Full preparation was going on for the ordination, of the two priests.

No special account of the actual service seems to have been written; and the first letter of January was nearly absorbed by the tidings of the three Episcopal appointments of the close of 1869, the Oxford choice coming near to Bishop Patteson by his family affections, and the appointment to Exeter as dealing with his beloved county at home.

And now, before turning the page, and leaving the period that had, on the whole, been full of brightness, will be the best time to give Mr. Codrington’s account of the manner of life at St. Barnabas, while the Bishop was still in his strength:—­

’Certainly one of the most striking points to a stranger would have been the familiar intercourse between the Bishop and his boys, not only the advanced scholars, but the last and newest comers.  The kindly and friendly disposition of the Melanesians leads to a great deal of free and equal familiarity even where there are chiefs, and the obsequious familiarity of which one hears in India is here quite unknown.  Nevertheless, I doubt very much whether other Melanesians live in the same familiarity with their missionaries—­e.g., Carry, wife of Wadrokala, writes thus:—­“I tremble very much to write to you, I am not fit to write to you, because, does an ant know how to speak to a cow?  We at Nengone would not speak to a great man like you; no, our language is different to a chief and a missionary.”

’Making every allowance, and, looking at the matter from within, that perfect freedom and affectionateness of intercourse that existed with him seems very remarkable.

’The secret of it is not far to seek.  It did not lie in any singular attractiveness of his manner only, but in the experience that everyone attracted gained that he sought nothing for himself; he was entirely free from any desire to be admired, or love of being thought much of, as he was from love of commanding for the sake of being obeyed.  The great temptations to missionaries among savage people, as it seems, are to self-esteem, from a comparison of themselves with their European advantages and the natives among whom they live; and to a domineering temper, because they find an obedience ready, and it is delightful to be obeyed.  Bishop Patteson’s natural disposition was averse to either, and the principles of missionary work which he took up suited at once his natural temper and his religious character.  He was able naturally, without effort, to live as a brother among his black brothers, to be the servant of those he lived to teach.  The natural consequence of this was, the unquestioned authority which he possessed over those with whom he lived on equal terms.  No one could entertain the idea that anything was ordered from a selfish motive, for any advantage to himself, or that anything was forbidden without some very good reason.  This familiarity with a superior, which is natural with Melanesians, is accompanied,