father and brothers in all the wars
and preparations for war, and is diligently initiated into all their
cruelties and lusts, as the very prerequisite of his being regarded and
acknowledged to be a man and a warrior. The girls have, with their
mother and sisters, to toil and slave in the village plantations, to
prepare all the materials for fencing these around, to bear every
burden, and to be knocked about at will by the men and boys.

Oh, how sad and degraded is the position of Woman where the teaching of
Christ is unknown, or disregarded though known! It is the Christ of the
Bible, it is His Spirit entering into humanity, that has lifted Woman,
and made her the helpmate and the friend of Man, not his toy or his
slave.

CHAPTER XVI.
SUPERSTITIONS AND CRUELTIES.

ABOUT the time of my dear wife's death, our brother Missionary, Mr.
Mathieson, also became exceedingly unwell. His delicate frame fast gave
way, and brought with it weakness of the mind as well; and he was
removed to Aneityum apparently in a dying condition. These sad
visitations had a bad effect on the natives, owing to their wild
superstitions about the cause of death and sickness. We had reason to
fear that they would even interfere with the precious grave, over which
we kept careful watch for a season; but God mercifully restrained them.
Unfortunately, however, one of my Aneityumese Teachers who had gone
round to Mr. Mathieson's Station took ill and died there, and this
rekindled all their prejudices. He, poor fellow, before death said, "I
shall not again return to Port Resolution, or see my dear Missi; but
tell him that I die happy, for I love Jesus much, and I am going to
Jesus!"

Hearing these things, the natives insolently demanded me to tell them
the cause of his death, and of Mr. Mathieson's trouble, and of the other
deaths. Other reasoning or explanation being to them useless, I turned
the tables, and demanded them to tell me why all this trouble and death
had overtaken us in their land, and whether they themselves were not the
cause of it all? Strange to say, this simple question turned the whole
current of their speculations. They held meeting after meeting to
discuss it for several days, and returned the message, "We do not blame
you, and you must not blame us, for causing these troubles and deaths;
but we believe that a Bushman must have got hold of a portion of
something we had eaten, and must have thrown it to the great Evil Spirit
i