John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 2 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brotherPaton, John Gibson
Religion
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, volume 2 (of 3) : $b An autobiography edited by his brother
Paton, John Gibson
Missionaries -- Vanuatu -- Biography; Paton, John Gibson, 1824-1907
Another scheme had an excellent educative and religious influence.
I tried to interest all the villages, and to treat all the Chiefs
equally. In our early days, after getting into my two-roomed house, I
engaged the Chief, or representative man of each district, to put up
one or other of the many outhouses required at the Station. One, along
with his people, built the cook-house; another, the store; another,
the banana and yam-house; another, the washing-house; another, the
boys’ and girls’ house; the houses for servants and teachers, the
Schoolhouse, and the large shed, a kind of shelter where Natives sat
and talked when not at work about the Premises. Of course these all
were at first only Native huts, of larger or smaller dimensions. But
they were all built by contract for articles which they highly valued,
such as axes, knives, yards of prints and calico, strings of beads,
blankets, etc. They served our purpose for the time, and when another
party, by contract also, had fenced around our Premises, the Mission
Station was really a beautiful little lively and orderly Village, and
in itself no bad emblem of Christian and Civilized life. The payments,
made to all irrespectively, but only for work duly done and according
to reasonable bargain, distributed property and gifts amongst them on
wholesome principles, and encouraged a well-conditioned rivalry which
had many happy effects.
Heathenism made many desperate and some strange efforts to stamp out
our Cause on Aniwa, but the Lord held the helm. One old Chief, formerly
friendly, turned against us. He ostentatiously set himself to make
a canoe, working at it very openly and defiantly on Sabbaths. He,
becoming sick and dying, his brother started, on a Sabbath morning and
in contempt of the Worship, with an armed company to provoke our people
to war. They refused to fight; and one man, whom he struck with his
club, said,—
“I will leave my revenge to Jehovah.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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