P22 ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS 
that the immediate actors in the base and cowardly attempt 
upon the lives of the mission family were saved from being 
very roughly handled. 
With much difficulty the matter was overcome without war 
and bloodshed. The friendly natives were greatly shocked 
at the barbarity of the affair; for it was contrary to their 
ideas of honorable dealing, even with an enemy, and they 
were not in the habit of injuring women and children in 
their wars. Hence they regarded the affair as barbarous and 
dastardly in the highest degree. 
After all was settled, Nohoat said to Mr. Geddie: “If 
Lucy and Elizabeth [Mr. and Mrs. Geddie’s children] and 
my coat [a military coat which was kept in Mr. Geddie’s 
house] had been burned, we would not have listened to your 
word for peace; there would have been many people killed.” 
So far, though both missionary and native converts had 
had hairbreadth escapes, no one had actually fallen by the 
hand of violence. On the 9th of October, 1851, before the 
attempt to burn the house, Mr. Geddie mentions a case where 
a party of Christians came very near falling a sacrifice to 
the rage of the heathen. They went to visit a heathen village, 
and were attacked with stones and spears, being obliged to 
flee for their lives. They brought home six or seven spears 
which had been thrown at them. 
Some time after the above, in December, 1851, the first 
case of actual martyrdom occurred. The following are the 
painfully interesting particulars: 
“The people of a place named Anauunse, who were bit- 
terly opposed to Christianity, sent a message to the Christian 
party at a place called Aneito, to the effect that they wished 
to cultivate friendly relations, and proposing, according to 
native fashion, an exchange of presents. Their sincerity was 
not doubted, and the people of Aneito sent four young men 
with the desired present. 
“When the young men reached the place, they saw some 
movements which seemed to them to indicate that something 
