Books: Life of John Coleridge Patteson

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

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'At Sea: Lat. 19° 50' S.; long. 167° 41' E.

'My dearest Uncle,--May is a month specially connected henceforward
in my mind with a merciful deliverance from great peril, which God
vouchsafed to us on May 2nd. We touched on a reef at the Isle of
Guadalcanar, one of the Solomon Islands, in lat. 9° 50', and but for
God's mercy in blessing our exertions, we might have incurred fearful
danger of losing the Mission vessel. As it was, in a couple of
minutes we were off the reef and in deep safe water--to Him be the
praise and the glory! I have written all particulars as usual to my
father, and now that the danger has been averted, you will rejoice to
hear how great a door is opened to us in that part of the world.
Personal safety ensured, and, so far as can be judged of, no apparent
obstacle in the way of the Mission in that quarter. Had this great
peril not occurred--and it was to human eyes and in human language
the mere "chance" of a minute--I might have dwelt with too much
satisfaction on the bright side of the picture. As it is, it is a
lesson to me "to think soberly." I can hardly trust myself to write
yet with my usual freedom of the scenery, natives, &c. One great
thought is before me--"Is it all real that we touched on that reef in
the sight of hundreds of natives?" It was not a sense of personal
danger--that could not occur at such a time; but the idea that the
vessel might be lost, the missionary operations suspended, &c.; this
shot through me in those two minutes! But I had no time for more
than mental prayer, for I was pulling at ropes with all my strength;
not till it was all over could I go below and fall on my knees in a
burst of thanksgiving and praise. We suppose that there must be a
very strong under-current near the reef at the mouth of the bay, for
the vessel, instead of coming round as usual (and there was abundance
of room), would not obey the helm, and we touched an outlying rock
before we could alter the sails, when she rounded instantly on the
other tack. Humanly speaking, she would have come off very soon, as
the tide was flowing, and she received no damage, as we came very
gently against the rock, which was only about the size of an ordinary
table. But it is an event to be remembered by me with thankfulness
all my life. I think the number of natives who had been on deck and
about us in canoes that morning could not have been less than 450.
They behaved very well. Of the five principal chiefs three could
talk some Bauro language, so I could communicate with them, and this
was one reason why I felt satisfied of their good-will. They gave me
two pigs, about 500 or 600 cocoa-nuts, and upwards of a ton of yams,
though I told them I had only two small hatchets, five or six adzes,
a few gimlets, and empty bottles to give in exchange. If I had not
been satisfied of their being quite friendly, I would not have put
ourselves so entirely into their power; but it is of the greatest
consequence to let the natives of a place see that you are not
suspicious, and where there is no evident hazard in so doing, I think
I ought to act upon it. Perhaps the Bishop, being an older hand at
it, will think I was rash; but as far as the natives are concerned,
the result shows I was quite right; the letting go a kedge in deepish
water is another matter, that was a mistake I know now. But we could
not work the vessel by reason of the crowds of natives, and what was
I to do? Either not stand close in, as they all expected, or let go
a kedge. If I did not go into the mouth of the bay, they would have
said, "He does not trust us," and mutual suspicion would have been
(possibly) the result, and I could not make them understand rightly
the reason why I did not want to drop the kedge or small anchor.

'I had slept on shore about three miles up the bay among a number of
natives, twenty-five or twenty-six in the same room with me, on the
previous evening: at least, I lay down in my things, which, by the
bye, were drenched through with salt and rain water. They said I was
the first white person that had been ashore there. They treated me
very well. How in the face of all this could I run the risk of
letting them think I was unwilling to trust them? So I think still
that I was right in all but one thing. I ought to have ascertained
better the nature of the current and the bottom of the harbour, to
see if there was good holding ground. But it is easier to do those
things in an English port than in the sight of a number of natives,
and especially when there is but one person able to communicate with
the said natives. If I went off in the boat sounding, who was to
look after the schooner? If I stayed on board, who was to explain to
the natives what was being done in the boat? Besides, we have but
five men on board, including the master and mate, and one of them was
disabled by a bad hand, so that if I had manned the boat, I should
have left only three able-bodied men on board--it was a puzzle, you
see, dear Uncle. Now I have entered into this long defence lest any
of you dear ones should think me rash. Indeed, I don't want to run
any risks at all. But there was no risk here, as I supposed, and had
we chosen to go round on the other tack we should have known nothing
of a risk now. As it was, we did run a great hazard of grounding on
the reef, and therefore, Laus Deo.

'Oh! dear little Pena, if you had only seen the village which, as
yet, I alone of white people have been allowed to see--the great tall
cocoa-nuts, so tall and slender at the top, that I was almost afraid
when a boy was sent up to gather some nuts for me--the cottages of
bamboo and cocoa-nut leaves--the great forest trees, the parrots
flying about among the branches--the crowd of men and children and a
few women all looking at, and some talking to the strange chief, "who
had spoken the truth and brought their kinsman as he promised,"--the
sea in the harbour shut off by small islets and looking like a
beautiful lake with high wooded and steep banks--the pretty canoes on
the beach, and the great state canoe lying at its stone anchor about
fifty yards off, about fifty feet long, and inlaid throughout with
mother-of-pearl, the spears leaning against the houses--men stalking
about with a kind of club (the great chief Puruhanua gave me his);--I
think your little head would have been almost turned crazy....

'June 4th, Auckland.--We reached harbour a week ago in a violent
squall of wind and rain at 8.45 P.M. Anxious night after the anchor
was dropped, lest the vessel should drag. Nine days coming from
Norfolk Island, very heavy weather--no accident, but jib-boom pitched
away while lying to in a south-easter....

'Your loving nephew,

'J. C. P.'

The Rev. Benjamin Thornton Dudley, for several years a most valuable
helper in the work, both at home and abroad, gives the following
account of his own share in it, and his recollections of that first
year:--

'The first time I ever saw Mr. Patteson was in the beginning of 1856,
when you (this is a letter to Mrs. Selwyn) all visited Lyttelton in
the newly arrived "Southern Cross." That indescribable charm of
manner, calculated at once to take all hearts by storm, was not
perhaps as fully developed in him then as afterwards, and my
experience was then comparatively limited, yet his words in the
sermon he preached on behalf of the Melanesian Mission (a kind of
historical review of the growth and spread of the Gospel), although
coming after the wonderful sermon of the Bishop in the morning, made
a deep impression on several of us, myself among the number.

'You came to Lyttelton at the end of 1856 again, this time without
him, and the Bishop brought me up to St. John's College, and placed
me under him there. I remember at first how puzzled I felt as to
what my position was, and what I was expected to do. Not a single
direction was given me by Mr. Patteson, nor did he invite me to take
a class in the comparatively small Melanesian school. Gradually it
dawned upon me that I was purposely left there, and that I was
expected to offer myself for anything I could do. When I offered
myself I was allowed to assist in this and that, until at length I
fell into my regular place. Although the treatment I received in
this respect puzzled me, I felt his great kindness from the first.
How bright he was in those days, and how overflowing with spirits
when among the Melanesians. What fun there used to be of a morning,
when he would come and hunt the lazy ones out of bed, drive them down
to the bath house, and there assist their ablutions with a few basins
of water thrown at them; and what an amount of quiet "chaff" used to
go on at breakfast time about it as we sat with them in the great
hall, without any of those restraints of the "high table" which were
introduced at dinner.

'During the first voyage made that year to return our Melanesian
party, I think Mr. Patteson was feeling very much out of sorts. I do
not remember any time during the years in which I was permitted to
see so much of him when he took things so easily. He spoke of
himself as lazy, and I confess I used to wonder somewhat how it was
that he retired so completely into the cabin, and did apparently so
little in the way of study. He read the "Heir of Redclyffe," and
other books of light reading in that voyage. I understood better
afterwards what, raw youth as I was at the time, puzzled me in one
for whom I was already beginning to entertain a feeling different
from any previously experienced. That seems to me now to have been
quite a necessary pause in his life after he had with
wholeheartedness and full intention given himself to his work, but
before he had fully faced all its requirements and had learnt to map
out his whole time with separate toil.'

So concluded what may be called the first term of Coley Patteson's
tutorship of his island boys. His work is perhaps best summed up in
this sentence in a letter to me from Mrs. Abraham: 'Mr. Patteson's
love for them, and his facility in communicating with them in their
own tongue, make his dealing with the present set much more intimate
and effective than it has ever been before, and their affections
towards him are drawn out in a lively manner.'

CHAPTER VIII.

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE AND LIFU. 1857-1859.

It seems to me that the years between 1856 and 1861 were the very
brightest of Coleridge Patteson's life. He had left all for Christ's
sake and the Gospel's, and was reaping the blessing in its freshness.
His struggles with his defects had been successful, the more so
because he was so full of occupation that the old besetting trouble,
self-contemplation, had been expelled for lack of opportunity; and he
had become far more simple, since humility was ceasing to be a
conscious effort.

There is a light-heartedness about his letters like that of the old
Eton times. Something might have been owing to the impulse of
health, which was due to the tropical heat. Most probably this heat
was what exhausted his constitution so early, but at first it was a
delightful stimulus, and gave him exemption from all those
discomforts with which cold had affected him at home. This
exhilaration bore him over the many trials of close contact with
uncivilised human nature so completely that his friends never even
guessed at his natural fastidiousness. That which might have been
selfish in this fastidiousness was conquered, though the refinement
remained. Even to the last, in his most solitary hours, this
personal neatness never relaxed, but the victory over disgust was a
real triumph over self, which no doubt was an element of happiness.

While the Bishop continued to go on the voyages with him, he had
companionship, guidance, and comparatively no responsibility, while
his success, that supreme joy, was wonderfully unalloyed, and he felt
his own especial gifts coming constantly into play. His love for his
scholars was one continual well of delight, and really seemed to be
an absolute gift, enabling him to win them over, and compensating for
what he had left, even while he did not cease to love his home with
deep tenderness.

Another pair of New Zealand friends had to be absent for a time.
Archdeacon Abraham's arm was so severely injured by an accident with
a horse, that the effects were far more serious than those of a
common fracture. The disaster took place in Patteson's presence.
'I shall never forget,' writes his friend, 'his gentleness and
consideration as he first laid me down in a room and then went to
tell my wife.'

It was found necessary to have recourse to English advice; the
Archdeacon and Mrs. Abraham went home, and were never again residents
at Auckland.

A letter to Mr. Justice Coleridge was written in the interval
between the voyages:--

'Auckland: June 12, 1857.

'My dear Uncle,--You will not give me credit for being a good
correspondent, I fear; but the truth is that I seldom find time to do
more than write long chatty letters to my dear father and sisters,
occasionally to Thorverton, and to Miss Neill and one or two others
to cheer them in their sickness and weariness. Any news from afar
may be a real relaxation.

'For myself I need only say that I find these dear people most
attractive and winning, that it is no effort to love them, that they
display all natural gifts in a remarkable way--good temper,
affection, gentleness, obedience, gratitude, &c., occasionally real
self-restraint. Dear Hirika's last words to me at San Cristoval
were, "Oh, I do love you so," and his conduct showed it. He is a
bright handsome lad, clever but inaccurate, of most sweet
disposition. In matters of personal cleanliness, healthy appearance,
&c., the change in seven months was that of a lad wholly savage
becoming neat, tidy in dress, and of gentlemanly appearance. In some
ways he was my pet of the whole party, though I have equally bright
hopes of Grariri, a sturdy, honest fellow with the best temper I
almost ever found among lads of sixteen anywhere, and Kerearua is the
most painstaking fellow of the lot; and a boy whose distinguishing
features it would be hard to describe; but he may be summed up as a
very good boy, and certainly a most loveable one. Sumaro and Kimarua
older and less interesting.

'I printed short catechisms, a translation of the Lord's Prayer,
Creed, General Confession, two or three other of the Common Prayer
prayers, and one or two short missionary prayers in the dialect of
both islands; but I can only speak at all fluently the language of
San Cristoval.

'Of the Nengone people I could say much more. The two young women
(married) and the two young unmarried men had been under Mr.
Nihill's instruction two or three years, baptized, and were regular
communicants while at the College. Simeona was baptized on the same
day as his infant son, after he had been with us five months. He and
the other four were confirmed at the College chapel, and he
afterwards received the Holy Communion with the rest.

'Kowine, a lad of seventeen, is not baptized, though well instructed.
We were not wholly satisfied about him. Of the knowledge of them all
I can speak with the utmost confidence. They know more a great deal
than most candidates for confirmation in a well-regulated English
parish. It was delightful to work with them. We wrote Bible
history, which has reached about fifty sheets in MS. in small
handwriting, bringing the history to the time of Joshua; very many
questions and answers, and translated ninety pages of the Prayer
Book, including Services for Infant and Adult Baptism, Catechism,
Burial Service, &c.

'It is most interesting work, though not easy, and much of it will no
doubt be altered when we come to know the language thoroughly well.
This island of Nengone (called also Maro and Britannia Island)
contains about 6,500 inhabitants, of whom some profess Christianity,
while the remainder are still fighting and eating one another, though
accessible to white people.

'We hope to have time to see something of the heathen population,
though the London Mission Society having re-occupied the island, we
do not regularly visit it with the intention of establishing
ourselves.... The language is confined to that island. I call it
language, not dialect, for it is, I believe, really distinct from any
others we have or have heard of, very soft, like Italian, and capable
of expressing accurately minute shades of meaning. Causative forms,
&c., remind us of the oriental structure, one peculiarity (that of
the chief's dialect, or almost language, running parallel to that of
common life) I think I have before mentioned.

'In about a month I suppose we shall be off again for three or four
months, and we long to get hold of pupils from the Banks Archipelago,
Santa Cruz, Espiritu Santo, in which no ground is broken at present.
We visited them last year, but did not get any pupils; lovely
islands, very populous, and the natives very bright, intelligent-
looking. But how I long to see again some of my own dear boys, I do
so think of them! It may be that two or three of them may come again
to us, and then we may perhaps hope that they may learn enough to be
really useful to their own people.... Dear uncle, I should indeed
rejoice much to see my dear, dear father and sisters and Jem and all
of you if it came in the way of one's business, but I think, so long
as I am well, that the peculiar nature of this work must require the
constant presence of one personally known to, and not only officially
connected with, the natives. While I feel very strongly that in many
ways intercourse occasionally resumed with the home clergy must be
very useful to us, yet if you can understand that there is no one to
take one's place, you see how very unlikely it must be that I can
move from this hemisphere. I say "if you can understand," for it
does seem sad that one should really be in such a position that one's
presence should be of any consequence; but, till it please God that
the Bishop shall receive other men for this Mission, there is no
other teacher for these lads, and so we must rub on and do the best
we can. Of course I should be most thankful, most happy if, during
his lifetime, I once more found myself at home, but I don't think
much nor speculate about it, and I am very happy, as I am well and
hearty. You won't suspect me of any lessening of strong affection
for all that savours of home. I think that I know every face in
Alfington and in Feniton, and very many in Ottery as of old; I
believe I think of all with increasing affection, but while I wonder
at it, I must also confess that I can and do live happy day after day
without enjoying the sight of those dear faces.

'Always your affectionate and grateful nephew,

'J. C. PATTESON.'

As soon as the 'Southern Cross' had carried Bishop Harper back to
Lyttelton, the Melanesian voyage was recommenced, this time with a
valuable assistant in Mr. Benjamin Dudley. Mrs. Selwyn was again
dropped at Norfolk Island, and five young Pitcairners were taken on
board to serve as a boat's crew, and also to receive instruction.

This was a more extensive voyage than the first, as more time could
be spent on it, but there is less full description, as there was less
time for writing; and besides, these coral islands are much alike.
Futuma was the first new island visited:--

'The canoes did not venture to come off to us, so we went ashore in
the boat, Bishop and I wading ankle-deep to the beach. Forty or
fifty natives under a deep overhanging rock, crouching around a fire,
plenty of lads and boys, no women. Some Tanna men in the group, with
their faces painted red and black, hair (as you know) elaborately
frizzled and dressed with coral lime. The Futuma people speak a
different language from those of Anaiteum, and the Tanna people speak
a third (having, moreover, four dialects of their own). These three
islands are all in sight of each other. Tanna has an active volcano,
now smoking away, and is like a hot-bed, wonderfully fertile. People
estimate its population at 10,000, though it is not very large,--
about thirty miles long. At Futuma, the process by which these coral
islands have been upheaved is well seen. The volcanic rocks are
lying under the coral, which has been gradually thrust upwards by
them. As the coral emerged, the animal went on building under water,
continually working lower and lower down upon and over the volcanic
formation, as this heaved in its upward course the coral formation
out of the sea.'

Erromango was occupied by the Scottish Mission, and Mr. Gordon was
then living there in peace and apparent security, when a visit was
paid to him, and Patteson gathered some leaves in Dillon's Bay, the
spot where John Williams met his death sixteen years before, not, as
now was understood, because he was personally disliked, but because
he was unconsciously interfering with a solemnity that was going on
upon the beach.

At Fate Isle, the people were said to be among the wildest in those
seas. When the 'Royal Sovereign' was wrecked, they had killed the
whole crew, nineteen in number, eaten ten at once, and sent the other
nine as presents to their friends. Very few appeared, but there was
a good 'opening' exchange of presents.

A great number of small islets lie around Fate, forming part of the
cluster of the New Hebrides, The Bishop had been at most of them
before, and with a boat's crew of three Pitcairners and one English
sailor, starting early and spending all day in the boat, he and
Patteson touched at eleven in three days, and established the first
steps to communication by obtaining 127 names of persons present, and
making gifts. These little volcanic coral isles were all much alike,
and nothing remarkable occurred but the obtaining two lads from Mai,
named Petere and Laure, for a ten months' visit. Poor fellows, they
were very sea-sick at first, and begged to go home again, but soon
became very happy, and this connection with Petere had important
consequences in the end. These lads spoke a language approaching
Maori, whereas the Fate tongue prevailed in the other isles.

At Mallicolo, on August 20, a horrible sight presented itself to the
eyes of the two explorers when they walked inland with about eighteen
most obliging and courteous natives--an open space with four hollowed
trunks of trees surrounding two stones, the trees carved into the
shape of grotesque human heads, and among them, a sort of temple,
made of sloping bamboos and pandanus leaves meeting at the top, from
whence hung a dead man, with his face painted in stripes of red and
yellow, procured, it was thought, from the pollen of flowers. There
was not enough comprehension of the language to make out the meaning
of all this.

Ambrym, the next island, was more than usually lovely, and was
destined to receive many more visits. The women made their approach
crawling, some with babies on their backs. Whitsuntide, where the
casks had to be filled with water, showed a great number of large,
resolute-looking men, whose air demanded caution; 'but,' says the
journal, 'practice makes perfect, and we get the habit of landing
among strangers, the knack of managing with signs and gesticulations,
and the feeling of ease and confidence which engenders confidence and
good-will in the others. Quarrels usually arise from both parties
being afraid and suspicious of each other.'

Leper's Isle owes its unpleasant name to its medicinal springs. It
is a particularly beautiful place, containing a population of good
promise. Three landings were made there, and at the fourth place
Patteson jumped ashore on a rock and spent some time in calming the
fears of a party of natives who had been frightened in their canoe by
the boat under sail overtaking them. 'hey fingered bows and arrows,
but only from nervousness,' he says. However, they seem to have
suspected the visitors of designs on their load of fine taro, and it
was some time before the owner would come out and resume it. On all
these isles the plan could as yet only be to learn names and write
them down, so as to enquire for acquaintance next time, either make
presents, or barter them for provisions, discover the class of
language, and invite scholars for another time.

So at Star Island three or four natives said, 'In ten moons you two
come back; very good, then we go with you.' 'I think,' Patteson
tells his sisters, 'you would have liked to have seen me, standing on
a rock, with my two supporters, two fine young men, who will I trust
go with us next time, my arms round their necks, and a fine
background of some thirty or forty dark figures with bows and arrows,
&c., and two or three little rogues, perched on a point of rock above
me, just within reach, asking for fish-hooks.' He says it in all
simplicity, but the picture presupposes some strength of mind in the
sisters who were to appreciate it.

Few natives appeared at Espiritu Santo, and the vessel passed on to
Oanuta or Cherry Island, where the Bishop had never been, and where a
race of dull, good-natured giants was found. The chief was a noble-
looking man with an aquiline nose, and seemed to have them well under
command, and some of the younger men, who had limbs which might have
been a model for a sculptor, could have lifted an ordinary-sized
Englishman as easily as a child. They were unluckily already
acquainted with whalers, whom they thought the right sort of fellows,
since they brought tobacco and spirits, did not interfere with native
habits, nor talk of learning, for which the giants saw no need. The
national complexion here was of a lighter yellow, the costume a
tattooed chest, the language akin to Maori; and it was the same at
Tikopia, where four chiefs, one principal one immensely fat, received
their visitors seated on a mat in the centre of a wide circle formed
by natives, the innermost seated, the others looking over them.
These, too, were accustomed to whalers, and when they found that pigs
and yams in exchange for spirits and tobacco were not the object,
they were indifferent. They seemed to despise fish-hooks, and it was
plain that they had even obtained muskets from the whalers, for there
were six in the chiefs house, and one was fired, not maliciously but
out of display. The Bishop told them his object, and they understood
his language, but were uninterested. The fat chief regaled the two
guests with a cocoa-nut apiece, and then seemed anxious to be rid of
them.