(1875.)
“If I could only put one of the Earthquakes we’ve had into this journal it would produce a sensation,—descriptions seem so very tame after one has experienced the awful feelings they produce! But I must begin and go forward as best I can, there being no possibility of gratifying you in that direction.
“You know, it was not till very near the time of the Vessel’s sailing that we decided last year to remain; and I sent my last ‘Journal’ on board with an aching heart. We had been so nearly going to see our precious boys, and till I saw the _Dayspring_ slowly disappear in the distance I did not know how intensely my heart had been set upon seeing them!...
“To crown all, John got very ill, and sunk so low we feared he might not live to see the return of the _Dayspring_. But all the time I had an inward conviction that God had not kept him on Aniwa just to die, after giving us such encouragement to remain, and we had waited so confidingly upon Him just to show us the way. And He did not keep us long in suspense, for one event transpired after another to show how wisely we had been guided.
“The first of these happened about a month after the vessel left, and as John was slowly recovering from his illness. We heard, one lovely day, as I was setting the copies for afternoon School (I managed to keep it going all the time), a cry of ‘Sail O!’ which set us all into a fine pitch of excitement. School was the last thing to be thought of, and the Natives scampered off towards the other end of the Island, where the vessel lay. John was unable to walk so far; but you may be sure we were quite on the _qui vive_ for news, and I waylaid the first returning Native, who shouted to me in Aniwan, ‘Missi, what _do_ you think has happened? A whole shipload of Tannese, men, women, and children, have been driven off their own Island by war, and have come over to live on this little Island, because the Worship is strong, and they know they are safe. They are many in number for the people of Aniwa; and where are we to get food for them, Missi? for they had to escape at night with what little baggage they could bring in the vessel.’
“Another Native soon arrived with letters from Mr. and Mrs. Neilson, confirming the report, and we were rather dumbfounded at this turn of events; but, like most of the other Missionaries, when they heard of it, we were also deeply impressed with God’s mysterious ways. Tanna was the Island upon which John’s whole heart was set; and it was one of the bitterest disappointments of his life when the Mission Synod would not allow him to return there, instead of coming to Aniwa nine years ago; but we both felt we were following God here, and now He had brought the Tannese to Aniwa; for those who had come were from around Port Resolution, and some of them were John’s old friends!
“Some of the Islanders themselves were as much struck with the event as we were. And at last Mission Synod, Mr. Neilson amused all the Missionaries by giving the outline of a speech made upon the occasion by one of the Aneityumese Teachers on Tanna, apt as all Natives are in drawing illustrations from daily life to point their addresses on Sabbath. He took the story of Joseph for his subject, and made out ‘Missi Paton’ to be Joseph driven from Tanna by his wicked brethren the Tanna men, but that God had gone with him to Egypt, _alias_ Aniwa, and prospered him and the land for his sake, and prepared it for them to go and live upon, and thus save much people alive!...