Thirty Years With South Sea Cannibals – John G. Paton
John G. Paton’s story of work among the cannibals of the New Hebrides was a remarkable one and one which deserves to be shared widely. I am therefore am grateful to Redcliffe College for giving me access to their extensive collection of books on the subject which will enable me to do so. This title is in the Public Domain.
James Paton [1824-1907], ed., The Story of Dr. John G. Paton’s Thirty Years with South Sea Cannibals, revised by A.L. Langridge. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1927. Hbk. pp.256. [Click to download complete book in PDF]
Contents
- Our Homes and Our Forbears
- Parents and School Days
- Leaving Home and Early Struggles
- In the Glasgow Slums
- Missionary to the Cannibals
- First Impressions of Heathendom
- Settlement and Sorrow of Tanna
- Superstitions and Cruelties
- The Visit of H.M.S. “Cordelia”
- Under Axe and Musket
- Cannibals at Work
- The Plague of Measles
- Deepening Shadows
- The Var Chiefs in Council
- The Beginning of the End
- A Race for Life
- The Last Dread Night – But Saved!
- To Australia For a Mission Ship
- In Swamp and Saddle
- To Scotland and Back
- To the Islands and Fresh Difficulties
- Starting of Aniwa
- Revenge, Heathen Practices, and Hopeful Signs
- Nelwand’s Elopement, and Incidents
- The Sinking of the Well
- First Book, New Eyes, and a New Church
- Chief Youwili Converted and the First Communion
- The Finger-Posts of God
- Death of Namakei and Other Chiefs
- Litsi Sore, Mungaw, Nasi and Lamu
- Round the World Again for a Ship
- Back to Australia and the Islands
- The Autobiography and a World Tour
- A New “Dayspring.” Death of Kanaka Traffic
- Rev Frank Paton – Missionary to Tanna
- Wreck of the “Dayspring”
- Round the World Again – at 76
- Back to the Islands Again, and Yet Again
- The Passing of Mrs Paton
- The Home Call
Appendix
Chapter 1: Our Home and Our Forbears
My early days were all spent in the beautiful county of Dumfries, which Scotch folks call the Queen of the South. There, in a small cottage, on the farm of Braehead, in the parish of Kirkmahoe, I was born on the 24th May, 1824. My father, James Paton, was a stocking manufacturer in a small way 1 and he and his young wife, Janet Jardine Rogerson, lived on terms of warm personal friendship with the “gentleman farmer,” so they gave me his son’s name, John Gibson; and the curly-haired child of the cottage was soon able to toddle across to the mansion, and became a great pet of the lady there.
While yet a child, five years or so of age, my parents took me to a new home in the ancient village of Torthorwald, about four and a quarter miles from Dumfries, on the road to Lockerbie. At the time, Torthorwald was a busy and thriving village, and comparatively populous, with its cottars and crofters, large farmers and small farmers, weavers and shoemakers, cloggers and coopers, blacksmiths and tailors.
There, amid the wholesome and breezy village life, our parents found their home for the long period of forty years. There too were born to them eight additional children, making in all a family of five sons and six daughters. Theirs was the first of the thatched cottages on the left, past the “miller’s house,” going up the “village gate,” with a small garden in front of it, and a large garden across the road; and it is one of the few still lingering to show to a new generation what the homes of their fathers were. [Continue reading]