’We buried him at sea.  All this time we were making very slow progress; indeed the voyage has been very remarkable in all respects.  Pearce seems to be doing very well, so that I am very hopeful about him.  The temperature now is only 72 degrees, and I imagine that his constitution is less liable to that particular disease.  Yet punctured wounds are always dangerous on this account.

’Patience and trust in God, the same belief in His goodness and love, that He orders all things for our good, that this is but a proof of His merciful dealing with us:  such comforts God has graciously not withheld.  I never felt so utterly broken down, when I thought, and think, of the earthly side of it all; never perhaps so much realised the comfort and power of His Presence, when I have had grace to dwell upon the heavenly and abiding side of it.  I do with my better part heartily and humbly thank Him, that He has so early taken these dear ones by a straight and short path to their everlasting home.  I think of them with blessed saints, our own dear ones, in Paradise, and in the midst of my tears I bless and praise God.

’But, dear Fan, Fisher most of all supplied to me the absence of earthly relations and friends.  He was my boy:  I loved him as I think I never loved any one else.  I don’t mean more than you all, but in a different way:  not as one loves another of equal age, but as a parent loves a child.

’I can hardly think of my little room at Kohimarama without him.  I long for the sight of his dear face, the sound of his voice.  It was my delight to teach him, and he was clever and so thoughtful and industrious.  I know it is good that my affections should be weaned from all things earthly.  I try to be thankful, I think I am thankful really; time too will do much, God’s grace much more.  I only wonder how I have borne it all.  “In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed my soul.”  Mr. Tilly has been and is full of sympathy, and is indeed a great aid.  He too has a heavy loss in these two dear ones.  And now I must land at Norfolk Island in the face of the population crowding the little pier.  Mr. Nobbs will be there, and the brothers and sisters of Edwin, and the uncles and aunts of Fisher.

’Yet God will comfort them; they have been called to the high privilege of being counted worthy to suffer for their Savior’s sake.  However much I may reproach myself with want of caution and of prayer for guidance (and this is a bitter thought), they were in the simple discharge of their duty.  Their intention and wish were to aid in bringing to those poor people the Gospel of Christ.  It has pleased God that in the execution of this great purpose they should have met with their deaths.  Surely there is matter for comfort here!

’I can’t write all this over again....  I have written at some length to Jem also; put the two letters together, and you will be able to realise it somewhat.