When I have read or heard the shallow objections of irreligious scribblers and talkers, hinting that there was no reality in conversions, and that Mission effort was but waste, oh, how my heart has yearned to plant them just one week on Tanna, with the “natural” man all around in the person of Cannibal and Heathen, and only the one “spiritual” man in the person of the converted Abraham, nursing them, feeding them, saving them “for the love of Jesus,”—that I might just learn how many hours it took to convince them that Christ in man was a reality after all! All the scepticism of Europe would hide its head in foolish shame; and all its doubts would dissolve under one glance of the new light that Jesus, and Jesus alone, pours from the converted Cannibal’s eye.
Perhaps it may surprise some unsophisticated reader to learn, though others who know more will be quite prepared for it, that this removal of our house, as also Mr. Mathieson’s for a similar reason, was severely criticised by the people who try to evangelize the world while sitting in easy chairs at home. Precious nonsense appeared, for instance, in the _Nova Scotian Church Magazine_, about my house being planted on the fighting ground of the Natives, and thereby courting and provoking hostilities. As matter of fact, the hill-top was too narrow to accommodate both the Church and my house, and had to be levelled out for that purpose, and it was besides surrounded by a deep valley on three sides; but the arm-chair critics, unwilling to believe in the heathen hatred of the Gospel, had to invent some reason out of their own brains to account for my being so persecuted and plundered. In truth, we were learning by suffering for the benefit of those who should follow us to these Islands,—that health could be found only on the higher levels, swept by the breath of the trade winds, and that fever and ague lay in wait near the shore, and especially on the leeward side. Even Mr. Inglis had his house on Aneityum removed also to the higher ground; and no Missionary since has been located in the fever-beds by the swamp or shore. Life is God’s great gift, to be preserved for Him, not thrown away.
CHAPTER VIII. _MORE MISSION LEAVES FROM TANNA._
The Blood-Fiend Unleashed.—In the Camp of the Enemy.—A Typical South Sea Trader.—Young Rarip’s Death.—The Trader’s Retribution.—Worship and War.—Saved from Strangling.—Wrath Restrained.—Under the Axe.—The Clubbing of Namuri.—Native Saint and Martyr.—Bribes Refused.—Widows Saved from Strangling.—The Sinking of the Well.—Church-Building on Tanna.—Ancient Stone God.—Printing First Tannese Book.—A Christian Captain.—Levelled Muskets.—A French Refugee.—A Villainous Captain.—Like Master Like Men.—Wrecked on Purpose.—The Kanaka Traffic.—A Heathen Festival.—Sacrifices to Idols.—Heathen Dances and Sham Fights.—Six Native Teachers.—A Homeric Episode.—Victims for a Cannibal Feast.—The Jaws of Death.—Nahak or Sorcery.—Killing Me by Nahak.—Nahak Defied.—Protected by Jehovah.—Almost Persuaded.—Escorted to the Battlefield.—Praying for Enemies.—Our Canoe on the Reef.—A Perilous Pilgrimage.—Rocks and Waters.
The Peace-party, my band of twenty Chiefs already spoken of, kept all the tribes around the Harbour acting only on the defensive for a season. But the Inland people murdered eight Chiefs from a distance who, after paying a friendly visit to the Harbour people, were returning to their homes. At the same time, one of the Inland Chiefs, who had pled with his people to give up war and live at peace with surrounding tribes, was overthrown and murdered by his own men, as also his brother and four wives and two children, and was supplanted by another leader more akin to their wishes and tastes. They proceeded, according to their custom of declaring war, to shoot one of the Harbour men and to break down their fences and plantations. So once again, the blood-fiend was unleashed,—the young men of Tanna being as eager to get up a battle, as young men of the world at home seem eager to get up a concert or a ball.