That night Northcote brought a “magic lantern” slide projector ashore. Most of the local people had never seen any kind of picture before, much less a slide show. The slide presentation on the story of Jesus drew a huge crowd. As the show proceeded, the chief crept nearer and nearer to the screen until he could touch it. He reached out and tried to grab one of the men on the screen and then danced with delight when he realized it was just a life-sized photograph. As a result of the slide show, several more local people showed an interest in going to school and learning to read about the pictures they had just seen on the makeshift screen.
The following day Florence decided to visit Malahiti, fifteen miles farther west, where David had told her that about a dozen Christians lived. No school was located there, and David was eager to see whether something could be set up for the locals.
David, Florence, and the others set out for Malahiti in the Evangel, leaving Hedley behind to teach school for a couple of days. They made it safely to their destination and dropped anchor off Malahiti. Getting ashore proved to be a harrowing experience, however. The coast on this part of the island was windswept and exposed, and the waves crashed against the shore. As the missionaries rowed ashore, they began to wonder whether they would actually be able to land. Large breakers rolled past the rowboat, and Florence feared they might be swamped by them.
A number of natives had gathered on the shore to watch, and they began to yell instructions to the missionaries over the sound of the waves. They knew the currents along the coast well, and they yelled for the men to stop rowing. When several large waves had gone by and crashed ashore, those onshore yelled for the men to row hard, which they did, and the boat cut its way through the water toward the beach. As the boat got close, a number of the local men ran out and grabbed it by the gunwales and pulled it ashore. As the bottom of the boat touched the beach, several more large waves came rolling in, and Florence and the other missionaries had to leap out of the boat and quickly scramble ashore, wet but safe.
The native men gathered around the group and shook their hands, but the native women had never seen a white woman before. When they saw Florence and Kathleen, they screamed in fear and ran into the jungle for cover. Eventually David was able to coax them back to the beach, and slowly their fear subsided. Soon they too were crowded around Florence and Kathleen, touching their white skin and laughing among themselves.
David gathered the local Christians together. Several of the men had worked on the sugarcane plantations in Queensland, and three others had worked on the plantations in Fiji. They held a small service together and prayed and sang several hymns, and then the locals explained how they wanted a missionary to come to their area and start a school. Florence promised to do what she could.
As the sun began to sink over the ocean, it was time for the missionaries to head back to the Evangel. Getting off the beach and back to the boat proved as exciting as landing had been. When the sea seemed to quiet for a moment, the locals quickly dragged the boat off the beach and out into the water. When they were chest deep, they told the men to row, which the men did as hard as they could. As the men rowed hard, several waves broke over the bow, drenching everyone in the rowboat. But the men kept rowing, and soon they were beyond the breakers and headed toward the Evangel.
Once the missionaries had climbed aboard the boat and changed into some dry clothes, they set out once again to return to Talise. But their dry clothes were soon drenched as the Evangel ran headlong into an angry storm. The wind whipped the sea into a frenzy, and torrential rains poured down on them. The Evangel pitched and rolled in the swell, and soon everyone aboard was violently seasick. It was a long and harrowing night as everyone huddled together below deck, vomiting and trying to stop too much water from flooding into the cabin.
Finally, in the early hours of the morning, they arrived off Talise. It was too rough to drop anchor, so while the Evangel circled off Talise Point, David said good-bye to Florence, thanking her warmly for her visit, and rowed ashore. Two hours later Hedley arrived back at the boat, wet and buffeted by the weather, but safe. They then once again set off into the storm along the coast of Guadalcanal.
As the sun came up over the horizon, Florence was dismayed to see that they were still within sight of Talise Point. They had been battered by the ocean all night long but had made little headway against the storm. All they could do was pray and keep heading west along the coast. Slowly, as the day wore on, the Evangel distanced itself from Talise Point, and by nightfall all aboard were grateful to finally reach the safety and shelter of Marau Sound and drop anchor.
The exhausted crew spent the next day, Sunday, at anchor in the sound. Much to Florence’s surprise, as the storm finally abated, they spotted a tiny inhabited island not far from where they were anchored. Florence and Northcote decided to investigate the island, where they found a Christian Kanaka who was dying of tuberculosis.
The man’s face lit up when he saw Florence, though he had a sad confession to make. “When I come home,” he began, “I try tell’im my people about Jesus. They not want Him. By and by I think I lose’im read, and by and by I lose’im pray, and might lose Jesus! But very slowly, I think, might Jesus, Him not been lose’im me.”
Florence wiped the man’s face with a wet cloth. “That’s right,” she told him. “The Good Shepherd never loses His sheep. He promises that He will give us eternal life and that no one can ever snatch you out of His hand.”
The man raised his feeble head. “You pray’im me?” he asked.
Florence was delighted to pray for the man and marveled that they had found him at all in such a lonely spot.
The Evangel finally sailed out of Marau Sound on Tuesday morning and headed on to Wanoni Bay, where they had another successful magic lantern presentation with the local people. Then they set out for Malu.
Joyous news was awaiting them upon their arrival in Malu. It concerned Peter Ambuofa’s father, Gosila, and his mother, Ratalo. This couple had arranged the murder of Charley Lofia, but in the time Florence had been away, Gosila and Ratalo had undergone a very drastic change.
Peter explained that some of his relatives had had their lives threatened and took refuge with Gosila and Ratalo in the mountains. After a few days, Ratalo arranged to turn the relatives over to their enemy, and when Gosila learned of her plot, he was very angry. He said he would leave her and go to live with Peter. What’s more, he declared that he would go to the school at Malu and learn about the Christian God.
Peter related how shocked he was to see his father and several members of his extended family emerge from the bush and ask to be enrolled in the school. Peter agreed, of course, and Gosila started to read and study the Bible. Other chiefs in the area taunted him. “It is a terrible thing to see a man like you giving up all of your power and living like a poor man,” they told him. But Gosila did not care and would not be dissuaded from learning.
Within a short time, Gosila began to change and confessed that he wanted to spend the rest of his life serving God. Peter and the other Christians at Malu forgave him for arranging for Charley’s murder and took him into their hearts as a Christian brother. Seeing the tremendous change in Gosila, Ratalo soon arrived in Malu wanting to learn to read the Bible. She, too, soon became a Christian. As Florence returned to Sydney to take care of mission business, the story left her feeling grateful for the faithful Kanaka Christians.
So much had to be done now that the number of missionaries serving with the mission was rapidly growing. Every single thing they needed, from medicines to books, flour, and rope, had to be purchased in Sydney, crated up, and sent out to the islands. It was a huge task, and along with bookkeeping and letter writing, it kept Florence very busy.
Florence prayed daily for the workers in the islands and eagerly awaited mail from them. Sometimes a letter brought encouraging news, like the letter that arrived telling of an elderly Kanaka man whom no one had heard from in the eighteen years since he had left Fairymead, in Queensland. His name was Samuel Jacko, and although he could read only a little and could not write at all, he had gathered his people together and taught them what he knew from the Bible. When he had taught them all he knew, he sent a man across the island to look for missionaries, but none could be found. “Oh I think you, me lose, nobody come along you-me,” he told his little group of followers. Then he thought a moment and added, “No matter white man no come and missionary no come. No matter, Jesus, He stop here!”
Even so, Samuel had kept his ears open for any news of missionaries. Finally the captain of a passing ship who was a Christian told him about the mission work at One Pusu. By now Samuel had seventy followers. He begged the captain to take him to Malaita on his return trip so that he could meet the missionaries and bring someone back to help teach his followers. The captain agreed, and Samuel finally made his way to One Pusu, where he begged for missionaries to be sent to his village. Soon afterward teachers and missionaries were dispatched to Samuel’s village on the island of Guadalcanal.
When Florence heard about this she was amazed at the way a man with little learning could hold on to his faith without any encouragement or additional teaching. She promised herself that she would visit Samuel on her next visit to the Solomon Islands.
Chapter 15
Death and Hardship
It was not until July 1910 that Florence found the time to visit the Solomon Islands once again. During the time she had been in Australia, three people had been murdered at One Pusu, including a small boy, yet the work there was being enthusiastically carried on.
On this trip Florence sailed with her nephew Northcote on the Evangel around the island of Malaita. Their first port of call was Ai’Io, on the eastern side of the island, where they were to pick up Thomas Sandwich, one of three native teachers who were going to start an outpost on Rennell Island, one of the southern islands of the Solomon group. Florence was delighted to see Thomas again. He had been struggling at Ai’Io for four years, working hard among the natives there but with little to show for his efforts.
Nonetheless, when it was time for Thomas to board the Evangel, the people of Ai’Io surrounded him and wailed as he left. He promised to return to them if he could but explained that it was time for the Rennell Islanders to hear the gospel message as well.
Aboard the Evangel, Thomas joined the two other members of the pioneering team: Tommy Makira, a native of San Cristobal who loved to preach and who had accompanied Northcote on many voyages, and Andrew Kanairara, an intelligent student from One Pusu. Florence hoped that Andrew would pick up the Rennell Island language quickly and be able to help the other team members learn it.
The decks of the Evangel were stacked high with palm stems and timber to build a small house for the three men. The men knew they were welcome at Rennell Island, because Northcote had already made five trips there and the islanders had started asking him if someone would come and built a permanent outpost among them.
The Evangel headed southeast along the coast of Malaita in heavy seas. They sailed through the Maramasike Passage to the western side of the island and then set out for Marau Sound at the eastern end of Guadalcanal, where they sought shelter for several days, hoping that the strong winds would abate. Finally, on the morning of August 11, they decided to venture out into the open sea and make a run south for Rennell Island. The Evangel was met by mountainous waves, and after six hours of being battered by them, Northcote decided they should return to the shelter of the sound. As they turned, the winds became a howling gale and the boat was whipped from side to side in the waves. Heavy rainsqualls made it impossible to see land, and the last vestiges of daylight were quickly fading from the sky.
