“YACHTING IN MELANESIA. 213 
The year of Bishop Patteson’s consecration the Dunedin, a vessel of 
60 tons, was chartered. She was characterized as slow but sound. On 
all those ships the missionaries’ practice was to have classes for the 
natives, and as in Patteson’s time these classes were conducted in 
several languages which he alone knew, his time must have been well 
occupied. The principle on which he worked was that “‘to teach 
Christianity a man must know the language well.” Certainly it is 
easy enough to acquire a few words and phrases, but in order to teach 
and to drive truths home a good, solid, idiomatic knowledge of a lan- 
guage is required. During this same year Patteson made a voyage to 
the Solomons in H. M. S. Cordelia and greatly appreciated the comfort 
of his new surroundings. He made a landing on Ysabel, where he 
acquired a list of 200 words and phrases. The Bishop’s practice 
ever was to leave his boat’s crew and go ashore wading or swimming. 
Patteson and Selwyn were both good swimmers, and it surely requires 
some skill to swim with a bundle of hatchets and adzes tied to one’s 
shoulders. We read of Bishop Selwyn swimming out in a surf at 
Omba and of Patteson spending two days and a night in the Banks 
Group in an open boat in rain and wind riding to an anchor. If 
sailors do things of this sort we marvel at their intrepid behavior, 
but how much greater is it when men delicately reared act thus in the 
performance of their duty for Christ’s sake! We heard also of a mission 
priest last year in the Solomons who left an island at daybreak and after 
continuous rowing against wind and tide reached his destination the 
following night. And what shall we say of Dr. Welchman journeying 
across from Bugotu to Guadalcanar, 60 miles in an open boat, to visit 
the sick, and then returning the same way? ‘The noble love of Jesus 
impels a man to do great things.” 
While waiting for the second Southern Cross the schooner Sea 
Breeze was chartered in 1862, and the following year the new Mission 
ship arrived under the charge of Captain Tilly, who had been navigat- 
ing lieutenant on the Cordelia and had volunteered to join Patteson. 
In later years we remember Captain Tilly as the Mission’s secretary in 
Auckland. The second Southern Cross was a yawl-rigged brigantine 
of 93 tons and was also built at Wigram’s. Her cost was £3,000, a large 
portion of which was contributed by Mr. Keble. Surely if Keble Col- 
lege realized the part Mr. Keble played in forwarding the work of the 
Melanesian Mission, some of their men would consider it their duty to 
volunteer for service in that Mission. 
No steward was carried on the Mission ship and the missionaries 
waited on themselves until some of the native boys volunteered to 
help. This was ever Patteson’s way, and Selwyn’s too; they were 
quite ready to do all the work and rather preferred to stir up and 
quicken their boys into helpfulness by letting the idea sink into their 
