It was a wonderful story he told them, the like of which they had never heard before. It was about the great God who had made the earth and the people on it, and was the Father of them all. He told how God loved everybody, because they were His children. Chinese, white men beyond the sea like himself and Captain Bax, the people of the mountains—all were God’s children. And so all men were brothers and should love God their Father and each other. And because God loved his children so, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live among men and to die for them. He told the story simply and beautifully, just as he would to little children, and these children of the forest listened, and their savage eyes grew less fierce as they heard for the first time the story of the Saviour.
The next day the travelers were permitted to go unharmed, and they returned down the mountain to Tamsui after one of the most thrilling adventures that any men had ever had.
George Mackay remained for thirty years in Formosa, and one bright day in June 1901, this courageous and lion-hearted man passed quietly away among the green mountainsides and the waving rice fields of the Formosa he loved so well. He was tireless in his efforts to help the people of that land which he had come to look upon as his own, and in far Formosa his memory is revered by thousands of people there, both Christian and otherwise, and there are hearts in the valleys and plains of that land that melt at the memory of so noble a man.
CHAPTER VI.
A CANADIAN AMONG SOUTH SEA SAVAGES.
Mr. Geddie Approached Nohoat, the Originator of the War.
JUST a few weeks before the battle of Waterloo there was born in Banff, Scotland, a very delicate child, so delicate that for many weeks after his birth it seemed unlikely that he would live. The father and mother vowed that if his life were spared and the way opened up, they would dedicate him to the service of God among the heathen.
The father, a clockmaker, met with reverses in business following the war, and in 1816 the family moved to Pictou, Nova Scotia. There the boyhood of John Geddie was spent. He was so small of stature that he was known among the boys as “Little Johnnie Geddie.” He never shone in his classes, nor was he known as a leader in sport or debate. But underneath his quiet manner was a strong determination to carry through whatever he undertook and an absolute sincerity that no one ever questioned.
He attended Pictou Academy, and in 1837, at the age of twenty-one, was ordained a minister. Before this, however, he had decided to devote his life to making Christ known in lands beyond the seas. At that time his Church had no mission in any foreign land and had little interest in the enterprise. With quiet determination he set himself to the task of arousing an interest, and he succeeded. When the decision was reached to establish a work in the New Hebrides, Geddie was appointed the first missionary.
It required no small amount of courage to undertake, seventy-five years ago, such an ocean trip as Mr. and Mrs. Geddie did when, on November 30, 1846, they left Halifax. Eight days were occupied by the passage to Boston, where they had expected to find a whaler bound for the Sandwich Islands. In this they were disappointed, and they had to be content with securing passage in a small vessel of one-hundred-and-ninety-seven tons. The voyage lasted more than a year and was marked by strange and varied experiences. Several times it seemed as if they would never reach their destination. On one occasion the vessel sprung a leak and the pumps had to be worked every few minutes. The supply of food became exhausted, and they lived on very scant allowance. At last, after nineteen months of hardship, they arrived at the island of Aneityum, in the New Hebrides, which was to be their home for many years.
During the long journey Geddie kept a diary of events. In it we find vivid accounts of the privations encountered and of the severe storms that threatened the little boat and all on board. It is full of his anticipations of the work to which he was going, and of references to the many acts of service he was able to render to those on the ship. But in the whole diary there is not one word of complaint.
At daybreak, on the morning of July 13, 1848, Aneityum was sighted, appearing at first like a tiny speck upon the horizon. In the early afternoon the boat came to anchor in a beautiful harbor on the south side of the island—an island that was to be the scene of one of the most thrilling stories that has ever been written of the power of the gospel of Jesus.
Aneityum is one of a group of islands which Captain Cook, the famous navigator, on account of their likeness to the islands bearing a similar name in the north of Scotland, called the New Hebrides. To begin work among such a people as found their homes in these islands required noble courage. Not far from Aneityum was the bloodstained island of Erromanga, where the heroic missionary, John Williams, and his companion, Harris, were clubbed to death by the ferocious cannibals as they stepped on that beach just nine years before. This tragic event must have been vividly in Geddie’s mind as they drew near the shore.
The natives of the island were degraded savages. They had curly hair, dark skin, and forbidding features. Crimes of all descriptions were of constant occurrence. In their thirst for blood the Aneityumese were almost inhuman. Falsehood abounded, theft was considered honorable, licentiousness prevailed everywhere. There was no thought of love. War was continuous. A member of one tribe dared not venture beyond the confines of his territory or he would be instantly killed. A man was never seen without his club and spear. In the museum at Knox College, Toronto, are specimens of their savage weapons. All victims, killed or captured, were considered the lawful food of the victors. Nothing was so sweet to them as human flesh. Woe to the unfortunate shipwrecked sailors who fell into their hands, and many a ship’s crew had been savagely devoured by these cannibals of the Pacific Islands.
The state of women was most wretched. Brutality was their daily wage. The awful habit of strangling the widow on the death of her husband was firmly rooted among these people. Every woman wore round her neck a stout cord, so arranged that by pulling it strangulation was effected. Infants had no rights and might be put to death whenever the father so wished.
White people had landed on the islands, but these were generally sandalwood traders from Australia, of whose treachery and deception fearful accounts were given. So brutal had these traders been in their treatment of the natives, that, on some of the islands, there was a standing rule to kill every white man who landed.
Very little notice was taken of the coming of Mr. and Mrs. Geddie. The natives did not understand their behavior. They carried no firearms, lived in peace, and did not steal their wood. While the missionary’s words were strange, they readily understood his language of kindness. At first there was a good deal of curiosity. Some were friendly, but the most were indifferent.
Mr. Geddie’s first task, after building his house, was to become acquainted with the tribes on the island. For this purpose he first visited, with an interpreter, a neighboring village, then made a trip around the shores of the island. Everywhere he went he was greatly impressed with the beautiful scenery, in striking contrast with the terrible depravity of the people.
All the time he was busy getting the language, which he had to gather word by word. The natives were crafty and suspicious, and, as they would not give him a single new word without some sort of payment, he carried biscuits in his pockets which he gave in exchange for the strange sounds. In his journal, Geddie has given us some idea of the busy life he led.
“Besides preaching every Sabbath day in our little chapel, Mr. Powell and I are accustomed to go out in different directions and preach to the people wherever we can find them. This is a deeply interesting part of our work. When we see a native at his work or amusement, we request him to follow us until a little group is collected. Sometimes we collect five or six, sometimes ten, twenty, or thirty. Then we sit down under the shade of a tree, or by the side of a path, or by the seashore, and tell them as best we can of sin and a Saviour from it. Some will laugh, others look serious, some will amuse themselves so as not to hear, and some will turn away in anger.”
Fo
r a considerable time he was allowed to do his work without any hindrance, then suddenly indifference was turned to hostility. He had unintentionally offended some of the spirits by cutting some cocoanuts that had been dedicated to their gods. He had burnt coral for lime. He had built his house on the path of the spirit gods. For a time the missionary’s life was in danger, but Geddie pleaded ignorance of their religious customs. By his calm dignity, he was able to quiet the disturbance and reestablish peace.
On one occasion there was to be a bitter fight between two of the tribes. Natives came pouring into the village from all quarters, armed with clubs and spears. Mr. Geddie and his helper, Mr. Powell, resolved to prevent the battle if possible. Setting out for the place where the fight was to occur, they found the two tribes occupying points about half a mile apart. Already they were yelling and screaming at each other, throwing their bodies into various postures and assuming all the attitudes of challenge and defiance, which were their preliminaries of battle.
The missionaries knew that, in seeking to prevent the conflict, they were in serious danger of being instantly killed. They accordingly took a circuitous route, and suddenly appeared upon the brow of a hill, midway between the contending parties. Their presence had a paralyzing effect. Mr. Geddie approached Nohoat, the originator of the war, and strongly remonstrated with him. While he was undecided what to do, the leader of the opposite party came to him and said: “Why don’t you come on? We are ready to fight you.” “How can I?” asked Nohoat. “The new religion makes it wrong to fight.” He then handed his spear and a strip of native cloth to the other and received his in return. In this way what would have been a bloody war, involving all the inhabitants of the island, was averted.
At the end of the first year, Mr. Powell, Geddie’s associate, becoming utterly discouraged, returned to Samoa, and Mr. and Mrs. Geddie were left alone on this savage island, fifteen hundred miles from their nearest missionary neighbors. Nearly three years passed after leaving home before they received any letters, and three long, dreary years before anyone came to share their labors, and yet, through it all, not a single word of discouragement or hint of leaving ever fell from the lips of Geddie or his faithful wife.
Every day there was a school session, and several boys began to attend regularly. Notwithstanding the indifference of the parents, a class was gradually formed, and the boys made slow but sure progress. A small printing press was set up, and a twelve-page pamphlet published.
It must not be supposed that the little band of Christians, which now began to grow in numbers, was allowed to go unmolested. Kapaio, a brother of the chief of the district, a man who had been notorious for his wickedness, had opposed the work from the beginning, and had persecuted the native Christians bitterly in many ways. This savage determined that he would murder the missionary. For several months he awaited his opportunity. One evening he lay concealed near Mr. Geddie’s home until the missionary came out. Then he followed him down the path, so close that he could almost touch him with his hand. At last, thinking his opportunity had come and that with one good strong blow the deed would be done, he grasped his heavy club, raised it in the air, intending to strike, when suddenly his arm became weak, a strange sensation came over him, and he could not strike. Thus in this strange way was Geddie’s life spared and the savage himself mightily impressed.
Soon after this, to the amazement of everybody, Kapaio came to Mr. Geddie and asked for Christian instruction. The Christians were greatly encouraged, and Mr. Geddie himself was greatly cheered by this striking evidence of God’s working. The savages who were opposed to Christianity, alarmed at the conversion of Kapaio, renewed their persecution of the Christians. Their clothing was stolen, their plantations destroyed, they were reviled and threatened with death. If an epidemic of sickness broke out, the report was spread that the heathen deities were offended by the Christian converts and so were sending disease. Geddie himself was continually shadowed by would-be murderers, arrows were thrown at him, and he could not go beyond his compound in safety.
White traders from Australia also bitterly opposed the work. They realized that the gospel interfered with the carrying on of their sinful practices. Consequently their fierce hatred was aroused. One calm night Mr. Geddie was awakened to find that the thatch roof of his house was on fire. Hastily rescuing his wife and children, he sought with the help of the natives to save the church. Investigation proved, all too clearly, that some white traders had bribed a number of savages to do this fiendish act. But in spite of hatred and opposition, the work went on until, at the end of the fourth year, nearly one-half the population of the entire island of Aneityum had accepted the gospel. When, after an absence of two years and eight months, the mission ship returned to the island, all on board were amazed at the wonderful change which had been brought about as the result of the labors of Mr. Geddie and his wife.
In 1864, after nearly sixteen years of heroic service, they returned to Nova Scotia for a brief furlough. Two busy years were spent in telling the wonderful story of Aneityum to the people at home. In 1866 they returned again to their New Hebrides home. Their return to Aneityum was the occasion of a great demonstration. When the ship was sighted in the distance, great crowds gathered on the shore. They were taken from the ship in a small boat, which, as soon as it touched the beach, was raised on the shoulders of several men and carried, amid wild acclaim, to the gate of their home. A strange and happy contrast to their first landing among naked, painted and armed savages! What a change the gospel had wrought!
Mr. and Mrs. Geddie resumed their work, but six years later, in 1872, Mr. Geddie was stricken with paralysis, and, in his fifty-eighth year, passed to his reward. One could not covet a nobler epitaph or a greater return for a life invested, than that recorded on the tablet behind the pulpit in the native church at Aneityum:
When he landed on Aneityum in 1848, there were no Christians; when he left in 1872, there were no heathen.
CHAPTER VII.
A STANDARD BEARER IN MADAGASCAR.
King Ramada Received Them Cordially.
DAVID JONES, a young Welshman, went as a missionary to Madagascar in 1818. He was a very young man just out of his teens, full of enthusiasm and hardly knowing what the word fear meant. Little or nothing was known about Madagascar at that time except that slavery was deeply entrenched, and that no missionary could expect to receive much of a welcome either from the slave-owners or even from the people whom he wished to help.
With his young wife he sailed on The Swallow, February 9, 1818, and did not arrive at Port Lewis in Mauritius, an island near Madagascar, until the 3rd of July of the same year. The Deputy Governor of Mauritius, General Hall, was not only opposed to the work of missionaries both there and in Madagascar, but evidently in league with the slave-traders, and at first he flatly refused to allow David Jones even to proceed to Madagascar.
When General Hall saw how determined the
young missionary was to go on, he sent him to some of his friends among the traders and slave-owners at Mauritius. These men naturally did everything they could to discourage Jones. They told him that the climate was so unhealthy that he would not live more than a few weeks. As for the natives, they said: “Teach the Malagasy? You may as well try to teach the monkeys in the Madagascar forests!” Instead of discouraging him, however, these words made Jones more determined than ever to proceed to the island. He told himself that if these men could live for months and sometimes years in Madagascar to carry on their slave trade, he could endure the climate in order that he might teach the people and preach the gospel.
At last he obtained permission to go to Madagascar with a friend named Thomas Bevan who had come out with him from Wales, but they were not allowed to take their wives, and their visit was to be purely a tour of inspection. They arrived on the eighteenth day of August, 1818. They were introduced to Jean Rene, a Malagasy prince and illicit slave-dealer. He pretended to be friendly, but it was easy to see that this influential man resented th
eir coming and would use any means, fair or foul, to get rid of them as soon as possible.
On the 8th of September, David Jones opened the first Christian school on Madagascar with six scholars, all of them sons of chiefs. From the beginning the school was a success, for the boys were eager and quick to learn. More children appealed for tuition than could be received for a while. Within five weeks the scholars had made such progress in learning to read short English words that both David Jones and his friend, Thomas Bevan, were convinced that the stories told about the Malagasy people lacking intelligence were false. “I do not think the monkeys in the forest could learn to speak English as fast as this,” said David Jones. He and his friend decided to return to Mauritius and bring their wives back and settle among the people of Madagascar. They returned on the 19th of November and that they had already found a place in the hearts of the people was evident by the great number who greeted their boat with cries of “Arahaba! Arahaba!” (Welcome! Welcome!)
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