Of Welsh extraction, and respectable though humble parentage, the pioneer
and martyr of Polynesia, John Williams, was born at Tottenham High Court,
London, in the year 1796. His parents were Nonconformists, and he was
educated at a "commercial" school at Edmonton, where the teaching did not
aim at much beyond writing and accounts, all that was supposed, at that
time, to be needful for a young tradesman. The chief point remembered of
his childhood was an aptitude and handiness which caused all little
breakages to be kept for John to repair,--a small quality, but one of no
small importance in the life of a missionary, who often finds ready
resource essential to safety and to influence.
His mother was a good and religious woman, whose one great purpose in
choosing a situation was to place him in a family where he might be
influenced for good; and she was fortunate in finding a furnishing
ironmonger whose care of his apprentices exactly met her views. While
serving his time, John Williams was observed to delight in the hard
practical work of the forge far more than in the easier and more popular
employments of the shop, and he was always eager to be sent out to
execute repairs, a task that was rather despised by his companions. He
was not regarded as a religious youth till he was about eighteen; he
considered that a serious direction had been given to his mind one Sunday
evening, when his master's wife, finding him just about to enter a tea-
garden with some idle companions, persuaded him to come with her to
chapel, where he heard an impressive sermon that gave a colour to his
life.
After this, distinct habits of piety were formed, Williams was admitted
to full membership at the chapel called the Tabernacle, and, together
with others of the more earnest young men of the congregation, formed a
society called "The Youths' Class," one of those associations which,
under whatever form, have, in all ages of Christianity, been found a most
powerful and salutary means of quickening, uniting, and strengthening the
young by the sense of fellowship. The lads met every Monday evening for
discussion, and every eighteenth Monday was devoted to special prayer.
The minister of the chapel did not naturally preside, but would often
look in, say a few words on the subject in hand, and thus keep watch that
the debates were properly conducted.
It was through this pastor, Mr. Wilks, that John Williams first imbibed
his interest in the missionary cause,--an interest that gradually grew
upon him so much, that in his twentieth year he decided upon devoting
himself to the task. Good Mr. Wilks freely gave the young ironmonger
assistance in supplying the deficiencies of his education, and in July
1816 he was presented to the directors of the London Missionary Society,
and passed an examination, after which he was accepted, before he was out
of his apprenticeship. According to rule, so young and so insufficiently
instructed a man would ordinarily have had some years of training before
actually undertaking to labour among the heathen, but there was at the
moment an urgent call for aid from various branches, and it was decided,
by a special vote of the committee, to send him out as soon as possible
to the South Sea Islands. His master willingly released him from the
seven months that remained of his term; nor had his time of
apprenticeship been by any means wasted, for the mechanical skill he had
acquired was of great importance to his success as a civilizer. Marriage
was always recommended to the missionaries of the Baptist Societies, and
Williams's fate was no sooner decided than he chose Mary Channer, a
constant attendant at the Tabernacle, and a woman helpful, kind, and
brave, as befitted a missionary's wife.
A great meeting was soon after held, as a sort of dedication of the new
labourers, nine in number, who were thence to go forth,--five to South
Africa, four to Polynesia. Among the Africans was Robert Moffat, a name
memorable, both on his own account and as the father-in-law of
Livingstone. An elderly minister stood forth and questioned the young
men in the face of the congregation on their faith, their opinions, their
motives, and their intentions; and then a Bible was solemnly presented to
each by an elder minister, John Angell James, of Birmingham, one of the
most able and highly reputed Nonconformists then living; and another
minister, Dr. Waugh, addressing himself to Williams, who was much the
youngest of the nine, said, "Go, my dear young brother, and if your
tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, let it be with telling poor
sinners the love of JESUS CHRIST; and if your arms drop from their
shoulders, let it be with knocking at men's hearts to gain admittance for
Him there."
The impression never left John Williams, and the injunction was fulfilled
to the utmost of his power. He was a man of strong and vigorous frame,
well fitted to encounter the perils of climate; and with much enterprise,
hardihood, and ingenuity. That his mind was in some degree narrowed by
want of education, perhaps mattered less in the peculiar field of his
labours, where he was seldom brought in contact with wide questions. He
had the excellent quality of ready sympathy and adaptability to the
persons around him, whether civilized or savage, and was so good-natured
and yielding in unimportant matters, that the strength and firmness with
which he would stand up for whatever he viewed as a matter of conscience,
always took his opponents by surprise; but it was always long before this
point was reached, and he was perhaps too ready to give up when it was
judgment rather than right and wrong that came into play. Williams's
face, as given in the portrait attached to his "History of Missionary
Enterprise in the South Sea," curiously agrees with his history. There
is much power about the brow, much enterprise in the strong, somewhat
aquiline nose, great softness and sweetness in the eyes, but the
thickness of the lips and chin betray the want of cultivation; indeed,
the curious manner in which the mouth is pursed up, would seem to
indicate that an eager temper naturally kept it unclosed, and that the
restraint of sitting for a picture rendered the expression uncomfortably
prim.
The Polynesian Mission on which John Williams was sent, had been
commenced in 1796 by the London Missionary Society, partly in consequence
of the death-bed entreaties of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, who had
been exceedingly interested by the accounts of the South Sea Islands in
Captain Cook's Voyages. The subscriptions amounted to 10,000_l._, and
were sufficient to purchase a ship called the _Duff_, which was commanded
by that Captain Wilson whose wonderful history has been noticed in the
lives of the Serampore body. Twenty-five missionaries were taken out,
and received at Tahiti with grotesque dances and caperings. The
dwelling, which had been erected when Captain Bligh was collecting bread-
fruit, was given to them, and several were placed there, while the _Duff_
carried others to the Friendly and Marquesan Islands, and, after visiting
them all a second time, returned home for reinforcements.
On the next voyage, however, with a different captain, the _Duff_ was
captured by a French privateer, the captain of which, when he understood
the purpose of the voyage, greatly regretted what he had done, and
declared that he would rather have given 500_l._ than have interfered
with it. He landed the missionaries at Monte Video, and assisted them in
obtaining a passage home, in the course of which they were again captured
by a Portuguese, whose treatment of them was a wretched contrast to that
of the friendly Frenchman.
Meantime, many disasters had befallen the unassisted missionaries, who
suffered from the hostility of a section of the natives, though the king,
Pomare, always protected them. One of their number insisted on marrying
a native woman still unconverted, separated from his brethren, and was
soon after murdered by the natives. Another was lost in a still sadder
way. He reasoned himself into doubts of the Divine power and of the
immortality of the soul, and finally left the island, nor was he heard of
again for many years, though prayer was constantly made for him, and at
length it became known that he had wandered to Serampore, where the
influence of Marshman and Carey had prevailed to bring back his faith,
but he had since been lost at sea. What wonderful glimpses we get of
strange wild lives!
But the Tahitian Mission had not included any one leading character, so
that it may be enough to state that, after years of patient effort and
often of danger, the missionaries beheld King Pomare II., the successor
of him whom they had found on the throne, solemnly burn his idols, and
profess himself a Christian.
From that time the island has been Christian. The standard of morality
has been by no means as high as it ought to be, and there is much
disappointment in dealing with any nation, with none more so than with an
indolent and voluptuous people, in a climate disposing them to inertness,
and in a part subject to the visits of lawless seamen of all nations.
However, the mission kept its hold of Tahiti, until the French, in 1844,
began a series of aggressions, which ended in their establishing a
protectorate over the islands, introducing their Church, and doing all in
their power to discourage the London Mission, to which, however, many of
the natives still adhere.
This, however, is anticipating. When the five young men sailed in 1817,
and after a kindly welcome on their way from Mr. Marsden at Sydney,
things were in the full blush of promise. Eight hundred people
worshipped at the chapel of Erineo, near the landing-place. It was a
circular building, a good deal like a haystack, with walls of stakes, a
thatch of large leaves, and a desk in the centre of the floor for the
preacher. This was his first station, and whilst there he gave his
assistance in building a ship, to enable King Pomare to open a trade with
New South Wales. He stayed in this place till he had become familiar
with the language, and his first child was born there.
Not long after some allies of Pomare, from Huahime, struck with the
benefits produced among the Tahitians by the missionaries, entreated that
some might be sent to them likewise; and Williams, his wife and child,
with two other married pairs, and an interpreter, were told off for the
mission.
They were welcomed eagerly, had oval huts assigned to them, and no lack
of pork and yams, but Mr. Williams did not long remain there, being
called away by an invitation from Raiatea. This is one of the loveliest
of tropical islands, the largest of the Society Islands. Huge mountain
masses rise from the centre of an isle, about fifty miles in
circumference, and give it the grandeur of the rock, the precipice, and
the waterfall; but all around and below, the sides are clothed with the
exquisite verdure of the southern clime, the palm, the bread-fruit, the
yam, and all that can delight the eye; and both this and a little
satellite islet are fenced in by an encircling coral reef, within which
is clear still deep water, fit for navies to ride in, and approachable
through numerous inlets in its natural breakwater. It was a spot of much
distinction, containing the temple of the god Oro, who was revered by all
the surrounding groups, as the god of war, to whom children were
dedicated to make them courageous. There dreadful human sacrifices were
offered, concluded by cannibal feasts. Whenever such a sacrifice was
required, the priest and king despatched messengers to the chiefs of the
districts around to inquire whether they had a broken calabash, or a
rotten cocoa-nut. These terms indicated a man whom they would be willing
to give up. The victim was then either knocked down with a blow of a
small stone at the back of his head, or else speared in his own house;
and when one man of a family had thus been sacrificed, all the rest had
the same horrid preference.
The last human victim of Tahiti was verily a martyr. He was designated
because he had begun to pray. The emissaries came to his house and asked
his wife where he was. Then, borrowing from her the ironwood stick used
for breaking open cocoa-nuts, they went after him, and knocked him down
with it, binding him hand and foot, and placing him in a long basket made
of cocoa-nut leaves. His wife rushed forward, but was kept away, as the
touch or breath of a woman is considered to pollute a sacrifice. The
man, however, recovered the blow, and spoke out boldly: "Friends, I know
what you intend to do with me. You are about to kill me, and offer me up
as a _tabae_ to your savage gods. I know it is vain for me to beg for
mercy, for you will not spare my life. You may kill my body, but you
cannot hurt my soul, for I have begun to pray to JESUS."
On hearing this, his bearers set him on the ground, put one stone under
his head, and beat out his brains with another, and thus died the last
Tahitian sacrifice, truly baptized in his own blood. The other gods
besides Oro were numerous, and there were also many animals supposed to
be possessed with familiar spirits. A chief was once in the cabin of a
ship where there was a talking cockatoo: the moment the bird spoke he
rushed away in the utmost terror, leapt overboard, and swam for his life,
convinced that he had heard the captain's demon.
The chief of Raiatea was named Tamatoa, and was a man of considerable
power. Two years previously the Tahitian king, Pomare, nineteen of his
subjects, and a missionary named Wilson had been driven thither in a
canoe by stress of weather; and what Tamatoa had heard from them had so
impressed him that he had persuaded his people to build a place of
worship, observe the Sunday, and meet to repeat together the scant
lessons they had been able to receive during the visit of the Tahitians.
This led to a resolve to entreat for the presence of a missionary among
them; and the chieftain himself came to Huahime to make the request.
Williams longed to go, but, as the youngest minister, waited till all the
rest had decided to the contrary, and then gladly accepted his lot to go
with Tamatoa. There was a joyous welcome, and a feast was brought,
consisting of five pigs for Mr. Williams, five for his wife, and five for
their baby-boy; besides crates of yams, bananas, and cocoa-nuts, which,
however, they were not required to eat themselves, only to see eaten in
their house.
The islanders were ready to give up their idols and call themselves
Christians, to hear Mr. Williams preach, and to observe the Sabbath;
being, in fact, like the Red Indians of Eliot's experience, so idle that
a day of no work made no difference to them. Their indolence, the effect
of their enervating climate, was well-nigh invincible; they preferred
hunger to trouble, and withal their customs were abhorrent to Christian
morality. Most islets of the South Seas have much the same experience.
The people, taken on their best side, show themselves gentle and
intelligent, and their chiefs are dignified gentlemen; but there is a
horrible background of ferocity and barbarism--often cannibalism. It
generally proves comparatively easy to obtain a recognition of
Christianity, and the cruelty and violence are usually laid aside; but to
bring purity and morality to bear upon these races is a much more
difficult thing, and the apparent failures have been at once the grief
and reproach of missionaries, while those who assail them with scoffs
forget the difficulty of dealing with the inveterate customs of a whole
people, in a luxurious climate, and with little or no inducement to such
industrial occupations or refinements of mind, as are the best
auxiliaries of religion in raising the tone.
Lands where cold is unknown, and where fruit grows as freely as in
Paradise, offer no inducement to labour; and the missionaries, striving
in vain to lead the people to think occupation a duty, were deserted as
being troublesome when they bade them to work. A school which the
Williams's set up was more popular; the Polynesians had no lack of
brains, and reading and writing were pleasanter than digging and
building, or carrying logs.
Thinking that examples of the civilization that the islanders had never
seen would do more for their advance than anything else, Mr. Williams,
with such assistance as he could obtain from the natives, built himself a
house with eight rooms, sash windows with Venetian blinds, a verandah,
and a most beautiful garden, and filled it with polished furniture, made
by his own clever mechanical hands. With the assistance of one or two
other missionaries who joined him, he succeeded in thus exciting a
certain emulation among the natives. The king had a house built for him
like that of the white men, others followed, and thus a very important
step was made out of the degraded customs encouraged by the old oval
huts. The coral, made into lime, afforded excellent material for
plaster, and trades began to be fostered among the natives; they became
carpenters, blacksmiths, plasterers, boat-builders, and acquired some
ideas of agriculture. By the end of the second year, the chapel and
school stood in the midst of white cottages; the population still wore
clothing made of their own bark cloth, but in imitation of that of their
teachers, and the open savagery of the island was gone. The congregation
assembled three times on Sunday, and there was family prayer in almost
every house. Cannibalism was ended, and so was infanticide, one of the
most terrible customs of the island, for there was scarcely a woman above
thirty who had not put to death several of her infants. Much had been
done, although the good man to whom so much was owing did not feel
satisfied that the profession in many cases was thoroughly deep, and he
still knew of many an inveterate evil, that only time, discipline, and
above all heartfelt religion, could uproot.
A large chapel, built with all the taste and ornament that he could
achieve, was erected, the sides wattled, the roof supported by pillars of
tree-trunks, and the floors and pews, the pulpit and desk, which were all
to which the young ironmonger at the Tabernacle attached the notion of a
worthy place of worship, were solid and well finished. He even fashioned
some chandeliers for evening service, and these so astonished the
Raiateans, that on first entering the chapel, they broke out into a cry
of amaze, "Oh, Britannia! Britannia!" and gave the name to England of
"the land whose customs were without end."
The opening of this chapel was one great step in Mr. Williams's work; the
next was the inducing Tamatoa and the other chiefs to bind themselves to
govern by a code of Christian laws, not complex, but based on the Ten
Commandments, and agreeing with those newly established by Pomare in
Tahiti, but with this difference, that Williams ventured to introduce
trial by jury, in the hope that it would tend to qualify the despotic
power of the chiefs. Tamatoa's brother, Pahi, was appointed judge, and
the community was arranged on a Christian basis. The congregation was
likewise put under regular discipline after the example of the
Independents in England, with ruling pastors and elders appointed from
among the people; and an auxiliary Missionary Society was formed for
assisting in the conversion of the other isles.
Just as this was thoroughly arranged, in about the fourth year of his
mission, Williams suffered from a malady which seemed to him and his
companion, Mr. Threlkeld, to necessitate his return home. The
information was received by the islanders with something like despair.
Old King Tamatoa came to him and said, "Viriamu, I have been thinking you
are a strange man. JESUS did not take care of His body. He did not even
shrink from death, and now you are afflicted you are going to leave us."
Prayer was offered all over the island, and in the midst of all the
preparations for departure the disease began to ameliorate, and Mr.
Williams recovered for a time, though the next year a recurrence of the
attack made him resolve upon a visit to Sydney, not only for the sake of
advice, but in the hope of establishing a market for the produce of the
Society Isles, which might give a motive to the industry he was so
anxious to promote, and likewise to obtain a vessel to be used for the
missions.
Two Raiatean teachers instructed by him were landed at the island of
Aitutake on the way, after the chiefs had pledged themselves to support
and protect them, and the voyage was continued to Australia, where there
was as usual a warm reception from Mr. Marsden. It was a very important
visit. Parts of the Holy Scriptures, catechisms, and spelling-books,
were printed; the ship, with the assistance of the Society of which
Marsden was agent, was purchased, a schooner of ninety tons, and named
_Te Matama_, the Beginner; a person named Scott secured, at 150_l._ per
annum, to instruct the natives in the cultivation of sugar and tobacco,
and stores laid in of presents for the natives, clothes for the women,
shoes, stockings, tea-kettles, tea-cups, saucers, and tea. The natives
had a great liking for tea, and as they could not cherish cups and
saucers without shelves to put them on, all this was an indirect mode of
introducing European comforts and decencies. As to shoes, there can be
no spade husbandry with an unshod foot, and thus the system of hoeing-
women doing all the labour was attacked.
On the way back to Raiatea, Mr. Williams visited New Zealand, but not at
a favourable moment, for the chiefs were at war, and he had to hurry
away. The cargo was gladly welcomed at Raiatea, and the desire to
purchase European dress was found a great incentive to industry.
In 1823, Mr. Williams began a series of missionary voyages. The events
of these have almost too much sameness for description, though full of
interest in detail. The people, when taken on their right side, were
almost always ready to admit teachers, and adopt certain externals,
though the true essentials of Christianity were of much slower growth.
Our limits prevent us from giving much of detail of his intercourse with
these isles. Raiatea was his first home, Rarotonga his second. There he
placed his family, which long consisted of his one boy, John, born in
Tahiti, all Mrs. Williams's subsequent babes scarcely living to see the
light, until, in the sixteenth year of her Polynesian life, another son
rejoiced her. She became a centre and pattern of domestic life, and
instructed the women in feminine habits, and she patiently encountered
the anxieties and perils, chiefly from storm and hurricane, that beset
her life. The chief troubles that Mr. Williams encountered at Raiatea,
were the vices that civilization brought. After old Tamatoa's death, his
son allowed a distillery to be established, and drunkenness threatened to
overthrow the habits so diligently taught. May be, the Puritanical form
of religion and the acquired tastes of the London tradesman did not allow
brightness and beauty enough to these children of the South, and tempted
them by proscribing things innocent, but there is no telling: nothing but
strictness seemed a sufficient protection from the foul rites of
idolatry, and all that his judgment or devotion could devise for these
people Williams and his fellows did.
The Samoan group of islands was one of those where the people showed the
most intelligence. They were already great cultivators of the toilette.
A Samoan beau glistened from the head to the hips with sweet-scented oil,
and was tastefully tattooed from the hips to the knees; he wore a bandage
of red leaves oiled and shining, a head-dress formed of a pearly disk of
nautilus-shell, and a string of small white shells round each arm. His
lady was not tattooed, but spotted all over, and when in full attire,
wore a beautiful white silky mat at her waist, a wreath of sweet flowers
round her head, rows of large blue beads round her neck, and the upper
part of her person was tinged with turmeric rouge.
These Samoans, though they deified many animals, had no temples, idols,
priests, nor sacrifices, and thus were more than usually amenable to
Christian ideas; and on Mr. Williams's second visit to the island, he had
a numerous congregation, but so arranged that he could hardly keep his
countenance. Some had their long hair greased and stiffened into
separate locks, standing erect like quills upon the fretful porcupine;
while others wore it cultivated into one huge bush, stiffened with coral
line, diversified with turmeric. Indeed, there is no rest for such heads
as these--none of their wearers dares to sleep without a little stool to
support his neck, so as not to crush his _chevelure_ against the ground.
These fine gentlemen had a readiness and intelligence about them that
warmed to the first rays of light. They listened eagerly, and their
attachment to the missionary was expressed in a song sung in what they
called a "heavenly dance" of the ladies in his honour, when he had
remained with them long enough to plant the good seed of a growing
church.
"Let us talk of Viriamu,
Let cocoa-nuts glow in peace for months;
When strong the east winds blow, our hearts forget him not.
Let us greatly love the Christian land of the great white chief.
All victors are we now, for we all have one God.
No food is sacred now. All kinds of fish we catch and eat,
Even the sting-ray.
The birds are crying for Viriamu,
His ship has sailed another way.
The birds are crying for Viriamu,
Long time is he in coming.
Will he ever come again?
Will he ever come again?"
It was some time before he could come again; for, after eighteen years of
unremitting labour in the isles of Raiatea and Rarotonga, and of voyages
touching on many other isles, he had made up his mind to visit England.
He came home in 1834, and remained about four years, doing much for his
cause by his personal narratives and vivid accounts of the people to whom
he had devoted his life. Curiously enough, his son, now a youth of
twenty, was introduced to Earl Fitzwilliam's gardener, who proved to have
been one of the mission party who had been captured in the _Duff_ on the
second voyage, and who was delighted to hear of the wonderful progress of
the cause from which he himself had been turned back.
A subscription was raised for the purchase of a mission ship, exceeding
in size and suitability such craft as could be purchased or hired in
Australia; and the _Camden_, a vessel admirably fitted for the purpose,
was obtained and equipped at a cost of 2,600_l._, the command of her
given to Captain Morgan, who was well experienced in the navigation of
the Polynesian seas, and had, moreover, such a reputation for piety, that
the natives termed his vessel "the praying ship."
In this vessel a large reinforcement of missionaries was taken out,
including a married pair for Samoa, and likewise young John Williams, who
had found himself an English wife; but his little brother was left at
home for education. The intention of Williams was to station the
missionaries upon the friendly isles, and himself circulate among them in
the _Camden_, breaking fresh ground in yet unvisited isles, and
stationing first native and then English teachers, as they were prepared
for them.
Among the Samoans he remained a good while. He estimated the population
at 60,000, of whom nearly 50,000 were under instruction. Several places
of worship were opened with feasts, at which huge hecatombs of swine were
consumed--1,370 at one festival. One young chief under instruction
became so good a preacher, that Williams called him the Whitfield of
Samoa; and these islands have, under the training then set on foot,
furnished many a missionary and even martyr to the isles around, and are,
to the present day, one of the happiest specimens of the effects of
missionary labour.
The want of extended views in good Mr. Williams was shown in his manner
of regarding the expected arrival of some Roman Catholic priests in the
Polynesian seas. He set to work to translate Foxe's "Book of Martyrs,"
and begged that a present offered him for his people might be expended in
slides illustrating it for a beautiful magic lantern which he already
possessed, and whose Scripture scenes drew tears from the natives. He
had not Church knowledge enough to rise above the ordinary popular view
of "Popery," and did not understand its Christianity enough to see the
evils of sowing the bitterest seeds of the Protestant controversy among
scarcely reclaimed heathens.
On their side, the Roman Catholics would have done better to enter on
untrodden ground, of which there was such an infinity, than to force
themselves where, if they did not find their Church, at least they found
faith in the Saviour. But the Society Isles were coveted, for political
reasons, by the existing French Government, and the struggle was there
beginning, of which Mr. Williams was not destined to see the unfortunate
conclusion.
Raiatea he found much improving; and at Rarotonga civilization had made
such progress, that the chiefs house was two storeys high, with ten
bedrooms, and good furniture made in imitation of English, and any linen
Mr. Williams left in his room was immediately washed, ironed, and laid
ready for use. Much of the lurking heathenism was giving way, and fair
progress being made in religious feeling, when, after a stay in Samoa,
where Mrs. Williams now chiefly resided, John Williams set out on an
exploring voyage in the _Camden_.
Strangely enough, his last text in preaching to the Samoans was,
"Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see
his face no more;" and the people, who always grieved whenever he left
them, wept as bitterly at the words as if they had known them to be an
omen. He was bent on an attempt on the heathen isle of Erromango, which
his wife viewed with a foreboding terror, that made her in vain try to
extract a promise from him not to land there.
But he viewed the New Hebrides as an important link, leading perhaps to
reaching the Papuan race in New Guinea. He hoped to gain a footing
there, and make the spot such a centre as Tahiti, Raiatea, Rarotonga, and
Samoa had successively been; and, as the _Camden_ glided along the shores
of the island, he talked of his schemes, and of a certain sense of fear
that they gave him, lest they were too vast to be accomplished by his
means and in his lifetime, but with the sanguine buoyancy of a man still
in full vigour, and who had met with almost unmixed success.
On the 20th of November, 1839, the vessel entered Dillon's Bay, and a
canoe with three men paddled up to her. A boat was lowered, in which Mr.
Williams, two other missionaries named Harris and Cunningham, Captain
Morgan, and four sailors seated themselves. They tried to converse with
the natives, but the language proved to be unlike any in use in Polynesia
(it is, in fact, one of the Melanesian dialects), and not a word could be
made out.
Pulling into a creek, some beads and a small looking-glass were thrown to
the natives, and water asked for by signs. It was brought, and this gave
more confidence. Harris then waded ashore. At first the people ran
away, but Mr. Williams called to him to sit down, and, on his doing so,
they came nearer, and offered him some cocoa-nut milk. Mr. Williams
observed little boys at play, and thought it a good sign. Captain Morgan
wished they had been women, because the natives always send their wives
out of the way when they mean violence. However, Williams landed, and
divided some cloth among those who stood nearest. Then Harris began to
walk forward into the bush, Williams following, and, with a crowd of
natives round him, was counting in Samoan, trying whether the boys around
would recognize the names of the figures. Cunningham did not like the
countenances of the natives, and remarked it to him, but was not heard.
Stooping to pick up a shell, Cunningham was startled by a yell, and
Harris came rushing along, pursued by a native. Williams turned and
looked, a blast on a shell was heard, and he too fled. Cunningham
reached the boat in safety, but Harris fell in crossing a small brook,
and the natives were at once upon him with their clubs. Williams had
made for the sea, apparently intending to swim off and let the boat pick
him up, but the beach was stony; he fell as he reached the water, and the
natives with their clubs and arrows had fallen upon him before Morgan
could turn his boat's head to the spot, under a shower of arrows, which
forced him to put off.
He saw the body lying on the beach, and fired a gun, loaded with powder,
in hopes of driving away the natives and rescuing it; but they dragged it
away into the bush, and all that was left for him to do was to sail for
Sydney, whence a Queen's ship, the _Favourite_, was despatched to
endeavour to recover the remains, and to convey the tidings to Samoa.
By the 26th of February the vessel arrived. The war-conch was heard, and
the savages were seen flying in all directions; but, as there was no
intention of exacting a revenge, means of communication were at last
arranged, and it was discovered that these two good men had furnished a
cannibal feast, but that their skulls and many of their bones had been
preserved, and these were recovered and carried on board ship. The
Erromangans have always been an exceptionally treacherous and savage
race, and, even to the present day, are more hostile to white men, and
more addicted to cannibalism, than any of the other islanders.
The _Favourite_ then proceeded to Samoa, where the weeping and wailing of
the tender-hearted race was overwhelming. Mrs. Williams, in her silent
English sorrow, was made the centre of a multitude of frantic mourners.
"Aue kriamu, aue Viriamu, our father, our father! He has turned his face
from us! We shall never see him more! He that brought us the good word
of salvation is gone! Oh, cruel heathen, they knew not what they did.
How great a man they have destroyed!"
Such laments went on round the widow in the wild poetic language of the
poor Samoans, till the other teachers, by their prayers and sermons, had
produced a somewhat calmer tone; and the funeral took place beside the
chapel, attended by the officers and crew of the _Favourite_, and a great
concourse of natives.
"Alas, Viriamu!" was the cry in every Christian Polynesian island for
many a day; and well it might be, for, in spite of the shortcomings of a
poorly-educated ministry and a tropical and feeble race, there are few
who ever turned more men from darkness to light, from cannibal fury to
Christian love, than the Martyr of Erromango,--John Williams,--one of the
happiest of missionaries, in that to him was given the martyr's crown, in
the full tide of his success and hope.