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
At 7 the people around dropped in for prayers, which he thought it
better not to conduct till his position was more defined. Then came
breakfast upon yams cooked by being placed in a pit lined with heated
stones, with earth heaped over the top. Mr. and Mrs. Tutoo, with their
white guest, sat at the scrap of a table, 'which, with a small stool,
was the only thing on four legs in the place, except an occasional
visitor in the shape of a pig.' Then followed school. Two hundred Lifu
people came, and it was necessary to hold it in the chapel. One o'clock,
dinner on yams, and very rarely on pig or a fowl, baked or rather done
by the same process; and in the afternoon some reading and slate work
with the twelve Melanesians, and likewise some special instruction to a
few of the more promising Lifuites. At 6.30, another meal of yams, but
this time Patteson had recourse to his private store of biscuit; and the
evening was spent in talk, till bedtime at 9 or 9.30. It was a thorough
sharing the native life; but after a few more experiments, it was found
that English strength could not be kept up on an exclusive diet of
yams, and the Loyalty Isles are not fertile. They are nothing but rugged
coral, in an early stage of development; great ridges, upheaved, bare
and broken, and here and there with pits that have become filled with
soil enough to grow yams and cocoa-nuts.
The yams--except those for five of the lads, whose maintenance some of
the inhabitants had undertaken--were matter of purchase, and formed the
means of instruction in the rules of lawful exchange. A fixed weight of
yams were to constitute prepayment for a pair of trousers, a piece of
calico, a blanket, tomahawk, or the like, and all this was agreed to,
Cho being a great assistance in explaining and dealing with his people.
But it proved very difficult to keep them up to bringing a sufficient
supply, and as they had a full share of the universal spirit of
haggling, the commissariat was a very harassing and troublesome
business, and as to the boys, it was evident that the experiment was
not successful. Going to New Zealand was seeing the world. Horses,
cows, sheep, a town, soldiers, &c., were to be seen there, whereas Lifu
offered little that they could not see at home, and schooling without
novelty was tedious. Indeed, the sight of civilised life, the being
taken to church, the kindness of the friends around the College, were no
slight engines in their education; but the Lifu people were not advanced
enough to serve as an example--except that they had renounced the more
horrible of their heathen habits. They were in that unsettled state
which is peculiarly trying in the conversion of nations, when the old
authoritative customs have been overthrown, and the Christian rules not
established.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account