IBB
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 HEROES op 
 
 BY 
 
 MARTHA BURR BANKS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE CHILDREN'S SUMMER," " RICHARD AND ROBIN," 
 
 ETC. 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 
 
 NEW YORK
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1896, 
 BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
 
 .36*7 " 
 
 GONTRNTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Society Islands: A Night of Toil PAGE > 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Hervey Islands: A Brave Discoverer 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Samoan Islands: Over the Sea to Samoa 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Samoan and Loyalty Islands: The Captain's Last Voy- 
 age 56 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 New Zealand and the Friendly Islands: Islands Unworthy 
 
 of their Name 71 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 New Zealand and the Melanesian Mission: Two College 
 
 Athletes 86 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Melanesian Mission: The Bishop and the Boys 97 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Fiji Islands: The People and the Lotu 108 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Fiji Islands: Cannibals Changed to Christians 118 
 
 1-118530
 
 4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The New Hebrides: Little Johnnie Geddie 128 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The New Hebrides: The Man Who Dug the Well 146 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Sandwich Islands: A Country Opened by a Boy 163 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Micronesia: The " Little Islands " 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Land of the "Crisp-Haired" 199 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 "God's Men" in New Guinea 209
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 FOR the material found in this volume the 
 writer is indebted to "The Encyclopaedia of 
 Missions," " The Cyclopaedia of Missions," " Mis- 
 sion Stories of Many Lands," " The Missionary 
 Review of the World," "The Gospel in All 
 Lands," " The Life of John Williams," " The 
 Life of John Coleridge Patteson," "The Life of 
 John Geddie," " Life of John G. Paton," " Life 
 of James Calvert," " Life of James Chalmers," 
 and several small books, magazines and papers.
 
 Heroes of the South Seas. 
 
 CHAPTER I . 
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS : A NIGHT OF TOIL. 
 
 ALMOST everybody has heard of Captain 
 Cook, the famous old navigator who used to 
 go cruising round the world, hunting up all 
 sorts of queer places and queer people and 
 opening the way for other explorers. It was 
 in the year 1769, on one of his voyages, that 
 he came across two neighboring groups of isl- 
 ands in the Southern Pacific, one of which had 
 been first seen by an Englishman through the 
 eyes of Captain Wallis, who called it the Geor- 
 gian Group, after King George of England. 
 Captain Cook, however, did not stop to draw 
 distinctions, but gave the whole cluster the 
 name of the Society Islands, in honor of the 
 Royal Society of London, and though for a while 
 the two groups were commonly known as the 
 Windward and the Leeward Islands they are 
 now both included under the title bestowed upon 
 them by Captain Cook.
 
 8 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 The largest island, Tahiti, has a circuit of 
 one hundred and forty miles, and contains about 
 six hundred square miles. It is made up of two 
 rounded peninsulas joined by a narrow isthmus, 
 and is crowned by a high mountain peak called 
 The Diadem. The inhabitants were found to be 
 tall and stout, with brown skin and dark eyes, 
 and they seemed merry and good-natured ; but 
 underneath they were very bad indeed, and 
 thought nothing of stealing, or of telling lies, 
 or even of killing anybody with whom they 
 happened to be vexed, or whom they wished to 
 put out of the way. 
 
 In 1772 the Spaniards tried to settle upon 
 Tahiti, and when Captain Cook again visited 
 the islands, in 1777, he saw that they had left 
 behind them some traces of their religion, for 
 a house and a cross that had been set up by 
 them were still carefully kept by the natives. 
 Then about eleven years passed away, and noth- 
 ing was heard of the Society Islands until at 
 last the good ship " Bounty " touched at those 
 shores for the purpose of obtaining a supply of 
 the plants of the breadfruit tree to transport to 
 the British West Indies. 
 
 The story brought back by the crew of this 
 vessel, together with the former accounts of the 
 island presented by Capt. Cook, roused so much 
 interest in England that the London Missionary
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. Q 
 
 Society was formed in order that a ship might 
 be fitted out to carry the gospel to those be- 
 nighted people in the South Seas. Thirty men 
 came forward who were willing to be the bearers 
 of the glad tidings, and Capt. Wilson, who had 
 retired from the East India service and was now 
 living in wealth and ease at home, volunteered 
 to take charge of the missionary ship, which had 
 been named the Duff. Four of the messengers 
 were ministers and the rest were tradesmen. 
 The ensign of the ship was a purple flag, having 
 three doves bearing olive-branches as its device ; 
 and as the banner fluttered in the wind and the 
 vessel rode out of the harbor, on the loth of Au- 
 gust, 1796, the little band broke out into the 
 hymn, " Jesus, at thy command we launch into 
 the deep ;" and so they sailed away, strong, 
 firm, brave, and true, hoping to do some of the 
 wonderful kind of fishing taught to mankind 
 long ago by the Sea of Galilee. 
 
 It took seven months for the Duff to weather 
 the gales and make the voyage to Tahiti, but 
 the strangers received a warm welcome when 
 they arrived. 
 
 Seventy-five canoes came out to meet them, 
 and the natives clambered over the sides of the 
 vessel with many signs of joy, probably promis- 
 ing themselves, down in their crafty hearts, that 
 they could soon barter some of the pigs and the
 
 IO HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 fruit that they had brought with them for those 
 valuable knives and axes, and other things, that 
 white men usually had about them. But the day 
 was Sunday, and the new-comers would have 
 nothing to do with bargains just then ; but, as 
 some of the men were willing to stay with them, 
 even though there was no prospect of trading, 
 they held a service on board the ship, and the 
 natives looked on in wonder while the mission- 
 aries prayed and sang. 
 
 When the white men went on shore one of 
 the chiefs showed them an empty house, about 
 one hundred feet long, where he said they might 
 live ; so they at once took possession of their 
 new home, and hallowed it by a little service 
 within its walls that same night. On Sunday 
 they preached to the people, having for an in- 
 terpreter a white man who had been at some 
 time cast upon the island and who had become 
 very much like the natives. The following 
 Sunday Pomare, the father of the ruling king, 
 came to the meeting. In Tahiti, so soon as a son 
 is born into the royal family he is acknowledged 
 as the sovereign, and the former king loses his 
 authority. Pomare had been the supreme chief 
 of the island, and he was supposed to be very 
 wise, but his wisdom could not equal his wicked- 
 ness had he had even more knowledge than was 
 credited to him.
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. II 
 
 There were other queer customs on that 
 island of Tahiti. The king and queen rode 
 on the shoulders of men, and never touched 
 their feet to the ground, because whatever they 
 stood on became at once their property. When 
 the attendants who carried them were exchanged 
 for others the royal beings were obliged to jump 
 over the heads of the first men to the shoulders 
 of the second set. They would not go on board 
 of the ship, for the reason that the vessel would 
 then belong to them, and they warned their new 
 friends not to hold an umbrella over their heads 
 as that, too, would immediately become theirs. 
 
 There were, besides, on these islands, some 
 strange people who were called dancers. They 
 blackened their bodies with charcoal and dyed 
 their faces red. Their only business in life was 
 to kill people, and their only amusements were 
 dancing, boxing and wrestling. 
 
 The favorite god, whose name was Oro, was 
 nothing but a log of wood about as large as a 
 man. It was kept in a shed among a grove of 
 trees surrounded by a stone wall. The priests 
 would roll themselves up in bundles of cloth, 
 and by disguising their voices pretend to be 
 speaking for the gods ; and though the people 
 were not really deceived they dared not disobey 
 the commands of the priests. There were many 
 other idols. Some were made of stone, but most
 
 12 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 of them were of wood, and there were more than 
 one hundred kinds. Some of the gods were 
 supposed to protect thieves, some cared for 
 murderers, and most of them demanded hu- 
 man sacrifices. There were numerous super- 
 stitions, too. One of them was a strong belief 
 in the power of red feathers ; and the people 
 were sure that they never could have any suc- 
 cess in fishing unless they carried a bunch of 
 scarlet feathers with them when they went out 
 upon the water. 
 
 In this difficult place, among these ignorant, 
 degraded people, the good men from over the 
 sea settled down and went to work in earnest 
 to do what they could to lift them from their 
 low condition ; but the task was even harder than 
 had been expected. When the missionaries 
 were abused, if they did not revenge themselves, 
 they were despised as cowards ; but they made 
 up their minds that they would defend them- 
 selves only when necessary, and would trust in 
 God and try to win their way by kindness and 
 patience. They started a hospital, but the sus- 
 picious people would have nothing to do with it. 
 They seemed to care little for the new teachings 
 and were deeply offended if any of their evil 
 customs were rebuked. 
 
 But, after three years of labor, a Christian 
 chapel was built, and in 1800 eight new mission-
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 13 
 
 aries came to the rescue. Among them was 
 Henry Nott, who proved himself one of the 
 best of the missionaries to the South Seas. Mr. 
 Nott and one of his companions made a tour 
 round the island and preached everywhere. 
 Sometimes they preached two or three times a 
 day, and all the time the missionaries prayed 
 with all their hearts that they might bring a 
 blessing to these poor people whom they had 
 come to help. 
 
 But still the wars and the wickedness went 
 on, and the natives would answer all the per- 
 suasions of their friends to leave their old ways, 
 and take hold of better things, with the words : 
 " None of the chiefs believe you, so why should 
 we?" 
 
 In 1803 the old king died, and his son took 
 the name of Pomare Second. He had learned 
 to read and write, and the people were much 
 afraid of him. They believed that he had 
 gained power by which he could kill a man just 
 by prayers and charms. The missionaries then 
 turned their attention towards the children. One 
 of them opened a school in his own home, and 
 taught reading and writing to the girls and boys 
 by making letters in the sand. He also wrote 
 some books, and sent them to England to be 
 printed ; but it was hard to put Christian ideas 
 into a language in which there was no word for
 
 14 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 God, and no way by which the thought of grati- 
 tude might be expressed. 
 
 In 1807 another war broke out, and all the 
 missionaries had to flee from Tahiti. The king 
 took refuge in the island of Eimeo, not far away, 
 and after a while invited the missionaries to fol- 
 low him to that place. They were ready to go 
 anywhere if only there was a chance of doing 
 good. So over to Eimeo they moved, from the 
 island in which they had sought shelter, and 
 there they built a chapel and started a school. 
 Before long they noticed that the king seemed 
 to be losing a little of his old faith in idols and 
 superstitions. A sacred turtle was caught one 
 day, and, instead of sending it to the temple, 
 as was the custom in such cases, he was bold 
 enough to have it cooked, and then ate it with 
 much enjoyment. As no harm came to him in 
 consequence of this meal, his confidence in his 
 gods was still more shaken. Then further en- 
 couragement came to the missionaries : Pomare 
 really asked to be baptized. They thought it 
 would be better to wait a while before granting 
 his request, so that they might be sure that he 
 was sincere in his profession that he meant to 
 take Jehovah as his God ; but when they saw 
 that he was truly sorry for his past wickedness, 
 and that he was careful about keeping Sunday 
 in the Christian way and was doing his best to
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. I 5 
 
 persuade his subjects to give up their idols and 
 to worship the true God, they could not doubt 
 his earnestness. 
 
 For nearly sixteen years now they had been 
 working in these islands, and this was about all 
 the fruit they had gathered so far. Some of 
 them began to feel that, like Peter and his com- 
 panions on the little lake in Palestine, they had 
 toiled all the night and taken nothing. Even the 
 London Missionary Society had almost decided 
 to give up the work as hopeless. But there 
 were one or two men who had not come to the 
 end of their faith yet. One of them said that 
 he would sell the clothes from his back before 
 he would let go of the scheme, and he proposed 
 that instead of sitting down in despair they 
 should fall to praying harder than ever for this 
 poor, disheartening little mission. To this the 
 others agreed, and while the men in the Pacific 
 labored the men at home prayed. 
 
 Now just about this time Pomare was invited 
 to go back to Tahiti, and the missionaries at 
 Eimeo heard a rumor that the people there 
 were beginning to wake up and to think a little 
 about what had been told them by those stran- 
 gers whom they had driven away. At this 
 report, two of the exiles hurried back to Tahiti 
 to see if the good news were true. They found 
 out that two of their old servants who had been
 
 l6 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 left behind had been influenced by the words 
 and the lives of their masters almost without 
 knowing the fact themselves, and since their 
 departure these men had been praying to- 
 gether, as well as they knew how, and had 
 persuaded others to join them in this practice. 
 They had, too, made up their minds to give 
 up their idols, to keep Sunday as a day of rest, 
 and to worship only Jehovah. The way was 
 wide open for the missionaries and their mes- 
 sage. 
 
 Mr. Nott gathered a crowd of savages in 
 one of the cocoanut groves of Tahiti, and told 
 them the beautiful, wonderful old story to which 
 they would not listen before. As he was read- 
 ing the sixteenth verse of the third chapter 
 of John, one chief cried out, "Will you read 
 that again?" Slowly and carefully Mr. Nott 
 read over the words once more : " For God so 
 loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." The man 
 listened eagerly. "Does that mean Tahiti?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "Yes," said Mr. Nott, pointing his finger 
 straight at the dusky figure before him, "it 
 means you." The chief took the answer in 
 simple faith, and became himself, in course of 
 time, a devoted missionary to his people. The
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. I? 
 
 men who were praying at home had their re- 
 ward, too. The ship from London, carrying 
 letters of cheer and hope to the missionaries in 
 Eimeo, was met in mid-ocean by the vessel 
 bearing the news of the overthrow of idolatry 
 in Tahiti, and loaded with a cargo of the re- 
 jected idols. So the night of toil was light- 
 ened by the breaking of the dawn, and the One 
 who had come to the aid of the weary fisher- 
 men in Galilee had given these workers, too, 
 the desire of their hearts. 
 
 In 1813 the people in Eimeo also began to 
 throw away their gods of wood and of stone 
 and to bow down to the one God of all man- 
 kind. An old priest brought out the idols, one 
 by one tore off their sacred garments, made of 
 finely-braided cloth of cocoanut fibres and orna- 
 mented with red feathers, and threw both gods 
 and clothing into the fire, calling to the people 
 to come and see how helpless were the logs 
 that they had worshipped. 
 
 King Pomare was not successful in estab- 
 lishing his kingdom again in Tahiti, so he went 
 back to Eimeo, taking with him a large number 
 of followers who called themselves Christians. 
 At Tahiti the native Christians who had been 
 left there were cruelly treated by the remaining 
 heathen, and many ran away to Eimeo. This 
 action brought on a battle between the inhabi-
 
 18 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 tants of the two islands, and Pomare came off 
 victor. Instead of destroying his enemies, ac- 
 cording to the old heathen fashion, he made 
 away with their idols. Even that great god Oro 
 he did not spare, but first disgraced it by stand- 
 ing it up in his kitchen and driving pegs into 
 it upon which to hang baskets of food, and then 
 disposed of it altogether by burning it for fuel. 
 
 Soon after this occurrence Pomare was re- 
 stored to his rightful government, and the peo- 
 ple themselves cast away the rest of their idols, 
 pulled down their temples, and began to build 
 chapels. Pomare wrote a prayer, which he 
 often read in these places of worship ; and as for 
 the missionaries, they could scarcely find time 
 for rest, as they were so closely followed by 
 those who had questions to ask, or who were 
 anxious to learn to read. In 1816 Pomare col- 
 lected his own household gods and sent them 
 to England, so that, as he said, the people there 
 might see the foolish idols that had been so 
 highly valued in Tahiti. These idols were 
 placed in the museum of the London Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 About this time a printing press was brought 
 to Eimeo, and this fresh wonder caused great 
 excitement among the natives of the islands. 
 From far and near they flocked to see the 
 strange sight, and their canoes lined the shore
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 19 
 
 while the men were climbing up on one an- 
 other's shoulders to peer in the windows of the 
 room in which it had been placed, exclaiming 
 in astonishment and delight, " O Britain, land 
 of skill !" They also brought plantain leaves 
 to the missionaries, begging that spelling-books 
 might be written upon them, and when the 
 Gospel of Luke was completed in the Tahitian 
 language, and copies were printed, they could 
 hardly be given out fast enough to the waiting 
 people. Then dogs and cats and goats were 
 killed, so that their skins might be used as 
 covers for the precious volumes. 
 
 It was about 1817 that John Williams, after- 
 wards called " The Apostle of the Pacific," 
 landed at Eimeo to put his shoulder to the 
 wheel with the other men from abroad. On 
 the voyage from England he had examined 
 every part of the vessel on which he sailed, and 
 the first thing that he did after his arrival was 
 to complete a boat that had been laid down 
 three years before. In ten months he had 
 learned the language of the island, by moving 
 freely among the people and chatting with them 
 on every occasion, thus wiling away from them 
 their hearts and their speech at the same time. 
 
 The missionaries who had fled to Huahine, 
 in the other group of the Society Islands, at the 
 time of the trouble in Tahiti, had taught the
 
 20 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 natives there something about the gospel, and 
 afterwards, when Pomare was at war with Tahiti, 
 several ships from those islands had gone over to 
 assist him to regain his throne, and had carried 
 home with them a little more truth. Tamatoa, 
 the king of Raiatea, had been especially im- 
 pressed with the results that came from the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 On his return to his own island, when he saw 
 the crowds on the shore waiting to welcome 
 him with joy, and evidently expecting him to 
 bring with him many war captives, he placed a 
 herald in the front of his canoe and told him to 
 shout to the people, " We have brought no vic- 
 tims slain in battle. We are all praying peo- 
 ple and worship the true God." 
 
 Then the books that the missionaries had 
 given him were held up, and the herald cried, 
 " These are the victims, the trophies, with which 
 we have returned !" When Tamatoa landed 
 he gave an account of what he had seen in 
 Tahiti, and about one-third of the people agreed 
 to join him in trying to live in the Christian 
 way. Soon after his arrival Tamatoa fell ill, 
 and one of his friends said that Jehovah must 
 have sent this sickness because he was angry 
 that the great national idol had not been des- 
 troyed, and he proposed that it should at once 
 be put out of the way. A brave band went to
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 21 
 
 the temple, took the god from his seat and set 
 fire to the building. The heathen party was 
 very angry at this deed, and a house of cocoanut 
 trunks and breadfruit trees was built into which 
 the Christians were to be thrust and burned alive. 
 The Christians tried to make peace, but the only 
 answer that they received was, " There is no 
 peace for god-burners until they have felt the 
 effects of the fire that destroyed Oro." Then 
 the men who worshipped Jehovah sought his 
 protection in prayer, and when their enemies 
 came upon them early in the morning, while 
 they were still on their knees, they rushed out 
 and so boldly assailed the invaders that they 
 departed in haste and alarm. They expected 
 to receive the treatment that they had had in 
 store for the Christians ; but when they were 
 met with forgiveness and kindness they wen. 
 overcome with surprise. A great feast was 
 spread for them, at which nearly one hundred 
 pigs were baked whole, and served with bread- 
 fruit and other vegetables, but the men were so 
 humbled and abashed that they could hardly 
 eat anything. One man arose and said : " Let 
 every one eat as he will ; but for my part, never 
 again, to my dying day, will I worship the gods 
 that could not protect us in the hour of danger. 
 We were four times the number of the pray- 
 ing people, yet with the greatest ease they have
 
 22 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 conquered us. Jehovah is the true God. Had 
 we been conquerers they would now be burning 
 in the house we made for the purpose ; but in- 
 stead of injuring us, or our wives or children, 
 they have set for us this sumptuous feast. 
 Theirs is a religion of mercy. I will go and 
 join myself to this people." 
 
 That same night every one of the heathen 
 party bowed in prayer to Jehovah, and all gave 
 thanks for their own defeat. The next morning 
 both parties worked together in destroying every 
 idol and temple in the island, and in a small 
 one near by as well ; and in three days after this 
 time not a remnant of idolatry could be found 
 in either place. Huahine, Boraoora and Maurea, 
 other islands of the group, began to follow the 
 example of the people of Raiatea ; and two men 
 from Huahine were sent to Tahiti to ask for 
 teachers. John Williams, William Ellis, and one 
 other missionary answered this call, and in 1818 
 they went over to Huahine. Then Tamatoa 
 begged for a missionary of his own, and John 
 Williams finally settled at Raiatea. 
 
 In 1819 the Royal Mission Chapel in Tahiti 
 was finished. It was two hundred and twelve 
 feet longer than St. Paul's in London, and con- 
 tained one hundred and three windows and 
 twenty-nine doors. It was so large that no 
 preacher could be heard throughout the whole
 
 THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 23 
 
 building, so three pulpits were placed within it, 
 at suitable distances apart, and three ministers 
 preached at once to a congregation of six thou- 
 sand people. 
 
 After the dedication of the chapel laws were 
 published, forbidding murder, theft, Sabbath- 
 breaking, and other things, and when the king 
 asked his chiefs if they would agree to these 
 rules even the one who had been the ringleader 
 among the rebels held up both hands, in token 
 of his wish to be good and obedient. 
 
 Pomare died in 1821, and his son, only four 
 years old, was crowned by Mr. Nott. The trans- 
 lation of the whole Bible into Tahitian was com- 
 pleted in 1836, Mr. Nott having done most of the 
 work. The remainder of his life was spent in 
 Tahiti, and in 1844 he died. 
 
 In the year 1827 some men were driven from 
 the Pearl Islands to Tahiti on account of war in 
 their own country. These islands are made up 
 of bits of land called Harp Island, Chain Island, 
 Crescent Island and Bow Island, on account of 
 their various shapes. While away from home 
 these people picked up some seeds of gospel 
 truth, and on their return to their friends and 
 relatives they told what they had seen and heard 
 on their voyage, and their story was accepted 
 and acted upon. The idols were cast down, and 
 Jehovah was chosen as the God of the Pearl
 
 24 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Islands too. From Tahiti and the adjacent 
 islands not less than one hundred and sixty 
 evangelists have gone forth carrying the mes- 
 sage of salvation to other tribes. The spirit that 
 moves in the hearts and lives of these converts, 
 who about a century ago were nothing but sav- 
 ages, is well expressed in their own words. 
 
 " Let our hands forget how to lift the club or 
 throw the spear. Let our guns decay with rust ; 
 we do not want them. Though we have been 
 pierced with bows or spears, if we pierce each 
 other now let it be with the word of God." 
 
 The cause of missions has been much hin 
 dered by the French occupation of the islands, 
 but the stations are now under the care of the 
 French Protestant Society, and it is hoped that 
 the good work may never be crushed out. It is 
 said that the natives take much more kindly to 
 the Protestant religion than to that of the Ro- 
 manists, and that it is wonderful how well they 
 keep to their good principles and their Christian 
 faith when they are surrounded by so many evil 
 influences.
 
 THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 2C 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE HERVEY ISLANDS : A BRAVE DISCOVERER. 
 
 WHEN John Williams went to live in Rai- 
 atea he found the people scattered all over the 
 island in separate villages, so far apart that there 
 was no chance of helping the inhabitants to work 
 together in leaving off their old ways and form- 
 ing new ones, and everybody was jealous and 
 suspicious of everybody else. The first thing 
 that he did, therefore, was to form a settlement 
 where they might live together in comfort, 
 peace and fellowship. He began by building a 
 house for himself, so that he might show the na- 
 tives what a good home should be like and how 
 it was to be made. This house was sixty feet 
 long and thirty feet broad, and had seven rooms, 
 four of which were in front and three behind. 
 He made also all the furniture of his new dwell- 
 ing. The men were quick in catching his ideas, 
 and clever in carrying them out, and at the end 
 of twelve months the houses extended two miles 
 along the seashore, and altogether there were 
 about one thousand people living in them. 
 
 Having finished this task, John Williams 
 made up his mind that he must have a boat, 
 and he soon had one put together, formed of
 
 26 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 planks held in place by the native cord. The 
 natives, though naturally very lazy, set to work 
 to imitate his example ; and while their hands 
 were busy this new comrade of theirs lost no 
 opportunity for teaching them other things be- 
 sides boat-building, and in his pleasant, friendly 
 way he dropped many a word of that good gos- 
 pel that would do so much more for them than 
 any other kind of learning. They listened to 
 him readily, and tried to put this part of his 
 teaching into practice. One man used to pray 
 earnestly: "Oh, Jehovah, give thy word into 
 my heart, all thy word, and cover it up there, 
 that it may riot be forgotten by me." 
 
 There was, too, a poor old cripple who used 
 to sit by the wayside, and when the people were 
 going home from church he would beg them to 
 tell him a little of what they had heard there. 
 " One gives me one piece," he said, " and another 
 another, and I gather them together in my 
 heart ; and thinking over what I thus obtain, 
 and praying God to make me know, I get to 
 understand." When he first saw Mr. Williams 
 he said, in greeting, " Welcome, servant of God, 
 who brought light into this dark island. To you 
 we are indebted for the word of heaven." 
 
 Some Bibles were sent to the people and they 
 were all anxious to learn to read. Then they 
 wished to have their neighbors share some of
 
 THE HERVEY OR COOK ISLANDS. 2/ 
 
 the blessings that had come to them. A mis- 
 sionary society was started, which in one year 
 gave about $2,500 for the purpose of " causing 
 the word of God to grow," as they said them- 
 selves. Even the king and queen prepared ar- 
 row-root with their own hands, as a contribution 
 to this object. " Why," said Tamatoa, the king, 
 " we would not give that to God upon which we 
 bestowed no labor." For some reason these new 
 Christians go far ahead of the old ones some- 
 times. Perhaps these people had caught the 
 spirit of their leader, John Williams. " Our 
 hearts take in all the ends of the earth," he said, 
 and he found it hard to content himself within 
 the limits of a single reef when there was so 
 much to be done outside of his own little island. 
 
 But he did not neglect the work close at 
 hand, in spite of the pulling of his heart-strings 
 in another direction. " I have given myself 
 wholly to the Lord," said he ; and his Master's 
 work he could find anywhere. 
 
 He built a new chapel for his congregation, 
 setting off part of it for a court-house. Every- 
 thing about the building astonished the natives, 
 but that which was a special matter for won- 
 der and admiration was that he had contrived 
 a sort of chandelier in which cocoanut shells 
 were used as lamps. The opening day two 
 thousand four hundred persons were present,
 
 28 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 and the next day a code of laws was adopted 
 and the king's brother was made chief judge of 
 the island. Then Mr. Williams provided honest 
 employment for the people by beginning the 
 cultivation of the sugar-cane, which grows on 
 the island, and he also put up a sugar-mill for 
 their use. 
 
 It was in the spring of the year 1821 that 
 a pestilence broke out in the Austral Islands, 
 about three hundred miles away, south of the So- 
 ciety Islands. Two chiefs of Rurutu, one of these 
 islands, each built himself a canoe, and then 
 crowding their boats with as many persons as 
 they would hold they set sail upon the broad 
 ocean, not knowing whither they were going. 
 They landed at Raiatea at last, and were much 
 interested in all the new and surprising things 
 that they saw there ; and when they thought it 
 safe to venture back to their own country they 
 begged two of the native teachers to go with 
 them and teach them how to live as Christians. 
 " We cannot go home to our land of darkness 
 without a light in our hands," they said touch- 
 ingly, and were made very happy by having 
 their petition granted and being able besides to 
 take with them several copies of the gospels in 
 Tahitian, a language something like their own. 
 
 " The priests have deceived us," they told 
 their friends on their return ; and in order to
 
 THE HERVEV OR COOK ISLANDS. 29 
 
 prove the truth of their words they made a 
 feast at which they allowed the women to eat 
 some of the things that were usually forbidden 
 to them. As these women did not fall down 
 and die on the spot, or have any other dreadful 
 thing happen to them, the people believed what 
 had been told them, and lost no time in pulling 
 down their temples and burning their altars. 
 In a few weeks Christianity became the religion 
 of the island ; the converts sent a load of idols 
 over to Raiatea, to tell their own story, and then 
 hastened to spread the light among the other 
 islands in the same group. These idols were 
 publicly exhibited in the church at Raiatea. 
 The national god of Rurutu was called Aa, and 
 he was the most interesting of all the images, 
 for he was decked all over outside with little 
 gods, and in his back was a door, which was 
 opened and twenty-four small idols were found 
 hidden away inside of him. 
 
 "Ah," said one of the converts at Raiatea, 
 "angels would rejoice to be employed by God 
 to teach the world this gospel of Christ." 
 
 The missionary society at Raiatea was so 
 much encouraged by this good piece of work 
 that its contributions grew to the sum of $9,000. 
 " A little property given with the heart becomes 
 big property in the sight of God," one of the 
 members had said, and all the collections of this
 
 3O HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 society must have been especially blessed, be, 
 cause all were offered out of pure love and grati- 
 tude. 
 
 A Christian church was formed at Raiatea now, 
 and about this time five hundred persons were 
 baptized. Then John Williams and his wife both 
 fell ill, partly because they had not proper food, 
 and they had to take a trip to Australia in search 
 of a doctor. On their way they stopped at Aitu- 
 taki, one of the Hervey or Cook group of islands, 
 and left there two native teachers among the 
 savages, who were not pleasant-looking hosts. 
 They were indeed most hideous to behold, for 
 their bodies were tattooed all over and smeared 
 with pipe-clay, red or yellow ochre, or charcoal. 
 
 Mr. Williams soon won back his health at 
 Sydney, and began at once to look round to see 
 if he could not in some way obtain a ship that he 
 might use for the purpose of trading from his 
 islands to New South Wales. The London Mis- 
 sionary Society at first thought the plan a foolish 
 one, but John Williams was not a man to yield 
 his point without good reason, so the members 
 gave in at last to his arguments, and a schooner 
 was bought for him, and called the Endeavor, a 
 name that the natives afterwards changed to the 
 Beginning. Mr. Williams loaded his boat with 
 shoes, clothing, tea, and other articles, engaged 
 a man to go with him to teach his people the art
 
 THE HERVEY OR COOK ISLANDS. 31 
 
 of cultivating sugar and tobacco, and with sev- 
 eral sheep and cows as presents from the gov- 
 ernor of New South Wales he sailed away 
 home, having gained more on his voyage than 
 many persons find on a hunt for health. 
 
 Tamatoa, the king, was delighted with the 
 new ship, and immediately sat down and wrote 
 a letter of thanks to the directors of the London 
 Society. 
 
 " A ship is good," wrote he, wisely, " for by 
 its means useful property will come to our lands 
 and our bodies be covered with decent cloth. 
 But this is another use of the ship : when we 
 compassionate the little lands near to us, and 
 desire to send two among us to those lands to 
 teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good 
 word of the kingdom." 
 
 Ah, to send on " the good word of the king- 
 dom " that was what John Williams was all on 
 fire to do. The teachers left at Aitutaki had, for 
 a while, had a hard time with their wild pupils. 
 The savages had laughed at them, calling them 
 " two logs of driftwood cast up by the sea," and 
 had not treated them with much courtesy in any 
 way. But before long the natives became some- 
 what interested, and would listen to what was 
 told them about this strange new religion. They 
 even promised, at last, that if John Williams 
 would come himself to see them again they
 
 32 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 would give up their idols. Of course, with such 
 an invitation it did not take much urging to 
 bring John Williams over the water, for he be- 
 lieved that " a lazy missionary is an ugly and 
 useless thing," and he could never have too 
 much of this sort of work to do. When he 
 reached Aitutaki the people waded out into the 
 sea, and crowded round his boat, calling out like 
 pleased children, " Good is the word of God. It 
 is well now with Aitutaki. The good word has 
 taken root at Aitutaki." Then they held up 
 their hats and their books and said over as 
 many bits from the Bible as they could remem- 
 ber, trying to show that they were doing their 
 best to fall into the new way. They had built 
 many houses, and had a neat chapel, which 
 had been whitewashed by the teachers. This 
 work had caused great surprise among the 
 islanders. " Just see, they are roasting stones," 
 they whispered one to another ; and when the 
 coating was dry they shook their puzzled heads, 
 and said, solemnly, " The very stones in the sea 
 and the sand on the shore become good property 
 in the hands of those who worship the true God 
 and regard his word." 
 
 But Air. Williams did not end his journey 
 at Aitutaki, for there he found some natives 
 from Rarotonga, another of the Hervey Islands* 
 These men had been driven out of their course
 
 THE HERVEY OR COOK ISLANDS. 33 
 
 by a gale, and had been thrown upon Aitutaki. 
 There they had become Christians, and now 
 they wished to return and tell the people of 
 Rarotonga the good things that they had 
 learned. 
 
 Captain Cook had once been to Rarotonga, 
 and the inhabitants of the island had been in- 
 terested in the white men, all of whom they 
 called " Kookes," after Captain Cook. Since 
 that time they had been looking out for a second 
 visit from the " Kookes," and now here was a 
 chance to fulfil their expectations, if the white 
 men would go home with the wanderers. There 
 was only one trouble about carrying out this 
 plan, and that was that none of them knew the 
 way. John Williams thought that they might 
 find it together, and here was a little cruise after 
 his own heart ; for to reach new islands was his 
 constant desire and aim. He took the lost 
 mariners on board his ship, and also the king 
 of Aitutaki, and thirty-one of the discarded 
 idols. There went with him besides one of the 
 native teachers, whose name was Papeiha, and 
 who was the kind of Christian that we read 
 about in the Acts of the Apostles, in the days 
 of Paul and Philip and Stephen, and all the rest. 
 Then off they sailed upon their voyage of dis- 
 covery. 
 
 But Rarotonga seemed astray in the ocean, 
 
 Heroee of the South Beta. 3
 
 34 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 and nobody knew exactly where to look for it. 
 The vessel touched at the island of Atui, where 
 two teachers had been living for two months, 
 although they had not been very well cared for. 
 They had often been hungry, and many of their 
 goods had been stolen from them. The chief 
 of the island came on board the ship, and 
 Papeiha took him down into the hold and 
 showed him the idols stowed away there, while 
 Mr. Williams told him what the Bible says about 
 such gods. The chief was much impressed, and 
 the next day declared his intention of throwing 
 aside his images forever. " Eyes they have, it is 
 true," he said, " but wood cannot see ; ears they 
 have, but wood cannot hear." He then carried 
 his guests over to two small islands in his king- 
 dom and ordered the people there to cast away 
 their idols. These natives were very simple 
 and ignorant, and willingly obeyed. The goats 
 that Mr. Williams brought with him they called 
 "birds with great teeth in their heads." 
 
 The chief of these islands told Mr. Williams 
 that Rarotonga was only a few days' sail distant, 
 and having learned the direction in which to 
 steer the party again set forth, although the 
 natives among them begged that no further 
 search might be made, as the people of Raro- 
 tonga were known to be terrible cannibals. 
 
 Still Mr. Williams tried to calm their fears
 
 THE HERVEY OR COOK ISLANDS. 35 
 
 and pressed on. Five days passed and nothing 
 came to reward their efforts. At the end of 
 that time, John Williams, like Columbus before 
 him, had to promise to turn back if land were 
 not sighted at a given hour. One half-hour be- 
 fore the close of this period there was a cry 
 from the man on the look-out, " There is the 
 island we are seeking !" 
 
 There it lay before them Rarotonga, with 
 its cruel, wicked inhabitants. 
 
 So soon as the ship came into sight thirty or 
 forty of the savages jumped into their canoes 
 and went forth to meet the strangers, eager to 
 see what sort of beings they were. Fortunately 
 the natives seemed very friendly, and greeted 
 the new-comers in the best South Sea manner, 
 by rubbing their noses, which were covered with 
 cocoanut oil, against those of the missionaries 
 and teachers. This action, though not very 
 agreeable, was comforting, for it showed good 
 feeling ; but the Rarotongans seemed not very 
 anxious to have any of the visitors go ashore 
 with them. However, Papeiha made his way to 
 the land and explained to the people the object 
 of the expedition. Makea, the king, greeted 
 him kindly, promised to protect the teachers, 
 and went on board the ship to conduct them 
 to the shore. But during the night these 
 teachers were so badly abused that in the morn-
 
 36 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 ing they returned to the boat and were not will- 
 ing to go back to the island. Then Papeiha 
 came nobly to the front. " I will stay here," he 
 said, "if you will send my friend Tiberio to 
 work with me. I am not afraid. Whether they 
 spare me or kill me I will land among them. 
 Jehovah is my shepherd ; I am in his hand." 
 
 So with only his clothes, his little store of 
 books and his New Testament, Papeiha stepped 
 into a canoe and went over to the shore. A 
 crowd of warriors gathered upon some rocks 
 that jutted into the water, and as he stepped 
 upon the beach they lifted their spears ready 
 to hurl them at him ; but, either from awe or 
 curiosity, they dropped their arms and let him 
 passed unharmed. As he walked on towards the 
 house of the chief the people followed him in a 
 body, one crying ; " I '11 have his hat ;" and an- 
 other, " I '11 take his shirt," and a third, " I shall 
 have his jacket." But before they could rob him 
 of his clothes they were met by Makea, the king. 
 
 " Speak to us, O man," he said to Papeiha, 
 " that we may know the business on which you 
 have come." 
 
 " Why," replied Papeiha, " I have come to tell 
 you about my God, and about Jesus Christ, so 
 that you may burn up your idols as the people 
 in all the other islands are doing." 
 
 " Burn our gods !" exclaimed the people, in
 
 THE HERVEY OR COOK ISLANDS. 37 
 
 dismay. " What gods shall we have then, and 
 what shall we do without gods?" 
 
 Papeiha did not stop to answer all their ques- 
 tions just then, but day after day, after his com- 
 panions had left him, he patiently instructed 
 them in the learning of the One who, as he 
 could read in his Gospel of Matthew, had prom- 
 ised to be with his followers always and every- 
 where. 
 
 And that One had been in Rarotonga before 
 him. A heathen woman had already, in some 
 manner, brought a little of the gospel story from 
 Tahiti, so far away. Makea had been interested, 
 and had built an altar to Jehovah ; so, like Paul 
 at Athens, Papeiha had only to declare unto the 
 people the Unknown God whom so ignorantly 
 they were worshipping. When Tiberio, the 
 friend of Papeiha, came to Rarotonga, the two 
 men did their best to teach the natives a better 
 religion than they yet knew. One old chief was 
 anxious to learn how to pray, but as the idea of 
 prayer was new to him he was a slow pupil, and 
 poor tired Papeiha would sometimes fall asleep 
 during the lesson. Then the chief would awa- 
 ken him, saying piteously : " Please go over 
 it again for me, for I have forgotten it." 
 
 Papeiha told the people that their idols were 
 not gods, and that the true God was a Spirit, and 
 could not be seen.
 
 38 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 " Oh ! oh !" cried the excited natives. " Why 
 does he talk like this ? Does he think that we 
 are blind ? He says that his God cannot be seen ; 
 and yet look at him ! He carries his God about 
 with him. See how he talks to it, and what his 
 God says to him he tells us. Wherever he goes 
 he carries it ; when he sleeps he has it near him. 
 That is his God." 
 
 What the people thought was Papeiha's God 
 was simply his little New Testament that he 
 had always near him, and when he was reading 
 it they believed that it was talking to him. 
 
 But after a while they began to see things 
 more clearly, and at last one of the priests de- 
 cided to destroy his idols. He brought his little 
 boy and placed him under the care of the teach- 
 ers, lest some evil should befall him on account 
 of this daring act, and then went home and came 
 back staggering under the weight of the god he 
 was carrying. 
 
 His friends told him that he was a madman, 
 and begged him not to put himself in so much 
 danger, and when a saw was brought out, with 
 which to cut the sacred object to pieces, they all 
 fled in great alarm, thinking that the end of all 
 things had come. But when they saw that the 
 priest went on with his work and then threw the 
 bits of wood into a large fire, where they quietly 
 burned to ashes, and nothing terrible came upon
 
 THE HERVEY OR COOK ISLANDS. 39 
 
 him, they made up their minds that their idols, 
 too, were good for nothing, and should meet the 
 same fate. In less than ten days fourteen idols 
 were cast into the flames, and then one of the 
 chiefs set fire to the temple. " My heart has 
 taken hold of the word of Jehovah," he said, as 
 a reason for his conduct. 
 
 The king himself gave up his faith in his 
 worthless gods, and a small chapel was built for 
 the worship of Jehovah. 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Williams was having his own 
 trials in the island of Raiatea. The London 
 Missionary Society had decided that, after all, 
 the Endeavor was an unnecessary expense, and 
 with much regret Mr. Williams was obliged to 
 part from the little vessel that had been so help- 
 ful to him. But if he could not go out of Raia- 
 tea he would work the harder there. He began 
 to translate the Bible into the native tongue, and 
 his wife formed a class for poor, lame, deaf or 
 blind old women, who were neglected by the 
 people. 
 
 Then Mr. and Mrs. Pitman came from Eng- 
 land to assist in the labor in Rarotonga. " If I 
 only had a ship," said Mr. Williams in greeting 
 to these new workers, " not an island in the Pa> 
 cific but I would, with God's will, go to see, and 
 leave teachers there. " 
 
 But while he was waiting he learned to make
 
 40 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 ropes, which he sold to captains of ships. In 
 1827 he took Mr. Pitman to his field in Raroton- 
 ga. He himself expected to come back with the 
 ship, but it had received damage from a storm, 
 and the captain felt that he must hasten home 
 and begin repairs, and could not wait for Mr. 
 Williams. 
 
 John Williams, therefore, took his clothes 
 and a few other articles on shore, and there he 
 stayed for twelve months. 
 
 His first work was to move the missionary 
 settlement to a better site, on the other side of 
 the island. When this was done, he was asked 
 to seat himself outside of his house, and then 
 a long train of natives filed past him and laid 
 their idols at his feet. The smallest of these 
 images was five feet long and about four inches 
 in diameter. The next Sunday there was a 
 congregation of four thousand people, and as 
 the chapel was too small for the attendance it 
 was thought best to build a new one. In seven 
 weeks this house of worship was completed, al- 
 though five years before not a man on the island 
 had ever seen an axe or a plane. 
 
 While the chapel was building Mr. Williams 
 made a great stir among the natives by writing 
 something on a chip and sending it to his wife ; 
 for when it was found that she understood the 
 message without a word having to be spoken
 
 THE HERVEY OR COOK ISLANDS. 4! 
 
 one of the men caught up the wonderful piece 
 of wood, and holding it high above his head he 
 ran through the village, shouting, " See the wis- 
 dom of these English people : they can make 
 chips talk! They can make chips talk!" 
 
 Among the queer customs of Rarotonga was 
 one that allowed a son, so soon as he was old 
 enough, to wrestle with his father for the pos- 
 session of the property. Should he prove the 
 stronger he would turn his parents out and 
 claim the house and farm for his own. If a man 
 died all the relatives could come to his house 
 and take anything they might wish, leaving the 
 widow and children to starve. To do away with 
 these unfair practices Mr. Williams brought out 
 the code of laws used at Raiatea, and it was 
 adopted by the people. 
 
 It was not luxurious living on these islands 
 of the Pacific. It was ten years after their ar- 
 rival before Mr. and Mrs. Williams tasted beef, 
 and then they had lost their relish for it. In 
 Rarotonga they had nothing to eat for weeks 
 except a scanty supply of native roots. 
 
 For many months no ship came near the 
 island. But Mr. Williams was as full of devices 
 as was Robinson Crusoe. As he had no boat at 
 hand he would make one to suit himself. He 
 had no knowledge of ship-building, except the 
 little that he had picked up here and there,
 
 42 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 and he had few of the necessary tools. He had 
 no saw, no oakum, cordage or sail-cloth ; but he 
 twisted the bark of the hibiscus into ropes, 
 quilted native mats for sails, and constructed a 
 rudder out of a piece of a pick-axe, a cooper's 
 adze and a large hoe. In five months it was 
 ready for use. He called it the Messenger of 
 Peace, and he made a successful trial trip in 
 the little vessel to Aitutaki and back. On his 
 return he found that his devoted natives had 
 cleared away all the rubbish left by the build- 
 ing. " We will not leave a chip against which 
 he can strike his foot," they said. 
 
 Two new missionaries, named Mr. and Mrs. 
 Buzacott, came to Rarotonga in 1828. They 
 set Mr. Williams free to go back to Raiatea, and 
 when there he offered to lend his new ship to 
 the London Missionary Society, so that they 
 might send missionaries to visit the Marquesas 
 Islands. Some teachers had been placed upon 
 these islands by the Duff, on her first voyage, 
 although they had had but slight encourage- 
 ment so far.
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. 43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. OVER THE SEA TO 
 SAMOA. 
 
 THE following year Mr. Williams went over 
 to Rurutu, where he met a chief from another 
 island who had been waiting two years hoping 
 to take back a teacher to his own land. While 
 away from home his wife and two children had 
 died, but he would not leave the spot until he 
 had accomplished his object. 
 
 After John Williams had returned to Raiatea 
 he immediately set about preparations for a voy- 
 age to the Samoan Islands, which had not yet 
 been reached by the gospel. This was a plan 
 that he had long had in mind, and now, with the 
 nelp of the Messenger of Peace, he meant to 
 carry it out. The Samoan Islands were about 
 two thousand miles away, but that fact did not 
 take the courage and the determination out of 
 John Williams. Difficulty and danger seemed 
 only to make him more resolute and more 
 daring. 
 
 Before going to Samoa he visited the Her- 
 vey Islands, although they were out of his 
 course. He stopped first at Mangaia, to which
 
 44 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 two teachers had been sent after Mr. Williams" 
 first call at that island five or six years before, 
 and the good missionary was delighted to be 
 welcomed by about five hundred Christians, the 
 results of the work of these men. 
 
 These converts had cut off their hair. The 
 heathen wear long hair, but as the Christians 
 wear their hair short it had come to be a kind of 
 first step in giving up heathenism to bring the 
 length of the locks down to that of those of the 
 white men. In speaking of any one who had 
 accepted the Christian religion the natives were 
 wont to say, " Such a one has cut his hair." 
 So John Williams felt sure of the sincerity of 
 the people of Mangaia because they had been 
 willing to make this sacrifice in order to be as 
 much as possible like the Christians. 
 
 At Atui, where he next landed, a great ad- 
 vance was seen in all good things. Then he 
 went on to Rarotonga, where he found that dur- 
 ing his absence a terrible plague had broken 
 out and nearly six hundred persons had died. 
 Fortunately the missionaries had with them a 
 large supply of medicines, with which they were 
 able to give much relief. Then the Messenger 
 of Peace touched at Aitutaki, where the converts 
 placed in his hands the large sum of $515 for 
 the London Missionary Society. This money 
 had been made by the sale of pigs ; each family
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. 45 
 
 having dedicated a pig to the work of " causing 
 the word of God to grow," and these animals 
 had been sold to the crews of the vessels that 
 had come to Aitutaki. 
 
 With a happy heart Mr. Williams said good- 
 by to these generous Christian natives ; and 
 then off for far-away Samoa. 
 
 Within five days he reached Savage Island, 
 which had been so called by Captain Cook, who 
 had this time hit the mark better than he had 
 sometimes when naming the lands that he dis- 
 covered. With a good deal of difficulty a chief 
 was coaxed on board the ship, but perhaps 
 Mr. Williams was sorry for his pressing invita- 
 tion when he saw the behavior of his guest. 
 He danced furiously up and down on the deck, 
 howling frightfully, gnashing his teeth and 
 gnawing his long beard. The worst of it was 
 that none of his countrymen seemed any bet- 
 ter than he, and it was no wonder that the poor 
 teachers lost heart and begged not to be handed 
 over to the mercy of such creatures as these. 
 All that John Williams could do was to persuade 
 two of the young warriors to come away with 
 him in his ship, hoping that they might receive 
 some good influence and after a while go back 
 and teach their companions. 
 
 After a run of three hundred and fifty miles 
 the Messenger of Peace reached Tonga, in the
 
 46 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 group of the Friendly Islands, where, as we 
 shall hear by and by, the Wesleyan missionaries 
 had already begun to work. At Tonga Mr. Wil- 
 liams met Fauea, a Samoan chief who had been 
 converted in this place, and he offered to take 
 the missionaries to his own home. The Mes- 
 senger of Peace went on to Lefuga, another 
 island of the same group, and here the mission- 
 aries came across Finau, a chief of the Vauvau 
 Islands, where John Williams was longing to 
 station a teacher. But Finau was not like Fauea. 
 He was not a Christian, and had no wish that 
 anybody else should be one. He held out little 
 encouragement to these strangers from over the 
 sea. He did, indeed, say that he would try to 
 protect the life of any man who should be fool- 
 ish enough to risk it among these people ; but 
 as for the people, if any of them should be con- 
 verted he would at once have them put to death. 
 The outlook was not very promising, thought 
 John Williams, and it was hardly worth while 
 to throw away any of his teachers under these 
 conditions. He must lay aside his dreams for 
 Vauvau for the present, and hope for better 
 things in the future. His faith was to be re- 
 warded sometime, for Savage Island and Vau- 
 vau were both in God's keeping, and were still 
 to own him as king. 
 
 For seven days the Messenger of Peace was
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. 47 
 
 tossed about in the Pacific, in the grasp of more 
 than one violent storm ; but at last the weary 
 party sighted Savaii, the largest of the Samoan, 
 or Navigator Islands, as they are sometimes 
 called, perhaps, as John Williams suggested, 
 because of the superior skill shown by the na- 
 tives in building and navigating their canoes. 
 
 These islands are very beautiful, with the 
 coral walls around them, the stretch of silver 
 sand fringed with the foliage of the cocoanut, 
 palm and banana trees, and the mountain slopes 
 and the cascades beyond all touched by the pe- 
 culiar yellow haze in the atmosphere. On the 
 shore of one of these islands there is a bay 
 called "Massacre Bay," the name coming from 
 the fact that it was entered in 1787 by a French 
 navigator whose crew was there brutally mur- 
 dered by the natives. 
 
 In spite of their cruelty and treachery the 
 Samoans are naturally ingenious in many ways. 
 Their boats are made from pieces of bread- 
 fruit trees, neatly fitted one into another, and 
 then lashed together by native twine. The 
 houses meant for public entertainments are 
 large, and shaped to look like something be- 
 tween round and oval. They are formed of 
 two or three large posts, fixed in the ground, 
 and a short ridge-pole, from four to six feet in 
 length, covered with rafters and thatch. The
 
 48 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 rafters come from the wood of the breadfruit 
 tree, and the leaf of the sugar-cane is used for 
 thatching. These buildings are usually open all 
 around at the sides, and are covered with mats 
 for carpets. The dwelling-houses are similar in 
 style, but lower and smaller. The Samoans had 
 neither temples nor altars. Their religion con- 
 sisted in a belief that spirits live in certain ani- 
 mals, and these animals were looked upon with 
 superstitious reverence. Sometimes a dignified 
 old man would be seen bowing down to a little 
 green lizard. They had some idea of a Supreme 
 Being, whom they regarded as the creator of all 
 things. They called him Tangaloa, and at their 
 great feasts, before they began to eat, some 
 chief would arise and say, " Thank you, great 
 Tangaloa, for this food." The Samoans were 
 the only people in Polynesia who had in their 
 language any word for "Thank you." 
 
 Just before Mr. Williams arived at Samoa 
 it had been declared by an aged chief that the 
 worship of spirits would soon cease in these isl- 
 ands, and that shortly after his own death a 
 great white chief would come over the water and 
 teach the people a new religion. The chief was 
 very wicked and very powerful, so that Fauea 
 thought with a sinking of his heart that it would 
 be almost impossible for the missionaries to do 
 anything in the face of this evil old man. But
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. 49 
 
 no sooner had Fauea landed than he heard the 
 news of the chief's death, which so delighted him 
 that he began to dance about and to sing with 
 joy. Then he took the copper-colored people of 
 his island on board the strange ship and showed 
 them how to receive these new friends with 
 courtesy and kindness. He tried to impress 
 them with the idea that the white men were far 
 ahead of them in every respect and that they 
 must learn all that they could from them. The 
 people were very curious about the new-comers. 
 They examined their dress with great care and 
 earnestness, and even asked Mr. Williams to pull 
 off his shoes so that they might see which part of 
 his foot was skin and which was leather. Then 
 they were horrified to find that he seemed to 
 have no toes. Fauea explained that these supe- 
 rior beings wore two kinds of covering over their 
 feet, and then Mr. Williams had to take off his 
 stockings to prove that Fauea spoke the truth. 
 
 When the king of Samoa heard that the 
 vessel in the harbor was what was called a 
 " praying ship " he sent a large quantity of 
 food on board and refused to take any pay for 
 it. Eight men with their wives and children 
 then ventured to go on shore, where they were 
 greeted by a crowd of people bearing lighted 
 torches, thus forming a sort of missionary torch- 
 light procession. 
 
 Heroes of the South Seas. A
 
 50 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Some remarkable customs were found in 
 these islands also. One of them was that the 
 women expressed their grief at the death of a 
 friend, not by wearing black garments, but by 
 burning themselves all over in small blisters, 
 which they thought were very ornamental. 
 They were fond, too, of adorning themselves 
 with wreaths and garlands of flowers and leaves, 
 and blue beads they admired so much that 
 a large pig would be readily given for six of 
 them. 
 
 The morning after the landing of the mis- 
 sionaries a public meeting was held at which 
 both the king and his brother were present, al- 
 though there was at that time on the island some 
 disturbance and threatening of war following 
 some trouble that had arisen in connection with 
 the death of the old chief. Both men promised 
 to take good care of the teachers that should be 
 left with them, and before the ship sailed a 
 giant chief from a neighboring island came over 
 and pleaded that he might have a teacher for 
 his people. " I will make them listen and learn," 
 he said earnestly. 
 
 " There are two little words in our language 
 that I have always admired," said Mr. Williams, 
 as he set sail from Samoa. " They are ' Trust ' 
 and ' Try.' " Certainly he had reason to believe 
 in the motto if anybody ever had, for he was al-
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. 5 I 
 
 ways ready to act upon its advice and knew 
 the result of doing so. 
 
 Owing to the contrary winds he could not 
 stop at Savage Island on his way home, so he 
 pushed on to Rarotonga. The plague had dis- 
 appeared, and Rarotonga was again Rarotonga, 
 as one man said. Then the ship called at Ei- 
 meo, where, as in the old days in Antioch, when 
 Paul returned from his missionary journey, the 
 disciples gathered to hear of the adventures 
 and experiences of the one who had been on a 
 tour among the heathen. 
 
 About this time Tamatoa, the old king of 
 Raiatea, died. His last words were, " Beware 
 lest the gospel be driven from these islands." 
 In 1831 John Williams again visited Rarotonga, 
 and from that place started on a voyage among 
 all the islands of the Hervey group. " The 
 natives cling round him, and he seems really 
 one with them, " said the missionaries who went 
 with him. 
 
 On his return to Rarotonga he set to work 
 to finish his translation of the Bible into the 
 native tongue, but he was interrupted by a 
 fearful hurricane, which hurled down one thou- 
 sand houses and helped the sea to pick up the 
 poor little Messenger of Peace in its arms and 
 wash it several miles inland, dropping it at last 
 in a hole five feet deep. Some of the natives
 
 52 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 declared that the storm was the fault of the 
 Christians, and made that an excuse for going 
 back to their old ways. Others comforted them- 
 selves with the thought that the Bible was left to 
 them at any rate. Mr. Williams diverted their 
 minds by putting them to work to repair dam- 
 ages, but it was a month or two before the 
 Messenger of Peace could be dug out and again 
 set afloat. When once more in the water, Mr. 
 Williams took the boat over to Tahiti to obtain 
 provisions for the hungry Rarotongans, whose 
 crops had been destroyed. 
 
 At Raiatea Mr. Williams had to form a tem- 
 perance society, to withstand the evil influence 
 of the introduction of whiskey by a trading ves- 
 sel. He carried back with him to Rarotonga 
 several barrels of flour, and with them as much 
 food as he could, buying various articles from an 
 American captain. He had with him, besides, 
 some horses, donkeys and horned cattle. These 
 animals amazed the natives, who had never 
 before seen anything like them, and they gave 
 them very queer names. The horse they called 
 "the great pig that carries the man;" the don- 
 key, " the noisy pig," or " the long-eared pig ;" 
 and the dog, "the barking pig." All of these 
 things were of great service to the people of 
 Rarotonga, and so helped the missionaries in 
 bringing the gospel to them.
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. 53 
 
 In 1832 Mr. Williams made another voyage 
 to Samoa. On this trip, Makea, king of Raro- 
 tonga, went with him, as well as a native convert 
 named Teara. As they started forth on their 
 missionary tour Teara expressed his feelings 
 in a beautiful prayer, which it is hard to realize 
 came from the lips of a man who nine years 
 before had been a cannibal. 
 
 "If we fly to heaven," he said, "there, O 
 God, we shall find thee ; if we dwell upon land, 
 thou art there also ; if we sail on the sea, thou 
 art here. This affords us comfort, so that we sail 
 upon the ocean without fear, because thou, O 
 God, art in our ship. The king of our bodies 
 has his subjects to whom he issues his orders, 
 but if he himself goes with them his presence 
 stimulates their zeal, they work with energy, 
 they do it readily and they do it well. O Lord, 
 thou art the King of our spirits ; thou hast issued 
 orders to thy subjects to do a great work : thou 
 hast commanded them to preach the gospel to 
 every creature. We are going on that errand 
 now. Let thy presence go with us to quicken 
 us and enable us to persevere in the great work 
 until we die. Thou hast said that thy presence 
 shall go with thy people even to the end of the 
 world. Fulfil, O Lord, to us this cheering 
 promise. I see, O Lord, a compass in this ves- 
 sel by which the seamen steer the right course
 
 54 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 that we may escape destruction and danger. Be 
 to us, O Lord, like this compass, our Guide and 
 our Saviour." 
 
 Teara became a faithful worker and was a 
 great help to the missionaries, and always an 
 honor to the Master whom he trusted so well. 
 
 John Williams hoped that this time he might 
 visit every island in the Samoan group. He 
 stopped at several of them, and in many places 
 he found people who, in various ways, had caught 
 echoes of the gospel story from other islands 
 and were longing for a " religion ship " to come 
 along and bring them teachers for themselves. 
 Some of them had begun to follow in the steps 
 of the missionaries, and were trying, so far as 
 they knew how, to live the Christian life, calling 
 themselves " Sons of the Word." 
 
 In one spot Mr. Williams was met by a 
 chief who hailed him with these words : " You 
 needn't be afraid of us; we are Christians." 
 
 "Christians?" asked Mr. Williams. "Why, 
 what do you know about being Christians ?" 
 
 "Why," answered the man, "there was a 
 great chief from the white man's country, whose 
 name was Williams, who came to Savaii about 
 twenty moons ago and placed there some work- 
 ers of religion ; and some of our people who 
 were there have come home and taught us what 
 he taught them."
 
 THE SAMOAN ISLANDS. 5$ 
 
 Then he showed Mr. Williams a little chapel 
 that had been built and told him that there were 
 fifty persons in the congregation. The Chris- 
 tians were distinguished from the other natives 
 by a piece of white cloth worn by each one 
 around the arm. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Williams, " I am that white 
 man ; but who preaches to the people here ?" 
 
 "Oh," replied the man, " I go over to the mis- 
 sion station once in a while and get some relig- 
 ion which I bring carefully home and give to the 
 people. Then, when that is gone, I take my ca- 
 noe and go and fetch some more. Now, wont 
 you give me a man full of religion, so that I 
 sha'n't have to risk my life going so far to 
 get it ?" 
 
 Mr. Williams was touched by this appeal, 
 and promised to send soon to this earnest work- 
 er some man who would be " full of religion," 
 and be able to teach and to help these dark 
 brothers who were striving to walk in the 
 right way.
 
 56 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS: THE CAP- 
 TAIN'S LAST VOYAGE. 
 
 IT was Sunday when Mr. Williams landed at 
 the principal settlement at Savaii, and he went 
 directly to church, where he preached to seven 
 hundred people. It was the wildest congrega- 
 tion he had ever seen. Some chiefs had mats 
 over their shoulders or tied around their waists, 
 and their long, stiff hair stood out like the 
 prickles of a hedgehog. Some persons had long 
 frizzled locks, and others had their hair tied up 
 in huge balls on the top of their heads. After 
 the afternoon service one of the native teachers 
 made an address, and told the people that Mr. 
 Williams had come to prove to them that that 
 which had been taught them was true. Then up 
 rose the king and said, " For my part, my whole 
 soul shall be given to the word of Jehovah, and 
 I will use my utmost endeavors that the word of 
 Jehovah shall encircle the land." 
 
 In the evening Mr. Williams himself 
 preached, and this time he had about one thou- 
 sand hearers. After the meeting he sat down 
 alone and composed three hymns for the use of
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 57 
 
 the Samoans, one of which is given here, as it 
 reads in the translation : 
 
 " Great is his compassion, 
 His mercy to us. 
 Great the love of Jesus Christ 
 To die upon the earth. 
 
 " A beloved Son was Jesus Christ, 
 A very good Son ; 
 But he died down here below 
 To obtain salvation for us. 
 
 " Let us every one believe 
 With our whole hearts, 
 That our souls may obtain salvation 
 When Jesus Christ shall come." 
 
 As the king had decided to give up idolatry, 
 the god of war, which was only a piece of old 
 matting carried in the canoe of the leader in 
 time of war, was sentenced to be drowned. The 
 people felt that it would be too dreadful and dis- 
 graceful a death for it to be thrown into the fire 
 and burned. This mat was rescued by Mr. Will- 
 iams, who took it to England and had it placed in 
 the museum of the London Missionary Society. 
 
 One great trouble that the teachers found in 
 trying to educate the people was the laziness of 
 the natives. When they had worked for five 
 minutes at the alphabet they would say : "Oh, 
 how tired we are! Let us put it away!" One 
 man excused himself from study by saying
 
 58 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 grandly : " Yes, writing very good for captain ; 
 but Samoan more clever ; he can keep things in 
 his head ; he no need writing." 
 
 This was rather discouraging, of course ; but 
 there were some hopeful things as well. 
 
 One day Mr. Williams set out to pay a visit 
 to a village not far from the capital, and before 
 he reached the place he was met by a long pro- 
 cession of women each carrying a present in 
 her hand. The leader was a woman who had 
 become a Christian, and who had led nearly one 
 hundred other women to follow her example. 
 They had now formed in line to go out to 
 greet the man who had been the one from 
 whom the message had come to them through 
 those whom he had taught. They brought him 
 a baked pig, some cocoanuts, and other things 
 besides. They were strangely attired, in red 
 and white mats, and were decorated with strings 
 of blue beads. But John Williams was pleased 
 with their gratitude and their efforts to do what 
 they thought was right, especially as they had 
 no sympathy from their husbands because, as 
 they said sadly, " They are not yet ' Sons of the 
 Word.' " 
 
 Among the Samoan Islands is one that is 
 small and oblong, and can be reached only by 
 a narrow channel lying between high rocks. If 
 people of the neighboring island, where the
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 59 
 
 giant chief lived, are defeated in battle, they 
 run across to this island, throw a bridge over 
 the chasm, from which they can hurl stones at 
 the enemy, and lay a tripping-line along the 
 water, so that no canoe can enter the passage 
 without being upset. 
 
 They call themselves Malo, or Victorious, 
 and keep a record of their wars by dropping art 
 oddly shaped stone into a basket after each 
 victory. When Mr. Williams stopped at this 
 island the basket held one hundred and seven 
 stones. Here the Messenger of Peace was al- 
 most wrecked, but escaped uninjured. 
 
 The ship next touched at Apia, on the isl- 
 and of Upolu, where about eighty Christians 
 were found, and then called at Keppel's Island, 
 where a report was given of a teacher who had 
 influenced about five hundred natives to turn 
 to Christianity. Then Mr. Williams went on 
 to Vauvau, in the Friendly Islands, where he 
 learned with joy that some Wesleyan Mission- 
 aries had managed to settle, in spite of the fierce 
 chief Finau, and that the whole island was 
 Christianized. 
 
 The voyage from Vauvau to Tonga was a 
 rough and dangerous one. The ship sprang a 
 leak, and storms fell upon the passengers. But 
 at Tonga the trouble was remedied, and on the 
 fifth of December the Messenger of Peace was
 
 60 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 off on her homeward voyage. She reached 
 Rarotonga after an absence of fifteen weeks. 
 
 Mr. Williams now resolved to take a little 
 vacation and go home, as he had been away from 
 England for eighteen years ; so he sold his faith- 
 ful little vessel, and went back to his native land. 
 
 A very warm welcome they gave him, there 
 in old England, and he had a great deal to tell 
 about his life and work down in the Pacific. 
 He had written an account of it all, and now 
 had the book published under the name of 
 " Missionary Enterprises in the South Seas." 
 Every body was eager to read it, and thirty, 
 six thousand copies were sold in five years. 
 He also raised money enough to buy a ship, 
 which was called the Camden, and then, not 
 willing to spend any more time in talking about 
 the past, or in enjoying the present among his 
 fond and admiring friends at home, his heart 
 began to reach out after those dark people in 
 the Pacific Islands, and he made ready for an- 
 other voyage. On the eleventh of April, 1838, 
 he set forth again for the South Seas. 
 
 He went first to Samoa, and chose Upolu as 
 the future mission station. Then he visited 
 Rarotonga, and left there five thousand copies 
 of the New Testament and made some arrange- 
 ments for starting a college for the training of 
 native converts as teachers. He stopped too
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 6l 
 
 at other islands, going at last to Raiatea, where, 
 with the exception of two short trips to Samoa, 
 he stayed until he went off on his final voyage. 
 
 The evening before he set out on this last 
 journey an old blind chief came to him and 
 begged to be taken with him. 
 
 "Teacher Williams," said the old man, "I 
 am a blind man, but I have a great desire to go 
 with you to the dark lands. Perhaps my being 
 blind will make them pity me, and not kill me, 
 and while I can talk to them, and tell them of 
 Jesus, my boy here can read and write, and so 
 we can teach them something." 
 
 Of course the poor old blind man could not 
 go on the long perilous voyage, but brave ten- 
 der-hearted John Williams was much touched 
 by his devotion and earnestness, and no doubt 
 the simple, honest, loving words came back to 
 him with cheer and comfort during the follow- 
 ing weeks on the stormy sea, as he sailed on to- 
 wards the last harbor that he should make until 
 he should anchor in the quiet haven of the 
 heavenly home. 
 
 On the third of November, 1839, he preached 
 his farewell sermon, the text of which was from 
 Acts 20:36-38: "And they all wept sore, and 
 fell upon Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrow- 
 ing most of all for the words which he spake, 
 that they should see his face no more."
 
 62 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Did he feel, himself, the great-hearted captain, 
 that he should never come back to these true 
 friends of his? At any rate, he bade them good- 
 by and sailed away for the New Hebrides, where 
 he had long wished to scatter some gospel seed. 
 After a run of six hundred miles the Camden 
 made Rovuma on the twelfth of November. 
 The next day Mr. Williams and his companions 
 went on to the New Hebrides. On the seven- 
 teenth of November they sighted Fortuna. The 
 natives were gathering in groups and making 
 signs for the ship to come near. A chief, tricked 
 out in bracelets, and with rings of tortoise-shell 
 in his ears, came on board, and after a while a 
 bay was found where the passengers might land. 
 The natives seemed very friendly, but nobody 
 could be found who would go with the Camden 
 to Tanna. On the evening of the nineteenth 
 the ship was lying off Erromanga. Mr. Wil- 
 liams said that as Samoa was now well supplied 
 with missionaries he had thought of making his 
 home here, but the next morning he had 
 changed his mind and decided to go on to 
 Aneityum, the most southerly island in the 
 group. Still he wished to go on shore, so the 
 small boat was lowered, and with two men, 
 named Harris and Cunningham, he pulled away 
 for land. They all rambled along the beach, as 
 the natives seemed to be kindly disposed toward
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 63 
 
 them. Mr. Williams gave some of them fish- 
 hooks and a few small pieces of calico, and 
 they took them with no sign of anything but 
 peaceable feelings. Mr. Harris wandered on by 
 himself, and was lost to sight in the bush, when 
 suddenly there was a shriek from the savages in 
 that direction and Mr. Harris was seen to be 
 running towards the water with the natives in 
 hot pursuit. He was struck down by their clubs 
 and spears, and Mr. Cunningham called to Mr. 
 Williams to take flight, but he could not bear to 
 desert his friend, so paused a moment to see if 
 there were any hope of helping him. The delay 
 cost John Williams his life. He heard the war- 
 shell blown, and the war-cry sounded in his ears, 
 and then the savages were upon him. They 
 followed him into the water, where they soon 
 caught him and murdered him in the same way 
 as they had his fellow soldier. The men in the 
 ship were unable to lift a finger for his rescue, 
 but their hearts were almost broken when they 
 saw that he was really dead. They could hardly 
 believe that their leader would be among them 
 no more. 
 
 The grief of the people of Samoa when they 
 heard the sad news is almost impossible to de- 
 scribe. " Alas, Williams ! Alas, our father !" 
 they cried, in sorrow and distress. A monument 
 was set up at Apia bearing this inscription :
 
 64 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 " Sacred to the memory of the Rev. John Wil- 
 liams, father of the Samoan and other mis- 
 sions, aged forty-three years and five months, 
 who was killed by the cruel natives of Erro- 
 manga, on November twentieth, 1839, while en- 
 deavoring to plant the Gospel of Peace on their 
 shores." 
 
 But John Williams had a still better monu- 
 ment in the work that had been accomplished 
 among the islands that he loved so well. When 
 he died there were in Raiatea, in place of the old 
 huts and poor little villages, English-looking 
 cottages, each one with its own garden ; and in- 
 stead of wild, ignorant savages there were well- 
 dressed children, with book and slate in hand, 
 going back and forth from school. On Sundays 
 there were many people on their way to church, 
 with their Bibles and their hymn-books tied up 
 in their handkerchiefs, in South Sea Island fash- 
 ion, and there were few households in which 
 family worship was not a regular part of the 
 opening and the closing of each day. It is 
 much the same with the other islands of the 
 group. 
 
 Then there was Rarotonga. In two years 
 heathenism had been swept off the island. One 
 old man of this place used to say that he had 
 lived through the reign of four kings. " During 
 the first," he said, "we were always at war.
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 65 
 
 During the second, we were almost destroyed by 
 a great famine. During the third, we were the 
 prey of two other settlements. But during this 
 reign we were visited by another King ; a good 
 King ; a powerful King ; a King of love : Jesus, 
 the Lord from heaven. He has gained the vic- 
 tory. He has conquered our hearts. We are all 
 his subjects. Therefore we now have peace and 
 plenty in this world, and hope soon to dwell 
 with him in heaven." 
 
 The natives of Rarotonga have carried the 
 gospel to the Loyalty Islands, to New Caledonia 
 and to New Guinea. These native teachers 
 have far more influence with the people than 
 have the white men. They are simple and ear- 
 nest, and their hearts are all in the work. They 
 have been trained as warriors, and they know 
 how to obey and to give their minds to what 
 they are doing. 
 
 " We are now the soldiers of Jesus Christ," 
 they say, "tell us what he would like us to do." 
 If they are told that their Master would not wish 
 them to go to a certain place, they answer at 
 once, " Then we wont go ;" or if some one says, 
 " He would be sorry to hear you use such lan- 
 guage," they reply, " Then we wont say that any 
 more ;" or if it is hinted that he would rather 
 not have them do a certain thing, they still re- 
 spond, " Then we wont do it." No wonder that 
 
 Heroes of the South ^eas. J
 
 66 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 they can win a hearing from others when they 
 learn so well their own lessons. 
 
 One of the converts of Rarotonga longed to 
 work for others just as his teacher, John Wil- 
 liams, had worked ; so in the ship named after 
 the good captain this man Pao went to Mari, 
 an island about fifty miles from Lifu, in the Loy- 
 alty group. He was to stay and study with 
 the missionaries who were stationed there and 
 then go on to Lifu. But Pao learned the lan- 
 guage as quickly as he could, and then, persuad- 
 ing a native of Mari to accompany him, he set 
 out in a canoe for Lifu, feeling that he could 
 wait no longer. He was received in a friendly 
 manner by the natives, in spite of the fact that 
 they were all cannibals. The medicine men, it 
 is true, did not like him very well ; they feared 
 that he would interfere with their business ; but 
 he did succeed in interesting most of the people, 
 and even made friends with their enemies on 
 the opposite side of the island. In course of 
 time whole villages burned their idols and 
 placed themselves under Christian teaching, and 
 in twelve years the whole population of about 
 ten thousand had accepted the gospel. The 
 language was reduced to writing, and a school- 
 book, catechism, hymn-book, and the New Tes- 
 tament and Psalms were translated into the na- 
 tive tongue, for by this time other missionaries
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 67 
 
 had come over to help. Schools and churches 
 were built in almost every village, and were filled 
 with those who were eager to hear and to learn. 
 A seminary had been started for the education 
 of native pastors and teachers, and a missionary 
 society had been formed that had sent workers 
 to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. The 
 natives had good houses, fine roads, and many of 
 the conveniences and comforts of civilized life. 
 Several European shops had been opened, and 
 traders often visited the island. 
 
 The French have also interfered with work 
 in the Loyalty Islands. The French governor 
 of Lifu asked one of the native teachers, " Who 
 told you to come here ?" " My Master said to 
 me, ' Go ye into all the world to preach the 
 gospel.' That is what brought me here," re- 
 plied the man. This reply was thought im- 
 pudent, and the teacher was imprisoned for 
 three days and then sent away. In Mari, a 
 missionary who had labored there for thirty- 
 four years was obliged to leave his charge, and 
 the French government does all in its power 
 to defeat the aims of the Protestants. Still the 
 converts are true to their teaching. 
 
 As for the church at Samoa, it has always 
 been overflowing with missionary spirit. Those 
 people have taken the gospel to the Tokelan and 
 Ellice Islands and to the Gilbert Islands, south
 
 68 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 of the Equator, and under the direction of theh 
 missionaries, Mr. A. Murray and Mr. George 
 Turner, they began work in the New Hebrides. 
 That dreadful Savage Island, too, where John 
 Williams dared not land, has been completely 
 Christianized through their efforts. 
 
 It was in 1861 that a party set out for the 
 Ellice group, but the frail vessel being over- 
 taken by a storm was driven about by winds 
 and currents for eight weeks. At the end of 
 that time the crew stumbled upon one of the 
 Ellice Islands, where they found that the people 
 had gained a little religious knowledge from 
 the sailors of a trading-vessel and had burned 
 their idols. They were so hungry for the Bible 
 that one of the new comers had to tear apart 
 his Rarotongan New Testament, and give it out 
 in bits to the natives. 
 
 From this spot the gospel was carried to 
 other islands. In one place the people had ob- 
 tained a copy of the English Bible, which they 
 kept wrapped in a large cotton handkerchief 
 during the week, but which on Sunday was 
 brought out and laid open in sight of the natives, 
 who gathered round it and sang songs taught 
 them by some visitors. 
 
 The Samoans now have the whole Bible in 
 their own tongue, a school for native teachers 
 and preachers, and besides having built their
 
 THE SAMOAN AND LOYALTY ISLANDS. 69 
 
 own churches and pastors' houses they have 
 sent $6,500 every year to the London Mission- 
 ary Society to help carry on its work. In 1892 
 they gave $9,000 as a thank offering for having 
 the gospel themselves. They have a beautiful 
 custom in their churches of keeping on their 
 books the names of members who have died t 
 with a mark following each one which means 
 that they will not think of that one as dead 
 either to them or to the cause, and a contribtion 
 will always be made for him by his friends. 
 
 The Christian population is thirty-six thou- 
 sand, among fifty thousand inhabitants. In 
 the largest of the islands there are not fifty fami- 
 lies where morning and evening worship is not 
 a daily custom. There is a great demand for 
 the pocket edition of the Bible. A large num- 
 ber were sold in a short time, and there was a 
 call for five thousand more. 
 
 The king of Samoa has recently issued an 
 order that no intoxicating drink whatever shall 
 be given, sold, or offered to be bought or bartered 
 by any native Samoan, or any Pacific Islander 
 resident in Samoa. 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson, the distinguished 
 writer, who lived for a long time in Samoa, said 
 that when he went there he was much prejudiced 
 against missions, but after having seen them on 
 their own ground his objections vanished, and
 
 70 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 lie felt instead a great regard and admiration for 
 the work. He advises anybody who has any 
 ideas like those he once held to try the same 
 cure and study missions on the spot. 
 
 And so John Williams lived long enough to 
 be able to say that there was no island within 
 two thousand miles of Tahiti that had not heard 
 the gospel story, and when he fell by the hand 
 of the savages the work was taken up and carried 
 on by others who were led by his example or 
 who had been trained by him. What that old 
 missionary, Paul, said about himself would, with 
 a little change of name, be true of John Wil- 
 liams: "I have planted, Apollos watered, but 
 God gave the increase." i Cor. 3 : 6. 
 
 When the Bishop of Ripon laid down the 
 story of John Williams' life he said, " I have 
 now been reading the twenty-ninth chapter of 
 the Acts of the Apostles."
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 71 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS : ISL- 
 ANDS UNWORTHY OF THEIR NAME. 
 
 BEFORE going on to the Friendly Islands 
 to take up the work there with the Wesleyan 
 missionaries, of whom we have already had a 
 glimpse or two, we must stop at big New Zea- 
 land, and see what is going on at that place. 
 
 New Zealand is really made up of two large 
 islands and several smaller ones. The whole 
 group is nearly one thousand miles long and 
 two hundred miles broad. The cluster was first 
 found by the Dutch navigator, Tasman, in 1642, 
 and was afterward visited by Capt. Cook, in 
 1769. 
 
 The inhabitants were called Maoris, and they 
 are supposed to have come originally from the 
 Samoan Islands. The men were usually about 
 five feet, six inches high, and weighed about 
 one hundred and forty pounds. The hair of the 
 New Zealanders was generally coarse and black, 
 although sometimes it was a rusty red. Their 
 eyes were dark brown, and their skin was olive- 
 brown, in some cases almost black. They were 
 savages and cannibals, like so many of their
 
 72 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 neighbors, tattooing themselves by way of adorn- 
 ment, and killing one another by way of pas- 
 time. They used to thrust pebbles down the 
 throats of their children, in order, as they hoped, 
 to make their hearts hard and pitiless. 
 
 They were very superstitious, and when they 
 were ill they believed that their god came to 
 them in the form of a lizard, and, entering the 
 side, gnawed at the organs that were necessary 
 to life. When a person had a pain in his back 
 he would lie down and ask another man to jump 
 over him and then stamp upon him to press out 
 the pain. 
 
 Their houses were built of bulrushes, and 
 were lined with the leaves of the palm-tree 
 neatly braided together. They were about four 
 or five feet high. The people had no furniture, 
 and their cooking utensils were a few stones. 
 They had an idea that there was a great Being 
 somewhere who sent the thunder, but they were 
 much afraid of him and had no form of wor- 
 ship. They had some notion of a future life, but 
 they thought that it would be much like this 
 one ; and on the death of a chief his slaves were 
 killed, that they might go with him and wait 
 upon him. Altogether it did not seem an invi- 
 ting spot for missionaries to settle in, but the 
 need was great and some men were raised up to 
 throw their lives into this great field.
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 73 
 
 The first missionary to the country was Sam- 
 uel Marsden, a British chaplain in New South 
 Wales. In 1814 he began a mission on the east- 
 ern coast of the northern island. The islanders 
 were known to be so savage that no ship cap- 
 tain would take him to the shore, so he had to 
 buy a brig at his own expense and landed with 
 a single companion. 
 
 Just about this time there was a young man 
 in England, named Nathaniel Turner, who was 
 a member of the Wesley an Methodist Church. 
 He thought that he heard a voice, deep down in 
 his heart, saying to him, "Go carry the glad 
 tidings to the heathen ! Go carry the glad 
 tidings to the heathen !" He listened to the 
 command, and offered himself to the church as 
 a missionary, but the church was in debt, and 
 there was no money with which to send the 
 young soldier out to fight for his Master. He 
 must wait, he was told, until the necessary sum 
 could be raised. 
 
 But there was another side to the story. 
 Soon afterwards a Mr. Leigh, who had been a 
 missionary in New South Wales, and who had 
 gone to New Zealand for the benefit of his 
 health, came home to England for a little rest 
 and change. His heart was full of the sad con- 
 dition of the people of New Zealand and he 
 could not keep from talking about it wherever he
 
 74 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 went. He begged the society to let him have 
 a missionary for New Zealand ; and when he 
 heard that there was a young man only waiting 
 for a fund to be raised for his support before 
 setting out to a foreign land he made up his 
 mind that the lacking means should be supplied. 
 After asking permission he started out to collect 
 articles of manufacture that would be as useful 
 as money to the missionaries, as they could barter 
 them among the natives for food, land and build- 
 ing material, and he succeeded in gathering a 
 large number of axes, razors, fish-hooks, pots, 
 kettles, prints, and calicoes. When he thought 
 that he had enough of this kind of currency he 
 sent off a message to Nathaniel Turner, " Pre- 
 pare to go to New Zealand at once." 
 
 This was short notice, but Mr. Turner was 
 quite ready for marching orders at any moment. 
 There was a brave girl in England who had 
 promised to go with him wherever he should 
 be sent, and now she must be married to him in 
 haste and fly away with him on the long wed- 
 ding journey across the seas. On the third of 
 August, 1823, in the year that John Williams 
 found Rarotonga, Nathaniel Turner and his 
 little bride landed at the Bay of Islands, from 
 which place they were taken forty miles inland 
 to the spot that had been chosen by Mr. Leigh 
 for the mission station.
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. /$ 
 
 Mr. Leigh was there before them, but they 
 found him ill from the effects of the climate. 
 The mission house, which was not yet completed, 
 stood in a lovely quiet valley, surrounded by 
 mountains and with a river rippling through 
 it down to the sea, but the rainy season had be- 
 gun and the roof of the new building was not 
 water-proof. Mr. Leigh had been sleeping in 
 an empty cask, in order to keep himself dry. 
 
 Soon he had to go away and leave the two 
 young people to look after themselves. But 
 they did not lose heart. They had three assist- 
 ant workers, and finding a better building site 
 they set up a frame cottage that they had 
 brought from Sydney. 
 
 The chief of the region, whose civilized 
 name was George, pretended at first to have most 
 kindly intentions towards the strangers who 
 had come to live with him, but no sooner was 
 the little home ready for use than up stepped 
 the big chief and said coolly, " This house is 
 mine ; I will knock it down. You shall go away." 
 The natives with him made a dash at the work- 
 men and seized their spades, and then began a 
 horrible howling, which they kept up both 
 night and day for a long time. This kind of 
 serenade did not make the new abode very 
 cheerful, but fortunately the throats of the 
 savages could not stand this exercise forever,
 
 76 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 and fresh ways of tormenting the teachers had 
 to be invented. 
 
 The chief wished to be paid several times 
 over for every article that he exchanged with 
 the missionaries, and when he could not have 
 his own will in the matter he threatened to 
 shoot Mr. Turner. " You want to make us 
 slaves," he said angrily. " We want muskets, 
 powder, and tomahawks. You give us nothing 
 but prayers. We don't want to hear about 
 Jesus Christ. If you love us, as you say you 
 do, give us blankets." 
 
 He also said that he meant to kill Mrs. Tur- 
 ner and her maid, but after a while his rage 
 died out, and he seemed sorry for his bursts of 
 passion. 
 
 " When my heart rests here," he said, laying 
 his hand upon his breast, " then I love Mr. 
 Turner very much ; but when my heart rises 
 to my throat, then I could kill him in a mo- 
 ment." 
 
 One cannot altogether blame those poor na- 
 tives for their enmity to the white people. They 
 had been so often ill-treated and deceived by the 
 traders that it is not strange that they were a 
 little suspicious and bitter in their feelings to- 
 wards every pale-face. The missionaries realized 
 that they were dealing with ignorant, quick- 
 tempered savages, and kept tight hold of their
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 77 
 
 patience, faith and love, in spite of many sad 
 discouragements. They studied the languages, 
 taught the children, and within a year built 
 two chapels with their own hands. The natives 
 continued to steal their goods, and still tried to 
 take their lives, but after all they did learn to 
 respect these friends, so brave and kind and for^ 
 bearing. " We have tried all we could to make 
 them afraid," the men owned to a visitor from 
 another island, " but we can't do it. They are 
 a courageous tribe." 
 
 Feeling the power of their devotion and 
 heroism, the people began to come to church 
 in large numbers, and listened quietly to what 
 was said. They also sent their children to 
 school. But this happy state of things did not 
 last long. A whaling boat was captured by the 
 islanders, and most of the crew murdered. This 
 deed seemed to rouse all the old wicked, angry 
 feelings of the natives. Thsy were afraid, too, 
 that England would send somebody down to 
 punish them for their evil deed, and there was 
 prospect of war with another island, just then, 
 besides. In their fear and rage and excitement 
 they fell upon the persons nearest at hand, and 
 the missionaries saw that there was no hope of 
 doing anything with them in their present state 
 of mind, and thought that perhaps they would 
 better withdraw from the scene for a while.
 
 78 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 But they had to leave much more suddenly 
 than they had expected. One night in January, 
 in the year 1827, the station was attacked, and 
 the men and women had to flee for their lives. 
 Mrs. Turner had a narrow escape from death, 
 for one of the savages had raised his spear to 
 strike her down when a friendly native pushed 
 up a shelf over the doorway and caused a 
 large number of nails that were lying there to 
 come tumbling and rattling down upon the 
 head of the pursuer, which frightened him so 
 much that he dropped his arm and gave up the 
 chase. 
 
 Over the fields they went, the homeless little 
 band ! There were three missionaries and three 
 children, one of the latter a baby only four 
 weeks old. Four times they had to wade the 
 winding river, and twice they were met by war 
 parties, but they passed on uninjured. After a 
 long walk of twenty miles they reached the sta- 
 tion of the Church Missionary Society. 
 
 They had but one convert to show for all 
 their work, but Mrs. Turner gave no signs of 
 wishing to desert the cause yet. " Can't we stay 
 and carry on our mission somewhere else ?" she 
 said. But this plan seemed out of the question 
 for the present, so, after spending six months in 
 Sydney, in Australia, the outcasts from one field 
 resolved to take up work in another. In com-
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 79 
 
 pany with some other missionaries they went to 
 the help of the Tonga mission, in the Friendly 
 Islands. 
 
 The Friendly Islands also had been discov- 
 ered by Capt. Cook, but he had made a slight 
 mistake in giving this group its name. Closer 
 acquaintance had made clear the fact that the 
 English language could hardly have furnished 
 a more unsuitable adjective with which to de- 
 scribe the inhabitants. The first missionaries, 
 who had gone to the islands in 1796, had had to 
 leave the place on account of most unfriendly 
 treatment, and the second set were about to 
 follow their example when the new force of 
 workers lent them an extra spark of courage 
 and hope, and made them willing to wait a 
 while longer and try again. 
 
 The houses of Tonga were thatched with 
 reeds of sugar-cane, and the walls were of plaited 
 cocoa-palm leaves. They had no stone founda- 
 tions to raise them above the damp earth, and in 
 many of the poorer huts the floors were merely 
 strewn with dried grass. 
 
 There was usually an inner room screened off 
 for a sleeping room. The pillow was a bit of 
 bamboo supported by two legs. The people are 
 strong and robust, and have bright complexions. 
 They are more intelligent than many of their 
 neighbors, and have a good deal of influence
 
 80 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 over surrounding islands. They seemed to have 
 more noble traits than many of the South Sea 
 Islanders, although they were very ignorant, 
 and had no religious knowledge. They had 
 never heard of fire, and ate everything raw, and 
 they had no idea that water could be made to 
 boil. They were almost ready to worship as 
 a god anybody who could bring to pass anything 
 so wonderful ; and one man who thrust his hand 
 into a kettle of hot water drew it quickly out 
 again, saying ruefully, "The water has bitten 
 my hand." 
 
 In 1826 a good missionary named John 
 Thomas had gone to Tonga, and now he and his 
 company and the new band worked on together. 
 There were still many hardships and trials to 
 endure before there was much encouragement 
 Then there was a little breath of life, like a faint 
 ripple of wind that steals over the water and whis- 
 pers hope to a becalmed vessel. King George of 
 Haabai, an island in the Friendly group, came 
 across to Tonga for a visit. He was a fierce, 
 warlike savage, devoted to his idols and his 
 strange, heathen superstitions ; but he was deep- 
 ly interested and really impressed by what he 
 heard from the teachers in Tonga, and when he 
 went home he took down his idols from their 
 position of honor, and, to the horror and alarm 
 of his people, hung them in a row from his ceil-
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 8 1 
 
 ing, leaving them dangling there, to show how 
 helpless and worthless they were. 
 
 Next he bui. t a church and asked that a mis- 
 sionary might be sent over to preach in it, but as 
 there was then no missionary to spare he per- 
 suaded an English sailor who was living in 
 Haabai to read the church service to the con- 
 gregation every Sunday. 
 
 A remarkable story is told in connection with 
 the settling of a missionary in this island. Over 
 in Tonga, John Thomas was wondering if it 
 would be advisable to go to the e'.cra expense 
 of establishing a mission on Haabai ; and while 
 he was praying and thinking over the question 
 there was washed ashore one day an old cask in 
 which was found a letter containing instructions 
 about this very matter, and promising support in 
 carrying out the plan that the missionaries had 
 in mind. The ship bearing the letter had been 
 wrecked, and the captain had set the message 
 adrift, trusting that it might reach its destina- 
 tion. In 1830, therefore, John Thomas went to 
 Haabai and there he preached to the natives, and 
 after a few months several of them were bap- 
 tized. 
 
 King George then paid a visit to Vauvau, 
 where lived the surly chief Finau, who had 
 not shown himself very cordial in his reception 
 of John Williams' proposition to send him teach- 
 
 Heroes of the South Seas, 6
 
 82 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 ers. But King George made him listen to what 
 he had to tell and tried to coax him into giving 
 up his idols. After a while Finau consented to 
 find out by an experiment the truth of what was 
 said. He built a huge bonfire and then brought 
 out his gods and placed them before it. " Now," 
 said he, " if you are good for anything you can 
 save yourselves by running away." Then he 
 took the idols, one by one, into his hands, and 
 holding them over the fire said to each in turn, 
 " Run, or be burned ! Run, or be burned !" As 
 not a single image made a motion to leave the 
 spot, he flung them all into the flames, with a 
 scornful laugh, and believed in them no longer. 
 
 Vauvau is a dreary, lonely sort of a place. The 
 people are shut in by tall crags ; there is little 
 growth of any kind on the island, and the only 
 sound that can be heard is the moaning of the 
 sea as it rushes in under the rocks. But hearing 
 of the interest in this place Mr. and Mrs. Turner 
 decided to go down to see if they could do any- 
 thing to help at this time. One of the first 
 things that they did was to begin to pray ear- 
 nestly for all the people of the Friendly Islands, 
 and the good Father above listened to the peti- 
 tions of his servants on the desolate little island 
 and sent them a rich blessing. 
 
 In 1834 a wonderful revival began in Vauvau. 
 King George heard of the great awakening that
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 83 
 
 had come to his neighbors and went over to see 
 what was taking place, and there he was con- 
 verted and took the first steps in a Christian life 
 that proved to be one of the most earnest that 
 has ever been lived. He became a local preach- 
 er, and was very helpful in carrying the gospel to 
 others. The good work spread from Vauvau to 
 Haabai and Tonga and through all the islands 
 of the group. In Vauvau for a week or two the 
 schools had to be closed and prayer-meetings 
 were held five or six times a day. About one 
 thousand persons were converted in a day. In 
 the other islands there were at least two thou- 
 sand conversions in the course of two weeks. 
 
 King George built a large chapel in Haabai 
 for the use of the missionaries. It was big 
 enough to hold all the people of the island. 
 Every one of the natives wished to do some- 
 thing to help in the building, and the work was 
 regularly divided among the inhabitants of the 
 group. As they had no nails the timbers had to 
 be fastened with cords made from the fibres 
 of the cocoanut husks, dyed black, red, and other 
 colors, and beautifully woven together in artistic 
 patterns. The king gave to his new sanctuary 
 several finely-carved spears, that had been left to 
 him by his ancestors and had often been used 
 in war. They were made into rails for the com- 
 munion table ; and two handsome clubs, which
 
 84 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 had been worshipped as gods, were placed at the 
 bottom of the pulpit stairs. 
 
 So it was that when John Williams stopped at 
 Vauvau, on his way home from Samoa, he found 
 that the whole island had become Christian, as 
 was said before. 
 
 Next a printing-press was set up in Tonga, 
 and the people became much interested in the 
 books that were printed. A great many persons 
 began to come to the schools and converts began 
 to start out to preach the gospel to other islands. 
 
 When Finau died King George became ruler 
 of all the islands, and a good ruler he was in- 
 deed. He was six feet four inches in height, 
 well-formed and athletic, and had a most intel- 
 ligent, trustworthy face, with the bearing and 
 manners of a true gentleman. He was an un- 
 mistakable Christian king. His kingdom had, 
 in course of time, a constitution, with all the laws 
 and regulations needed in a civilized nation. 
 The people of the Friendly Islands are now 
 amiable and courteous, and the women are kind- 
 ly treated. Their homes are pleasant and their 
 grounds are laid out with taste and care. For 
 some years they have supplied fine native teach- 
 ers and preachers and have sent out many mis- 
 sionaries, giving large sums to the Wesleyan Mis- 
 sionary Society even so much as $15,000 in a 
 year.
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS. 85 
 
 There are now about thirty thousand church- 
 members in these islands. When a collection is 
 taken in any of the churches it is said that there 
 is never a penny, nor copper in any form, put 
 into the plate. Nothing but gold or silver is 
 offered to the Lord's work. On one occasion 
 King George and his wife dropped in ten sov- 
 ereigns, a gift to them from the captain of an 
 English war-ship. 
 
 Several years ago the commander of one of 
 these English war-ships, who had been cruising 
 about in the Southern Pacific, stopped at the 
 Friendly Islands. When King George came out 
 to meet him in his royal canoe, and wearing the 
 dress of a British officer, the commander ex- 
 claimed ; " He is every inch a king. Give him 
 twenty-one guns !" a royal salute. 
 
 About twenty men from Tonga were recently 
 beaten and driven away from their homes by the 
 remnants of the heathen party in the island. 
 The governor of Fiji became interested in them 
 and obtained liberty for them to return. As 
 they sailed away from Fiji, singing, " Home, 
 Sweet Home," the governor turned to a friend 
 standing near by and said, " That is as fine a 
 group of Christian gentlemen as I ever saw." 
 
 And so at last the Friendly Islands have 
 begun to live up to their name.
 
 86 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND AND THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 
 TWO COLLEGE ATHLETES. 
 
 BEFORE all these great things were accom- 
 plished Mr. Turner went back to New Zealand. 
 Other missionaries had been there in the mean- 
 time, and a change had come over the people. 
 But all the difficulties had not yet been removed, 
 and there were still many foes to face and many 
 battles to be won. The old warlike spirit would 
 break out once in a while even among those who 
 had been studying the gospel of peace, but Mr. 
 Turner came in with new help and inspiration, 
 and the churches grew, and the converts became 
 more earnest. Mr. Turner worked in New Zea- 
 land until his health failed and he had to give 
 up his position. The rest of his life he spent in 
 Sydney, in Australia, and he died in 1864. 
 
 In 1841 George Augustus Selwyn, of the 
 English church, was made a missionary bishop 
 and sent to New Zealand to look after the min- 
 isters and teachers already there under the care 
 of the Church Missionary Society. He was a 
 young man, about thirty-three years old, strong, 
 bright, and athletic, and with a highly cultivated
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 8/ 
 
 mind. He had been a famous oarsman at Cam- 
 bridge, and he could manage a schooner at sea 
 like an old sailor. Now he threw all his unusual 
 gifts and graces and accomplishments into the 
 work before him. He went over all the island 
 on foot, and became acquainted with almost 
 every nook and corner of it. In 1849 he ob- 
 tained a small schooner, which went by the 
 name of Undine, and started off on a tour of in- 
 spection. 
 
 He sailed one thousand miles, to Aneityum, 
 in the New Hebrides, where John Geddie had 
 just gone to work among his special group of 
 cannibals, and taking Mr. Geddie with him he 
 visited all the islands in the New Hebrides and 
 Loyalty groups, and in the cluster called New 
 Caledonia. Selwyn had marvellous art in win- 
 ning the confidence of the savages. He would 
 go among them altogether unarmed, only keep- 
 ing his eye on them to make sure that they 
 meant no mischief. Everywhere he went he 
 would pick up a few words from the natives, and 
 jot them down in his note-book, with the names 
 of chiefs and of places, and then when he came 
 again he would surprise and delight his new 
 friends by using their language, and by seeming 
 to know all about them. Each year he ventured 
 a little farther on his voyages, until at last he 
 had called at most of the islands between New
 
 88 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Zealand and the Solomon group. He was equal 
 to almost everything that came in his way, from 
 drawing charts and pulling ropes to making 
 frocks for the women and taking care of poor 
 sick little babies. 
 
 In 1850 an Australasian Board of Missions 
 was established and New Zealand, fell under the 
 care of this Board. In 1851 the Bishop of New- 
 castle in New South Wales, who had been an 
 old comrade of Selwyn's on the Cambridge Uni- 
 versity boat crew, went off with Selwyn on a 
 voyage. 
 
 Bishop Selwyn was anxious to take a few 
 boys to Auckland, teach them something about 
 Christianity, and then send them home to tell to 
 their friends what they had learned. 
 
 He was able to buy a larger boat, and in 1852 
 he carried a missionary and his wife to Aneit- 
 yum free of expense. This was the beginning 
 of what is called the Melanesian Mission Me- 
 lanesian meaning the " Black Islands." 
 
 In 1852 also Bishop Selwyn returned to 
 England to tell about the work in Melanesia 
 and to interest others in those distant lands. 
 He made a deep impression, with his stirring 
 sermons, and among other hearts that were 
 especially roused was that of young John Cole- 
 ridge Patteson. 
 
 " Coley" Patteson, as he was called, had be-
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION 89 
 
 gun life with many advantages. He had a 
 strong, true man for a father, and a gentle, wise 
 and lovely woman for a mother, and his home 
 was of just the kind to make a brave, manly, 
 honest boy, both high-spirited and affectionate, 
 winning and commanding. He was very fond 
 of reading, and after his fifth birthday, when he 
 received a present of a Bible, he became a great 
 student of that book. 
 
 There were some questions that his bright 
 little brain had to struggle over ; one was, 
 "What became of the fishes during the flood?" 
 and one day when his companions in the nursery 
 called him impatiently to come and join in their 
 play he said, absently, " Please wait a few min- 
 utes, while I finish the binding of Satan for a 
 thousand years." This same little Bible that he 
 loved so dearly when he was a boy was used, 
 twenty-seven years later, when Coleridge Patte- 
 son was consecrated to the office of a bishop. 
 
 Early in life he began to plan for the future. 
 At one time he heard the story of a missionary 
 bishop who had in his field of labor undergone 
 the experience of a terrible hurricane. " When I 
 grow up," said small John to his mother, " I 
 am going to be a bishop and have a hurricane 
 too." 
 
 In course of time he went to school, after the 
 fashion of most boys, and in the old Foundation
 
 90 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 School at Ottery St. Mary, he studied his les- 
 sons, wrote home-sick letters to his mother, and 
 enjoyed himself, in spite of an occasional long- 
 ing look in another direction. He loved football 
 and cricket, and would settle down to his books 
 in good earnest so that he might push them out 
 of the way and be free for out-of-door sports. 
 He was only eight years old when first sent to 
 this school, but he stood up for himself among 
 the elder boys and took care of his younger 
 brother as well. 
 
 Once he broke his collar-bone, but nobody 
 knew anything about it until three weeks after- 
 wards, when he went home and his mother saw 
 that something hurt him when she gave him 
 a motherly hug in greeting. When she told 
 him that he had done wrong not to make known 
 his accident, he said simply, " Oh, well, I did n't 
 want to make a fuss." 
 
 When he went to Eton he was the same sort 
 of a boy. He was always a leader, always full 
 of life, energy and fun, but always staunch, 
 straightforward and noble. 
 
 One Sunday afternoon he heard Bishop Sel- 
 wyn speak in the parish church of New Wind- 
 sor. Young Patteson stood in the aisle, as there 
 was no seat for him, and in his white collar and 
 short jacket, with his fair hair and earnest blue 
 eyes, he looked like a little knight hearing the
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 9! 
 
 bugle-call to battle as he listened, wholly ab- 
 sorbed, to the ringing words of the bishop. 
 
 The text was, " Thy heart shall be enlarged 
 because the abundance of the sea shall be con- 
 verted unto thee, the forces also of the Gentiles 
 shall come unto thee." 
 
 After the meeting Coleridge ran home and 
 sat down and scribbled a letter to his mother 
 to tell her all about it. 
 
 " It was beautiful," he wrote. " 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 !' " 
 
 Before Bishop Selwyn left England he called 
 upon the Pattesons to say good-by. As he was 
 about to depart he said gently, " Lady Patteson, 
 will you give me Coley ?" This was a hard ques- 
 tion, but the answer of the mother was given 
 to her boy when he came to her with the same 
 thought, and she promised him that if he kept 
 the desire as he grew older she would let him 
 join the bishop in his work. 
 
 But it was Coleridge who had to give up his
 
 92 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 mother before the time came when she could 
 give up her son. His first great trial was the 
 death of this mother whom he loved so well. He 
 was almost broken-hearted over his loss, but he 
 went back to school all the purer and better for 
 this shadow over his life. He was as athletic 
 and as popular as ever, and in one of the an- 
 nual cricket contests with Harrow he broke the 
 powerful bowling of the other side and by put- 
 ting on fifty runs to the score won the match, 
 to his own glory and the joy of his fellow stu- 
 dents. 
 
 His popularity and sociability brought pe- 
 culiar temptations to him, but he saw things 
 with clearer eyes than most of his companions 
 and he came through unhurt. On an occasion 
 of a dinner of the Eton eleven certain objection- 
 able songs were started. Coleridge, who was 
 chairman at the time, tried to hush them up, 
 but one boy persisted in going on with his oc- 
 cupation. Coleridge at once arose and said 
 calmly, " If this does n't stop I shall leave the 
 room." And leave the room he did, and the next 
 day sent in his resignation as captain ; nor would 
 he take up the position again until his school- 
 fellows came and apologized to him, and prom- 
 ised that nothing of the sort should happen 
 again as long as the present eleven stayed in 
 the school.
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 93 
 
 From Eton he stepped into University life 
 at Oxford, where he became a great student. 
 He chose the ministry for his occupation, and 
 in course of time was happily settled in England, 
 at Alfington, in Devonshire ; but in the year 1854 
 came his second call to work for God in foreign 
 lands. When Bishop Selwyn again returned to 
 England all the old admiration and enthusiasm 
 once awakened by his presence flamed up again 
 in Coleridge Patteson's heart. In a conversation 
 with the bishop he showed that his early pur- 
 pose was still in his mind, but the thought of 
 his father kept him in England. The bishop 
 pointed out to him that if he meant to devote 
 his life to missionary labor he should begin 
 while he was strong and vigorous, and the re- 
 sult was that the father was asked if he could 
 let his son go to New Zealand, " Oh I can't let 
 him go," cried the old judge at first, but im- 
 mediately added, with that generosity and cour- 
 age that his son had inherited from him, " God 
 forbid that I should stop him !' 
 
 So, difficult as was the task, Coleridge Patte- 
 son turned his back upon his family and home, 
 and the brilliant prospects opening before him, 
 and trying to forget himself, and to think only 
 of his work, he followed the good bishop over 
 the sea. 
 
 On the voyage the young missionary studied
 
 94 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 the language of New Zealand and learned a 
 good deal about navigation. When he reached 
 Auckland he set to work to master his new 
 duties. He was placed in the college, where 
 among other things he had to make his own 
 bed, keep his room in order, and clear away 
 things after meals. He was very quick in ac- 
 quiring the language, and the natives used 
 to say to him, " We want you. You speak so 
 plainly we can understand you." They were 
 pleased, too, with his readiness to do anything 
 that came in his way, from writing a sermon 
 to cooking a dinner. " Gentleman-gentleman 
 thought nothing that ought to be done too 
 mean for him ; pig-gentleman never work," they 
 said approvingly, in the words of one of their 
 proverbs. 
 
 In the Southern Cross he went off with the 
 bishop on his missionary cruises among the 
 islands of Melanesia. They had many narrow 
 escapes in their visits to the islanders, and saw 
 some strange sights, but Patteson looked be- 
 low the surface and found much that was good 
 and attractive in these children of the sea. 
 " They are fond ; that is the name for them," 
 he wrote home. " 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." He never called
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 95 
 
 them savages, but spoke of them as " my Mela- 
 nesians." 
 
 There was probably something in Patteson 
 himself that invited this confidence. Often 
 when a native had lifted his arm to send an 
 arrow flying at the strangers stepping upon the 
 beach, he would look up, with his warm, bright 
 smile, and the arrow would fall harmlessly to 
 the ground. The boys that he taught and knew 
 and loved he addressed by a name that meant 
 " old fellow." 
 
 When he settled down with his pupils at 
 St. John's College, in Auckland, he was to them 
 a father, a friend, a playmate, all in one. He 
 taught them cricket, and printing, and weaving, 
 besides those things that they learned from 
 books, and when they were sick he gave up 
 his own bed to them and nursed them with 
 care and tenderness. That they were making 
 progress, too, in the highest education was 
 proved by their prayers. 
 
 One boy of seventeen prayed in this way : 
 " O God, thou strengthenest us. Thou lovest 
 us. We have come from a distant land and 
 no evil has happened to us, for thou lovest us. 
 Thou hast provided us with a missionary to 
 live here with us. Give us strength from thee 
 every day. We are men who have done evil 
 before thee, but thou watchest over us, and
 
 96 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 savest us from the hands of Satan. We do not 
 wish to follow him, but to be thy servants, O 
 Jesus, and the servants of thy great Father, and 
 of the Holy Spirit who giveth us life for ever- 
 more."
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 97 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION : THE BISHOP AND 
 HIS BOYS. 
 
 SOME of the boys who were gathered for 
 training in the college at Auckland were so 
 delicate in health that it seemed best to start 
 a school in some island that would be sufficiently 
 sheltered for a winter residence. Lifu was the 
 island chosen, and in this spot Patteson stayed 
 for three weeks, teaching a class of twenty-five 
 young men. The only comment that he made 
 upon his life in this place was, " Of course I 
 should have been glad sometimes for a good 
 talk in English with somebody." 
 
 The college was moved from Auckland to 
 another site, about two miles away. Here he 
 had a class of small boys; "the jolliest little fel- 
 lows," he wrote, "seven of them, and scarcely 
 too big to take on my knee and talk to about 
 God and heaven and Jesus Christ." 
 
 About this time Patteson made a cruise in an 
 open boat to Saddle Island, but met with much 
 stormy weather, and the hardships and exposure 
 of this voyage caused on his return a painful 
 tumor in his ear. Sometimes he would walk up 
 
 Seroea of the South Seas. 1 7
 
 98 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 and down all night in agony ; but this affliction 
 he bore with his usual fortitude and patience. 
 
 In 1 86 1 John Coleridge Patteson was conse- 
 crated missionary bishop of Melanesia. When 
 the news reached England the aged father 
 prayed at family prayers more earnestly than 
 usual for all missionaries, adding in a trembling 
 voice, " especially for John Coleridge Patteson, 
 missionary bishop." 
 
 Not long afterwards the good old man was 
 called home to the Father's house, and under 
 this fresh sorrow Patteson's health for a while 
 gave way, and he left his work to go off on a 
 cruise among the islands. 
 
 Then he returned to his pupils, who clustered 
 round him, as somebody said, "like chickens 
 round a hen." When he came out of his rooms 
 towards evening, when the boys were playing 
 on the beach, there would be an immediate rush 
 at him. Some of the youngsters would lay hold 
 of his hands, some would seize the skirts of his 
 coat, and each one had some special word for 
 him. He would throw his arms round the neck 
 of one of the taller boys, and with the rest 
 clinging to him in one way or another they 
 would stroll off together for a walk. 
 
 The bishop still continued his voyages, 
 preaching to the people on the islands, collect- 
 ing boys for the schools and trying to do some-
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 99 
 
 thing against the stealing of the natives by the 
 slave-dealers from Queensland and other colo- 
 nies. The slave-ships were called by the people 
 the " snatch-snatch boats," or " kill-kill vessels." 
 The traders used very mean methods for the pur- 
 pose of luring the natives to their ships, often 
 telling them that the bishop was on board and 
 wished to see some of them, and then making 
 off with those who were simple enough to put 
 themselves in their power. 
 
 Patteson said that he found that two of the 
 first words learned by islanders were " tobacco " 
 and "missionary." The former word was taught 
 them by the men who carried on the dreadful 
 traffic in human beings and also planted in 
 their minds seeds of distrust and hatred towards 
 all of the white race. 
 
 The bishop himself was often in danger. At 
 one time when landing upon an island he saw 
 by the gestures of the men that they meant to 
 kill him. He asked permission to rest for a 
 moment in a hut by the wayside, and there he 
 fell upon his knees and prayed earnestly that if 
 his last hour had come help might still be sent 
 to these poor people. When he rose there was 
 a look on his face that so overawed the savages 
 that they gave up their evil purpose and took 
 him in safety back to his boat. 
 
 The boat called the Southern Cross, which
 
 100 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Selwyn and Patteson had brought with them 
 from England, had been wrecked on some rocks 
 known as the " Hen and Chickens," but a second 
 boat of the name was sent to Bishop Patteson 
 from home, and became of great service to him. 
 
 He next paid a visit to Australia, where he 
 engaged so much interest in his mission that he 
 raised a large sum of money for his work. 
 
 During his following voyage he landed at 
 Santa Cruz. All went well until he returned to 
 his boat, when the natives sent a shower of ar- 
 rows flying after him. The bishop was unhurt, 
 but two of his dear native Christian boys were 
 killed. The last words of one of them were, 
 "They never stop singing there, sir, do they?" 
 and so he passed away to the heavenly home of 
 which he was thinking. This was a severe trial 
 to the bishop but did not make him stop work. 
 He gained a good deal of strength and consola- 
 tion from a book sent him by his sister, the copy 
 of the " Imitation of Christ " that had belonged 
 to brave young Bishop Mackenzie, who had laid 
 down his life in Africa. The headquarters of the 
 mission were removed to Norfolk Island, and 
 soon afterwards Bishop Selwyn went back to 
 England. 
 
 It was hard for the two men to part. There 
 were a few choked words ; each tried to say, 
 " God bless you," and that was all : but in a let-
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. IOI 
 
 ter home Patteson said sadly, " I feel as though 
 my master had been taken from my head." 
 
 A great joy came to him, however, when one 
 of his native deacons was ordained as the first 
 Melanesian Christian minister. 
 
 There were by this time many English col- 
 onists settled in New Zealand, and sometimes 
 the new-comers would help themselves unfair- 
 ly to the lands of the natives, which caused 
 trouble and led to wars. Some of the people of 
 New Zealand, as they learned to hate the Brit- 
 ish residents, began to dislike their religion as 
 well, and so they invented one of their own, 
 called Howism ; those who took it up going by 
 the name of How Hows, the title being derived 
 from the sound of their war-cry, which resem- 
 bles the barking of a dog. This religion was a 
 mixture of truths from the Bible and old super- 
 stitions of their own, and the movement was re- 
 ally a return to heathenism. But in all the 
 anger and excitement of these people they still 
 showed traces of nobility and a remembrance 
 and appreciation of the Christian ideas that had 
 been taught them. They would allow wagons 
 loaded with provisions and ammunition to pass 
 them untouched on Sunday, and they took care 
 of the wounded and allowed the dead to be bu- 
 ried. In one battle the commander wrote on the 
 orders of the day, " If thine enemy hunger, feed
 
 102 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 him ; if he thirst, give him drink ;" and then, 
 after the fight, he crept through the English 
 lines at the risk of his own life to carry a cup 
 of water to a wounded enemy who lay dying 
 within the pales. 
 
 About 1872 the warfare was given up and 
 matters between the natives and the colonists 
 have been going on more quietly. 
 
 Bishop Patteson went on with his voyages 
 until his mission had spread as far as the Solo- 
 mon and Banks Islands ; but at last he lost his 
 life in the cause to which he was devoting him- 
 self, and by means of the people he was trying 
 to save. 
 
 The slave-traders, wishing to entrap more of 
 the natives for their wicked designs, had gone 
 farther than ever in their wiles. At one time 
 one of them arrayed himself in a dress like the 
 bishop's and held a mock service on board the 
 ship, in order to entice the people whom they 
 were seeking to come out to them. The plan 
 was successful, and a large number of slaves 
 was captured. This deed roused the hatred 
 and suspicion of the deceived natives, and 
 Bishop Patteson was the victim of their re- 
 venge. He had started on a trip to the Santa 
 Cruz group of islands, and on September twenti- 
 eth, 1871, the Southern Cross was headed to- 
 wards Nukapu. The bishop was talking to the
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 103 
 
 young Melanesians who were with him, and his 
 closing words were these : " And I say unto you, 
 my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the 
 body, and after that have no more that they 
 can do." 
 
 They drew near the island, and the bishop 
 went ashore. No sooner had he landed than 
 the men in the canoes along the coast drew 
 their bows and began to fire upon their boat. 
 The crew became anxious about the bishop and 
 some of them set out to look for him, but before 
 they had gone far a canoe was sent floating out 
 from the beach to meet them. As it approached 
 they saw with beating hearts that it held the 
 dead body of a man. It was that of their be- 
 loved bishop. A peaceful smile was on his face, 
 but it was found that he had been wounded in 
 five places. The fact that each wound had been 
 given to avenge some native death was signified 
 by a palm-leaf tied in five knots and laid upon 
 his breast. As his sad-hearted comrades looked 
 down at his sleeping form did they not think 
 of the words of Coleridge Patteson's Master, 
 " Greater love hath no man than this that a 
 man lay down his life for his friends" ? 
 
 On this little island now stands an iron cross, 
 twelve feet high, bearing this inscription :
 
 104 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 " In Memory of 
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON, D. D., 
 Missionary Bishop, 
 
 Whose life was here taken by men for whom he 
 would gladly have given it." 
 
 Other memorials were erected in England ; 
 one is at Sperne Cross, near Exeter, and one is 
 the magnificent pulpit in Exeter Cathedral. 
 
 Bishop Patteson left his whole fortune of 
 $65,000 to the mission to which he was so de- 
 voted, and Miss Yonge, the popular writer, gave 
 all the profits of her book, " The Daisy Chain," 
 to the same work. 
 
 Bishop Selwyn's son was next made Bishop 
 of New Zealand, and he began his labors in 
 1877. His missionary ship was the Southern 
 Cross. In 1892 he had to resign his position on 
 account of ill-health, and the boat was replaced 
 by a fine steamer. 
 
 Native teachers now carry on the missions 
 among the islands throughout the year. During 
 the winter months European ministers live with 
 them to instruct and assist them a little, and to 
 open as many new doors as possible to the en- 
 trance of the gospel. Parts of the Bible have been 
 translated into the various languages. Many of 
 the islanders have been taught to read, a large 
 number have become members of the church,
 
 THE MELANESIAN MISSION. IO5 
 
 and many young men have been trained to teach, 
 several of them having become ministers. 
 
 The work on the Banks Islands has been 
 marked by success. Some of the islands have 
 been Christianized, and they are now under the 
 charge of native pastors. In 1881 Santa Cruz 
 showed itself open and friendly to the missiona- 
 ries, and it now sends pupils to Norfolk Island. 
 
 The gospel has a good footing, too, on the 
 Swallow Islands, and this mission has stations 
 on some of the New Hebrides also. 
 
 On the Solomon Islands the natives are of 
 the Papuan race, and have been in a low, savage 
 state. The people of the northern islands have 
 been said to be fiercer and more cruel than any 
 of the tribes of the Pacific. 
 
 The name is supposed to have come from 
 the fact that these islands have been conjectured 
 to be the ones to which Solomon sent for his 
 gold, ivory, apes and peacocks. The inhabitants 
 build neat huts, make elaborate canoes, and are 
 skilful in wood-carving and decorative work of 
 inlaid shells and mother-of-pearl. A state canoe 
 that belonged to the chief of one tribe was 
 gracefully formed. Its stern-post rose like a 
 mast, and it was beautifully ornamented. The 
 canoe itself was made of bent planks cement- 
 ed together by a kind of gum. This tribe 
 worshipped a sacred image, or idol, which was
 
 I06 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 little more than a thick post, with a rude face 
 having inlaid rings for the eyes, two rows of 
 teeth for the mouth, and something on the sides 
 to represent ears. In one island there are nu- 
 merous huts built among the top branches of 
 high trees, to which the people climb by a sort 
 of rope-ladder, and in which they take refuge 
 from their enemies, defending themselves by 
 pouring down a volley of stones upon their pur- 
 suers. They have spears from ten to fifteen feet 
 long, with a point of sharp bone, for ordinary 
 fighting, and they use bows and arrows besides. 
 But even in this dark spot, among these head- 
 hunters and man-eaters, mission stations and 
 schools are now established, and these are large- 
 ly owing to the influence of one of the boys of 
 the group, who was educated at Norfolk Island. 
 There are about nine thousand Melanesian Chris- 
 tians altogether. 
 
 In New Zealand at the present time there 
 are nearly two thousand churches and chapels, 
 besides many other buildings and houses in 
 which services are held. The meetings are 
 attended by about one-third of the population. 
 
 Mr. Charles Darwin, the scientist, paid a visit 
 to the island of New Zealand, and this is what 
 he said when he came away : " The lesson of the 
 missionary is an enchanter's wand. I took leave 
 of the missionaries with thankfulness for their
 
 THE MELANESIAN ISLANDS. IO/ 
 
 welcome and high respect for their upright and 
 useful characters." 
 
 A while ago a Hindu and a New Zealander 
 met on board a ship. Each saw that the other 
 was a Christian, because each carried a Bible, 
 but they could exchange no ideas because they 
 could not speak each other's language. Sud- 
 denly one of them smiled and said, " Hallelu- 
 jah !" and the other man smiled back at him 
 and responded with " Amen !" and then they 
 felt that they understood each other. The 
 change in New Zealand has been called " the 
 standing miracle of the age."
 
 108 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS: THE PEOPLE AND THE LOTU. 
 
 WHEN the people of the Friendly Islands 
 had learned the glad story of the Bible, they 
 could not rest content with knowing it for them- 
 selves, but felt that they must pass it on to 
 others; and where could it be more needed than 
 in the neighboring islands of Fiji ? 
 
 There was never a worse place than Fiji, so 
 far as the people were concerned, although the 
 islands and their surroundings were among the 
 most beautiful in the southern seas. There 
 are more than two hundred of these islands, 
 eighty of which are inhabited. The rest are so 
 small that many of them cannot be seen except 
 at low tide. Most of them are encircled by coral 
 reefs, which mark off, by a long line of white 
 foam, the purple waves outside from the blue 
 waters of the harbor within, and shine like rain- 
 bows up out of the ocean. Down through the 
 clear water may be seen corals and seaweed of 
 almost every tint, and fishes of brilliant hues 
 dart here and there through the gay picture of 
 color, which is varied continually by the ebb and
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 109 
 
 flow of the tide and the shifting of light and 
 shadow from above. 
 
 The natives were not altogether savages in 
 spite of their wickedness and cruelty, for they 
 were very clever about some things. They 
 built very good houses, and they had unusual 
 skill in the making of native cloth and pottery, 
 and were adepts at the work of carving and 
 basket-weaving. They say that their ances- 
 tors learned the art of pottery from the mason 
 bee, and the common cooking and water ves- 
 sels do, indeed, bear a close resemblance to 
 the nests of these little creatures. The Fijians 
 have no potter's wheel, but the labor is all per- 
 formed by hand. Their cloth and their pot- 
 tery are both decorated, often in artistic and 
 elaborate patterns which are designed by the 
 women. 
 
 The dwellers in the Fiji Islands are dark, 
 but not black. It has been said that their shade 
 is more like purple than like any other color. 
 The dress of the men used to be made of a long 
 piece of cloth, from three to one hundred yards 
 in length, composed of pieces of tree-bark glued 
 together and stained and figured in gay devices 
 or in plain brown and white. This cloth would 
 be w T ound round the hips and tied about the 
 upper part of the body, the ends being left to 
 trail behind. The women wore fastened round
 
 110 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 the waist a band of roots or of bark and grass 
 with a deep fringe hanging from it. Both men 
 and \vomen adorned themselves with shell am- 
 ulets and finger-rings and with ornamental bands 
 at their knees and ankles. They delighted in 
 necklaces of dogs' and sharks' teeth, and in those 
 made of the bones of bats and snakes. Nearly 
 every man wore on his breast a large pearl shell 
 and a boar's tusk or two. On their foreheads 
 many persons wore tufts of scarlet feathers, 
 and in their ears were thrust rings ten inches 
 around, or straight pieces as thick as their fin- 
 gers or their wrists. Sometimes they would fling 
 garlands of flowers or of vines across their 
 shoulders, as though they had not already made 
 themselves striking enough by tattooing them- 
 selves in designs in blue, or by burning pat- 
 terns down their backs or upon their sides and 
 arms, or by painting their faces in grotesque 
 figures and glaring colors. Their hair they 
 dyed in almost every shade, red being the 
 favorite tint among the young women. Then 
 these disguised locks they would arrange in the 
 most unnatural and startling style possible ; the 
 chief aim seemed to be for each to make him- 
 self or herself as hideous as might be. Some 
 of these heads when dressed would be three 
 feet around. Some looked as though they were 
 bristling with stiff paint-brushes set on end.
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. Ill 
 
 vSome were shaved all over except for a patch 
 of hair on each side or one in front, and some 
 would be shaved on top, while the hair that 
 was left would be brushed up into a tall fan be- 
 hind. Sometimes there would be a black mop 
 at the back and a white roll in front, and some- 
 times the whole head would look as though it 
 were covered with a crinkled worsted cap. 
 
 Each chief had his own hair - dresser, who 
 would spend hours each day arranging his mas- 
 ter's hair. 
 
 The Fijians were all cannibals of the lowest 
 type. The man who had eaten the greatest 
 number of human beings was thought the most 
 worthy of regard, and a stone was set up by 
 every one for every victim that was devoured 
 by him. One chief had a long honor-roll of 
 three hundred of these stones to mark his own 
 cruelty. There were other customs, too, quite 
 as bad as cannibalism. When a man died his 
 widows were strangled and sent out of the world 
 after him. Each wife of a chief always wore a 
 strap around her neck, so that she might be 
 ready to follow her husband at a moment's 
 notice. Old and sick persons, and little chil- 
 dren, too, were often killed in order that their 
 friends might not be burdened with their sup- 
 port. 
 
 "Why should we let girls live?" asked one
 
 112 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 chief. " What are they good for ? They cannot 
 swing a club or throw a spear !" 
 
 When the women were allowed to remain in 
 the world they were simply slaves, and nobody 
 cared much for them. Neither had the men 
 much consideration for the lives and property 
 of one another. They were always at war, and 
 there was no harm in stealing, they thought, so 
 long as they were not caught in the act. To 
 have the theft found out was indeed a disgrace, 
 and the man who was so stupid as to let his 
 misdeed be discovered was looked upon with 
 contempt. The natives had a sort of belief in a 
 great Power who had other gods under him and 
 who made known his will to the priests ; and 
 they had an idea that the spirits of their ances- 
 tors lived in the animals about them. They be- 
 lieved that every person had two spirits : one 
 that left the body at death, and one that was 
 seen in mirrors or was reflected in water. There 
 was a temple in every village, but it served many 
 other purposes besides those that were religious. 
 There was no regular worship, and little heed 
 was paid to the temple unless the chief wished 
 to make some special request of the gods, when 
 he would repair the building and bring an offer- 
 ing of food, and sometimes, when he was un- 
 usually anxious for the granting of some favor, 
 even a number of whales' teeth. Whales' teeth
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 113 
 
 were the most valued of all possessions in Fiji. 
 One tooth would buy a whole man. 
 
 And this was Fiji, where those men who had 
 earned their right to the name of their islands 
 were about to go to work. They had not many 
 missionaries themselves, those Friendly Island- 
 ers, but they decided in the large-hearted Chris- 
 tian way that they might spare two for their 
 brothers in Fiji. They chose two of their very 
 best, William Cross and David Cargill, who had 
 come to them from the Wesleyan Church in 
 Great Britain; and in the year 1834 the two 
 men set sail for the abode of those of whom 
 they had heard so much evil and so little good. 
 During the voyage they spent most of their 
 time in studying the new language that soon 
 they would have to speak, but they could not 
 do much with it in the four days that were 
 taken in crossing the sea. They landed at La- 
 kemba ; but they had no introduction to the 
 people of Fiji except that contained in a letter 
 written to the chief by King George of Tonga, 
 and that did not seem a very strong weapon 
 just then with which to approach the crowd of 
 painted savages, dancing and yelling on the 
 beach, armed with clubs ten or fifteen feet long 
 and battle-axes of hard wood. Still, the stran- 
 gers made their way to the shore and forced 
 themselves into the presence of the king, who 
 
 Heroes of the South Seas. 8
 
 114 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 read the letter and condescended to say that the 
 missionaries might stay if they wished. He even 
 promised to build houses for them. 
 
 That point was gained then, and the two 
 men gratefully accepted the king's permission to 
 live among his subjects, and went to work to see 
 what could be done with the barbarians. They 
 were interested in these new-comers, that was 
 certain, and were curious about their homes and 
 their ways, so unlike their own. They were 
 willing to listen, too, to the words of the mis- 
 sionaries, and after a while a church was built, 
 and the natives came to the services. But 
 troubles there were, aud hindrances, and all 
 manner of discouragement, of course. Was 
 there ever a mission without its share of these ? 
 and wicked Fiji could not be reformed in a day. 
 The crops of the teachers were destroyed, their 
 goods were stolen, and they themselves were 
 often in danger of losing their lives. Sometimes 
 there were terrible cannibal-feasts close beside 
 them, and they would have to shut themselves 
 within their own homes, and pray, pray all night 
 long, with sad hearts and distracted minds. 
 
 Frequently, also, they suffered from lack of 
 food and clothing, and sometimes had to barter 
 some of the few things that they had that were 
 not mere necessities of life for just enough to 
 eat to keep themselves alive.
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 11$ 
 
 But help was coming- to these brave men. 
 Down in England were two young fellows, 
 named John Hunt and James Calvert, who were 
 going out as missionaries, and who thought that 
 this dreary, dingy little corner of the world 
 would be a good place to work in. So to Fiji 
 they came, in the year 1838. Even with this 
 addition to their force the missionaries had to 
 spread themselves over as much ground as pos- 
 sible. John Hunt was placed first at Rewa and 
 afterwards at Buwa, a small island on the east- 
 ern side of Great Fiji. James Calvert and his 
 faithful wife were settled at Lakemba. 
 
 The first thing that Mr. Calvert had to do 
 was to bury the heads, hands and feet of eighty 
 persons who had just been slaughtered for a can- 
 nibal feast. This was a heart-sickening opening 
 to his task, but he did not falter or fall back on 
 that account. He lighted his little candle in the 
 black night of heathenism and after a while it 
 made its glimmer seen. The latest comers had 
 brought a printing-press with them across the 
 sea, and the books and translations of parts of the 
 Bible that had been prepared by Mr. Cross and 
 Mr. Cargill were printed at once. Mr. Calvert 
 could not visit all the islands in his circuit, but 
 the people used to come from all around to La- 
 kemba to buy goods, and they always stopped at 
 the mission-house for a call. Here they were al-
 
 Il6 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 ways gladly welcomed, and they never failed to 
 carry away something to think about and talk 
 over. 
 
 So the light began to steal out from Lakemba 
 to other islands, and the people began to ask for 
 more beams from that candle set aflame by the 
 Sun of Righteousness. Teachers were sent to 
 them, and it really seemed, in many places, as 
 though the poor natives had only been waiting 
 for a little guidance in order to turn their faces 
 towards the Light of the World. The " Lotu," 
 they called the new religion, and many of them 
 grasped it eagerly. Whole villages gave up 
 their idols and humbly and patiently set out 
 on the Christian path, that would shine for them 
 more and more until the perfect day should 
 dawn upon them. 
 
 On the island of Ono the people had been 
 going through severe trials, coming from war 
 and sickness, and they had been praying to their 
 gods for aid. But no answers had been given 
 them, and they were almost in despair, when one 
 of their number heard in some way that the na- 
 tives of the Friendly Islands said that there was 
 but one God, whom everybody ought to serve, 
 and that, moreover, one day in seven was espe- 
 cially set apart for his worship. The inhabitants 
 of Ono at once made up their minds to go to this 
 God for help, and to follow his wishes by keep-
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 117 
 
 ing one day sacred to him. For several months 
 they clung steadfastly to this purpose, and then 
 their prayers found a response. A canoe filled 
 with men from a Christian island was driven out 
 of its course by a storm one of God's good 
 storms, that have done so much for the South 
 Sea folk and this canoe brought them people 
 who could tell them that which they had been 
 longing to know. When news of their need was 
 carried to Lakemba a teacher was sent to them, 
 and when he reached Ono he was greeted by 
 twenty persons who had given up idolatry and 
 were ready to take Christianity into their hearts. 
 A chapel was built, many converts were bap- 
 tized, and of all the work in Fiji that done at 
 Ono has been the most gratifying.
 
 Il8 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. CANNIBALS CHANGED TO 
 CHRISTIANS. 
 
 MR. CALVERT made one or two visits to Ono 
 and was always encouraged by the good work 
 that was going on in that island. At one time 
 there was special interest among the people and 
 whole days and nights were spent in praying 
 and singing. One of the native converts said . 
 " I am thankful to have lived until the Lord's 
 work began. I feel it in my heart. I hold Je- 
 sus ; I am happy. My heart is full of love to 
 God." 
 
 But there was one place upon which the mis- 
 sionaries had fixed their gaze and on which their 
 eyes were now resting with especial anxiety and 
 desire. That place was Mbau, where lived the 
 king Tanoa, who had great influence over the 
 whole of Fiji. He was one of the most blood- 
 thirsty rulers among all the Pacific Islands, but 
 his son, Thokambau, in whose hands the gov- 
 ernment now really lay, was even worse than his 
 father. He had been brought up to find his 
 pleasure not in healthful sports, like ball or ten- 
 nis, nor in the improving study of books and na-
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 119 
 
 ture, nor in harmless occupations like stamp-col- 
 lecting or bug-hunting. His amusement came 
 from fighting and from killing people, in tortur- 
 ing his captives and watching their agonies, and 
 his education was for the sake of making him 
 familiar with all sorts of wicked heathen cus- 
 toms. His royal name was " Vuni Valu," which 
 means " Root of War," and a very good name 
 it was for the fierce prince. 
 
 " I hate your Christianity," he said to the mis- 
 sionaries. " Do you think that you can keep us 
 from our wars and from eating men ? Never /" 
 
 But the missionaries were praying for these 
 bitter enemies of theirs with all their hearts, and 
 they knew that there was Some One who was 
 with them who was stronger than all those who 
 were with Thokambau, even though as yet not 
 one of the teachers had been allowed to settle at 
 Mbau. Still they had some things to cheer them 
 in their work : the king of Lakemba became a 
 Christian, and another chief was converted who 
 built a beautiful chapel at Lakemba. 
 
 In 1845 good John Hunt died, after ten years 
 of toil among the Fijians. He was so weak in 
 his last moments that he was forbidden to 
 speak, but he could not keep quiet. "Oh, let 
 me pray once more for Fiji," he begged. " O 
 God, bless Fiji ! Save Fiji ! Thou knowest my 
 soul has loved Fiji !"
 
 120 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 The natives who had been under his care 
 stood by in great distress at seeing their friend 
 slipping away from them. One old war-chief 
 prayed piteously, with the tears running down 
 his cheek : " O Lord ! we know that we are very 
 evil, but spare Thy servant. Take me, take ten 
 of us, but spare Thy servant to preach Christ to 
 the people." 
 
 It was time, however, for John Hunt to go to 
 his reward, but his prayers for Fiji were not 
 forgotten above. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Hunt's death Mr. Calvert 
 moved over to Viwa, and soon the harvest be- 
 gan to be gathered in. During the eight fol- 
 lowing years great progress was made with the 
 people. In 1853 a missionary named Waterhouse 
 was really admitted to Mbau, and even those hard- 
 hearted men, Tanoa and Thokambau, could not 
 close their ears so tightly that some whisper of 
 the wondrous message could not force its way in 
 and refuse to be thrust out again. Still Thoka- 
 mbau would do nothing more than promise that 
 he would pay some attention to the words of the 
 teachers when he should have subdued all his 
 enemies. 
 
 One day, when the missionaries were away 
 from home, word was brought to their wives 
 that some strangers had come to Fiji on a visit, 
 and that fourteen women were to be sacrificed as
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 121 
 
 an offering in their honor, according to the Fiji 
 notions of hospitality. Two of these brave mis- 
 sionary women, Mrs. Calvert and Mrs. Lyth, re- 
 solved to stop this dreadful deed, if possible. 
 Each took a whale's tooth in her hand, which is 
 the usual present in Fiji when one has a favor to 
 ask of a king, and hurried away by canoe to the 
 island of Mbau, about two miles away. Women 
 are forbidden to enter the king's house, but 
 there was no time to pause to think about laws 
 then. Into the king's presence they rushed, held 
 out their gift, and made known their request. 
 The king was quite overcome by their daring, 
 but was so struck by their courage that he said 
 that they might have the lives of the women 
 who had not yet been killed, and five of the vic- 
 tims were saved. 
 
 When Tanoa died the missionaries tried to 
 persuade his son to leave out the ceremony of 
 strangling his wives, " for grass for lining his 
 grave," as the expression goes in Fiji. Mr. 
 Calvert even went so far as to offer to have one 
 of his fingers cut off, to follow the Fiji fashion 
 in mourning, if the custom were omitted, but 
 Thokambau insisted on carrying out the old 
 practice. 
 
 But even this " king of the cannibal islands " 
 was conquered at last. He had many misfor- 
 tunes, one after another. He was defeated in
 
 122 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 battle, his life was threatened by his foes, and 
 he became sick and discouraged and humble. 
 He declared that he would give up his idols and 
 become a Christian. In 1854 he called a large 
 mass-meeting at Mbau. The drums that were 
 formerly used to announce a cannibal feast were 
 now beaten to summon the people to church. 
 Three hundred persons heard and accepted the 
 invitation, and looked on in awe and wonder as 
 the " Root of War " came in, accompanied by 
 his wives, children, and relations, and knelt in 
 worship before the Christian's God. 
 
 After this time he came regularly to the 
 meetings, kept Sunday faithfully, and began to 
 learn his letters. He was taught by his own lit- 
 tle boy, who was only six years old ; but it was 
 hard work to start on the task of forming ac- 
 quaintance with the alphabet at the age of fifty, 
 and poor old Thokambau often fell asleep 
 during the lesson. In 1857 he did indeed be- 
 come truly converted, and he was baptized under 
 the name of Ebenezer. He must have been in 
 earnest in his new life, for he stood up before all 
 the people, whom he had made treat him almost 
 as though he were a god, and owned all his old 
 wickedness. 
 
 " I have been a bad man," he said. " The 
 missionaries came and invited me to embrace 
 Christianity, but I said to them, ' I will con-
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 123 
 
 tinue to fight.' God has singularly preserved 
 my life. I desire to acknowledge him as the 
 only and true God." 
 
 In 1874 Thokambau ceded the Fijian Islands 
 to England, and in 1886 he died, a gentle, faith- 
 ful, intelligent Christian. His club and the 
 bowl that used to hold the native drink of which 
 he had been fond he presented to Queen Victo- 
 ria, and they may still be seen in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 After eighteen years of labor Mr. Waterhouse 
 also died. His last words were, " Missionaries ! 
 Missionaries ! Missionaries !" During the pe- 
 riod of his stay in Fiji the whole of the Bible 
 was translated and many copies of the New 
 Testament were circulated. 
 
 At last Mr. Calvert went back to England, 
 leaving other missionaries in his place. In 1885 
 he paid a visit to his old field, and found it an 
 entirely different place from what it was when 
 he had first seen it. One hundred thousand 
 people, out of a population of one hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand, were Christian converts. 
 There were two hundred chapels, over two thou- 
 sand missionary preachers and teachers, and 
 twenty-six thousand church-members. In all 
 the eighty inhabited islands there was not a per- 
 son who was called a heathen. James Calvert 
 died in 1892.
 
 124 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 On the island of Mbau there was once a large 
 stone in front of the chief temple. Against this 
 stone the bodies of victims were dashed, as an 
 offering to the gods, before they were given 
 over for the cannibal feasts. It has now been 
 taken from its old position and placed as a bap- 
 tismal font in the Mbau church, and for nearly 
 forty years it has had upon it no new stain of 
 human blood. 
 
 There are now about one thousand Wesleyan 
 churches in Fiji. Eighty-three per cent, of the 
 population is made up of church-members, and 
 there are over one thousand preachers and over 
 two thousand teachers. Every morning and 
 evening may be heard the sound of hymns float- 
 ing on the air and the low murmur of voices 
 engaged in prayer. 
 
 It is easy to see that the people in Fiji are 
 sincere in their Christian aims and desires by 
 the hearty way in which they throw themselves 
 into the task of giving the gospel to others. As 
 we shall learn by and by, they have been quick 
 to respond to the call from New Guinea. They 
 have sent teachers to New Britain, and the light 
 has begun to creep over to New Ireland too. A 
 Wesleyan missionary, the Rev. George Brown, 
 began a mission in New Britain in 1875. Many 
 native teachers went with him, and though sev- 
 eral were killed, others took their places, and
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. 12$ 
 
 their wives would not be left behind. One brave 
 woman, who was urged not to risk her life in so 
 savage a place, replied simply, " The outrigger 
 must go with the canoe ; I go with my hus- 
 band." 
 
 Forty-one churches were built in New Brit- 
 ain, and six thousand persons go regularly to the 
 services. There are nine hundred church-mem- 
 bers, over one thousand Sunday-school scholars, 
 and forty-five native preachers. In 1892 the 
 people gave $150 to missions. 
 
 In Fiji $5,000 is the yearly offering for mis- 
 sionary work. One of the native collections 
 was made up of the following articles, show- 
 ing that each person gave as he was able : 
 Seventy-six mats, twenty-four baskets, three 
 bows with arrows, seven pieces of sandal wood, 
 sixteen fans, sixty-two fine clubs, one pillow, 
 thirty-one spears, eleven hand-clubs, four wom- 
 en's dresses, three pieces of native cloth, five 
 water vessels, four combs, and one pig. 
 
 One is now as safe in Fiji as in any part of 
 the world. There are no British troops there. 
 The only protection needed is given by a hand- 
 ful of native police. 
 
 A sea-captain was once driven ashore on 
 one of these islands and was much alarmed, 
 as he expected to be devoured by cannibals 
 without much warning. But to his surprise
 
 126 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 he was welcomed by men in civilized dress, 
 who took him into their houses and treated him 
 with all kindness and respect. When it was 
 time to go to bed his host told him it was the 
 hour for evening worship, and asked him to 
 lead in prayer, but the captain had to confess 
 that he did not know much about praying ; 
 so, to his shame, he had to kneel down and let 
 the poor Fijian speak for him to his Father in 
 heaven. He was so much impressed with the 
 circumstances of this visit that he sought the 
 Christian way for himself and became in time 
 a missionary, and tried to teach others what 
 had been taught him by a man who was once 
 a cannibal. 
 
 There was another man who went to the 
 Fiji Islands an English earl and an infidel. 
 He smiled in a superior manner when he met 
 the natives. 
 
 " You are a great chief," he said to one of 
 them, " and it is really a pity that you have been 
 so foolish as to listen to the missionaries. No- 
 body believes any longer in that old book called 
 the Bible, or in that story of Jesus Christ. They 
 have all learned better. I am sorry for you, that 
 you have been so foolish as to take it in." 
 
 The chief's eyes flashed as he replied, " Do 
 you see that great stone over there? On that 
 stone we smashed the heads of our victims to
 
 THE FIJI ISLANDS. I2/ 
 
 death. Do you see that native oven over yonder ? 
 In that oven we roasted the human bodies for 
 our great feasts. Now if it had n't been for the 
 good missionaries, and that old Book, and the 
 love of Jesus Christ, which has changed us from 
 savages into God's children, you would never 
 leave this spot. You have to thank God for the 
 Gospel ; for without it here we should have killed 
 you, and roasted you in yonder oven, and feasted 
 upon your body in no time." 
 
 So we may say, with one of these changed 
 Fijians, "Ask no more, What can the Lotu do? 
 after what our eyes have seen this day. The 
 Lotu is of God, and whatever we now see is the 
 work of God." 
 
 There are a "good many Hindoos now in the 
 Fiji Islands, and missionary work has to be 
 done among these people. It is interesting to 
 know that a Hindoo convert from India, named 
 John Williams, has gone to Fiji to labor among 
 his countrymen.
 
 128 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES : LITTLE JOHNNIE GEDDIE. 
 
 THE New Hebrides Islands belong to the 
 Melanesian group and number about forty isl- 
 ands, of which thirty are inhabited. They ex- 
 tend three hundred miles from southeast to 
 northwest. The population is about one hun- 
 dred thousand. 
 
 The natives are mostly Papuans, with dark 
 skin and curly hair. They were once all canni- 
 bals, and they had no regard for human life, 
 and of women they thought nothing at all. " It 
 was only a girl, you know," said one man, care- 
 lessly, after he had confessed to having buried 
 his own child alive. Still they must have wives, 
 as they were convenient in many ways, but they 
 bought them as they bought any other article 
 for the household, paying for them with pigs, 
 the number of pigs varying on the different isl- 
 ands in proportion as women were scarce or nu- 
 merous. The people believed in a life after 
 the death of the body, but were in continual fear 
 of evil spirits and witches. They had many 
 gods : gods of the sea, gods of the bush, and gods 
 of everything. They believed, too, in men
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 129 
 
 who, as they thought, had power over disease, 
 over the wind, over the thunder, and over other 
 forces of nature. 
 
 The first missionary who tried to reach these 
 people was that untiring John Williams, who 
 was murdered at that cruel little island of Erro- 
 manga. 
 
 On hearing of his death twenty-five men at 
 once offered themselves as missionaries, and the 
 Christians in England made up their minds that 
 the New Hebrides must be won for Christ. The 
 missionaries at Samoa managed to station teach- 
 ers at Erromanga, and at some other islands, 
 but they could not stay long, strong and stead- 
 fast as they were. Some of them died, and the 
 rest gave up the work in despair. In 1841 Mr. 
 Murray left some teachers at Aneityum, and in 
 1842 Mr. Turner and Mr. Nisbet went to Tanna; 
 but Tanna was not yet ready for the gospel, and 
 the missionaries were driven away. In 1845 an - 
 other attempt was made, and some teachers were 
 placed there, and later four natives from the isl- 
 ands were taken to the Missionary Institute at 
 Samoa, given three years' training, and then 
 sent home to do what they could among their 
 countrymen. Then good Bishop Selwyn would 
 call occasionally in his mission boat. 
 
 The natives of the island of Aneityum are 
 somewhat different from the other inhabitants 
 
 Heroes of the South Seas. -7
 
 130 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 of Eastern Polynesia. They are small, dark, and 
 slender, and lack the spirit and energy of many 
 of the South Sea Islanders. The climate of the 
 island is like June all the year round. Bananas, 
 cocoanuts and yams grow there in abundance, 
 and there is no lack of bread-fruit, sandal-wood, 
 sugar-cane and arrowroot. There are no wild 
 beasts, and no poisonous snakes, and nothing 
 was savage or unlovely except the people. But 
 the people ! They seemed to some persons to 
 be too little like men, and too much like ani- 
 mals, for anything to be done for them. But 
 God had a man ready for even a place like 
 this. Not a strong, athletic man, like Bishop 
 Selwyn or John Coleridge Patteson, but a fine 
 man for all that a man with a big heart, full 
 of the love of God and his fellow-man, and one 
 who, giving all diligence, added to his faith 
 virtue, and patience, and many other traits of 
 which Peter has written. 
 
 " Little Johnnie Geddie " he was called when 
 he was a boy at home in Nova Scotia, and used 
 to pore over the stories of the heroes of the 
 South Seas until he was filled with their spirit, 
 and was glowing with a great desire to do as 
 they had done. He would be a missionary, too, 
 he told his mother, and steadily did he hold to 
 his purpose. Through striving and self-denial 
 he managed to get an education, and then he
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 13! 
 
 had to win his way into the work on which he 
 had set his heart. 
 
 With his old horse, whose name was Sam- 
 son, he started on a tour round the country and 
 talked missions wherever he went. People lis- 
 tened to him because they could not help listen- 
 ing 1 . The young man was so earnest, and so 
 determined, and so burning with his subject, 
 that the churches were all stirred too, and 
 they agreed to raise enough money for his sup- 
 port in his chosen field. 
 
 Then he gave himself up to studying medi- 
 cine and to learning other useful things. He 
 found out how to build a house, and a boat, and 
 then felt as though lie might venture out to his 
 work. 
 
 At last he set forth, on a small brig, on a 
 long journey, of nineteen thousand miles, round 
 Cape Horn to the Sandwich Islands. At this 
 place he stayed several weeks, and then was off 
 to the Samoan group. At Samoa he lingered 
 for two months, during which time he learned 
 the Samoan language, and then the John Wil- 
 liams took him with another missionary, whose 
 name was Powell, over to the New Hebrides. 
 
 They decided to begin work at Aneityum, 
 but they were not as warmly welcomed as they 
 might have been. " You must n't hurt the 
 white men," said the chief, Nohoat, to his fol-
 
 132 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 lowers, " but you may steal from them as much 
 as you like, and by and by they will be tired and 
 go away." 
 
 But Mr. Geddie had no mind to fall in with 
 this arrangment. He built a house and then set 
 at work at the language. He could not make the 
 natives talk at first, but by offering each one a 
 biscuit for each word that he said he succeeded 
 in coaxing away from them some knowledge of 
 their speech. This was certainly an easy way 
 of earning one's living, but perhaps the plan 
 sometimes cost Mr. Geddie his own meal. When 
 he had gained enough of the language to make 
 himself understood he started out to explore 
 his island, and on this tour he preached at every 
 point where he stopped sometimes under the 
 trees, sometimes by the sea-shore and when he 
 went home he sent teachers to go on with the 
 work he had begun. Then he held regular 
 services at his first station and the people came 
 to the meetings, although they really thought 
 they should be paid for doing so. 
 
 For a while everything seemed to be doing 
 well, when a sudden change came over the na- 
 tives. They stole from the missionaries more 
 frequently than ever, and abused their belong, 
 ings. One of the sacred men of the island, who 
 had the remarkable title of " The man who rules 
 the sea," said that the reason for this conduct
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 133 
 
 was that Mr. Geddie was using his cocoanuts in- 
 stead of saving them for the sacred feasts, and 
 that the gods were displeased because he had 
 taken coral for his house and so they had driven 
 away the fish ; and besides he had built a fence 
 in the way of the gods, so that they could not 
 reach the sea, and as their wrath had fallen on 
 the islanders and brought them disease and 
 death the natives were revenging themselves 
 upon the strangers. 
 
 John Geddie was too kind and sensible to 
 laugh at the ignorant natives for their foolish 
 notions. He tried to yield to their whims so 
 far as possible, and by his gentleness and gen- 
 erosity he kept his influence over them and was 
 all the time gaining a little more. But they 
 were very suspicious and superstitious, and very 
 fond of fighting, so that they were always fall- 
 ing into their old ways and having to be pulled 
 out again. 
 
 When the island was visited by a hurricane 
 Nohoat said that it was caused by one of their 
 wonder-workers, called " The wind-maker," and 
 he tried to kill him. This brought on a war 
 and Mr. Geddie had to be peace-maker. He 
 stepped bravely in between the two parties drawn 
 up for battle and told them that it was Jehovah 
 only who ruled the clouds, and that He would be 
 displeased with them if they should fight about
 
 134 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 his actions. At last the natives agreed that they 
 would hold a council over the matter, and the 
 chiefs made up the quarrel by giving each other 
 a spear and piece of cloth. 
 
 Next all the missionaries fell ill, and the 
 natives declared that the gods were now indeed 
 angry with them. Only a few persons would 
 come to church, and those who were present at 
 the meetings did not behave very well. Some 
 of them would use the opportunity for a com- 
 fortable little nap, and some would smoke their 
 pipes, and some would run away before the 
 service was half over. Mr. Powell's health gave 
 out altogether, and when the John Williams 
 touched at the island he seized the chance to go 
 back to Samoa. 
 
 For three years John Geddie was alone 
 among the savages, except for his wife and 
 three little children, but he kept bravely on 
 with his work. He printed a book of twelve 
 pages, and started both a boys' and a girls' 
 school. The natives began to come to church 
 again after a while, and as time passed on four 
 prominent men gave up their idols and became 
 Christians. Then the people all took the mis- 
 sionary into favor and wished to make him a 
 chief. More natives turned away from heathen- 
 ism, and the converts went out and preached to 
 their neighbors in other parts of the island.
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 135 
 
 Nothing was stolen now ; no clubs nor spears 
 came to church, but the people were there with- 
 out them. Attentive and reverent they were 
 too ; and indeed they were so anxious now to 
 be like their friend Mr. Geddie that they felt 
 that they must be dressed like him. But on the 
 whole island there was not enough of the kind 
 of clothing that he wore to supply everybody, 
 so the natives hit upon a plan to make it go 
 round. One article would be passed from one 
 member of a family to another, so that each one 
 might have a turn at wearing it one Sunday at 
 least. Sometimes this precious bit of raiment 
 would be only a scrap of an old sail, but it was 
 eagerly put on, as being as near to a white man's 
 garment as anything that they could find. 
 
 The heathen party at last became alarmed, 
 and resolved to bring to an end all this interest 
 in the new religion. Nohoat, the chief, prom- 
 ised Mr. Geddie that he should not be hurt ; 
 they only wished to sweep away all the native 
 Christians. But if Mr. Geddie's converts were 
 touched he was touched too, and in a very ten- 
 der spot. 
 
 " If you make war on my Christians," said 
 he, "we will all go away to another island." 
 
 Now that was not to the liking of the old 
 chief. He felt that it was a great distinction to 
 have a missionary all to himself, on his own
 
 136 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 island ; and, besides, what should he do for med- 
 icine and the other useful things that went with 
 the missionaries ? 
 
 He would wait a while before stirring up 
 strife, after all, he thought ; but in little under- 
 hand ways the converts were persecuted all the 
 time by their heathen neighbors, and Mr. Ged- 
 die's life was often threatened. In the midst of 
 everything he fell ill ; but his loving disciples 
 were so faithful and brave and steadfast that he 
 was comforted and helped in his trials, and at 
 last the clouds blew over. A sickness from 
 which the Christians were free broke out among 
 the heathen, and some of them began to think 
 that perhaps they had been mistaken in sup- 
 posing that the Christian religion brought them 
 trouble, and they were glad enough to have that 
 good Christian, John Geddie, at hand just then 
 with his little stock of remedies. 
 
 Another of the medicine-men was converted, 
 and as he at once began to teach others the 
 number of Christians grew from day to day. 
 Parts of the Bible were printed in the language 
 of the island, and in spite of the enmity and 
 evil influence of the sandal-wood traders then on 
 Aneityum the gospel kept on spreading. One 
 man stretched out his arms and then brought 
 his hands together, saying, " The word of God is 
 like this ; it has gone round the island."
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 137 
 
 Even Nohoat showed that he was dropping 
 some of his old ideas, by eating food forbidden 
 to chiefs, and " Father Geddie," as he was 
 called, was authority on almost every subject. 
 Whenever there was a disagreement he had to 
 settle it, and his advice had to be given in many 
 matters. The sacred groves were cut down 
 and the sacred stones were scattered. 
 
 Mr. Geddie was so busy that he wrote home 
 and begged for a missionary to be sent out to 
 help him, but no missionary came. Then his 
 supplies gave out, and he would have had no 
 bread at all if some shipwrecked sailors had not 
 shared some mouldy bread with him. He was 
 sick, too, but he had no time to devote to rest 
 and nursing, for he had to bolster himself up in 
 bed and prepare doses for others. 
 
 The John Williams had not been seen for 
 two years and a half, but when the boat did ap- 
 pear at last how gladly was it greeted ! 
 
 The Samoans who came with it could hardly 
 believe their eyes when they saw what a change 
 had passed over the island in four years. The 
 language had been learned and reduced to wri- 
 ting, and thousands of books were in the hands 
 of the people, hundreds of whom could read 
 them. Hundreds of children were in school, 
 half of the four thousand people on the island 
 had been brought to Christ, and a little church
 
 138 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 had been formed which had fifteen members. 
 This was the first church of the Papuan race. 
 
 Soon afterwards Bishop Selwyn and Cole- 
 ridge Patteson arrived bringing with them a 
 new missionary, the Rev. John Inglis. He was 
 placed upon the other side of the island, where 
 he did the same kind of work that John Geddie 
 had done on this side. 
 
 After a while Simeona and Pita, the two 
 teachers who had been the first missionaries at 
 Aneityum, moved over to Tanna to see what 
 could be done there, and two or three years 
 afterwards the old chief Nohoat, who had be- 
 come a Christian, went forth on the same 
 errand. 
 
 The natives at Aneityum built a house for 
 Mr. Geddie, and a large church which would 
 hold one thousand people. Chapels and school- 
 houses were scattered all over the island. A 
 form of government was established, and a law 
 was passed forbidding the women to be sold as 
 slaves. More land was cultivated, and the peo- 
 ple began to export arrowroot and other pro- 
 ducts. 
 
 After fifteen years of service Mr. Geddie 
 went home for a short vacation, returning to 
 Aneityum after a year's absence. But the cli- 
 mate and the work and the care had broken his 
 constitution, and in 1872 he died, at the age of
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 139 
 
 fifty-eight. On a simple tablet in his church is 
 this inscription : " When he landed in 1848 there 
 were no Christians here, and when he left in 
 1872 there were no heathen." 
 
 Nobody could wish to leave a nobler record 
 than that shown in these words. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Murray took up the work at 
 Aneityum. That was already firmly established, 
 but over in Erromanga the struggle to plant the 
 banner of the cross was still going on. 
 
 The Rev. George Gordon, from Prince Ed- 
 ward's Island, had begun work in 1857, an ^ na d 
 met the same sort of trials that had befallen 
 Geddie at Aneityum, though with a less happy 
 result. 
 
 In 1 86 1 there was a hurricane on the island 
 and an epidemic of measles as well, both of 
 which misfortunes were, of course, laid at the 
 door of the foreigners, and the natives fell upon 
 Mr. Gordon and his wife and murdered them 
 both. Bishop Patteson, who stopped at the isl- 
 and soon afterwards, read the burial-service over 
 their bodies, not thinking, perhaps, that he 
 would soon fall in the same manner himself. 
 
 Three years later George Gordon's brother 
 James reached the spot where the dreadful deed 
 had been done, hoping to be able to go on with 
 the work that his brother had started. In 1867 he 
 was joined by James Mac Nair, from Scotland,
 
 140 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 who died in 1870, leaving the first James alone 
 again. 
 
 One day when he was sitting on the veranda 
 of his own home, revising the translation of the 
 seventh chapter of Acts, which tells of the death 
 of Stephen, a native came creeping up with his 
 tomahawk and laid another victim low. Like 
 Stephen, he had died a martyr to the cause that 
 he loved. 
 
 Now it did seem as though Erromanga 
 were a hopeless field and all labor bestowed 
 upon her were worse than wasted ; but then out 
 stepped another heroic soul, saying, " Here am 
 I ; send me !" 
 
 Hugh Robertson was his name, and he, too, 
 was from Nova Scotia. He had once read a 
 little book written by Mr. Gill, one of the Sa- 
 moan missionaries, called "Gems from the Coral 
 Isles," and these stories had taken so strong a 
 hold of his fancy, and so touched his heart, 
 that nothing seemed to him worth doing except 
 going out as a missionary to people like those 
 about whom he had read. Now James Gordon 
 was about to sail from Halifax about the time 
 that young Robertson was turning over this 
 matter in his mind, so the latter resolved to go 
 with him and see for himself what missionary 
 work was like. He was taken to Aneityum, 
 where he lived for four years and a half, keep-
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 14! 
 
 ing his keen eyes open to judge fairly what 
 heathenism really was when one saw it close at 
 hand, with all the romance rubbed off. But 
 what he found, though worse than he had 
 imagined, only made him more eager than ever 
 to engage in a conflict with evil ; but it made 
 him feel, too, that he needed more preparation 
 for the fight. He went home, took a course in 
 theology and a course in medicine, and then 
 was ready for the call to Erromanga Erro- 
 manga that killed all the prophets that were 
 sent unto her and would not be helped by any- 
 body. 
 
 But God had not given up Erromanga, so 
 why should his servant, Hugh Robertson? It 
 was in 1872 that he set sail with his wife for the 
 New Hebrides. Even the sailors on the ship 
 were afraid to stay near the land, so they hastily 
 placed their passengers upon the shore and hur- 
 ried away as fast as they could. It must have 
 been a strange, thrilling moment for the two 
 deserted beings when they saw the vessel dis- 
 appear in the distance, and knew that they 
 themselves were now beyond human knowledge 
 and human aid. After a while some natives 
 appeared and stared at them in surprise. They 
 could speak a little English, and after a few mo- 
 ments of parleying they consented to conduct 
 the strangers to the mission-house, which had
 
 142 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 been surrounded by a stockade for the protec- 
 tion of the former inhabitants. There the sav- 
 ages left their guests for a time, but before 
 long back they came, armed with clubs, looking 
 fierce and angry and like anything but hospita- 
 ble hosts. Mr. Robertson stepped out upon his 
 veranda and told them quietly and pleasantly 
 that he himself could do nothing against them, 
 of course, but that Jehovah, his God, had him 
 in charge, and if they should injure him they 
 would have an account to settle with God. 
 They listened to these words, looked at each 
 other, and then slunk away. They were afraid 
 of the One whom the Christians worshipped. 
 
 Still, when their wicked feelings rose again, 
 they hurried back, fully resolved to rid them- 
 selves of these white people who had forced 
 themselves upon them. Once more Mr. Rob- 
 ertson met them with the same calm words, 
 and once more they gave up their purpose and 
 went meekly home. Over and over did they 
 go through this performance, but at last they 
 seemed to tire of these visits, and were willing 
 to have the missionaries among them. Mr. Rob- 
 ertson lived with them for a year, and then sum- 
 moned the chiefs for a consultation. 
 
 " Now," said he, " I have been here for a 
 good while. You have seen that I am your 
 friend and that I have tried to help you. If
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 143 
 
 you will treat me well, and stop trying to kill 
 me, I will stay with you longer. If not, I will go 
 away at once. You must decide for yourselves." 
 
 The chiefs withdrew, and talked the matter 
 over. " Let us kill him at once," said one, " and 
 be rid of him." " No," said another, " let him 
 be here with us ; he does no harm " ; and so 
 they reasoned, back and forth, until the friendly 
 party carried the day, and word was sent to the 
 missionaries that they were to be allowed to re- 
 main. After this favor on their part the natives 
 seemed to lose many of their objections to the 
 outsiders, and adopted them as their charge. 
 They began to listen to their teaching, too, and 
 love and devotion were not without their reward. 
 
 During the following year many persons 
 were converted, and in eleven years the island 
 was won. At the close of 1882 five hundred Er- 
 romangans went regularly to church, and one 
 hundred and ninety of them were church-mem- 
 bers. Then, as he had thirty-three native teach- 
 ers to carry on the work at various stations 
 throughout the island, Mr. Robertson felt that 
 he might go home for a visit. As he was about 
 to depart, an old chief lifted a little child in his 
 arms and said, " When I was the age of this 
 baby there was not a Christian on this island. 
 When he is my age, there will not be one 
 heathen."
 
 144 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Perhaps he had heard of Mr. Geddie's inscrip- 
 tion at Aneityum, or perhaps the facts in this 
 case were as plain as they were in the other, so 
 that the same expression came naturally into 
 mind. 
 
 In 1880 a church was dedicated at Dillon's 
 Bay, not far from the spot where John Williams 
 fell. It was called "The Martyrs' Memorial 
 Church." Not long afterwards the natives paid 
 for having one thousand copies of the " Acts of 
 the Apostles" printed and gave generously to 
 the fund for publishing the four Gospels, design- 
 ed for circulation among the people. There are 
 now about twenty -five hundred Christians on the 
 island, in thirty-four villages. There are schools 
 and teachers in every part, and church services 
 are held every Wednesday and Sunday. 
 
 In the Memorial Church may be seen the 
 following inscription : 
 
 Sacred to the memory of Christian mis- 
 sionaries who died on this island : 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS, 
 JAMES HARRIS, 
 
 Killed at Dillon's Bay by the natives, 
 3Oth November, 1839. 
 
 GEORGE N. GORDON, 
 ELLEN C. GORDON, 
 
 Killed on the 20th of May, 1861.
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 14$ 
 
 JAMES MACNAIR, 
 
 Who died at Dillon's Bay, i6th July, 1870; 
 
 and 
 JAMES D. GORDON, 
 
 Killed at Portinia Bay, 7th March, 1872. 
 
 They hazarded their lives for the sake of the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 In 1889, the fiftieth anniversary of the death 
 of John Williams, a monument was erected at 
 Erromanga. The man who laid its corner-stone 
 was the son of his murderer, and another son of 
 this same savage was at the time preaching the 
 gospel in Australia. 
 
 Htroea of the South Seas.
 
 146 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES : THE MAN WHO DUG 
 THE WELL. 
 
 ABOUT ten years after John Geddie went to 
 Aneityum, and shortly after George Gordon had 
 made an attack on Erromanga, that man who 
 has become so famous among missionary heroes, 
 Dr. John G. Paton, fell into the same line of 
 work at Tarma. 
 
 There is a volcano on Tanna which gives 
 the island the name of the " Lighthouse of the 
 South Pacific," but we know very well that 
 Tanna was not a light in the way of morals or 
 of manners. Dark, very dark, was it in Tanna 
 in those respects, and every spark of the gospel 
 glow had been dashed out just as soon as it had 
 been kindled. 
 
 But John Paton was willing to give Tanna 
 another trial. 
 
 He was another one who had made up his 
 mind when he was a little boy that he would be 
 a missionary so soon as he was old enough ; and 
 his home in Scotland, where he grew up under 
 the care of one of the wisest and best fathers 
 and one of the loveliest mothers that ever 
 lived, must have been just the sort of place
 
 THE NKW HEBRIDES. 147 
 
 from which to send out a good missionary. He 
 must have drunk in high thoughts and aims 
 with the mountain air and learned patience and 
 steadfastness from the hills, while from his 
 father and mother he gained much of his simple 
 trust, his industry and thrift, his courage and 
 his hardihood, as well as his bright, hopeful 
 disposition and kind, warm heart. Yet from 
 all the beauty of his native land, and from all 
 the home ties and associations, he turned away 
 to cast in his lot among the savages of Tanna. 
 
 He found the people cannibals, like all the 
 natives of the New Hebrides. They lived in 
 poor little huts, the men spending their time in 
 fighting while the women did the work. They 
 had many idols and worshipped almost every- 
 thing, after the way of their neighbors. 
 
 They allowed Mr. Paton and his companions 
 to stay with them because they thought that 
 they would give them axes and fish-hooks, and 
 making the most of this permission Mr. Paton 
 tried to become acquainted with them, and to 
 learn their language while he was working his 
 way into their lives. One day he noticed that a 
 man picked up some object that was new to 
 him and said, inquiringly, " Nunski nari enu?" 
 That must mean, " What is it?" thought Mr. Pa- 
 ton, quickly, and then he put his lesson into 
 practice. He caught up some article and hold-
 
 148 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 ing it out towards a savage he smiled and asked ; 
 " Nunski nari enu ?" The native at once replied 
 with the name of the thing that Mr. Paton had 
 in his hand, and from that time " Nunski nari 
 enu?" brought the missionary a good deal of in- 
 formation. 
 
 Next he laid hold of the children and taught 
 them to sing. The music pleased the older peo- 
 ple so much that they wished to learn how to 
 make it too, so Mr. Paton had a singing-class of 
 men and women. By means of the hymns he 
 was able to put into their minds ideas that would 
 have been difficult for them to grasp in any 
 other way. The first hymn that he gave them 
 spoke of God the Father, the second one of Jesus 
 Christ, and the third of the Holy Spirit ; and 
 when they were curious about the meaning of 
 what they were singing he would explain to 
 them, as simply as he could, as much Bible 
 truth as they could understand. 
 
 But they were just as superstitious and as 
 suspicious as the people of Aneityum, and when 
 the rain came when it was not wished, or failed 
 to appear when they thought that it should, it 
 was all the fault of the missionary and his 
 friends. " Missi," they called him, in their child- 
 like fashion, and " Missi " was to them a wonder- 
 ful being. When they laid plans to kill him he 
 seemed to know it, and to be prepared for them.
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 149 
 
 " How can you tell, Missi, what we mean to 
 do to you ?" they would ask, innocently. 
 
 "Oh, a little bird whispers it to me," he would 
 answer, with a smile. 
 
 " What kind of a bird is it, Missi ?" they 
 would go on, still more puzzled than ever. 
 
 But Mr. Paton would only smile again, and 
 leave them to guess that the bird was one of the 
 children of whom he was so fond, and who loved 
 him in return. 
 
 He did gain some influence over the older 
 people too after a while. They were afraid of 
 him, and were often so angry with him that they 
 would gladly have murdered him, but he inter- 
 ested them, and they could not fail to respect 
 him and to enjoy his kindness and his help in 
 time of need. He often broke off a war when 
 they were bent on fighting, and at one time ran 
 into the midst of a party gathered together to 
 talk over the coming battle, and called out : 
 " My love to all you men of Tanna ! Fear not. 
 I am your friend. I have come to tell you about 
 Jehovah God, and good conduct such as pleases 
 him." 
 
 One of the men led him to a seat and the 
 savages danced about him like madmen, flour- 
 ishing their knives and clubs in a frightful man- 
 ner ; but when this performance was over they 
 consented to hold a second council on the sub-
 
 150 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 ject of the war, and finally agreed to give it up 
 for the time. This peace lasted for four months, 
 and Mr. Paton felt that they had really made a 
 long stride in the progress of civilization when 
 they could lay by their weapons for a whole 
 third of a year. 
 
 But his trials were by no means over. His 
 wife and his little child both died, and his own 
 life was more than once almost brought to an 
 end by an axe or a gun in savage hands. 
 
 Sometimes a friendly native would interfere, 
 sometimes Mr. Paton himself would talk to the 
 men and make them ashamed of their evil no- 
 tions. Sometimes they felt some power about 
 him that filled them with awe and held them in 
 check. Perhaps they had a dim vision of the 
 One who walked with the three men in the fiery 
 furnace ; for Mr. Paton said of himself : " I had 
 my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and 
 smile of my blessed Lord in those dread mo- 
 ments when musket, club or spear was levelled 
 at my life." He felt that he must have a church, 
 and built one, largely by the labor of his own 
 hands. The wood came from Aneityum, and 
 was paid for by fifty pairs of trousers, sent to 
 him for the purpose by his old mission-class in 
 Glasgow. 
 
 Only five men, three women and three chil- 
 dren came to the first service after the church
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 151 
 
 was ready, but that made a beginning, and that 
 afternoon Mr. Paton visited ten villages and 
 preached in each one. A great deal of his time 
 was spent in caring for the sick, and he was both 
 doctor and nurse. 
 
 At last six stations were established along the 
 coast and placed under the care of teachers from 
 Aneityum. But as the consciences of the peo- 
 ple awoke they became uneasy, and were sorry 
 that these strangers had come to spoil all the 
 good, old comfortable easy times. Then, sad to 
 say, a trading- vessel came to the island and blew 
 all the little flames of discontent into a great 
 blaze. 
 
 " The only way to deal with these savages," 
 said the savages of the trading-ship, " is to sweep 
 them off the face of the earth. We will man- 
 age them for you," and then they put on shore 
 several men who had the measles, and left them 
 to scatter the disease. It spread like fire over 
 the island and the natives fell rapidly before it. 
 Thirteen persons from the mission party also 
 died. 
 
 The people were roused to fury. They did 
 not stop to think that the missionaries had suf- 
 fered as well as themselves. They were full 
 of hatred for all white men, and they would 
 destroy any upon whom they could lay hands. 
 To add to the commotion a hurricane tore over
 
 152 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 the island, and now the natives knew that the 
 gods were surely angry, and would have the 
 visitors at Tanna removed without delay. 
 
 One chief, whose name was Nowar, stood 
 by Mr. Paton, but everybody else had turned 
 against him. Everything was forgotten except 
 that he belonged to the wicked race of white 
 men, and time after time was he attacked. 
 Every night bands of men prowled round the 
 house, and Mr. Paton and his fellow-worker had 
 to sleep with their clothes on, in readiness for a 
 sudden flight. 
 
 They stuck to their post so long as there 
 was a shadow of hope of doing any good there, 
 but at last they were forced to believe that the 
 work must be given up at Tanna for the present. 
 One night, with nothing but their Bibles, their 
 Tannese translations and a pair of blankets 
 they slipped away, and after many adventures 
 and hairbreadth escapes they reached the vil- 
 lage of Nowar, on another part of the island. 
 
 Here they found the people in a state of 
 terrible excitement. Crowds of armed men 
 were seen bearing down upon them from every 
 direction. They begged Mr. Paton to begin to 
 pray for them as hard as he could, for they felt 
 that they were lost. In his usual unruffled 
 manner the good missionary turned, like a little 
 child, to his Father, and asked for help. The
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 153 
 
 savages were still pressing forward. On they 
 came, until they were about three hundred yards 
 away, when suddenly, and with no apparent 
 reason, they wheeled round and walked off to 
 their own village. 
 
 Two days Mr. Paton stayed with Nowar, but 
 then even Nowar was afraid to have him longer 
 in the house, so the next night the hunted man 
 had to go out and climb into the arms of a tall 
 chestnut-tree and there he spent the long hours 
 until morning. All the time he could hear be- 
 low him the cries of the savages and the pop- 
 ping of their muskets. 
 
 The following day Mr. Paton had another 
 exciting journey, going this time to Mr. Mathe- 
 son's station on the opposite side of the island. 
 Here he waited ten days, hoping that a vessel 
 might come and take him away One night 
 he awoke to find the church on fire, and he saw, 
 too, that the fence that connected it with the 
 house was also in a blaze. He ran out and cut 
 down one end of the fence, but then the natives 
 were upon him. "Kill him! kill him!" they 
 shrieked. 
 
 But just then there was a rumbling sound 
 from the south. A hurricane was coming ! The 
 savages took fright at once. 
 
 " It is Jehovah's rain," they cried, and fled 
 like dry leaves before the wind.
 
 154 HEROES OF THE SOl;TH SEAS. 
 
 The next morning a ship from Aneityum 
 touched at the island, and bore all the mission- 
 aries away. 
 
 Mr. Paton went to Australia and to England 
 and Scotland, and told about the work that must 
 be done in the New Hebrides, ungrateful and 
 unpromising though the people were. He suc- 
 ceeded in raising money enough to buy a mis- 
 sion-boat, most of it coming from children in 
 Sunday-schools. The children's boat it was, that 
 "white-winged angel," as Mr. Paton called the 
 beautiful little vessel that had been named the 
 Dayspring, and when it began to cruise among 
 the islands the natives were filled with surprise. 
 "Why, how is this?" they cried. "We have 
 killed some of the missionaries and driven the 
 others away. If we had been treated so nothing 
 could bring any of us back. And is it to trade 
 or get money, like other white men ? No, but it 
 is to tell us of their Jehovah God, and of his 
 Son, Jesus. If their God makes them do all 
 that we may well worship him too." 
 
 Mr. Paton and his new wife settled at Aniwa, 
 a small island about nine miles long and three 
 and a half miles wide. The language was not 
 the same as that of Tanna, so he had to go to 
 studying again. His experiences were much the 
 same at first as those that had been met on the 
 other island. The natives blamed the missiona-
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 155 
 
 ries for all their misfortunes, and thought that 
 the gods would like to have them put out of the 
 way. He visited many of the villages, and at 
 the risk of his life he told the people the story of 
 God's love. Sometimes he could protect himself 
 only by running straight into the arms of some 
 cannibal, and by clinging tightly around him 
 keep him from lifting his hand to strike with his 
 club or to fire with his gun. Sometimes he 
 would knock up the barrel of the musket pointed 
 at him, and send the bullet in another direction. 
 An old chief, Namakei, was converted, and 
 he was a great help to the missionaries. He 
 brought his daughter to be taught, and that was 
 the beginning of a school that trained many 
 young persons for service among their fellow- 
 men. The older people were much hurt because 
 they received no rewards for going to church, 
 and because the missionaries would not buy 
 their idols from them, so they tried to revenge 
 themselves in various ways. One night the old 
 chief, Namakei, came running into the mission- 
 aries' house, crying, " Rise, Missi, and help ! The 
 heathen are trying to burn your house. All 
 night we have tried to keep them off, but they 
 are many, and we are few. Rise quickly, and 
 set a lamp in every window. Let us pray to Je- 
 hovah, and talk loud, as if we were many. God 
 will make us strong."
 
 156 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 The woods were full of savages with lighted 
 torches, but near the house the teachers and 
 some friendly natives were keeping watch with 
 buckets of water, ready to put out the fire should 
 one be started. No harm was done, however, 
 and when the day dawned the enemy slunk 
 away. 
 
 There is little rain on the island of Aniwa* 
 and all that falls soon sinks into the soil. There 
 was one place called the " public water-hole," 
 which was on the ground of some of the " sacred 
 men," and which was filled by the rain. But 
 these men pretended that they had the manage- 
 ment of the weather, and would promise to 
 bring a supply of water only when they were 
 bribed with presents. So, of course, there was 
 much suffering among the people for lack of 
 good water. 
 
 Mr. Paton said that he meant to have a well 
 of his own, from which anybody might help 
 himself, but the people laughed at his idea. 
 How could he bring rain up out of the ground ? 
 Rain came from above, they said. But Mr. Pa- 
 ton went to work to dig. He coaxed the natives 
 to help him by paying them with fish-hooks, but 
 they became frightened, when one side of the 
 hole caved in, and no more of that kind of work 
 would they do. The gods were angry with them, 
 they thought ; but Mr. Paton toiled on alone.
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. !$/ 
 
 They begged him to give up the job. " If you 
 do reach water," said they, " you will fall through 
 into the sea, and the sharks will eat you. We 
 wonder what will be the end of this mad work !" 
 
 Still he dug away. The coral and earth were 
 becoming damp. His hopes rose as his hole 
 grew deeper. " I think God will give us water 
 to-morrow," he said, one night. 
 
 Early the next morning he went down into 
 his well and sank a small hole in the bottom. 
 The water rushed in and overflowed it in a mo- 
 ment. He was so happy that he could hardly 
 steady his hand while he tasted it from a cup 
 that he had taken with him, but he eagerly 
 sipped the water himself, and then, filling a jug 
 that he had brought down empty, he carried it 
 to the top of the well and showed it to the na- 
 tives. 
 
 They fell back in wonder. Yes. It certainly 
 was rain, though at first they dared not touch it. 
 At last the old chief ventured to shake it, to see 
 if it would spill, and laid his finger upon it, to 
 learn if it felt like real water. Then he took 
 some into his mouth and rolled it round there, 
 finally letting it slip down his throat, and then 
 shouting, " Rain ! rain ! Yes, it is rain !" 
 
 Then all the men had to peer down the well, 
 and they were all " weak with wonder," as they 
 said, at this marvellous event. They were ready
 
 158 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 then to help to bring blocks of coral with which 
 to build a wall from top to bottom of this well 
 that had brought them rain from under the 
 ground. 
 
 The next Sunday Namakei preached a ser- 
 mon in which he told the people that the " in- 
 visible Jehovah God " was the only God, and 
 they must throw away their idols and worship 
 him. He had not only sent them rain from the 
 earth, but had given his Son from heaven to die 
 for them. That same day many idols were 
 brought to Mr. Paton, and in the course of a few 
 weeks many more were piled at his door, and 
 they were then burned. Then the people began 
 to wear the clothing of white men and women, 
 to go to church regularly, and to keep Sunday. 
 Mr. Paton had a book printed for them and they 
 were amazed to think that he could " make a 
 book speak." They were still more overcome 
 when he began to teach them how to make it 
 speak to them also. 
 
 Next, they united in building a little church. 
 It was a queer little church, made of coral and 
 sugar-cane, with mats on the floors for seats ; but 
 it was just as good for their purposes. They 
 were used to sitting on the ground. 
 
 Old Namakei devoted himself to the work of 
 helping the missionaries, and when he heard 
 how the gospel tidings were spreading he would
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. 159 
 
 say, " Missi, I am lifting up my head like a tree ; 
 I am growing tall with joy." When he died his 
 daughter said that he had been among all the 
 people and had charged them to be true to the 
 missionaries and to the cause of Christ, and that 
 they had promised to try to obey his words. 
 
 After three years of labor the first commu- 
 nion service was held in the little church. It 
 was a happy moment for the brave, loving heart 
 that had worked and waited so long ; when the 
 dark hands were stretched out for the bread and 
 wine of the Lord's supper it was well-nigh broken 
 with bliss. 
 
 Then schools were established in various 
 parts of the island. These schools had to be 
 opened at daybreak, so that the men and women 
 might study their lessons before going out to 
 their day's work. Teachers were trained, and 
 the people were taught to do many useful things. 
 The Bible was translated and copies were given 
 out. Now there are thirty-five hundred Chris- 
 tians on Aniwaand two hundred native teachers. 
 Missionaries are no longer needed there. 
 
 Mr. Paton has said that it has been estimated 
 that one soul has been saved for every five dol- 
 lars spent in the work of the New Hebrides, and 
 Mrs. Paton says that it is worth laboring a life- 
 time to witness the change that comes over any 
 one of these people, even in the expression of the
 
 l6o HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 face, when transformed from a savage into a 
 Christian. 
 
 Tanna, too, is reaching out her hands towards 
 the light. The natives who had been converted 
 there were joined afterwards by other teachers, 
 and through their efforts about fourteen hun- 
 dred Christians have been gained even in Tan- 
 na. The best of it is that every convert is a 
 missionary, so the work will go on. 
 
 On a small deserted island near Tanna Mr. 
 Paton found on a recent visit that the people 
 were trying to keep Sunday, though no mission- 
 ary had been near them. Two old men kept 
 track of the days, and on the first day of each 
 week they would lay aside their ordinary occu- 
 pations and each one would put on a calico shirt 
 that he had, and then, calling the people round 
 them, they would tell them as much as they 
 knew of the gospel story. Upon inquiry Dr. 
 Paton discovered that, thirty-three years before, 
 he had stopped at this island for a week or so, 
 and at that time had taught some of the people 
 a little of the Bible and given out two calico 
 shirts. Through all these long years these two 
 men had cherished these bits of knowledge and 
 carefully kept the shirts, wearing them only once 
 in seven days in order to be able to make some 
 difference between Sunday and the rest of the 
 week. They further observed the day by doing
 
 THE NEW HEBRIDES. l6l 
 
 the only other thing that seemed to them to be- 
 long to the occasion sharing with others their 
 own scanty portion of truth. 
 
 On Tonga, the Rev. Oscar Michelson toiled 
 alone for twelve years At first he had many 
 perilous adventures, and often had to run away 
 and hide somewhere in order to save his life, 
 but he kept at work, and the people liked him 
 better after a while. His home they called the 
 " Sunday House," and they began to gather there 
 to hear the music, and learned to sing some 
 Christian hymns. Then the work grew, and all 
 over the island the good news was told. Now 
 there are thirty Christian teachers settled in va- 
 rious parts of the island, and Mr. Michelson's 
 field includes three islands besides his own. At 
 one meeting lately three hundred persons rose 
 for prayer. The people of Tonga are now so hon- 
 est that if one of them should find a coin on the 
 road he would stick it up in some conspicuous 
 place and there it would stay until the rightful 
 owner should come along. 
 
 Fortuna was converted through the work of 
 teachers from Aneityum. Some of the medicine 
 men here when they became Christians brought 
 their sacred stones, which they value above their 
 lives, and burned them in the public square. 
 Last year nine casks of arrowroot were sent to 
 Edinburgh by the people of Aneityum, and 
 
 Htro3 of the South Seas. I I
 
 162 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 three casks by the Christians in Fortuna. The 
 latter contribution was to pay the expenses of 
 building the first church in Fortuna. These 
 people were so hungry for Bibles that they were 
 willing to buy them at the rate of $2 a leaf. 
 
 Efate, Malo and Nguna all have missionaries 
 now, and a new mission has been started on the 
 largest island, Espirito Santo. The second Day- 
 spring has been sold and a small steamer has 
 been provided in its place. About twenty 
 islands are now occupied, and there are about 
 fourteen thousand converts altogether. Por- 
 tions of the Bible have been translated into fif- 
 teen distinct languages. There are about forty 
 thousand cannibals in the New Hebrides that 
 are still unreached, and for these Dr. Paton asks 
 the prayers and the aid of Christians all over the 
 world. He is anxious, too, to gain the sympathy 
 and the help of the Christian nations in putting 
 down the slave-trade in these islands, and in 
 forbidding the bringing in by traders of rum, 
 opium and fire-arms. These things are doing 
 untold harm among the natives. 
 
 Dr. Paton has been able to devote the sum 
 of $25,000 to his work from the proceeds of the 
 book in which he has told the story of his life, and 
 he has lived to have the pleasure of seeing one of 
 his sons go back as a missionary to the New Heb- 
 rides, and another one is making ready to go.
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 163 
 
 CHAPTER XII . 
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS : A COUNTRY OPENED 
 BY A BOY. 
 
 THE Sandwich Islands and Micronesia cannot 
 be said to belong to the islands of the South 
 Seas, as they lie north of the Equator, but they 
 do make part of what is known as Polynesia, so 
 their story is properly included with the other 
 groups of that division. 
 
 The Sandwich Islands were named in 1778, 
 by Capt. Cook, in honor of the Earl of Sandwich. 
 There are ten of these islands, of which Hawaii 
 is generally said to be the largest. It is, at least, 
 the one of which we generally hear the most, 
 and it now gives its name to the whole group. 
 
 About seventy years ago the inhabitants of 
 these islands were savages and idolaters, and 
 were wild, rough, and ignorant. All that they 
 knew about civilization was what they had 
 learned from the sailors on the ships that came 
 occasionally to these shores. Their homes were 
 grass huts, in which the natives and the animals 
 lived together, and where the pig was an impor- 
 tant member of the family. 
 
 Their religion was a mass of superstition.
 
 164 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Their idols were among the most hideous ever 
 formed, and they had so many queer notions 
 about everything that they could have found 
 little comfort or pleasure in living. They be- 
 lieved that certain places or objects were sacred, 
 or " tabu," as they said ; and if anybody should 
 break any of the rules of " tabu " he was at once 
 put to death. Some kinds of fish might be eaten 
 by men, but were thought to be too good for 
 women. A man was not allowed to eat with his 
 wife, or a mother with her son ; and the poor 
 natives had an idea that the gods were so par- 
 ticular about such matters that if any offense 
 were not speedily punished they would take the 
 case into their own hands, and send to the whole 
 group of islands some great calamity. 
 
 On the island of Hawaii is Kilauea, the larg- 
 est volcano on earth. The crater is nine miles 
 round, and one thousand feet deep. It is on the 
 flank of the mountain of Mauna Loa, at an ele- 
 vation of four thousand feet. In this volcano, 
 the people of the island believed, lived Pele, 
 the goddess of fire. The old stories said that 
 she had made her home on one island after an- 
 other, from each of which she had been driven 
 by the water-god, Kamapuaa, who had the body 
 of a man and the head of a pig. At last she 
 had taken refuge in the volcano of Kilauea, and 
 whenever she was angry she would turn into a
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 165 
 
 flow of lava and rush down upon the people, or 
 throw over masses of hot rocks, and so overcome 
 her enemies. The lava surrounding the crater 
 is blown by the wind out into fine strands, which 
 the natives called " Pele's hair," and looked 
 upon with reverence. Everybody stood in awe 
 of Pele, and on her ground the "tabu" was 
 more strictly kept than anywhere else. 
 
 About the year 1809 a sea-captain, stopping 
 at the Sandwich Islands, found a boy about four- 
 teen years of age whose name was Obookiah. 
 His father and mother had been killed in one of 
 the native wars, and as he was lonely and sad 
 he gladly accepted the invitation of the captain 
 to go back with him to America. The boy was 
 ignorant, clumsy, and awkward, and had little 
 about him that was bright or attractive in any 
 way ; but the captain took him to his own home 
 in Boston and did his best to make the young 
 stranger happy. But Obookiah seemed not 
 much more contented than when in his native 
 land. The new country and the new life awoke 
 new desires, and made him uneasy. One day he 
 was found, by a man who was passing by, sitting 
 on the steps of one of the buildings of Yale Col- 
 lege crying as though his heart would break. 
 
 " What is the matter, my lad ?" asked the 
 stranger, pausing in surprise and sympathy. 
 "Why are you weeping so distressingly?"
 
 l66 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 " Because there is n't anybody to teach me 
 anything," whimpered the poor boy, rubbing his 
 eyes to drive away the tears. 
 
 " Well," said the man, who had a kind heart 
 and a generous spirit, "come along with me, 
 and we '11 see what we can do about it." And 
 up jumped Obookiah, and followed his new 
 friend with delight and confidence. He was 
 placed in a Christian home and his education 
 was begun at once. He studied with all his 
 might, too, in order to make up for lost time. A 
 while afterwards, Samuel Mills, who was one of 
 the young men who had been present at the 
 prayer-meeting held under the haystack in Wil- 
 liamstown, and who, like the others, had decided 
 to be a missionary, fell in with Obookiah, and 
 took him to his father's house in Torringford, 
 Connecticut. There he learned many other 
 things besides those lessons that were taught 
 from books. A little later he wrote a letter to a 
 friend in New Haven speaking of his advan- 
 tages. He used to say " c-a-t pig," he wrote, but 
 now he could spell in words of four syllables, 
 and he now knew the " chief end of man," too. 
 His first prayer was something like this : " Great 
 and eternal God, make heaven, make earth, make 
 everything, have mercy on me ; make me un- 
 derstand the Bible ; make me good ; make me 
 go back Owhyee, tell folks in Owhyee no more
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. l6/ 
 
 pray to stone god ; make some good man go with 
 me to Owhyee, tell folks in Owyhee about hea- 
 ven. God, make all people good everywhere." 
 
 But Obookiah was only a boy, and often had 
 feelings that were not quite on a level with those 
 of his best moments. He owned afterwards that 
 at first he cared more about having religion in 
 his head than in his heart, and he made this 
 frank little confession besides : " Sometimes," 
 he said, " when good people talked to me on this 
 subject, I was but just hate to hear it ;" but he 
 did not stay long in this frame of mind, and soon 
 could say truthfully, " I cannot help think about 
 heaven. I go in a meadow, work at the hay 
 with my hands, but my heart no there : in hea- 
 ven all the time. Then I feel very happy." 
 
 He was anxious to go back to his own land, 
 and tell his people about God and about Christ, 
 so he worked away at his studies with that end 
 in view. With the help of a friend he tried to 
 reduce his own language to writing, and he real- 
 ly did make what he called " a kind of spelling- 
 book, dictionary, and grammar." 
 
 Obookiah was himself one of the best proofs 
 that the church had ever had as to the value of 
 foreign missions. The dull look went out of his 
 face, which became bright and intelligent. His 
 awkwardness all disappeared, and his manners 
 became refined and graceful. In 1816 a school
 
 l68 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 was started in Cornwall, Connecticut, for the 
 purpose of educating other heathen boys, anc} 
 turning them into Christian gentlemen like 
 Henry Obookiah, but Obookiah himself never 
 carried the gospel to his countrymen, although 
 he fitted into God's plan for the salvation of 
 the Sandwich Islands just as truly as if he 
 had done as he hoped to do. In 1819 he died. 
 " God will do right," he said. " Let God do as 
 he pleases." 
 
 The school in Cornwall was given up in 1826, 
 as it was found wiser to educate the heathen in 
 their own countries, but Obookiah had pointed 
 out the missionary path to the Sandwich Islands, 
 and his wishes were not forgotten. In 1820 two 
 students in the seminary at Andover, named 
 Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston, decided to 
 devote themselves to this work, and with several 
 other volunteers they sailed for Hawaii. The 
 way had been wonderfully prepared for them. 
 
 The king, Kamehameha, had become sov- 
 ereign of all the islands, so they were now under 
 one government and for that reason would be 
 more easily reached. Kamehameha had, be- 
 sides, learned a little about the Christian re- 
 ligion from Captain Vancouver, who had visited 
 the islands several times, and the ideas of all 
 the people had changed in many points. When 
 they saw that the sailors with whom they were
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 169 
 
 thrown could do without harm the things that 
 they had never dared to they began to lose 
 their faith in their system of " tabu," and to 
 venture to break through its laws once in a 
 while themselves. This disbelief grew all the 
 time, and when Kamehameha was about to die 
 he tried to gain more knowledge about the true 
 God and his teachings from an American who 
 was then at Hawaii ; but this American was 
 sadly ignorant on the subject himself and could 
 do nothing to help the dying king. But after 
 Kamehameha's death his wife, Kaahumanu, 
 whose name means " The Feather Mantle," de- 
 clared that there was no truth in the traditions 
 about "tabu," and the whole system was swept 
 from the island, except so far as the domains of 
 Pele were concerned, who was as much an ob- 
 ject of homage as ever. Kaahumanu also per- 
 suaded the people to throw away their idols, and 
 before the missionaries landed they heard that 
 the gods of stone, that Obookiah had prayed 
 might be no longer worshipped, were indeed 
 cast aside. 
 
 Captain Vancouver had led the natives to 
 expect that men would come from England to 
 teach them of a new religion, so they were not 
 sure that these teachers from America would 
 do as well. However the missionaries were 
 at last allowed to come on shore ; and were
 
 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 told that they might stay. They stationed them- 
 selves upon three of the largest islands, and be- 
 gan work by starting schools. 
 
 Kaahumanu was regent at that time, and at 
 first she would have nothing to do with the mis- 
 sionaries ; but in time she became interested in 
 learning to read, and from the moment when 
 she opened a book she threw aside her cards 
 and her old amusements and devoted herself to 
 study. Before long she was truly converted, and 
 then she gave herself to the work of missions, 
 using all her influence on the side of the teach- 
 ers and doing all she could to help them. She 
 opened schools in various places and herself 
 travelled round the islands begging people to 
 turn from their idols and to take up the new 
 and better faith of the Christians. 
 
 Kapiolani was another important woman in 
 Hawaii. She was the daughter of a chieftain 
 and the wife of a man who was for a time gov- 
 ernor of Hawaii. She was one of the first con- 
 verts and she built a church at her home, near 
 the spot where Captain Cook had been mur- 
 dered. Before this time the meetings had been 
 held under the open sky. As Kapiolani grew 
 wiser in the lessons of the Bible she began to 
 feel sure that the superstition about Pele was 
 only a story, like all the other old tales, and she 
 felt that it was time that it was outgrown. She
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. I/I 
 
 made up her mind to prove her belief by walk- 
 ing over the mountain and showing that she 
 could come back uninjured. Her friends to 
 whom she confided her intention begged her 
 not to be so rash as to risk her life in so danger- 
 ous an undertaking. Crowds of men and women 
 met her along the way and implored her to go 
 no further, but with her little New Testament 
 in her hand she pressed cheerily on. " If I am 
 destroyed you may all believe in Pele," she said. 
 
 A woman who claimed to be a prophetess 
 of the goddess stepped out upon the road and 
 warned Kapiolani not to go near the mountain 
 without an offering ; but out came the Testa- 
 ment then, and reading her answers from that 
 the brave woman still kept on her course. 
 
 The people, though alarmed at her daring, 
 were really too curious in regard to her fate to 
 let her go out of their sight, so about eighty 
 persons, trembling with fear and excitement, 
 followed her towards the mountain. Straight 
 up its side she went and walked directly to the 
 brink of the crater, calmly nibbling some berries 
 that she had plucked along the path, which 
 were supposed to be sacred to Pele. Then she 
 carelessly flung stones into the opening, an 
 action that was said to be especially displeasing 
 to the being who dwelt in the burning volcano. 
 Still nothing unusual happened. The mass of
 
 1/2 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 fire roared and swayed before the people, shoot- 
 ing flames thirty and forty feet into the air, 
 while beneath their feet were loud explosions 
 and the earth shook around them, but Kapio- 
 lani was not dismayed. " Jehovah is my God," 
 she said, quietly. " He kindled these fires. I 
 fear not Pele. Should I perish by her anger 
 then you may fear her power; but if Jehovah 
 save me when breaking- her ' tabus ' then must 
 you fear and serve Jehovah. The gods of Ha- 
 waii are vain. Great is the goodness of Jehovah 
 in sending missionaries to turn us from these 
 vanities to the living God." 
 
 Then Kapiolani asked that a Christian hymn 
 should be sung, and after a prayer was offered 
 the people turned and went wonderingly home, 
 and the power of Pele was broken forever. 
 
 Kapiolani was admired and honored all over 
 the kingdom. A visitor to the islands said that 
 she was so intelligent, so amiable, and so lady- 
 like that nobody could meet her without feel- 
 ing in her more than ordinary interest. When 
 vshe spoke of what the missionaries had done for 
 her country she said ; "Our happiness is the joy 
 of a captive just freed from prison ;" but when she 
 remembered the dreadful things that were once 
 common in the islands she could not help think, 
 ing, "Oh, why didn't the missionaries come 
 sooner?"
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 173 
 
 From this time the blessed work went rapid- 
 ly on. Within ten years the language was re- 
 duced to a written form, parts of the Bible had 
 been translated, and the printing-press at Hon- 
 olulu was throwing off hundreds of pages of 
 good reading matter. Churches were built, one 
 of which held three thousand persons, and there 
 were two hundred church members. In 1834 
 the first newspaper was published. 
 
 In 1835 the Rev. Titus Coan went to Hawaii 
 and was stationed at Hilo, where about one-third 
 of the people had learned to read and a church 
 of thirty-six members had been formed. The 
 first year he made circuit of the island by canoe 
 and on foot, travelling over three hundred miles. 
 He always spent a great deal of time in visiting, 
 and he trained his native converts to go out 
 two by two, on this sort of work, after the man- 
 ner of the disciples long ago. They climbed 
 mountains, went through forests, and crossed 
 rivers, sometimes fording the streams, some- 
 times scrambling over, as well as they could, 
 clinging to a rope fastened to the shore, to 
 keep themselves from floating down with the 
 rapid current. 
 
 After several of these tours interest began 
 to waken all over the island and crowds flocked 
 to Hilo to hear Mr. Coan preach. In 1837 there 
 was a wonderful revival, and everybody, from
 
 174 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 near and from far, came to listen to the message 
 of the gospel. Even sick people and old people 
 and lame people were brought on litters to the 
 services. Throngs gathered from all the villages, 
 and the natives put up shelters in which to live 
 while away from home. The cabins were thick 
 in every direction within a mile of the mission, 
 and the village of one thousand inhabitants 
 swelled suddenly to ten thousand. Meetings 
 were held every day and schools were opened for 
 the children. At any hour, by simply ringing a 
 bell, a congregation of six thousand might be 
 gathered in a moment. Those who became 
 Christians showed their earnestness by trying 
 to set right that which had been wrong in their 
 lives. Stolen things were given back, quarrels 
 were made up, lazy folk became industrious, 
 and drunkards stopped drinking. Within three 
 years over ten thousand converts were added to 
 the number of Christians. 
 
 A missionary who went to Hawaii in 1832 said 
 later that at his first service he had a congregation 
 of about twelve hundred natives, and a Sunday- 
 school of about seven hundred pupils. These peo- 
 ple were almost all of them clothed in the native 
 cloth and seated on the ground. The meeting- 
 house was a large grass building, with open doors, 
 a rough pulpit and one window behind the pulpit. 
 In 1857 ne kept his first jubilee. Then there was
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 175 
 
 a pretty church, and within its walls were gath- 
 ered people from fifteen out-districts, all dressed 
 in European style. In 1853 one-fourth of the 
 population belonged to the various churches. 
 
 In 1862 the real mission work in Hawaii was 
 over, because the Sandwich Islands were num- 
 bered among the Christian nations. In 1873 the 
 connection of the islands with the American 
 Board was severed, and the churches became in- 
 dependent of outside aid and control. Now sixty 
 per cent, of the population will be found to be 
 regular attendants at church, and Hawaii has a 
 congregation numbering four thousand five hun- 
 dred persons ; one of the largest in the world. 
 
 So many foreigners have come to live in the 
 islands that missions have to be carried on for 
 their benefit. Among a population of ninety- 
 thousand, fifty-five thousand people are from 
 other lands. This fact, as well as that of the 
 recent trouble between the rulers and the people 
 and the still unsettled condition of the govern- 
 ment, has done much to hinder the growth of 
 true religion, and to arouse the old heathen- 
 ism and wickedness ; but the native Christian 
 church holds on its way. Thirty per cent, of 
 its ministers will be found to be missionaries 
 and two per cent, of its missionary giving may 
 be counted on for foreign countries. The 
 Hawaiian children are early taught the art of
 
 176 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 giving. The mother will hold her baby's hand, 
 with a penny in its grasp, over the contribution- 
 box and gently shake it until the small fist un- 
 closes and the money falls into the box. Then 
 she kisses and pets the hand, and tries the plan 
 again, until after a while the child learns to 
 enjoy the performance, and thinks of giving as 
 a pleasure. 
 
 It cost $1,250,000 to evangelize Hawaii, but 
 during the fifty years of work in the islands 
 that nation brought into our country $4,000,000 
 in trade. 
 
 General Armstrong, who was so long the 
 head of the Industrial School at Hampton, Vir- 
 ginia, and who was the son of a missionary in 
 Hawaii, has said : " What are Christians put into 
 the world for except to do the impossible in the 
 strength of God?" 
 
 What must have seemed to be impossible 
 had in the strength of God been accomplished 
 in the land from which General Armstrong 
 came, and the beginning of the whole matter 
 was so small a thing as the coming of a heathen 
 boy to America so long ago. 
 
 One of the fields of the mission work of the 
 converts of the Sandwich Islands is that group 
 of which we have heard a little now and then 
 as we have voyaged about the South Seas the 
 Marquesas Islands.
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 177 
 
 When the Duff had left the first mission- 
 aries at Tahiti, in 1797, it passed on and dropped 
 two teachers on these islands. The Marquesas 
 people were much like those on other cannibal 
 islands, only perhaps they were more wicked 
 and cruel and more elaborately tattooed than 
 many other tribes in the Pacific. They were 
 marked with figures of fishes, lizards and stars, 
 and they had besides added to the beauty of 
 their decorations by rubbing themselves with 
 oil, day after day, until some of the older ones 
 had taken on a polish like that on old furniture, 
 and beneath this covering the lines of the tat- 
 tooing might be traced as veins and marks may 
 be seen in wood. 
 
 They were also given to the use of orna- 
 ments made of teeth and shells and feathers, 
 and some of them wore long white cloaks that 
 fell from their shoulders to their heels. The 
 other garments were skirts and some sort of 
 waists formed of scarfs flowing across the chest. 
 Their cloth is made from the inner bark of 
 trees, softened in water and pounded by a mal- 
 let into a soft white material. 
 
 The natives are divided into almost number- 
 less clans, and are always at war among them- 
 selves. The first teachers did not stay long 
 with them, but in 1825 some others came to 
 them and tried to settle in the islands, but the 
 
 Heroes of the South Seas. ; I 2
 
 1/8 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 natives threatened to kill and to eat them if 
 they did not take themselves speedily away, 
 so the men returned to Tahiti. In 1832 three 
 American missionaries, among -whom were the 
 father and mother of General Armstrong, had a 
 similar experience, and the mission was given 
 up altogether for a while. 
 
 But in 1853 some result of all this seed- 
 sowing began to appear. A chief of one of the 
 islands put to sea in a whale-ship and came, over 
 one thousand miles, to the Sandwich Islands to 
 ask that a missionary might be sent to him and 
 his friends. " We have nothing but war, war, 
 war," he said ; "and fear, trouble and poverty. 
 We are tired of living so, and wish to be as you 
 are here." 
 
 The churches were much interested in this 
 man and his errand, and the people contributed 
 willingly to the expense of fitting out an expedi- 
 tion to the Marquesas Islands. On the sixteenth 
 of June two native pastors and two deacons, 
 with their wives, sailed for the Marquesas in a 
 brig chartered for the purpose at a cost of $2,000. 
 They were accompanied by a white missionary, 
 who would help them in starting their work 
 and then come home. 
 
 They were joyfully greeted by the natives, 
 but the French were jealous of this intrusion 
 into what they called their territory, and com-
 
 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 179 
 
 manded the chiefs to send away the teachers. 
 The chiefs, however, refused to obey, and the 
 Protestant missionaries were soon established 
 in a house owned by one of the tribes, and the 
 work has been carried on in spite of the oppo- 
 sition of the French and the Romanists, and 
 through many difficulties of all kinds. The na- 
 tive teachers have proved themselves capable 
 and faithful, and have won honor outside of 
 their place of labor as well as within it. 
 
 Peruvian pirates had carried away so many 
 of the people for slaves that the savage chief of 
 one clan vowed that he would kill and eat the 
 first white man that fell in his way. This man 
 happened to be the mate of an American 
 whaler ; but he was saved from the horrible 
 death designed for him by the gallantry of Ke- 
 kela, one of the Hawaiian teachers, who rescued 
 him by offering the natives, in exchange for 
 their victim, a six-oared boat just received from 
 Boston. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln heard of this action, and 
 sent Kekela a valuable present in token of the 
 gratitude of the United States. In his note of 
 reply Kekela said : " As to this friendly deed of 
 mine, its seed was brought from your own land 
 by some of your own people who had received 
 the love of God. It was planted in Hawaii, and 
 I brought it here that these dark regions might
 
 180 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 receive the root of all which is good and true, 
 and that is all. How shall I repay your great 
 kindness ? This is my only payment that which 
 I have read of the Lord love." 
 
 Could anything have been more modestly 
 and more gracefully expressed ? 
 
 The great need now among these people is 
 an increase of missionaries ; but that spirit of 
 love that reigns in the hearts of those already in 
 the field will surely conquer at last, even in the 
 dark regions of the Marquesas.
 
 MICRONESIA. l8l 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MICRONESIA : THE " LITTLE ISLANDS." 
 
 THE word Micronesia means " The Little 
 Islands." The clusters that bear this name lie 
 in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii. The 
 principal groups that make up this division are 
 the Caroline, Gilbert or Kingswell, Marshall and 
 Ladrone Islands ; but there are many smaller 
 circles that come under this title, too. 
 
 Most of these islands are low and barren, 
 with a lagoon in the centre. They rest like 
 green rings on the surface of the ocean, having 
 no hills nor streams, few land birds, and no flow- 
 ers. No horses, cows nor sheep can live on 
 them long, and on one island, that of Apaiang, 
 the soil is so poor that only twenty-five kinds of 
 growing things can be found there, including 
 every sort of shrub and weed. Some of the 
 islands, however, like Ponape and Kusaie, are 
 volcanic, and have mountains two or three thou- 
 sand feet high. They are also covered with 
 forests which are filled with the songs of birds 
 of gay plumage, that make the woods brilliant 
 with color. The trees are the bread-fruit, ba- 
 nana, cocoanut, lemon and orange, with a great
 
 1 82 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 variety of timber trees. The people build little 
 reed houses under them and plant round them 
 bananas and yams, training the vines of the 
 latter plant upon the trees. 
 
 The people of Micronesia are of two kinds. 
 Some are copper-colored and some are olive in 
 hue. They have black eyes and straight black 
 hair, and when they were first known by white 
 men many of them were frightfully tattooed. 
 Their dress was different in the different islands. 
 In the Marshall group the costume was made up 
 of two mats braided by hand from the leaves of 
 the pandanus tree, with an edge embroidered 
 with bark dyed brown, black or yellow, and put 
 in in all sorts of ingenious patterns. These were 
 worn tied round the waist by a cord, and with 
 the man the skirt was made to stand out before 
 and behind in a remarkable manner. The men 
 arranged their hair on the top of the head, and 
 all the natives had their ears pierced early in 
 life, and then, by taking first small sticks and 
 then larger ones and forcing them through the 
 opening, the hole was gradually enlarged until, 
 in some cases, a man's arm might be thrust 
 through without touching the flesh. A fash- 
 ionable young man might sometimes have been 
 seen with an enormous cup fastened in each ear. 
 In the Caroline Islands the men wore cocoa- 
 nut trousers and a skirt of deep fringe. This
 
 MICRONESIA. 183 
 
 style of skirt was also worn by the women. The 
 men were fond of trinkets, and adorned them- 
 selves with many kinds of ornaments, from 
 wreaths to belts and necklaces. As they had 
 no pockets they carried their pipes in their ears. 
 The people of the Gilbert Islands had little 
 clothing of any sort. 
 
 The natives of these islands are as much at 
 home in the water as on the land, and they dive 
 to great depths. A favorite pastime with the 
 boys is to bend a tall, slender sapling over the 
 water in such a way that when they have 
 climbed to its tip they will be flung out into 
 the waves. They also find great amusement 
 on surf-boards, with which they ride over the 
 waves to the shore with ease and delight. 
 
 The islanders had no meat nor milk, and their 
 food was largely obtained from the cocoanut-tree. 
 They got something like milk from the grated 
 meat of the nut and this was used in many ways 
 in preparing their meals. The sap from the bud 
 makes a pleasant drink, and when boiled makes 
 a good syrup. If allowed to ferment it supplies 
 yeast for bread. The water of the young cocoa- 
 nut is also helpful in quenching thirst. When 
 the meat of the nut is ripe it is dried and sold as 
 food, and thus it serves the natives as money 
 with which to buy articles that they need. They 
 also eat the fruit of the pandanus tree, which,
 
 1 84 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 when cooked, is almost as good as pumpkin. It 
 is dried and kept for long voyages or for hard 
 times. Dishes and bottles for holding water, oil 
 and sap were formed from the cocoanut shells, 
 and now from the fibre of the husk are manu- 
 factured cords, ropes, scrubbing-brushes and 
 door-mats. The cocoa palm gives them also 
 timber for building and for making spears, as 
 well as oil, and material for torches, fuel and 
 medicine. It grows in great luxuriance on these 
 islands. The fruit has a peculiar shape that 
 keeps it afloat after it has fallen into the water, 
 so that it is carried all over the South Seas and 
 plants its seeds on many shores. The bread- 
 fruit also is a valuable tree, and is of great ser- 
 vice in the making of canoes, some of which 
 are fifty or sixty feet long. They are ingenious- 
 ly put together, and the men are skilful navi- 
 gators. They steer without chart or compass, 
 and are guided by the moon, the stars and the 
 wave-lines. 
 
 The leaves of the pandanus are as useful as 
 the fruit, although in a different way. From 
 these leaves are made mats, sails, hats, and such 
 things, and the trunk furnishes strong and hard 
 timber. 
 
 The inhabitants of these islands were once 
 all wicked and ignorant and hard-hearted. They 
 were thieves and liars, and were cruel to women
 
 MICRONESIA. 185 
 
 and to old people. They believed in spirits, and 
 brought offerings to stones set up in their honor. 
 Their only occupations were fishing and fight- 
 ing. 
 
 It was to these islands that there came in the 
 year 1852 three American missionaries, sent by 
 the American Board, bringing with them their 
 wives and two native teachers from the Sand- 
 wich Islands. They settled upon the Caroline 
 group and there worked for five years without 
 much encouragement. Then the boat called 
 the Morning Star was built by money given by 
 the Sunday-school children of the United States, 
 and this ship went out to Micronesia bearing 
 three new missionaries, among whom was Hi- 
 ram Bingham, the son of the man of the same 
 name who had gone to Hawaii in 1819. 
 
 The missionaries scattered their forces among 
 the three larger groups, and Ebon in the Mar- 
 shall Islands, Ponape and Kusaie in the Caro- 
 line Islands and Apaiang in the Gilbert Islands 
 were occupied by mission families. Hiram Bing- 
 ham and his wife set up a station at Apaiang ; 
 that place in which but twenty-five kinds of 
 things would grow, and where there were still 
 fewer signs of any of the fruits of the Spirit 
 among the natives. 
 
 Hiram Bingham had taken with him mate- 
 rial for a cottage, and he at once put up his
 
 186 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 little house on some land given him by the 
 king. Then he and his wife began to learn the 
 language and tried to give it a written form, 
 and they were very glad when a small printing- 
 press was sent to them. Here, however, they 
 met fresh difficulties, for the types had been 
 chosen with respect to the English language, 
 and there were too many d's and h's for the Gil- 
 bert tongue, and not enough r's and k's. But 
 Mr. Bingham was clever and ingenious. He 
 mastered the trouble by cutting off the tops of 
 the small d's and turning them into r's, and by 
 making a notch in the little h's and transform- 
 ing them into k's. He did not know much about 
 printing, either, but was seeking first the king- 
 dom of God and this thing that he needed was 
 added unto him. Just about this time an expert 
 printer was wrecked near this island and he 
 came over to Apaiang, hoping to catch the 
 Morning Star before she should start on her 
 homeward trip. But she had left the place two 
 days before his arrival, and so he was laid hold 
 upon by the good missionary, and had the honor 
 of directing the first printing ever done in the 
 Gilbert language. 
 
 During the nine following years there was 
 steady progress in the work at all the mission 
 stations, in spite of the disheartening beginning 
 in Micronesia. Three churches were started, and
 
 MICRONESIA. 187 
 
 there was teaching, preaching and translation 
 going on all the time, and the churches grew 
 rapidly. After ten years of voyaging among the 
 islands the Morning Star was sold because she 
 was becoming old and decrepit ; but in 1856 Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bingham went home, and Mr. Bingham 
 raised enough money to build another one, and 
 as he had been studying navigation meanwhile 
 he set out the next year as captain of the second 
 Morning Star and sailed around the Horn for 
 the third time. He was in command of the ves- 
 sel for a year and a half, and journeyed back 
 and forth from Honolulu to Apaiang. This 
 vessel, too, gave way to another of the same 
 name, as she was wrecked in the year 1859. 
 
 For various reasons there was at this time 
 but one white missionary in Micronesia. This 
 was the Rev. E. T. Doane ; but in 1871 the third 
 Morning Star brought back some of the former 
 missionaries and some new native teachers from 
 Hawaii for the Gilbert Islands. In 1873 tne 
 Morning Star carried native missionaries from 
 Ponape to the Mortlock Islands. Among these 
 teachers was the Princess Opatinia, the daugh- 
 ter of King Hezekiah, the chief of the island, 
 with her husband Opataia. They went forth 
 most joyfully upon their errand of love, wil- 
 lingly giving up all the comforts and honors 
 and enjoyments of their homes for the sake
 
 1 88 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 of their needy neighbors. Their letters were 
 eagerly waited for in the church at Ponape and 
 read to attentive crowds, ready to weep or re- 
 joice with those who wept or rejoiced on the new 
 field. In less than five years the brave pioneers 
 had established on the Mortlock Islands seven 
 churches, with three hundred and thirty-eight 
 members altogether. The natives were devoted 
 to these kind friends, built houses for them, 
 brought them food, denying themselves in time 
 of famine so that their teachers should not suf- 
 fer want, and did all their work in order that 
 they might have more leisure for studying and 
 preaching. 
 
 Help was next given to the island of Pinge- 
 lap. Six natives of this island had been brought 
 by a trader to Ponape as servants. When their 
 time of service ended he set them adrift, and in 
 their helpless condition they fell in with a mis- 
 sionary, who let them use some native houses 
 and have a little land to cultivate. He also took 
 them into school, where they became so deeply 
 interested that they would often sit up until 
 midnight to study by the light of a cocoanut- 
 oil lamp. They became Christians, and two of 
 them were baptized, under the names of Thomas 
 and David, and then went back to Pingelap 
 with the story of the gospel. At first they met 
 a good deal of opposition from their own people,
 
 MICRONESIA. 189 
 
 and an old priest gathered a large crowd of 
 natives and told them that he would prove to 
 them that this religion was false by killing the 
 teachers by his incantations. But instead of 
 having his charms work as he had planned he 
 himself fell down insensible, and the prayers 
 of the two whom he had meant to destroy 
 were followed by his restoration. The people 
 declared that the new faith had conquered, and 
 all went over to that side. A new teacher came 
 from Ponape, and in place of the queer houses, 
 that were only thatched roofs resting on the 
 ground, with a hole in the gable through which 
 the occupants scrambled in and out, there was 
 soon a village of good dwellings with proper 
 doors and windows, and a fine church that would 
 hold six hundred persons. One of the two teach- 
 ers who had been first in Pingelap became the 
 pastor, and this little church, besides taking care 
 of itself, has sent about $100 every year to the 
 American Board for its missionary fund. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Taylor, Mr. Logan and Mr. Rand 
 joined the missionary ranks in Micronesia, and 
 in 1875 Hiram Bingham and his wife went to 
 Honolulu to devote themselves to the transla- 
 tion of the Bible into the Gilbert language. In 
 all parts of the mission more attention was now 
 paid to building up training-schools and educat- 
 ing native teachers.
 
 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 When the missionaries began work at Pon- 
 ape there were some people there from the 
 Gilbert Islands, among whom were a man and a 
 woman with their child, a boy baby. These 
 people fell into a quarrel with the natives, and 
 the father and mother of the boy were killed in 
 battle. After the fight was over the poor little 
 fellow was picked up from the ground by a wo- 
 man of rank, who hid him from his enemies for 
 a while and then gave him over to the care of 
 one of the missionaries. He became a Christian, 
 as he grew older, and thinking that his story 
 was something like that of Moses he was bap- 
 tized under the name of the grand old leader of 
 the Israelites. Then he wished to start out as 
 a missionary. So he was sent over to the Mort- 
 lock group, where he stayed two years, gather- 
 ing a church of eighty-six members. Then he 
 moved on, to another island, and founded a 
 church of fifty-seven members. 
 
 In 1879 h e went to the island of Ruk, where 
 there were about ten thousand people sunk in 
 darkness and crime ; but one year brought a 
 wondrous change to the inhabitants. When 
 the Morning Star stopped at Ruk after a twelve 
 months' absence she was welcomed by a crowd 
 of children clapping their hands and singing 
 Sunday-school songs. They led the visitors that 
 had come on the ship up a pleasant path to the
 
 MICRONESIA. IQI 
 
 spot where the teacher's home was nestled under 
 the trees, and pointed to the new church build- 
 ing not far away. After that time, whenever 
 the Morning Star called at this island, she 
 found that the mission begun by Moses at Ruk 
 was stepping along at a steady pace. 
 
 A native teacher had been placed at Ape- 
 mama too. This was one of the Gilbert Islands, 
 and was in no better condition in many ways 
 than that other island of Ruk. In a short time 
 he had gathered about one hundred pupils into 
 his school, but he did not find them always easy 
 to manage. The king was jealous of any one 
 who, he feared, knew more than himself, and 
 if any of his school-mates went above him in 
 the class he would at once order his head to 
 be cut off, that he himself might always be first. 
 But the work went on, and the king learned 
 more justice and self-control, and cleverness 
 was not quite so dangerous a trait as it had 
 been. After seven or eight years a church of 
 seventy-one members was formed, and in ten 
 years there were about three hundred persons 
 wishing to be added to the roll. 
 
 o 
 
 About the year 1882 twelve natives of this 
 island left home for a short voyage over to an- 
 other group, but being overtaken by a storm 
 they were driven far out of their course, and 
 from October to December their vessel was
 
 192 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 beating about in the ocean, unable to make any 
 harbor. At last those who survived were dis- 
 covered, by the Northern Light, about six hun- 
 dred miles distant from their native land. All 
 the food that remained to them was a small 
 quantity of dried pulverized banana, and a few 
 bottles of cocoanut-oil. They had also about 
 six gallons of water. 
 
 Perhaps the sailors on the Northern Light 
 were a little afraid to take in these people from 
 a savage island, for experience would have 
 taught them that the natives whom they met 
 in the waters of the Pacific were often not the 
 most safe and pleasant companions in the world, 
 but, to their surprise, these wanderers seemed 
 to be devout Christians. 
 
 No sooner were they on board the ship than 
 one of them offered thanks to the One who had 
 rescued them from their perilous position, and 
 then they all hastened to express their gratitude 
 to these earthly friends who had held out to 
 them a helping hand. 
 
 Owing to the unfavorable currents, they 
 could not be landed upon their own shores, but 
 they were taken to Yokohama, in Japan, where 
 the foreign residents were so much pleased with 
 their looks and their behavior that they raised 
 a sum of money for the purpose of helping them 
 to find their way home.
 
 MICRONESIA. 193 
 
 The Morning Star went on its voyages year 
 after year, bearing missionaries and messages 
 and goods back and forth over the water, and 
 carrying converts from one island to another 
 as bringers of good tidings. As the little mes- 
 senger with its white wings would approach the 
 shore of some unknown island the natives would 
 run away and hide themselves in the woods. 
 Gradually growing a little bolder they would 
 peep out from behind the trees, and perhaps a 
 few of their bravest warriors would venture to 
 risk themselves in a canoe and steal out towards 
 the strange ship, from which would be sent 
 to meet them a native from another island, so 
 that they need not be alarmed at sight of a 
 being too unlike themselves. This native would 
 tell them as well as he could, considering the 
 difference in dialect between various islands, that 
 there were other countries in the world besides 
 their own, and that the people from these coun- 
 tries knew many marvellous things of which the 
 poor islanders had never heard, and that they 
 were willing to leave with them a man who 
 would tell them about all these wonders, and 
 would teach them a great deal, and help them 
 in many ways. If the natives agreed to the 
 plan some teachers were set upon the shore and 
 the ship would sail away, leaving the mission- 
 aries and their families to their task. 
 
 Heroes of the South Sas. I ^
 
 194 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 For a whole year nothing is heard from them 
 and they know nothing of the outside world. 
 But when the time draws near for the appear- 
 ance of the Morning Star on its annual visit 
 how eagerly and longingly beat the hearts of 
 these lonely teachers as they wait for the cry of 
 " Sail-ho !" from some watcher in a tree-top or 
 down on the beach. Ah, there it is at last: 
 "Sail-ho!" The cry is taken up by one voice 
 and another until the sound goes ringing 
 through the trees. The flag of the pretty 
 vessel is run up in the breeze, and the salute is 
 answered by hats and handkerchiefs, as well as 
 by branches waved in the air. A boat is launched 
 from the shore, and then comes the joyful meet- 
 ing. It is only to be appreciated by those who 
 have been exiled so long from home and friends. 
 There is much to tell and hear about on both 
 sides, and how happy are the men on the Morn- 
 ing Star when they can bring to these thirsty 
 souls good news from a far country, and can 
 take back pleasant tidings of peace and pros- 
 perity in the mission work of the island. Some- 
 times, too, there would be cheering hints of 
 awakening from neighboring islands, the natives 
 of whom had sent word to the missionaries near 
 them, " Give us teachers, too, that we may learn 
 the good way, and stop fighting." 
 
 After thirteen years of labor this Morning
 
 MICRONESIA. 195 
 
 Star, too, was tumbled upon the beach and brok- 
 en to pieces in a storm. The Micronesians felt 
 very sad over this mishap. " Me, too, much 
 sorry Morning Star broke," said one of them. 
 '* No come back to us any more." 
 
 A barkentine with steam attachment was 
 next given to this work in the Pacific, and it 
 made its first voyage in 1884. The figure-head 
 was the figure of a woman holding an open Bible 
 in her hand. 
 
 Within the last ten years there has been a 
 steady increase in the number of converts and 
 of hearers in these islands of Micronesia. In 
 1885 the Germans took possession of the Marshall 
 Islands and tried to seize the Carolines too, but 
 the Spanish nation stepped up just then, and 
 would not allow Spain's claim to be set aside. 
 The mission work in the islands had never been 
 in a more hopeful state than at this time. Many 
 of the chiefs had been baptized, and the evil of 
 kava-drinking had been nearly rooted out of 
 Ponape. The missionaries were sorry that the 
 native independence was not respected and the 
 chiefs assisted in forming a government that 
 would have been advantageous on all sides, but 
 the Spanish established themselves in Ponape 
 and did their best to interfere with the work of 
 the missions. Schools were closed, and the 
 chiefs influenced to hinder preaching and the
 
 196 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 building of churches, and the cultivation of the 
 kava-plant was encouraged. The intruders laid 
 hold of lands deeded to missionaries, and when 
 Mr. Doane objected to this sort of robbery he 
 was arrested f.nd imprisoned ; but he was soon 
 set at liberty by the governor-general at Manilla, 
 who spoke warmly of the services of the mis- 
 sionaries to the islands, and paid high tribute 
 to their characters. Soon afterwards a new 
 governor was sent to Ponape, who promised 
 protection to both the missionaries and the 
 natives. 
 
 In 1891, however, the Spaniards began to 
 make trouble again, and Mr. Rand, who was at 
 work in Ponape, was driven away, with his 
 fellow-laborers, and was obliged to take refuge 
 in a neighboring island. They work as well as 
 they can from their present post, and a fine 
 young native named Henry Naupei, an assist- 
 ant in the training-school in Ponape, does won- 
 derfully well in their place. He preaches and 
 teaches, and makes tours round the island 
 cheering the Christians, and helping them to 
 stand fast in the faith in spite of all opposition. 
 Sometimes the missionaries call at the island, 
 and the young teacher comes out to their ship 
 and a little conference is held on board. He 
 has recently written a letter saying that the 
 native Christians mean to spread the work just
 
 MICRONESIA. 197 
 
 as far as they are able. The German rule is 
 very oppressive on the Marshall Islands. 
 
 On the Gilbert Islands, Hiram Bingham has 
 lived to see eleven churches on thirteen islands, 
 and to rejoice in sixteen hundred Christians 
 among those whom he found savages. In the 
 spring of 1893, after thirty-four years of toil, Mr. 
 Bingham had the pleasure of standing in the 
 pressroom of the American Bible Society in New 
 York and reading aloud the last verse in the 
 proof of his completed translation of the Bible 
 in the Gilbert language. He then saw the last 
 type set, and watched the first revolution of the 
 roller that would so far help to send his book 
 out in completed form. The whole Bible was 
 printed on that day, and in the afternoon several 
 volumes were bound and given as souvenirs to 
 persons who were present. This translation 
 will open the Bible to about twenty thousand 
 people. Hiram Bingham is, so far as is known, 
 the only man who ever reduced a language to 
 writing, made a vocabulary and a grammar, 
 translated the whole Bible into that language, 
 revised all the proofs, and finally held the 
 finished book in his hand. He has now gone 
 back to distribute his precious volumes among 
 the waiting islanders. A new boat, called the 
 Hiram Bingham, has recently been built for the 
 benefit of the Gilbert Islands.
 
 198 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 The population of Micronesia is about eighty, 
 four thousand. There are forty-six self-support- 
 ing churches and forty-three hundred members. 
 About fifty - thousand people have heard the 
 gospel. This work has been done in about 
 forty years. A strong missionary spirit is seen 
 in the churches in Micronesia. It has been re- 
 ported that the king of the Gilbert group has 
 been making a missionary tour through his 
 kingdom. That the people are eager to learn 
 is shown by this list of books in their own lan- 
 guage carried them in one cargo, by the Morning 
 Star: 750 arithmetics, 250 geographies, 750 read- 
 ers, 750 hymn-books, 465 New Testaments, and 
 205 books of Bible stories. 
 
 Last year the American Board called for 
 more workers for Micronesia. A man is needed 
 in the Ruk lagoon, where Robert Logan has 
 lately died of fever. Robert Logan fought in 
 the civil war in the United States, and then 
 went out to fight the Lord's battle in Microne- 
 sia, where, like a brave soldier, he fell on the 
 field, faithful to the last. He was greatly loved 
 and admired both by the missionaries and the 
 natives. The field is white unto the harvest. 
 Let us pray that the Lord of the harvest will 
 send out laborers to gather it in.
 
 THE LAND OF THE "CRISP-HAIRED." 199 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE LAND OF THE " CRISP-HAIRED." 
 
 NEW GUINEA, or Papua, is said to be the 
 largest island in the world, now that Australia is 
 counted as a continent. It was discovered in 
 the sixteenth century by the Portuguese, and 
 was called by them New Guinea, because they 
 thought that it looked like Guinea in Africa. 
 The native name, Papua, means " crisp-haired." 
 
 New Guinea is about fourteen hundred miles 
 long, and is about four hundred miles wide in 
 some places. It is a mountainous island covered 
 with forests. In the interior are some very 
 high mountains. There are also many swamps, 
 and the climate is warm and moist. There is a 
 great deal of fever along the coast, and on the 
 whole the country is not a healthful one in 
 which to live. 
 
 But there are in New Guinea some rare and 
 wonderful things that make up for some of the 
 drawbacks. There are many beautiful kinds of 
 birds, from parrots and cockatoos to the bird of 
 paradise and the cassowary, and there are numer- 
 ous sorts of insects. One traveller collected one 
 thousand species of beetle in one square mile, in
 
 200 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 three months' time. One of the most remark- 
 able birds is the megapodius, which is about the 
 size of a large fowl, with an egg three and a half 
 inches in length and two inches in diameter. It 
 buries its eggs in high mounds built of sand, 
 loose earth, sticks, leaves, and stones, and leaves 
 them to be hatched by the sun. 
 
 The population of New Guinea is nearly one 
 million. There are two races of people on the 
 island, but the real Papuan is of brown complex- 
 ion with black hair. There are many different 
 languages or dialects spoken in Papua. 
 
 The inhabitants of the northern and western 
 parts, having come more frequently into contact 
 with other people, are more civilized than the 
 rest of the natives, and have some good towns 
 with fine streets and comfortable houses, where 
 live the traders, planters, and fishermen ; but 
 farther inland everything is nearer to a savage 
 state. The people live in villages in which the 
 houses have thatched roofs and the sides are 
 covered with cocoanut leaves. Some of these 
 villages are built over swamps, where the 
 streets are laid with large trees, and the houses 
 are raised on poles fifteen feet high and are 
 reached by ladders. In front of these lofty 
 dwellings are elevated platforms, each one of 
 which is enclosed with a fence that bounds a 
 gay garden bed blooming with tropical plants
 
 THE LAND OF THE " CRISP-HAIRED." 2OI 
 
 and flowers. One house is often three hundred 
 feet long, and will hold all the people of the vil- 
 lage. Many of these homes are lighted by the 
 burning of the shells of the young cocoanut, and 
 a string of shells is not seldom seen hanging 
 above a fireplace. 
 
 Long platforms slope up to the temples, or 
 dubus, as they are called, and there are bridges 
 here and there across the creeks. The temples 
 are large, and are divided into courts on each 
 side of a long aisle, with the sacred place at one 
 end. The partitions of the courts are formed of 
 cocoanut leaves reaching to about nine feet from 
 the floor, while curtains of sago-palm fronds 
 hang from the roofs to the tops of these lower 
 screens. Inside the courts are skulls of men, 
 women, and children, crocodiles, and wild boars, 
 some of them carved and colored. There is 
 usually a fireplace, too. Within the inner sanc- 
 tuary are often found queer figures carved out of 
 cane. They look like fishes, with mouths like 
 frogs, and they have bodies about nine feet long 
 and seven broad. 
 
 Some houses are built directly over the 
 water, and sometimes the baby of the family 
 will fall through a crack in the bamboo floor 
 into the stream below, but as the nurses all 
 know how to swim he is easily rescued. 
 
 Other villages are on rich land, and are sur-
 
 2O2 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 rounded by cocoanut-palms. Some houses are 
 perched in trees, with ladders for stairways. 
 Altogether, one wishing to settle in New Guinea 
 would have a wide choice in regard to the man- 
 ner of housekeeping he would adopt. 
 
 In the interior of the island the people wear 
 little clothing. In some places the women have 
 petticoats of palm-leaves dyed in various colors, 
 and both men and women tattoo and paint 
 themselves and delight in decorations of all 
 sorts. In some tribes the hair is arranged in 
 two great mops, one on each side of the head ; 
 in others the heads are cropped in odd patterns, 
 square, circular, or triangular in shape. For 
 further ornamentation, when they are in full 
 dress some of the natives adorn themselves with 
 plumes of the young palm-fronds, which are fas- 
 tened to their backs and wave gracefully over 
 their heads, while colored leaves are hung from 
 their arms, wrists and legs. 
 
 The natives about Port Moresby, on the 
 southern coast, believe that one of their ances- 
 tors made the earth, the sea and the sky, and 
 the ancestor of another line of chiefs made man. 
 They believe, too, in a god of fate, who deals 
 good and evil, success and failure, as he may 
 please. A number of villages are named after 
 this god, and in the planting-season a priest has 
 to go through certain ceremonies in order that
 
 THE LAND OF THE " CRISP-HAIRED." 203 
 
 he may be persuaded to grant good crops. If a 
 man have a good soul good comes to him, if evil 
 himself he can expect nothing but evil. The 
 soul is called Tirava, and when it leaves the 
 body it is supposed to travel to a land far away 
 towards the setting sun beyond Cape Suckling, 
 the last bold promontory to the west. There the 
 sago-palm grows in abundance, and anyone who 
 enters this delightful place may eat as much 
 sago as he may wish. Some tribes believe in a 
 being whom they call the Maker, and some of 
 them say that he once came to earth as a man. 
 They think that good men after death go to live 
 in the Milky Way, where there are groves filled 
 with fruit, and joys of every kind abound. 
 
 When anyone dies the relatives blacken their 
 faces and cover themselves with ashes, to show 
 their grief. The women are devoted to their 
 children, and mourn unceasingly when a little 
 one is taken away, and as they have no hope of 
 ever meeting a friend again in a better world 
 they cling fondly to what is left to them. One 
 poor woman had all the bones of a dead child 
 strung into a necklace, which she wore as a 
 token of love and faithfulness. 
 
 The people have an idea that in sleep the 
 spirit deserts the body and wanders out to 
 meet other spirits, who whisper to it warnings 
 or promises of what will take place in the future.
 
 204 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 For this reason they have great faith in dreams, 
 and order their actions according to what they 
 learn in this manner. If on a journey they pass 
 a spot where anybody has died they strike their 
 feet with a stick, as a charm to ward off an attack 
 of the spirit that is hovering near and may try 
 to stop their progress. The feathers of the cas- 
 sowary are sometimes waved in the air for the 
 same purpose. There are men who pretend to call 
 up any kind of weather that may seem to them 
 desirable by conjuring with some small wooden 
 figures, which they have named the makers of 
 heaven and earth, thunder and lightning, south- 
 east and north-west winds. These figures are 
 placed side by side, and an object shaped like a 
 sort of shuttle-cock is held up near them when 
 thunder is to be summoned or driven away. 
 When wind is desired the figures are placed in 
 the direction from which it is invited to come 
 and the shuttle-cock is differently handled. 
 
 One of the favorite occupations of the men 
 of New Guinea is fishing for dugong. The du- 
 gong is a fish that is ten feet long and has a 
 mouth like a horse, a head like a pig and a body 
 like a porpoise. A sharp, jagged iron bolt is used 
 in spearing this fish. The spear shaft is fifteen 
 feet long, and ends in a round, heavy knob for 
 the purpose of carrying the weapon home. 
 The flesh of the dugong makes excellent food.
 
 THE LAND OF THE "CRISP-HAIRED." 2O$ 
 
 When fresh it tastes like beef or veal, and when 
 cured like bacon. It is caught at the new and 
 the full of the moon, when the high tides cover 
 the reefs. Another amusement is hunting kan- 
 garoos, which the Papuans call wallabies. 
 
 The natives are very expert at carving. In 
 some tribes the men accomplish wonders with a 
 nail, a shell, or a piece of sharp flint. They also 
 make pottery, which they barter for cocoanuts 
 and sago with other tribes, going on long voy- 
 ages to the Gulf of New Guinea for the sake of 
 disposing of their wares. For these trips they 
 build queer sort of craft called lakatois. They 
 tie several canoes together and upon them place 
 a firm platform of poles upon which a deck is 
 laid, and strong houses are put up fore and 
 aft. Often new canoes are made on the way, 
 and these are added to the vessels, sometimes 
 making them so unwieldy that one or two have 
 to be allowed to drift away. The sail of a laka- 
 toi is formed from mats and shaped like a large 
 shield, or the biggest claw of a crab. When their 
 destination is reached the men arrange the pot- 
 tery in a row on the beach and two sticks of 
 wood are placed in each piece, one stick being 
 taken by the buyer, the other by the seller. When 
 the lakatoi is about to leave the village the wood 
 is brought out and the visitors are given a bundle 
 of sago for each stick that they hold.
 
 2C>6 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Among the religious ceremonies of New 
 Guinea is a dance connected with one of their 
 sacred feasts. The men who are to take part 
 in the performance are called Kaevakuku, and 
 they leave their homes and do not see their fami- 
 lies for at least three moons before the festival. 
 At the proper time, they adorn themselves with 
 masks, from two to four feet high, like a fool's 
 cap with an animal's face. The dress varies 
 with the tribe. In some of the tribes a cloak 
 two and a half feet long is worn, and a kilt 
 about eighteen inches long, both made from 
 the fibre of the yellow hibiscus. Some of the 
 men look like walking haystacks. Food is piled 
 up on the platforms in front of the temples, and 
 is also hung round on poles. The actors come 
 out of the bush in their costumes and masks, 
 singly or in groups, and dance about until food 
 is given to them, when they go back again. The 
 masks are all burned in one big bonfire at the 
 close of the ceremony. 
 
 The custom of buying wives is not as com- 
 mon in New Guinea as in many savage nations, 
 but some tribes do pay for this sort of a blessing. 
 One chief boasted proudly that his wife had 
 cost him ten arm-shells, three pearl shells, two 
 strings of dogs' teeth, several hundreds of cocoa- 
 nuts, a large number of yams, and two pigs. 
 
 Mission work in New Guinea was begun in
 
 THE LAND OF THE " CRISP-HAIRED." 2O/ 
 
 1854 by the Dutch missionaries. They were 
 all laid low by fever, again and again, but they 
 held on as long as they could, until at the close 
 of five years every one died. The Utrecht Mis- 
 sionary Society sent out others to take their 
 places, and these men translated part of the 
 New Testament into one of the native dialects ; 
 but though they started churches and schools, 
 and accomplished good in several ways, there 
 were not half enough workers for all that there 
 was to be done. About 1872 the London Mis- 
 sionary Society came to the help of the laborers 
 in New Guinea. Mr. Murray, Mr. MacFarlane, 
 and Mr. Gill stepped over from their fields in 
 the islands of Polynesia to plunge into toil in 
 Papua. They took with them converts from 
 the Samoan, Loyalty and Savage Islands, and 
 left them to fight their own way as strangers in 
 a strange land. Twelve were killed, but their 
 places were instantly filled by willing recruits, 
 and in 1877 James Chalmers, who had been for 
 ten years in Rarotonga, changed his post for one 
 in New Guinea. The headquarters of the New 
 Guinea Mission were about that time removed 
 to Murray Island. The eastern part of the mis- 
 sion was under the care of the Rev. W. G. 
 Lawes and the stations in the western portion 
 of the Gulf of New Guinea were watched over 
 by the Rev. S. Macfarlane. There were be-
 
 2O8 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 sides fifteen Polynesian teachers, and ten more 
 went with Mr. Chalmers and Mr. Macfarlane 
 to plant missions at the eastern end of the pen- 
 insula. They found a place that suited them 
 for a station on Stacey's Island, not far from 
 the main land. The natives were friendly, and 
 gave the newcomers half of the largest house 
 in the village to live in while they were build- 
 ing a home for themselves, in a pleasant spot 
 in a grove of bread-fruit trees. In 1878 Mr. 
 Chalmers had to leave his wife at the station 
 while he went to Cooktown for stores. He was 
 a little afraid to have her stay there without 
 him, but she said bravely, " We came here for 
 Christ's sake, and he will protect us." She was 
 ill while he was away, but by her tact and kind- 
 ness she won the hearts of the people, and 
 gained a good deal of influence over them.
 
 "GOD'S MEN" IN NEW GUINEA. 209 
 
 CHAPT ER XV. 
 
 "GOD'S MEN" IN NEW GUINEA. 
 
 AFTER Mr. Chalmers returned to his station he 
 undertook a sort of Robinson Crusoe tour of the 
 island with the object of searching out the most 
 healthful parts and choosing places where mis- 
 sions might be begun. 
 
 He made many friends on these journeys, 
 and opened the way for future work. Then the 
 mission steamer Ellengowan took him along 
 the coast on a visit to one hundred and five vil- 
 lages, in ninety of which the inhabitants had 
 never before seen the face of a white man. 
 They must have looked at this one with great 
 curiosity and interest, and probably thought him 
 much too pale for beauty. At one place he had 
 a narrow escape with his life but was saved by 
 the interference of a friendly chief. He learned 
 afterwards that the people of that village made 
 a point of killing all strangers. 
 
 About this time Mrs. Chalmers became so 
 feeble that she was obliged to go to Sydney, 
 in Australia, and poor Mr. Chalmers had to 
 work along by himself, without her help, com- 
 panionship or sympathy. But he did not give 
 
 Heroes of the South Seas. I 4
 
 2IO HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 himself up to moping or mourning, but occu- 
 pied himself in the pleasant task of translating 
 hymns. " We can reach the people sooner by 
 singing the gospel than by preaching it," he 
 said. 
 
 Later in the year the John Williams came 
 along bringing more teachers from Polynesia. 
 Eight of these men were from the Loyalty 
 group. As they drew near the shore somebody 
 began to talk about the dangers and the disa- 
 greeable things that awaited them in the shape 
 of climate, centipedes, serpents and insects. 
 
 " Hold," said one of the Loyalty volunteers ; 
 " are there men there ? " 
 
 " Men ? yes ; but they are horrible cannibals. 
 They will probably kill and eat us in the twink- 
 ling of an eye." 
 
 " Never mind," returned the other man ; 
 " that settles it. Wherever there are men, there 
 are missionaries bound to go." So on they 
 sailed. 
 
 In 1879 ^ rs - Chalmers grew rapidly worse 
 and finally died in Sydney. Mr. Chalmers had 
 started to go to her, and only learned of her 
 death by picking up a newspaper while on his 
 journey and reading there the notice that told 
 him that he should never see her again in this 
 world. 
 
 After the death of his wife Mr. Chalmers
 
 "GOD'S MEN" IN NEW GUINEA. 211 
 
 moved to Port Moresby and made that town 
 his central station. In 1880 he decided to de- 
 vote six weeks to exploring the country be- 
 hind the mountains called the " Owen Stanley 
 Range." He made up a party and sent on ahead, 
 by some natives going in that direction, a large 
 supply of food, and articles for barter, keeping 
 only enough of both kinds of things for the 
 western part of the trip, which would take six 
 months of hard walking. He could find few 
 carriers, so he and his friends had to trudge 
 along under the burning sun laden with their 
 own burdens. It is this difficulty of carrying 
 that has prevented much exploration in New 
 Guinea. 
 
 The country was very rough. Often the trav- 
 ellers had to wade for hours in a stream and they 
 scrambled through many mountain torrents. 
 At last they reached a village built on the top of 
 a large table-rock and surrounded by a high bar- 
 ricade. They encamped for the night on the 
 side of a hill at the foot of which flowed a river. 
 In the morning they put a raft together to carry 
 them down this river, but before long they were 
 upset and had to crawl out of the water to the 
 shore, where they built large bonfires with 
 which to warm and dry themselves. The next 
 day they hired a canoe at a village and sailed 
 twenty miles, to the home of one of the teachers.
 
 212 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 Altogether they had passed over five hundred 
 miles and climbed forty thousand feet 
 
 Mr. Chalmers' next expedition led him along 
 the coast towards the west, where he preached 
 in some places and gained a good many new ac- 
 quaintances among the natives. In 1881 the 
 church at Port Moresby was opened and the 
 first three converts were baptized. The natives 
 called Mr. Chalmers " Tamate," which means 
 teacher, and they had great confidence in him. 
 He heard, in some way, that some savage chiefs 
 from the western part of the island were form- 
 ing plans to fall upon the mission station, kill 
 Mr. Chalmers and the teachers, and then attack 
 the natives. These chiefs were a terror all along 
 the shore and were a great hindrance to the work 
 of the missionaries, so Mr. Chalmers made up 
 his mind to go to meet these wild warriors on 
 their own ground and see what he could do with 
 them. Some of the natives were afraid to go 
 with him on so dangerous an errand, but one of 
 the baptized converts and several other men 
 were glad to accompany him. " It's all right," 
 they said, " if we go with Tamate. We'll soon be 
 back with sago and betel-nuts ; or, anyway, if 
 Tamate lives we shall live, and if he is murder- 
 ed we shall be murdered, too. We will go with 
 Tamate." 
 
 All along the way the friendly natives tried
 
 "GOD'S MEN" IN NEW GUINEA. 213 
 
 to stop the party by warnings, and by promises 
 of presents if these rash adventurers would but 
 turn back. But nothing could persuade Tamate 
 and his followers to give up the expedition, as 
 the safety of the mission was at stake. 
 
 At last the village of the robber chieftains 
 was reached and the men were invited to en- 
 gage in a sort of conference. They agreed to 
 the plan, and Tamate beguiled them into mak- 
 ing peace and obtained from them a promise 
 that they would not molest their neighbors. 
 Mr. Chalmers held a service for them besides. 
 To be sure, they ran away as fast as they could 
 go when he began to pray, but they were lured 
 back by the singing, and they listened attentive- 
 ly to his words and to those of a brother chief 
 who had come with him. 
 
 Not long afterwards Mr. Chalmers made an- 
 other effort to spread his mission a little farther 
 westward, and in spite of wars and disturbances 
 among the various tribes he managed, by his 
 grace of manner and his skill and tact with the 
 natives, to keep them from destroying one an- 
 other and to draw them into the work of start- 
 ing stations. At one place, where everything 
 was just ready to boil over into a deadly fight, he 
 stepped in, smoothed over the trouble, calmed 
 both sides and brought back good feeling. One 
 of the men who had gone with him said, admir-
 
 214 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 ingly : " As the sun shines, so do you. Such a 
 thing as you have now done has never before 
 been done on this coast, and it is only by the 
 gospel of peace that it could be done." Then 
 all the crew joined in, as a sort of chorus, with 
 " True, true, very true." 
 
 They had a very good name for the mission- 
 aries, these simple-hearted natives. They called 
 them " God's men." 
 
 On Mr. Chalmers' next journey westward he 
 found some of the men from Port Moresby on 
 a trading voyage to the village of the robber 
 chieftains. They told him that they had not 
 forgotten their training at the mission, though 
 they were so far from home. They always asked 
 God's blessing upon their food, and held services 
 morning and evening. One of the men had a 
 bell, which he rang around the village to tell the 
 people of the meetings, and many of them had 
 come in to share in the service. The converts 
 had kept Sunday in mind by tying every day 
 a knot in a cord ; when they had counted as far 
 as seven they would stop work for a day of 
 rest. 
 
 In 1883 Mr. Chalmers joined a party going 
 to the Gulf of Guinea in a lakatoi on a trading 
 voyage. From the coast lie walked inland to 
 one of the villages over the swamps, where the 
 people had heard of him and asked for a visit.
 
 "GOD'S MEN" IN NEW GUINEA. 215 
 
 He was kindly received, and put in one of the 
 temples to sleep among the carved skulls and 
 other objects that were pleasant reminders that 
 he was among cannibals. In the evening he 
 sat out on the balcony and watched the scene 
 about him. The dark temple was lighted by 
 the flickering firelight within, while below him 
 a crowd of savages was gathered around the 
 teachers, among whom was that man who had 
 been one of the first church members at Port 
 Moresby, and another man who had been a fierce 
 and warlike chief. The teachers were telling 
 of the love of Jesus Christ, and the savages 
 were listening with great interest. They had, 
 indeed, so many questions to ask at the close of 
 the little sermon that the strangers were kept 
 talking all night. When Mr. Chalmers met his 
 friends in the morning he said, " Well, Arua, 
 have you been at it all night?" " Oh, yes, Tarn- 
 ate," answered the poor fellow, who was so 
 hoarse that he could hardly speak. " When I 
 lay down they would come with more questions, 
 so I 'd have to get up, and explain again. But 
 never mind : I must tell them of Jesus Christ." 
 When Mr. Chalmers was ready to leave the 
 men gathered round him, begging him to sing 
 as much as he could before going away : " Xo 
 more fighting, Tamate," they said. ' Xo more 
 man-eating. We have heard good new?, and
 
 2l6 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 we shall strive for peace." " Now sing to us," 
 added the women as he departed, " so that when 
 Tamate's face is lost we may hear his voice, and 
 weep that he so soon leaves us." " Tamate, come 
 back soon, very soon," they all cried in chorus ; 
 " do not disappoint us, and we will bring you 
 everywhere upon the rivers." 
 
 The voyagers had a high sea and a strong 
 wind during most of the return journey, but they 
 arrived in safety at Port Moresby on the first of 
 November. 
 
 In January of the next year the teachers 
 and the converts from east and from west gath- 
 ered at Port Moresby for a sort of thanksgiving 
 celebration. Services were held on New Year's 
 eve, and on New Year's morning there was a 
 meeting for prayer and praise at half-past five 
 o'clock. Then every body fell to work at prep- 
 arations for dinner. When everything was in 
 the oven the people assembled for the great 
 service of the occasion, and then came the feast. 
 The following day the teachers met quietly and 
 talked over their work together. 
 
 In February the John Williams appeared 
 once more, bringing thirteen new teachers, who 
 were stationed in various places. Then Mr. 
 Chalmers set out in the Ellengowan for another 
 cruise to the west, where lived the wildest but 
 really the noblest people of New Guinea, who
 
 "GOD'S MEN" IN NEW GUINEA. 217 
 
 needed the youngest, strongest, bravest, and 
 brightest teachers. They always asked for " big 
 men." " Pick the giants for them," Mr. Chal- 
 mers said, " and they will make their mark at 
 once." 
 
 On the way he called at many old stations, 
 where he noticed with pleasure all signs of pro- 
 gress, and he visited new places also where he 
 hoped soon to begin work. Then he went to 
 the east on a tour of inspection, and came back 
 much encouraged by the growth that he saw 
 there. In this year the British Government 
 established a protectorate over the unannexed 
 portion of New Guinea. 
 
 In 1886 there was good news from all the 
 stations along the coast. In August Mr. Chal- 
 mers returned to England, where he received a 
 hearty welcome, and people thronged to hear 
 him tell of what he had seen and heard in great, 
 neglected New Guinea. In 1887 ne was sent 
 back by the governor of Victoria to continue his 
 explorations. A new ship has been recently 
 called for by the London Missionary Society, for 
 use in New Guinea, the cost of which will be 
 $16,000, with an additional sum of $1,500 for 
 running expenses. 
 
 Two hundred and five teachers have gone to 
 New Guinea from Samoa, Savage Island and 
 Rarotonga, and from the Fiji and Loyalty
 
 2l8 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 groups. One hundred and three have died, 
 been killed, or had to go home on account of 
 the climate, but volunteers have never been 
 wanting to fill up the gaps. When fifteen men 
 were asked for lately forty men offered them- 
 selves for the service, and the matter of which 
 ones should stay at home had to be decided by 
 lot. 
 
 There are now stations six hundred miles 
 along the coast. There are seventy stations on 
 the mainland, and altogether there are five thou- 
 sand converts. Six languages have been re- 
 duced to writing, books have been published, 
 and there is a translation of the New Testament 
 in Motu, the speech of the trading-people on the 
 southeast coast. 
 
 In the meeting of Christians at Port Moresby 
 in 1892 the collection for missions was $37 in 
 money, with spears, armlets, bows and arrows, 
 drums, necklaces, and ornaments. All these 
 things have marketable value as curios. 
 
 At one of their services one of the natives 
 picked up a spear and said, " This used to be 
 our constant companion : we dared not go to our 
 gardens without it ; we took it in our canoes ; we 
 carried it on our journeys ; we slept with it by 
 our sides, and we took our meals with it close at 
 hand ; but." he continued, holding up a copy of 
 the gospel, " we can now sleep safely because of
 
 "GOD'S MEN" IN NEW GUINEA. 219 
 
 this. This book has brought us peace and protec- 
 tion, and we no longer require the spear." 
 
 Altogether in Polynesia there are now seven 
 thousand missionaries and forty thousand native 
 helpers. There are about three hundred and 
 fifty islands more or less fully evangelized, and 
 the Bible, in whole or in part, has been translat- 
 ed into fifty languages. 
 
 The London Missionary Society asks for 
 $80,000 with which to provide a new vessel for 
 the South Seas, and a fourth " John Williams " is 
 about to be sent out ; so the name of the " Apos- 
 tle of the Pacific " is not likely to be speedily 
 forgotten. 
 
 And so all up and down in the South Seas 
 have these Heroes of the Cross told the sweet 
 old story, and still is " the good word of the 
 kingdom " passed on from island to island. 
 
 May the One who began the work, and who 
 has kept it on its way all through these long 
 years, never let it falter until the multitude of 
 isles shall be glad because the Lord reign eth, 
 and the inhabitants thereof shall every one have 
 heard the good tidings that a Saviour has been 
 born into the world. 
 
 So at the last may all join in the chorus, 
 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good will to men."
 
 220 HEROES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. 
 
 " The Son of God goes forth to war, 
 
 A kingly crown to gain ; 
 His blood-red banner streams afar ; 
 
 Who follows in his train ? 
 Who best can drink his cup of woe, 
 
 Triumphant over pain, 
 Who patient bears his cross 
 
 He follows in His train."
 
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