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
It was not possible to get into the one landing-place in the wall round
Mota's sugar-loaf, but there was an exchange of civilities with the
Saddleites, and in Vanua Lava, the largest member of the group, a
beautiful harbour was discovered, which the Bishop named Port Patteson,
after the Judge.
The Santa Cruz group was visited again on the 23rd of September. Nothing
remarkable occurred; indeed, Patteson's journal does not mention these
places, but that of the Bishop speaks of a first landing at Nukapu, and
an exchange of names with the old chief Acenana; and the next day of
going to the main island, where swarms of natives swam out, with cries
of Toki, toki, and planks before them to float through the surf.
About 250 assembled at the landing place, as before, chiefly eager for
traffic. The Volcano Isle was also touched at, but the language of the
few inhabitants was incomprehensible. The mountain was smoking, and
red-hot cinders falling as before on the steep side. It was tempting to
climb it and investigate what probably no white man had yet seen, but it
was decided to be more prudent to abstain.
Some events of the visit to Bauro are related in the following letter to
the young cousin whose Confirmation day had been notified to him in time
to be thought of in his prayers:--
'Off San Cristoval: October 5, 1857.
'My dearest Pena,--It was in a heathen land, among a heathen people,
that I passed the Sunday--a day most memorable in your life--on which
I trust you received for the first time the blessed Sacrament of our
Saviour's Body and Blood.
'My darling--, as I knelt in the chiefs house, upon the mat which was
also my bed--the only Christian in that large and beautiful island--my
prayers were, I hope, offered earnestly that the full blessedness of
that heavenly Union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him with the
Father and the Holy Ghost, might rest upon you for ever. I had
reckoned upon being on board that Sunday, when the Holy Eucharist
was administered on board our vessel; but as we reached Mwaata, our
well-known village at San Cristoval, on Saturday, we both agreed that
I had better go ashore while the vessel went away, to return for me on
Monday. My day was now passed strangely enough, my first Sunday in a
land where no Sunday is known.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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