Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/66

Patteson Patteson was placed in 1838 at Eton, under his uncle, the Rev. E. Coleridge, son-in-law of Dr. Keate, the former headmaster. At Eton, where Patteson remained till 1845, he was not in the first rank as a scholar, but he had great facility in writing Latin verses, and was ‘sent up’ twenty-five times. He was captain of the cricket eleven, a good speaker in the debating society, and showed much strength of character. From 1845 to 1848 he was a commoner of Balliol College, Oxford, under Dr. Richard Jenkyns [q. v.] He was not interested in academic studies, and only obtained a second class; but he was brought into contact with Benjamin Jowett, afterwards master of Balliol, Professor Max Müller, John Campbell Shairp [q. v.], Edwin Palmer, afterwards archdeacon of Oxford, James Riddell [q. v.], the Rev. John James Hornby, afterwards provost of Eton, and Mr. Charles Savile Roundell, who became his lifelong friends. After taking his degree in October 1849 he travelled in Switzerland and Italy, learned German at Dresden, and devoted himself to Hebrew and Arabic. His mind and character largely developed; his intellectual and artistic tastes, which had hitherto been languid, were stimulated into activity, and his remarkable gift for languages declared itself. Returning to Oxford in 1852, he became fellow of Merton, spent the year 1852–3 in the college, where the settlement of a scheme of reform, consequent on the report of the university commission, was greatly aided by his wisdom and liberal temper. He was ordained in September 1853 to the curacy of Alphington, a part of Ottery St. Mary, of which he was practically in sole charge. His influence was beginning to be strongly felt, when the visit of George Augustus Selwyn [q. v.], bishop of New Zealand, in the summer of 1854, determined his choice of a missionary career. He left England with the bishop in March 1855, and landed at Auckland in May.

On Ascension day 1856 Patteson's first voyage to Melanesia began. The scheme of the mission, which had already been begun by Bishop Selwyn, was to take boys, with their parents' consent, from the islands, to instruct them during the summer at the mission school in New Zealand, and to bring them back the next year to their homes. The school was at first at St. John's, some six miles from Auckland; then at Kohimarima, on an inlet of the harbour; and later at Norfolk Island. This island had the advantage of a warmer climate, of proximity to the Melanesian islands, and of being the home of the Pitcairners, who, as descended from the mutineers of the Bounty and their Tahitian wives, had special qualifications for mission-work. Patteson devoted himself to the Melanesian boys, teaching them at once the rudiments of knowledge, of civilisation, and of religion, which they imparted to their families and friends on their return. He refused to regard the natives as an inferior race, and he treated his classes as though they were formed of Eton boys. His Melanesian pupils appreciated his attitude, and his remarkable linguistic powers greatly aided him. He had studied the Maori language on his voyage out, and, although in Melanesia hardly any two islands have the same language, his special talent and the quickness of the boys overcame the difficulty. He selected the language of the island of Mota as most typical in point of idiom, and employed it in the school.

In 1861 he was consecrated bishop, and took the sole direction of the mission, fixing his residence at Mota. The mission was supported partly from his own funds—he retained his fellowship at Merton to the end, and he made over to the mission the money left him by his father in 1861—partly by the Eton Melanesian Society, and partly by an association formed in Australia, which he visited from time to time. The members of the mission received no salaries, their wants being provided for by the mission funds. His influence grew rapidly. He was joined in 1863 by Mr. Codrington, fellow of Wadham College, Oxford; workers from St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and from among the Pitcairners, placed themselves under him; and some of his own pupils became missionaries. The first of these who was ordained was George Sarawia, who had been for some time in charge of the mission at Mota. Patteson worked incessantly from 5.30 A.M. to 10 P.M., teaching, organising, and conducting divine worship. One moment would find him building a house, another navigating his ship, or swimming or cooking, or teaching his scholars to tend sheep or pigs, or cutting out garments for either sex, or arranging a marriage and preparing for its celebration, or leading the cheer for the bride and bridegroom. He deprecated all haste in making conversions. At the same time his labours as a linguist were not neglected. He soon spoke readily no less than twenty-three languages. By degrees the swarm of Melanesian dialects broke up into groups and families, and proved to be varying forms of one language. He used the most patient endeavours to fix the meaning of words, and came to the conviction that the simplicity of structure in the languages was compensated by strict rules, which enabled them to express all modifica-