Eleanor took her eyes from the fire, to give Mrs. Caxton a smile with the words--"Thank the Lord!"
"Mr. Rhys is among scenes that might try any natural courage," said Mrs. Caxton. "They are a desperate set of savages to whom he is ministering."
"What a glory, to carry the name of Christ to them!"
"They are hearing it, too," said Mrs. Caxton. "But there is enough of the devil"s worst work going on there to try any tender heart; and horrors enough to shock stout nerves. So it has been. I hope Mr. Rhys finds it better."
"I don"t know much about them," said Eleanor. "Are they much worse than savages in general, aunt Caxton?"
"I think they are,--and better too, in being more intellectually developed. Morally, I think I never read of a lower fallen set of human beings. Human life is of no account; such a thing as respect to humanity is unknown, for the eating of human bodies has gone on to a most wonderful extent, and the destroying them for that purpose. With all that, there is a very careful respect paid to descent and rank; but it is the observance of fear. That one fact gives you the key to the whole. Where a man is thought of no more worth than to be killed and eaten, a woman is not thought worth anything at all; and society becomes a lively representation of the infernal regions, without the knowledge and without the remorse."
"Poor creatures!" said Eleanor.
"You comprehend that there must be a great deal of trial to a person of fine sensibilities, in making a home amongst such a people, for an indefinite length of time."
"Yes, aunty,--but the Lord will make it all up to him."
"Blessed be the name of the Lord!" it was Mrs. Caxton"s turn to answer; and she said it with deep feeling and emphasis.
"It seems the most glorious thing to me, aunt Caxton, to tell the love of Christ to those that don"t know it. I wish I could do it."
"My love, you do."
"I do very little, ma"am. I wish I could do a thousand times more!"
The conversation stopped there. Both ladies remained very gravely thoughtful a little while longer and then separated for the night. But the next evening when they were seated at tea alone, Mrs. Caxton recurred to the subject.
"You said last night, Eleanor, that you wished you could do a great deal more work of a certain kind than you do."
"Yes, ma"am."
"Did your words mean, my love, that you are discontented with your own sphere of duty, or find it too narrow?"
Eleanor"s eyes opened a little at that. "Aunt Caxton, I never thought of such a thing. I do not remember that I was considering my own sphere of duty at all. I was thinking of the pleasure of preaching Christ--yes, and the glory and honour--to such poor wretches as those we were talking of, who have never had a glimpse of the truth before."
"Then for your part you are satisfied with England?"
"Why yes, ma"am. I am satisfied, I think,--I mean to be,--with any place that is given me. I should be sorry to choose for myself."
"But if you had a clear call, you would like it, to go to the Cape of Good Hope and teach the Hottentots?"
"I do not mean that, aunty," said Eleanor laughing a little. "Surely you do not suspect me of any wandering romantic notion about doing the Lord"s work in one place rather than in another. I would rather teach English people than Hottentots. But if I saw that my place was at the Cape of Good Hope, I would go there. If my place were there, some way would be possible for me to get there, I suppose."
"You would have no fear?" said Mrs. Caxton.
"No aunty; I think not. Ever since I can say "The Lord is my Shepherd--" I have done with fear."
"My love, I should be very sorry to have you go to the Cape of Good Hope. I am glad there is no prospect of it. But you are right about not choosing. As soon as we go where we are not sent, we are at our own charges."
The door here opened, and the party and the tea-table received an accession of one to their number. It was an elderly, homely gentleman, to whom Mrs. Caxton gave a very cordial reception and whom she introduced to Eleanor as the Rev. Mr. Morrison. He had a pleasant face, Eleanor saw, and as soon as he spoke, a pleasant manner.
"I ought to be welcome, ma"am," he said, rubbing his hands with the cold as he sat down. "I bring you letters from Brother Rhys."
"You are welcome without that, brother, as you know," Mrs. Caxton answered. "But the letters are welcome. Of how late date are they?"
"Some pretty old--some not more than nine or ten months ago; when he had been stationed a good while."
"How is he?"
"Well, he says; never better."
"And happy?"
"I wish I was as happy!" said Mr. Morrison.--"He had got fast hold of his work already."
"He would do that immediately."
"He studied the language on shipboard, all the way out; and he was able to hold a service in it for the natives only a few weeks after he had landed. Don"t you call that energy?"
"There is energy wherever he is," said Mrs. Caxton.
"Yes, you know him pretty well. I suppose they never have it so cold out there as we have it to-night," Mr. Morrison said rubbing his hands.
"It"s stinging! That fire is the pleasantest thing I have seen to-day."
"Where is Mr. Rhys stationed?"
"I forget--one of the islands down there, with an unintelligible name.
Horrid places!"
"Is the place itself disagreeable?" Eleanor asked.
"The place itself, ma"am," said Mr. Morrison, his face stiffening from its genial unbent look into formality as he turned to her,--"the place itself I do not understand to be very disagreeable; it is the character of the population which must make it a hard place to live in. They are exceedingly debased. Vile people!"
"Mr. Rhys is not alone on his station?" said Mrs Caxton.
"No, he is with Mr. and Mrs. Lefferts. His letters will tell you."
For the letters Mrs. Caxton was evidently impatient; but Mr. Morrison"s refreshment had first to be attended to. Only fair; for he had come out of his way on purpose to bring them to her; and being one of a certain Committee he had it in his power to bring for her perusal and pleasure more than her own letters from Mr. Rhys, and more than Mr. Rhys"s own letters to the Committee. It was a relief to two of the party when Mr.
Morrison"s cups of tea were at last disposed of, and the far-come despatches were brought out on the green table-cloth under the light of the lamp.
With her hand on her own particular packet of letters, as if so much communication with them could not be put off, Mrs. Caxton sat and listened to Mr. Morrison"s reading. Eleanor had got her work. As the particular interest which made the reading so absorbing to them may possibly be shared in a slight degree by others, it is fair to give a slight notion of the character of the news contained in those closely written pages. The letters Mr. Morrison read were voluminous; from different persons on different stations of the far-off mission field.
They told of difficulties great, and encouragements greater; of their work and its results; and of their most pressing wants; especially the want of more men to help. The work they said was spreading faster than they could keep up with it. Thousands of heathen had given up heathenism, who in miserable ignorance cried for Christian instruction; children as wild as the wild birds, wanted teaching and were willing to have it; native teachers needed training, who had the will without the knowledge to aid in the service. Thirty of them, Mr. Lefferts said, he had under his care. With all this, they told of the wonderful beauty of the regions where their field of labour was. Mr. Lefferts wrote of a little journey lately taken to another part of his island, which had led him through almost every variety of natural luxuriance. Mountains and hills and valleys, rivers and little streams, rich woods and mangrove swamps. Mr. Lefferts" journey had been, like Paul"s of old, to establish the native churches formed at different small places by the way. There he married couples and baptized children and met cla.s.ses and told the truth. At one place where he had preached, married several couples, baptized over thirty, young and old, and met as many in cla.s.ses, Mr. Lefferts told of a walk he took. It led him to the top of a little hill, from which a rich view was to be had, while a mult.i.tude of exquisite shrubs in flower gave another refreshment in their delicious fragrance. A little stream running down the side of the hill was used by the natives to water their plantations of taro, for which the side hill was formed into terraced beds. Paroquets and humming birds flew about, and the sun was sinking brilliantly in the western ocean line as he looked. So far, everything was fair, sweet, lovely; a contrast to what he met when he reached the lower grounds again. There the swarms of mosquitos compelled Mr. Lefferts to retreat for the night within a curtain canopy for protection; and thither he was followed by a fat savage who shared the protection with him all night long. Another sort of experience! and another sort of neighbourhood from that of the starry white _Gardenia_ flowers on the top of the hill.
Nevertheless, of a neighbouring station Mr. Rhys wrote that the people were at war, and the most horrible heathen practices were going on. At the princ.i.p.al town, he said, more people were eaten perhaps than anywhere else in the islands. The cruelties and the horrors were impossible to be told. A few days before he wrote, twenty-eight persons had been killed and eaten in one day. They had been caught fishing--taken prisoners and brought home--half killed, and in that state thrown into the ovens; still having life enough left to try to get away from the fire.
"The first time I saw anything of this kind," wrote Mr. Rhys, "was one evening when we had just finished a cla.s.s-meeting. The evening was most fair and peaceful as we came out of the house; a fresh air from the sea had relieved the heat of the day; the leaves of the trees were glittering in the sunlight; the ocean all sparkling under the breeze; when word came that some bodies of slain people were bringing from Lauthala. I could hardly understand the report, or credit it; but presently the horrible procession came in sight, and eleven dead bodies were laid on the ground immediately before us. Eleven only were brought to this village; but great numbers are said to have been killed. Their crime was the killing of one man; and when they would have submitted themselves and made amends, all this recompense of death was demanded by the offended chief. The manner in which these wretched creatures were treated is not a thing to be described; they were not handled with the respect which we give to brute animals. The natives have looked dark upon us since that time, and give us reason to know that as far as they are concerned our lives are not safe. But we know in whose hands our lives are; they are the Lord"s; and he will do with them what he pleases--not what the heathen please. So we are under no concern about it."
That storm appeared to have pa.s.sed away; for in later letters Mr. Rhys and Mr. Lefferts spoke of acceptable services among the people and an evidently manifested feeling of trust and good will on their part towards the missionaries. Indeed these were often able to turn the natives from their devilish purposes and save life. Not always. The old king of that part of the country had died, and all the influence and all the offers of compensation made by the missionaries, could not prevent the slaughter of half a dozen women, his wives, to do him honour in his burial. The scene as Mr. Lefferts described it was heart-sickening.