Part 7 (2/2)
Feeling sure, however, that this was the place I sought, and knowing that to await the daylight would be certain death, I prayed to my Lord Jesus for help and protection, and resolved to let htly as I could, so as not to catch on anything; then I lay down at the top onon the rock; then, after one cry tolet o, throwing iddy swirl, as if flying through the air, took possession of e; I rushed quickly down, and felt no obstruction tillained my feet; it was low tide, I had received no injury, I recovered h, I found the shore path easier and lighter than the bush had been The vary darkness wasabout I saw no person to speak to, till I reached a village quite near to my own house, fifteen or twenty miles from where I had started; I here left the sea path and prouide h the bush to ladly and heartily did I ran a narrow risk in approaching theht me an enemy, and I arrested their muskets only by a loud cry--
”I am Missi! Don't shoot;God for His preserving care, I reached ho sleep The natives, on hearing next day how I had come all the way in the dark exclaimed--
”Surely any of us would have been killed! Your Jehovah God alone thus protects you and brings you safely home”
With all my heart, I said, ”Yes! and He will be your protector and helper too, if only you will obey and trust in Hiht put my faith to the test Had it not been the assurance that I was engaged in His service, and that in every path of duty He would carry lory I could never have undertaken either journey St Paul's words are true to-day and forever--”I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me”
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE PLAGUE OF MEASLES
ABOUT this tiotten illustration of the infernal spirit that possessed so, three or four vessels entered our Harbor and cast anchor in Port Resolution The captains called on ht, exclai down your proud Tannese now! We'll humble them before you!”
I answered, ”Surely you don't mean to attack and destroy these poor people?”
He replied, not abashed but rejoicing, ”We have sent the measles to hu men have been landed at different ports, ill with measles, and these will soon thin their ranks”
Shocked above measure, I protested solemnly and denounced their conduct and spirit; but my remonstrances only called forth the shameless declaration, ”Our ord is,--Sweep these creatures away and let white men occupy the soil!”
Their malice was further illustrated thus: they induced Kapuku, a young Chief, to go off to one of their vessels, pro him a present He was the friend and chief supporter of Mr Mathieson and of his work
Having got hist natives lying ill with ave him no food for about four-and-twenty hours; and then, without the promised present, they put hih weak and excited, he scrareat exhaustion and terror He inforst sick people, red and hot with fever, and that he feared their sickness was upon him I am ashamed to say that these Sandal-wood and other Traders were our own degraded country the poor Heathen
A ined; but most of them were horrible drunkards, and their traffic of every kind a, steeped in hust our islanders the ue It spread fearfully, and was accoes, ive food or water to the rest Thebeing afraid sometimes even to bury the dead Thirteen of my own Mission party died of this disease; and, so terror-stricken were the feho survived, that when the little Mission schooner _John Knox_ returned to Tanna, they all packed up and left for their own Aneityu that all were on the wing, he also had packed his chattels, and was standing beside the others ready to leave with the; are you also going to leave ht the battles of the Lord?”
He asked, ”Missi, will you reer to life is now so great that I dare not plead with you to remain, for we may both be slain Still, I cannot leave the Lord's work now”
The noble old Chief looked at the box and his bundles, and, reat now”
I answered, ”Yes; I once thought you would not leaveto your own land, I cannot ask you to reain said, ”Missi, would you likerave here?”
I replied, ”Yes, I would like you to re the circumstances in which ill be left alone, I cannot plead with you to do so”
He answered, ”Then, Missi, I remain with you of my own free choice, and with all ether in the work of the Lord I will never leave you while you are spared on Tanna”
So saying, and with a light that gave the fore-glealory to his dark face, he shouldered his box and bundles back to his own house; and thereafter, Abraham was my dear companion and constant friend, and my fellow-sufferer in all that remains still to be related of our Mission life on Tanna
Before this plague of st us I had sailed round in the _John Knox_ to Black Beach on the opposite side of Tanna, and prepared the way for settling Teachers And they were placed soon after by Mr Copeland andhopes of success, and with the prospect of erecting there a Station for Mr and Mrs Johnson, the newly arrived Missionaries from Nova Scotia But this dreadful imported epidemic blasted all our dreams They devoted themselves from the very first, and assisted s of the Natives We carried es every day, few of the able to render us much assistance Nearly all who took our medicine and followed instructions as to food, etc, recovered; but vast numbers of them would listen to no counsels, and rushed into experiments which made the attack fatal all around When the trouble was at its height, for instance, they would plunge into the sea, and seek relief; they found it an al a hole into the earth, the length of the body and about two feet deep; therein they laid thereeable to their fevered skins; and when the earth around theain and again, seeking a cooler and cooler couch In this ghastly effort raves, and were buried where they lay! It need not be surprising, though we did everything in our power to relieve and save them, that the natives associated us with the white men who had so dreadfully afflicted thee did not draw fine distinctions between the Traders and the Missionaries Both hites--that was enough
Before leaving this terrible plague of measles, Isore throat and diarrhea, a third of the entire population of Tanna; nay? in certain localitiesdeclared the ensued The Teacher and his wife and child, placed by us at Black Beach, were also taken away; and his companion, the other Teacher there, e with his wife for his own island, else his life would have been taken in revenge Yet, from all accounts afterwards received, I do not think the measles were roup They appear to have carried off even a larger proportion on Aniwa--the future scene of reater triumphs