y islands, he was studious not to attack old traditions. He wanted a
good Melanesian standard of conduct, not a feeble imitation of European
culture. He was prepared to build upon the foundation which time had
already prepared and not to invert the order of nature.

In writing home of his life in the island Patteson regularly depreciates
his own hardships, saying how unworthy he feels himself to be ranked
with the pioneers in African work. But the discomforts must often have
been considerable to a man naturally fastidious and brought up as he had
been.

Food was most monotonous. Meat was out of the question except where the
missioners themselves imported live stock and kept a farm of their own;
variety of fruit depended also on their own exertions. The staple diet
was the yam, a tuber reaching at times in good soil a weight far in
excess of the potato. This was supplied readily by the natives in return
for European goods, and could be cooked in different ways; but after
many weeks' sojourn it was apt to pall. Also the climate was relaxing,
and apt sooner or later to tell injuriously on Europeans working there.
Dirt, disease, and danger can be faced cheerfully when a man is in good
health himself; but a solitary European suffering from ill-health in
such conditions is indeed put to an heroic test. Perhaps the greatest
discomfort of all was the perpetual living in public. The natives became
so fond of Patteson that they flocked round him at all times. His
reading was interrupted by a stream of questions; when writing he would
find boys standing close to his elbow, following his every movement with
attention. The mere writing of letters seems to have been a relief to
him, though they could not be answered for so long. His journal, into
which he poured freely all his hopes and fears, all his daily anxieties
over the Mission, was destined for his family. But he had other
correspondents to whom he wrote more or less regularly, especially at
Eton and Winchester. At Eton his uncle was one of his most ardent
supporters and much of the money which supported the Mission funds came
to Patteson through the Eton Association. Near Winchester was living his
cousin Charlotte Yonge, the well-known authoress, who afterwards wrote
his Life, and through her he established friendly communications with
Keble at Hursley and Bishop Moberly, then Head Master of Winchester
College. To them he could write sympathetically of Church questions at
ho