was alive again, but at this time his first
duty seemed to be to his family; and in a parish endeared to him by old
associations he quickly won the affection of his flock. He was happy in
the work and his parishioners hoped to keep him for many years; but this
was not to be. In 1854 Bishop Selwyn and his wife were in England
pleading for support for their Church, and their visit to Feniton
brought matters to a crisis. Patteson was thrilled at the idea of seeing
his hero again, and he at once seized the opportunity for serving under
him. There was no need for the Bishop to urge him; rather he had to
assure himself that he could fairly accept the offer. To the young man
there was no thought of sacrifice; that fell to the father's lot, and he
bore it nobly. His first words to the Bishop were, 'I can't let him go';
but a moment later he repented and cried, 'God forbid that I should stop
him'; and at parting he faced the consequences unflinchingly. 'Mind!' he
said, 'I give him wholly, not with any thought of seeing him again.'

In the following March, the young curate, leaving his home and his
parish where he was almost idolized, where he was never to be seen
again, set his face towards the South Seas. Once the offer had been made
and accepted, he felt no more excitement. It was not the spiritual
exaltation of a moment, but a deliberate applying of the lessons which
he had been learning year by year. He had put his hand to the plough and
would not look back.

The first things which he set himself to learn, on board ship, were the
Maori language and the art of navigation. The first he studied with a
native teacher, the second he learnt from the Bishop, and he proved an
apt pupil in both. In a few months he became qualified to act as master
of the Mission ship, and the speaking of a new language was to him only
a matter of weeks. His earliest letters show how quickly he came to
understand the natives. He was ready to meet any and every demand made
upon him, and to fulfil duties as different from one another as those of
teacher, skipper, and storekeeper. His head-quarters, during his early
months in New Zealand, were either on board ship or else at St. John's
College, five miles from Auckland. But, before he had completed a year,
he was called to accompany the Bishop on his tour to the Islands and to
make acquaintance with the scene of his future labours.

Bishop Selwyn had wisely limited his mission to those islands which th