The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-13

NAURU. NJ. l., February 1S.-Wa ar
rived here safely on January "a on the
s. S. Upland of the Pacific Phosphate
Company, Ltd. We had a fairly I'M
comfortable voyage. but got here safe
Iy. With the exception of our little
Mabel tumbling off the bridge and my
self falling one dark night into the coal
bunkers, nothing of Importance hap
/ pened. 1t was little inconvenient to
arrive at Nauru with a bandaged face
after coming from vacation, but we
were able to prove the origin of nearly
broken noses and black eyes.
/ The Channons were our fellow-pas-
sengers and we were certainly more
than glad to travel again with our old
friends. We have since heard that they
arrived all right at Ocean Island where
they, without doubt, received a hearty
welcome from their beloved Gilbert Is
| landers-
AS we arrived at our moorings we
noticed from the ships deck that many
of our people had gathered on the
| beach to welcome us. When we got
ashore at last their joy to have US
among them again was seemingly very
great. Mr.. Channon was remembered
by many also, seeing that years ago
he too had stopped q day or so on the
island. The natives nearly carried US
up the beach. But so many familiar
faces Were missing, nearly $50 of our
ing our absence. AS we enquired for
this or that man, woman or child we
often received but a Short answer, &c
man" Che or she is dead. In many
The very first news we heard was. that
the local official, Mr.. Geppert, had died
a few days prior to our arrival. How
sad! He too had just come back from
his furlough to die.
Our island once so healthy is now
saturated with disease. We have per-
haps 900 Chinese on the island at
present, but hardly day passes with
out a death among them. Today we
have, l understand, thirty-five me1 in
typhoid fever and other severe diseases.
Poor Nauru. once so sweet and healthy,
has Joined the long list of unhealthy
tropical islands. We never knew any
thing about typhoid fever, dysentery,
whooping cought, scarlet fever and
beri-beri here, but times and conditions
tons lhave changed.
AS I am writing these lines five Eu-
ropeans are very i'll. The doctor him
self is unable to attend to his duties
as he has a most severe attack Of
tropical dysentery, while the captain
of police has typhoid fever and several
employees of the company are laid up
with various complaints. What a rec
have changed.
I ascribe the Introduction of most of
these epfdemical diseases to the Chi
nese who are seemingly not high
grade of coolies. The company does
all it can to minimize the sufferings
of the people, but our sanitary con-
ditions are such that their, as we'll as
our efforts are, not crowned with re-
markable success. Miss rinke, our
assistant, has been i'll in bed several
days, but has recovered again. Our
two children have been more or less
sick since we came, but climatic
changes may be blamed for our own
disorders. At present things look
brighter as far as your missionaries
are concerned
However a beautiful contrast to the
sad physical conditions which prevail
on Nauru is its spiritual state. We
found more real life in the Church than
we had dared to hope for With the
exception of a small number of miltr
breaches of discipline and one or tWo
cases of entire backsiding we found
the people, who for the first time since
their conversion had been left without
a white missionary, clinging tn their +
faith. Our young people are as brisk |
as ever. We have reorganized our |
School which is quite an I'M !
portant factor in our work. The writer |
takes charge of the senior class while |
wife teaches the junior classes. Near |
" 200 people attend these classes.
Our Sabbath services are better at
tended than they were prior to our
going on furlough. Of course the at
tendance of about TOO Ponape. Pinglap
and Turk boys. employees of the COM
pany help to swell numbers. Thus .
We have Nauru. Pinglap. Motlock. Po-
aape, Turk and Marshall Islands re-
presented in our Church, While one or
Two Chinese attend our Christian En-
1eavoF meeting.
We reopened our school today with
about 10 .per cent. less scholars than
1 year ago. The mortality among the
school children in 1907 has been. fearful.
We have changed our Wednesday
afternoon service into a Bible class for
adults, taking up the Life of Christ"
we trust thus to get the older people
better acquainted with the. scri ptures.
The natives were delighted to get
heir neatly bound New Testaments of
which we sold over $50 copies in three
lays
We propose to revise and enlarge our
hymn book in the near future and
print it here on the field. We are now
abie to print and bind our own books
Is we have. through the sale of the
testament. book fund on hand. We
ire so glad to have this fund as it
will save US money and time
We are very busy these days repair
ne and charging the buildings on the
main station. We found them in a
most deplorable condition, result Of
heir occupancy by so many people of
,