I must ask the reader to return to the scene described in the
introductory chapter, where we commenced hearing the extracts from the
sea journal of old John Harvey. It will be remembered that at our
family gathering at my father's house my brother John was the reader.
"Father," said my brother John, pausing awhile after he had finished
reading our uncle's journal, "God willing, and with your permission, I
will go and preach the gospel to the heathen of those Pacific Islands."
"Go, my son," said our father, promptly. "You shall have my prayers
that your preaching may not be in vain."
"What! go off at once, dear John, and leave us all?" exclaimed several
of the younger members of the family in chorus.
"I think not," answered John, calmly, with that sweet smile and gentle
voice which gained him so many hearts; "I have much to learn and much to
do before I shall be fitted for the office of a missionary. It is not a
task to be undertaken lightly and without consideration. When a man
charges among a host of foes, he must be armed at all points. A
missionary, too, should be like a light shining amid the surrounding
darkness; he should be able to show the heathen how to improve their
moral and physical, as well as their spiritual condition. He should be
fairly versed in the most useful mechanical arts, and possess especially
some knowledge of medicine and surgical skill."
"Well, it will take you a good many years before you can do all that,
and perhaps you will change your mind before the time comes," said one
of the younger ones, who did not, as indeed they could not be expected
to do, enter into John's thoughts and feelings on the subject.
I may say from that very moment John devoted all the energies of his
mind and body to preparing himself for the high and holy calling he had
undertaken. Long, I know, that night he knelt in prayer for grace, and
wisdom, and strength to direct, fit, and support him for the work.
Besides giving much time to his studies at the theological college, he
gained a considerable knowledge of medicine and surgery, and was to be
seen now with saw and plane labouring with a carpenter,--at the
blacksmith's anvil, with hammer in hand, forming a bolt, or hinge, or
axe,--and now at the gardener's, with hoe or spade, planting or digging,
or pruning. Many wondered how his mind could take in so many new
things, or his slight frame undergo so much labour. Few could
comprehend the spirit which sustained him. He grew indeed stronger and
more robust than any one would have supposed he would become.
I had since my childhood wished to go to sea, and my father allowed me
to follow the bent of my inclinations. I now and then thought that I
ought to go forth as a missionary also; but when I compared myself with
John, and considered his great superiority to me, I gave up the idea,
which I had mentioned to no one, as preposterous. My first two voyages
were to India and China, and when I came back from the second John was
still at college. I remember thinking that he was losing a great deal
of time in preparation. He, however, said that he was gaining time. "A
blunt tool can never properly perform the work. I am getting sharpened,
that I may be used to advantage," was his remark.
On my return home from my third voyage, he had gone to the Pacific.
Where he was to be stationed was not known. He had not gone alone, for
he had taken a wife to support and solace him. I had never seen her;
but I was told that her heart was bound up with his in the work in which
he was engaged.
Having now become a fair seaman, I determined to seek a berth as a mate.
An old shipmate and friend had just got command of a fine ship bound
round Cape Horn; and though I had had no previous intention of going to
the Pacific, I was glad to ship with him as third officer. My sisters
had copied out our uncle's journal for John; they now kindly performed
the same task for me. My ship was the _Golden Crown_ a South-sea
whaler, and Mr Richard Buxton was master, belonging to Liverpool.
Things had changed greatly since the days of my uncle John. We had a
definite object: no supercargo was required, and every spot we were
likely to visit was well known, and mapped down in the charts. We had
several passengers--two missionaries and their wives, newly married. I
thought them inferior to John; but they were good men, humble too, with
their hearts in the work. We had also another gentleman, a merchant or
speculator of some sort. What he was going to do I could never make
out. His heart was in his business, and he seemed to consider it of
greater importance than anything else. This made him look down with
undisguised contempt on the missionaries and their work, nor could he
comprehend their objects. "If people want to go to church, let them,"
he more than once remarked: "but I don't see why you two should be
gadding about the world to teach savages, who would know nothing about
chapels, nor wish to build them, if you would let them alone, and stay
quietly at home and mind a shop, or some other useful business."
The missionaries seldom answered his remarks. They continued
perseveringly studying the language of the natives among whom they were
to labour, and prayed with and expounded the Scriptures to all on board
who would join them. I am writing an account of certain events, and not
a journal, so I must suppose the Horn rounded, Chili visited, and
Raratonga, where we were to land the missionaries, reached. This was
the island whose very position was unknown when my uncle visited those
seas, and for long afterwards lay sunk in heathen darkness. It had now
become the very centre of Christianising influences, whence rays of
bright light were emanating and reaching the farthest islands of the
Pacific Ocean.
I have seldom seen a more attractive-looking spot than Raratonga
appeared as we came off it. In the centre rise mountains four thousand
feet above the level of the sea, with lower hills and beautiful valleys
around them, clothed with every variety of tropical tree and shrub. At
the foot of the hills is a taro swamp, and then a belt of rich country
covered with cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and banana trees; and then a broad
white sandy beach, and a band of blue water; and next a black broad
coral reef, like a gigantic wall, against which the swell of the Pacific
comes thundering, and rising majestically to the height of twenty feet,
curls over and breaks into masses of sparkling foam. The openings in
the reef are few and narrow, so that no ship can anchor near the
coral-girt isle. Canoes, however came off to us with natives on board,
well clothed, and gentle in their manners, who welcomed the missionaries
with a warmth and affection which must have been very gratifying to
them.
I accompanied the captain on shore to obtain supplies. We took with us
a chest of suitable goods for barter. An officer met us on the beach,
the appointed salesman of the place, and putting out his hand, said,
"Blessing on you." He then led us to the market-house, where we found
collected a large store of all the chief productions of the island,--
cocoa-nuts, bananas, potatoes, yams, pumpkins, hops, fowls, eggs, and
many other things. We selected all we required, payment was made, and
the salesman engaged four canoes to carry them off at once to the ship.
I was but a short time on shore, but I saw enough to wonder at.
Everybody was well clothed,--the men in jackets, shirts, waistcoats, and
trousers, with straw hats, and many had shoes and socks; the women in
gowns, shawls or mantles, and bonnets. There were many stone cottages,
neatly furnished, and others of a less enduring character. There was a
handsome stone church, and an institution, a substantial stone building,
for training native youths for the ministry, surrounded by cottages, the
residences of those who were married; while gardens and cultivated
fields were seen on every side. Such, I was assured, was the condition
of the whole island, there being ample church and school accommodation
for all the inhabitants, provided entirely by themselves. I saw also an
excellent printing-press, at which several editions of the whole Bible
had been printed, as well as commentaries, and numerous other works, and
issued well bound, almost the whole work being performed by native
youths, whose fathers were wild savage cannibals, as indeed were all the
natives when first visited by the Reverend J Williams, in 1823, and such
they would have remained, had not Christian missionaries arrived among
them.
I have fallen in with many seafaring men who have abused the
missionaries in no measured terms, and I have read books written by
educated men who have done the same, and I was not quite decided whether
they were right or wrong till I went to the Pacific. Then I discovered
why those men abused the missionaries. Where the missionary has
laboured faithfully, the natives will not desecrate the sabbath, and
will not pander to the gross desires of their civilised visitors. That
is the secret of their dislike to the missionaries.
Again, however, I have met many masters of whalers and numerous officers
of the Royal Navy who have spoken and written in the highest terms of
the missionaries, and acknowledged that the change which has been
wrought through their instrumentality has been most beneficial to the
cause of commerce as well as humanity; and that whereas where formerly,
if a ship was wrecked, the destruction of her crew was almost
inevitable, now through nearly the whole of Eastern, and a considerable
portion of Western Polynesia, they would receive succour, and sympathy,
and kindness. Still there are many--very many--dark places both in
Eastern and Western Polynesia, and no Christian soldier need sigh, like
Alexander, that no more worlds remain to be conquered.
During our voyage to Raratonga I learned a great deal more about the
progress made by the missionaries of the gospel in these seas, which,
while the _Golden Crown_ lies off the island, I will briefly describe.
The London Missionary Society was established in 1795, and in the
following year it sent forth, on board the _Duff_, a band of twenty-nine
missionaries, who landed at Tahiti, one of the Society Islands, March,
1797. Some went on to Tongatabu, the chief of the Friendly Islands, and
two to Christina, one of the Marquesas. The savage character of the
inhabitants of the two last-named groups prevented success. At
Tongatabu three missionaries were murdered, and the rest made their
escape, as did those at the Marquesas. At Tahiti they were received at
first in a friendly way by the chiefs and people; but for several years
very little real progress was made in instructing the people in the
truths of Christianity. Indeed, at one time all the missionaries, in
despair of success, in consequence of the unceasing wars of the natives,
sailed for New South Wales. Favourable reports, however, reaching them,
some returned, and from that time forward slow but steady progress was
made, though it was not till the year 1815 that Christianity was firmly
established, and idolatry almost completely abolished. The year 1817
was memorable on account of the arrival of two of the most distinguished
missionaries who have laboured among the isles of the Pacific--the
Reverend J Williams and the Reverend W Ellis.
Mr Williams, who combined a wonderful mechanical talent with the most
ardent zeal for the propagation of the gospel, soon after took up his
abode at the island of Raiatea where by his example he advanced the
natives in the arts of civilisation, at the same time that he instructed
them in the truths of Christianity. The natives of the Society Islands
having sincerely accepted Christianity, became anxious to spread the
good tidings among their heathen neighbours. A considerable number
prepared themselves for the office of teachers. Some went forth to the
Paumotu Group, or Low Archipelago, to the east; others to the Austral
Isles, to the south; and others, among whom was Papehia, accompanied Mr
Williams on a voyage to the Hervey group. His first visit was to
Aitutaki, where some native teachers were left, by whose means the
natives became Christians.
After paying a second visit to Aitutaki, Mr Williams sailed in search
of Raratonga, of the position of which even he was uncertain. He was
accompanied by Papehia, and by some natives of Raratonga, who had been
carried away by a trading vessel from their own island, and cruelly
deserted on Aitutaki. Among them was Tapaeru, the daughter of a chief,
who had become impressed with the truth of Christianity. At length
Raratonga was discovered, and the native teachers were landed; but had
it not been for the courage and constancy of Tapaeru, they and their
wives would have been destroyed on the first night they were on shore.
Sadly disconcerted, they returned next morning on board, and the
enterprise was about to be abandoned, when the devoted Papehia stepped
forward and volunteered to return on shore.
"Whether the natives spare me or kill me, I will land among them," he
exclaimed. "Jehovah is my Shepherd--I am in His hand." Clothed in a
shirt, with a few yards of calico in which he had wrapped some portions
of the holy Scriptures, the intrepid pioneer landed alone among a host
of heathen warriors, who stood on the reef with their spears poised
ready to hurl at him. He had not trusted in vain. He persevered, and
soon a powerful chief, Tinomana, turned to the truth, and burned his
idols.
Again Mr Williams came to Raratonga--this time to remain for many
months, to see Christianity established, to erect a large place of
worship, and to perform one of the most wonderful tasks I have ever
heard of a man single-handed doing. It was to build in three months a
schooner of eighty tons, without one single portion of her being in
readiness. He taught the natives to cut down, and saw, and plane the
wood; then he erected a bellows and forge for the smith's work, which he
performed himself; a lathe to turn the blocks, a rope-making machine,
and a loom to manufacture the sail-cloth. All the time he laboured, he
taught the wondering natives in the truths of Christianity. In three
months from the day the keel was laid, this prodigy of a vessel was
safely launched, and named "_The Messenger of Peace_." She proved a
seaworthy, trusty little vessel, and from island to island, across many
thousand miles of water, she was the means of conveying numerous
missionaries of the gospel of peace to their benighted inhabitants.
First, several islands of the Hervey group were visited by her, and then
she sailed for Raiatea; whence, after remaining some time, she once more
sailed with a party of English missionaries and native teachers on a
long voyage, calling at the Hervey Islands, then at Savage Island, where
an unsuccessful attempt was made to land teachers. Next, she called at
Tongatabu, already occupied by missionaries of the Wesleyan Missionary
Society. Then she steered north for Samoa, known as the Navigators
Islands. Here Mr Williams and his companions met with a most cordial
reception from the chiefs and people, and teachers were soon established
on several of the islands. The Wesleyans had before sent some
missionaries to Samoa, but in a truly Christian spirit, worthy of
imitation, they agreed to yield the group to the care of the London
Missionary Society, while they devoted their exclusive attention to the
Friendly and Fiji groups. They had made great progress among the
Friendly Islanders, and the king himself had become a Christian, when it
was resolved to attempt the conversion of the Fijians. Between Tonga
and Fiji a constant intercourse was kept up, and thus the way seemed
opened to carry the gospel to the latter group. There was also no lack
of interpreters, an important advantage at the first. The first
missionaries to Fiji were established on the island of Lakemba, where,
in spite of great opposition, they laboured on faithfully and steadily,
extending their efforts to other islands, till finally the Cross was
triumphant even at Mbau, the blood-stained capital of the group, where
the cannibal monarch himself, the dreaded Thakombau, became a Christian.
In the meantime, the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands had heard of
the gospel from English and American ships visiting the group. No
sooner did King Rihoriho ascend the throne than he decreed that idolatry
should be abandoned, because he had discovered that his idols could not
benefit him; but he knew little or nothing of the Christian religion.
At that very time, however, the American Board of Missions had sent out
a band of missionaries to them, who on arriving to their joy heard that
the idols of Hawaii were overthrown. They were, I believe, chiefly
Episcopalians.
While these glorious events were taking place in Eastern Polynesia, the
Church Missionary Society had sent forth missionaries among the fierce
cannibals of New Zealand. They were joined by several Wesleyans, who
together laboured with so much perseverance and success, that a very
large number of the inhabitants became acquainted with the truths of the
gospel. Numerous well-trained native teachers have gone forth from
Tahiti and Raratonga to the surrounding isles, and many of them to the
Loyalty and New Hebrides groups, and other parts of Western Polynesia.
Following this example, the Bishop of New Zealand has brought natives
from a large number of the islands in Western Polynesia, which he has
visited, and having instructed them, at a college he has established
near Auckland, is sending them back, to spread among their countrymen
the truths they have learned. Thus Christianity has begun to spread
among the dark-skinned races of those almost countless islands. To
carry the gospel to them had been one of the energetic Williams's
darling schemes; and it was while carrying it out that, landing at
Eromanga, he, with a young missionary, Mr Harris, was barbarously
murdered by the savage natives. Still the Society persevered, and
missionaries have been established at several of the islands, and many
of the natives have become Christians. Among these islands several
Presbyterian missionaries have been established, who have laboured
steadily and successfully in the Lord's vineyard. Thus several sections
of the Protestant Church have been engaged cordially together in
instructing the heathen nations of the Pacific in a knowledge of the
truth, and in many instances the Holy Spirit has richly blessed their
efforts. Still there are many hundred islands the inhabitants of which
remain in gross darkness, while a large portion of those who have been
converted require instruction, support, and the correction of errors.
Much is done through native agency, but still the superintendence of
well-educated and well-trained English missionaries is required at even
the most advanced settlements to act as overseers or superintendents.
Having now given a very brief account of the progress of Christianity
since those midnight hours when my uncle sailed in these seas, I may
commence my personal narrative. It must be understood that I have
somewhat anticipated events in the above account. At the time my
narrative commences, Christianity, though advancing, had not made the
great progress it has since done, and many of the islands which are now
entirely Christian, were then only partially so, heathen practices
prevailed, and the heathen chiefs had still influence and power. It is
daylight over these regions, but nearer the dawn than noon. Many a year
must pass away before the full blaze of the light of truth will shine
from east to west across the vast Pacific. I must not forget to mention
the impediments which the priests of Rome, chiefly Frenchmen, endeavour
to throw in the way of the progress of the pure faith in Christ. To
gain an influence with the natives they wink at many of their vices,
they teach them an idolatrous faith, and try to prejudice them against
the Protestants.
Having performed our contract at Raratonga, landing the missionaries and
their goods, we sailed for our fishing ground in the south, where we
were tolerably successful. Whale catching is very hard work, and at
length it became necessary to return north, to obtain fresh provisions
and to recruit our crew. Our captain had resolved also to try his
fortune on the fishing grounds in the neighbourhood of the New Hebrides
and the other Western Archipelago.
"A sail on the starboard bow," cried the look-out man, from aloft. I
was officer of the watch. We were far away from land, and meeting with
a strange sail is always a matter of interest in those seas. I went to
the mast-head with my glass, and made out that the sail was that of a
large double canoe. We kept away for her, not doubting that she had
been driven far out of her course. Of this the sad spectacle which met
our eyes as we drew near convinced us. On her deck were numerous
savages--some grouped together in the after part, others lying about in
different places, or leaning against the mast, and some apart in every
variety of attitude. Many appeared to be dead or in the last stage of
existence. Some few lifted up their hands imploringly towards us.
Others shook their spears and clubs, which they held in their
fast-failing grasp, possibly unconscious of what they were doing--the
ruling passion being, with them as with others, strong in death. The
ropes of their mat sail had given way, and it no longer urged them on.
It was necessary to approach them cautiously, for, though the savages
had but little strength left, they might, in their madness, attack us.
We lowered two boats, and, with our men well armed, pulled up to them.
As we got nearly alongside, some of the people in the after group rose
from their seats, and one endeavoured to drag himself towards us. He
was a young man--a light-coloured Indian--tall and handsome, and, unlike
most of the rest, clothed in jacket and trousers. The others moving,
showed us a young girl of the same light hue, reclining on a pile of
mats. She was clothed; her head was adorned with a wreath of coral, and
her arms and ankles with strings of beads. She struck me at once as
being very beautiful, though, as I saw her nearer, I perceived that her
eye had lost its lustre, and that her face was wan and emaciated. The
canoe was a very large one, capable of carrying a hundred and fifty
people, though not more than sixty were on board, and of that number
nearly half lay dead or dying on the deck. It was easy to divine what
had become of the rest. The young man made a sign that he would speak,
and pointing to the girl, he said, in a husky voice, "Save her, save
her! she Christian!" and then sunk exhausted on the deck.