ATTACKED WITH CLUBS.
THE 1st January 1861 was a New Year's Day ever to be remembered. Mr. and
Mrs. Johnston, Abraham, and I, had spent nearly the whole time in a kind
of solemn yet happy festival. Anew in a holy covenant before God, we
unitedly consecrated our lives and our all to the Lord Jesus, giving
ourselves away to His blessed service for the conversion of the Heathen
on the New Hebrides. After evening Family Worship, Mr. and Mrs. Johnston
left my room to go to their own house, only some ten feet distant; but
he returned to inform me that there were two men at the window, armed
with huge clubs, and having black painted faces. Going out to them and
asking them, what they wanted, they replied, "Medicine for a sick boy."
With difficulty I persuaded them to come in and get it. At once, it
flashed upon me, from their agitation and their disguise of paint, that
they had come to murder us. Mr. Johnston had also accompanied us into
the house. Keeping my eye constantly fixed on them, I prepared the
medicine and offered it. They refused to receive it, and each man
grasped his killing-stone. I faced them firmly and said, "You see that
Mr. Johnston is now leaving, and you too must leave this room for
to-night. To-morrow, you can bring the boy or come for the medicine."
Seizing their clubs, as if for action, they showed unwillingness to
withdraw, but I walked deliberately forward and made as if to push them
out, when both turned and began to leave.
Mr. Johnston had gone in front of them and was safely out. But he bent
down to lift a little kitten that had escaped at the open door; and at
that moment one of the savages, jerking in behind, aimed a blow with his
huge club, in avoiding which Mr. Johnston fell with a scream to the
ground. Both men sprang towards him, but our two faithful dogs
ferociously leapt in their faces and saved his life. Rushing out, but
not fully aware of what had occurred, I saw Mr. Johnston trying to raise
himself, and heard him cry, "Take care these men have tried to kill me,
and they will kill you!"
Facing them sternly I demanded, "What is it that you want? He does not
understand your language. What do you want? Speak with me."
Both men, thereon, raised their great clubs and made to strike me; but
quick as lightning these two dogs sprang at their faces and baffled
their blows. One dog was badly bruised, and the ground received the
other blow that would have launched me into Eternity. The best dog was a
little cross-bred retriever with terrier blood in him, splendid for
warning us of approaching dangers, and which had already been the means
of saving my life several times. Seeing how matters stood, I now hounded
both dogs furiously upon them, and the two savages fled. I shouted after
them, "Remember, Jehovah God sees you and will punish you for trying to
murder His servants!"
In their flight, a large body of men, who had come eight or ten miles to
assist in the murder and plunder, came slipping here and there from the
bush and joined them, fleeing too. Verily, "the wicked flee, when no man
pursueth." David's experience and assurance came home to us, that
evening, as very real:--"God is our refuge and our strength...therefore
we will not fear."
I, now accustomed to such scenes on Tanna, retired to rest and slept
soundly; but my dear fellow-laborer, as I afterwards learned, could not
sleep for one moment. His pallor and excitement continued next day,
indeed for several days; and after that, though he was naturally lively
and cheerful, I never saw him smile again.
For that morning, 1st January 1861, the following entry was found in his
Journal: "To-day, with a heavy heart and a feeling of dread, I know not
why, I set out on my accustomed wanderings amongst the sick. I hastened
back to get the Teacher and carry Mr. Paton to the scene of distress. I
carried a bucket of water in one hand and medicine in the other; and so
we spent a portion of this day endeavoring to alleviate their
sufferings, and our work had a happy effect also on the minds of
others." In another entry, on 22d December, he wrote: "Measles are
making fearful havoc amongst the poor Tannese. As we pass through the
villages, mournful scenes meet the eye; young and old prostrated on the
ground, showing all these painful symptoms which accompany loathsome and
malignant diseases. In some villages few are left able to prepare food,
or to carry drink to the suffering and dying. How pitiful to see the
sufferers destitute of every comfort, attention, and remedy that would
ameliorate their suffering or remove their disease! As I think of the
tender manner in which we are nursed in sickness, the many remedies
employed to give relief, with the comforts and attention bestowed upon
us, my heart sickens, and I say, Oh my ingratitude and the ingratitude
of Christian people!"
Having, as above recorded, consecrated our lives anew to God on the
first day of January, I was, up till the 16th of the month, accompanied
by Mr. Johnston and sometimes also by Mrs. Johnston on my rounds in the
villages amongst the sick, and they greatly helped me. But by an unhappy
accident I was laid aside when most sorely needed. When adzing a tree
for housebuilding I observed that Mahanan, the war Chief's brother, had
been keeping too near me, and that he carried a tomahawk in his hand;
and, in trying both to do my work and to keep an eye on him, I struck my
ankle severely with the adze. He moved off quickly, saying, "I did not
do that," but doubtless rejoicing at what had happened. The bone was
badly hurt, and several of the blood-vessels cut. Dressing it as well as
I could, and keeping it constantly soaked in cold water, I had to
exercise the greatest care. In this condition, amidst great sufferings,
I was sometimes carried to the villages to administer medicine to the
sick, and to plead and pray with the dying.
On such occasions, in this mode of transit even, the conversations that
I had with dear Mr. Johnston were most solemn and greatly refreshing. He
had, however, scarcely ever slept since the 1st of January, and during
the night of the 16th he sent for my bottle of laudanum. Being severely
attacked with ague and fever, I could not go to him, but sent the
bottle, specifying the proper quantity for a dose, but that he quite
understood already. He took a dose for himself, and gave one also to his
wife, as she too suffered from sleeplessness. This he repeated three
nights in succession, and both of them obtained a long, sound and
refreshing sleep. He came to my bedside, where I lay in the ague-fever,
and said with great animation, amongst other things, "I have had such a
blessed sleep, and feel so refreshed! What kindness in God to provide
such remedies for suffering man!"
At midday his dear wife came to me crying, "Mr. Johnston has fallen
asleep, so deep that I cannot awake him."
My fever had reached the worst stage, but I struggled to my feet got to
his bedside, and found him in a state of coma, with his teeth fixed in
tetanus. With great difficulty we succeeded in slightly rousing him;
with a knife, spoon, and pieces of wood, we forced his teeth open, so as
to administer an emetic with good effects, and also other needful
medicines. For twelve hours, we had to keep him awake by repeated cold
dashes in the face, by ammonia, and by vigorously moving him about. He
then began to speak freely; and next day he rose and walked about a
little. For the two following days, he was sometimes better and
sometimes worse; but we managed to keep him up till the morning of the
21st, when he again fell into a state of coma, from which we failed to
rouse him. At two o'clock in the afternoon he fell asleep--another
Martyr for the testimony of Jesus in those dark and trying Isles,
leaving his young wife in indescribable sorrow, which she strove to bear
with Christian resignation. Having made his coffin and dug his grave, we
two alone at sunset laid him to rest beside my own dear wife and child,
close by the Mission House.