CHAP. XII.

Bishop Selwyn.

345

To the remonstrances of his friends as to the personal danger it involved, he replied with the axiom, "that where a trader will go for gain, there the missionary ought to go for the merchandise of souls ;" and to his father he wrote, "It is the duty of a missionary to go to the extreme point of boldness, short of an exposure to known and certain danger. In those islands something must be risked if anything is to be done."

The risk was certainly considerable, especially as he would never permit a weapon of any kind on board his little vessel; and on one occasion, at Malicolo in the New Hebrides, it seems that nothing but "his perfect presence of mind and dignified bearing (to borrow Captain Erskine's words) saved him and his party from the fate which a few years before had befallen Williams at Erromanga, and a few years later befell Patteson at Nukapu."

To an objection of another kind, that he would be neglecting his diocese proper, and have too many irons in the fire, he opposed his persuasion that he could undertake the personal inspection and supervision of the whole of Melanesia, not only without injury, but with the greatest possible benefit to his own work in New Zealand. His heart was in those distant islands, yearning over their dark inhabitants with a brother's love; and he felt as if God, by leading him in His Providence to become such a thorough sailor, had "marked his path upon the mountain wave, his home upon the deep."

The Rev. John Coleridge Patteson went out to the help of Bishop Selwyn. This was another noble and self-denying man. He might have obtained honourable promotion at home, but he preferred giving himself up to the missionary cause. He went out to New Zealand in 1855. He was appointed to missionarise the natives of a group of islands

which had rarely been visited since their discovery by Captain Cook. The reputation of cannibalism hung about them. They formed a third group round the north-eastern curve of Australia, and consisted of the New Hebrides, Banks Islands, Solomon Isles, and the islands of Santa Cruz. The inhabitants were called Melanesians or Black Islanders, from having much of the negro in their composition and complexion.

After remaining for some time at New Zealand, learning the native languages, and learning navigation for the purpose of managing the Southern Cross, the missionaries' schooner, Mr. Patteson set sail for Norfolk Island, accompanied by the Bishop. Then to Aaiteum, occupied by the Scotch Presbyterian Mission. They then passed Erromanga, where Williams was killed. a wooded island, beautiful beyond description. Then to Faté, where the Samoan teachers had been murdered. The ship passed the splendid island of Espiritu Santo-with its mountainchain about 4000 feet high. The ship next touched at Remael Island, when the Bishop and his fellow priest swam ashore, and made friends with the natives, who were Maoris. Several boys were taken from the island, to be educated as teachers at St. John's College, New Zealand.

The ship next touched at Mara, in the Solomon Islands; where it was found that, though Maori-speaking, the sailors had given them a knowledge of the worst and most abominable parts of the English language. The next group sighted was the large island of Santa Cruz The natives came off in their canoes with yams and taro; but the numbers were so great that no quiet work could be done. They sailed quite round the island, and saw the fiery appearance of the great volcano. They went on

CHAP. XII.

Bishop Patteson.

347

to Nukapu-now full of melancholy memory, as Bishop Patteson met his death there. The natives came off in canoes, and brought bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts. After a much longer cruise-to Tubua, to Vanicora, and to the Banks group of Islands, -the Southern Cross returned to New Zealand.

This, then, was the missionary field in which Mr. Patteson was to work. In writing home, he said, "Don't believe in the ferocity of the islanders. When their passions are excited, they do commit fearful deeds, and they are almost universally cannibals-that is, after a battle there will always be a cannibal feast, not otherwise. But treat them well and prudently, and I apprehend that there is little danger in visiting them-meaning by visiting, merely landing on the beach a first time, going perhaps to a native village the next time, sleeping on shore the third, spending ten days the fourth, and so on."

He described his fundamental method of teaching the natives. He held fast to the fact of man having been created in the image of God. While preaching at Sydney, he said, "This love, once generated in the heart of man, must needs pass on to his brethren. . . . Love is the animating principle of all. In every star of the sky, in the sparkling glittering waves of the sea, in every flower of the field, in every creature of God, most of all in every living soul of man, it adores and blesses the beauty and love of the great Creator and Preserver of all."

"My dear father," he says, "writes in great anxiety about the Denison case. Oh dear! what a cause of thankfulness it is to be out of the din of controversy, and to find thousands longing for crumbs which are shaking about so roughly in these angry disputes. It isn't High or Low or Broad Church, or any other special name, but the

longing desire to forget all distinctions, and to return to a simpler state of things, that seems naturally to result from the very sight of these heathen people."

Patteson went on his visits to the Melanesian Islands, hoping everything and fearing nothing. He was made much of by the men and by the women. When the women were present, he knew he was safe. He did everything by trusting the people. He went to Futuma, wading ankle-deep to the beach. Then to Erromanga. Then to Faté Isle, where the people were said to be amongst the rudest in those seas. They were cannibals, and had killed the whole crew of the Royal Sovereign when it was wrecked upon the island; they had eaten nine men at once, and sent the other nine as presents to their friends.

arrow.

In 1861 John Coleridge Patteson was consecrated Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands. He went on with his work as before. He was often in danger of death. He went among the natives alone and unarmed. They might have finished him off at once with a poisoned Yet he was always cheerful and zealous. "Thank God!" he says, "I can fall back upon many solid points of comfort-chiefest of all, He sees and knows it perfectly. He sees the islanders too, and loves them, how infinitely more than I can. He is, I trust, sending me to them. He will bless honest endeavours to do His will amongst them. The light is breaking forth in Melanesia; and I take great comfort for this thought, and remember that it does not matter whether it is in my time; only I must work on."

Again he says, when speaking of the men who were to be sent out to help him: "A man who takes the sentimental view of coral islands and cocoa-nuts is worse than

CHAP. XII.

Deaths at Santa Cruz.

349

useless; a man possessed with the idea that he is making a sacrifice will never do; and a man who thinks any kind of work 'beneath a gentleman' will simply be in the way, and be rather uncomfortable at seeing the Bishop doing what he thinks degrading to himself. And if the right fellow is moved by God's grace to come out, what a welcome we will give him, and how happy he will soon be in a work, the abundant blessings of which none can know as we know them."

It was not for money that these ordained clergymen left England. It was only for a hundred pounds a year, afterwards increased to a hundred and fifty pounds. But they

How much character The Bishop established went. He got the

taught the natives everything-habits of economy, attention, punctuality, tidiness, and such like. comes out of these homely virtues. schools and colleges wherever he Island boys to accompany him on his voyages, in order that he might understand their language, and they his. At Santa Cruz, in 1864, the Bishop and his party were shot at. One, Pearce, received the long shaft of an arrow in his chest; and Edwin Nobbs received an arrow in his left eye. An oarsman, Young, was shot through the left wrist. The Bishop took out the arrows-the one in the chest after a long operation. Fisher Young died of tetanus. When dying, he said to the Bishop, "Kiss me; I am very glad that I was doing my duty." Nobbs died of the same disease. Pearce, though his wound had been the most severe, recovered.

He next visited Norfolk Island, Pitcairn Island, the New Hebrides Islands, the Fiji Islands, the Solomon Islands, the Tahitian Islands-everywhere doing good, and enlisting new members of the Church. He had the New Testament printed for them in their own language, and abstracts of the