GROUP OF YOUNG MEN.
“I have written strongly, but you know why. If I have said the truth, may God bless it to the good of us both.”
This letter, written in such plain and strong language, and which showed such solicitude for the spiritual welfare of those who were on the eve of leaving, did not fail to make a deep impression, yet not so as to convince that the step about to be taken was a wrong one.
As for their own pastor, Mr. Nobbs, he had strongly opposed the return of the first two families, but now was rather willing than otherwise that the rest should follow. Indeed, far from discouraging such a step, he was glad that someone could be found who would voluntarily go and, to the best of his ability, instruct the children who were growing up so far from educational privileges. Quickly the day drew on that was to witness another painful separation. As in the first case, the young people of the second return party did not share the feelings of their parents. Pitcairn Island possessed no attraction for them, and Norfolk Island, which was home to them, was rendered doubly dear because of the many loved companions and friends that were to be left behind.
One sore trial to Simon Young and his wife and family was the separation from the eldest son, a youth of eighteen years of age, who, with a son of Mr. Nobbs, was left with Bishop Patteson, to be by him trained and fitted for a life of future usefulness in the work of the mission. It was the young man’s own choice and resolve to remain with the bishop, who, both to his companion and himself, had ever showed the kind and tender consideration of a parent in everything regarding their best interests. So, however sad the parting or sharp the trial, the parents knew that their son was in good hands, and Bishop Patteson had written that, as far as they could supply it, both himself and Mrs. Selwyn would fill the place of parents to him. His companion had always been to him as a dear brother.[6]
[6] Edwin Nobbs and Fisher Young joined the Melanesian Mission under its first bishop, the Right Rev. J. C. Patteson, the former to become, probably, the successor of his father, the Rev. G. H. Nobbs, pastor of the church on Norfolk Island. But it was not to be. In less than four years after joining the mission, the bishop paid a visit to the island of Santa Cruz, and found the natives hostile to their landing. On the bishop’s first visit the natives had shown themselves friendly, but now, August, 1864, a sudden and unexpected attack was made by the natives against their visitors, and the young men, Edwin and Fisher, were wounded, the former in his left cheek, the later in his left wrist. An Englishman, Pierce by name, was wounded in the chest, but he recovered. Fisher died on the eighth day, after suffering the dreadful agonies of lockjaw. His body was taken ashore at Port Patteson and buried there. His deeply-sorrowing companion attended the funeral, the exposure bringing on a cold which resulted in the same dire disease. Everything that the most loving care could suggest was done for them, but in vain. The bishop, writing of that sad time, said, “Never have I known such sorrow; never have I been so broken down with overmuch sorrow.” They both died in the arms of the bishop, almost the last words of each being a prayer for their murderers. Edwin was buried at sea. It can truly be said of them that
“Lovely and pleasant they were in their lives,
And in death they were not divided.”
The deservedly-loved Bishop Patteson himself fell a victim to the murderous assault of the natives, on the 20th of September, 1871, seven years after the death of the young men.