“Neither of these poor creatures has any sense of the heinousness of their guilt,” observed Oscar. “The man acted from an idea of honour; the woman thought it no cruelty to still the wailings of a miserable, unwelcomed babe.”
“O Oscar, if these be specimens of our future companions in banishment, you have a grand, a glorious work before you!”
The same thought had flashed across the mind of Coldstream. Was it not possible that the Lord was indeed guiding by His eye one unworthy of the least of all His mercies, and guiding to a position of greater usefulness than Coldstream had ever occupied before?
The Coldstreams, during the rest of the voyage, devoted much time to teaching their convict companions, and, both with Burmese and Bengali, the seed of the Word appeared to fall into ground softened by sorrow. Poor Lachmi, who had been down-trodden by man, and terrified by legends regarding demon-like deities, clung to the thought that there was one religion of love. The Burmese received the truth in simplicity, and rejoiced to hear that there was One who would stand his Friend, though the world had cast him off. Nor was this all. Coldstream found ready listeners in the Lascars who manned the vessel, and who had never before had any one to speak to them of a Saviour. The captain, a rough, honest Englishman, watched with surprise the quiet but earnest work which was turning his ship into a floating Bethel.
“I don’t know how such as you ever found your way into a penal settlement,” observed Captain Partridge to Coldstream on the evening before they landed. “I think I’ve a Jonah on board.”
“One brought from lower depths than ever was Jonah,” was Oscar’s reply.
“And going to preach to worse sinners than those of old Nineveh,” said the captain. “I see that you’ve brought your gourd with you,” he added, as he glanced at Io, who was standing gazing in the direction of the land from which “the spicy breezes” were already wafted over the ocean.
“God grant that I may not love her too well or lose her too early,” thought Coldstream; “she is all that is left to me upon earth.”