October 1925
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mentals of the Tanna language; but in the midst of all this came a stunning blow that for many others would have spelled the end of all missionary activity. His wife and de voted helpmate died after a short illness; and to complete his loneliness, his infant son was taken from him after a week’s suffering. “Stunned by that dreadful loss,” his auto biography states, “my reason seemed for a. time almost to give way. Ague and feyer, too, laid a depressing and weak ening hand upon me. . . .. But I was never altogether for saken. . . . But for Jesus and the fellowship He vouch safed me there, I must have gone mad and died beside that, lonely grave.” When the novelty of the White Missi wore off, the heathen chiefs began to show their deceitfulness. They stole every thing that was movable. He was forced to pay three times for the site of the mission house. During a season of drought, the chiefs vowed they would kill him, unless rain came in a plentiful manner. Fortunately, before the allotted time had expired, rain fell in great abundance, but it was so heavy and continuous that the sacred men among the can nibals pointed to Paton as the cause for this havoc. When an old chief from Aneityum came to visit Tanna he was seized by a severe attack of fever, which was immediately ascribed to Paton. The “Tannese,” he records, “all became furious. This was proof positive that we were the cause of all their sickness and death! Inland and all along the weather side of the island, when far enough away from us, they said that the natives were enjoying excellent health. Meeting after meeting was held; exciting speeches were de livered; and feasts were given, for which it was said that .several women were sacrificed, cooked and eaten— such being the bonds by which they entered into covenant with each other for life or death.” But, fortunately, a chief, whose brother Paton had healed, intervened and the day was saved. Paton’s continued outspoken opposition to the practices of these cannibals quite ■ naturally brought with it the hos tility of many natives. He spoke up fearlessly against the atrocities which the cannibals practiced on the New Hebrides women. He raised his voice against the murder, the theft, and the cannibalism that ruled unchecked on Tanna. But, especially, did he plead with these people to leave the hosts, of stone idols, charms and sacred objects, which they feared and worshipped and to forsake their vile and immoral superstitions. And all this did not decrease the hateful designs of the enraged heathen against Paton’s life. More than once did instances like the following occur: “Once when natives in large numbers were assembled at my house, a man furiously rushed at me with his axe; but a chief snatched a spade with which I had been working and dexterously defended me from instant death. Life in such circumstances led me to cling very near to the Lord Jesus; I knew not, for one brief hour, when or how attacks might be made; and yet, with my trembling'hand clasped in the Hand once nailed on Calvary, calmness and resignation abode in my soul.” And likewise more than once does his biography relate instances such as this: “One morning at daybreak I found my house surrounded by armed men and a chief intimated that they had assembled to take my life. Seeing that. I was entirely in their hands, I knelt down and gave myself away body and soul to the Lord Jesus, for what seemed the last time on earth. Rising, I went out to them and began calmly talking about their unkind treatment of me and contrasting it with all my conduct towards them. I also plainly showed them what would be the sad conse quences if they carried out their cruel purpose. At last (Continued on page 456.)
years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by the worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.” Some friends encouraged him, among others a fellow stu dent who had roomed with him during his college course and who had now resolved to accompany Paton as a second missionary to the South Sea' Islands. And thus, not without fear, yet full of confidence, Paton and his young wife sailed from England in 1858, and three months later landed on the Isle of Aneityum, the southernmost island of the New Hebrides group. The station on the Island of Tanna, sixty miles north, was assigned to him. This island had no prom ising and pleasant reputation, for the savages had driven away two other missionaries and killed their teachers. For this reason it was decided that Mrs. Paton should remain at Aneityum “until we had seen if the cannibals would agree to her coming.” The conditions among the cannibals that confronted Paton at Tanna almost beggar description. “My first impressions drove me,” he confessed, “to the verge of utter dismay. On beholding these natives in their paint and nakedness and misery, my heart was as full of horror as of pity.” Soon after his arrival he tells us of an inter-tribal feud: “We were afterwards informed that five or six men had been shot dead; that their bodies had been carried by the conquerors from the field of battle and cooked and eaten that very night at a boiling spring near the head of the bay.”
J u st One of M any In stan ces W hen P ato n 's H om e W as Besieged.
In spite of the fact that Paton could not speak their lan guage and that he was looked upon as an intruding demon, he managed to acquire a site for a house, and assured of the good will of a few isolated individuals, provisions were made for the coming of his wife. The house at Tanna was com pleted; Paton progressed rapidly in acquiring the funda
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