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
Palliser on our way to Wellington with the Judge. Here we had sea room
and no fear of driving upon rocks. It is blowing a good deal now, as
you see by my writing. I have a small ink-bottle of glass, made like
an eel-pot (such as tax-gatherers use), tied to my buttonhole, and with
this I can scribble away in almost any sea. Dear me! you could not sit
still a minute, even now. I was qualmish on Saturday, and for a minute
sick, but pretty comfortable on Sunday, though wearied by the constant
pitching and rolling.'
The day after this, namely May 15, the Bishop and Mr. Patteson rowed
into Cascade Bay, Norfolk Island, amid a heavy surf, but they saw no
cascade, as there had been no rain for a long time; and there were only
rocks surmounted by pine trees, no living creature, no landing-place, as
they coasted along. At last they saw a smooth-looking rock with an iron
staple, and concluding that it was the way of approach, they watched
their time, and through the surf which broke over it they leapt on it,
and dashed ashore before the returning swell caught them. They walked
inland, and met a man, one of twelve convicts who had been left behind
to receive the Pitcairners, who had not yet arrived, but were on their
way from their original island in H.M.S. 'Juno.' The vegetation and
climate struck them as beautiful; there were oranges, lemons, sweet
potatoes, and common potatoes, and English vegetables, and the Norfolk
Island pine growing to a great height: 'but,' writes Coley, 'it is
coarser in the leaf and less symmetrical in shape than I had expected.
I thought to have seen the tree of Veitch's nursery garden on a scale
three or four times as large, and so I might have done in any of the
gardens; but as they grow wild in the forest, they are not so very
different from the more common fir tribe.'
They saw one house, but had little time, and getting down to the smooth
rock, stood there, barefooted, till the boat could back in between the
rollers; the Bishop leapt in at the first, and the boat made off at
once, and till it could return, Patteson had to cling to the clamps to
hinder himself from being washed off, as six or seven waves broke over
him before the boat could come near enough for another spring. These
difficulties in landing were one of the recommendations of the island,
by isolating the future inhabitants from the demoralising visits of
chance vessels.
Then followed some days of great enjoyment of the calm warmth of the
semi-tropical winter, chiefly varied by catching a young shark, and
contrasting him with his attendant pilot, as the ugliest and
prettiest of fish. Patteson used the calm to write (May 30) one of his
introspective letters, owning that he felt physical discomfort, and
found it hard to banish 'recollections of clean water, dry clothes,
and drink not tasting like medicine; but that he most of all missed the
perfect unconstrained ease of home conversation.'
Then he continues:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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