ou and destroy the Worship."

I said, "The Word of the Holy God condemns all bad conduct, and I must
obey my God in trying to lead you to give it up, and to love and serve
His Son Jesus our Saviour. If I refuse to obey my God, He will punish
me."

He declared that his heart was good, that his conduct was good, but that
he hated the teaching of the Worship. He had a party of men staying with
him from the other side of the island, and he sent back a present of
four large fat hogs to their Chiefs, with a message as to the killing of
the Mathiesons. If that were done, his hands would be strengthened in
dealing with us.

To know what was best to be done, in such trying circumstances, was an
abiding perplexity. To have left altogether, when so surrounded by
perils and enemies, at first seemed the wisest course, and was the
repeated advice of many friends. But again, I had acquired the language,
and had gained a considerable Influence amongst the Natives, and there
were a number warmly attached both to himself and to the Worship. To
have left would have been to lose all, which to me was heartrending;
therefore, risking all with Jesus, I held on while the hope of being
spared longer had not absolutely and entirely vanished.

The following quotation from a letter of the late A. Clark, Esq., J. P.,
Auckland, New Zealand, will show what Bishop Selwyn thought of my
standing fast on Tanna at the post of duty, and he knew what he was
writing about. These are the words:--"'Talk of bravery! talk of heroism!
The man who leads a forlorn hope is a coward in comparison with him,
who, on Tanna, thus alone, without a sustaining look or cheering word
from one of his own race, regards it as his duty to hold on in the face
of such dangers. We read of the soldier, found after the lapse of ages
among the ruins of Herculaneum, who stood firm at his post amid the
fiery rain destroying all around him, thus manifesting the rigidity of
the discipline among those armies of Ancient Rome which conquered the
World. Mr. Paton was subjected to no such iron law. He might with honor,
when offered to him, have sought a temporary asylum in Auckland, where
he would have been heartily received. But he was moved by higher
considerations. He chose to remain, and God knows whether at this moment
he is in the land of the living!' When the Bishop told us that he
declined leaving Tanna by H. M. S. _Pelorus,_ he added, 'And I like him
all the better for so doing!'"