The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-05-31


Ir5 O@I tries of the Pacific, says
L!Gl 9lY Everybody's Magazine, is
lhe great island-continent of New
Guinea; yet even there Aamong the
most brutal and warlike the natives
are 10 be found the workers of the
American Bible Society, fearlessly
carrying on their work. How great
are the perils they meet and the cour-
age with which they meet them can
be gathered from the notebook of an
explorer:
For three days after the hideous fate
that had befallen my companions up
the Fly River l made my way alone
through the dense jungle. carefully
avoiding all beaten tracks, in the di-
rection of Port Moresby. where safety
awaited me.
On the morning of the fourth day the
forest suddenly opened before me. and
l perceived TO my terror that ! had
stumbled upon a Papuan village.
Close together stood some hundred
conical grass-roofed hutS, held high
off the ground by slender bamboo piles,
which gave them for all the world the
aspect Of houses perched on stills.
In the centre of the village was one
hut, larger than the rest. whose pointed
thatch rose into the air like steeple-
evidently the home of cliief. On the
side of the clearing remote from me
l noticed the watchmen's lookOuts,
small thatched shelters. stuck like
nests among the upper branches of
trees. ! had clearly lost my way, and
struck a populated district.
Convinced from recent experiences
that all the natives We're unfriendly,
gaZed with horror on the householders
lazily summing themselves on the high
platforms of their hutS. \ warning
from Waterman would be all that
was necessary to turn each of them
into an acuve and relentless enemy.
| should he seized. tortured. and finally
dubbed TO death. TO figure later as the
chief piece at a feast of victory.
And then before my despairing eyes
miracle happened. The door of the
large hunt opened and white man
emerged followed by a troop of more
or less clothed savages bearing bust
nesslike bundles on their heads. Who
these men We're what was their bust
ness ] did not stop 10 think. One of
them was white: the others were evil
IDENTITY under his control. l cleared the
ground between us, and casting my
self before him. demanded protection.
Later, fed. bathed and rested,
asked my reScuer who and what he
was, what had brought him to the
interior Of New Guinea, and how he
had been able to establish friendly
relations with the villagers.
Il am the principal Bible colporteur
of the American Society on this
island.' he replied. ''and the chief of
this village is as much a supporter and
well-wisher of ours as any Papuan can
be-"
But surely" said l, "all missionary
work here was given over since the
Rev. Mr.. Chalmers and his companions
were dubbed TO death by the canni-
bals?"
Episodes like that never stop us
he replied. calmly. TT was the same
thing in China during the Boxer mas
sacres, and in a dozen remote regions
where the blood of martyrs has been
sown."
And then, sitting there in the chiefs
hut. which was decorated with strings
Of human skulls, with fetish and devil
huts on each side of lis and the great
jungle all about, learned more of the
romance of sowing the Bible in foreign
,ands than had ever dreamed of.