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
'August 26, 1855, 10.40 P.M.: S. Stephen's, Auckland. 'My dear
Arthur,--I am tired with my Sunday work, which is heavy in a colony,
but I just begin my note on the anniversary of your dear, dear father's
death. How vividly I remember all the circumstances of the last ten
days--the peaceful, holy, happy close of a pure and well-spent life! I
do so think of him, not a day passing without my mind dwelling on him; I
love to find myself calling up the image of his dear face, and my heart
is very full when I recollect all his love for me, and the many, many
tokens of affection which he used to pour out from his warm, generous,
loving heart. I can hardly tell you what an indescribable comfort it is
to me now I think of these things, cut off from the society and sympathy
of friends and the associations of home; the memory is very active in
recalling such scenes, and I almost live in them again. I have very
little time for indulging in fancies of any kind now; I begin to get
an idea of what work is; but in my walks or at night (if I am awake),
I think of dear Mamma and your dear father, and others who are gone
before, with unmixed joy and comfort. You may be quite sure that I am
not likely to forget anybody or anything connected with home. How I do
watch and follow them through the hours of the day or night when we are
both awake and at our work! I turn out at 6.45, and think of them at
dinner or tea; at 10, I think of them at evening prayers; and by my
own bed-time they are in morning church or busied about their different
occupations, and I fancy I can almost see them.
'So it goes on, and still I am calm and happy and very well; and I think
I am in my place and hope to be made of some use some day. I like the
natives in this school very much. The regular wild untamed fellow is
not so pleasant at first--dirty, unclothed, always smoking, a mass of
blankets, his wigwam sort of place filthy; his food ditto; but then he
is probably intelligent, hospitable, and not insensible to the advantage
of hearing about religion. It only wants a little practice to overcome
one's English feelings about dress, civilisation, etc., and that will
soon come.
'But here the men are nice fellows, and the women and girls make capital
servants; and so whereas many of the clergy and gentry do not keep a
servant (wages being enormous), and ladies like your sisters and mine
do the whole work of the housemaid, nursery-maid, and cook (which I have
seen and chatted about with them), I, on the contrary, by Miss Maria (a
wondrous curly-headed, black-eyed Maori damsel, arrayed in a "smock,"
weiter nichts), have my room swept, bed made, tub--yes, even in New
Zealand--daily filled and emptied, and indeed all the establishment will
do anything for me. I did not care about it, as I did all for myself
aboard ship; but still I take it with a very good grace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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