OUR small Missionary schooner, the John Knox, having no accommodation
for lady passengers, and little for anybody else except the discomfort
of lying on deck, we took advantage of a trader to convey us from
Aneityum to Tanna. The Captain kindly offered to take us and about
thirty casks and boxes to Port Resolution for £5, which we gladly
accepted. After a few hours' sailing we were all safely landed on
Tanna on the 5th November, 1858. Dr. Geddie went for a fortnight to
Umairarekar, now known as Kwamera, on the south side of Tanna, to
assist in the settlement of Mr. and Mrs. Mathieson, and to help in
making their house habitable and comfortable. Mr. Copeland, Mrs. Paton,
and I were left at Port Resolution, to finish the building of our
house there and work our way into the good will of the Natives as
best we could.
On landing, we found the people to be literally naked and painted
Savages; they were at least as destitute of clothing as Adam and Eve
after the fall, when they sewed fig-leaves for a girdle...
At first they came in crowds to look at us, and at everything we did
or had. We knew nothing of their language; we could not speak a single
word to them, nor they to us. We looked at them, they at us; we smiled
and nodded, and made signs to each other; this was our first meeting
and parting. One day I observed two men, the one lifting up one of our
articles to the other, and saying, "Nungsi nari enu?"
I concluded that he was asking, "What is this?" Instantly,
lifting a piece of wood, I said, "Nungsi nari enu?"
They smiled and spoke to each other. I understood them to be saying,
"He has got hold of our language now." Then they told me their
name for the thing which I had pointed to. I found that they understood
my question, What is this? or, What is that? and that I could now get
from them the name of every visible or tangible thing around us! We
carefully noted down every name they gave us, spelling all phonetically,
and also every strange sound we heard from them; thereafter, by painstaking
comparison of different circumstances, we tried to ascertain their meanings,
testing our own guess by again cross-questioning the Natives. One day
I saw two men approaching, when one, who was a stranger, pointed to
me with his finger, and said, "Se nangin?"
Concluding that he was asking my name, I pointed to one of them with
my finger, and looking at the other, inquired, "Se nangin?"
They smiled, and gave me their names. We were now able to get the
names of persons and things, and so our ears got familiarized with the
distinctive sounds of their language; and being always keenly on the
alert, we made extraordinary progress in attempting bits of conversation
and in reducing their speech for the first time to a written form --
for the New Hebrideans had no literature, and not even the rudiments
of an alphabet. I used to hire some of the more intelligent lads and
men to sit and talk with us, and answer our questions about names and
sounds; but they so often deceived us, and we, doubtless, misunderstood
them so often, that this course was not satisfactory, till after we
had gained some knowledge of their language and its construction, and
they themselves had become interested in helping us. Amongst our most
interesting helpers, and most trustworthy, were two aged chiefs -- Nowa
and Nouka -- in many respects two of Nature's noblest gentlemen, kind
at heart to all, and distinguished by a certain native dignity of bearing.
But they were both under the leadership of the war-chief Miaki, a kind
of devil-king over many villages and tribes.
The Tannese had hosts of stone idols, charms, and sacred objects,
which they abjectly feared, and in which they devoutly believed. They
were given up to countless superstitions, and firmly glued to their
dark heathen practices. Their worship was entirely a service of fear,
its aim being to propitiate this or that Evil Spirit, to prevent calamity
or to secure revenge. They deified their chiefs, like the Romans of
old, so that almost every village or tribe had its own Sacred Man, and
some of them had many. They exercised an extraordinary influence for
evil, these village or tribal priests, and were believed to have the
disposal of life and death through their sacred ceremonies, not only
in their own tribe, but over all the Islands. Sacred men and women,
wizards and witches, received presents regularly to influence the gods,
and to remove sickness, or to cause it by the Nahak, i. e. incantation
over remains of food, or the skin of fruit, such as banana, which the
person has eaten on whom they wish to operate. They also worshiped the
spirits of departed ancestors and heroes, through their material idols
of wood and stone, but chiefly of stone. They feared these spirits and
sought their aid; especially seeking to propitiate those who presided
over war and peace, famine and plenty, health and sickness, destruction
and prosperity, life and death. Their whole worship was one of slavish
fear; and, so far as ever I could learn, they had no idea of a God of
mercy or grace.
But these very facts -- that they did worship something, that they
believed in spirits of ancestors and heroes, and that they cherished
many legends regarding those whom they had never seen, and handed these
down to their children -- and the fact that they had ideas about the
invisible world and its inhabitants, made it not so hard as some might
suppose to convey to their minds, once their language and modes of thought
were understood, some clear ideal of Jehovah God as the great uncreated
Spirit Father, who Himself created and sustains all that is. It could
not, however, be done offhand, or by a few airy lessons. The whole heart
and soul and life had to be put into the enterprise. But it could be
done -- that we believed because they were men, not beasts; it had been
done -- that we saw in the converts on Aneityum; and our hearts rose
to the task with quenchless hope!
 A GLANCE backwards over the story of the Gospel in the New Hebrides
may help to bring my readers into touch with the events that are to
follow. The ever-famous names of Williams and Harris are associated
with the earliest efforts to introduce Christianity amongst this group
of islands in the South Pacific Seas. John Williams and his young Missionary
companion Harris, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society,
landed on Erromanga on the 30th of November 1839. Alas, within a few
minutes of their touching land, both were clubbed to death; and the
savages proceeded to cook and feast upon their bodies. Thus were the
New Hebrides baptized with the blood of Martyrs; and Christ thereby
told the whole Christian world that He claimed these Islands as His
own. His cross must yet be lifted up, where the blood of His saints
has been poured forth in His name! The poor Heathen knew not that they
had slain their best friends; but tears and prayers ascended for them
from all Christian souls, wherever the story of the martyrdom on Erromanga
was read or heard.
Again, therefore, in 1842, the London Missionary Society sent out
Messrs. Turner and Nisbet to pierce this kingdom of Satan. They placed
their standard on our chosen island of Tanna, the nearest to Erromanga.
In less than seven months, however, their persecution by the savages
became so dreadful, that we see them in a boat trying to escape by night
with bare life. Out on that dangerous sea they would certainly have
been lost, but the Ever-Merciful drove them back to land, and sent next
morning a whaling vessel, which, contrary to custom, called there, and
just in the nick of time. They, with all goods that could be rescued,
were got safely on board, and sailed for Samoa. Say not their plans
and prayers were baffled; for God heard and abundantly blessed them
there, beyond all their dreams.
After these things, the London Missionary Society again and again
placed Samoan Native Teachers on one or other island of the New Hebrides;
but their unhealthiness, compared with the more wholesome Samoa or Rarotonga,
so afflicted them with the dreaded ague and fever, besides what they
endured from the inhospitable savages themselves, that no effective
Mission work had been accomplished there till at last the Presbyterian
Missionaries were led to enter upon the scene. Christianity had no foothold
anywhere on the New Hebrides, unless it were in the memory and the blood
of the Martyrs of Erromanga.
The Rev. John Geddie
and his wife, from Nova Scotia, were landed on Aneityum, the most southerly
island of the New Hebrides, in 1848; and the Rev. John Inglis and his
wife, from Scotland, were landed on the other side of the same island,
in 1852. An agent for the London Missionary Society, the Rev. T. Powell,
accompanied Dr. Geddie for about a year, to advise as to his settlement
and to assist in opening up the work. Marvelous as it may seem, the
Natives on Aneityum showed interest in the Missionaries from the very
first, and listened to their teachings; so that in a few years Dr. Inglis
and Dr. Geddie saw about 3500 savages throwing away their idols, renouncing
their Heathen customs, and avowing themselves to be worshipers of the
true Jehovah God. Slowly, yet progressively they unlearned their Heathenism;
surely and hopefully they learned Christianity and civilization. When
these Missionaries "came to this Island, there were no Christians
there; when they left it, there were no Heathens."
Further, these poor Aneityumese, having glimpses of the Word of God,
determined to have a Holy Bible in their own mother tongue, wherein
before no book or page ever had been written in the history of their
race. The consecrated brain and hand of their Missionaries kept toiling
day and night in translating the book of God; and the willing hands
and feet of the Natives kept toiling through fifteen long but unwearying
years, planting and preparing arrowroot to pay the £1200 required
to be laid out in the printing and publishing of the book. Year after
year the arrowroot, too sacred to be used for their daily food, was
set apart as the Lord's portion; the Missionaries sent it to Australia
and Scotland, where it was sold by private friends, and the whole proceeds
consecrated to this purpose. On the completion of the great undertaking
by the Bible Society, it was found that the Natives had earned as much
as to pay every penny of the outlay; and their first Bibles went out
to them, purchased with the consecrated toils of fifteen years!
Let those who lightly esteem their Bibles think on those things. Eight
shillings for every leaf, or the labor and proceeds of fifteen years
for the Bible entire, did not appear to these poor converted savages
too much to pay for that Word of God, which had sent to them the Missionaries,
which had revealed to them the grace of God in Christ, and which had
opened their eyes to the wonders and glories of redeeming love!
MY first house on Tanna, was on the old site occupied by Turner and
Nisbet, near the shore, for obvious reasons, and only a few feet
above tidemark. So was that of Mr. Mathieson, handy for materials
as goods being landed and, as we imagined, close to the healthy
breezes of the sea. Alas! we had to learn by sad experience, like
our brethren in all untried Mission fields. The sites proved to
be hot-beds for Fever and Ague, mine especially; and much of this
might have been escaped by building on the higher ground, and in
the sweep of the refreshing trade-winds. For all this, however,
no one was to blame; everything was done for the best, according
to the knowledge then possessed. Our house was sheltered behind
by an abrupt hill about two hundred feet high, which gave the site
a feeling of coziness. It was surrounded and much shaded, by beautiful
breadfruit trees, and very large cocoanut trees; too largely beautiful,
indeed, for they shut out many a healthy breeze that we sorely needed!
There was a long swamp at the head of the bay, and, the ground at
the other end on which our house stood being scarcely raised perceptibly
higher, the malaria almost constantly enveloped us. Once, after
a smart attack of the fever, an intelligent Chief said to me, "Missi,
if you stay here, you will soon die! No Tanna man sleeps so low
down as you do, in this damp weather, or he too would die. We sleep
on the high ground, and the trade-wind keeps us well. You must go
and sleep on the hill, and then you will have better health."
I at once resolved to remove my house to higher ground, at the earliest
practicable moment; heavy though the undertaking would necessarily be,
it seemed our only hope of being able to live on the island. Alas, for
one of us, it was already too late!
My dear young wife, Mary Ann Robson, landed with me on Tanna on the
5th November 1858, in excellent health and full of all tender and holy
hopes. On the 12th February 1859 God sent to us our first-born son;
for, two days or so both mother and child seemed to prosper, and our
island-exile thrilled with joy! But the greatest of sorrows was treading
hard upon the heels of that joy! My darling's strength showed no signs
of rallying. She had an attack of ague and fever a few days before;
on the third day or so thereafter, it returned, and attacked her every
second day with increasing severity for a fortnight. Diarrhea ensued,
and symptoms of pneumonia, with slight delirium at intervals; and then
in a moment, altogether unexpectedly, she died on the 3d March. To crown
my sorrows, and complete my loneliness, the dear baby-boy, whom we had
named after her father, Peter Robert Robson, was taken from me after
one week's sickness, on the 20th March. Let those who have ever passed
through any similar darkness as of midnight feel for me; as for all
others, it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows!
I knew then, when too late, that our work had been entered on too near
the beginning of the rainy season. We were both, however, healthy and
hearty; and I daily pushed on with the house, making things hourly more
comfortable, in the hope that long lives were before us both, to be
spent for Jesus in seeking the salvation of the perishing Heathen. In
our mutual inexperience, and with our hearts aglow for the work of our
lives, we incurred this risk which should never have been incurred;
and I only refer to the matter thus, in the hope that others may take
warning.
Stunned by that dreadful loss, in entering upon this field of labor
to which the Lord had Himself so evidently led me, my reason seemed
for a time almost to give way. Ague and fever, too, laid a depressing
and weakening hand upon me, continuously recurring, and reaching oftentimes
the very height of its worst burning stages. But I was never altogether
forsaken. The ever-merciful Lord sustained me, to lay the precious dust
of my beloved Ones in the same quiet grave, dug for them close by at
the end of the house; in all of which last offices my own hands, despite
breaking heart, had to take the principal share! I built the grave round
and round with coral blocks, and covered the top with beautiful white
coral, broken small as gravel; and that spot became my sacred and much-frequented
shrine, during all the following months and years when I labored on
for the salvation of these savage Islanders amidst difficulties, dangers,
and deaths. Whensoever Tanna turns to the Lord, and is won for Christ,
men in after-days will find the memory of that spot still green, --
where with ceaseless prayers and tears I claimed that land for God in
which I had "buried my dead" with faith and hope. But for
Jesus, and the fellowship He vouchsafed me there, I must have gone mad
and died beside that lonely grave!
Dr. Inglis, my brother Missionary on Aneityum, wrote to the Reformed
Presbyterian Magazine:-- "I trust all those who shed tears of sorrow
on account of her early death will be enabled in the exercise of faith
and resignation to say, 'The Will of the Lord be done; the Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord!' I need
not say how deeply we sympathize with her bereaved parents, as well
as with her sorrowing husband. By her death the Mission has sustained
a heavy loss. We were greatly pleased with Mrs. Paton during the period
of our short intercourse with her. Her mind, naturally vigorous, had
been cultivated by a superior education. She was full of Missionary
spirit, and took a deep interest in the Native women. This was seen
further, when she went to Tanna, where, in less than three months, she
had collected a class of eight females, who came regularly to her to
receive instruction. There was about her a maturity of thought, a solidity
of character, a loftiness of aim and purpose, rarely found in one so
young. Trained up in the fear of the Lord from childhood like another
Mary she had evidently chosen that good part, which is never taken away
from those possessed of it. When she left this island, she had to all
human appearance a long career of usefulness and happiness on Earth
before her, but the Lord has appointed otherwise. She has gone, as we
trust, to her rest and her reward. The Lord has said to her as He said
to David, 'Thou didst well in that it was in thine heart to build a
House for My Name.' Let us watch and pray, for our Lord cometh as a
thief in the night"...
Sorrow and love constrain me to linger over her last words. She cried,
"Oh, that my dear mother were here! She is a good woman, my mother,
a jewel of a woman."
Then, observing Mr. Copeland near by, she said, "Oh, Mr. Copeland,
I did not know you were there! You must not think that I regret coming
here, and leaving my mother. If I had the same thing to do over again,
I would do it with far more pleasure, yes, with all my heart. Oh no!
I do not regret leaving home and friends, though at the time I felt
it keenly."
Soon after this, looking up and putting her hand in mine, she said--
"J. C. wrote to our Janet saying, that young Christians under
their first impressions thought they could do anything or make any sacrifice
for Jesus, and he asked if she believed it, for he did not think they
could, when tested; but Janet wrote back that she believed they could,
and (added she with great emphasis) I believe it true!"
In a moment, altogether unexpectedly, she fell asleep in Jesus, with
these words on her lips. "Not lost, only gone before to be forever
with the Lord" -- my heart keeps saying or singing to itself from
that hour till now.
It was very difficult to be resigned, left alone, and in sorrowful
circumstance; but feeling immovably assured that my God and Father was
too wise and loving to err in anything that He does or permits, I looked
up to the Lord for help, and struggled on in His work. I do not pretend
to see through the mystery of such visitations, -- wherein God calls
away the young, the promising, and those sorely needed for His service
here; but this I do know and feel, that, in the light of such dispensations,
it becomes us all to love and serve our blessed Lord Jesus so that we
may be ready at His call for death and Eternity.
IN the first letter, sent jointly by Mr. Copeland and
myself from Tanna to the Church at home, the following statements occur--
"We found the Tannese to be painted Savages, enveloped
in all the superstition and wickedness of Heathenism. All the men and
children go in a state of nudity. The older women wear grass skirts,
and the young women and girls, grass or leaf aprons like Eve in Eden.
They are exceedingly ignorant, vicious, and bigoted, and almost void
of natural affection. Instead of the inhabitants of Port Resolution
being improved by coming in contact with white men they are rendered
much worse; for they have learned all their vices but, none of their
virtues, -- if such are possessed by the pioneer traders among such
races! The Sandal-wood Traders are as a class the most godless of men,
whose cruelty and wickedness make us ashamed to own them as our countrymen.
By them the poor defenseless Natives are oppressed and robbed on every
hand, and if they offer the slightest resistance, they are ruthlessly
silenced by the musket or revolver. Few months here pass without some
of them being so shot, and, instead of their murderers feeling ashamed,
they boast of how they despatch them. Such treatment keeps the Natives
always burning under a desire for revenge, so that it is a wonder any
white man is allowed to come among them. Indeed, all Traders here are
able to maintain their position only by revolvers and rifles; but we
hope a better state of affairs is at hand for Tanna."
The novelty of our being among them soon passed away,
and they began to show their avarice and deceitfulness in every possible
way. The Chiefs united and refused to give us the half of the small
piece of land which had been purchased, on which to build our Mission
House, and when we attempted to fence in the part they had left to us,
they "tabooed" it, i. e. threatened our Teachers and us with
death if we proceeded further with the work. This they did by placing
certain reeds stuck into the ground here and there around our house,
which our Aneityumese servants at once knew the meaning of, and warned
us of our danger; so we left off making the fence, that we might if
possible evade all offense. They then divided the few breadfruit and
cocoanut trees on the ground amongst themselves, or demanded such payment
for these trees as we did not possess, and threatened revenge on us
if the trees were injured by any person. They now became so unreasonable
and offensive, and our dangers so increased, as to make our residence
amongst them extremely trying. At this time a vessel called; I bought
from the Captain the things for payment which they demanded; on receiving
it, they lifted the Taboo, and for a little season appeared to be friendly
again. This was the third payment they had got for that site, and to
yield was teaching them a cruel lesson; all this we felt and clearly
saw, but they had by some means to be conciliated, if possible, and
our lives had to be saved if that could be done without dishonor to
the Christian name.
After these events, a few weeks of dry weather began
to tell against the growth of their yams and bananas. The drought was
instantly ascribed to us and our God. The Natives far and near were
summoned to consider the matter in public assembly. Next day, Nouka,
the high chief, and Miaki, the war-chief, his nephew, came to inform
us that two powerful Chiefs had openly declared in that assembly that
if the Harbor people did not at once kill us or compel us to leave the
island they would, unless the rain came plentifully in the meantime,
summon all the Inland people and murder both our Chiefs and us. The
friendly Chiefs said, "Pray to your Jehovah God for rain, and do
not go far beyond your door for a time; we are all in greatest danger,
and if war breaks out we fear we cannot protect you."
But this friendliness was all pretense; they themselves,
being Sacred Men, professed to have the power of sending or withholding
rain, and tried to fix the blame of their discomfiture on us. The rage
of the poor ignorant Heathen was thereby fed against us. The Ever-Merciful,
however, again interposed on our behalf. On the following Sabbath, just
when we were assembling for worship, rain began to fall, and in great
abundance. The whole inhabitants believed, apparently, that it was sent
to save us in answer to our prayers; so they met again, and resolved
to allow us to remain on Tanna. Alas! on the other hand, the continuous
and heavy rains brought much sickness and fever in their train, and
again their Sacred Men pointed to us as the cause. Hurricane winds also
blew and injured their fruits and fruit-trees, -- another opportunity
for our enemies to lay the blame of everything upon the Missionaries
and their Jehovah God! The trial and the danger daily grew, of living
among a people so dreadfully benighted by superstition, and so easily
swayed by prejudice and passion.
The Natives of Tanna were well-nigh constantly at war
amongst themselves, every man doing that which was right in his own
eyes, and almost every quarrel ending in an appeal to arms. Besides
many battles far inland, one was fought beside our houses and several
around the Harbor. In these conflicts many men were bruised with clubs
and wounded with arrows, but few lives were lost, considering the savage
uproar and frenzy of the scene. In one case, of which we obtained certain
information, seven men were killed in an engagement; and, according
to Tannese custom, the warriors and their friends feasted on them at
the close of the fray, the widows of the slain being also strangled
to death, and similarly disposed of. Besides those who fell in war,
the Natives living in our quarter had killed and feasted on eight persons,
usually in sacrificial rites.
It is said that the habitual Cannibal's desire for human
flesh becomes so horrible that he has been known to disinter and feast
upon those recently buried. Two cases of this revolting barbarism were
reported as having occurred amongst the villagers living near us. On
another occasion the great chief Nouka took seriously unwell, and his
people sacrificed three women for his recovery! All such cruel and horrifying
practises, however, they tried to conceal from us; and many must have
perished in this way of whom we, though living at their doors, were
never permitted to hear.
Amongst the Heathen, in the New Hebrides, and especially
on Tanna, woman is the down-trodden slave of man. She is kept working
hard, and bears all the heavier burdens, while he walks by her side
with musket, club, or spear. If she offends him, he beats or abuses
her at pleasure. A savage gave his poor wife a severe beating in front
of our house and just before our eyes, while in vain we strove to prevent
it. Such scenes were so common that no one thought of interfering. Even
if the woman died in his hands, or immediately thereafter, neighbors,
took little notice, if any at all. And their children were so little
cared for, that my constant wonder was how any of them survived at all!
As soon as they are able to knock about, they are left practically to
care for themselves; hence the very small affection they show towards
their parents, which results in the aged who are unable to work being
neglected, starved to death, and sometimes even more directly and violently
destroyed.
A Heathen boy's education consists in being taught to
aim skillfully with the bow, throw the spear faultlessly at a mark,
to wield powerfully the club and tomahawk, and to shoot well with musket
and revolver when these can be obtained. He accompanies his father and
brothers in all the wars and preparations for war, and is diligently
initiated into all their cruelties and lusts, as the very prerequisite
of his being regarded and acknowledged to be a man and a warrior.
The girls have, with their mother and sisters, to toil and slave in
the village plantations, to prepare all the materials for fencing these
around, to bear every burden, and to be knocked about at will by the
men and boys.
Oh, how sad and degraded is the position of Woman where
the teaching of Christ is unknown, or disregarded though known! It is
the Christ of the Bible, it is His Spirit entering into humanity, that
has lifted Woman, and made her the helpmate and the friend of Man, not
his toy or his slave.
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