PORTRAIT OF JOHN G. PATON _Frontispiece_. “THE MAN THAT KILLS MISSI MUST FIRST KILL ME” _To face p._ 156 NATIVES STEALING PROPERTY „ 160 NATIVES RETURNING STOLEN PROPERTY „ 164 “THERE THEY LAY ME ON COCOA-NUT LEAVES ON THE GROUND” „ 172 “AT DAYBREAK I FOUND MY HOUSE SURROUNDED” „ 188 THE DANGEROUS LANDING THROUGH THE SURF „ 234 “SUDDENLY HE DREW A LARGE BUTCHER-LIKE KNIFE” „ 310 SPRINGING FORWARD HE CAUGHT THE CLUB „ 342 MAP OF THE NEW HEBRIDES „ 100 CHAPTER I. _EARLIER DAYS._ Introductory Note.—Kirkmahoe.—Torthorwald Village.—Our Villagers.—Nithsdale Scenes.—Our Cottage Home.—Our Forebears.—An Idyll of the Heart.—A Consecrated Father.—Accepted Vows.—Happy Sabbath Days.—Golden Autumn of Life. What I write here is for the glory of God. For more than twenty years have I been urged to record my story as a missionary of the Cross; but always till now, in my sixty-fourth year, my heart has shrunk from the task, as savouring too much of self. Latterly the conviction has been borne home to me that if there be much in my experience which the Church of God ought to know, it would be pride on my part, and not humility, to let it die with me. I lift my pen, therefore, with that motive supreme in my heart; and, so far as memory and entries in my note-books and letters of my own and of other friends serve or help my sincere desire to be truthful and fair, the following chapters will present a faithful picture of the life through which the Lord has led me. If it bows any of my readers under as deep and certain a confidence as mine, that in “God’s hand our breath is, and His are all our ways,” my task will not be fruitless in the Great Day.