James Chalmers: Greatheart of New Guinea

[00:00:00] Once upon a time in medieval England, there was a young king who would do just about anything for his favourite knight. They were inseparable. With love at the front of a king's mind,

[00:00:10] instead of war or ambition, you'd think the kingdom would be in for a golden era of peace. But England is headed for the most catastrophic collapse seen for hundreds of years. The saga continues. Join me, Dan Jones, on This Is History,

[00:00:25] A Dynasty To Die For, available wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:01:29] Martyrs and Missionaries is a production of Revive Studios. You're listening to Martyrs and Missionaries. I'm Elise, and in every episode, I'll bring you a new martyr and or missionary, the called and the brave. In this episode, we're covering the

[00:01:43] life of one of the very first missionaries to Papua New Guinea, James Chalmers. Before we begin, I want to give a quick shout out to our latest Patreon, Jacob. Jacob, we are very happy to have you. Thank you so much for your support of the show.

[00:02:16] One more thing is that in this episode, there are depictions of cannibalism. Nothing super gratuitous, but if you have young listeners or are a little bit sensitive to that thing yourself, just bear in mind this is an episode which does feature cannibals and as such,

[00:02:31] brief depictions of cannibalism. James Chalmers was born in Scotland, August 4th, 1841. He's the only son of a stonemason, and there's not really a whole lot we know about him in childhood,

[00:02:44] as often happens. We do know that he was good at sports. He was the leader of this Robin Hood-esque gang, and he almost drowned four times, which in the book that I was reading through, it's kind

[00:02:54] of like an afterthought, but I'm like, how many times is that? Is that a normal amount of times to almost drown as a child? I don't know. Anyway, one time he tried to build a boat,

[00:03:03] and he got taken out to sea, and that was a whole mess, and I think that might have been one of the times he almost drowned. As I was reading through his biography, he reminds me of

[00:03:12] both a mixture of Paul and also kind of like Robinson Crusoe, and as we go through this episode, maybe you will also agree with that. One time as a teen, he hears a missionary from Fiji speak,

[00:03:24] and the missionary from Fiji says, I wonder if there's any lad here who will yet become a missionary? Is there one who will go to the heathen, to the savages, and tell them of God

[00:03:34] and his love? And that stuck with him, so he kind of carried that in the background for a long time, because this is not a moment where he gets converted. In fact, as he gets older, he takes

[00:03:45] a job as a clerk for a local wire, and it's really, really boring. He almost runs away to sea with a friend, but he thinks about how it will affect his mom, and how upset she'll be, and how worried she'll

[00:03:55] be, and he decided against it. And at this point in his life, he had all but abandoned Christianity, but in November of 1859, a revival sweeps through Scotland, and he and his friends, instead of

[00:04:07] deciding to go to the revival, they were going to go, but they wanted to disrupt it. And James was stopped by a friend who asked him to come to one of the meetings instead. And even though he was

[00:04:17] planning on disrupting this meeting, he's really a respectful guy. I guess he didn't want to disappoint his friend, so he decides to go with him. And I'm going to read the account from the

[00:04:26] book here. It was raining hard, but I started, and on arriving at the bottom of the stairs, they were singing, all people that on earth do dwell, to 100. And I thought I had never heard such singing before,

[00:04:38] so solemn, yet so joyful. I ascended the steps and entered. There was a large congregation, and all intensely in earnest. The younger of the evangelists was the first to speak, and he gave his text as

[00:04:49] Revelation 12 17, and spoke directly to me. I felt it much, but at the close, hurried away back to town. I returned the Bible to my friend, but was too upset to speak much to him. On the following

[00:05:01] Sunday night, he was pierced through and through, and felt lost beyond all hope of salvation. But on the Monday, his old friend and pastor came to his aid, leading him to kindly promises and to

[00:05:11] light. The text, the blood of Jesus Christ, his sons, cleanse us from all sin, brought the conviction that deliverance was possible, and some gladness came. And after some time, he felt that God was

[00:05:21] speaking to him in his word, and he believed unto salvation. As soon as he became a Christian, he joined the United Presbyterian Church, and he soon began teaching in the Sunday school, and also evangelized around the city. In 1861, he begins working at the Glasgow City Mission,

[00:05:37] and I'm not entirely sure, but I'm like 80% certain this is the same city mission that Mary Slessor worked at. I have to go back and check my notes, but I think it is. It says that he came

[00:05:47] into personal touch with phases of social degradation, heathenism, well calculated to depress the most buoyant confidence. And he wasn't here for very long before he meets with a reverend who encouraged him to look into the London Missionary Society. And it's now that he remembers

[00:06:03] this missionary from Fiji who asked if anyone would be willing to go to the unreached people. And he sent in an application and was accepted in September of 1862. So things are moving really quickly. And if you remember from the episode that we did on Greenland with Hans Agetty,

[00:06:18] who took like 14 to 16 years from whenever he wanted to be a missionary to whenever he got to go to Greenland, I think he'd be very jealous for how quickly it went for James Chalmers. He prepares to go to the mission field for two years and someone said,

[00:06:32] he gave me the idea of lofty consecration to the divine work of saving those for whom Christ had died. His faith was simple, unswerving, and enthusiastic. And while I could throw a

[00:06:42] giant strength into all kinds of work, he was as gentle as a child and submissive as a soldier. He used to pray for help as if he were at his mother's knee and to preach as though he was

[00:06:52] sure of the message he had then to deliver. Every Sunday during his studies, he walked 14 miles round trip to preach at the furthest mission station from the school. And during this time period, David Livingston was having a profound effect on the Christian mission scene. And James

[00:07:08] really wanted to go to South Africa, but the mission society decided to send him to Rurotonga in the Cook Islands, Northeast and a ways a little bit from Australia. And Chalmers didn't put up a

[00:07:18] fuss. He wasn't that upset. He considered it to be God's will for him. And he threw himself into studying the Rurotongan language as well as medicine and photography. He gets married to a

[00:07:27] lady named Jane in October of 1865, and they sail off for Rurotonga on the John Williams II, who was a missionary to the New Hebrides who was killed and cannibalized in 1839. And I also believe he

[00:07:41] is mentioned in the John Payton episodes, which if you haven't checked those out, I do encourage them and I will link the first one in the episode description. The John Williams ships are not the

[00:07:52] luckiest ships. There's actually a series of seven of them that were owned by the London Missionary Society that were made specifically for the work in the South Pacific. The last ship was actually decommissioned in 1968, which isn't really that long ago when you think about it. Despite several

[00:08:07] storms and setbacks, they arrived in Adelaide, Australia in almost record time, that being 94 days. The average was between 130 to 140 days. And during the voyage, Chalmers got to know the sailors. He hosted several prayer meetings and Bible classes, and some of the sailors even became

[00:08:24] Christians during the trip. They again set sail for Sydney under the convoy of the Presbyterian Mission ship, the Dayspring, which John G. Payton went to see the previous year because it was an

[00:08:34] amazing ship they had prayed for very hard and was made possible by very generous donations back home. Chalmers and company head out towards Ruritanga, but they are shipwrecked on a remote island and

[00:08:45] all of their belongings go down with John Williams II. And after many, many stops, finally on the 20th of May 1867, they arrived in Ruritanga 17 months after they had left Great Britain. After landing in Ruritanga, Chalmers receives the nickname by which he goes for the rest of his life

[00:09:05] when he's in the South Islands and also in New Guinea. He was the first to land and in being carried ashore from the boat by a native, he was asked what name belongs to you so that I might

[00:09:13] call it out on shore. And he answered Chalmers. And the man calls out Tamate, which to me doesn't sound very much like Chalmers, but for the rest of his life he is known as Tamate by both the

[00:09:24] natives and the missionaries. I want to go back a little bit to explain the history of this island when John Williams landed on it many years before. It was a cannibal island and he was actually had

[00:09:36] a great deal of success there. Many people became believers. There was a lot of churches that were built. There was even an institute that was built to help train native pastors to go out to other

[00:09:46] parts of the islands. Now in the recent generations, people had forgotten what it was that God had done for them, how he had radically transformed them from a cannibal island into a place that

[00:09:56] was training pastors to go out to other parts of the islands. Wayward youth were a huge problem. The youth were not interested. In fact, they had actually run out into the bush and were no longer

[00:10:06] living in society and they were doing all sorts of things which we will mention a little bit later. Drunkenness and brawling was rampant and they also had a bad credit system which kept a large

[00:10:16] percentage of the population in debt and this compounded the other issues like the fighting and the drunkenness. Chalmers job was not to tackle this head-on. In fact, he had a completely different

[00:10:27] job and that was working with the institute. His job was to turn it from a financially aided endeavor to a self-supported one and the students were now to be fed and clothed at their own expense.

[00:10:37] Land was cleared and crops were planted and the crops helped to buy the clothing and other necessities that would help to run the institution. And it took about a year or two to do that and it

[00:10:47] was done although it was not easy. And in 1870, Chalmers was able to report on his students as follows, they are making progress in their studies and I believe those at present in the institution know more than any other former students arising from their having time for preparation.

[00:11:03] They are required to prepare for all the classes. They are good earnest men and women, not I hope mere moral characters, but men and women who know what faith in Christ the crucified one

[00:11:13] means. Men and women who having tasted the water of life, who experiencing the joy of believing in the salvation of the soul are anxious that others especially those shrouded in darkness should be partakers of those like blessings. They are anxious to carry the light of truth to the

[00:11:28] dark lands and although we may tremble to think that a real and new advance on the kingdom of darkness is always attended with suffering, they knowing it are also anxious to go. The father will

[00:11:38] baptize them for the hour of suffering. They had 31 students in total, 28 of whom were married men. Mrs. Chalmers took these ladies under her wing. They lived in a communal manner and they even

[00:11:49] learned church history which as we know is very important. Many of them came from other islands and were not native Ruritongans. Now earlier I mentioned that the youth was out living in the

[00:12:00] bush. They were up to no good. They were taking the fruit and they were brewing their own homemade concoctions and Chalmers goes up in there and he dumps all of their stuff out and he makes friends

[00:12:11] with them, surprisingly. They were causing a lot of damage. They were leading believers astray. They were causing so many fights and issues and all sorts of not good stuff. During his time in Ruritonga, Chalmers accomplished a lot. There was a united governments that meant all the different tribes

[00:12:28] from the island came together to agree on a singular form of government which is absolutely incredible. There were multiple mission houses that were built. The institute was self-sufficient and in fact the island itself became sufficient and it was no longer dependent on being in debt

[00:12:45] to these different traders that would come through. There was also non-native control of the churches. Instead of having a missionary for each church, there was a system of native churches that only one missionary needed to oversee and that's huge. There was also a revival. So in 10 years time,

[00:13:04] just 10 years, Ruritonga looks completely different and Chalmers feels that Ruritonga and the surrounding islands are secure. He's been going around to these different places so the mission houses have been set up on neighboring islands. Native pastors have been installed.

[00:13:20] Everything feels great and he gets restless and he wants to go where there's been no missionaries and he leans specifically on the cannibal island of Papua New Guinea. If you were like me a few

[00:13:34] mere months ago, I had no idea there were actually two different Papuas if you will. There's Papua which is now owned by Indonesia and there's Papua New Guinea which is now independent. At this time,

[00:13:48] Papua New Guinea is not independent and Papua is owned by the Dutch because that's where Indonesia was also owned by the Dutch. Papua New Guinea was held by the British who eventually gave it over to the Australians and Papua New Guinea gained its independence in 1975.

[00:14:04] When we think of New Guinea today, we think of a very beautiful island nation as it is the largest island in the world but to those early explorers, it was not such a beautiful sight. Here is how

[00:14:16] they relate their experiences. A country of bona fide cannibals and genuine savages where the pioneer missionary and explorer truly carries his life in his hand. A land of gold yet a land where

[00:14:28] a string of heads will buy more than a nugget of the precious metal. A land of promise capable of sustaining millions of people in which however the natives live on yams, bananas, and coconuts.

[00:14:39] A land of mighty cedars and giant trees where notwithstanding the native huts are made of sticks and roofed with palm leaves. A land consisting of millions of acres of glorious grass capable of fattening multitudes of cattle where however neither flocks nor herds are known.

[00:14:54] A land of splendid mountains, magnificent forests, and mighty rivers but to us a land of heathen darkness, cruelty, cannibalism, and death. We are going to plant the gospel standard on this the

[00:15:06] largest island in the world and win it for Christ and as the gospel has worked such marvels in other parts of the world we felt sure that it could not fail in the home of the Papuan and cannibal tribes.

[00:15:18] They set up a mission house on Wari Island which if you're looking at a map doesn't seem like it's a very suitable location because it's actually off the coast of the main part of the island

[00:15:27] but it gave them greater access to more tribes with a central language and so in December of 1877 they begin building the mission house and there's an incident within 10 days of their arrival.

[00:15:38] An axe belonging to one of the teachers had been stolen and during the search the owner of it ran off for his gun and came rushing over with it. I, that being Chalmers, ordered him to take it back

[00:15:48] and in the evening told them that it was only in New Guinea where the guns were used by missionaries. It was not so on any other mission I knew of and if we could not live amongst the natives without

[00:15:57] arms we had better remain at home and if I saw arms used again by them for anything except for birds or the like I should have the whole of them thrown into the sea. Chalmers himself never relied on anything more formidable than a stout hazel walking stick

[00:16:12] and throughout the whole of his dangerous expeditions the stick was only used as an aid in walking and balancing himself while crossing swamps and other places where the foothold was insecure. There was another misunderstanding with a tribe and a visiting ship. The captain of that

[00:16:27] ship was injured and he shot his assailant dead and the tribe got angry and surrounded the mission house blaming the missionaries for what was happening and the situation was diffused by Chalmers and the matter was settled and they were invited to a cannibal feast and it's,

[00:16:42] I know they didn't participate but it's not clear. I feel like in the book you should make that very very clear. Anyway they began exploring and visiting new tribes and there's a missionary

[00:16:51] who wrote down what it was like for those early pioneers to meet up with tribes that had never before seen a foreigner. He says, I have been amused at the picture of Moffat, Williams and

[00:17:02] the rest can pair with my own experiences. Instead of standing on a beach in a suit of broad cloth with bible in hand the pioneer missionary in New Guinea might be seen on the beach in a very little

[00:17:12] or very light clothing with an umbrella in one hand and a small bag in the other containing not bibles or tracts but beads, jewels, harps, small looking glasses and matches. Not pointing

[00:17:24] to heaven giving the impression that he is a rainmaker but sitting on a stone with his shoe and stocking off surrounded by an admiring crowd who are examining his white foot and rolling up

[00:17:34] his wet trousers he having waited ashore from the boat to see if he has a white leg and then motioning for him to bear his breasts so they might see if he's that is also white. The opening

[00:17:44] and shutting of an umbrella for protection from the sun, the striking of a match, the ticking and movement of a watch, these things cause a great surprise and delight and loud exclamations. As one would imagine dealing with cannibals is tricky business and they had a system that they

[00:18:01] had worked out so as the captain bartered, chalmers would go ashore and chat with the chief and as long as the trading canoes remained alongside the party's landing were perfectly safe. Now if the

[00:18:12] canoes left the vessel you should make sure to get back to the ship as quickly as possible but as long as that was how you did things you were fine. The island they were on was an excellent center for

[00:18:23] mission work but health-wise it wasn't the best and he doesn't say why specifically but my guess would be the mosquitoes. Many of the teachers got sick and four of them died. Mrs. Chalmers who had

[00:18:34] been nursing them also became sick and just continued to worsen and she left the island to hopefully recover in Sydney but on February 20th 1879 a few months after her arrival she passed

[00:18:45] away. In the book it says to the last her mind was bright and vigorous she delighted to talk of missionary work and especially of the scenes and events through which she had passed while in New

[00:18:55] Guinea. At this time Chalmers wrote home the natives learned to love her and would have done anything possible for her and when they heard of her death they showed much sorrow and said she

[00:19:04] ought to have remained with them and if death came let her lie near to them. I left her once for six weeks and during all that time I treated her well many coming daily to see her some with vegetables

[00:19:15] some with fish putting them down and going away not waiting for payment only saying you must eat plenty and when Tomate returns be strong and fat. It was after the death of his wife that Chalmers

[00:19:26] moved to Port Moresby with Mr. and Mrs. Laws with whom he had traveled extensively beforehand. Port Moresby for visual reference is in the south central part of New Guinea and if you are familiar

[00:19:37] with New Guinea missionaries and kind of the history William Laws is a name you'll hear a lot he was an extensive traveler he did a lot of early missionary work he was there before Chalmers and

[00:19:48] he was there after Chalmers. Laws was kept busy translating the scriptures as well as setting up an institute to train native pastors to go into the villages and Chalmers was engaged in pioneer

[00:19:58] work meeting with new tribes and sharing the gospel with them so kind of a cross between an intrepid explorer and a traveling pastor. His first trip out from Port Moresby lasted for 10 weeks it's not an easy social landscape to navigate the tribes were autocratic each chief had total

[00:20:16] control and a person from one tribe could not travel near another tribe without being in danger of losing his life there was constant bickering and fighting and Chalmers thoughts on the whole

[00:20:25] thing were this he had not gone a day's march from Port Moresby before he found houses where on the door hangs a bunch of nut shells so that when the door is shut or open they make a noise

[00:20:36] should the occupants of the house be asleep and their foes come they would on the door being pushed open be woken up spears and clubs all handy the state of fear of one another in which

[00:20:46] the savage lives truly is pitiful to him every stranger seeks his life and so does every other savage the falling of a dry leaf at night the tread on of a pig or the passage of a bird all

[00:20:57] arouse him and he trembles with fear it is often said why not leave the savages alone in their virgin glory only then are they truly happy how little those who so speak and write know what the

[00:21:07] savage life is a savage seldom sleeps well at night he fears ghosts and hobgoblins these midnight wanderers cause him much alarm as they are heard in falling leaves chirping lizards or disturbed birds singing but besides these there are embodied spirits that he has good cause to fear and

[00:21:24] especially that uncanny hour between the morning star and glimmering light of the approaching lord of day the hour of yawning and arm stretching when the awakening pipe is lighted and the first

[00:21:33] smoke of the day is enjoyed savage life is not the joyous hilarity that many writers would lead us to understand it is not all the happy laugh the feast and the dance there are often seasons when

[00:21:43] communities are scattered hiding in large trees and caves into rocks and other villages and far away from their own for chalmers the explorer never superseded the missionary and every true tribe he

[00:21:57] would come into he would present the gospel and many of the tribes were very interested but they had a hard time with the resurrection some of them laughed and others looked very serious and i want

[00:22:08] to take a minute to read uh chalmers description of what religious life was like among the tribes there are three principal deities of the gulf native kevakuku is represented by a large frame

[00:22:19] of wicker work her hat is large and is something like a penguin in shape and when she is consulted in difficult affairs she gives her answers by shaking her head or remaining still a party

[00:22:29] wishing to fight would at once go to the temple with an offering and inquire as to whether they should fight or not and if she would assist them were she agreeable her head would shake

[00:22:38] if otherwise she remained still some say and taupara are made out of blocks of wood and stand outside of some temples and against all the posts running down the center at port

[00:22:48] mooresby the natives say that the spirit as soon as it leaves the body proceeds to a lemma where it forever dwells in the midst of food and beetle nuts and spends the days and nights of endless

[00:22:58] enjoyment eating chewing beetle nuts and dancing even this crude eschatology contemplates a retributive judgment upon those who have misspent their lives most worthless fellows are sent back to small islands there they remained the goddess sees fit to send for them of the port mooresby

[00:23:14] district itself mr laws has written no religious system has been found in this part of new guinea there are no idols and the people are not idol worshippers at all they seem to have no idea of a

[00:23:24] god as a supreme being or as a good spirit the only religious ideas consist in a belief of evil spirits they live a life of slavish fear to these but seem to have no idea of satisfying them by

[00:23:35] sacrifice or prayer they believe too in the deathlessness of the soul but their ideas as to its abode or condition are only vague and indefinite chalmers wanted to continue exploring and going out to places that were really difficult to reach not just spiritually but also

[00:23:51] geographically and the most difficult part for them was carrying food and supplies for the exploration party talmer says they used to envy the holiday travelers in africa with their two or 300 carriers we should have explored new guinea long ago but for the difficulty of carrying when the

[00:24:06] mountains were reached the party had to face difficult and in some places dangerous traveling they would go around the sides of rocks with steep descents below and that was anything but easy and

[00:24:15] they were traveling for hours at a time in streams or ascending and descending mountain torrents which sounds horrible in may of 1887 chalmers and his friends attained the farthest inland point that had ever been reached by any explorer before then more than 500 miles had been traversed

[00:24:33] and more than 40 000 feet had been climbed in one of these journeys they came across a starving tribe that was caused by famine and the children were barely able to crawl and the men and women that

[00:24:43] were stretched out like skeletons the ones that were still able to move they were rooting around fruitlessly for roots and they couldn't leave their own land because they had no peace treaties with the surrounding tribes and in fact one of their neighbors still insisted on slaughtering them

[00:24:58] despite their famished state and they were too far away from port morrisby for chalmers to guarantee supplies so instead he used his name to procure a peace treaty between the tribes which enabled the starving tribe to get food from their neighbors and once the famine was over the

[00:25:13] peace treaty continued without any issue and that's not an easy task in fact a government official wrote about how difficult it was to do this pioneer work he said some of the communities were papuan others were malay or polynesian and all lived in a perpetual state of intervillage

[00:25:30] warfare and under the tyranny of superstition the lack of any definite tribal organization and the matter in which these communities were scattered rendered communication with them infinitely difficult moreover in many places the abuses of labor traffic and the crimes of lawless

[00:25:46] traders had taught the natives to fear the white man as they would the devil had chalmers in this early expedition shown fear or engendered mistrust the whole territory would probably have been

[00:25:56] closed to any but an armed force nor was his work ever really finished for over and over again the wrongful act of some trader would convert peaceful villages into centers of hostility and the whole

[00:26:07] work of restoring confidence would have to be taken in hand again after five years chalmers went back to visit and see how some of those early tribes were doing after he had left teachers moved

[00:26:20] into the mission station continuing the work and the cannibal ovens were gone the skulls were no longer sought as trophies of savage prowess tribes that could not formally meet but to fight now meet

[00:26:30] as friends and sit side by side in the same house worshiping the true god men and women who on the arrival of the mission sought the missionaries lives are only anxious now to do what they can

[00:26:40] to assist them how the change came about is simply by the use of the same means those acted upon in many islands in the pacific the first missionaries landed not only to preach the gospel divine love

[00:26:51] but also to live it and to show a more excellent way learning the language mixing freely showing kindness receiving the same traveling with them differing from them making friends assisting them

[00:27:02] in their trading and in every way making them feel that their good only was sought once upon a time in medieval england there was a young king who would do just about anything for his favorite night

[00:27:24] they were inseparable with love at the front of a king's mind instead of war or ambition you'd think the kingdom would be in for a golden era of peace but england is headed for the most

[00:27:35] catastrophic collapse seen for hundreds of years the saga continues join me dan jones on this is history a dynasty to die for available wherever you get your podcasts online shop on this is a social media and online marketplace integration instagram ebay and co verben und verkaufen

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[00:28:43] made for germany powered by shopify There are so many stories in this book and i'm going to be sharing several of them So here's another one where chalmers had the opportunity to see the gospel preached in cannibal namau

[00:29:06] Which is quite the feat he slept outside on the platform and had a splendid night His friend otter waku was walking through the entire bible It was a strangely weird scene a large dark temple lit only by flickering fire lights

[00:29:19] A crowd of savages real cannibals who pronounce man to be the best of all flesh and whose wives also relish it Skulls in abundance and various courts and at the end in the most sacred places Six cannibals who hold life and death fighting and peace within themselves

[00:29:34] And in the center of the crowd otter waku preaching christ as the revealer of god's love and the savior of sinful men It was the most attentive congregation of the kind i'd ever met they listened well and asked questions freely

[00:29:47] Soon after sunset it commenced and when I sought sleep it was still going on And when I woke to the sun, I found that they were still then perhaps talking and listening

[00:29:56] I went into the dubu and looking at my friend otter waku the former chief from another tribe turned missionary Who was now quite hoarse in the face? I said Ottawa have you been at it all night and he replied yes

[00:30:06] And when I lay down they kept asking questions and I had to get up go on and explain But enough I am now at jesus christ and must tell them all about him And chalmers says yes

[00:30:16] My friend had reached him to whom we all must come for light and help and peace And when ottawa had finished there was but one response from all their lips no more fighting No more man-eating. We have heard the good news and we shall strive for peace

[00:30:31] It's one of those stories that you can just kind of see in your head as you're reading it like happening in real time It's such an incredible story however on the flip side while there's such amazing Miraculous stories that are happening like the one I just told you

[00:30:47] There's also just this other side of life In new guinea and I want to I want to read this to you because it's just it's a different kind of life Two large canoes came in with an average of 15 men in each they were in quest of cooking pots

[00:31:03] They say it is very annoying not to be able to cook their man and sago in pots And being without them a lot of unnecessary waste occurs and the gravy escapes. They have drunk none for a length of time now

[00:31:16] In some way, I just find that story so funny. I don't know why But just the idea of these cannibals being so put out that they can't properly make their gravy just just is amusing

[00:31:27] Another time chalmers was with a friend and they were being invited to this great feast and it wasn't a cannibal feast It was just a regular like pig had been butchered and things like that

[00:31:36] The food looked amazing and as the guy reaches to eat some food chalmers says don't touch anything. These guys are expert poisoners. Don't do it Just the things you have to learn to be able to navigate

[00:31:50] A society like new guinea at this point in time is just mind-boggling So something like cannibals looking for gravy boats wouldn't just put you out of commission like I think if any of us heard that today We would just probably have a total meltdown

[00:32:05] But if you're chalmers, the only missionaries you can't do that So you have to continue working with people that are doing things that are so heinous That and just without any kind of remorse

[00:32:18] I want to take a moment to highlight the native teachers who were trained in the institutes and were sent out to these mission Stations after chalmers have visited them and majority of these native teachers weren't actually from new guinea

[00:32:30] They were from other parts of the south pacific and they came specifically to spread the gospel in some of the toughest mission fields In the world and one of the missionaries wrote about one native teacher in particular whose name was abira

[00:32:44] He says abira has lost his wife and child through the terrible new guinea fever and yet in his loneliness and sorrow He wrote to me the other day and said it is a work of joy to me to be here in new guinea

[00:32:55] Doing the work of christ our master These men and women are the flower of our churches and their faith and wholehearted devotion to christ are worthy of all praise All these teachers who were sent out were appreciated as friends long before their gospel message was listened to

[00:33:11] chalmers writes again missionary labor in new guinea has not only opened up communication with the natives along nearly the whole coastline of the protected territory And far into the interior

[00:33:20] But what is more important has inspired them with confidence in foreigners had the result been different and the natives been made hostile or suspicious None, but armed bodies of men could have ventured into the interior nor could individuals have cruised along the coast in fair security

[00:33:35] Under present conditions a single man Unarmed can go 50 miles into the interior from any point between port moresby and hula in perfect safety Much of this success he adds is due to the native teachers who have been pioneers to break down native superstition and distrust

[00:33:55] In 1887 he visits england He gives reports and he's back in new guinea after 15 months and he dived right back in Doing damage control for all the things that had occurred in his absence in the months of march and april of 1888

[00:34:08] He decided to visit all the stations of the missions east and west and the book says at vaga vaga He saw a change even in the appearance of all the natives

[00:34:17] They were a wild cannibal lot a few years ago. One of the natives who came up spoke a little english We asked if they ate man and he said no we don't eat men now

[00:34:26] We're all fellow missionaries now in the evening at seven a bell rang and some hymn singing was heard They were having evening prayers you cannot realize it savages cannibals murderers now seeking to worship god

[00:34:40] Later that year he gets married again to the best friend of his first late wife who was also widowed And I read this and I thought on one hand. That's really sweet on the other hand

[00:34:52] I don't know that I would like that if that was me personally, I mean theoretically i'm dead. I would never know But I don't much care for it while i'm living moving along

[00:35:00] He starts getting antsy his old stomping grounds are too settled now, and they all have a native teacher And he doesn't write a whole lot during this time So we don't really know what his frame of mind is but in september of 1889 a council was held

[00:35:13] This is an annual council That all the missionaries of new guinea would get together and decide What were the projects for the upcoming year and it was decided that in the next steps of the mission for new guinea

[00:35:24] Chalmers and another man named mr. Savage would head to the fly river And this is quite a bit west of port moresby It forms the international boundary with west papa, which as I mentioned earlier is now owned by indonesia And the book isn't quite clear

[00:35:39] But it seems that before going to fly river he and his wife visited ruritanga again And they visited their old friends there and some of the missionaries in samoa

[00:35:48] And on the trip from samoa back to australia he rode on the same ship as robert lewis stevenson and his wife Robert lewis stevenson whose name really is a mouthful. He's the author of treasure island. Dr. Jekyll and mr Hyde kidnapped etc, etc

[00:36:03] And I mentioned this to my husband. I said this is really interesting. He goes who? So I I put it in there. I feel like we all know who that is

[00:36:10] But just in case he is the author of treasure island and stevenson as soon as he had met chalmers Loved him. He thought he was the coolest guy ever Absolutely obsessed with him. They formed a real sincere friendship and at least we have

[00:36:25] stevenson's letters about chalmers and to chalmers. We don't have anything as far as I know from chalmers to stevenson, but Stevenson's kind of interesting because his faith background like he grew up in a very devout presbyterian home

[00:36:41] And then as he gets older he goes off the deep end and he kind of starts dabbling in a lot of odd stuff And this is not uncommon for writers at that era, I guess But while they're on the ship chalmers does say this

[00:36:53] That he was able to by influence rather than by words persuade him to revise his views of the christian faith As a rule of life and a sure and certain hope There's no evidence that I could find whether or not stevenson became a believer

[00:37:08] He did seem to hold sunday school services at his home in samoa, but it's unclear I do want to include one thing here. Well chalmers was asked what he thought about stevenson He said he had the making of a good missionary gone wrong

[00:37:23] It'd be nice to have a little bit more explanation on that, but we don't so we'll just move along Chalmers was shipwrecked in cooktown and he spent his 50th birthday there and he writes

[00:37:32] I am 50 today and I can honestly say I wish I could take 25 off and begin again the same work My one desire now is stronger than in youth to serve him wherever he commands guess I am older but not really getting older

[00:37:46] I love life as much as ever steady work rough work pioneering or settled a prank a joke a feast a famine All come well as of old When with these young fellows at carapuno and port moresby

[00:37:59] I was as young as they were and cannot think I should tuck my mantle of age around me Guess I should get rid of it in september of 1892 He writes 10 years ago when little was known of the people west of manumanu

[00:38:13] I hoped if god spared my life to introduce the gospel to all the districts as far as oracolo And thought that the work might occupy a fair lifetime. We got to oracolo in january of 1892

[00:38:25] And now my desire has enlarged and I hope yet to carry the gospel to the fly river and westward The plan I have always adopted is to visit frequently get known thoroughly by living with the people

[00:38:36] And through interpreters tell them the story of divine love and so prepare the way for teachers living with them I place no teacher where I have not first lived myself and where I should be unwilling to live frequently

[00:38:49] Chalmers was not the first person to ascend the river and in the course of the 20 years preceding his visit No fewer than four expeditions had been made to the fly river But in every case the explorers had found the natives to be hostile

[00:39:02] And had made no attempt to secure their friendship or to explore either bank So therefore chalmers decided that it was left to him after all to obtain the earliest reliable information

[00:39:12] In regard to the immense and fertile region drained by the fly and its tributaries. The fly river is Gigantic. It's just like you look at on a map and it's not a little river

[00:39:22] It sounds kind of little because fly just doesn't lend one to think it's big but it's it's actually quite sizable So with this in mind He decided to move his headquarters to the mouth of the fly river

[00:39:31] So that he wouldn't have to keep coming back and forth from the other side of papua As soon as they built the mission station, they began to see success Chalmers says that a great wave of blessing has been ours in this district

[00:39:42] Several places where there are no teachers They have regular services and many meetings for prayers pleading that a missionary would be sent to them Here we have some young men who preach christ, but who know not a letter

[00:39:53] Our school average is 54 in school. Now. The greatest punishment is to forbid a child's coming all are getting on well A year later. He said the work grows apace god grant it may go strong a fortnight ago

[00:40:06] I baptized 80 men and women at one of our western stations and 16 others at yam island At this same island they have got from friends and themselves 200 to build a church in september

[00:40:17] We opened a church on darnley island free of debt and now they are going to put up a new mission house of three rooms They are going to do the same elsewhere and here at jossa. We have opened new churches free of cost

[00:40:28] A few months later chalmers said that his hands and heart were full He had witnessed a great spiritual awakening hundreds were being baptized and gathered into the fellowship of the church Soon they decided to move the mission station yet again to a place 40 miles south called daru

[00:40:43] And the decision to do this seems to be primarily for health In fact chalmers and his wife had to be relocated to a place called thursday island so that their health could improve But the book says that in the case of mrs

[00:40:54] Chalmers at least this trip was ineffectual and after a long illness this devoted woman succumbed at her post Chalmers writes she had been ill for 14 weeks and had suffered much during these weeks her faith strengthened

[00:41:06] Her faith strengthened her love increased and her desire to depart and be with christ intensified One of her last sayings was jesus is near and again. Jesus is very near She was conscious nearly to the end

[00:41:19] She prayed that she might be buried on daru and not at the old mission station and her desire was granted I felt at sea a kind of wanderer. I returned to the fly river and to work

[00:41:30] Pray for me that more of christ be revealed in me and through me In another letter he writes god bless and reward you for your kind consoling words He has not erred yet

[00:41:39] It is strange and to be explained hereafter we had dreamt of a little rest together in a cottage out of london somewhere Before we crossed the hood. We shall dream them no more She waits on the other side as she said I shall be waiting for you all

[00:41:53] I like dreaming never mind though. They are never realized another dream was to visit china and japan and cross america Perhaps in the other life we may do it with ease

[00:42:02] She was a grand good loving woman a true faithful loving wife a real devoted worker and all for christ How anxious she ever was that the teachers should preach christ more faithfully After the death of mrs

[00:42:16] Chalmers, he declined an invitation to go back home and grieve and he said he was much too attached to new guinea And that while his health was good. He wanted to see the work through

[00:42:25] At this point in time there were 26 preaching stations along the bakes the fly river And chalmers wanted to live long enough to see both sides of the river occupied by mission stations a hundred miles up In 1900 oliver thompkins came to daru to help chalmers with the work

[00:42:41] He even nursed chalmers back to health during a bout of illness and chalmers said that no son could have treated me with more kindness Than he did At the annual committee meeting of the new guinea missionaries

[00:42:51] It was decided that they would send chalmers and thompkins to the arid river It was the only gap left in their supply chain of mission stations It was 60 miles from one station and 80 miles from the other And so on april 7th 1901 they arrived at their destination

[00:43:08] And here is part of the account from thompkins journal In the afternoon, we were having a short service with the crew when about 20 canoes were seen approaching They hesitated as they got near to us. So we were able to assure them that we meant peace

[00:43:21] Gradually one or two of the more daring ones came closer and then alongside till at last one ventured on board Then in a very short time we were surrounded by canoes on this our first visit

[00:43:32] We were able to really do nothing more than establish friendly relations with the people They stayed on board about three hours examining everything from the ship's rigging to our shirt buttons They tried hard to persuade us to come ashore in their canoes

[00:43:45] But we preferred to spend the night afloat and promised we would visit their village in the morning What happened next was discovered only a month later during an expedition By the lieutenant governor of the colony and it was written down by the pastor who accompanied him

[00:43:59] The ship was anchored off kisk point on april 7th and a crowd of natives came there And as it was near sunset chalmers gave them some presents And made signs that they were to go away and the next day he would come visit them ashore

[00:44:12] At daylight the next morning a great crowd of natives came off and crowded the vessel in every part They refused to leave and in order to induce them to do so chalmers gave them gave bob the captain orders to give them presents

[00:44:24] Still they refused to move and then chalmers said he would go ashore with them And he told thompkins to remain on board the latter declined and went ashore with chalmers Followed by a large number of canoes

[00:44:35] When they got ashore the whole party were massacred and their heads were cut off The boat was smashed up and their clothing distributed All the bodies were distributed and eaten thompkins was not the only one

[00:44:45] Distributed and eaten thompkins being eaten at the village of dopima where they were all killed and the body of chalmers being taken to toro terry His excellency informs me that the fighting chief of toro terry was the man that killed chalmers

[00:44:58] No remains of the body could be found though. They searched diligently for them, but we found chalmers hat and pieces of the smashed boat The news of chalmers martyrdom was the cause of worldwide grief

[00:45:10] Newspapers all over the world proclaimed that the great heart of new guinea was dead On ruritanga and in new guinea they awakened in the hearts of many of the native teachers

[00:45:19] A great desire that they should be allowed to give themselves to the completion of the work on the arid river Which had been chalmers last One of chalmers friends and a faithful companion in much of his earlier work in new guinea wrote to one of the missionaries

[00:45:33] I have wept much my father tomate's body. I shall not see again But his spirit we shall certainly see in heaven if we are strong to do the work of god thoroughly And all the time till our time on earth shall finish hear my wish

[00:45:46] It is a great wish the remainder of my strength. I would spend in the place where tomate and mr Tompkins were killed in that village. I would live in that place where they killed men jesus christ's name and his word

[00:45:57] I would teach to the people that they may become jesus children My wish is just this you know it I have spoken Only a week or two before chalmers had written to his friend time shortens and I have much to do

[00:46:11] How grand it would be to sit down in the midst of work and just hear the master say your part finished come And that is exactly what happened I want to share one more quote with you to wrap up this episode

[00:46:30] This comes from william laws who I mentioned earlier was one of the great pioneers of new guinea missions He was there before chalmers and he was there after chalmers and he says this

[00:46:40] On the first sabbath in every month not less than three thousand men and women gather around the table of the lord Devoutly reverently commemorating the event which was so much to them and to the world

[00:46:52] Many of them he knew as savages in the days of feather and paint now clothed and in their right mind The wild savage look is gone. They formed part of the body of the lord jesus christ in his church

[00:47:03] Many of the pastors who presided at the lord's table were new guineans And the new guineans might often be seen to bear on their chest the tattoo marks Which indicated that their spears had been imbibed with human blood

[00:47:14] Now there was a band of 64 new guinea teachers preachers and missionaries Shirley tomatay and his colleague had caused a rejoice over these results as great spoil As always, thank you for listening to our missionaries. I'm elise

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