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
'My father writes:--"My tutor says that there must be a Melanesian
Bishop soon, and that you will be the man," a sentence which amused me
not a little.
'The plan is that the Bishop should gradually take more and more
time for the islands, as he transfers to the General Synod all deeds,
documents, everything for which he was corporation sole, and as he
passes over to various other Bishops portions of New Zealand. Finally,
retaining only the north part of the northern island, to take the
Melanesian Bishopric.
'I urged this plan upon him very strongly one day, when somewhere about
lat. 12° S. (I fancy) he pressed me to talk freely about the matter. I
said: "One condition only I think should be present to your mind, viz.,
that you must not give up the native population in New Zealand," and to
this he assented.
'If, dear tutor, you really were not in joke, just try to find some
good man who would come and place himself under the Bishop's direction
unreservedly, and in fact be to him much what I am + the ability and
earnestness, &c. Seriously, I am not at all fitted to do anything but
work under a good man. Of course, should I survive the Bishop, and no
other man come out, why it is better that the ensign should assume the
command than to give up the struggle altogether. But this of course is
pure speculation. The Bishop is hearty, and, I pray God, may be Bishop
of Melanesia for twenty years to come, and by that time there will be
many more competent men than I ever shall be to succeed him, to say
nothing of possible casualties, climate, &c.
'Good-bye, my dear Uncle; kind love to all.
'Your loving nephew and pupil,
'J. C. PATTESON.'
The three women and the two babies were disposed of in separate houses,
but their husbands, with thirty-nine other Melanesians, four Norfolk
Islanders, two printers, Mr. Dudley and Mr. Patteson, made up the
dinner-party every day in the hall of St. John's College. 'Not a
little happy I feel at the head of my board, with two rows of merry,
happy-looking Melanesians on either side of me!'
The coughs, colds, and feverish attacks of these scholars were the only
drawback; the slightest chill made them droop; and it was a subject of
joy to have any day the full number in hall, instead of one or two lying
ill in their tutor's own bed-chamber.
On the 29th of December came the exceeding joy of the arrival of the
Judge and Mrs. Martin, almost straight from Feniton, ready to talk
untiringly of everyone there. On the New Year's day of 1859 there was a
joyful thanksgiving service at Taurarua for their safe return, at which
all the best Church people near were present, and when John Cho made his
first Communion.
On the 20th these much-loved friends came to make a long stay at the
College, and the recollections they preserved of that time have thus
been recorded by Lady Martin. It will be remembered that she had parted
from him during the year of waiting and irregular employment:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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