THE MURDER OF BISHOP PATTESON.

Press, Volume XIX, Issue 2706, 2 January 1872, Page 3

THE MURDER OF BISHOP PATTESON.

The following unfinished letter of the Rev. J. Atkin will be read with interest by many of our readers:— " September 21st, 1871. " My dear mother, —"We have had a terrible lose, such a blow that we cannot at all realise it. Our Bishop is dead: killed by the natives at Nukapu yesterday. We got the body, and buried it this morning. He was alone on the shore, and none of us saw it done. "We were attacked in the boat too, and Stephen so badly wounded that I am afraid there is small hope of his recovery. John and I have arrow wounds, but not severe. Our poor boys seem quite awe-stricken. Captain Jacobs is very much cut up. Brooke, although not at all well, has quite deroted himself to the wounded, and so has less time to think about it at all.

"It would only be selfish to wish him back. He has gone to his rest, dying, as he lived, in his Master's service. It seems a shocking way to die; but I can say from experience that it is far more to hear of than to suffer. In whatever way so peaceful a life as his is ended, his end is peace. There was no sign of fear or pain on his face —just the look that he used to have when asleep, patient and a little wearied. "What a stroke his death will be to hundreds! "What his Mission will do without him, God only knows, who has taken him away. His ways are not as our ways. Seeing people taken away, when, as we think, they are almost necessary to do God's work on earth, makes one think, that we often think and talk too much about Christian work. What God requires is Christian men. He does not need the work, only gives it to form or perfect the character of the men whom He sends to do it.

" Stephen is in great pain at times, to-night; one of the arrows seems to have entered his lungs, and it is broken in, too deep to be got out. John is wounded in the right shoulder, I in the left. We are both maimed for the time; but, if it were not for the fear of poison, the wounds would not be worth noticing. I do not expect any bad consequences, but they are possible. What would make mo cling to life

more than anything else, is the thought of you afc home; but, if it be* God's will that I am to die, I know Hβ will enable you to bear it and bring good for you out of it.

" Saturday, 23rd.—We are all doing well. Stephen keeps up his strength, sleeps well, and has no long attacks of pain. "We have had good breezes yesterday and to-day—very welcome it is, but the motion makes writing too much labor. Brooke and Edward Wogale are both unwell—ague, I believe, with both of thorn: and Brooke's nerves are upset. He has slept most of the day, and will probably be better for it