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'J. C. PATTESON, Missionary Bishop. This thoughtful and beautiful letter was written in sight of Erromango, a sandal-wood station, whence a trader might be found to take charge of it. The ink was scarcely dry before the full cost of carrying the Gospel among the heathen was brought before the writer.
He has had much fever and looked very ill, but his heart was in his work; and the Bishop said he seemed to be one of the weak things which God hath chosen. I know he made me feel pretty well ashamed of myself. 'Next day we spent a few hours with Mr. and Mrs. Gordon at Erromango.
'The sandal-wood is not yet gone! But, my dear Joan, the altar of sandal-wood! If it is to be solid and not veneered, why, £50 would not buy it at Erromango. It sells in Sydney for about £70 a ton, and it is very heavy wood. However, I will send some of the largest planks I ever saw of the wood, and it is now well seasoned.
The distance from the south end of Mallicollo to the N.W. end of Sandwich Island, is twenty-two leagues in the direction of S.S.E. 1/2 E. In the same direction lie Erromango, Tanna, and Annatom. The first is eighteen leagues from Sandwich Island, and is twenty-four or twenty-five leagues in circuit.
"Alas, Viriamu!" was the cry in every Christian Polynesian island for many a day; and well it might be, for, in spite of the shortcomings of a poorly-educated ministry and a tropical and feeble race, there are few who ever turned more men from darkness to light, from cannibal fury to Christian love, than the Martyr of Erromango, John Williams, one of the happiest of missionaries, in that to him was given the martyr's crown, in the full tide of his success and hope.
The examination of it was not, however, so much an object with our commander as to proceed to the south, in order to find the southern extremity of the Archipelago. Pursuing his discoveries, Captain Cook came in sight of an island, which was afterwards known to be called by the natives Erromango.
'God will give me men in His time; for could I be cut up into five pieces already I would be living at Nengone, Lifu, Mai, Mota, and Bauro! was the comment on this visit; and this need of men inspired a letter to his uncle Edward, on a day dear to the Etonian heart: 'Schooner "Dunedin," 60 tons. 'In sight of Erromango, New Hebrides: June 4, 1861.
At Erromango, on 4th August, Cook went in with the boats, and the natives tried to induce them to come on shore, but something roused suspicion after he and one man had got into the water, so, making signs that he would come back later, he stepped back.
Gordon's letters had spoken of it as equally fatal in Erromango, and there were reports of the same, as well as of famine and war, in Nengone.
The heavily loaded boat had a perilous strife with the surf before the ship was reached, and it was a very rough passage to Anaiteum, where some goods had to be left for Mr. Inglis, and he asked that four Fate visitors might be taken home. This was done, and Mr. Grordon was visited at Erromango on the way, and found well and prosperous. At Mai, the reception of Petere and Laure was ecstatic.
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