Books: Life of John Coleridge Patteson

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

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'I washed him, and laid him out as usual in a linen sheet. How white
it looked! So much more simple and touching than the coffin--the
form just discernible as it lay where five had lain before; and then
I knelt down in our little chapel; and, I thank God, I could still
bless and praise Him in my heart!

'How is it that I don't pray more? I pray in one sense less than
usual--am not so long on my knees. I hope it is that I am so worn
out, and so very, very much occupied in tending the sick and dying,
but I am not sure.

'Anyhow I am sure that I am learning at terrible cost lessons which,
it may be, God would have taught me more gently if I had ears to
hear. I have not in all things depended upon Him, and perpetually
sought help from Him.

'Oh that my unworthiness may not hinder His work of mercy!

'If I live, the retrospect of this most solemn time will, I hope, be
very useful. I wonder if I ever went through such acute mental
suffering, and yet, mind! I feel perfectly hardened at times--quite
devoid of sensibility.'

He said in another letter that he felt that if he relaxed his self-
command for one moment he should entirely break down. To him writing
to his beloved home was what speaking, nay, almost thinking, would be
in another man; it gave an outlet to his feeling, and security of
sympathy. There was something in his spiritual nature that gave him
the faculty of realising the Communion of Saints in its fullest
sense, both with those on earth and in Paradise; and, above all, with
his Heavenly Father, so that he seems as complete an example as ever
lived of the reality of that privilege, in which too often we only
express our belief.

Sosaman's was the last death. On a fragment of pink paper, bearing
the date of the next day, it is declared that an alleviation in the
worst symptoms had taken place, and that the faces and eyes were less
haggard. 'Oh! if it be God's will to grant us now a great
deliverance, all glory be to Him!'

The deliverance was granted. The next mail brought tidings of
gladness:--

'St. Andrew's: April 17, 1863.

'My dearest Sisters,--You know the calm yet weary feeling that
succeeds to the period of intense anxiety and constant watchfulness.
Six dear children are taken from us, as you know already. Some
twenty-one others have been very ill, nigh unto death. Two or three
are still weak, but doing well.

'All the rest are convalescent. Oh! I look at them, to see the
loving bright smile again on their poor wan faces. I don't mind
breaking down now; yet I have experienced no decided reaction; only I
am very indolent, like one who, for six weeks, has not had his usual
allowance of sleep. What abundant cause we have for thankfulness!
All the many hours that I spent in that atmosphere, and yet not a
whit the worse for it. What a sight it was! What scenes of
suffering! There seemed to be no end to it; and yet there was always
strength for the immediate work in hand. Tending twenty-four sick,
after hurrying back from burying two dear lads in one grave, or with
a body lying in its white sheet in the chapel; and once, after a
breathless watch of two hours, while they all slept the sleep of
opium, for we dared almost anything to obtain some rest, stealing at
dead of night across the room to the figure wrapped so strangely in
its blanket, and finding it cold and stiff, while one dying lay close
by. It has been a solemn time indeed. And now the brightness seems
to be coming back.

'I have not yet ceased to think of the probable consequences; but,
speaking somewhat hastily, I do not think that this will much retard
the work. I may have to use some extra caution in some places--e.g.,
one of the two first lads brought from Ambrym is dead: one lad, the
only one ever brought from the middle of Whitsuntide Island, is dead;
I must be careful there. The other four came from Mota, Matlavo,
Vanua Lava (W. side), and Guadalcanar; for the six who died came from
six islands.

'One dear lad, Edmund Quintal, sixteen or seventeen years old, was
for a while in a critical state. Fisher Young, a little older, was
very unwell for three or four days. They came from Norfolk Island.

'The last six weeks have been very unhealthy. We had an unusually
hot dry summer--quite a drought; the wells, for example, were never
so tried. There was also an unusual continuance of north-east winds-
-our sultry close wind. And when the dry weather broke up, the rain
and damp weather continued for many days. Great sickness prevailed
in Auckland and the country generally.

'The Norfolk Islanders, now four in number--Edwin Nobbs, Gilbert
Christian, Fisher Young, and Edmund Quintal--have behaved
excellently. Oh, how different I was at their age! It is pleasant,
indeed, to see them so very much improved; they are so industrious,
so punctual, so conscientious. The fact seems to be that they wanted
just what I do hope the routine of our life has supplied--careful
supervision, advice, and, when needed, reproof. They had never had
any training at all.

'But there was something better--religious feeling--to work on! and
the life here has, by God's blessing, developed the good in them. I
am very hopeful about then now. Not, mind! that any one of them has
a notion of teaching, but they are acquiring habits which will enable
them to be good examples in all points of moral conduct to those of
the Melanesians who are not already like B----, &c. The head work
will come by-and-by, I dare say.

'April 22.--The storm seems to have passed, though one or two are
still very weak. But there are no active symptoms of disease. How
mercifully God has dealt with us! I have been very seedy for a few
days, and am so still. In spite of two teeth taken out a fortnight
ago, my whole jaw has been paining me much, heavy cold, and I can't
get good sleep by reason of the pain, and I want sleep much. I think
I must go to the dentist again. You see we hope to sail in ten days
or so, and I want to be well.

'We have just washed and scrubbed the hall thoroughly, and once again
it ceases to be our hospital. That looks bright, does not it? You
must let all friends know about us, for I shall not be able to write
to many, and perhaps I shall not have time to write at all. In the
midst of all this, I have so much work about the management of the
Mission farm and property, and the St. John's College estate, and
educational prospects.'

The 'Southern Cross' was at sea again on May 2, and approved herself
entirely to her owners' satisfaction.

Moreover, another clergyman had come on board for a trial trip, the
Rev. Robert Codrington, a Fellow of Wadham, Oxford, who brought the
University culture which was no small personal pleasure to Bishop
Patteson in the companion of his labours. So that the staff
consisted of Mr. Pritt, Mr. Kerr, Mr. Codrington, Mr. Palmer and Mr.
Atkin, besides Mr. Tilly, whose management of the vessel left the
Bishop free from cares whenever his knowledge of the coast was not
needed. Some of the results of his leisure on the outward voyage
here appear:--

'I am glad I have read the accounts which Bishop Mackenzie's sister
sent me. I know more about it now. Work and anxiety and necessity
for action all came upon them so rapidly, that there was but little
time for forming deliberate plans. I can well realise the finding
oneself surrounded with a hundred poor creatures, diseased and
hungered, the multitude of questions how to feed, lodge, and clothe
them. How far it is right to sanction their mode of life, &c. One
thing I am glad to notice, that the Bishop abstained from all
attempts to convey religious instruction, because he was not
sufficiently acquainted with the language to know what ideas he might
or might not be suggesting. That was wise, and yet how unlike many
hot-headed men, who rush with unintentional irreverence into very
dangerous experiments.

'I confess, as you know, that there seems to me far too cumbrous and
expensive and talkative a method employed in England, for raising
supplies for that Mission and Columbia, Honolulu, &c. I never think
of all that fuss of the four Universities, and all the meetings and
speeches, without some shame. But united action will come in the
train of real synodical action; and if I understand aright, the last
Convocation of Canterbury accepted all that we are trying for, taking
the right view in the question of Provinces, Metropolitans, position
of Colonial Churches, joint action of the Church at large, &c.
Extension of Episcopate in England. Oh, thanks be to God for it all.
What a work for this branch of the Catholic Church! How can people
sit quiet, not give their all!

'I like very much Vaughan's work on the Epistle to the Romans. That
is the book to teach young students how to read their Greek
Testament. Accurate scholarship, no private notions imported into
the Greek text. I should like to hear Mr. Keble speak about the law
underlying the superstitions of heathenism, the way to deal with the
perversions of truth, &c. Somehow I get to marvel at and love that
first book of Hooker more and more. It is wonderful. It goes to the
bottom of the matter; and then at times it gives one to see something
of the Divine wisdom of the Bible as one never saw it before.

'But I fear that I seek too much after a knowledge and understanding
of principles of action which are attainable by a scholar and man of
real reasoning power, but which I am not able to make of practical
use, having neither the brains nor the goodness. This is what I
really mean.

'May 20th.--Any really good book on the New Testament, especially
dealing critically with the Greek text, I certainly wish to have.
I feel that the great neglect of us clergy is the neglect of the
continual study most critically and closely of the grammatical
meaning of the Hebrew and Greek texts. Oh! that in old days I had
made myself a good scholar! Oh! that I did really know Hebrew and
Greek well! What a blessing and delight it would be now! I fear
that I shall never be a good Hebrew scholar, I can't make time for
it; but a decent Greek scholar I hope to be. I work away, but alas I
for want of time, only by fits and starts, at grammars, and such a
book as Vaughan's "Epistle to the Romans," an excellent specimen of
the way to give legitimate help to the student. Trench's books I
delight in. The Revision by Five Clergymen is an assistance. There
was a review in the Quarterly the other day on the Greek Testament,
very nearly an excellent one. The ordinary use of folio commentaries
I don't wish to depreciate, but I think it far less valuable than the
diligent study for oneself with the best grammatical aids of the
original text. I always assume an acquaintance with the true mind
and spirit of the Church of England as a substratum of
interpretation. I like Westcott's book on the "Introduction to the
Study of the Gospels."

'Oh! why, when I sat evening after evening with our dear Father, did
I not ask him on all these points much more than I did? He did talk
of such things! But I suppose it is partly the impulse given to such
studies by the tendency of present religious thought. Yet ought it
not to have been always put forward at Eton and Oxford that the close
study of the text of the Bible is the first duty of a Christian
scholar. I never really thought of it till I came out here, and then
other occupations crowded upon me, and so it was too late to make
myself a scholar. Alas!

'Now I really think nothing is so great a relaxation tome as a good
book by Trench, or Vaughan, or Ellicott, or Dr. Pusey, and I do enjoy
it. Not that I can keep up my attention for very long so as to make
it profitable, but even then it is delightful, only I must go over it
again, and so it is perhaps time wasted.

'But I greatly miss the intimate friend with whom to fix what I read
by conversation and communication of mutual difficulties in
understanding passages. I don't often forget points on which the
Judge and I have had a talk, but what I read by myself I read too
quickly, and forget. I want to fix it by subsequent discussion and
enquiry with a competent friend. If I have intelligent young men to
read with, that will almost do, it will easily help me to remember
what I have read. It won't be suggestive, like the Judge's
conversation; yet if one tries to teach conscientiously one does
learn a great deal. I am puzzled as to books for my Norfolk
Islanders. I should like much the "Conversations on the Catechism."
Are they published separately? Shall I ask Miss Yonge to give me a
copy? And the "Plain Commentary" would be useful too, if (which I
doubt) it is plain enough.'

'"Southern Cross:" May 9, 1863.

'My dear Joan,--You ask me about qualifications which a man had
better possess for this Mission, so perhaps I had better ask you to
enquire of cousin Derwent Coleridge and of Ernest Hawkins for letters
written to them some six months ago in which (if I remember rightly)
I succeeded as well as I am likely to do now in describing the class
of men I should like some day to have. I dare say they have not kept
the letters, I forgot that, because although they took me some little
time to write, they may have chucked them away naturally enough.
Still if they have them and can find them, it may be worth while for
you to keep a copy by you to show to any person who wishes for
information.

'It is not necessary at all that a man should have a taste for
languages or a faculty of acquiring them. What I want now is not a
linguist, but a well-trained school-master of black boys and men, who
will also put his hand to any kind of work--a kindly, gentle,
cheerful, earnest fellow, who will make light of all little
inconveniences, such as necessarily attend sea life, &c., who is so
much of a gentleman that he can afford to do any kind of work without
being haunted by the silly thought that it "is beneath him," "not his
business." That is the fellow for me. He would have to learn one
language, the language of the particular class given over to him, and
I think that a person of any moderate ability might soon do this with
our teaching. If I could get him to take an interest in the general
science of language and to go into philological points, of course his
work would be lighter, and he would have soon the advantage of
knowing dialects cognate to that which he must know. But that is not
necessary.

'The real thing is to train a certain number of lads in habits of
attention, punctuality, tidiness, &c., to teach them also upon a
plan, which I should show him, to read and write. The religious
instruction I should take, and the closer investigation of the
language too, unless he showed a capacity for going into the nicer
points of structure, &c.

'But somehow a cut and dried teaching machine of a man, however
methodical, and good, and conscientious, won't do. There must be a
vivacity, an activity of mind, a brightness about the man, so that a
lesson shall never be mere drudgery; in short, there must be a real
love in the heart for the scholars, that is the qualification.

'One man and one only I hope to have some day who ought to be able to
learn scraps at least of many languages, but he will have a different
work to do. No work can be considered to be satisfactorily carried
on while it depends on the life of any one man. Someone to take my
place will come, I hope, some day. He would have to go round the
islands with me, and acquire a knowledge of the whole field of work--
the wading and swimming, the mode of dealing with fellows on a first
meeting, &c.; he will not only have one class to look after, but he
must learn the same kind of lesson that I learnt under the Primate.
Where to get such a man, I'm sure I don't know. He must be of
standing and ability to be acceptable to the others should I die,
&c., &c.

'So we need not speculate about him, and the truth is, I am not in
any hurry to get men from home. We are educating ourselves lads here
who will very likely learn to do this kind of work fairly well. Mr.
Palmer will, I hope, be ordained at Christmas. Young Atkin will be
useful some day. By-and-by if I can get one or two really first-rate
men, it will indeed be a great thing. But who knows anything of me
in England? I don't expect a really able man to come out to work
with me. They will go to other parts of the world kept more before
the notice of the public by committees and meetings and speeches,
&c.; and indeed I am very thankful for it. I am not old nor wise
enough to be at the head of a party of really able men. I must be
more fit to lead before I can ask men to follow.

'Of course I know that the work, if I chose to speak out, is second
to none in interest and importance, and that very little
comparatively is known about it in England. But it is evidently far
better that it should go quietly on without attracting much notice,
and that we all should remain unknown at all events at present. By-
and-by, when by God's blessing things are more ripe for definite
departments of work, and men can have distinct duties at once
assigned to them, and our mode of carrying on the Mission has been
fairly tested, then it will be high time to think about first-rate
men.

'And, presumptuous and strange as it may seem for me to say it, a man
confessedly second-rate, unfit to hold a position with the best stamp
of English clergymen, I had rather not have. I can get the material
cheaper and made to my own hand out here.

'Some men are dull though good, others can't get away from their book
life and the proprieties, others are donnish, others are fine
gentlemen, others are weak in health, most have preconceived and,
many, mistaken views about heathenism, and the way to deal with it;
some would come out with the notion that England and English
clergymen were born to set the colonies right.

'How few would say, "There's a young man for the Bishop, only a
second-class man, no scholar, not remarkable in any way, but he has
learnt his work in a good school, and will go out to him with the
purpose of seeing how he carries on the work, and learning from him."
I don't expect men worth anything to say this. Of course I don't;
and yet you know, Joan, I can't take them on any other terms. No, I
prefer taking promising lads here, and training them up, not with any
pledge that I will employ them in the Mission, but with the promise
of giving them every chance of becoming qualified for it.'

The voyage was much shorter than had been intended, and its history
is best summed up here:--

'"Southern Cross," Kohimarama: Aug. 6, 1863.

'My dear Cousin,--This date, from this place, will surprise you. We
returned yesterday, after a short voyage of only three months. I had
arranged my plans for a long voyage, hoping to revisit all our known
islands, and that more than once. We sailed to Norfolk Island,
thence at once to Mota. I spent two days there, and left the Rev.
L. Pritt in charge of the station; Mr. Palmer being with him and the
four Norfolk Islanders, and several old scholars.

'I spent a fortnight in the Banks Archipelago, returning some
scholars, and taking away others from divers islands; and then went
back to Mota, bringing some sixteen or seventeen lads to the central
school. I found them all pretty well; the whole island at peace,
people moving about everywhere unarmed, and a large school being
gathered together.

'I went off again to the south (the New Hebrides group), returning
scholars who had been in New Zealand, purchasing yams for axes and
iron, &c., to supply the large number of scholars at Mota. The
season had been unfavourable, and the crop of yams in some islands
had almost failed. However, in another fortnight I was again at Mota
with some six or seven tons of yams. I found things lamentably
changed. A great mortality was going on, dysentery and great
prostration of strength from severe influenza.

'But of those not actually boarding at the station, the state was
very sad indeed. About twenty-five adults were dead already, several
of them regular attendants at school, of whom we were very hopeful.

'I spent two days and a half in going about the island, the wet
incessant, the ground steaming and reeking with vegetable
exhalations. During those days twenty-seven adults died, fifty-two
in all, and many, many more were dying, emaciated, coughing,
fainting; no constitutional vigour of body, nor any mutton broth, or
beef tea, or jellies, or chickens, or wine, &c. Mr. Pritt did what
he could, and more than I thought could have been done; but what
could be done? How could nourishing food be supplied to dozens of
invalids living miles off, refusing to obey directions in a country
which supplies no food to rally the strength of persons in illness?

'I decided to remove the whole party at once, explaining to the
people that we were not afraid to share with them the risk of dying,
but that if Mr. Pritt and the others died, there were no teachers
left. I felt that our Banks Island scholars must be removed, and
that at once lest they should die. I could not send the vessel to
the Solomon Islands without me, for Mr. Tilly was completely laid up
and unable to move from rheumatic gout, and no one else on board
knows those languages.

'I could not leave the party at Mota in the sickness, and I could not
well send the vessel to Port Patteson for a time, for the danger was
imminent. So I took them all away, in all thirty-nine.

'But now the vessel was full, more than sixty on board, and I had
reckoned upon an empty vessel in the hot Santa Cruz and Solomon
Island latitudes. Moreover, the weather was extraordinarily
unfavourable--damp, foul winds, squalls, calms, unhealthy weather.
Mr. Tilly was being greatly pulled down, and everything seemed to
point out that the voyage ought not to be long. I made my mind up,
took back the Solomon Island scholars; and, with heavy sea and
baffling winds and one short gale, sailed back to New Zealand.

'How mysteriously our plans are overruled for good! I came back to
hear of the war; and to learn to be thankful for my small, very young
and very manageable party. Thirty-three Banks Islanders, the
baptized party and select lads from their islands, one New
Caledonian, four Ysabel lads, constitute this summer's Melanesian
school.

'Don't be disappointed; I was at first, but I had the comfort of
having really no alternative. I had, indeed, a great desire to make
a thorough visitation of Leper's Island, and Santa Cruz especially;
but the wind, usually so fair, was dead against me, we had, so to
speak, no trade winds, and I had to give it up. It was certainly my
duty to get to the south with my invalids as soon as I could, and
alter my plans, which, you know, always are made with a view to
divers modifications being rendered necessary.

'Training the baptized scholars, and putting into shape such
knowledge as I have of Melanesian tongues, that made a good summer
programme, as I was obliged to content myself with a small party
gathered from but few islands. Concentration v. diffusion I soon
began to think a very good thing.

'Well, so it is, and now I see great reason to be thankful. Why do
we not always give thanks whether we see the reason or not?

'The vessel behaves admirably. I have written to Jem at length, and
he must be applied to for my account of her. Pray tell Mr. Keble all
this. I have a most valuable letter from Dr. Moberly, a great
delight and honour to me. It is very kind of him to write; and his
view of Church matters is really invaluable, no papers can give that
which his letter gives, and only he and a very few others could give
an opinion which I so greatly value. He speaks hopefully of Church
matters in general, and there are great reasons surely for
thankfulness and hope.

'Yet men such as he see far and wide, and to their great hearts no
very violent storms are caused by such things as sorely trouble
others. He sees the presumption and weakness, the vain transitory
character of that phase of modern thought which Bishop Colenso
represents, and confidently expects its speedy disappearance. But it
does try the earnest, while it makes shipwreck of the frivolous, and
exercises the faith and humility of all. Even a very poor scholar
can see that his reasoning is most inconclusive, and his reading
superficial and inferences illogical.

'God bless you, my dear Cousin.

'Your affectionate Cousin,

'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop.'

Perhaps this is the fittest place to give Mr. Tilly's description of
the Bishop in his voyages:--

'My acquaintance with the late Bishop Patteson began at Port
Patteson, in the Banks Islands, in 1861. He went with us in H.M.S.
"Cordelia" to the Solomon Islands, and after being together some two
months we again left him at Port Patteson on our way back to
Auckland. During the time he was on board the "Cordelia" it was
arranged that I was to sail the new vessel (the present "Southern
Cross"), then about to be built by the Messrs. Wigram, and the size,
internal arrangements, &c. were told me by him. He did not trouble
me with much detail, referring me almost altogether to Bishop Selwyn-
-and gave no written directions; the little he said I carefully
noted, observing that he spoke as with a thorough knowledge of the
subject (so far as I could be a judge) as to sea-going qualities,
capacity, &c., and to the best of my recollection, I found that while
the vessel was building these few directions were the main ones to be
kept in view. We entered Auckland harbour (from England) early on
the morning of February 28, 1863, and hove to off the North Head, to
wait for the Bishop coming off from Kohimarama before going up the
harbour. It had been blowing hard outside the night before from the
N.E., and there was still much wind, and some sea, even in the
harbour. I was much struck by his appearance and manner. Having to
launch his boat through a surf at Kohimarama beach, he had only on a
shirt and trousers, and was of course drenched. He stepped on board
more like a sailor than a clergyman, and almost immediately made one
or two sailor-like remarks about the vessel, as if he understood her
qualities as soon as he felt her in motion; and he was quite right in
what he said.