Collection › The Lutheran Pioneer (St. Louis) › Vol. 47 (1925) › Page 180

The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 180

Concordia Seminary Library, St. Louis (scholar.csl.edu/lutheran_pioneer/47)

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

180

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. .

After a visit to England, Williams, upon his
return to the South Seas, determined to visit the
New Hebrides. He landed on LFrromanga on
November 20, 1839, together with another white
companion. They had scarcely landed, when the
fierce natives surrounded them, felled them with
their clubs, and speared them to death. Then the
brutal savages dragged their bodies into the bush
for a cannibal feast.

When the news of Williams’s death reached the ~
Christian world, the effect was a holy determination
to conquer Hrromanga and the other islands of the
group for Christ. The battle lasted long, and many
martyrs did it cost till the fierce natives of the New
Hebrides bowed in submission to the Cross of the
Savior.

Nine years after the martyrdom of Williams,
John Geddie came to the most southerly island of
the New Hebrides group, Anecityum. Many were

.the trials and dangers through which Geddie and

his faithful wife passed before they were permitted
to see the glorious triumph of the Gospel over the
powers of darkness. When Geddie came to Anei-
tyum in 1848, all its people were heathen; when
he ended his labors on the island in 1872, all pro-
fessed the Christian faith.

A Papuan Village.