John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 1 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brotherPaton, John Gibson
Religion
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 1 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brother
Paton, John Gibson
Missionaries -- Vanuatu -- Biography; Paton, John Gibson, 1824-1907
Next morning, a false and foolish account of the whole affair appeared
in the Newspapers, condemnatory of the Mission and of myself; a meeting
of the directors was summoned, and the Superintendent came to my lodging
to take me before them. Having heard all, and questioned and
cross-questioned me, they resolved to prosecute the abductors of the
girl. The Nunnery authorities confessed that the little sister was with
them, but denied that _she_ had been taken in there, or that they knew
anything of her case. Though the girl was sought for carefully by the
Police, and by all the members of my class, for nearly a fortnight, no
trace of her or of the coachman or of any of the parties could be
discovered; till one day from a cellar, through a grated window, she
called to one of my class girls passing by, and begged her to run and
let me know that she was confined there. At once, the directors of the
City Mission were informed by me, and Police were sent to rescue her;
but on examining that house they found that she had been again removed.
The occupiers denied all knowledge of where she had gone, or who had
taken her away from their lodging. All other efforts failed to find her,
till she was left at the Poor House door, far gone in dropsy, and soon
after died in that last refuge of the destitute and forsaken.
Anonymous letters were now sent, threatening my life; and I was publicly
cursed from the altar by the priests in Abercromby Street Chapel. The
directors of the Mission, fearing violence, advised me to leave Glasgow
for a short holiday, and even offered to arrange for my being taken for
work in Edinburgh for a year, that the fanatical passions of the Irish
Papists might have time to subside. But I refused to leave my work. I
went on conducting it all as in the past. The worst thing that happened
was, that on rushing one day past a row of houses occupied exclusively
by Papists, a stone thrown from one of them cut me severely above the
eye, and I fell stunned and bleeding. When I recovered and scrambled to
my feet, no person of course that could be suspected was to be seen! The
doctor having dressed the wound, it rapidly healed, and after a short
confinement I resumed my work and my studies without any further serious
annoyance. Attempts were made more than once, in these Papist closes,
and I believe by the Papists themselves, to pour pails of boiling water
on my head, over windows and down dark stairs, but in every case I
marvellously escaped; and as I would not turn coward, their malice tired
itself out, and they ultimately left me entirely at peace. Is not this a
feature of the lower Irish, and especially Popish population? Let them
see that bullying makes you afraid, and they will brutally and cruelly
misuse you; but defy them fearlessly, or take them by the nose, and they
will crouch like whelps beneath your feet. Is there anything in their
Religion that accounts for this? Is it not a system of alternating
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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