, no more.
+
+The strange mysterious beauty, as it may be called, of these
+circumstances almost makes one feel as if this were the legend of a
+martyr of the Primitive Church; but the fact is literally true, and can
+be interpreted, though probably no account will ever be obtained from
+the actors in the scene.
+
+The wounds were, one evidently given with a club, which had shattered
+the right side of the skull at the back, and probably was the first, and
+had destroyed life instantly, and almost painlessly; another stroke
+of some sharp weapon had cloven the top of the head; the body was also
+pierced in one place; and there were two arrow wounds in the legs, but
+apparently not shot at the living man, but stuck in after his fall, and
+after he had been stripped, for the clothing was gone, all but the boots
+and socks. In the front of the cocoa-nut palm, there were five knots
+made in the long leaflets. All this is an almost certain indication that
+his death was the vengeance for five of the natives. 'Blood for blood'
+is a sacred law, almost of nature, wherever Christianity has not
+prevailed, and a whole tribe is held responsible for the crime of one.
+Five men in Fiji are known to have been stolen from Nukapu; and
+probably their families believed them to have been killed, and believed
+themselves to be performing a sacred duty when they dipped their weapons
+in the blood of the Bisope, whom they did not know well enough to
+understand that he was their protector. Nay, it is likely that there had
+been some such discussion as had saved him before at Mai from suffering
+for Petere's death; and, indeed, one party seem to have wished to keep
+him from landing, and to have thus solemnly and reverently treated his
+body.
+
+Even when the tidings came in the brief uncircumstantial telegram, there
+were none of those who loved and revered him who did not feel that such
+was the death he always looked for, and that he had willingly given his
+life. There was peace in the thought even while hearts trembled with
+dread of hearing of accompanying horrors; and when the full story
+arrived, showing how far more painless his death had been than had
+he lived on to suffer from his broken health, and how wonderfully the
+unconscious heathen had marked him with emblems so sacred in our eyes,
+there was thankfulness and joy even to the bereaved at home.
+
+The sweet calm smile preached peace to the mourners who had lost his
+guiding spirit, but they could not look on it long. The next morning,
+St. Matthew's Day, the body of John Coleridge Patteson was committed
+to the waters of the Pacific, his 'son after the faith,' Joseph Atkin,
+reading the Burial Service.
+
+Mr. Atkin afterwards wrote to his mother. He had written to his father
+the day before; but the substance of his letter has been given in the
+narrative:--
+
+
+'September 21, 1871.
+
+'My dear Mother,--We have had a terrible loss, such a blow that we
+cannot at all realise it. Our Bishop is dead; killed by the natives at
+Nukapu yesterday. We got the body, and buried it this morning. He was
+alone on shore, and none of us saw it done. We were attacked in the boat
+too, and Stephen so badly wounded that I am afraid there is small hope
+of his recovery. John and I have arrow wounds, but not severe. Our
+poor boys seem quite awe-stricken. Captain Jacobs is very much cut
+up. Brooke, although not at all well, has quite devoted himself to the
+wounded, and so has less time to think about it all.
+
+'It would only be selfish to wish him back. He has gone to his rest,
+dying, as he lived, in his Master's service.
+
+It seems a shocking way to die; but I can say from experience that it is
+far more to hear of than to suffer. In whatever way so peaceful a life
+as his is ended, his end is peace. There was no sign of fear or pain on
+his face--just the look that he used to have when asleep, patient and a
+little wearied. "What a stroke his death will be to hundreds!" What his
+Mission will do without him, God only knows Who has taken him away. His
+ways are not as our ways. Seeing people taken away, when, as we think,
+they are almost necessary to do God's work on earth, makes one think
+that we often think and talk too much about Christian work. What God
+requires is Christian men. He does not need the work, only gives it to
+form or perfect the character of the men whom He sends to do it.
+
+'Stephen is in great pain at times to-night; one of the arrows seems
+to have entered his lungs, and it is broken in, too deep to be got out.
+John is wounded in the right shoulder, I in the left. We are both maimed
+for the time; but, if it were not for the fear of poison, the wounds
+would not be worth noticing. I do not expect any bad consequences, but
+they are possible. What would make me cling to life more than anything
+else is the thought of you at home; but if it be God's will that I am to
+die, I know He will enable you to bear it, and bring good for you out of
+it.
+
+'Saturday, 23rd.--We are all doing well. Stephen keeps up his strength,
+sleeps well, and has no long attacks of pain. We have had good breezes
+yesterday and to-day--very welcome it is, but the motion makes writing
+too much labour. Brooke and Edward Wogale are both unwell--ague, I
+believe, with both of them; and Brooke's nerves are upset. He has slept
+most of to-day, and will probably be the better for it.'....
+
+His private journal adds:--
+
+'September 21st.--Buried the Bishop in the morning. The wounded all
+doing well, but Stephen in pain occasionally. Calm day, passed over a
+reef in the morning, about eighteen miles north of Nukapu, nine fathoms
+on it. Thermometer ninety-one degrees yesterday and to-day. Began
+writing home at night. Began reading Miss Yonge's "Chaplet of Pearls."
+
+'Friday, 22nd.--A light breeze came up in the evening, which freshened
+through the night, and carried us past Tenakulu. Stephen doing very
+well, had a good night, and has very little pain to-day. A breeze
+through the day, much cooler. I am dressing my shoulder with brine. Read
+some sermons of Vaughan's, preached at Doncaster during Passion Week.
+
+'Saturday, 23rd.--Breeze through the day. A few showers of rain.
+Brooke and Wogale down with ague; gave Wogale ipecacuanha and quinine
+afterwards. Read Mota prayers in evening. All wounds going on well.
+Finished "Chaplet of Pearls," and wrote a little.
+
+'Sunday, 24th.--This morning the wind went round to N.E. and N. and then
+died away. We were 55 miles W. of the Torres Islands at noon. Brooke
+took English and Mota morning Prayers. I celebrated Holy Communion
+afterwards. John came into cabin; I went out to Stephen.
+
+'Brooke and Wogale both better, but B---- quite weak.'
+
+During that Celebration, while administering the Sacred Elements, Mr.
+Atkin's tongue stumbled and hesitated over some of the words.
+
+Then the Mota men looked at one another, and knew what would follow.
+
+He knew it himself too, and called to Joseph Wate, his own special
+pupil, saying (as the lad wrote to Mr. Atkin the elder), 'Stephen and I
+again are going to follow the Bishop, and they of your country--! Who is
+to speak to them?'
+
+'I do not know.'
+
+Then he said again, 'It is all right. Don't grieve about it, because
+they did not do this thing of themselves, but God allowed them to do
+it. It is very good, because God would have it so, because He only looks
+after us, and He understands about us, and now He wills to take away us
+two, and it is well.'
+
+There was much more for that strong young frame to undergo before the
+vigorous life could depart. The loss was to be borne. The head of the
+Mission, who had gone through long sickness, and lain at the gates of
+the grave so long, died almost painlessly: his followers had deeply
+to drink of the cup of agony. The night between the 26th and 27th was
+terrible, the whole nervous system being jerked and strained to pieces,
+and he wandered too much to send any message home; 'I lost my wits since
+they shot me,' he said. Towards morning he almost leapt from his berth
+on the floor, crying 'Good-bye.'
+
+Mr. Brooke asked if he would have a little Sal volatile.
+
+'No.'
+
+'A little brandy?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Do you want anything?'
+
+'I want nothing but to die.'
+
+Those were his last words. He lay convulsed on a mattress on the floor
+for about an hour longer, and was released on the morning of the 29th.
+
+Stephen, with an arrow wound in the lungs, and several more of these
+wounds in the chest, could hardly have lived, even without the
+terrible tetanus. He had spent his time in reading his Mota Gospel and
+Prayer-book, praying and speaking earnestly to the other men on board,
+before the full agony came on. He was a tall, large, powerfully framed
+man; and the struggles were violent before he too sank into rest on
+the morning of the 28th, all the time most assiduously nursed by Joseph
+Wate. On St. Michael's Day, these two teachers of poor Bauro received at
+the same time their funeral at sea.
+
+John Coleridge Patteson was forty-four years and a half old.
+
+Joseph Atkin, twenty-nine.
+
+Stephen Taroniara probably twenty-five--as he was about eighteen when
+he joined the Mission in 1864. His little girl will be brought up at
+Norfolk Island; his wife Tara, to whom he had been married only just
+before his voyage, became consumptive, and died January, 1873, only
+twenty minutes after her Baptism. As one of the scholars said, "Had the
+songs of the angels for joy of her being made a child of God finished
+before they were again singing to welcome her an inheritor of the
+kingdom of heaven?"
+
+John Nonono showed no symptoms of tetanus, but was landed at Mota to
+recover under more favourable circumstances than the crowded cabin could
+afford.
+
+Calms and baffling winds made the return to this island trying and
+difficult, and Mota was not reached till the 4th of October. George
+Sarawia was still perfectly satisfactory; and his community, on the
+whole, going on hopefully. Want of provisions, which Mota could not
+supply, made the stay very brief; and after obtaining the necessary
+supplies at Aurora, the 'Southern Cross' brought her sad tidings to
+Norfolk Island on the 17th. That day Mrs. Palmer wrote:--
+
+
+'On Monday afternoon, 15th, Mr. Codrington went for a ride to the other
+side of the island, and there espied the schooner, eight miles off. He
+rode home quickly, and soon the shouting and racing of the boys told us
+that the vessel had come. They were all at arrowroot-making. Never,
+I think, had the whole party, English and natives, seemed in higher
+spirits. Mr. Bice walked to the settlement, to see if she was far in
+enough to land that night; we asked him to call and tell us on his way
+home.
+
+'Next morning Mr. Bice rode down to see if it really was the schooner,
+and was back to breakfast, all thinking we should soon see them come up.
+
+'Mr. Codrington and Mr. Bice got their horses ready to ride down, and I
+got the rooms ready, when, in an hour, a Norfolk Island boy rode up to
+say the flag was half-mast high.'
+
+'We told the boys and girls something was wrong, to stop their joyous
+shouting and laughing; and then I waited till Mr. Jackson returned, and
+all he could say was, "Only Brooke has come!"'
+
+What more shall I tell? Comments on such a life and such a death are
+superfluous; and to repeat the testimonies of friends, outpourings of
+grief, and utterances in sermons is but to weaken the impression of the
+reality!
+
+There is pain too in telling the further fate of Nukapu. H.M.S.
+'Rosario,' Commander Markham, then cruising in the Southern Pacific,
+touched at Norfolk Island, and Captain Markham undertook at once to go
+to the island and make enquiries.
+
+A protest was drawn up and signed by all the members of the Mission
+against any attempt to punish the natives for the murder; and Captain
+Markham, a kind, humane, and conscientious man, as no one can doubt,
+promised that nothing of the kind should be attempted.
+
+But the natives could not but expect retaliation for what they had done.
+There was no interpreter. They knew nothing of flags of truce; and when
+they saw a boat approaching, full of white men, armed, what could they
+apprehend but vengeance for 'Bisope'? So they discharged a volley of
+arrows, and a sergeant of marines was killed. This was an attack on the
+British flag, and it was severely chastised with British firearms. It
+is very much to be doubted whether Nukapu will ever understand that her
+natives were shot, not for killing the Bishop, but for firing on the
+British flag. For the present the way is closed, and we can only echo
+Fisher Young's sigh, 'Poor Santa Cruz people!'
+
+Bishop Patteson's will bequeathed his whole inheritance to the
+Melanesian Mission, and appointed that the senior Priest should take
+charge of it until another Bishop should be chosen.
+
+The Rev. Robert Codrington, therefore, took the management, though
+refusing the Episcopate; and considering the peculiar qualifications
+needful for a Melanesian Bishop, which can only be tested by actual
+experiment on physical as well as moral and spiritual abilities, it has,
+up to the present moment (May 1873), been thought better to leave the
+See vacant, obtaining episcopal aid from the Bishop of Auckland.
+
+But this implies no slackness nor falling off in the Mission. By God's
+good providence, Coleridge Patteson had so matured his system that it
+could work without him. Mr. Codrington and the other clergy make their
+periodic voyages in the 'Southern Cross.' Kohimarama flourishes under
+George Sarawia, who was ordained Priest at Auckland on St. Barnabas Day,
+1873. Bishop Cowie has paid a visit to Norfolk Island, and ordained
+as Deacons, Edward Wogale, Robert Pantatun, Henry Tagalana, to work in
+Mota, Santa Maria, and Ara. Joseph Wate remains the chief teacher of the
+lads from Bauro; but there is much to be done before the work in that
+island can be carried on. The people there seem peculiarly devoid of
+earnestness; and it is remarkable that though they were among the first
+visited, and their scholars the very earliest favourites, Stephen has
+been the only one whose Christianity seems to have been substantial. But
+the sight of his patient endurance had the same effect on those who
+were with him in the ship as Walter Hotaswol's exhortations had had on
+himself, and several of them began in earnest to prepare for Baptism.
+
+The English staff of the Mission has been recruited by the Rev. John
+R. Selwyn, and the Rev. John Still, as well as by Mr. Kenny from New
+Zealand. And there is good hope that 'He who hath begun a good work will
+perform it unto the day of the Lord.'
+
+As to the crimes connected with the murder, the Queen herself directed
+the attention of Parliament to it in her Speech at the commencement of
+the Session of 1872. The Admiralty do what in them lies to keep watch
+over the labour vessels by means of Queen's ships; and in Queensland,
+regulations are made; in Fiji, the British Consul endeavours to examine
+the newly arrived, whether they have been taken away by force. But
+it may be feared that it will not be possible entirely to prevent
+atrocities over so wide a range; though if, as Bishop Patteson
+suggested, all vessels unregistered, and not committed to trustworthy
+masters, were liable to be seized and confiscated, much of the shameless
+deceit and horrible skull-hunting would be prevented.
+
+Perhaps the fittest conclusion to the Bishop's history will be the words
+written by Henry Tagalana, translated literally by Mr. Codrington:--
+
+'As he taught, he confirmed his word with his good life among us, as
+we all know; and also that he perfectly well helped anyone who might be
+unhappy about anything, and spoke comfort to him about it; and about his
+character and conduct, they are consistent with the law of God. He gave
+the evidence of it in his practice, for he did nothing carelessly, lest
+he should make anyone stumble and turn from the good way; and again he
+did nothing to gain anything for himself alone, but he sought what he
+might keep others with, and then he worked with it: and the reason was
+his pitifulness and his love. And again, he did not despise anyone, nor
+reject anyone with scorn; whether it were a white or a black person he
+thought them all as one, and he loved them all alike.'
+
+'He loved them all alike!' That was the secret of John Coleridge
+Patteson's history and his labours.
+
+Need more be said of him? Surely the simple islander's summary of his
+character is the honour he would prefer.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of John Coleridge Patteson, by
+Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON ***
+
+***** This file should be named 4952.txt or 4952.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/9/5/4952/
+
+Produced by Sandra Laythorpe and Others
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+