Books: Life of John Coleridge Patteson

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

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'A man who takes the sentimental view of coral islands and cocoa-
nuts, of course, is worse than useless; a man possessed with the idea
that he is making a sacrifice will never do; and a man who thinks any
kind of work "beneath a gentleman" will simply be in the way, and be
rather uncomfortable at seeing the Bishop do what he thinks degrading
to do himself. I write all this quite freely, wishing to convey, if
possible, some idea to you of the kind of men we need. And if the
right fellow is moved by God's grace to come out, what a welcome we
will give him, and how happy he will soon be in a work the abundant
blessings of which none can know as we know them. There are three
clergymen with me. Mr. Pritt, who came out with the Bishop of Nelson
as his chaplain, but who, I am thankful to say, is regularly part and
parcel of the Mission staff; Mr. Dudley, ordained last year, who for
six years has been in the Mission, and has had the special advantage
of being trained under the Primate's eye; and Mr. Kerr who was also
ordained about ten months ago.

'I give 100 pounds to a clergyman when ordained, increasing it 101
annually to a maximum of 150 pounds. But this depends upon
subscriptions, &c. I could not pledge myself even to this, except in
the case of a man very highly recommended. But of this I will write
more.

'Again let me say that I do not want anyone yet, not this year. I
shall be off again (D.V.) in the beginning of May 1863, for six
months; and if then I find on my return (D.V.) in November, letters
from you, either asking me to write with reference to any young man,
or informing me that one is on the way out, that will be quite soon
enough.

'I need not say I don't expect any such help so soon, if at all.

'Finally, pray don't think that I underrate the great advantage of
having such persons as St. Mark's produces; but I write guardedly.
My kind love to Mrs. Derwent.

'Affectionately yours,

'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'

On the 29th of December, after two pages of affectionate remarks on
various family incidents, the letter proceeds:--

'We are having an extra scrubbing in preparation for our visitors on
Thursday, who may wish to be with us on the occasion of the baptism
of our six Banks Islanders; and I am writing in the midst of it,
preferring to sit in the schoolroom to my own room, which is very
tiny and very hot.

'We have some eight only out of the fifty-one whom I am obliged to
treat rather as an awkward squad, not that they are too stupid to
learn, but that we cannot give them the individual attention that is
necessary. They teach me their language; but I cannot put them into
any class where they could be regularly taught--indeed, they are not
young fellows whom I should bring again. They do the work of
introducing us to their islands, and of teaching us something of
their language. So I continue to give them what little time I can--
the real strength of our force being given to those whom we hope to
have here again.

'We are all on the qui vive about our beautiful vessel, hoping to see
it in about six or eight weeks. It will, please God, be for years
the great means by which we may carry on the Mission if we live; and
all the care that has been spent upon it has been well spent, you may
be sure.

'I don't want to appear as if I expected this to be done in one
sense, but it is only when I think of the personal interest shown in
it that I suppose it right to thank people much. I don't want it to
be thought of any more than you do as a gift to us particular
missionaries. It is the Church carrying on its own work. Yet, as
you truly say, private feelings and interests are not to be treated
rudely; and I do think it a very remarkable thing that some 2,000
pounds should be raised by subscriptions, especially when one knows
that so very few people have an idea of the work that is being done.'

'What a blessed New Year's rejoicing in hope here follows:--

'Kohimarama: Jan. 1, 1863.

'My dearest Sisters,--The first letter of the year to you! Thank God
for bringing us to see it! It is 1 P.M., and at 4.30 P.M. six dear
children (from twenty-two to fourteen) are to be baptized.
Everything in one sense is done; how very little in the other and
higher sense! May Almighty God pour the fulness of His blessing upon
them! I sit and look at them, and my heart is too full for words.
They sit with me, and bring their little notes with questions that
they scarcely dare trust themselves to speak about. You will thank
God for giving me such comfort, such blessings, and such dear
children. How great a mercy it is! How unexpected! May God make me
humble and patient through it all!

'What a sight it would be for you four hours hence! Our party of
sixty-one, visitors from Auckland, the glorious day, and the holy
service, for which all meet.

'I use Proper Psalms, 89, 96, 126, 145, and for lessons a few verses,
2 Kings v. 9-15, and Acts viii. 35-9. After the third Collect, the
Primate may say a few words, or I may do so; and then I shall use our
usual Melanesian Collect for many islands, very briefly named; and so
conclude with the Blessing.

'What this is to me you must try and realise, that you may be
partakers of my joy and thankfulness. To have Christians about me,
to whom I can speak with a certainty of being understood, to feel
that we are all bound together in the blessed Communion of the Body
of Christ, to know that angels on high are rejoicing and evil spirits
being chased away, that all the Banks Islands and all Melanesia are
experiencing, as it were, the first shock of a mighty earthquake,
that God who foresees the end may, in his merciful Providence, be
calling even these very children to bear His message to thousands of
heathens, is not it too much? One's heart is not large enough for
it, and confession of one's own unworthiness breaks off involuntarily
into praise and glory!

'I know, my dear Sisters, that this is most likely one of the great
blessings that precede great trials. I can't expect or wish
(perhaps) always to sail with a fair wind, yet I try to remember that
trial must come, without on that account restraining myself from a
deep taste of the present joy. I can't describe it!

'Then we have now much that we ever can talk about--deep talk about
Mota and the other islands, and the special temptations to which they
must be exposed; that now is the time when the devil will seek with
all his might to "have" them, and so hinder God's work in the land;
that they have been specially blest by God to be the first to desire
to know His will, and that they have heavy responsibilities.

'"Yes," they say, "we see man does not know that his room is dirty
and full of cobwebs while it is all dark; and another man, whose room
is not half so dirty, because the sun shines into it and shows the
dirt, thinks his room much worse than the other. That is like our
hearts. It is worse now to be angry than it was to shoot a man a
long time ago. But the more the sun shines in, the more we shall
find cobwebs and dirt, long after we thought the room was clean.
Yes, we know what that means. We asked you what would help us to go
on straight in the path, now that we are entering at the gate. We
said prayer, love, helping our countrymen. Now we see besides
watchfulness, self-examination; and then you say we must at once look
forward to being confirmed, as the people you confirmed at Norfolk
Island. Then there is the very great thing, the holy and the great,
the Supper of the Lord." So, evening by evening and day by day, we
talk, this being of course not called school, being, indeed, my great
relaxation, for this is the time when they are like children with a
father.

'I know I feel it so. Don't take the above as a fair sample of our
talk, for the more solemn words we say about God's Love, Christ's
Intercession, and the Indwelling of the Spirit, I can hardly write
down now.

'Your loving Brother,

'J. C. P.

'P.S.--Feast of the Epiphany. Those dear children were baptized on
Thursday. A most solemn interesting scene it was!'

Thoroughly happy indeed was the Bishop at this time. In a note of
February 3 to the Bishop of Wellington, he speaks of the orderly
state of the College:--

'Mr. Pritt has made a complete change in the Melanesian school, very
properly through me; not putting himself forward, but talking with
me, suggesting, accepting suggestions, giving the benefit of his
great knowledge of boys and the ways to educate them. All the
punctuality, order, method, &c., are owing to him; and he is so
bright and hearty, thoroughly at ease with the boys, and they with
him.'

The same note announces two more recruits--Mr. John Palmer, a
theological student at St. John's, and Joseph Atkin, the only son of
a settler in the neighbourhood, who had also held a scholarship
there. He had gained it in 1860, after being educated at the
Taranaki Scotch School and the Church of England Grammar School at
Parnell, and his abilities were highly thought of. The Bishop says:--

'Joe Atkin, you will be glad to hear, has joined us on probation till
next Christmas, but he is very unlikely to change his mind. He and
his father have behaved in a very straightforward manner. I am not
at all anxious to get fellows here in a hurry. The Norfolk
Islanders, e.g., are in need of training much more than our best
Melanesians, less useful as teachers, cooks, even as examples. This
will surprise you, but it is so.

'I have long suspected that Joe thought about joining us. He tells
me, "You never would give me a chance to speak to you, Sir."

"Quite true, Joe; I wished the thought to work itself out in your own
mind, and then I thought it right to speak first to your father."

'I told him that I could offer but "a small and that an uncertain
salary" should he be ordained five years hence; and that he ought to
think of that, that there was nothing worldly in his wishing to
secure a maintenance by-and-by for wife and child, and that I much
doubted my power to provide it. But this did not at all shake either
his father or him. I have a great regard for the lad, and I know you
have.'

From that time forward reading with and talking with 'Joe Atkin' was
one of the chief solaces of the Bishop's life, though at present the
young man was only on trial, and could not as yet fill the place of
Mr. Benjamin Dudley, who, soon after the voyage, married, and
returned to Canterbury settlement. The loss was felt, as appears in
the following:--

'Kohimarama; Saturday, 1 P.M., Feb. 7, 1863.

'My dearest Sisters,--I have a heavy cold, so you must expect a
stupid letter. I am off in an hour or two for a forty-mile ride, to
take to-morrow's services (four) among soldiers and settlers. The
worst of it is that I have no chance of sleep at the end, for the
mosquitos near the river are intolerable. How jolly it would be,
nevertheless, if you were here, and strong enough to make a sort of
picnic ride of it. I do it this way: strap in front of the saddle a
waterproof sheet, with my silk gown, Prayer-book, brush and comb,
razor and soap, a clean tie, and a couple of sea biscuits. Then at
about 3 P.M. off I go. About twenty miles or so bring me to
Papakura, an ugly but good road most of the way. Here there is an
inn. I stop for an hour and a half, give the horse a good feed, and
have my tea. At about 7.30 or 8 I start again, and ride slowly along
a good road this dry weather. The moon rises at 9.30, and by that
time I shall be reaching the forest, through which a good military
road runs. This is the part of the road I should like to show you.
Such a night as this promises to be! It will be beautiful. About 11
I reach a hut made of reeds on the very brink of the river, tether
the horse, give him a feed, which I carry with me from Papakura,
light a fire (taking matches) inside the hut, and try to smoke away
mosquitos, lie down in your plaid, Joan--do you remember giving it to
me?--and get what sleep I can. To-morrow I work my way home again,
the fourth service being at Papakura at 4 P.M., so I ought to be at
Kohimarama by 9 P.M., dead tired I expect. I think these long days
tire me more than they did; and I really do see not a few white
hairs, a dozen or so, this is quite right and respectable.

'I am writing now because I am tired with this cold, but chiefly
because when I write only for the mail I send you such wretched
scrawls, just business letters, or growls about something or other
which I magnify into a grievance. But really, dear Joan and Fan, I
do like much writing to you; only it is so very seldom I can do so,
without leaving undone some regular part of the day's work. I am
quite aware that you want to know more details about my daily life,
and I really wish to supply them; but then I am so weary when I get a
chance of writing, that I let my mind drift away with my pen, instead
of making some effort to write thoughtfully. How many things I
should like to talk about, and which I ought to write about: Bishops
Mackenzie and Colenso, the true view of what heathenism is, Church
government, the real way to hope to get at the mass of heathens at
home, the need of a different education in some respects for the
clergy, &c. But I have already by the time I begin to write taken
too much out of myself in other ways to grapple with such subjects,
and so I merely spin out a yarn about my own special difficulties and
anxieties.

'Don't mind my grumbling. I think that it is very ungrateful of me
to do so, when, this year especially, I am receiving such blessings;
it is partly because I am very much occupied, working at high
pressure, partly because I do not check my foolish notions, and let
matters worry me. I don't justify it a bit; nor must you suppose
that because I am very busy just now, I am really the worse for it.
The change to sea life will set me all to rights again; and I feel
that much work must be done in a little time, and a wise man would
take much more pains than I do to keep himself in a state fit to do
it.

'I have told you about our manner of life here. Up at 5, when I go
round and pull the blankets, not without many a joke, off the
sleeping boys, many of the party are already up and washing. Then,
just before prayers, I go into the kitchen and see that all is ready
for breakfast. Prayers at 5.45 in English, Mota, Baura, &c.,
beginning with a Mota Hymn, and ending with the Lord's Prayer in
English. Breakfast immediately after: at our table Mr. Pritt, Mr.
Kerr, and young Atkin who has just joined us. At the teachers'
table, five Norfolk Islanders, Edward (a Maori), five girls and two
of their husbands, and the three girls being placed at this table
because they are girls; Melanesians at the other three tables
indiscriminately. There are four windows, one at the north, three at
the east side. The school and chapel, in one long modern building,
form the corresponding wing on the eastern side of my little room,
and the boys dormitories between.

'We are daily expecting the vessel, though it will be a quick passage
for her if she comes in the next ten days, and then what a bustle!

'We send Dudley and his wife away to Canterbury for eight or nine
months; he is so weak as to make the change, which I had urged him to
try for some time past, quite necessary.

'Next Sunday a Confirmation at Orehunga, eight miles off; back to
Auckland for catechising and Baptism at 3 p.m. and evening service at
6.30, and never a word of either sermon written, and all the school
work! Never mind, a good growl to you is a fine restorative, and
really I get on very well somehow.

'Well, good-bye, you dear Sisters,

'Your affectionate Brother,

'J. C. P.'

On the last day of February came the new 'Southern Cross,' and two
delightful notes announced it to the Vicar of Hursley and to myself
in one envelope.

'St. Andrew's: Feb. 28, 1863.

'My dear Cousin,--The "Southern Cross" arrived safely this morning.
Thanks to God!

'What it is to us even you can hardly tell; I know not how to pour
out my thankfulness. She seems admirably adapted for the work. Mr.
Tilly's report of her performance is most satisfactory: safe, fast,
steers well, and very manageable. Internal arrangements very good;
after cabin too luxurious, but then that may be wanted for sick folk,
and as it is luxurious, why I shall get a soft bed, and take to it
very kindly.

'Pray let dear Mr. Keble and Dr. Moberly know at once how very happy
and thankful I am for this blessing. I know all you good friends at
home will try to picture to yourselves my delight as I jumped on
board!

'The boys are, of course, wild with excitement. It is blowing very
hard. Last night (when we were thinking of them) it was an anxious
night for them close on the coast.

'I have no time to write more. I thought of Lady... as I looked at
the chronometers and instruments, and of you all as I looked at the
beautiful vessel slipping along through the water with scarce a
stitch of canvas. I pray that she may be spared many years to the
Mission, and that we may have grace to use her, as she ought to be
used, to His glory.

'Your affectionate Cousin,

'J. C. PATTESON, Bishop.

'You know that you are daily remembered in our prayers. God bless
you.'

'10.30 P.M., March 1, 1863.

'My dear Mr. Keble,--One line, though on Sunday night, to tell you of
the safe arrival of the "Southern Cross." You have a large share in
her, and she has a large share in your good wishes and prayers, I am
sure.

'Solemn thoughts on this day, an Ordination Sunday, mingle with the
joy at the coming of this messenger (I trust of mercy and peace). I
need not ask you to pray continually for us, for I know you do so.
But indeed, now is the time when we seem especially to need your
prayers.

'The lads have no lack of intellectual capacity, they not
unfrequently surprise me. Now is the time when they are in the
receptive state, and now especially any error on our part may give a
wrong direction to the early faith of thousands! What an awful
thought! We are their only teachers, the only representatives of
Christianity among them. How inexpressibly solemn and fearful! This
is the thought so perpetually present to me. The training of the
future missionaries of Melanesia is, by God's Providence, placed in
our hands. No wonder that I feel sometimes overwhelmed at the
thought!

'But I know that if God gives me grace to become more simple-minded
and humble, He will order even this aright. You I know will pray
more than ever for me. My kindest regards to Mrs. Keble; I hope she
is better.

'Your affectionate and grateful young Friend,

'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'

Before the first joy of the arrival was over, ere the 'Southern
Cross' could make her first voyage among the multitude of isles, a
great calamity had fallen upon St. Andrew's. Whether it was from the
large numbers, or the effect of the colder climate, or from what
cause could not be told, but a frightful attack of dysentery fell
upon the Melanesians, and for several weeks suffering and death
prevailed among them. How Bishop Patteson tended them during this
time can be better guessed than described.

Archdeacon Lloyd, who came to assist in the cares of the small party
of clergy, can find no words to express the devotion with which the
Bishop nursed them, comforting and supporting them, never shrinking
from the most repulsive offices, even bearing out the dead silently
at night, lest the others should see and be alarmed.

Still no mail, except during the voyages, had ever left New Zealand
without a despatch for home; and time was snatched in the midst of
all this distress for a greeting, in the same beautiful, clear minute
hand as usual:--

'Hospital, St. Andrew's: Saturday night, 9 P.M., March 22, 1863.

'My dearest Brother and Sister,--I write from the dining hall (now
our hospital), with eleven Melanesians lying round me in extremity of
peril. I buried two to-day in one grave, and I baptized another now
dying by my side.

'God has been pleased in His wisdom and mercy to send upon us a
terrible visitation, a most virulent form of dysentery. Since this
day fortnight I have scarce slept night or day, but by snatching an
hour here and there; others are working quite as hard, and all the
good points of our Melanesian staff are brought out, as you may
suppose.

'The best medical men cannot suggest any remedy. All remedies have
been tried and failed. Every conceivable kind of treatment has been
tried in vain. There are in the hall (the hospital now) at this
moment eleven--eleven more in the little quadrangle, better, but in
as anxious a state as can be; and two more not at all well.

'I have sent all the rest on board to be out of the way of contagion.
How we go on I scarce know.... My good friend, Mr. Lloyd, is here,
giving great help; he is well acquainted with sickness and a capital
nurse.

'I have felt all along that it would be good for us to be in trouble;
we could not always sail with a fair wind, I have often said so, and
God has sent the trial in the most merciful way. What is this to the
falling away of our baptized scholars!

'But it is a pitiful sight! How wonderfully they bear the agony of
it. No groaning.

'When I buried those two children to-day, my heart was full, I durst
not think, but could only pray and believe and trust in Him. God
bless you.

'Your loving Brother,

'J. C. P.

'O Lord, correct me, but with judgment!'

On the 25th, two more were dead, and buried without time to make
coffins, for thirteen still hung between life and death, while fresh
cases were sent from on board ship. Mr. Pritt and Mr. Palmer cooked
nourishing food and prepared rice-water unceasingly; while the others
tended the sick, and the Primate returned from a journey to give his
effective aid. On the night of the 30th, a fifth died unexpectedly,
having only been ill a week, the only scholar from Pentecost Island.
One of these lads, when all hope was over, was wrapped in his white
winding sheet, carried into the chapel, and there baptized by the
Bishop, with choked voice and weeping eyes.

Over those who had not faith enough to justify him in baptizing them,
he said the following prayers as he laid them in their graves:--

'Sentences. Psalms from the Burial Service.

'Forasmuch as it hath pleased Thee, O Almighty God, to take from
amongst us the souls of these two children committed to our charge,
we therefore commit their bodies to the ground; earth to earth, ashes
to ashes, dust to dust; humbly commending to Thy Fatherly mercy these
and all other Thy children who know not Thee, whom Thou knowest, who
art the Father and Lord of all things in heaven and earth, to whom be
all praise and glory, with Thy Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

'We humbly beseech Thee, most merciful God, to remember for good the
inhabitants of the islands of Melanesia, and specially we pray God by
the grave of these children, for the dwellers in Vanua Lava and
Ambrym that Thou wouldest cause the light of the Gospel to shine m
their hearts. Give unto Thy servants grace in their sight, that we
may go forth in peace, and return if it be Thy will in safety, to the
honour and glory of Thy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

'O Almighty God, Father of Mercy, we cry unto Thee in our sorrow and
distress, most humbly confessing that we have most justly provoked
Thy wrath and heavy indignation.

'We know, O Lord, that this is a dispensation of mercy, a gift from
Thee, to be used, as all things may be used to Thy glory. Yet, O
Lord, suffer not our unworthiness to hinder Thy work of mercy!

'O Lord, look down from heaven, visit with Thy tender compassion Thy
children lying under Thy hand in grievous sufferings of body.
Restore them if it be Thy good pleasure to health and strength, or if
it be Thy good will to take them out of this world, receive them to
Thy tender mercies for His blessed sake who died for all men, Thy Son
our Lord.

'Lord's Prayer. Grace.'

This was written down for use, in great haste, in the same spirit
that breathes through the account of the next death: the entry dated
on Coleridge Patteson's thirty-sixth birthday, April 1, 1863, which
must be transcribed, though much of the detail of this time of trial
has been omitted.

'Sosaman died at 9 A.M. this day--a dear lad, one of the Banks
Islanders, about ten or twelve years old. As usual I was kneeling by
him, closing his eyes in death. I can see his poor mother's face
now! What will she say to me? she who knows not the Christian's life
in death! Yet to him, the poor unbaptized child, what is it to him?
What a revelation! Yes, the names he heard at our lips were names of
real things and real persons! There is another world! There is a
God, a Father, a Lord Jesus Christ, a Spirit of holiness, a Love and
Glory. So let us leave him, O Father, in Thy hands, who knowest him
who knew not Thee on earth. Thy mercies never fail. Thou hast
created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.