AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE 241 
“All on board were hard at work early in the morning 
trying to raise the topmast as a jury mast. At the first 
attempt one of the lines parted and the spar fell to the 
deck, fortunately without injuring any one. Indeed, this 
was a task of the utmost difficulty, for the ship was still 
very unsteady. The next attempt was successful, and at 
9:30 the heavy spar was in place, and was securely lashed 
to the stump of the foremast. 
“At noon their exact position was ascertained, and the 
course was set for San Cristoval, an island of the Solomon 
group, ninety miles away. The captain, however, afterward 
decided to make the effort to reach Australia, and turning 
the badly disabled vessel to a westward course, began a grim 
struggle to reach the Australian coast, more than seventeen 
hundred miles from the scene of her disablement. 
After forty-four days of anxious sailing, the shores of 
Australia came into view, but the sight brought little joy 
to the missionary on the deck of the little vessel, for his 
heart was burdened with anxiety on account of his devoted 
wife and dear children whom he had left months before in 
far-away New Britain, and who must ere then have despaired 
of his returning. Through all the weeks of that dreary 
voyage his anxiety was almost maddening, but had he known 
the facts of the fearful suffering that his wife was being 
called to endure, it would have been harder still for him to 
bear. This, however, is another story and must be told in 
the next chapter. Glad indeed were the officers and crew 
of the “John Wesley” to reach the shelter of Sydney Harbor, 
and great was the rejoicing of their friends in Sydney on 
receiving them back to safety from the perils of their event- 
ful voyage. 
Through such experiences the missionaries to these islands 
have frequently passed, but the reader of South Seas mis- 
sion history is impressed by the fact that though for more 
than a hundred years, daring men and women in mission 
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