Books: Life of John Coleridge Patteson

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

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The English party who were to take up their abode on Norfolk Island
consisted of the Bishop, the Rev. Mr. Palmer, who was there already,
Mr. Atkin, and Mr. Brooke. The Rev. R. Codrington was on his way
from England with Mr. Bice, a young student from St. Augustine's,
Canterbury; but Mr. and Mrs. Pritt had received an appointment at the
Waikato, and left the Mission. The next letter to myself tells
something of the plans:--

'January 29, 1867.

'My dear Cousin,--I enclose a note to Miss Mackenzie, thanking her
for her book about Mrs. Robertson. It does one good to read about
such a couple. I almost feel as if I should like to write a line to
the good man. There was the real genuine love for the people, the
secret of course of all missionary success, the consideration for
them, the power of sympathy, of seeing with the eyes of others, and
putting oneself into their position. Many a time have I thought:
"Yes, that's all right, that's the true spirit, that's the real
thing."

'Oh that men could be trained to act in that way. It seems as if
mere common sense would enable societies and men to see that it must
be so. And yet how sadly we mismanage men, and misuse opportunities.

'Men should be made to understand that they cannot receive training
for this special Mission work except on the spot; at the institution
the aim should be to give them a thorough grounding in Greek and
Latin, the elements of Divinity, leaving out all talk about
experiences, and all that can minister to spiritual pride, and delude
men into the idea that the desire (as they suppose) to be
missionaries implies that they are one whit better than the baker and
shoemaker next door.

'The German system is very different. The Moravians don't handle
their young candidates after this fashion.

'Now Mr. Robertson and his good wife refresh one by the reality and
simplicity of their life, the simple-mindedness, the absence of all
cant and formalism. I mean the formal observance of a certain set of
views about the Sabbath, about going to parties, about reading books,
&c., the formal utterance of an accepted phraseology.

'Would that there were hundreds such! Would that his and her example
might stir the hearts of many young people, women as well as men!
Well, I like all that helps me to know him and her in the book, and
am much obliged to Miss Mackenzie for it.

'We have had a trying month, unusually damp close weather, and
influenza has been prevalent. Many boys had it, one little fellow
died. He was very delirious at last, and as he lay day and night on
my bed we had often to hold him. But one night he was calm and
sensible, and with Henry Tagalana's help I obtained from him such a
simple answer or two to our questions that I felt justified in
baptizing him. He was about ten years old, I suppose one of our
youngest.

'Last Saturday, at 12.45 A.M., he passed away into what light, and
peace, and knowledge, and calm rest in his Saviour's bosom! we humbly
trust. God be praised for all His mercies! It was touching, indeed,
to hear Henry speaking to his little friend. He spoke so as to make
me feel very hopeful about his work as a teacher being blessed, his
whole heart on his lips and in his voice and manner and expression of
face.

'But, my dear Cousin, often I think that I need more than ever your
prayers that I may have the blessing for which we pray in our Collect
for the First Sunday after Epiphany: grace to use the present
opportunities aright. My time may be short; we are very few in
number: now the young English and Melanesian teachers ought to be
completely trained, that so, by God's blessing, the work may not come
to nought. Codrington's coming ought to be a great gain in this way.
A right-minded man of age and experience may well be regarded as
invaluable indeed. I so often feel that I am distracted by
multitudinous occupations, and can't think and act out my method of
dealing with the elder ones, so as to use them aright. So many
things distract--social, domestic, industrial matters and general
superintendence, and my time is of course always given to anyone who
wants it.

'The change to Norfolk Island, too, brings many anxious thoughts and
cares, and the state of the people there will be an additional cause
of anxiety. I think that we shall move en masse in April or May,
making two or three trips in the schooner. Palmer has sixteen now
with him there. I shall perhaps leave ten more for the winter school
and then go on to the islands, and return (D.V.) in October, not to
New Zealand, but to Norfolk Island; though, as it is the year of the
meeting of the General Synod, i.e., February 1868, I shall have to be
in New Zealand during that summer. You shall have full information
of all my and our movements, as soon as I know myself precisely the
plan.

'And now good-bye, my dear Cousin; and may God ever bless and keep
you. I think much of you, and of how you must miss dear Mr. Keble.

'Your affectionate Cousin,

'J. C. P.'

'Sunday, February 10, 1867.

'My dear old Fan,--No time to write at length. We are pretty well,
but coughs and colds abound, and I am a little anxious about one nice
lad, Lelenga, but he is not very seriously ill.

'I have of course occasional difficulties, as who has not?
Irregularities, not (D.Gr.) of very serious nature, yet calling for
reproof; a certain proportion of the boys, and a large proportion of
the girls careless, and of course, like boys and girls such as you
know of in Devonshire, not free from mischief.

'Indeed, it is a matter for great thankfulness that, as far as we
know, no immorality has taken place with fifteen young girls in the
school. We take of course all precautions, rooms are carefully
locked at night. Still really evil-minded young persons could
doubtless get into mischief, if they were determined to do so. Only
to-day I spoke severely, not on this point, but on account of some
proof of want of real modesty and purity of feeling. But how can I
be surprised at that?

'All schoolmaster's work is anxious work. It is even more so than
the ordinary clergyman's work, because you are parent and
schoolmaster at once.

'You may suppose that as time approaches for Codrington and Bice to
arrive, and for our move to Norfolk Island, I am somewhat anxious,
and have very much to do. Indeed, the Norfolk Island people do sadly
want help.

'Your affectionate Brother.

'J. C. P.

'P. S.--You may tell your boys at night school, if you think it well,
that no Melanesian I ever had here would be so ungentlemanly as to
throw stones or make a row when a lady was present.'

'St. Matthias Day, 1867.

'My dearest Joan and Fan,--The beginning of the seventh year of my
Bishop's life! How quickly the time has gone, and a good deal seems
to have taken place, and yet (though some experience has been gained)
but little sense have I of real improvement in my own self, of
"pressing onwards," and daily struggles against faults. But for some
persons it is dangerous to talk of such things, and I am such a
person. It would tend to make me unreal, and my words would be
unreal, and soon my thoughts and life would become unreal too. I am
conscious of very, very much that is very wrong, and would astonish
many of even those who know me best, but I must use this
consciousness, and not talk about it any more.

'I am in harness again for English work. How can I refuse? I am
writing now between two English services.

'Indeed, no adequate provision is made here for married clergymen
with families; £300 a year is starvation at present prices. Men
can't live on it; and who can work vigorously with the thought ever
present to him, "When I die, what of my wife and family?" What is to
be done?

'I solve the difficulty in Melanesian work by saying, "Use
Melanesians." I tell people plainly, "I don't want white men."

'I sum it all up thus: They cost about ten times as much as the
Melanesian (literally), and but a very small proportion do the work
as well.

'I was amused at some things in your December letters. How things do
unintentionally get exaggerated! I went up into the tree-house by a
very good ladder of bamboos and supple-jacks, quite as easily as one
goes up the rigging of a ship, and my ten days at Bauro were spent
among a people whose language I know, and where my life was as safe
and everybody was as disposed to be friendly as if I had been in your
house at Weston. But, of course, it is all "missionary hardships and
trials." I don't mean that you talk in this way.

'Our first instalment of scholars with Messrs. Atkin and Brooke will
go off (D.V.) about March 21. Then my house is taken down; the boys
who now live in it having been sent off: and on the schooner's return
about April 15, another set of things, books, houses, &c. Probably a
third trip will be necessary, and then about May 5 or 6 I hope to go.
It will be somewhat trying at the end. But I bargain for all this,
which of course constitutes my hardest and most trying business. The
special Mission work, as most people would regard it, is as nothing
in comparison. Good-bye, and God bless you.

'Your loving Brother,

'J. C. P.'

On March 5 Mr. Codrington safely arrived, bringing with him Mr. Bice.
The boon to the Bishop was immense, both in relief from care and in
the companionship, for which he had henceforth to depend entirely on
his own staff. The machinery of the routine had been so well set in
order by Mr. Pritt that it could be continued without him; and though
there was no English woman to superintend the girls, it was hoped
that Sarah Sarawia had been prepared by Mrs. Pritt to be an efficient
matron.

'Kohimarama: March 23, 1867.

'My dear Cousin,--Our last New Zealand season, for it may be our
last, draws near its close. On Monday, only two days hence, the
"Southern Cross" sails (weather permitting) with our first
instalment. Mr. Palmer has got his house up, and they must stow
themselves away in it, three whites and forty-five blacks, the best
way they can. The vessel takes besides 14,000 feet of timber, 6,000
shingles for roofing, and boxes of books, &c., &c., without end.

'I hope she may be here again to take me and the remaining goods,
live and inanimate, in about eighteen or twenty days. I can't tell
whether I am more likely to spend my Easter in New Zealand or Norfolk
Island.

'I see that in many ways the place is good for us. The first expense
is heavy. I have spent about £1,000 already, sinking some of my
private money in the fencing, building, &c., but very soon the cost
of all the commissariat, exclusive of the stores for the voyage, and
a little English food for the whites, will be provided. Palmer has
abundance of sweet potatoes which have been planted in ground
prepared by our lads since last October. The yam crop is coming on
well: fish are always abundant.

'I think that in twelve months' time we ought to provide ourselves
with almost everything in the island. The ship and the clergymen's
stipends and certain extras will always need subscriptions, but we
ought at once to feed ourselves, and soon to export wool, potatoes,
corn (maize I mean), &c.

'I never forget about the idea of a chapel. At present the Norfolk
Island Chapel will be only a wing of my house: which will consist of
two rooms for myself, a spare room for a sick lad or two, and a large
dormitory which, if need be, can be turned into a hospital, and the
other end a wing in the chapel, 42 x 18 feet, quite large enough for
eighty or more people. The entrance from without, and again a
private door from my sitting room. All is very simple in the plan.
It seem almost selfish having it thus as a part of my dwelling house;
but it will be such a comfort, so convenient for Confirmation and
Baptism and Holy Communion classes, and so nice for me. Some ladies
in Melbourne give a velvet altar cloth, Lady S. in Sydney gives all
the white linen: our Communion plate, you know, is very handsome.
Some day Joan must send me a solid block of Devonshire serpentine for
my Font, such a one as there is at Alfington, or Butterfield might
now devise even a better.

'But I think, though I have not thought enough yet, that in the
diocese of Norfolk Island, and in the islands, the running stream of
living water and the Catechumens "going down" into it is the right
mode of administering the holy sacrament. The Lectern and the small
Prayer-desk are of sandal-wood from Erromango.

'It will be far more like a Church than anything the Pitcairners have
ever seen. Perhaps next Christmas--but much may take place before
then--I may ordain Palmer Priest, Atkin and Brooke Deacons, and there
may be a goodly attendance of Melanesian communicants and candidates
for baptism. If so, what a day of hope to look forward to! And then
I think I see the day of dear George Sarawia's Ordination drawing
nigh, if God grant him health and perseverance. He is, indeed, and
so are others, younger than he, all that I could desire.

'So, my dear Cousin, see what blessings I have, how small our trials
are. They may yet come, but it is now just twelve years, exactly
twelve years on Monday, since I saw my Father's and Sisters' faces,
and how little have those years been marked with sorrows. My lot is
cast in a good land indeed. I read and hear of others, such as that
noble Central African band, and I wonder how men can go through it
all. It comes to me as from a distance, not as to one who has
experienced such things. We know nothing of war, or famine, or
deadly fever; and we seem now to have a settled plan of work, one of
the greatest comforts of all; but while I write thus brightly I don't
forget that a little thing (humanly speaking) may cause great
reverses, delays, and failures.

'I am very glad you understand my unwillingness to write, and still
more to print over much about our proceedings. I do speak pretty
freely in New Zealand and Australia, from whence I profess and mean
to draw our supplies.

'Accurate information is all very well, but to convey an idea of our
life and work is quite beyond my powers. Still, everything that
helps the ordinary men and women of England to look out into the
world a bit, and see that the Gospel is a power of God, is good.

'And now, good-bye, my dear Cousin. May God bless and keep you.

'Your affectionate Cousin,

'J. C. PATTESON.'

On Lady Day the Bishop wrote to his sisters:--

'This day, twelve years ago, I saw your faces for the last time; and
so I told Mary Atkin, my good young friend's only sister, as we stood
on the beach just now, watching the 'Southern Cross' carrying away
her only brother and some forty other people to Norfolk Island.

The first detachment is therefore gone; I hope that we, the rest,
will follow in about sixteen or eighteen days. I think back over
these twelve years. On the whole, how smoothly and easily they have
passed with me! Less of sorrow and anxiety than was crowded into one
short year of Bishop Mackenzie's life. I have been reading Mr.
Rowley's book on the University Mission to Central Africa, and am
glad to have read it. They were indeed fine gallant fellows, full of
faith and courage and endurance.

'As I write, some dozen boys are on the roof, knocking away the
shingles, i.e., the wooden tiles of roofing, a carpenter is taking
down all that needs some more skilled handiwork. In a week the house
will all be tied up in bundles of boarding, battens, about 14,000 or
15,000 feet of timber in all. Yesterday I was with the Primate; I
went up indeed on Monday afternoon, as the "Southern Cross" sailed
with thirty-one Melanesians at 11 A.M., and I could get away. It was
rather a sad day. I was resigning trusts, and it made the departure
from New Zealand appear very real.

'April 1st.--My fortieth birthday. It brings solemn thoughts. Last
night I had to take the service at St. Paul's, and as I came back I
thought of many things, and principally of how very different I ought
to be from what I am.

'All are well here at Kohimarama. My house knocked down and
arrangements going on, the place leased to Mr. Atkin, Joe Atkin's
father, my trusts resigned, accounts almost made up, many letters
written, business matters arranged.'

In a few days more the last remnant of St. Andrew's was broken up;
and the first letter to the Bishop of New Zealand was written from
Norfolk Island before the close of the month:--

'St. Barnabas' Mission School: April 29, 1867.

My dear Primate,--We had a fair wind all the way, and having
shortened sail during all Friday so as not to reach Norfolk Island in
the night, made the lead at 5 A.M. on Saturday morning. But a sad
casualty occurred; we lost a poor fellow overboard, one of the
seamen. He ought not to have been lost, and I blame myself. He was
under the davits of the boat doing something, and the rope by which
he was holding parted; the life-buoy almost knocked him as he passed
the quarter of the vessel, and I, instead of jumping overboard, and
shouting to the Melanesians to do the same, rushed to the falls. The
boat was on the spot where his cap was floating within two and a half
minutes of the time he fell into the sea, but he was gone.

'Fisher in the hurry tore his nail by letting the falls run through
his hand too fast. I was binding it up, the boat making for the poor
fellow faster than any swimmer could have done. How it was that he
did not lay hold of the buoy, or sank so soon, I can't say; the great
mistake was not jumping overboard at once. This is a gloomy
beginning, and made us all feel very sad. He was not married and was
a well-behaved man.

'It was blowing fresh on Saturday, but we anchored under Nepean
Island, and by hard work cleared the vessel by 5 P.M.; all worked
hard, and all the things were landed safely. Palmer, with the cart
and boys, was on the pier, and the things were carted and carried
into the store as they arrived. I came on shore about 5, found all
well and hearty, the people very friendly, nothing in their manner to
indicate any change of feeling.

'I walked up to our place. It is, indeed, a beautiful spot. Palmer
has worked with a will. I was surprised to see what was done. Some
three and a half acres of fine kumaras, maize, yams, growing well; a
yam of ten pounds weight, smooth and altogether Melanesian, just
taken up, not quite ripe, so the boys say they will grow much bigger.
Abundant supply of water, though the summer has been dry.

'Much of the timber has been carted up, more has been stacked at the
top of the hill. This was carried by the boys, and will be carted
along the pine avenue; a good deal is still near the pines, but
properly stacked. I see nothing anywhere thrown about, even here not
a chip to be seen, all buried or burnt, and the place quite neat
though unfinished.

'1. House, on the plan of my old house just taken down by Gray, but
much larger.

'2. Kitchen of good size.

'3. Two raupo outhouses.

'4. Cow-shed.

'I find it quite assumed here that the question is settled about our
property here; but I have not thought it desirable to talk expressly
about it. They talk about school, doctor, and other public
arrangements as usual.

'It seems that it was on St. Barnabas Day that, after Holy Communion,
we walked up here last year and chose the site of the house. The
people have of their own accord taken to call the place St. Barnabas;
and as this suits the Eton feeling also, and you and others never
liked St. Andrew's, don't you think we may adopt the new name? Miss
Yonge won't mind, I am sure.

'I could not resist telling the people that you and Mrs. Selwyn might
come for a short time in September next to see them, and they are
really delighted; and so shall we be, I can tell you indeed....

'Your affectionate

'J. C. PATTESON.'

The time for the island voyage was fully come; and, after a very
brief stay in the new abode, the Bishop sailed again for Mota, where
the old house was found (May 8) in a very dilapidated condition; and
vigorous mending with branches was needed before a corner could be
patched up for him to sleep on his table during a pouring wet night,
having first supped on a cup of tea and a hot yam, the latter brought
from the club-house by one of his faithful adherents; after which an
hour and a half's reading of Lightfoot on the Epistle to the
Galatians made him forget every discomfort.

There had, however, been a renewal of fighting of late; and at a
village called Tasmate, a man named Natungoe had ten days previously
been shot in the breast with a poisoned arrow, and was beginning to
show those first deadly symptoms of tetanus. He had been a well-
conducted fellow, though he had hitherto shown indifference to the
new teaching; and it had not been in a private quarrel that he was
wounded, but in a sudden attack on his village by some enemies, when
a feast was going on.

On that first evening when the Bishop went to see him it was plain
that far more of the recent instruction had taken root in him than
had been supposed. 'He showed himself thoroughly ready to listen,
and manifested a good deal of simple faith. He said he had no
resentment against the person who had shot him, and that he did wish
to know and think about the world to come. He accepted at once the
story of God's love, shown in sending Jesus to die for us, and he
seemed to have some apprehension of what God must be, and of what we
are--how unlike Him, how unable to make ourselves fit to be with Him.
He certainly spoke of Jesus as of a living Person close by him,
willing and able to help him. He of his own accord made a little
prayer to Him, "Help me, wake me, make my heart light, take away the
darkness. I wish for you, I want to go to you, I don't want to think
about this world."'

Early the next morning the Bishop went again, taking George Sarawia
with him. The man said, 'I have been thinking of what you said. I
have been calling on the Saviour (i Vaesu) all night.' The Bishop
spoke long to him, and left Sarawia with him, speaking and praying
quietly and earnestly.

Meanwhile continues the diary:--

'I went to the men in the village, and spoke at length to them: "Yes,
God will not cast out those who turn to Him when they are called, but
you must not suppose that it is told us anywhere that He will save
those who care nothing about Him through their years of health, and
only think about Him and the world to come when this world is already
passing away."

'How utterly unable one feels to say or do the right thing, and the
words fall so flat and dull upon careless ears!'

Every day for ten days the poor sufferer Natungoe was visited, and he
listened with evident faith and comprehension. On May 15 the entry
is:--

'I was so satisfied with his expressions of faith in the Saviour, of
his hope of living with Him; he spoke so clearly of his belief in
Jesus having been sent from the Great Creator and Father of all to
lead us back to Him, and to cleanse us from sin, which had kept us
from our Father, by His Death for us; he was so evidently convinced
of the truth of our Lord's Resurrection and of the resurrection of us
all at the last day--that I felt that I ought to baptize him. I had
already spoken to him of Baptism, and he seemed to understand that,
first, he must believe that the water is the sign of an inward
cleansing, and that it has no magical efficacy, but that all depended
on his having faith in the promise and power of God; and second, that
Jesus had commanded those who wished to believe and love Him to be
baptized.

'The expression Nan ive Maroo i Vaesu, "I wish for the Saviour," had
been frequently used by him; and I baptized him by the name of
Maroovaesu, a name instantly substituted for his old name Natungoe by
those present.

'I have seen him again to-day; he cannot recover, and at times the
tetanus spasms are severe, but it is nothing like dear Fisher's case.
He can still eat and speak; women sit around holding him, and a few
people sit or lie about in the hut. It looks all misery and
degradation of the lowest kind, but there is a blessed change, as I
trust, for him.'

On Sunday the 19th the last agony had come. He lay on a mat on the
ground, in the middle of the village, terribly racked by convulsions,
but still able in the intervals to speak intelligibly, and to express
his full hope that he was going to his Saviour, and that his pain
would soon be over, and he would be at rest with Him, listening
earnestly to the Bishop's prayers. He died that night.

In the meantime, the Bishop had not neglected the attacking party.
Of them, one had been killed outright, and two more were recovering
from their wounds, and it was necessary to act as pacificator.

'Meanwhile, I think how very little religion has to do directly with
keeping things quiet; in England (for example) men would avenge
themselves, and steal and kill, were it not for the law, which is,
indeed, an indirect result of religion; but religion simply does not
produce the effect, i.e. men are not generally religious in England
or Mota. I have Maine's Book of "Ancient Law" among the half-dozen
books I have brought on shore, and it is extremely interesting to
read here.'