APPENDIX A.
(See p. [354].)
THE PRAYER OF THE TANNESE, WHO LOVE THE WORD OF JEHOVAH, TO THE GREAT CHIEF OF SYDNEY.
[Written at the urgent request and dictation of the Missionary’s friends on Tanna to be presented to the Governor of New South Wales. Literally translated by me, John G. Paton.]
To the Chief of Sydney, the servant of Queen Victoria of Britannia, saying—We great men of Tanna dwell in a dark land. Our people are very dark hearted. They know nothing good.
Missi Paton the man, Missi Mathieson the man, and Missi Mathieson the woman, have dwelt here four yams (= years) to teach us the worship of Jehovah. Their conduct has been straight and very good; therefore we love these three Missionaries, and the worship of Jehovah which they three have taught us, the Tannese.
Alas! a part, as it were, only three of our Chiefs, whose names are Nauka, Miaki, and Karewick, besides Ringian, Enukarupi, Attica, and Namaka, they and their people hate the worship and all good conduct like that which the Word of Jehovah teaches us and the people of all lands. These men all belong to four Villages only. They have stolen all Missi’s property; they have broken into his house. They have cut down his bananas. They have scolded and persecuted him; and they desire to kill Missi and to eat him, so that they may destroy the Worship of God from the land of Tanna.
We hate exceedingly their bad conduct, and pray you, the Great Chief of Sydney, to punish these dark Tannese, who have persecuted Missi, who have deceived Missi, who have altogether deceived the Great Chief (= Commodore Seymour) and the Chief (= Captain Hume) of the men-of-war, and who deceived the Chief and the Missionaries in the John Williams, who murdered one of Missi Paton’s Aneityum Teachers, who fought Missi Turner and Missi Nisbet, who killed Vasa and his Samoan people, who killed the foreigners, who have now fought and driven away our three Missionaries. Their conduct has been exceedingly bad. They destroy the Kingdom of Tanna, kill the people and eat them, and are guilty of bad conduct every day. Our hearts hate their bad conduct; we are pained by it.
Therefore we earnestly pray you, the Chief of Sydney, to send quickly a man-of-war to punish them, and to revenge all their bad conduct towards Missi. Then truly we will rejoice; then it will be good and safe for the three Missionaries to dwell here, and to teach us, men of the devil. Our hearts are very dark; we know nothing; we are just like pigs. Therefore it is good for Missi to teach us the Word and the Worship of Jehovah the Great King. Long ago He was unknown here. Missi brought His knowledge to us.
Our love to you, the Great Chief of Sydney, the servant of Queen Victoria, and we earnestly pray you to protect us, and to protect our Missionaries and the Worship of God in our land, the land of Tanna. We weep for our Missionaries. They three gave us medicine in our sickness, and clothing for our bodies; taught us what is good conduct, and taught us the way to Heaven. Of all these things long ago we had no knowledge whatever; therefore we weep, and our hearts cling to these three, our Missionaries. If they three are not here, who will teach us the way to Heaven? Who will prevent our bad conduct? Who will protect us from the bad conduct of foreigners? And who will love us, and teach us all good things?
Oh, compassionate us, Chief of Sydney! Hold fast these three, our Missionaries, and give them back to us, and we will love you and your people. You and your people know the Word of Jehovah; you are going on the path to Heaven; you all love the Word of Jehovah. Oh, look in mercy on us, dark-hearted men, going to the bad land, to the great eternal fire, just like our fathers who are dead!
May Jehovah make your heart and the hearts of your people sweet towards us, to compassionate us, and to look in mercy on our dark land; and we will pray Jehovah to make you good, and give you a rich reward.
The names of us, the Chiefs of Tanna, who worship towards Jehovah:—
| Yarisi, | x his mark. |
| Ruawa, | x his mark. |
| Kapuka, | x his mark. |
| Taura, | x his mark. |
| Faimungo, | x his mark. |
| Manuman, | x his mark. |
| Nuara, | x his mark. |
| Nebusak, | x his mark. |
| Kaua, | x his mark. |
| Nowar, | x his mark. |
APPENDIX B.
NOTES ON THE NEW HEBRIDES
By the Editor.
The South Seas—so named by Vasco Nugnez de Balboa, who in 1513 first saw the Ocean on the other side of Darien, and marched into it as far as he durst, waving his sword, and taking possession of it in name of his master, the King of Spain.
The Pacific Ocean—so named by Ferdinand Magellan, who in 1521 sailed westwards in his Victory seven thousand miles, and found the sea exceptionally peaceful—for that trip at least.
The New Hebrides—so named by Captain Cook, who in 1773 first fully explored and described the whole of the group. As far back, however, as 1606, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros had landed on the largest and most northerly island of the group. He at once fancied it to be the great Southern Continent, deemed to be essential to balance the great Continents of the North, and eagerly looked for both by sailors and men of science. He named the bay, Vera Cruz,—the river that flowed into it, Jordan,—and the city which he founded there, New Jerusalem. The land itself he called by the preposterous designation of Tierra Australis del Espiritu Santo. In 1768 a French explorer, Bougainville, sailed round Santo, discovering that it was but an island, and through the Straits that still bear his name; whereon, finding many islands all around, he re-baptized them L’Archipel des Grandes Cyclades. But Cook, being the first who sailed in and out amongst all the group, and put on record the most faithful descriptions and details, which to this hour remain generally authoritative, considered himself entitled to name them the New Hebrides; and history since has been well pleased to adopt his views, seeing, doubtless, the geographical analogy betwixt the multitudinous scattered isles and islets of the old Hebrides and those of the new.
From Santo in the north to Aneityum in the south, a distance of about 400 miles, there are scattered over the Ocean thirty islands, twenty being well inhabited, and eleven of them being of considerable size, from Aneityum, which is forty miles in circumference, to Santo, which measures seventy miles by forty. The Islands lie 1,000 miles to the North of New Zealand, 1,400 miles North-East from Sydney, 400 miles West of Fiji, and 200 East of New Caledonia. The population is now estimated at 70,000; but, in the early days of Missions, before Traders and Kanaka-collectors, and the new Epidemics of Civilization (!) had decimated them, their numbers were certainly three times greater.
The general appearance of the Islands is that of a range of mountains bursting up out of the sea, clothed with forests, and severed from each other by deep valleys, through which the tides now flow. They are all volcanic in origin, but the lava has poured itself out over a bed of coral, and the mountains have reared themselves up on a coral base. The fires are still active on Tanna, Ambrym, and Polevi—the volcano on Tanna being now, as in the days of Cook, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, a far-shining light-house for the sailor, kindled by the finger of God Himself. The climate is moist and humid, with a thermometer seldom below 60° and seldom above 90° in the shade; their winter is called the Rainy Season, and their vegetation is tropical in its luxuriance.
On one Island may be found a hundred varieties of ferns alone. The damara or kauri-pine, so prized in New Zealand, grows there, as also the bread-fruit tree, the banana, the papua-apple, the chestnut, and above all the cocoa-nut, which for refreshing drink competes with the vine of other lands, and for varied uses and services to man almost rivals the very palmtree of Palestine. The sandal-wood, for its sacred odours and idol incense, has been almost swept entirely away,—as much as £70,000 worth being carried off from Erromanga alone!
Among native foods, the yam and the taro hold the foremost place, not inferior to our finest potatoes; besides the banana, the sugar-cane, the bread-fruit, and the cocoa-nut, which flourish to perfection. Their arrowroot is in some respects the finest in the world, and is kept only for special uses as yet, but may develop into a great and valuable industry, as Commerce opens up her markets and stretches out her hands. The English cabbage has been introduced and grows well; also the planting of cotton and of coffee.
The scarcity of animals is marvellous. The pig, the dog, and the rat are their only four-footed creatures; and some affirm that the rat is the alone indigenous quadruped in all the New Hebrides! Lizards and snakes abound, but are declared not to be poisonous. There are many small and beautiful pigeons, also wild ducks and turkeys, besides multitudes of ordinary fowls. Goats have now been largely introduced, as well as sheep, and various European animals. Fish, of course, swarm in millions around the shores, and a whaling station on Aneityum sent into the market £2,000 worth of oil in a year.
The Natives are practically quite naked, till induced by the Missionary to “wear a shirt”—the first sign of renouncing Heathenism and inclining towards Christianity. They are Cannibals of a very pronounced type, and Savages without any traces of civilization, except those connected with war(!),—without a literature, and almost without a religion, except only the dread of evil spirits, the worship of ancestors, and the lowest forms of fetishism, trees, stones, etc. They are partly Malay and partly Papuan,—a mixture of Ham and of Shem,—some with hair crisp and woolly, stuck full of feathers and shells, others with hair long and wavy, twisted into as many as 700 separate whipcords on a single head, and taking five years to finish the job! Their bows and arrows, tomahawks, clubs and spears, are sometimes elaborately carved and adorned; and they can twist and weave grasses and fibres into wondrously beautiful mats, bags, and girdles. They make bracelets out of shells, sliced and carved in marvellous ways, as also ear-rings and nose-rings; and in many similar methods they show some savage sense of beauty.
Polygamy, with all its accompanying cruelties and degradations, universally prevails. Infanticide is systematically practised; and even the despatch of parents, when they grow old and helpless. Widows are put to death on almost every island to bear their husbands company into the spirit world. There is not an unmentionable vice hinted at in Romans i. which is not unblushingly practised on those Islands, wheresoever the Gospel has not dawned.
For the best published information on all these subjects, consult the work by Dr. John Inglis: “In the New Hebrides” (Nelson & Sons, 1887),—Reminiscences of noble Missionary Service for three-and-thirty years.
A SELECTION FROM
Fleming H. Revell Company’s
CATALOGUE
Important Missionary Publications.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN G. PATON. Missionary to the New Hebrides. Introductory note by Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. 2 vols., 12mo., portrait and map, in neat box, net $2.00.
One of the most remarkable biographies of modern times.
“I have just laid down the most robust and the most fascinating piece of autobiography that I have met with in many a day.... It is the story of the wonderful work wrought by John G. Paton, the famous missionary to the New Hebrides; he was made of the same stuff with Livingstone.”—T. L. Cuyler.
“It stands with such books as those Dr. Livingstone gave the world, and shows to men that the heroes of the cross are not merely to be sought in past ages.”—Christian Intelligencer.
THE LIFE OF JOHN KENNETH MACKENZIE. Medical Missionary to China; with the story of the First Chinese Hospital by Mrs. Bryson, author of “Child Life in Chinese Homes,” etc. 12mo., cloth, 400 pages, price $1.50 with portrait in photogravure.
“The story of a singularly beautiful life, sympathetically and ably written.... A really helpful, elevating book.”—London Missionary Chronicle.
“The volume records much that is fresh and interesting bearing on Chinese customs and manners as seen and vividly described by a missionary who had ample opportunities of studying them under most varied circumstances and conditions.”—Scotsman.
THE GREATEST WORK IN THE WORLD. The Evangelization of all Peoples in the Present Century. By Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. 12mo., leatherette, gilt top. 35c.
The subject itself is an inspiration, but this latest production of Dr. Pierson thrills with the life which the Master Himself has imparted to it. It will be a welcome addition to Missionary literature.
THE CRISIS OF MISSIONS. By Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. Cloth, $1.25; paper, 35c.
“We do not hesitate to say that this book is the most purposeful, earnest and intelligent review of the mission work and field which has ever been given to the Church.”—Christian Statesman.
MEDICAL MISSIONS. Their Place and Power. By John Lowe, F. R. C. S. E., Secretary of the Edinburgh Medical Mission Society. 12mo., 308 pages, cloth, $1.50.
“This book contains an exhaustive account of the benefits that may, and in point of fact do, accrue from the use of the medical art as a Christian agency. Mr. Lowe is eminently qualified to instruct us in this matter, having himself been so long engaged in the same field.”—From Introduction by Sir William Muir.
ONCE HINDU: NOW CHRISTIAN. The early life of Baba Padmanji. Translated from the Marathi. Edited by J. Murray Mitchell, M. A., LLD. 12mo., 155 pages, with appendix. Cloth, 75c.
“A more instructive or more interesting narrative of a human soul, once held firmly in the grip of oriental superstition, idolatry and caste, gradually emerging into the light, liberty and peace of a regenerate child of God, does not often come to hand.”—Missionary Herald.
AN INTENSE LIFE. By George F. Herrick. A sketch of the life and work of Rev. Andrew T. Pratt, M.D., Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., in Turkey, 1852–1872. 16mo., cloth, 50c.
EVERY-DAY LIFE IN SOUTH INDIA, or, the Story of Coopooswamey. An Autobiography. With fine engravings by E. Whymper. 12mo., cloth, $1.00.
THE CHILDREN OF INDIA. Written for children by one of their friends. Illustrations and map. Small 4to., cloth, $1.25.
“These are good books for the Sunday-School Library, and will help young people in missionary societies who desire to have an intelligent idea of the people in India whom they are sending their money and their missionaries to convert.”—Missionary Herald.
HINDUISM, PAST AND PRESENT. With an account of recent Hindu reformers, and a brief comparison between Hinduism and Christianity. By J. Murray Mitchell, M.A., LLD. 12mo., cloth, $1.60.
“A praiseworthy attempt to present a popular view of a vast and important subject.”—Saturday Review.
GOSPEL ETHNOLOGY. With illustrations. By S. R. Paterson, F. G. S. 12mo., cloth, $1.00.
“The first attempt to treat this subject from a thorough-going scientific standpoint. A very powerful argument for the truth of Christianity.”—English Churchman.
“A book to refer to for information not easily to be obtained otherwise.”—Church Missionary Intelligencer.
NATIVE LIFE IN SOUTH INDIA. Being sketches of the social and religious characteristics of the Hindus. By the Rev. Henry Rice. With many illustrations from native sketches. 12mo., cloth boards, $1.00.
“Those who have heard Mr. Rice’s missionary addresses will be prepared to hear that this is a fascinating book.”—Life and Work.
CHRISTIAN PROGRESS IN CHINA. Gleanings from the writings and speaches of many workers. By Arnold Foster, B.A., London Missionary, Hankow. With map of China. 12mo., cloth, $1.00.
AMONG THE MONGOLS. By Rev. James Gilmour, M.A., London Mission, Peking. Numerous engravings from photographs and native sketches. 12mo., gilt edges, cloth, $1.25.
“The newness and value of the book consists solely in its Defoe quality, that when you have read it you know, and will never forget, all Mr. Gilmour knows and tells of how Mongols live.”—Spectator.
EVERY-DAY LIFE IN CHINA, or, Scenes along River and Road in the Celestial Empire. By Edwin J. Dukes. Illustrations from the author’s sketches. 12mo., with embellished cover, $2.00.
That China is a mysterious problem to all who interest themselves in its affairs is the only excuse for offering another book on the subject.
• MISSIONARY PUBLICATIONS •
REPORT OF THE CENTENARY CONFERENCE on the Protestant Missions of the World. Held in London, June, 1888. Edited by the Rev. James Johnston, F. S. S., Secretary of the Conference. Two large 8vo. vols., 1200 pages, $2.00 net per set.
An important feature in this report, lack of which has prejudiced many against reports in general, is the special care taken by the Editor, who has succeeded in making the work an interesting and accurate reproduction of the most important accumulation of facts from the Mission Fields of the World, as given by the representatives of all the Evangelical Societies of Christendom.
And another: The exceptionally complete and helpful indexing of the entire work in such a thorough manner as to make it of the greatest value as a Reference Encyclopedia on mission topics for years to come.
THE MISSIONARY YEAR BOOK FOR 1889–90. Containing Historical and Statistical accounts of the Principle Protestant Missionary Societies in America, Great Britain and the Continent of Europe.
The American edition, edited by Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D., of Buffalo, embraces about 450 pages, one-fourth being devoted to the work of American Societies, and will contain Maps of India, China, Japan, Burmah, and Siam; also a language Map of India and comparative diagrams illustrating areas, population and progress of Mission work. This compilation will be the best presentation of the work of the American Societies in Pagan Lands that has yet been given to the public. The book is strongly recommended by Rev. Jas. Johnston, F.S.S., as a companion volume to the Report of the Century Conference on Missions. Cloth, 12mo. $1.25.
GARENGANZE: or, Seven Years’ Pioneer Missionary Work in Central Africa. By Fred. S. Arnot, with introduction by Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D. Twenty Illustrations and an original Map.
The author’s two trips across Africa, entirely unarmed and unattended except by the local and constantly changing carriers, and in such marked contrast with many modern adventurers, strongly impress one to ask if another Livingstone has not appeared among us. Traversing where no white man had ever been seen before, and meeting kings and chiefs accustomed only to absolute power, he demanded and received attention in the name of his God. Cloth 8vo, 290 pages, $1.25.
IN THE FAR EAST: China Illustrated. Letters from Geraldine Guinness. Edited by her sister, with Introduction by Rev. J. Hudson Taylor. A characteristic Chinese cover. Cloth 4to, 224 pages, $1.50.
CONTENTS.
“Good-Bye!”
Second Class.
On the Way to China.
Hong-Kong and Shanghai.
First days in the Flowery Land.
Opium Suicides amongst Women.
Ten Days on a Chinese Canal.
At Home in our Chinese “Haddon Hall.”
By Wheelbarrow to Antong.
Life on a Chinese Farm.
A Visit to the “Shun” City.
Blessing—and Need of Blessing—In the Far East.
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, writes:
“I have greatly enjoyed ‘In the Far East.’ God blessing it, the book should send armies of believers to invade the Flowry Land.”
The author is to be congratulated for the taste and beauty with which these letters are now put into permanent form. A full page colored map of China enhances this admirable gift book.
NEW YORK. :: Fleming H. Revell Company :: CHICAGO.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.