130 ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS 
“Mr. and Mrs. Gordon strove to the utmost of their ability 
to alleviate suffering and save life, and doubtless they would 
have succeeded to a considerable extent if the natives would 
have trusted themselves in their hands. As it was, however, 
as regards the people generally, they could only look help- 
lessly on. ‘It is exceedingly painful,’ Mr. Gordon remarked, 
‘to see a people upon whom you have set your heart to bring 
them to a knowledge of the truth, fading away in unbelief. 
When we lie down at night and rise up in the morning, we 
hear the loud and bitter cry of those who mourn without 
hope. None died of the measles on our premises, and 
but two of all those who came properly under our treat- 
ment.’ 
“The reader will now be prepared for the sad ending of 
the lives of these young missionaries at the hands of most 
superstitious heathen. | 
“Mr. Gordon continued to cherish a degree of confidence 
as to his own safety, and that of Mrs. Gordon, which seems 
strange, considering the circumstances. Whether or not Mrs. 
Gordon shared his confidence does not appear; but certainly 
his domestics—native Erromangons—did not. They were 
thoroughly distrustful; and they, of course, understood their 
own countrymen as no foreigner could, and their opinion 
was, therefore, entitled to great weight. 
“It is a pleasing fact that there were a few Erromangons 
so much attached to Mr. and Mrs. Gordon as to cleave to 
them through all their dangers at the risk of their own lives, 
and it conclusively shows that upon them at least some im- 
pression had been made. Joe and Mana, two of the young 
men in Mr. Gordon’s family, had been about three years in 
the native teachers’ institution in Samoa. They had acquired 
a considerable knowledge of the Samoan language; so friends 
of Mr. Gordon were able to get from them the particulars 
of the mournful tragedy which was right at hand. 
“Two days before the massacre, Joe was told by his rel- 
atives, who live in Dillon’s Bay, that the lives of Mr. and 
