The boys are having great fun over the way, and it is evident the outing has not had much ill effect on their spirits.
Sunday, September 19th.—Yesterday was perfectly calm and cloudless, and to-day again it is blowing very hard, with rain squalls at intervals. We began the day with school, and then after an interval for breakfast we had Mattins with a fair congregation. The females are very enthusiastic and attend very regularly, and the same applies to the boys, but the older men are very callous. There are one or two who never miss, but the majority are much more concerned with the affairs of this world, than about the one thing needful. There are one or two old fellows who are very regular, and who seem really to like being taught, but most of the men prefer the free and careless life to which they have always been accustomed. There are many who feel the beauty of Christianity, but it is so hard to them to practise it. They think it is all right for boys and women, but they themselves cannot stand the bother and burden it entails.
After Prayers we went up to “Tahi mamavi” and found the whole population awaiting us. We divided them into five sets, two of boys, one of youths, and two of old men. Charles and I taught the old men, and found them very attentive. Walter Tarigisibue addressed the youths who seemed appreciative, and Paschal and Peter taught the boys who were said to learn very quickly. They asked us to fix a day for coming again, and said they should expect us every Sunday. I had been feeling sick and queer all day, and coming home was violently sick in the boat. I got home as quickly as possible, but the sickness continued, accompanied by ague, and afterwards strong fever headache, and then strong perspiration, and this morning, (Monday) convalescence.
However, I am very washed out and good for nothing, and shall rest at home. I am disappointed however, for I meant to have gone to the other side of the island in the boat, and had made all my preparations. Now I must wait a bit.
Tuesday, September 21st.—Reasonably convalescent again, but weak and not fit for much. It was a most unpleasant day however, with fitful squalls of rain and wind, and I could not have gone far even if I had wanted. The boys were busy planting “Virelumlum’s” yam garden, and were kept hard at work all day. I was not surprised, for I previously knew it to be the custom here for the chief’s wives to prepare his food in the gamal. Generally speaking, women are not admitted within these edifices, and more especially here, but to-day Virelumlum’s wives, three or four in number, were busy with the men getting ready the evening meal. I asked them where they were going to eat themselves, and they said with some naïvete, “Oh! that is a secondary matter, we have to get our masters’ dinner ready and shift for ourselves as best we may.” It would be impossible for them to eat any food cooked in the gamal, and so religiously have they been brought up under this restriction, that they would probably sooner die of hunger than attempt to appease their appetites with what to them is sacred food, or at least forbidden, and they are more faithful to the laws of men, than was Eve to the law of God. And, I suppose as spiritual death was the judgment on Eve’s disobedience, so would physical death be the penalty in case of their transgression. Human life is not more highly valued here than it is in Ireland, and a woman’s life is not much accounted of, and death is the common penalty for very trivial offences. Here it is universally averred that woman is at the root of all the evil that transpires, and poor things, they are too often the victims where the men go scott free. Here the females are much in excess of the males, and naturally polygamy is widely practised. The big men however, get the lion’s share, and it is no uncommon thing to find a troop of women in the households of the chiefs, varying from ten to fifty or even one hundred. All no doubt are not wives, but slaves and beasts of burden, and these big guns do nothing themselves but impose all the duties of the house and garden on their women. I do not think I am maligning the Opa men when I say that I look upon them as hideously lazy, but of course that results in large measure from their imposing their own natural duties on others, whom they find ready or obliged to do it for them. It is quite different at Maewo, where monogamy now mostly obtains, and where the men take an active and a man’s share in all out door employments. However Virelumlum was very active bustling about among his women, and I saw him shouldering off a big burden of yams, following up the rear of a troop of preceding females.
Here time seems of no importance and no account, and it wearies me sometimes to see people squatting about for hours at a time, whistling or otherwise killing time. It is an ennervating climate no doubt, but that is no excuse for laziness in people who have been born and brought up in the country. I often urge laggards and idlers, who make my house a convenient lounge, to go to work and plant their fences, but as nothing can be done out of due course, what was, is, and ever must be the same.
In the evening there was a great feast spread for the workers, and the day finished like all days here, with Evensong and school. This little village is a bright spot in the surrounding darkness, and I trust in time its influence for good will be more widely felt than even now. The attendants at the school seem wonderfully staunch, and the teachers very earnest, and I pray God that their vigorous instruction may not be lost on the heathen people around them. But there is the same callousness attending religious practice as about everything else here, and although they see the beauty and the benefit of Christianity, the effort is too great to reduce its blessed precepts to daily practice.
Wednesday, September 22nd.—By-and-bye I shall have as much trouble with my white flock, as with the black. The white Traders have got some feud one against the other because of difference of nationality, and I had to listen again to accusations from an Englishman against a Frenchman, as to plots against his life and property. Poor man, he is new to the business, is doing well, and fancies that he is taking the bread out of the Frenchmen’s mouths, but there is room for all. I found he was not only filled with gloomy fears himself, but had imbued the chief under whom he lives with warlike intentions also, and I had to put a veto upon any resort to open violence. I told the chief “Tabi,” that he must keep his hands from all white men, and if he had any complaints to make, to make them in the proper quarter, and not take the law into his own hands. He must learn the sacredness of human life, and not rush to bow and arrow and club for every fancied affront or grievance. As long as I was here I would do my best to see that peace and harmony reigned among whites and blacks, but I would countenance no violence or bloodshed. After this I went to the Frenchman at Lan̈an̈qa, and he seemed very surprised to think that he was accused of any ill feeling, and judging from his good nature I should imagine his surprise was genuine. However, I said it was very hard if a few white men living on so large an island, could not live at peace, even if their nationalities were various, and if they could not agree among themselves, what could be expected of the natives? I quite like the natty little man, and certainly he is the best colonist I have ever seen down here. He is a most handy man and always employed, and as far as industry goes, he sets the natives a very excellent example. The neatness of his house and surroundings too, ought to have a good effect.
The fine day turned into a most dirty, rough, unpleasant evening, and we went to Prayers in a perfect downpour of rain. After Church there were great searchings of heart among the elders, and I publicly announced that I wanted the names of those who wished for Baptism. To the surprise of everybody, and to the delight of not a few, four women stood up and said almost simultaneously “Inew” (I). These quiet, demure creatures, generally so terribly afraid of the men, and always so shy in public, must have been influenced by a stronger Power than any they had hitherto known to make this public profession, and it produced no small sensation on all present. Two men also said they wished to be admitted to the Sacred Rite, and I hope they will soon be followed by many more. Charles Tariqatu’s influence here is great, and the fruits of his thorough and earnest teaching are beginning to be felt. He is so thorough and good himself, that his example and influence have all the more effect. There will be about twenty to be baptized on Sunday, the nucleus I trust, of a good Christian population hereafter.
Thursday, September 23rd.—A thoroughly wet and disagreeable day. Fortunately there was a great festivity here, and I was not left without something to do all day. I trust I did not spend quite an unprofitable time. I begin to see distinct light through my work here now, and I can see how the seed sown through long years is at last beginning to bear fruit. I am eminently satisfied with the work of the boys here, and I can see that Charles’s influence pervades everything. One man to-day, who never has taken much interest in our teaching, came to ask me if Martin Tan̈abei might not come back from Norfolk Island, and live with him and his people as teacher. Another told me that my words to him of former years have quite changed the course of his life, and no doubt he is as different as possible to what he formerly was. I was under engagement to go to Tahimamavi, but when we were launching the boat the rain came down in such torrents that I reluctantly turned back. The evening was as bad as the day, and most uncomfortable it was in my leaking, cold house. We had Evensong with a good congregation, but a great gust of wind put out the principal lamp in the very middle of the service, and made it somewhat dismal.