Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian IslandsYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Religion
Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Missions -- Melanesia; Patteson, John Coleridge, 1827-1871
'July 14.--I write to-night because you will like a line from me on the
day when first I have in any way ministered to a native of the country.
I was in the hospital to-day, talked a little, and read St. Luke xv. to
one, and prayed with another Maori. The latter is dying. He was baptized
by the Wesleyans, but is not visited by them, so I do not scruple to go
to him. Rota, the native deacon, was with me, and he talked a long
while with the poor fellow. It is a great comfort to me to have made a
beginning. I did little more than read a few prayers from the Visitation
Service, but the man understood me well, so I may be of use, I hope. He
has never received the Lord's Supper; but if there is time to prepare
him, the Bishop wishes me to administer it to him.
'July 20.--Yesterday in sailed the "Southern Cross" with not a spar
carried away or sail lost, perfectly sound, and in a fit state to be off
again at once. She left England on the same day that we did, and arrived
just a fortnight after us, and this is attributable to her having kept
in low latitudes, not going higher than 39°; whereas we were in 51°
30', which diminished the distance and brought us in the way of more
favourable winds. I saw from my windows about 9 A.M. a schooner in the
distance, and told the Bishop I thought it might be the "Southern Cross"
(she has no figure-head and a very straight bow). Through the day, which
was very rainy, we kept looking from time to time through our glasses.
At 3 P.M. the Bishop came in: "Come along, Coley; I do believe it is the
'Southern Cross.'" So I hurried on waterproofs, knowing that we were
in for some mudlarking. Off we went, lugged down a borrowed boat to the
water, tide being out. I took one oar, a Maori another, and off we went,
Bishop steering. After twenty minutes' pull, or thereabouts, we met her,
jumped on board, and then such a broadside of questions and answers.
They had a capital passage. Two men who were invalided when they started
died on the voyage--one of dysentery, I think--all the rest flourishing,
the three women respectable and tidy-looking individuals, and two
children very well. After a while the Bishop and I went off to shore, in
one of his boats, pulled by two of the crew, Lowestoft fishermen, fine
young fellows as you ever saw. Then we bought fresh meat, onions, bread,
etc., for them, and so home by 7 P.M. "Mudlarking" very slight on this
occasion, only walking over the flat swamp of low-water marsh for a
quarter of a mile; but on Tuesday we had a rich scene. Bishop and I went
to the "Duke of Portland" and brought off the rest of our things; but
it was low-water, so the boats could not come within a long way of the
beach, and the custom is for carts to go over the muddy sand, which is
tolerably hard, as far into the water as they can, perhaps two and a
half or three feet deep when it is quite calm, as it was on Tuesday.
Well, in went our cart, which had come from the College, with three
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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