AMONG THE CANNIBALS OF SANTA CRUZ 177 
hooks to his savage assailant. This calm attitude took the 
man so completely by surprise that he came to a standstill. 
At once other savages sprang upon the fellow, and taking 
him through the crowd, drove him from the place. 
It was afterward told Mr. Patteson that about two months 
before a white man had there shot a native dead for stealing 
a piece of calico. The attack upon the bishop was intended 
to avenge this man’s death. And it has been always so in 
the South Seas. The simple, childlike trust with which the 
savage natives of these islands naturally greet the white 
man, has been turned to ferocious cruelty by the atrocious 
deeds of some of the white men who, without scruple, mur- 
dered, stole, and outraged, and then sailed away, leaving be- 
hind them in the breasts of the natives an implacable hatred 
of the white man. This hatred was appeased only when 
they had killed and eaten the next white man that was so 
unfortunate as to visit their shores. 
This was the influence that brought about the death of John 
Williams on Erromango, and was responsible at last for the 
murder of Bishop Patteson. Indeed, the bishop was in con- 
stant peril at the hands of vengeful natives. It was no un- 
common thing for him, on landing among peoples who had 
always before been friendly, to find them plotting his death; 
and wonderful were the many deliverances that he experi- 
enced from their hands. 
At Santa Cruz, a large and populous island of the Solomon 
group, he on one occasion barely escaped death, while two 
of his companions, natives of Norfolk Island, met their 
death, and a third, an Englishman, was wounded. He knew 
that the natives of Santa Cruz had a bad reputation, but felt 
his duty toward them more clearly on that account. Where 
he felt that he was most needed, there he was sure to go, 
and no amount of personal risk seemed to daunt him. 
After reaching the island, he called at two large villages, 
spending some time at each place. He then proceeded along 
the shore in a boat manned by five of his ship’s company 
12 
