to spend unbroken
winter months in a single station, where he could reach more of the
people and exercise a more continuous influence upon them. Patteson's
first experience of this was in 1858, when he spent three months at Lifu
in the Loyalty Islands, a group which was later to be annexed by the
French.

A sojourn which was to bear more permanent fruit was that which he made
at Mota in 1860. This was one of the Banks Islands lying north of the
New Hebrides, in 14 deg. South Latitude. The inhabitants of this group
showed unusual capacity for learning from the missionaries, and
sufficient stability of character to promise lasting success for the
work carried on among them. Mota, owing to the line of cliffs which
formed its coast, was a difficult place for landing; so it escaped the
visits of white traders who could not emulate the swimming feats of
Selwyn and Patteson, and was free from many of the troubles which such
visitors brought with them. Once the island was reached, it proved to be
one of the most attractive, with rich soil, plenty of water, and a
kindly docile population. Here, on a site duly purchased for the
mission, under the shade of a gigantic banyan tree, on a slope where
bread-fruit and coco-nuts (and, later, pine-apples and other
importations) flourished, the first habitation was built, with a boarded
floor, walls of bamboo canes, and a roof of coco-nut leaves woven
together after the native fashion so as to be waterproof. Here, in the
next ten years, Patteson was to spend many happy weeks, taking school,
reading and writing when the curiosity of the natives left him any
peace, but in general patiently conversing with all and sundry who came
up, with the twofold object of gathering knowledge of their dialect and
making friends with individuals. While he showed instinctive tact in
knowing how far it was wise to go in opposing the native way of life, he
was willing to face risks whenever real progress could be made. After he
had been some days in Mota a special initiation in a degrading rite was
held outside the village. Patteson exercised all his influence to
prevent one of his converts from being drawn in; and when an old man
came up and terrorized his pupils by planting a symbolic tree outside
the Mission hut, Patteson argued with him at length and persuaded him to
withdraw his threatening symbol. But apart from idolatry, from
internecine warfare, and from such horrors as cannibalism, prevalent in
man