CHAPTER IV.
_CONCERNING FRIENDS AND FOES._
First of Missionary Duties.—Maré and Noumea.—The French in the Pacific.—The _Curaçoa_ Affair.—The “Gospel and Gunpowder” Cry.—The Missionaries on their Defence.—The Mission Synod’s Report.—The Shelling of the Tannese Villages.—Public Meeting and Presbytery.—Fighting at Bay.—Federal Union in Missions.—A Fiery Furnace at Geelong.—Results of Australian Tour.—New Hebrides Mission Adopted by Colonies.
We went down to the Islands with the _Dayspring_ in 1865. The full story of the years that had passed was laid before my Missionary brethren at their Annual Synod. They resolved that permanent arrangements must now be made for the Vessel’s support, and that I must return to the Colonies and see these matured. This, meantime, appeared to all of them the most clamant of all Missionary duties,—their very lives, and the existence of the Mission itself, depending thereon. The Lord seemed to leave me no alternative; and, with great reluctance, my back was again turned away from the Islands. The _Dayspring_, doing duty among the Loyalty Islands, left me, along with my dear wife, on Maré, there to await an opportunity of getting to New Caledonia, and thence to Sydney.
Detained there for some time, we saw the noble work done by Messrs. Jones and Creagh, of the London Missionary Society, all being cruelly undone by the tyranny and Popery of the French. One day, in an inland walk, Mrs. Paton and I came on a large Conventicle in the bush. They were teaching each other, and reading the Scriptures which the Missionaries had translated into their own language, and which the French had forbidden them to use. They cried to God for deliverance from their oppressors! Missionaries were prohibited from teaching the Gospel to the Natives without the permission of France; their books were suppressed, and they themselves placed under military guard on the island of Lifu. Even when, by Britain’s protest, the Missionaries were allowed to resume their work, the French language was alone to be used by them; and some, like Rev. J Jones (as far down as 1888), were marched on board a Man-of-war, at half an hour’s notice, and, without crime laid to their charge, forbidden ever to return to the Islands. While, on the other hand, the French Popish Missionaries were everywhere fostered and protected, presenting to the Natives as many objects of idolatry as their own, and following, as is the custom of the Romish Church in those Seas, in the wake of every Protestant Mission, to pollute and to destroy.
Being detained also for two weeks on Noumea, we saw the state of affairs under military rule. English Protestant residents, few in number, appealed to me to conduct worship, but liberty could not be obtained from the authorities, who hated everything English. But a number of Protestant parents, some French, others English and German, applied to me to baptize their children at their own houses. To have asked permission would have been to court refusal, and to falsify my position. I laid the matter before the Lord, and baptized them all. Within two days the Private Secretary of the Governor arrived with an interpreter, and began to inquire of me,—
“Is it true that you have been baptizing here?”
I replied quite frankly, “It is.”
“We are sent to demand on whose authority.”
“On the authority of my Great Master.”
“When did you get that authority?”
“When I was licensed and ordained to preach the Gospel, I got that authority from my Great Master.”
Here a spirited conversation followed betwixt the two in French, and they politely bowed, and left me.
Very shortly they returned, saying,—
“The Governor sends his compliments, and he wishes the honour of a visit from you at Government House at three o’clock, if convenient for you.”
I returned my greeting, and said that I would have pleasure in waiting upon his Excellency at the appointed hour. I thought to myself that I was in for it now, and I earnestly cried for Divine guidance.
He saluted me graciously as “de great Missionary of de New Hebrides.” He conversed in a very friendly manner about the work there, and seemed anxious to find any indication as to the English designs. I had to deal very cautiously. He spoke chiefly through the interpreter; but, sometimes dismissing him, he talked to me as good, if not better, English himself. He was eager to get my opinions as to how Britain got and retained her power over the Natives. After a very prolonged interview, we parted without a single reference to the baptisms or to religious services!
That evening the Secretary and interpreter waited upon us at our Inn, saying,—
“The Governor will have pleasure in placing his yacht and crew at your disposal to-morrow. Mrs. Paton and you can sail all round, and visit the Convict island, and the Government gardens, where lunch will be prepared for you.”
It was a great treat to us indeed. The crew were in prison garments, but all so kind to us. By Convict labour all the public works seemed to be carried on, and the Gardens were most beautiful. The carved work in bone, ivory, cocoa-nuts, shells, etc., was indeed very wonderful. We bought a few specimens, but the prices were beyond our purse. It was a strange spectacle—these things of beauty and joy, and beside them the chained gangs of fierce and savage Convicts, kept down only by bullet and sword!
Thanking the Governor for his exceeding kindness, I referred to their Man-of-war about to go to Sydney, and offered to pay full passage money if they would take me, instead of leaving me to wait for a “trader.” He at once granted my request, and arranged that we should be charged only at the daily cost for the sailors. At his suggestion, however, I took a number of things on board with me, and presented them to be used at the Cabin table. We were most generously treated,—the Captain giving up his own room to my wife and myself, as they had no special accommodation for passengers.
Noumea appeared to me at that time to be wholly given over to drunkenness and vice, supported as a great Convict settlement by the Government of France, and showing every extreme of reckless, worldly pleasure, and of cruel, slavish toil. When I saw it again, three-and-twenty years thereafter, it showed no signs of progress for the better. In his book on the French Colonies, J. Bonwick, F.R.G.S., says that even yet Noumea and its dependencies contain only 1,068 Colonists from France. If there be a God of justice and of love, His blight cannot but rest on a nation whose pathway is stained with corruption and steeped in blood, as is undeniably the case with France in the Pacific Isles.
Arriving at Sydney, I was at once plunged into a whirlpool of horrors. H.M.S. _Curaçoa_ had just returned from her official trip to the Islands, in which the Commodore, Sir William Wiseman, had thought it his duty to inflict punishment on the Natives for murder and robbery of Traders and others. On these Islands, as in all similar cases, the Missionaries had acted as interpreters, and of course always used their influence on the side of mercy, and in the interests of peace. But Sydney, and indeed Australia and the Christian World, were thrown into a ferment just a few days before our arrival, by certain articles in a leading publication there, and by the pictorial illustrations of the same. They were professedly from an officer on board Her Majesty’s ship, and the sensation was increased by their apparent truthfulness and reality. Tanna was the scene of the first event, and a series was to follow in succeeding numbers. The _Curaçoa_ was pictured lying off the shore, having the _Dayspring_ in tow. The Tannese warriors were being blown to pieces by shot and shell, and lay in heaps on the bloody coast. And the Missionaries were represented as safe in the lee of the Man-of-war, directing the onslaught, and gloating over the carnage.
Without a question being asked or a doubt suggested, without a voice being raised in fierce denial that such men as these Missionaries were known to be could be guilty of such conduct—men who had jeoparded their lives for years on end rather than hurt one hair on a Native’s head—a cry of execration, loud and deep and even savage, arose from the Press, and was apparently joined in by the Church itself. The common witticism about the “Gospel and Gunpowder” headed hundreds of bitter and scoffing articles in the journals; and, as we afterwards learned, the shocking news had been telegraphed to Britain and America, losing nothing in force by the way, and while filling friends of Missions with dismay, was dished up day after day with every imaginable enhancement of horror for the readers of the secular and infidel Press. As I stepped ashore at Sydney, I found myself probably the best-abused man in all Australia, and the very name of the New Hebrides Mission stinking in the nostrils of the People.
The gage of battle had been thrown and fell at my feet. Without one moment’s delay, I lifted it in the name of my Lord and of my maligned brethren. That evening my reply was in the hands of the editor, denying that such battles ever took place, retailing the actual facts of which I had been myself an eye-witness, and intimating legal prosecution unless the most ample and unequivocal withdrawal and apology were at once published. The Newspaper printed my rejoinder, and made satisfactory amends for having been imposed upon and deceived. I waited upon the Commodore, and appealed for his help in redressing this terrible injury to our Mission. He informed me that he had already called his officers to account, but that all denied any connection with the articles or the pictures. He had little doubt, all the same, that some one on board was the prompter, who gloried in the evil that was being done to the cause of Christ. He offered every possible assistance, by testimony or otherwise, to place all the facts before the Christian public and to vindicate out Missionaries.
The outstanding facts are best presented in the following extract from the official report of the Mission Synod:—
“When the New Hebrides Missionaries were assembled at their annual meeting on Aneityum, H.M.S. _Curaçoa_, Sir Wm. Wiseman, Bart., C.B., arrived in the harbour to investigate many grievances of white men and trading vessels among the Islands. A petition having been previously presented to the Governor in Sydney, as drawn out by the Revs. Messrs. Geddie and Copeland, after the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon on Erromanga, requesting an investigation into the sad event, and the removal of a Sandal-wood trader, a British subject, who had excited the Natives to it,—the Missionaries gave the Commodore a memorandum on the loss of life and property that had been sustained by the Mission on Tanna, Erromanga, and Efatè. He requested the Missionaries to supply him with interpreters, and requested the _Dayspring_ to accompany him with them. The request was at once acceded to. Mr. Paton was appointed to act as interpreter for Tanna, Mr. Gordon for Erromanga, and Mr. Morrison for Efatè.
“At each of these Islands, the Commodore summoned the principal Chiefs near the harbours to appear before him, and explained to them that his visit was to inquire into the complaints British subjects had made against them, and to see if they had any against British subjects; and when he had found out the truth he would punish those who had done the wrong and protect those who had suffered wrong. The Queen did not send him to compel them to become Christians, or to punish them for not becoming Christians. She left them to do as they liked in this matter; but she was very angry at them because they had encouraged her subjects to live amongst them, sold them land and promised to protect them, and afterwards murdered some of them and attempted to murder others, and stolen and destroyed their property; that the inhabitants of these islands were talked of over the whole world for their treachery, cruelty, and murders; and that the Queen would no longer allow them to murder or injure her subjects, who were living peaceably among them either as Missionaries or Traders. She would send a ship of war every year to inquire into their conduct, and if any white man injured any Native they were to tell the captain of the Man-of-war, and the white man would be punished as fast as the black man.”
After spending much time, and using peaceably every means in his power in trying to get the guilty parties on Tanna, and not succeeding, he shelled two villages,—having the day before informed the natives that he would do so, and advising to have all women, children, and sick removed, which in fact they did. He also sent a party on shore to destroy canoes, houses, etc. The Tannese were astonished, beyond all precedent, by the terrific display of destructive power that was exhibited in the harbour. It was found impossible to reach the actual murderers; in these circumstances the Commodore’s object was to save life and limit himself to the destruction of property, and so impress the Natives with some idea of those tremendous powers of destruction, which lie slumbering in a Man-of-war, and which can be awakened and brought into action at any moment.
On Erromanga no lives were lost. On Tanna one man was wounded; but, it was reported, three persons were afterwards killed by the bursting of a shell, when the natives were stripping off its lead to make balls. It is matter of deep regret that one man of the party sent on shore was shot by a Native concealed in a tree. Against orders he had wandered from his party, and was in a plantation standing eating a stick of sugar-cane when he was shot.
As I had orders to act as interpreter for the Commodore on Tanna, I will relate what happened there. From day to day, for three continuous days, he besought the Natives to comply with his wishes. He warned them that if they did not, he would shell the two villages of the Chief who murdered the last white man at Port Resolution, and destroy his canoes. He also explained to them, that all who retired to a large bay in the land of Nowar, the Christian Chief (if Christian he can be called), would be safe, as he had protected white men from being murdered; and now he would protect his property and all under his care on this land. The whole of these inhabitants, young and old, went to Nowar’s land and were safe, while they witnessed what a Man-of-war could do in punishing murderers. But, before the hour approached, multitudes of Tannese warriors had assembled on the beach, painted and armed and determined to fight the Man-of-war! When the Commodore gave orders to prepare for action, I approached him and said with tears,—
“O Commodore, surely you are not going to shell these poor and foolish Tannese!” Sharply, but not unkindly, he replied,—
“You are here as interpreter, not as my adviser. I alone am responsible. You see their defiant attitude. If I leave without punishing them now, no vessel or white man will be safe at this harbour. You can go on board your own ship, till I require your services again.”
Indeed he had many counts against them, and his instructions were explicit. Shortly before that, Nouka, the Chief of one of the villages, had murdered a trader with a bar of iron, and another was murdered at his instigation. Miaki, the Chief of another, had for many years been ringleader of all mischief and murder on that side of the island. The Chief of a village on the other side of the bay was at that moment assembled with his men on the high ground within our view, and dancing to a war song in defiance!
The Commodore caused a shell to strike the hill and explode with terrific fury just underneath the dancers. The earth and the bush were torn and thrown into the air above and around them; and next moment the whole host were seen disappearing over the brow of the hill. Two shots were sent over the heads of the warriors on the shore, with terrific noise and uproar; in an instant, every man was making haste for Nowar’s land, the place of refuge. The Commodore then shelled the villages, and destroyed their property. Beyond what I have here recorded, absolutely nothing was done.
We return then for a moment to Sydney. The public excitement made it impossible to open my lips in the promotion of our Mission. The Revs. Drs. Dunsmore Lang and Steel, along with Professor Smith of the University, waited on the Commodore, and got an independent version of the facts. They then called a meeting on the affair by public advertisement. Without being made acquainted with the results of their investigations, I was called upon to give my own account of the _Curaçoa’s_ visit and of the connection of the Missionaries therewith. They then submitted the Commodore’s statement, given by him in writing. He exonerated the Missionaries from every shadow of blame and from all responsibility. In the interests of mercy as well as justice, and to save life, they had acted as his interpreters; and there all that they had to do with the _Curaçoa_ began and ended. All this was published in the Newspapers next day, along with the speeches of the three deputies. The excitement began to subside. But the poison had been lodged in many hearts, and the ejectment of it was a slow and difficult process.
The Presbytery of Sydney held a special meeting, and I was summoned to appear before it. Dr. Geddie of Aneityum was also present, being then in the Colonies. Whether the tide of abuse had turned my dear fellow-Missionary’s head, I cannot tell; but, on being asked to make a statement, he condemned the Missionaries for acting as interpreters, and wound up with a dramatic exclamation that “rather than have had anything to do with the _Curaçoa’s_ visit he would have had his hand burned off in the fire.”
The Court applauded. The Moderator then said: “Mr. Paton has heard the noble speech of Dr. Geddie. Let him now solemnly promise that, under no circumstances, will he have anything to do with a Man-of-war. Then we may see our way again to stand by him, and help him in his Mission.” And in this spirit, he appealed to me.
On rising, I explained that I appeared before them only out of brotherly courtesy, as their Presbytery had no jurisdiction over me, and I spoke to the following effect:—
“I am indeed a Missionary to the Heathen, but also a British subject. I have never requested redress from Man-of-war, or any civil power; but, like Paul, I reserve my full rights, if need be, to appeal unto Cæsar. If any member of this Presbytery has his house robbed, as a good citizen he seeks redress and protection. But on Tanna I lost my earthly all, and sought no redress from man. The Tannese Chiefs, indeed, who were friendly, sent a Petition by me to the Governor of Sydney; which, however, was never presented to him at all, fearing that thereby indirectly I might bring punishment upon my poor deluded Tannese. Others were more convinced as to the path of duty, or less considerate of the Natives. Their Petition I now take from my pocket and submit it to you. It was presented to the Governor, Sir John Young, after the death of the Gordons, and prayed for a judicial investigation as to their murders. As soon it was known of, a counter Petition in the interests of the Traders was immediately got up and signed by many of the great merchants of Sydney, protesting against any such visit to the Islands by a Man-of-war. This Petition, then, the original and only one ever presented in favour of a visit from Her Majesty’s Commodore, was drawn up and is signed—by whom?”
On Dr. Geddie acknowledging that he had written and signed that Petition, but that it prayed only for an _investigation_, I proceeded,—
“Surely a judicial investigation like this implied all the after consequences, if once undertaken! At any rate, this is the _only_ Petition sent from the Missionaries, and it was sent unknown to me. Finally, I must respectfully inform the Presbytery that I will never make such a promise as the Moderator has indicated. I shall remain free to act in humanity and in justice as God and conscience guide me. I believe I saved both life and property by interpreting for the Commodore, and making things mutually intelligible to him and to the Natives. I have done as clear a Christian duty as I ever did in my life. I am not ashamed. I offer no apology. I do not believe that in the long run, when all facts are known, my conduct in this affair can possibly injure either myself, or, what is more, the Name of my Lord.”
Perhaps my words were not too conciliatory. But excitement so blinded many friends, that I had to fight as if at bay, or get no hearing and no justice. The Presbytery hesitated, and closed without coming to any resolution. All the members of it showed me thereafter the same respect as ever before. It was gratifying to learn in due course that all the Churches supporting our Mission, after having independently investigated into the facts, justified the course adopted by us,—Nova Scotia alone excepted. Yet two of her own Missionaries had also to interpret for that Man-of-war, exactly as I had done, nor did I ever hear that any rebuke was administered to them. Feeling absolutely conscious that I had only done my Christian duty, I left all results in the hands of my Lord Jesus, and pressed forward in His blessed work.
More than one dear personal friend had to be sacrificed over this painful affair. A Presbyterian Minister, and a godly elder and his wife, all most excellent and well-beloved, at whose houses I had been received as a brother, intimated to me that owing to this case of the _Curaçoa_ their friendship and mine must entirely cease in this world. And it did cease; but my esteem never changed. I had learned not to think unkindly of friends, even when they manifestly misunderstood my actions. Nor would these things merit being recorded here, were it not that they may be at once a beacon and a guide. God’s people are still belied. And the multitude are still as ready as ever to cry, “Crucify! Crucify!”
The scheme for meeting the yearly cost of the _Dayspring_, that had already been tentatively set a-going, had now to be matured and permanently organized. In this my dear friend Dr. J. Dunsmore Lang, well acquainted with the resources of all the Churches, was our judicious counsellor. We proposed that Victoria should raise £500; New South Wales and New Zealand, £200 each; Tasmania, Queensland, and South Australia, £100 each, and £250 each from Novia Scotia and Scotland. Tasmania, South Australia, and Queensland fell a little short of their proportion; Sydney, Scotland, and Novia Scotia met their claims; and Victoria and New Zealand exceeded them, and made up for deficiency in others. This has ever since been done in great measure, though not exclusively, by the Sabbath Scholars of the Churches, through their _Dayspring_ “Mission-boxes.” In organizing and maturing this scheme, I visited and addressed almost every Presbyterian Congregation and Sabbath School in New South Wales and Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania; and Ministers and Superintendents, with scarcely an exception, came to be bound together in a true federal union in support of our Mission and our Ship.
For the first three years, when everything was new, the _Dayspring_ cost us about £1,400 per annum; but since then she has cost on an average little short of £2,000 over all. There has too often been a floating debt of £300 or more, which has given us great anxiety; but the Lord has sent what was required, and enabled us to keep her sailing with the Gospel and His servants amongst these Islands, free of any actual burden,—His own pure messenger of Good Tidings, unstained with the polluting and bloody associations of the foul-winged trading Ships!
Another fiery furnace awaited me on this tour, when I reached Geelong. One of the prominent Ministers refused to shake hands. An agent of the London Missionary Society had informed them “that the £3,000 paid for the _Dayspring_ had been thrown away, that the Vessel was useless, fitted only for carrying stores, and having no accommodation for passengers; and that on her second trip to the Islands our Missionaries had to wait and go down by the _John Williams_.” It was an abiding sorrow to me, that local misrepresentations gave the Societies an appearance of conflict, whereof the parent organizations knew nothing whatever. But, for all the interests at stake, facts _had_ to be made known. Several Congregations had resolved to withdraw from the support of our Mission; and several Ministers at Ballarat, and elsewhere, were by similar accounts prejudiced against us.
I demanded an opportunity of stating the facts, and vindicating myself and others, in a public meeting duly called for the purpose. They at once agreed. I wrote once and a second time to the Agent, but got no answer, only an evasive note. I went by rail and saw him. He would give no explanation, or authority for his statements, but practically put me out, on a pretence of there being sickness at the house. Nevertheless, in a spirit of determined brotherhood, I resolved only to explain facts about the _Dayspring_, and not to drag in the name of that great sister Society which he so poorly served.
There was a crowded meeting. The Minister who refused to shake hands was voted to the chair. I was called upon to explain my position. By this time I had communicated with the _Dayspring_ officials, and, producing the log-book, I read from it, regarding the voyage referred to, the following:—
“When the _Dayspring_ sailed from Sydney for the Islands, she had as passengers on board, Rev. Mr. Paton, Mrs. Paton, and child, Rev. Mr. McNair and Mrs. McNair, Rev. Mr. Niven and Mrs. Niven, Mrs. Ella and child, of the London Missionary Society, Captain Fraser, Mrs. Fraser, child, and servant, besides all the year’s Mission supplies for both the New Hebrides and the Loyalty Islands. And on reaching these Islands, as the French Government had ordered the removal of all the Eastern Teachers of the London Missionary Society from that group, the _Dayspring_ had to undertake an unexpected voyage of three months from the Loyalties to Samoa, Rarotonga, etc., with Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Sleigh of the London Missionary Society, and sixty-one of their Native Teachers, who, along with their families, were all in health landed safely on their respective islands, as passengers by the _Dayspring_.”
I also read a corroborative narrative from Captain Fraser, written from memory, as he was at that time far inland in the country, and had not access to the records of his vessel. And my statement closed to this effect,—
“It must now be manifest to all, that the damaging reports circulated in Geelong are more than replied to. By the Captain, and from the log, they are proved to be false, both as to capacity for goods and passengers. At present the _Dayspring_ is everything that could be desired for the furtherance of our Mission. If _you_ are satisfied, I wish to leave this painful subject, and proceed with my proper work. But I am prepared to answer any question from the Chairman or the meeting, and to give the fullest information.”
The round of applause that followed was my complete vindication. The Chairman gave me his hand, and pledged his utmost support. He proposed the following resolution, which was carried with acclamation,—
“That this meeting, having heard Mr. Paton with satisfaction, pledges the Churches, Sabbath Schools, and friends in Geelong, henceforth to support the _Dayspring_ and the New Hebrides Mission to the utmost of their power, and to receive and encourage him as much as ever in his work on behalf of the Mission.”
The special object of my visit was then explained, and several Ministers and others spoke heartily in furtherance of the proposals for the permanent support of the _Dayspring_ through the Sabbath Schools.
All battles through mere misunderstandings are painful, but especially those amongst Christian brethren. Still they had to be fought, never laying aside the weapons of the Cross; and God has overruled them for the promotion of His Kingdom in a way which makes all Catholic-spirited followers of the Lord Jesus equally rejoice.
On this tour, in Victoria alone, I spent 250 days and addressed 265 meetings, representing 180 Congregations and their Sabbath Schools. The proportion was on the same scale in the other Colonies visited. And all these arrangements I had to make for myself, by painful and laborious correspondence night and day. But the Lord’s blessing was abundantly vouchsafed. Victoria gave £1,954 19_s._ 3_d_; Tasmania, £76 12_s._ 7_d._; South Australia, £222 16_s._; New South Wales, £249; being a total of £2,503 7_s._ 10_d._, besides £220 in yearly donations of £5, promised for the maintenance of the Native Teachers.
In 1862 I appealed to the Victorian General Assembly to take up the New Hebrides Mission as their own. The appeal was followed by Rev. J. Clark, Convener of Heathen Missions Committee in 1863, getting the Assembly to accept the proposal. And in 1865 the Rev. Dr. A. J. Campbell carried our scheme, and the Assembly pledged itself to give £500 per annum for the support of the _Dayspring_, from the offerings of the Sabbath Schools. New Zealand and other Colonies soon followed Victoria’s example, until all were pledged to uphold the New Hebrides Mission. For my dear friend and old College companion, Rev. Joseph Copeland, had visited at the same time Queensland and New Zealand, and had received from them respectively £101 2_s._ 4_d._ and £580; so that all the Churches adopted our scheme for the permanent support of the _Dayspring_; and the Mission fund had now a fair balance on the right side.
At the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1866, I was adopted—being officially transferred from the Church in Scotland—as the first Missionary from the Presbyterian Churches of Australia to the New Hebrides. Dr. Geddie would also have been adopted at the same time, but Novia Scotia could not agree to part with its first and most highly-honoured Missionary. The Victorian Church therefore engaged the Rev. James Cosh, M.A., on his way out from Scotland, as its other agent, in the hope that we two might be able to re-open and carry on the Tanna Mission. In their _Christian Review_ of 1867, they said:—
“The idea which we in Victoria had, when the Missionaries left us in July last was, that Messrs. Paton and Cosh would be associated on Tanna, and labour for its evangelization, under the special auspices as well as at the cost of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria; but Mr. Cosh, having chosen the station at Pango on Efatè, where the Natives were more prepared for the Gospel, and where life and property were safe, went to spend a year’s novitiateship with Mr. and Mrs. Morrison on Efatè. Mr. Paton would have fain gone back to Tanna, but the Missionaries generally feared that no one European life would have been safe at the time on Tanna. They therefore, and no doubt wisely, sent Mr. Paton to the small and less savage, but not less Heathen, Island of Aniwa.”
It was indeed one of the bitterest trials of my life, not to be able to return and settle down at once on dear old Tanna; but I could not go alone, against the decided opposition of all the other Missionaries—Dr. Inglis, however, at last sympathizing most strongly with my views. I went, as will appear hereafter, to Aniwa, the nearest island to the scene of my former woes and perils, in the hope that God would soon open up my way and enable me to return to blood-stained Tanna.
My heart bleeds for the Heathen, and I long to see a Teacher for every tribe and a Missionary for every island of the New Hebrides. The hope still burns that I may witness it; and then I could gladly rest.