‘Cannot you live at peace in this little bit of an island?’ was the constant theme of these lectures; and when Wompas, his old scholar, appeared with bow and arrows, saying, I am sent to defend you,’ the answer was, ‘Don’t talk such nonsense!  Give me the bow!’ This was done, and Patteson was putting it across his knee to break it, when the youth declared it was not his.  ’If I see these things again, you know what will become of them!’

The mitres and masks were gone; but the Veverao people were desperately jealous of the next village, Auta, alleging that the inhabitants were unfriendly, and by every means trying to keep the guest entirely to themselves; while he resolutely forced on their reluctant ears, ’If you are sincere in saying that you wish to know God, you must love your brother.  God will not dwell in a divided heart, nor teach you His truth while you wilfully continue to hate your brother!’

The St. Barnabas Day on which most of this was written was a notable one, for it was marked by the first administration of both the Sacraments in Mota.  In the morning one English and four Nengonese communicants knelt round their pastor; and, in the evening, after a walk to Auta, and much of this preaching of peace and goodwill, then a dinner, which was made festive with preserved meat and wine, there came a message from one Ivepapeu, a leading man, whose child was sick.  It was evidently dying, and Mr. Patteson, in the midst of the people, told them that—­

’The Son of God had commanded us to teach and baptize all nations; that they did not understand the meaning of what he was about to do, but that the word of Jesus the Son of God was plain, and that he must obey it; that this was not a mere form, but a real gift from heaven, not for the body but the soul; that the child would be as likely to die as before, but that its spirit would be taken to God, and if it should recover, it must be set apart for God, not taken to any heathen rites, but given to himself to be trained up as a child of God.’  The parents consented:  ‘Then,’ he continues, ’we knelt, and in the middle of the village, the naked group around me, the dying child in its mother’s lap, I prayed to God and Christ in their language to bless the child according to His own promise, to receive it for His own child, and to convey to it the fulness of the blessing of His holy Sacrament.  Then while all were silent, I poured the water on its head, pronouncing the form of words in English, and calling the child John, the first Christian child in the Banks Islands.  Then I knelt down again and praised God for His goodness, and prayed that the child might live, if it were His good pleasure, and be educated to His glory; and then I prayed for those around me and for the people of the island, that God would reveal to them His Holy Name and Word and Will; and so, with a few words to the parents and people, left them, as darkness settled down on the village and the bright stars came out overhead.’