Mitchell Library

Thomas Lewis’S

Journal

Pathetic Document Secured By Mitchell Library

IN the April issue of the Pacific Islands Monthly reference was made to the sad fate of Rev. Thomas Lewis, one of the original missionaries of the Duff, who arrived in Tahiti in 1798. Since then a portion of his journal, together wi/th other important papers relating to South Seas missions, has been purchased by the trustees of tne Mitchell Library in Sydney and added to the valuable series of docu ments already in their care.

Lewis was the first of the band to fall by the wayside. The sin in the eyes of his colleagues was that he lived openly with a native girl, and he was placed under a solemn ban of excommunication.

The pages that survive in his handwrit ing make sad reading. Even when one takes the intolerance of the period into consideration, one marvels at the bigotry and lack of heart of his comrades. Lewis was later found murdered in his native house some miles from Point Venus.

The journal is incomplete: it com mences on July 7, 1798, and the last entry is dated August 21 of that same year. All through Lewis complains of the “coldness of the brethren.” On Sunday.

July 15, he wrote: “This is the first Sab bath that I have ever spent entirely among the heathen of Tahiti. ... I enjoyed a great share of tranquility.” Again and again he returned to the “British House ’ at Point Venus, only to be shunned by his former colleagues.

Much space is devoted to his quarrel with Rev. J. Jefferson, the head of the missionary band. When Jefferson in chapel, (which Lewis persisted in attend ing), demanded to know if he had had carnal connection with any of the females of Tahiti, he replied: “Is that all you have got to ask?”

After selecting the young lady of his choice (to whom, he decided, he “would abide faithful until death”), Lewis sent for her parents. “I told them solemnly what my intentions were, and how 1 would act towards them all,” he wrote.

“I then delivered to her parents some articles according to the custom of the country.”

When he attempted to shake hands with Eyre, one of the missionary band, the latter refused to do so and was “quite sullen.” Henry Nott, however, readily did so. On returning to the “British House” in August, Nott told Lewis that the society had “determined not so much as* to eat with me.” “I then took my solitary meal.” says Lewis, “and took leave of him.” The last line in his jour nal, unfinished, reads pathetically: “God help me to bear ...”.

With the journal are several additional pages wherein Lewis, in a very con vincing manner, states the reasons that prompted him to take the step he did.

He also included copies of the letters that passed between him and the other missionaries. Throughout his journal he preserved a much more Christian outlook than his former colleagues, and it is, in deed, remarkably free from recrimination or even bitterness. —E.R.

Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Heron, of Tovakun dum Plantation, Rabaul, returned to New Britain from a visit to Australia by the Montoro from Sydney on May 6.