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

The four youngest, sixteen to eighteen, sleep in my
room. One is now on my bed, wrapped up in a great
f)possum nig, witli cold and slight fever ; last night



1856.] Fever at St. JoJuis 291

his pulse was high, to-day he is better. I have to
watch over them Hke a cat. Think of Hving till now
in a constant temperature of 84°, and being suddenly
brought to 56°. New Zealand is too cold for them,
and the college is a cold place, wind howling round
it now.

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

Thank you for all your kind wishes on my birth-
day. I ought to wish to live many years, perhaps,
to try and be of use ; especially as I am so unfit to
go now, or rather I ought not to wish at all. Some-
times I feel almost faint-hearted, which is cowardly
and forgetful of our calling ' to fight manfully
under Christ's banner.' Ah ! my Bishop is indeed a
warrior of the Cross. I can't bear the things Sophy
said in one of her letters about my having given up,
etc. It seems mock humility to write it ; but, dear
Uncle, if / am conscious of a life so utterly unlike
what all you dear ones fancy it to be, what must it be
in the sight of God and His holy angels ? What
advantages I have always had, and have now ! and
not a day goes by and I can say I have done my
duty. Good-bye dear dear Uncle.

Always your affectionate and grateful nephew,

J. C. Patteson.

Love to dear Aunt.

Almost the first experience after settling in at St.
John's College was a sharp attack of fever that fell on
Kerearua, one of the Bauro lads. Such illnesses, it
seemed, were frequent at home and generally fatal.
His companion Hirika remarked, ' Kerearua like this
in Bauro — ah ! in a few days he would die ; by and by

u 2



292 Life of John Coleridge Patteson [Ch. vii.

we go back to Baiiro.' The sick boys were always
lodged In Coley's own room to be more quiet and
thoroughly nursed. Fastidiousness had been so entirely
crushed that he really seemed to take pleasure in the
arrangement, speaking with enthusiasm of the patient's
obedience and gratitude, and adding, * He looks quite
nice in one of my night-shirts with my plaid counter-
pane, and the plaid Joan gave me over it, a blanket
next to him.'

He soon recovered, and the next event was the first
Melanesian baptism Mr. Patteson had performed, that
of Sarah's five-months-old child. Mr, Nihill had trans-
lated part of the Baptismal Service into Nengone,
and the rest, except the exhortations, was now finished
by Mrs. Nihill, and after several days' study of the
language, Mr. Patteson christened the child in its
vulgar tongue on the 1 2th of October in St. John's
Chapel.

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

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

I talk with them about common things, and learn
a great deal of their wild savage customs and
habits, but I can do but little as yet in the way of



i8s6.] Serpent-Worship 293

real instruction. Some ideas, I trust, they are be-
ginning to acquire concerning our Blessed Lord. Is
it not a significant fact that the God worshipped in
Gera, and in one village of Bauro, is the Serpent,
the very type of evil ? I need not say that these
dear boys have won their way to my heart, they are
most docile and affectionate. I think some will
really, if they live, leave their own island and live
with me at Norfolk Island, or here, or wherever my
dwelling may be whenever I am not in the ' Southern
Cross.'

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



294 Life of John Coleridge Patteson [Cii. Vil.

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

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



1856.] First Foundations 295

knew how to be happy and good, Jesus Christ came
down from heaven. His mother was Mary, but He
had no Father on earth, only God the Father in heaven
was his Father ; the Holy Ghost made Mary to be
mother of Jesus Christ.

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

I think that they know all this, and much in the
exactly equivalent words. Of course I find difficulty
in rendering religious ideas in a language which con-
tains scarcely any words adequate to express them, but
I am hopeful enough to believe that they do know
so much at all events. How far their hearts are
affected, One alone knows. It is indeed but little after
they have been with us four months ; but till I had
them on shore, I could get very little work done.
The constant boat work took me away, and anywhere



296 Life of John Coleridge Patteson [Ch. vii.

in sight of islands, of course they were on deck in
eagerness to see the strange country. Then I could
not work with energy while my leg would not let me
take exercise. But it is now beginning to be a real
pleasure as well as duty to teach both Nengone and
Bauro people. Enough of the language to avoid
most of the drudgery has been got over, I hope,
though not near enough for purposes of exact and
accurate translation.

I have eiven at lenoth this account of Patteson's
fundamental teaching, though to some it may seem
to savour of the infant school, because, in spite of
being hampered by imperfect knowledge of the lan-
guage, he has thown into it the great principle both
of his action and teaching ; namely, the restoration
of the union of mankind with God through Christ.
It never embraced that view of the heathen world
which regards it as necessarily under God's dis-
pleasure, apart from actual evil, committed in wilful
knowledofe that it is evil. He held fast to the fact
of man having been created in the image of God,
and held that whatever good impulses and higher
qualities still remained in the heathen, were the
remnants of that Image, and to be hailed accord-
ingly. Above all, he realized in his own life the
words to St. Peter : * What God hath cleansed that
call not thou common,' and not undervaluing for a
moment Sacramental Grace, viewed human nature,
while yet without the offer thereof, as still the object
of fatlierly and redeeming love, and full of fitful
tokens of good coming from the only giver of life
and holiness, and needing to be brought nearer and
strengthened by full union and light, instead of being
left to be quenched in the surrounding ilood of evil.



1856.] Vieiv of the Heathen World 297

' And were by nature the children of wrath,' he did not
hold to mean that men were objects of God's anger,
lying under His deadly displeasure ; but rather, children
of wild impulse, creatures of passion, swayed resist-
lessly by their own desires, until made ' children of
grace,' and thus obtaining the spiritual power need-
ful to enable them to withstand these passions. An
extract from the sermon he had preached at Sydney
may perhaps best serve to illustrate his principle : — •

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

Viewed indeed from that position which was
occupied by ancient philosophers, the existing con-
trarieties between nations might well appear in-
explicable, and intellectual powers might seem to
be the exclusive heritage of particular nations. But
Christianity leads us to distinguish between the
nature of man as he came fresh from the hands of
his Creator, and that natural propensity to sin which
he has inherited in consequence of his fall from



298 Life of yohn Coleridge Pattcson [Ch. vir.

original innocence. It teaches that as God has
' made of one blood all nations to dwell together on
the face of the whole earth,' and has given in virtue
of this common origin one common nature destined
to be pure and holy and divine, so, by virtue of
Redemption and Regeneration, the image of God
may be restored in all, and whatever is the result
of his depravity therefore may be overcome. And
this seems to be the answer to all statements relating
to the want of capacity in certain nations of the
earth for the reception of Divine Truth, that every
man, because he is a man, because he is a partaker
of that very nature which has been taken into the
Person of the Son of God, may by the grace of God
be awakened to the sense of his true life, of his real
dignity as a redeemed brother of Christ.

The spark of heavenly hre may indeed have been
all but quenched by the unbridled indulgence of his
passions ; the natural wickedness of the heart of man
may have exhibited itself with greater fearfulness
where no laws and customs have introduced restraints
against at least the outward expression of vice ; but
the capacity for the Christian life is there ; though
overlaid, it may be, with monstrous forms of super-
stition or cruelty or ignorance, the conscience can still
respond to the voice of the Gospel of Truth.

And one who so entirely believed and acted upon
these words found them true. The man who verily
treated the lads he had gathered round him with
a perfectly genuine sympathy, a love and a self-
denial — nay more, an identification of self with them —
awoke all that was best in tlicir characters, and met
with full response. {"Enthusiastic partiality of course
there was in his estimate of them ; but is it not one of



1856.] EntJmsiasm for Pupils 299

the absolute requisites of a good educator to feel that
enthusiasm, like the parent for the child ? And is it
always the blind admiration at which outsiders smile ;
is it not rather indifference which is blind, and love
which sees the truth ?

I would not exchange my position with these lads and
young men for anything (he wrote, on Decem-
ber 8, to his uncle, the Eton master). I wish you
could see them and know them ; I don't think yoto
ever had pupils that could win their way into your
heart more effectually than these fellows have
attached themselves to me. It is no effort to
love them heartily. Gariri, a clear boy from San
Cristoval, is standing by me now, at my desk, in
amazement at the pace that my pen is going, not
knowing that I could write to you, my dear old
tutor, for hours together if I had nothing else to
do. He is, I suppose, about sixteen, a most love-
able boy, gentle, affectionate, with all the tropical
softness and kindliness=

We have seven Solomon Islanders — five from
Mata, a village at the north-west of San Cristoval,
and two from the south-east point of Guadalcanar,
or Gera, a magnificent island about twenty-five or
twenty miles to the north-west of San Cristoval.
From frequent intercourse they are almost bilingual,
a great ' lounge ' for me, as one language does for
both ; the structure of the two island tongues is the
same, but scarcely any words much alike. However,
that is not much odds.

Then from Nengone, where you remember Mr.
Nihill died after eighteen months' residence on the
island, we have four men and two women, both
married. Of these, two men and both the women



300 Life of John Coleridge Patteson [Ch. vii.

have been baptized, some time ago, by the Bishop,
in 1852, and one by the London Mission, who now
occupy the island. These four I have, with full
trust, admitted to the Holy Communion. Mr.
Nihill had taught them well, and I am sure they
could pass an Examination in Scriptural history,
simple doctrinal statements, &c,, as well as most
young English people of the middle class of life.
The other two are well taught, and one of them
knows a great deal, but, poor fellow, he miscon-
ducted himself at Nengone, and hence I cannot re-
commend him to the Bishop for baptism without
much talk about him.

But I think my love is more poured out upon
my Bauro and Gera lads. They are such dear
fellows, and I trust that already they begin to know
something about religion. Certain it is that they
answer readily questions and say with their mouths
what amounts almost to a statement of the most im-
portant Christian truths. Of course I cannot tell what
effect this may have on their hearts. They join in
prayer morning and evening, they behave admirably,
and really there is nothing in their conduct to find
fault with. If it please God that any of them were
at some future time to stay again with us, I have
great hopes that they may learn enough to become
teachers in their own country.

The Nengone lads are quite in a different posi-
tion. Their language has been reduced to writing,
the Gospel of St. Mark translated, and they can all
read a little English, so that at evening prayers we
read a verse all round, and then I catechise and
expound to them in Nengone,

I really trust that by God's blessing some real
opening into the gnjat Solomon group has been



1856.] Letter to the Rev. E. Cole^Hdge ■ 301

effected. There is every hope that many boys will
join us this next voyage. No one can say what may
be the result. As yet it is possible to get on
without more help, but I do not for a moment doubt
that should God really grant not only a wide field of
labour, but some such hope of cultivating it, He will
send forth plenty of men to share in this work.
Men who have some means of their own — 100/. a
year is enough, or even less — or some aptitude for
languages, surely will feel drawn in this direction.
It is the happiest life a man can lead, full of enjoy-
ment, physical and mental, exquisite scenery, famous
warm climate, lots of bathing, yams and taro and
cocoa-nut enough to make an alderman's mouth
water, and such loving, gentle people. But of
course something depends on the way in which a
man looks at these things, and a fine gentleman
who can't get on without his servant, and can't put
his luggage for four months into a compass of six
feet by one-and-a-half, won't like it. . . .

You know the kind of incidents that occur, so I
need not repeat them to you. I have quite learnt
to believe that there are no ' savages ' anywhere, at
least among black or coloured people. I'd like to
see anyone call my Bauro boys savages ! Why, the
fellows on the reef that have never seen a white
man will wade back to the boat and catch one's arms
to prevent one falling into pits among the coral, just
like an old nurse looking after her child. This they
did at Santa Maria, where we "two swam ashore to a
party of forty or fifty men, and where our visit was
evidently a very agreeable one on both sides, though
we did not know one syllable of the language,
and then . . . But I almost tremble to think of
the immense amount of work opening upon one.



302 Life of yohn Coleridge Patteson [Ch. vii.

Whither will it lead ? But I seldom find any time
for speculations ; and oh, my dear tutor, I am as
happy as the day is long, though it never seems
long to me ! . . . My dear father writes in great
anxiety about the Denison case. Oh dear ! what a
cause of thankfulness it is to be out of the din
of controversy, and to find hundreds of thousands
longing for crumbs which are shaken about so
roughly in these angry disputes ! It isn't High or
Low or Broad Chureh, or any other special name, but
the longing desire to forget all distinctions, and to
return to a simpler state of things, that seems natur-
ally to result from the very sight of heathen people.
Who thinks of anything but this : ' They have
not heard the Name of the Saviour Who died for
them,' when he is standing with crowds of naked
fellows round him ? I can't describe the intense
happiness of this life. I suppose trials will come
some day, and I almost dread the thought, for I
surely shall not be prepared to bear them. I have no
trials at all, even of a small kind, to teach me how to
bear up under great ones.

In truth Coleridge Patteson had entered on the hap-
piest period of his life. He had found his vocation, and
his affections were fastening themselves upon his black
flock, so that, without losing a particle of his home love,
the yearnings homewards were appeased, and the
fully employed time, and sense of success and capa-
bility, left no space for the self-contemplation and self-
criticism of his earlier life. He gives amusing sketches
of the scenes : —

The donkey here, a fatally stubborn brute, is an un-
ceasing amusement to my boys. No one of them
can retain his seat more than ten minutes, but they



1856.] The Donkey 303

all fall like cats on their legs amid cries of laughter.
The donkey steers straight for some small scrubby
trees, and then kicks and plunges, or else rubs their
legs against the sides of the house, and all this time
the boys are leaping about the unfortunate fellow
who is mounted, and the fun is great.

Wadrokala, one of the Mcngone lads, who had
recently made his first communion, became the promi-
nent scholar at this time. He had thought a good
deal. One night he said : * I have heard all kinds of
words used — faith, repentance, praise, prayer — and
I don't clearly understand what is the real great
thing, the chief thing of all. They used these words
confusedly, and I feel puzzled. Then I read that the
Pharisees knew a great deal of the law, and so did the
Scribes, and yet they were not good. I am not
doing anything good. Now / know something of
the Bible, and / can wTite ; and I fear very much, I
often feel very much afraid, that I am not good, I
am not doing anything good.'

He was talked to, and comforted with hopes of
future work ; but a day or two later his feelings were
unconsciously hurt by being told in joke that he
was wearing a shabby pair of trousers to save the good
ones to take home to Nengone. His remonstrance
was poured out upon a slate : —

Mr. Patteson, this is my word : — I am unhappy
because of the word you said to me that I wished
for clothes. I have left my country. I do not seek
clothes for the body. What is the use of clothes ?
Can my spirit be clothed with clothes for the body ?
Therefore my heart is greatly afraid ; but you said I
greatly wished for clothes, which I do not care for.
One thing only I care for, that I may receive the



304 Life of yoJui Coleridge Pattcsoji [Ch. Vil.

life for my spirit. Therefore I fear, I confess, and say-
to you, it is not the thing for the body I want, but
the one thing I want is the clothing for the soul, for
Jesus Christ's sake, our Lord.

Soon after a very happy Christmas, Wadrokala and
Kainwhat expressed a desire, after a final visit to their
native island, to return with Mr. Patteson, and be pre-
pared to be sent as native teachers to any dark land,
as the Samoans had come to them.

Wadrokala narrated something of the history of his
island, a place with 6,000 inhabitants, with one tribe
forming a priestly caste, the head of which was firmly
believed by even these Christian Nengonese to possess
the power of striking men dead by his curse. Caroline,
Kainwhat and Kowine were the children of a terrible
old chief named Bula, who had fifty-five wives, and