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
Slept at Apollo's. Next morning went a little way in canoes and walked
six miles to Toma's place; meeting held, speech as usual, present of
yams, pig, &c. Walked back the six miles, started in double canoe for
Gaicha, the other side of the bay: wind cold, some difficulty in getting
ashore. Walked by the bad path to Apollo's and slept there again;
Frenchman came in during the evening. Next day, Friday, meeting in the
chapel. Walked twenty miles back to We, where I am now writing. Went the
twenty miles with no socks; feet sore and shoes worn to pieces, cutting
off leather as I came along. Nothing but broken bottles equals jagged
coral. Paths went so that you never take three steps in the same
direction, and every minute trip against logs, coral hidden by long
leaves, arid weeds trailing over the path. Often for half a mile you
jump from one bit of coral to another. No shoes can stand it, and I was
tired, I assure you. Indeed, for the last two days, if I stopped for a
minute to drink a nut, my legs were so stiff that they did not get into
play for five minutes or so.
'July 16th.--The captain of the "Iris" frigate passing Lifu dropped me
a line which satisfied me that the French will meet with no impediment
from the English Government in the prosecution of their plans out here.
Well, this makes one's own path just as easy, because all these things,
great and small, are ordered for us; but yet I grieve to think that we
might be occupying these groups with missionaries. Even ten good men
would do for a few years; and is it unreasonable to think that ten
men might be found willing to engage in such a happy work in such a
beautiful part of the world--no yellow fever, no snakes, &c. I think
of the Banks Islands, Vanua Lava, with its harbour and streams, and
abundance of food, and with eight or nine small islands round it,
speaking the same language, few dialectic differences of consequence, as
I believe.
'Even one good man might introduce religion here as we have received it,
pure and undefiled. Oh! that there were men who could believe this,
and come out unconditionally, placing themselves in the Bishop's hands
unreservedly. He must know the wants and circumstances of the islands
far better than they can, and therefore no man ought to stipulate as to
his location, &c. Did the early teachers do so? Did Titus ever think of
saying to St. Paul, "Mind I must be an elder, or bishop, or whatever he
was, of Crete?" Just as if that frame of mind was compatible with a real
desire to do what little one can by God's help to bring the heathen to a
knowledge of Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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