_CONCERNING FRIENDS AND FOES._
First of Missionary Duties.—Maré and Noumea.—The French in
the Pacific.—The _Curaçoa_ Affair.—The “Gospel and Gunpowder”
Cry.—The Missionaries on their Defence.—The Mission Synod’s
Report.—The Shelling of the Tannese Villages.—Public Meeting and
Presbytery.—Fighting at Bay.—Federal Union in Missions.—A Fiery
Furnace at Geelong.—Results of Australian Tour.—New Hebrides Mission
Adopted by Colonies.
We went down to the Islands with the _Dayspring_ in 1865. The full
story of the years that had passed was laid before my Missionary
brethren at their Annual Synod. They resolved that permanent
arrangements must now be made for the Vessel’s support, and that I must
return to the Colonies and see these matured. This, meantime, appeared
to all of them the most clamant of all Missionary duties,—their very
lives, and the existence of the Mission itself, depending thereon. The
Lord seemed to leave me no alternative; and, with great reluctance, my
back was again turned away from the Islands. The _Dayspring_, doing
duty among the Loyalty Islands, left me, along with my dear wife, on
Maré, there to await an opportunity of getting to New Caledonia, and
thence to Sydney.
Detained there for some time, we saw the noble work done by Messrs.
Jones and Creagh, of the London Missionary Society, all being cruelly
undone by the tyranny and Popery of the French. One day, in an inland
walk, Mrs. Paton and I came on a large Conventicle in the bush.
They were teaching each other, and reading the Scriptures which the
Missionaries had translated into their own language, and which the
French had forbidden them to use. They cried to God for deliverance
from their oppressors! Missionaries were prohibited from teaching the
Gospel to the Natives without the permission of France; their books
were suppressed, and they themselves placed under military guard on
the island of Lifu. Even when, by Britain’s protest, the Missionaries
were allowed to resume their work, the French language was alone to
be used by them; and some, like Rev. J Jones (as far down as 1888),
were marched on board a Man-of-war, at half an hour’s notice, and,
without crime laid to their charge, forbidden ever to return to the
Islands. While, on the other hand, the French Popish Missionaries were
everywhere fostered and protected, presenting to the Natives as many
objects of idolatry as their own, and following, as is the custom
of the Romish Church in those Seas, in the wake of every Protestant
Mission, to pollute and to destroy.
Being detained also for two weeks on Noumea, we saw the state of
affairs under military rule. English Protestant residents, few in
number, appealed to me to conduct worship, but liberty could not be
obtained from the authorities, who hated everything English. But a
number of Protestant parents, some French, others English and German,
applied to me to baptize their children at their own houses. To have
asked permission would have been to court refusal, and to falsify my
position. I laid the matter before the Lord, and baptized them all.
Within two days the Private Secretary of the Governor arrived with an
interpreter, and began to inquire of me,—
“Is it true that you have been baptizing here?”
I replied quite frankly, “It is.”
“We are sent to demand on whose authority.”
“On the authority of my Great Master.”
“When did you get that authority?”
“When I was licensed and ordained to preach the Gospel, I got that
authority from my Great Master.”
Here a spirited conversation followed betwixt the two in French, and
they politely bowed, and left me.
Very shortly they returned, saying,—
“The Governor sends his compliments, and he wishes the honour of a
visit from you at Government House at three o’clock, if convenient for
you.”
I returned my greeting, and said that I would have pleasure in waiting
upon his Excellency at the appointed hour. I thought to myself that I
was in for it now, and I earnestly cried for Divine guidance.
He saluted me graciously as “de great Missionary of de New Hebrides.”
He conversed in a very friendly manner about the work there, and seemed
anxious to find any indication as to the English designs. I had to
deal very cautiously. He spoke chiefly through the interpreter; but,
sometimes dismissing him, he talked to me as good, if not better,
English himself. He was eager to get my opinions as to how Britain
got and retained her power over the Natives. After a very prolonged
interview, we parted without a single reference to the baptisms or to
religious services!
That evening the Secretary and interpreter waited upon us at our Inn,
saying,—
“The Governor will have pleasure in placing his yacht and crew at your
disposal to-morrow. Mrs. Paton and you can sail all round, and visit
the Convict island, and the Government gardens, where lunch will be
prepared for you.”
It was a great treat to us indeed. The crew were in prison garments,
but all so kind to us. By Convict labour all the public works seemed to
be carried on, and the Gardens were most beautiful. The carved work in
bone, ivory, cocoa-nuts, shells, etc., was indeed very wonderful. We
bought a few specimens, but the prices were beyond our purse. It was a
strange spectacle—these things of beauty and joy, and beside them the
chained gangs of fierce and savage Convicts, kept down only by bullet
and sword!
Thanking the Governor for his exceeding kindness, I referred to their
Man-of-war about to go to Sydney, and offered to pay full passage
money if they would take me, instead of leaving me to wait for a
“trader.” He at once granted my request, and arranged that we should
be charged only at the daily cost for the sailors. At his suggestion,
however, I took a number of things on board with me, and presented them
to be used at the Cabin table. We were most generously treated,—the
Captain giving up his own room to my wife and myself, as they had no
special accommodation for passengers.
Noumea appeared to me at that time to be wholly given over to
drunkenness and vice, supported as a great Convict settlement by
the Government of France, and showing every extreme of reckless,
worldly pleasure, and of cruel, slavish toil. When I saw it again,
three-and-twenty years thereafter, it showed no signs of progress for
the better. In his book on the French Colonies, J. Bonwick, F.R.G.S.,
says that even yet Noumea and its dependencies contain only 1,068
Colonists from France. If there be a God of justice and of love, His
blight cannot but rest on a nation whose pathway is stained with
corruption and steeped in blood, as is undeniably the case with France
in the Pacific Isles.
Arriving at Sydney, I was at once plunged into a whirlpool of horrors.
H.M.S. _Curaçoa_ had just returned from her official trip to the
Islands, in which the Commodore, Sir William Wiseman, had thought it
his duty to inflict punishment on the Natives for murder and robbery
of Traders and others. On these Islands, as in all similar cases,
the Missionaries had acted as interpreters, and of course always used
their influence on the side of mercy, and in the interests of peace.
But Sydney, and indeed Australia and the Christian World, were thrown
into a ferment just a few days before our arrival, by certain articles
in a leading publication there, and by the pictorial illustrations of
the same. They were professedly from an officer on board Her Majesty’s
ship, and the sensation was increased by their apparent truthfulness
and reality. Tanna was the scene of the first event, and a series was
to follow in succeeding numbers. The _Curaçoa_ was pictured lying off
the shore, having the _Dayspring_ in tow. The Tannese warriors were
being blown to pieces by shot and shell, and lay in heaps on the bloody
coast. And the Missionaries were represented as safe in the lee of the
Man-of-war, directing the onslaught, and gloating over the carnage.
Without a question being asked or a doubt suggested, without a voice
being raised in fierce denial that such men as these Missionaries were
known to be could be guilty of such conduct—men who had jeoparded their
lives for years on end rather than hurt one hair on a Native’s head—a
cry of execration, loud and deep and even savage, arose from the Press,
and was apparently joined in by the Church itself. The common witticism
about the “Gospel and Gunpowder” headed hundreds of bitter and scoffing
articles in the journals; and, as we afterwards learned, the shocking
news had been telegraphed to Britain and America, losing nothing in
force by the way, and while filling friends of Missions with dismay,
was dished up day after day with every imaginable enhancement of
horror for the readers of the secular and infidel Press. As I stepped
ashore at Sydney, I found myself probably the best-abused man in all
Australia, and the very name of the New Hebrides Mission stinking in
the nostrils of the People.
The gage of battle had been thrown and fell at my feet. Without one
moment’s delay, I lifted it in the name of my Lord and of my maligned
brethren. That evening my reply was in the hands of the editor, denying
that such battles ever took place, retailing the actual facts of which
I had been myself an eye-witness, and intimating legal prosecution
unless the most ample and unequivocal withdrawal and apology were
at once published. The Newspaper printed my rejoinder, and made
satisfactory amends for having been imposed upon and deceived. I waited
upon the Commodore, and appealed for his help in redressing this
terrible injury to our Mission. He informed me that he had already
called his officers to account, but that all denied any connection
with the articles or the pictures. He had little doubt, all the
same, that some one on board was the prompter, who gloried in the
evil that was being done to the cause of Christ. He offered every
possible assistance, by testimony or otherwise, to place all the facts
before the Christian public and to vindicate out Missionaries.
The outstanding facts are best presented in the following extract from
the official report of the Mission Synod:—
“When the New Hebrides Missionaries were assembled at their annual
meeting on Aneityum, H.M.S. _Curaçoa_, Sir Wm. Wiseman, Bart., C.B.,
arrived in the harbour to investigate many grievances of white men and
trading vessels among the Islands. A petition having been previously
presented to the Governor in Sydney, as drawn out by the Revs. Messrs.
Geddie and Copeland, after the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon on
Erromanga, requesting an investigation into the sad event, and the
removal of a Sandal-wood trader, a British subject, who had excited the
Natives to it,—the Missionaries gave the Commodore a memorandum on the
loss of life and property that had been sustained by the Mission on
Tanna, Erromanga, and Efatè. He requested the Missionaries to supply
him with interpreters, and requested the _Dayspring_ to accompany him
with them. The request was at once acceded to. Mr. Paton was appointed
to act as interpreter for Tanna, Mr. Gordon for Erromanga, and Mr.
Morrison for Efatè.
“At each of these Islands, the Commodore summoned the principal Chiefs
near the harbours to appear before him, and explained to them that his
visit was to inquire into the complaints British subjects had made
against them, and to see if they had any against British subjects; and
when he had found out the truth he would punish those who had done
the wrong and protect those who had suffered wrong. The Queen did not
send him to compel them to become Christians, or to punish them for not
becoming Christians. She left them to do as they liked in this matter;
but she was very angry at them because they had encouraged her subjects
to live amongst them, sold them land and promised to protect them, and
afterwards murdered some of them and attempted to murder others, and
stolen and destroyed their property; that the inhabitants of these
islands were talked of over the whole world for their treachery,
cruelty, and murders; and that the Queen would no longer allow them to
murder or injure her subjects, who were living peaceably among them
either as Missionaries or Traders. She would send a ship of war every
year to inquire into their conduct, and if any white man injured any
Native they were to tell the captain of the Man-of-war, and the white
man would be punished as fast as the black man.”
After spending much time, and using peaceably every means in his power
in trying to get the guilty parties on Tanna, and not succeeding,
he shelled two villages,—having the day before informed the natives
that he would do so, and advising to have all women, children, and
sick removed, which in fact they did. He also sent a party on shore
to destroy canoes, houses, etc. The Tannese were astonished, beyond
all precedent, by the terrific display of destructive power that was
exhibited in the harbour. It was found impossible to reach the actual
murderers; in these circumstances the Commodore’s object was to save
life and limit himself to the destruction of property, and so impress
the Natives with some idea of those tremendous powers of destruction,
which lie slumbering in a Man-of-war, and which can be awakened and
brought into action at any moment.
On Erromanga no lives were lost. On Tanna one man was wounded; but, it
was reported, three persons were afterwards killed by the bursting of a
shell, when the natives were stripping off its lead to make balls. It
is matter of deep regret that one man of the party sent on shore was
shot by a Native concealed in a tree. Against orders he had wandered
from his party, and was in a plantation standing eating a stick of
sugar-cane when he was shot.
As I had orders to act as interpreter for the Commodore on Tanna, I
will relate what happened there. From day to day, for three continuous
days, he besought the Natives to comply with his wishes. He warned them
that if they did not, he would shell the two villages of the Chief who
murdered the last white man at Port Resolution, and destroy his canoes.
He also explained to them, that all who retired to a large bay in the
land of Nowar, the Christian Chief (if Christian he can be called),
would be safe, as he had protected white men from being murdered;
and now he would protect his property and all under his care on this
land. The whole of these inhabitants, young and old, went to Nowar’s
land and were safe, while they witnessed what a Man-of-war could do
in punishing murderers. But, before the hour approached, multitudes
of Tannese warriors had assembled on the beach, painted and armed and
determined to fight the Man-of-war! When the Commodore gave orders to
prepare for action, I approached him and said with tears,—
“O Commodore, surely you are not going to shell these poor and foolish
Tannese!” Sharply, but not unkindly, he replied,—
“You are here as interpreter, not as my adviser. I alone am
responsible. You see their defiant attitude. If I leave without
punishing them now, no vessel or white man will be safe at this
harbour. You can go on board your own ship, till I require your
services again.”
Indeed he had many counts against them, and his instructions were
explicit. Shortly before that, Nouka, the Chief of one of the villages,
had murdered a trader with a bar of iron, and another was murdered at
his instigation. Miaki, the Chief of another, had for many years been
ringleader of all mischief and murder on that side of the island. The
Chief of a village on the other side of the bay was at that moment
assembled with his men on the high ground within our view, and dancing
to a war song in defiance!
The Commodore caused a shell to strike the hill and explode with
terrific fury just underneath the dancers. The earth and the bush were
torn and thrown into the air above and around them; and next moment
the whole host were seen disappearing over the brow of the hill. Two
shots were sent over the heads of the warriors on the shore, with
terrific noise and uproar; in an instant, every man was making haste
for Nowar’s land, the place of refuge. The Commodore then shelled
the villages, and destroyed their property. Beyond what I have here
recorded, absolutely nothing was done.
We return then for a moment to Sydney. The public excitement made
it impossible to open my lips in the promotion of our Mission. The
Revs. Drs. Dunsmore Lang and Steel, along with Professor Smith of the
University, waited on the Commodore, and got an independent version
of the facts. They then called a meeting on the affair by public
advertisement. Without being made acquainted with the results of
their investigations, I was called upon to give my own account of the
_Curaçoa’s_ visit and of the connection of the Missionaries therewith.
They then submitted the Commodore’s statement, given by him in writing.
He exonerated the Missionaries from every shadow of blame and from all
responsibility. In the interests of mercy as well as justice, and to
save life, they had acted as his interpreters; and there all that they
had to do with the _Curaçoa_ began and ended. All this was published in
the Newspapers next day, along with the speeches of the three deputies.
The excitement began to subside. But the poison had been lodged in many
hearts, and the ejectment of it was a slow and difficult process.
The Presbytery of Sydney held a special meeting, and I was summoned
to appear before it. Dr. Geddie of Aneityum was also present, being
then in the Colonies. Whether the tide of abuse had turned my dear
fellow-Missionary’s head, I cannot tell; but, on being asked to make a
statement, he condemned the Missionaries for acting as interpreters,
and wound up with a dramatic exclamation that “rather than have had
anything to do with the _Curaçoa’s_ visit he would have had his hand
burned off in the fire.”
The Court applauded. The Moderator then said: “Mr. Paton has heard the
noble speech of Dr. Geddie. Let him now solemnly promise that, under no
circumstances, will he have anything to do with a Man-of-war. Then we
may see our way again to stand by him, and help him in his Mission.”
And in this spirit, he appealed to me.
On rising, I explained that I appeared before them only out of
brotherly courtesy, as their Presbytery had no jurisdiction over me,
and I spoke to the following effect:—
“I am indeed a Missionary to the Heathen, but also a British subject.
I have never requested redress from Man-of-war, or any civil power;
but, like Paul, I reserve my full rights, if need be, to appeal unto
Cæsar. If any member of this Presbytery has his house robbed, as a
good citizen he seeks redress and protection. But on Tanna I lost my
earthly all, and sought no redress from man. The Tannese Chiefs,
indeed, who were friendly, sent a Petition by me to the Governor of
Sydney; which, however, was never presented to him at all, fearing
that thereby indirectly I might bring punishment upon my poor deluded
Tannese. Others were more convinced as to the path of duty, or less
considerate of the Natives. Their Petition I now take from my pocket
and submit it to you. It was presented to the Governor, Sir John Young,
after the death of the Gordons, and prayed for a judicial investigation
as to their murders. As soon it was known of, a counter Petition in the
interests of the Traders was immediately got up and signed by many of
the great merchants of Sydney, protesting against any such visit to the
Islands by a Man-of-war. This Petition, then, the original and only one
ever presented in favour of a visit from Her Majesty’s Commodore, was
drawn up and is signed—by whom?”
On Dr. Geddie acknowledging that he had written and signed that
Petition, but that it prayed only for an _investigation_, I proceeded,—
“Surely a judicial investigation like this implied all the after
consequences, if once undertaken! At any rate, this is the _only_
Petition sent from the Missionaries, and it was sent unknown to me.
Finally, I must respectfully inform the Presbytery that I will never
make such a promise as the Moderator has indicated. I shall remain
free to act in humanity and in justice as God and conscience guide
me. I believe I saved both life and property by interpreting for the
Commodore, and making things mutually intelligible to him and to the
Natives. I have done as clear a Christian duty as I ever did in my
life. I am not ashamed. I offer no apology. I do not believe that in
the long run, when all facts are known, my conduct in this affair can
possibly injure either myself, or, what is more, the Name of my Lord.”
Perhaps my words were not too conciliatory. But excitement so blinded
many friends, that I had to fight as if at bay, or get no hearing and
no justice. The Presbytery hesitated, and closed without coming to
any resolution. All the members of it showed me thereafter the same
respect as ever before. It was gratifying to learn in due course that
all the Churches supporting our Mission, after having independently
investigated into the facts, justified the course adopted by us,—Nova
Scotia alone excepted. Yet two of her own Missionaries had also to
interpret for that Man-of-war, exactly as I had done, nor did I ever
hear that any rebuke was administered to them. Feeling absolutely
conscious that I had only done my Christian duty, I left all results in
the hands of my Lord Jesus, and pressed forward in His blessed work.
More than one dear personal friend had to be sacrificed over this
painful affair. A Presbyterian Minister, and a godly elder and his
wife, all most excellent and well-beloved, at whose houses I had been
received as a brother, intimated to me that owing to this case of the
_Curaçoa_ their friendship and mine must entirely cease in this world.
And it did cease; but my esteem never changed. I had learned not to
think unkindly of friends, even when they manifestly misunderstood my
actions. Nor would these things merit being recorded here, were it not
that they may be at once a beacon and a guide. God’s people are still
belied. And the multitude are still as ready as ever to cry, “Crucify!
Crucify!”
The scheme for meeting the yearly cost of the _Dayspring_, that had
already been tentatively set a-going, had now to be matured and
permanently organized. In this my dear friend Dr. J. Dunsmore Lang,
well acquainted with the resources of all the Churches, was our
judicious counsellor. We proposed that Victoria should raise £500; New
South Wales and New Zealand, £200 each; Tasmania, Queensland, and South
Australia, £100 each, and £250 each from Novia Scotia and Scotland.
Tasmania, South Australia, and Queensland fell a little short of their
proportion; Sydney, Scotland, and Novia Scotia met their claims; and
Victoria and New Zealand exceeded them, and made up for deficiency
in others. This has ever since been done in great measure, though
not exclusively, by the Sabbath Scholars of the Churches, through
their _Dayspring_ “Mission-boxes.” In organizing and maturing this
scheme, I visited and addressed almost every Presbyterian Congregation
and Sabbath School in New South Wales and Victoria, South Australia
and Tasmania; and Ministers and Superintendents, with scarcely an
exception, came to be bound together in a true federal union in support
of our Mission and our Ship.
For the first three years, when everything was new, the _Dayspring_
cost us about £1,400 per annum; but since then she has cost on an
average little short of £2,000 over all. There has too often been a
floating debt of £300 or more, which has given us great anxiety; but
the Lord has sent what was required, and enabled us to keep her sailing
with the Gospel and His servants amongst these Islands, free of any
actual burden,—His own pure messenger of Good Tidings, unstained with
the polluting and bloody associations of the foul-winged trading Ships!
Another fiery furnace awaited me on this tour, when I reached Geelong.
One of the prominent Ministers refused to shake hands. An agent of the
London Missionary Society had informed them “that the £3,000 paid for
the _Dayspring_ had been thrown away, that the Vessel was useless,
fitted only for carrying stores, and having no accommodation for
passengers; and that on her second trip to the Islands our Missionaries
had to wait and go down by the _John Williams_.” It was an abiding
sorrow to me, that local misrepresentations gave the Societies an
appearance of conflict, whereof the parent organizations knew nothing
whatever. But, for all the interests at stake, facts _had_ to be made
known. Several Congregations had resolved to withdraw from the support
of our Mission; and several Ministers at Ballarat, and elsewhere, were
by similar accounts prejudiced against us.
I demanded an opportunity of stating the facts, and vindicating myself
and others, in a public meeting duly called for the purpose. They at
once agreed. I wrote once and a second time to the Agent, but got no
answer, only an evasive note. I went by rail and saw him. He would give
no explanation, or authority for his statements, but practically put me
out, on a pretence of there being sickness at the house. Nevertheless,
in a spirit of determined brotherhood, I resolved only to explain facts
about the _Dayspring_, and not to drag in the name of that great sister
Society which he so poorly served.
There was a crowded meeting. The Minister who refused to shake hands
was voted to the chair. I was called upon to explain my position. By
this time I had communicated with the _Dayspring_ officials, and,
producing the log-book, I read from it, regarding the voyage referred
to, the following:—
“When the _Dayspring_ sailed from Sydney for the Islands, she had as
passengers on board, Rev. Mr. Paton, Mrs. Paton, and child, Rev. Mr.
McNair and Mrs. McNair, Rev. Mr. Niven and Mrs. Niven, Mrs. Ella and
child, of the London Missionary Society, Captain Fraser, Mrs. Fraser,
child, and servant, besides all the year’s Mission supplies for both
the New Hebrides and the Loyalty Islands. And on reaching these
Islands, as the French Government had ordered the removal of all the
Eastern Teachers of the London Missionary Society from that group,
the _Dayspring_ had to undertake an unexpected voyage of three months
from the Loyalties to Samoa, Rarotonga, etc., with Rev. Mr. and Mrs.
Sleigh of the London Missionary Society, and sixty-one of their Native
Teachers, who, along with their families, were all in health landed
safely on their respective islands, as passengers by the _Dayspring_.”
I also read a corroborative narrative from Captain Fraser, written from
memory, as he was at that time far inland in the country, and had not
access to the records of his vessel. And my statement closed to this
effect,—
“It must now be manifest to all, that the damaging reports circulated
in Geelong are more than replied to. By the Captain, and from the
log, they are proved to be false, both as to capacity for goods and
passengers. At present the _Dayspring_ is everything that could be
desired for the furtherance of our Mission. If _you_ are satisfied, I
wish to leave this painful subject, and proceed with my proper work.
But I am prepared to answer any question from the Chairman or the
meeting, and to give the fullest information.”
The round of applause that followed was my complete vindication. The
Chairman gave me his hand, and pledged his utmost support. He proposed
the following resolution, which was carried with acclamation,—
“That this meeting, having heard Mr. Paton with satisfaction, pledges
the Churches, Sabbath Schools, and friends in Geelong, henceforth to
support the _Dayspring_ and the New Hebrides Mission to the utmost of
their power, and to receive and encourage him as much as ever in his
work on behalf of the Mission.”
The special object of my visit was then explained, and several
Ministers and others spoke heartily in furtherance of the proposals for
the permanent support of the _Dayspring_ through the Sabbath Schools.
All battles through mere misunderstandings are painful, but especially
those amongst Christian brethren. Still they had to be fought, never
laying aside the weapons of the Cross; and God has overruled them for
the promotion of His Kingdom in a way which makes all Catholic-spirited
followers of the Lord Jesus equally rejoice.
On this tour, in Victoria alone, I spent 250 days and addressed 265
meetings, representing 180 Congregations and their Sabbath Schools. The
proportion was on the same scale in the other Colonies visited. And all
these arrangements I had to make for myself, by painful and laborious
correspondence night and day. But the Lord’s blessing was abundantly
vouchsafed. Victoria gave £1,954 19_s._ 3_d_; Tasmania, £76 12_s._
7_d._; South Australia, £222 16_s._; New South Wales, £249; being a
total of £2,503 7_s._ 10_d._, besides £220 in yearly donations of £5,
promised for the maintenance of the Native Teachers.
In 1862 I appealed to the Victorian General Assembly to take up the
New Hebrides Mission as their own. The appeal was followed by Rev.
J. Clark, Convener of Heathen Missions Committee in 1863, getting
the Assembly to accept the proposal. And in 1865 the Rev. Dr. A. J.
Campbell carried our scheme, and the Assembly pledged itself to give
£500 per annum for the support of the _Dayspring_, from the offerings
of the Sabbath Schools. New Zealand and other Colonies soon followed
Victoria’s example, until all were pledged to uphold the New Hebrides
Mission. For my dear friend and old College companion, Rev. Joseph
Copeland, had visited at the same time Queensland and New Zealand, and
had received from them respectively £101 2_s._ 4_d._ and £580; so that
all the Churches adopted our scheme for the permanent support of the
_Dayspring_; and the Mission fund had now a fair balance on the right
side.
At the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in
1866, I was adopted—being officially transferred from the Church in
Scotland—as the first Missionary from the Presbyterian Churches of
Australia to the New Hebrides. Dr. Geddie would also have been adopted
at the same time, but Novia Scotia could not agree to part with its
first and most highly-honoured Missionary. The Victorian Church
therefore engaged the Rev. James Cosh, M.A., on his way out from
Scotland, as its other agent, in the hope that we two might be able to
re-open and carry on the Tanna Mission. In their _Christian Review_ of
1867, they said:—
“The idea which we in Victoria had, when the Missionaries left us
in July last was, that Messrs. Paton and Cosh would be associated on
Tanna, and labour for its evangelization, under the special auspices
as well as at the cost of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria; but Mr.
Cosh, having chosen the station at Pango on Efatè, where the Natives
were more prepared for the Gospel, and where life and property were
safe, went to spend a year’s novitiateship with Mr. and Mrs. Morrison
on Efatè. Mr. Paton would have fain gone back to Tanna, but the
Missionaries generally feared that no one European life would have been
safe at the time on Tanna. They therefore, and no doubt wisely, sent
Mr. Paton to the small and less savage, but not less Heathen, Island of
Aniwa.”
It was indeed one of the bitterest trials of my life, not to be able to
return and settle down at once on dear old Tanna; but I could not go
alone, against the decided opposition of all the other Missionaries—Dr.
Inglis, however, at last sympathizing most strongly with my views. I
went, as will appear hereafter, to Aniwa, the nearest island to the
scene of my former woes and perils, in the hope that God would soon
open up my way and enable me to return to blood-stained Tanna.
My heart bleeds for the Heathen, and I long to see a Teacher for every
tribe and a Missionary for every island of the New Hebrides. The hope
still burns that I may witness it; and then I could gladly rest.