NEW HE BRIDES ISLANDS

[s. 552] : A group included Me lanes i a, Pacific Ocean, lying between latitude 21° and 15° south, and longitude 171° and 166° east, about 1,000 miles north of New Zealand. They were discovered and described by Cook in 1773. There are about 30 islands of volcanic origin, mountainous, with wooded ridges and fertile valleys, nearly all of them inhabited. Coconut and other magnificent trees grow in profusion, and the soil, like that of most volcanic islands, is very fertile, and fruits and vegetables are raised in abundance. The population numbers perhaps 80,000, and belongs in general to the Papuan race. The general type is rather ugly, below the middle height, fairer than the typical Papuan, with low, receding foreheads, broad faces, and flat noses. Bracelets, earrings, and nose rings made out of shells very often used to be their only clothing, tho oil and red clay were smeared over the body in some of the islands. The characteristics and habits of the people differ greatly in the Various islands, several islands having become Christian i zed, while on some of the other islands cannibalism is still po ible. The languages of the islands are about twenty in number, and sometimes two or three are used on the same island, so that the mi ionaries laboring at opposite sides of the islands are unable to use each other’s books for in 634 their respective congregations. These languages are alike in grammatical construction, and belong to the Me lanes i an family. Many of them have been reduced to writing by the mi ionaries. The history of these islands furnishes many illustrations of the short-sighted ne of the theory that savage tribes ought to be given civilization “through commercial intercourse” rather than through religion. It also offers abundant proof of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change and elevate the most degraded races, and to develop stable and noble character in converts from heathenism. Traders were the first Europe ans to deal with the inhabitants of the most of^ the islands. The aim, of course, of these men was the benefit of the trader, not of the people whom commercial intercourse was to civilize and elevate. Just at this point of aim, and interest, and motive is — — where the expectation breaks down that savages will be civilized through commerce. Religion only controls beneficently the dealings of men with those who are ignorant and unsuspicious of the powers which civilization confers. The articles of barter of the European traders were largely weapons and liquors, both of which fed the flames of war among the tribes. But these early agents of “civilization” used fraud and deceit; they seized, by force, what they could not get by free consent; they even carried off men’s wives, and later they kidnapped men to sell as plantation laborers, wherever there might be a market for sturdy muscle of chief or pe6n; and their brutality and ungovernable pa ions drove the islanders to frenzy. If the savages were cruel and treacherous, the traders made them more savage and treacherous and cruel, while the loathsome diseases these strangers introduced decimated the population of the teeming islands, and made it certain to all that white men can cause disease and death. Thus the New He brides became one of the most dangerous and discouraging of mi ion fields. Beginning at the southern end of the group the following are the more important of the islands: Aneitium is a very picturesque, and even imposing, island, with a climate in general good, and not unhealthful to those who understand how to avoid the malaria of the lowlands. It was visited in the first quarter of the 19th century by European traders seeking sandalwood. In 1841 the LMS sent native converts from Samoa there to teach the people. They had to flee for their lives, and, returning later, were always in jeopardy. They were followed in 1848 by the Rev. John Geddie, sent out by the Presbyterians of Nova Scotia, and he, after long and perilous efforts, won a hearing. The inhabitants are all Christians now, and it is a station of the New He brides Mi ion, with a mi ionary physician and his wife and about 50 native workers occupied in different parts of this and neighboring islands. Tanna contains an active volcano which shines in cloud by day, and in fire by night “the lighthouse of the South Pacific, lit by the finger of God.” This island was occupied in 1839 by native teachers from Samoa, sent by the LMS. Two mi ionaries of the LMS barely escaped from it with their lives in 1848, and the story of savagery and hostility was repeated during ten years. At last a permanent mi ionary settlement was effected in 1868. There are now 3 mi ionaries of the New He brides Mi ion at Tanna, with — 635 New Guinea Newton, Rev. C, C. several native workers, a printing house, and about 30 communicants. At Fotuna, the first mi ionaries were Samoan converts, sent by the LMS in 1841. They were at once killed and eaten by the inhabitants. In 1851 a convert from Aneitium was sent there who succeeded in gaining the hearts of some of the people. It is still treated as an outstation of Aneitium, and the people have made progre in adopting Christian principles of life. Aniwa, like the other islands, is of volcanic formation, but it is only 300 leet in height, and is girt about by a reef of coral upon which the surf is ever breaking. The LMS sent Samoan teachers there in 1840, one of whom was killed. Other teachers were sent from Aneitium, but little progre was made until Rev. J. G. Paton arrived there in 1866. This was the island of scanty water supply, where the back of heathenism was broken by the tact of the mi ionary in digging a well which supplied the people with water. It is now a station of the New He brides Mi ion, with 1 mi ionary and his wife, 1 mi ionary woman, 5 schools, and 80 church members. Erromango was visited by Rev. John Williams, of the LMS, He chanced to go toward a place in 1839. where the natives were holding a feast. Traders had seized the food from such feasts in years gone by, and the natives, supposing that Mr. Williams and his companions were about to do the same, killed him in self-defense. The LMS sent native converts from Samoa there in 1840, but they were driven away. Others were sent in 1852, some converts were made, taken away, and educated by the LMS and sent back to teach their own people; and in 1857 the Rev. G. Gordon and his wife were sent there by the Nova Scotia Presbyterians. They were both murdered. Mr. Gordon’s brother went out to take up the martyr’s work, and he, too, was murdered. The same year the New He brides Mi ion sent another mi ionary and his wife to Erromanga, and this temerity has been justified, for in 1900 there were 330 church members in the island under charge of a mi ionary and his wife, and 16 native workers. Efate, or Vote, is a beautiful island about thirty miles long, described by the earliest mi ionaries as teeming with a population of noble aspect and gentle manners. The traders, with their oppre ion and their brutal crimes, had driven these people to fury, and the first mi ionary teachers, sent by the LMS in 1839, were killed and eaten. More Samoan teachers went there in 1845, and the New He brides Mi ion sent a mi ionary there in 1865. It now has about 250 church members. Nguna was first entered by the native teachers of the LMS in 1845. The people now are all Christians, and there are 800 church members. Api was another of the islands on which the LMS stationed teachers who were converts from other islands. Mi ionaries of the New He brides Mi ion settled there in 1882. It now has 480 church members. Ambrym is a small island in the central part of the group, with an active volcano. It was occupied as a station by the New He brides Mi ion in 1892, after having been visited by native mi ionary teachers. It is now a center of work for several neighboring islands, with a hospital and a strong mi ionary force. Mallicolo is one of the larger islands, being about sixty miles long. It is inhabited by cannibals still. It has 3 mi ionaries of the New He brides Mi ion. Espirilu Santo is seventy miles long, and is the largest of the New He brides. It waa discovered by the Spaniard Fernandez de Quiros in 1606. He supposed it to be a great continent, bestowed upon it the pious and cumbersome name Tierra Australis del Espiritu Santo, and sailed away to announce his discovery. The name is commonly reduced in practise to Santo, or at most to E. Santo. Cannibals are still found on this island also. The New He brides Mi ion has established there several flourishing stations and an industrial school. The northern part of the New He brides, with the Banks Islands and the Torres Islands, is the field of the Me lanes i an Mi ion, begun by Bishop Selwyn of New Zealand in 1859. This has been a very succe ful mi ion. In Mota the inhabitants are all Christians, and in Merelava and Motalava there are strong Christian churches with some hundreds of members. Taking the New He brides as a whole, probably few mi ion fields have so brought into prominence the splendid courage and devotion of both mi ionaries and native workers, and the depth and permanence of the change produced in a barbarous and heathen people by acceptance of the leadership of Jesus Christ. Armstrong (E. S.), History of the Me lanes i an Mi ion, New York, 1900; Paton (J. G.), Autobiography, London, 2 vols., 1897; Codrington (R. H.), Me lanes i ans; Studies in Anthropology, etc., London, 1891- Inglis (J.), In the New He brides, London, 1886; Paton (Mrs. M. W.), Letters and Sketches from the New He brides, London, 1883; Montgomery (H. H.), Light of Me lanes i a, London, 1896. 553