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Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands by Charlotte Mary Yonge
page 307 of 960 (31%)
long for a venerable building and for the sound of ancient chants and
psalms. At times, the Sunday is specially a day on which my mind
will go back to the old country, but never with any wish to return.
I have never experienced that desire, and think nothing but absolute
inability to help on a Melanesian or a Maori will ever make a change
in that respect. I feel as certain as I can be of anything that I
should not be half as happy in England as I am in New Zealand, or in
Lifu, in the Banks or Solomon Islands, &c. I like the life and the
people, everything about it and them....

'Coppering the schooner caused delay, so that he (the Bishop) could
give but two months instead of three to the Island voyage, for he
starts on November 25 for a three months' Confirmation tour (1,000
miles) among the New Zealanders, which will bring him to Wellington
by March 1, for the commencement of the first synod. Consequently we
have only revisited some of our seventy and odd islands, but we have
no less than forty-seven Melanesians from twelve islands on board, of
whom three are young married women, while two are babies.

'This makes our whole number on board sixty, viz., four Pitcairners,
forty-seven Melanesians, ourselves + crew = sixty-three, a number too
great for so small a vessel, but for the excellent plan adopted by
the Bishop in the internal arrangement of the vessel when she was
built, and the scrupulous attention to cleanliness in every place
fore and aft. As it is, we are not only healthy but comfortable,
able to have all meals regularly, school, prayers, just as if we had
but twenty on board. Nevertheless, I think, if you could drop
suddenly on our lower deck at 9 P.M. and visit unbeknown to us the
two cabins, you would be rather surprised at the number of the
sleepers--twelve in our after-cabin, and forty-five in the larger
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