A Missionary Who Kept Up

His Diary To The Last

The diaries of a missionary, who spent 35 years in Samoa in the 19th century, are among the latest documents to be microfilmed for the member libraries of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, of the ANU in Canberra. The diaries were kept by the Rev Henry Nisbet, who went to Samoa for the London Missionary Society in 1841 and died there in 1876 They have been copied on three reels of microfilm and catalogued as PMB [ , , . 7 070 , Nisbet was born 1818 and became associated with the LMS in his 18th year He had barely reached his ma,ority when he was appointed as a missionary to Tanna. New Hebrides. He sailed from England in August, 1840 and reached Sydney in the following January; but instead of sailing direct to the New Hebrides he went on to Samoa.

In January, 1842 he sailed for Tanna in the mission ship, Camden, but returned to Samoa early in the following year. In 1846 and 1848 Nisbet visited Niue, the New Hebrides and the Loyalty Islands on behalf of his

mission. During his 1848 tour, he chose the island of Aneityum as a suitable site for a mission station, and it was there that the Rev Dr John Geddie of Nova Scotia opened a mission for the Presby terian Church in May of that year.

In 1850, Nisbet took charge of the LMS mission station at Sapapali’i, Samoa, and in 1859 he became head of the seminary at Malua. Eight years later he journeyed to England for his first visit to his homeland in 26 years.

He subsequently paid a long visit to Canada, and returned to Samoa by way of England at the end of 1870. Most of the remaining years of his life were spent in Samoa.

Nisbet kept a daily diary until 10 days before his death, and, although they seldom contain more than brief accounts of his own activities, they will undoubtedly be of considerable value to scholars interested in Samoa and the work of the LMS. Some letters from Nisbet to his second wife, Lydia Lantoret, are included in the microfilms.