At the end of three days, Florence was certain that One Pusu would indeed be a good location for their main mission station in the Solomon Islands, and she promised Barnabas that they would be back soon to work out some of the details for establishing the station.
After the visit to One Pusu, they set sail down the coast, hoping to navigate their way through the narrow Maramasike Passage that would take them to the east coast of the island. Things did not go as planned. They made it to Uhu, twenty-two miles down the coast from One Pusu, by 11:00 A.M. on July 27 and decided to press on the extra nine miles to the opening of the Maramasike Passage. However, the southeasterly trade winds suddenly died down at 1:00 P.M., and the Daphne was becalmed.
The boat bobbed on the ocean swell like a cork, and the current began to carry it toward the jagged coral reef. The missionaries huddled on the deck and began to pray for God’s protection. As they prayed, they felt a gentle puff of wind, but it was not enough to fill the Daphne’ssails and move her along. As they continued to pray, more puffs of wind arose until a steady gentle breeze was blowing. This was enough to fill out the ketch’s sails, and slowly they began to move away from the menacing reef. By 4:00 P.M. they lay at anchor in the sheltered entrance to Maramasike Passage.
The following morning they set off through the passage. The first half of the Maramasike Passage was narrow, with steep, jungle-covered cliffs rising from the water’s edge. Once through this narrow stretch, the passage widened, but as it did, the water got shallower and there were many sandbars to navigate around. At one point they ran aground on one of the sandbars, but a large gust of wind managed to pull them free. Florence was glad about this, because within the jungle on either side of the passage, she had noticed natives skulking with guns and spears in hand.
Finally they were through the passage, and by Saturday afternoon the Daphne lay at anchor at Takataka. At last they were on the eastern side of the island. Florence and the others aboard saw many dark figures in the shadows of the bush along the beach, and several canoes set out to visit the boat. These, it turned out, were filled with Kanaka men who had heard that Florence might be coming to the area on a boat and were eager to meet her and inquire about friends who had gone home to other islands. That evening Florence heard calls and signals from the shore. She knew that war parties could be gathering to paddle out and attack them, but there was nothing she could do about it but pray. The missionaries had deliberately decided against having a single gun aboard the ketch and so were defenseless should they be attacked. Despite the danger, Florence slept well, with the water of the lagoon gently slapping against the hull of the Daphne.
The next morning they sailed on up the east coast to Manakwoi, where a local chief came to greet them. He, too, had been at Fairymead, although he had never accepted the gospel message himself. Still, his first words were, “We want’im school very much. Suppose man come, teach us, we look after him, give him tucker [food], make house for him. Me want’im school very much!”
Florence promised to do what she could, and the Daphne sailed on. It was after midnight before they reached Sinorango and dropped anchor in the sheltered harbor for the night. Early the next morning a single canoe paddled up to the ketch. In the canoe was one of the Kanaka teachers from the Geraldton plantation in Queensland. He had feathers tucked in his hair, and he wore many rings on his fingers and shells in his ears and nose.
“Sam!” Florence exclaimed. “We were hoping to find you.”
She tried to keep smiling, although she was very distressed by what she saw. Sam’s only clothing was a calico loin cloth, on which were printed several verses of the book of Jonah. Florence instantly recognized the fabric; it was the calico on which Owen Thomas had printed wall charts of Bible stories. Owen had given these to his Kanaka teachers when they returned to their islands.
Sam Faralati had a sad story to tell as to why he was wearing the wall chart instead of using it to teach reading. He told Florence that it had been very difficult for him since returning to preach to his people. A band of troublemakers had destroyed his boat and stripped him of all of his clothing. He had no choice but to use the calico wall chart to fashion something to cover himself with. “I can’t lose’im Jesus, but I no been keep Him close up,” he admitted sadly.
Florence encouraged Sam to come back to Malu with them so the Christians there could rekindle his missionary zeal. Sam gladly agreed to go along, and the Daphne set sail northward along the coast with him on board. They made several more stops, searching for suitable sites for future mission stations, before they reached Malu.
It was a great day when they finally reached Malu. Florence was delighted to have proved the British official wrong. It was possible to sail around the eastern side of Malaita and live to tell about the experience.
Florence was also delighted to see that everything was going well at Malu. Heavy work had been done clearing the site on a spot three hundred feet above the sea where the new mission station was to be built. Also, a road had been hacked out of a steep hillside to get up to the site. The native workers had not neglected their missionary calling in order to get the work done. They had been waiting for Florence and the others to arrive so that they could have one big baptismal service.
On Sunday, August 13, 1905, twenty-five local men and women were baptized in the river. Over two hundred people from the Malu area gathered to witness the event. This brought the total number of baptized Christians in the village to seventy-five. Some of them had been converted in Queensland, but most of them had heard the gospel for the first time on their own island.
Twelve days later the Daphne sailed out of Malu with Florence, Jane, Hedley, Joseph, and eleven native Christians aboard. The plan was for the Daphne to cross the Indispensable Straits and drop Florence and Jane off at Gavutu before sailing on to One Pusu to set up the new station.
Manu, one of the native Christians aboard, was escaping a death threat. His father had been a village chief when a power struggle developed in the tribe. The chief had been killed, along with all of his children except for Manu and one of his sisters. The Christians at Malu had rescued them both and offered to get them to One Pusu, where they would be out of reach of their enemies.
Before reaching Gavutu, the Daphne encountered a fierce storm and was tossed from side to side in the heaving sea as waves crashed across her deck. Florence, fearing she might be washed overboard, lashed herself to the forward hatch cover with a rope for the duration of the storm.
Thankfully, the storm finally abated, and they arrived in Gavutu. There, Florence was able to arrange for Captain Svensen to deliver to One Pusu the prefabricated house they had brought with them from Sydney in the hold of the Daphne on the previous trip.
With perfect timing, a steamer bound for Australia arrived at Gavutu for recoaling the following day, and Florence and Jane bought passage home on the vessel.
Florence returned to Fairymead with fresh enthusiasm for equipping the remaining Kanakas so they could be strong missionaries when they returned to their own islands. Now only fifteen months were remaining before all the Kanakas were scheduled to leave Australia.
Chapter 13
The Cycle of Violence
Florence left Gavutu for Australia in September 1905, but nine months later she was back on board the Daphne in the Solomon Islands. This time she was accompanying Robert and Susan Ruddell and five native teachers to One Pusu.
This voyage from Gavutu to One Pusu and the island of Malaita was even more treacherous than Florence’s previous journey across the stretch of water. Once again the Daphne was pounded by a storm that sent the boat reeling from side to side while huge waves rolled across her deck. And once again Florence lashed herself to the forward hatch cover with a rope. This time she wrapped herself in a tarpaulin, but it didn’t seem to help much, and soon she was drenched.
Even Florence, who was a good sailor, began to wonder whether the Daphne might capsize and sink. She was very relieved when, three days after setting out, they finally dropped anchor off One Pusu. It had been a long and harrowing voyage, and Florence wondered whether Susan could ever again be persuaded to climb aboard the Daphne.
The workers at One Pusu were experiencing great difficulties as the result of a spate of murders in the area. Once a murder was committed, it was nearly impossible to stop another murder, and then another, in a cycle of retaliation. James Caulfeild explained that the non-Christian islanders believed that every death, even one as a result of sickness or old age, was someone’s fault. So when a death occurred, the dead person’s relatives consulted a local witch doctor to find out who had “caused” the death. This gave the witch doctor tremendous power in the tribe, because whoever he identified as causing the death would be murdered by the grieving family. Then members of that person’s family would come to the witch doctor to find out who it was they should kill for the murder of their loved one, and on and on the cycle went.
To make matters worse, if the person the witch doctor said caused the death could not be found, another member of that person’s family could be killed in his or her place. This often resulted in old women and small children being killed.
Just before Florence arrived, one of the workers at One Pusu had been killed for such a reason. Florence was relieved when Barnabas did not talk about killing someone else in retaliation but instead urged all the Christians to forgive and pray for an end to the cycle of violence.
Despite such brutality going on around them, the Ruddells were eager to become part of the community at One Pusu. Their assignment was to supervise the clearing of fifty acres of land that the mission had leased. The cleared land was to be planted in coconuts, which would be eaten or sold to help support students at the One Pusu Training School for Teachers, which Robert Ruddell was going to establish.
Once the Ruddells were settled in at One Pusu, Florence returned to Queensland. She arrived just in time for the fall gathering of Kanaka Christians at Mackay, on the Queensland coast.
With a mixture of pride and sorrow, Florence watched the last remaining Kanaka Christians in the area worship together. During the gathering a large baptismal service was held, the ninety-second such service the mission had held in Queensland. The baptismal service was followed by a hymn-singing celebration.
The hymn-singing celebration was held in a schoolhouse that could barely contain the 250 people who squeezed into it. A large map of the western Pacific islands had been nailed to the front wall of the schoolhouse, and on it were sixteen small red flags. Three of the flags represented the main mission stations in the Solomon Islands, and the other thirteen flags represented the outstations that had been established. At the meeting Florence was asked to report on what she had seen while in the islands, and everyone listened attentively as she spoke. Florence knew that the men were thinking about what would happen to them when they returned to their home islands.
When Florence finished speaking a ripple went through the audience, and then Mr. Lancaster stood up and waved his hand for Florence to stay where she was at the front.
“Just one moment, Miss Young,” he began. “We have all been honored to be a part of the Queensland Kanaka Mission and to serve under your leadership. We know that we are entering the twenty-fifth year since you founded the mission, and we are delighted to present you with this check for 416 pounds, which we collected from five hundred donors. It is to go toward the purchase of a boat with an oil engine to work in Malaita.”
