Books: Life of John Coleridge Patteson

C >> Charlotte M. Yonge >> Life of John Coleridge Patteson

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The Mission party landed here, but saw nobody. They sent a black boy
up a tree for cocoa-nuts, and left a tomahawk beneath it as payment.
That there were inhabitants somewhere there was horrible proof, for a
frightful odour led to search being made, and the New Zealander Hoari
turning up the ground, found human bones with flesh hanging to them.
A little farther off was a native oven, namely, a pit lined with
stones.

This was Patteson's nearest contact with cannibalism, and it left a
deep impression of horror.

The Banks group of islands came next--Great Banks Isle, or in the
native language Vanua Lava, Valua or Saddle Isle, a long narrow ridge
of hills, Mota or Sugarloaf Island, an equally descriptive name; Star
Island, and Santa Maria. These places were to become of great
importance to the Mission, but little was seen of them at this time--
the walls of coral round them were remarkably steep and difficult of
access.

Valua had no beach and no canoes, and such swarms of natives
clustering upon the cliffs that the Bishop did not think it prudent
to land. In Mota, though the coast for the most part rises up in
sheer crags, forty or fifty feet above the sea, with a great volcanic
cone in the centre, a little cove was found with a good beach, where
a number of inhabitants had assembled. They were entirely without
clothing or ornament, neither tattooed nor disfigured by betel-nut,
and their bright honest faces greatly attracted Patteson, though not
a word of their language could be then understood. He wanted to swim
ashore among them, but the Bishop would not allow it, lest it should
be difficult to escape from the embraces of so many without giving
offence. Great numbers swam out to the boat, and canoes brought
fruits of all kinds, and bamboos decked with leaves and flowers.
'I crammed native combs in my hair,' says Patteson, 'picked up what
words I could, and made up the rest by a grand display of
gesticulation.'

At Santa Maria, the next day, there was the like scene around the
boat, only the sight of a bit of striped calico caused immense
excitement. At other islands it had been unheeded, but here the
people were mad to get it, and offered their largest yams for strips
of it, and a pair of scarlet braces were purchased for two beautiful
bows.

At Vanua Lava, or Great Banks Island, on the 20th, a large canoe with
seven men came alongside, three-quarters of a mile from shore. They
would not, however, venture on board till Patteson had gone into the
water, and placed himself in their canoe, after which they were
induced to come on deck, were 'decorated with the order of the tape,'
and received axes. No weapon was seen among them, and there was
reason to think them the tractable and hopeful race they have since
proved.

Bligh Island, the next visited, plainly revealed itself as the cone
of an enormous submerged volcano, the water forming a beautiful and
extensive bay where numbers of people could be seen. There was a
landing and a little trading for yams, and then, after the like
intercourse with some of the inhabitants of the cluster of small
islets named after Torres, the vessel steered for Espiritu Santo, but
wind and time forbade a return to the part previously visited, nor
was there time to do more than touch at Aurora, and exchange some
fish-hooks for some bows.

At Malicolo, in 1851, the Bishop and his party, while fetching water,
had been assailed with stones and arrows, and had only escaped by
showing the utmost coolness. There was, therefore, much caution
shown in approaching this bay, called Port Sandwich, and the boat
stopped outside its breakwater coral reef, where numerous canoes
flocked round, the people with their bows and arrows, not attempting
to barter. Their faces were painted some red, some black, or yellow.
An old chief named Melanbico was recognised by the Bishop, and called
by name into the boat. Another old acquaintance named Nipati joined
him, and it was considered safe to row into the harbour. The Bishop
had learnt a little of the language, and talked to these two, while
Patteson examined Nipati's accoutrements--a club, a bow, arrows
neatly made, handsomely feathered, and tipped with a deadly poison,
tortoiseshell ear-rings, and a very handsome shell armlet covering
the arm from the elbow eight or nine inches upward, his face painted
red and black. The Bishop read out the list of names he had made on
the former visit, and to several the answer was 'dead, or 'shot,' and
it appeared that a great mortality had taken place. Large numbers,
however, were on the beach, and the Bishop and Patteson landed among
them, and conversed with them; but they showed no disposition to
trade, and though some of the lads seemed half-disposed to come away
with the party, they all changed their minds, and went back again.
However, all had behaved well, and one little boy, when offered a
fish-hook, at once showed that he had received one already. It was
plain that a beginning had been made, which might lead to further
results.

Two whales were seen while rowing back to the ship. One--about a
third of a mile off--leapt several times fairly out of the water, and
fell back on the sea 'with a regular crack,' dashing up the spray in
clouds. There was now very little time to spare, as the time of an
ordination at Auckland was fixed, and two important visits had yet to
be paid, so the two Fate guests were sent ashore in the canoes of
some of their friends, and the 'Southern Cross' reached Nengone on
the 1st of September. The Bishop had left a boat there some years
before, and the Samoan teacher, Mark, who had been Mrs. Nihill's best
friend and comforter, came out in it with a joyful party full of
welcome. The Bishop and Patteson went ashore, taking with them their
two Bauro scholars, to whom the most wonderful sight was a cow, they
never having seen any quadruped bigger than a pig. All the native
teachers and their wives were assembled, and many of the people, in
front of the house where Mr. Nihill had died. They talked of him
with touching affection, as they told how diligently he had striven
to bring young and old to a knowledge of his God; and they eagerly
assisted in planting at his grave a cross, which the Bishop had
brought from Auckland for the purpose, and which bore the words: 'I
am the Resurrection and the Life.'

The coral lime church and the houses of the teachers among the cocoa-
nut trees gave the place a civilised look, and most of the people had
some attempt at clothing. Here several passengers were taken in.
The two girls, Caroline Wabisane and Sarah Wasitutru, were both
married--Caroline to a Maori named Simeona, and Sarah to a man from
her own isle called Nawiki. All these and two more men wished to go
to St. John's for further instruction, and were taken on board,
making up a party of fourteen Melanesians, besides Sarah's baby.
'Mrs. Nihill will be glad to have the women,' writes Coley, 'and I am
glad to have the others--not the baby, of course.'

Close quarters indeed, but not for very long, for on the 3rd of
September the schooner again put into Norfolk Island, and on the next
Sunday Coley was present at the confirmation of the whole population,
excepting the younger children, and at the subsequent Communion.
Strong hopes were then entertained that the Pitcairners, standing as
it were between the English and the islanders, would greatly assist
in the work of the Gospel, but this plan was found only capable of
being very partially carried out.

Off Norfolk Island, he wrote to his brother an account of the way of
life on the voyage, and of the people:--

'They are generally gentle, and seem to cling to one, not with the
very independent goodwill of New Zealanders, but with the soft
yielding character of the child of the tropics. They are fond, that
is the word for them. I have had boys and men in a few minutes after
landing, follow me like a dog, holding their hands in mine as a
little child does with its nurse.

'My manner of life on board is as I described it before. I eschewed
shoes and socks, rather liking to be paddling about all day, when not
going on shore, or otherwise employed, which of course made up eight
or ten out of the thirteen hours of daylight. When I went ashore
(which I did whenever the boat went), then I put on my shoes, and
always swam in them, for the coral would cut my feet to pieces.
Usual swimming and wading attire--flannel shirt, dark grey trousers,
cap or straw hat, shoes, basket round my neck with fish-hooks, or
perhaps an adze or two in my hand. I enjoyed the tropical climate
very much--really warm always in the water or out of it. On the
reefs, when I waded in shallow water, the heat of it was literally
unpleasant, more than a tepid bath.'

On the 13th of September, the little missionary vessel came safe into
harbour at Auckland, and Coley and his boys--they were considered
especially as his--took up their quarters at St. John's College. All
through the voyage he had written the journals here followed for the
general benefit of his kindred, and at other leisure moments he had
written more personal letters. On his sister Fanny's birthday, when
the visit to Malicolo was just over, after his birthday wishes, he
goes on:--

'And now, how will you be when this reaches Feniton? I think of all
your daily occupations,--school, garden, driving, &c.--your Sunday
reading, visiting the cottages, &c., and the very thought of it makes
me feel like old times. When occasionally I dream, or fall into a
kind of trance when awake, and fancy myself walking up from the lodge
to the house, and old forms and faces rise up before me, I can
scarcely contain the burst of joy and happiness, and then I give a
shake and say, "Well, it would be very nice, but look about the
horizon, and see how many islands you can count!" and then, instead
of thoughts of home for myself, I am tempted to induce others to
leave their homes, though I don't really think many men have such a
home to leave, or remain so long as I did, one of the home fire-side.

'I have been reading one or two of the German books you sent out.
"Friedrich der Grosse" is interesting, but henceforth I don't think I
shall have time for aught but a good German novel or two for wet days
and jumping seas; or such a theological book as I may send for.'

The effect of the voyage seems to have shown itself in an inflamed
leg, which was painful, but not disabled for some time. There was a
welcome budget of letters awaiting him,--one from his uncle Dr.
Coleridge, to which this is the reply:--

'September 15, 1856: St. John's College.

'Your letter of March 26 was awaiting my arrival here. How thankful
I am that (as Fan says) in little as in great things God is so good
to us. Letters from me arriving on the anniversary of my departure!
and all at Thorverton!

'You are clearly right in what you say about my post in the S. X. I
did not like it at first, just as a schoolboy does not like going
back to school; but that it was good for me I have no doubt; and now
see! here I am on shore for seven or eight months, if I live so long-
-my occupations most interesting, working away with twelve
Melanesians at languages, etc., with the highest of all incentives to
perseverance, trying to form in them habits of cleanliness, order,
decency, etc.

'Last night (Sunday--their first Sunday in New Zealand), after
explaining to the Solomon Islands boys, seven in number, the nature
of the Lord's Prayer as far as my knowledge of their language would
carry me, I thought myself justified in making them kneel down round
me, and they uttered with their lips after me (i.e. the five most
intelligent) the first words of prayer to their Father in Heaven.
I don't venture to say that they understood much--neither does the
young child taught at his or her mother's knees--neither do many
grown persons perhaps know much about the fulness of the Prayer of
Prayers--(these scenes teach me my ignorance, which is one great
gain)--yet they knew, I think, that they were praying to some great
and mighty one--not an abstraction--a conscious loving Being, a
Father, and they know at least the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.

'Their first formula was: "God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Ghost, only One God." I can't yet explain that our Blessed Lord
came from heaven and died for our sins; neither (as far as human
thought may reach) does the power of God's Spirit as yet work in
their hearts consciousness of sin, and with that the sense of the
need of a Redeemer and Saviour. I asked in my sermon yesterday the
prayers of the people for the grace of God's Holy Spirit to touch the
hearts and enlighten the understandings of these heathen children of
a common Father, and I added that greatly did their teachers need
their prayers that God would make them apt to teach, and wise and
simple in endeavouring to bring before their minds the things that
belong unto their peace. You too, dear Uncle, will think I know of
these things, for my trust is great. In this cold climate, 26° or
27° of latitude south of their own island, I have much anxiety about
their bodily health, and more about their souls.

'The four youngest, sixteen to eighteen, sleep in my room. One is
now on my bed, wrapped up in a great opossum rug, with cold and
slight fever; last night his pulse was high, to-day he is better. I
have to watch over them like a cat. Think of living till now in a
constant temperature of 84°, and being suddenly brought to 56°. New
Zealand is too cold for them, and the College is a cold place, wind
howling round it now.

'Norfolk Island is the place, and the Pitcairners themselves are most
co-operative and hearty; I trust that in another year I may be there.

'Thank you for all your kind wishes on my birthday. I ought to wish
to live many years, perhaps, to try and be of use; especially as I am
so unfit to go now, or rather I ought not to wish at all. Sometimes
I feel almost fainthearted, which is cowardly and forgetful of our
calling "to fight manfully under Christ's banner." Ah! my Bishop is
indeed a warrior of the Cross. I can't bear the things Sophy said in
one of her letters about my having given up.

It seems mock humility to write it; but, dear Uncle, if I am
conscious of a life so utterly unlike what all you dear ones fancy it
to be, what must it be in the sight of God and His holy angels? What
advantages I have always had, and have now! and not a day goes by and
I can say I have done my duty. Good-bye, dear dear Uncle.

'Always your affectionate and grateful nephew,

'J. C. PATTESON.

'Love to dear Aunt.'

Almost the first experience after settling in at St. John's College
was a sharp attack of fever that fell on Kerearua, one of the Bauro
lads. Such illnesses, it seemed, were frequent at home and generally
fatal. His companion Hirika remarked, 'Kerearua like this in Bauro
ah! in a few days he would die; by-and-by we go back to Bauro.' The
sick boys were always lodged in Coley's own room to be more quiet and
thoroughly nursed. Fastidiousness had been so entirely crushed that
he really seemed to take pleasure in the arrangement, speaking with
enthusiasm of the patient's obedience and gratitude, and adding, 'He
looks quite nice in one of my night-shirts with my plaid counterpane,
and the plaid Joan gave me over it, a blanket next to him.'

The Melanesians readily fell into the regular habits of short school,
work out of doors, meals in hall and bed-time, and they were allowed
a good deal of the free use of their limbs, needful to keep them
happy and healthy. Now and then they would be taken into Auckland,
as a great treat, to see the soldiers on parade, and of course the
mere living with civilization was an immense education to them,
besides the direct instruction they received.

The languages of Nengone and Bauro were becoming sufficiently
familiar to Mr. Patteson to enable him to understand much of what
they said to him. He writes to Miss Neill (October 17):--

'I talk with them about common things, and learn a great deal of
their wild savage customs and habits, but I can do but little as yet
in the way of real instruction. Some ideas, I trust, they are
beginning to acquire concerning our Blessed Lord. Is it not a
significant fact that the god worshiped in Gfera, and in one village
of Bauro, is the Serpent, the very type of evil? I need not say that
these dear boys have won their way to my heart, they are most docile
and affectionate. I think some will really, if they live, leave
their own island and live with me at Norfolk Island, or here, or
wherever my dwelling may be whenever I am not in the "Southern
Cross."

'But of course I must not dwell on such notions. If it come to pass
that for some years I can retain a hold upon them, they may be
instructed sufficiently to make them teachers in their turn to their
own people. But all this is in the hands of God. My home journal
will tell you particulars of our voyage. Don't believe in the
ferocity, &c., of the islanders. When their passions are excited,
they do commit fearful deeds, and they are almost universally
cannibals, i.e. after a battle there will be always a cannibal feast,
not otherwise. But treat them well and prudently, and I apprehend
that there is little danger in visiting them, meaning by visiting
merely landing on the beach the first time, going perhaps to a native
village the next time, sleeping on shore the third, spending ten days
the fourth, &c., &c. The language once learnt from the pupils we
bring away, all is clear. And now good-bye, my dear Miss Neill.
That I think of you and pray for you, you know, and I need not add
that I value most highly your prayers for me. When I think of my
happiness and good spirits, I must attribute much, very much, to
God's goodness in accepting the prayers of my friends.'

After the old custom of telling the home party all his doings, the
journal-letter of the 27th of November goes through the teaching to
the Bauro boys:--

'I really think they comprehend thus much, that God, who made all
things, made man, Adam and Eve, very good and holy; that Adam and Eve
sinned, that they did not listen to the word of God, but to the Bad
Spirit; that God found them out, though they were afraid and tried to
hide (for He sees and knows all things); that He drove them out of
the beautiful garden, and said that they must die; that they had two
sons, Cain and Abel; that Cain killed his brother, and that all
fighting and killing people, and all other sins (I mention all for
which I have names) came into the world because of sin; that God and
man were far apart, not living near, no peace between them because
men were so evil. That God was so good that He loved men all the
time, and that He promised to save all men who would believe in His
Son Jesus Christ, who was to die for them (for I can't yet express,
"was to die that men might not go down to the fire, but live for ever
with God "); that by and by He sent a flood and drowned all men
except Noah and seven other people, because men would not be good;
that afterwards there was a very good man, named Abraham, who
believed all about Jesus Christ, and God chose him, and his son
Isaac, and his son Jacob, and his twelve sons, to be the fathers of a
people called Jews; that those people alone knew about God, and had
teachers and praying men: and that they killed lambs and offered them
(gave them to God as a sign of Jesus Christ being one day slain and
offered to God on a cross) but these very men became wicked too, and
at last, when no man knew how to be happy and good, Jesus Christ came
down from heaven. His mother was Mary, but He had no father on
earth, only God the Father in heaven was His Father: the Holy Ghost
made Mary to be mother of Jesus Christ.

'Then I take two books, or anything else, and say, This one is God,
and this is man. They are far apart, because man is so bad and God
is so good. But Jesus Christ came in the middle between them, and
joins them together. He is God and He is Man too; so in(side) Him,
God and Man meet, like the meeting of two men in one path; and He
says Himself He is the true Way, the only true Path to God and
heaven. God was angry with us because we sinned; but Jesus Christ
died on the cross, and then God the Father forgave us because Jesus
Christ gave His life that we might always live, and not die. By and
by He will come to judge us; and He knows what we do, whether we
steal and lie, or whether we pray and teach what is good. Men of
Bauro and Gera and Santa Cruz don't know that yet, but you do, and
you must remember, if you go on doing as they do after you know God's
will, you will be sent down to the fire, and not see Jesus Christ,
who died that you might live.

'I think that they know all this, and much in the exactly equivalent
words. Of course I find difficulty in rendering religious ideas in a
language which contains scarcely any words adequate to express them,
but I am hopeful enough to believe that they do know so much at all
events. How far their hearts are affected, One alone knows. It is
indeed but little after they have been with us four months; but till
I had them on shore, I could get very little work done. The constant
boat work took me away, and anywhere in sight of islands, of course
they were on deck in eagerness to see the strange country. Then I
could not work with energy while my leg would not let me take
exercise. But it is now beginning to be a real pleasure as well as
duty to teach both Nengone and Bauro people. Enough of the language
to avoid most of the drudgery has been got over, I hope, though not
near enough for purposes of 'exact and accurate translation.'

I have given at length this account of Patteson's fundamental
teaching, though to some it may seem to savour of the infant school,
because in spite of being hampered by imperfect knowledge of the
language, he has thrown into it the great principle both of his
action and teaching; namely, the restoration of the union of mankind
with God through Christ. It never embraced that view of the heathen
world which regards it as necessarily under God's displeasure, apart
from actual evil, committed in wilful knowledge that it is evil. He
held fast to the fact of man having been created in the image of God,
and held that whatever good impulses and higher qualities still
remained in the heathen, were the remnants of that Image, and to be
hailed accordingly. Above all, he realised in his whole life the
words to St. Peter: 'What God hath cleansed that call not thou
common,' and not undervaluing for a moment Sacramental Grace, viewed
human nature, while yet without the offer thereof, as still the
object of fatherly and redeeming love, and full of fitful tokens of
good coming from the only Giver of life and holiness, and needing to
be brought nearer and strengthened by full union and light, instead
of being left to be quenched in the surrounding flood of evil. 'And
were by nature the children of wrath,' he did not hold to mean that
men were objects of God's anger, lying under His deadly displeasure;
but rather, children of wild impulse, creatures of passion, swayed
resistlessly by their own desires, until made 'children of grace,'
and thus obtaining the spiritual power needful to enable them to
withstand these passions. An extract from the sermon he had preached
at Sydney may perhaps best serve to illustrate his principle:--

'And this love once generated in the heart of man, must needs pass on
to his brethren; that principle of life must needs grow and expand
with its own inherent energy; the seed must be developed into the
tree, and strike its roots deep and wide, and stretch out its
branches unto the sea and its boughs unto the rivers. No artificial
nor accidental circumstances can confine it, it recognises no human
ideas of nationality, or place, or time, but embraces like the dome
of heaven all the works of God. And love is the animating principle
of all. In every star of the sky, in the sparkling, glittering waves
of the sea, in every flower of the field, in every creature of God,
most of all in every living soul of man, it adores and blesses the
beauty and the love of the great Creator and Preserver of all.

'Viewed indeed from that position which was occupied by ancient
philosophers, the existing contrarieties between nations might well
appear inexplicable, and intellectual powers might seem to be the
exclusive heritage of particular nations. But Christianity leads us
to distinguish between the nature of man as he came fresh from the
hands of his Creator, and that natural propensity to sin which he has
inherited in consequence of his fall from original innocence. It
teaches that as God has "made of one blood all nations to dwell
together on the face of the whole earth," and has given in virtue of
this common origin one common nature destined to be pure and holy and
divine, so, by virtue of Redemption and Regeneration, the image of
God may be restored in all, and whatever is the result of his
depravity therefore may be overcome. And this seems to be the answer
to all statements relating to the want of capacity in certain nations
of the earth for the reception of Divine Truth, that every man,
because he is a man, because he is a partaker of that very nature
which has been taken into the Person of the Son of God, may by the
grace of God be awakened to the sense of his true life, of his real
dignity as a redeemed brother of Christ.