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National Library News |
by Elaine Hoag,
Rare Book Bibliographer,
Research and Information Services
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Map of Aneiteum. |
Off the northeast coast of Australia, at the very tip of the New Hebrides chain, lies the tiny island of Aneiteum. For decades, European sandalwood traders had plundered the island, terrorizing the natives and scattering diseases in their wake. Then in 1848, a Canadian Presbyterian missionary named John Geddie (1815-1872) and his family arrived in Aneiteum — not to exploit, but to enlighten.
At first, Geddie’s attitudes differed little from those of the sandalwood merchants. In his travel diary he confessed how greatly he feared "the inveterate prejudice, the repulsive arrogance, and deep-rooted superstition of a barbarous people," and how he dreaded "the drudgery [of] acquiring a barbarous language and moulding into characters ... a tongue never committed to writing before."
But Geddie soon grew to respect the people he had come to convert, discovering the Aneiteumese vocabulary to be so rich that he seldom needed to invent new words for his religious concepts. And if Geddie was forced to eat his words, the Aneiteumese, in a very different way, ate theirs too. As Geddie struggled to learn the language, the natives refused to give him the words he asked for, unless he supplied food in exchange — one biscuit per word!
 Anelgauhat. |
Geddie firmly believed that "printing is to modern missionaries almost what the gift of tongues was to the apostles of old." To prepare for his missionary work, Geddie had spent a year as an apprentice printer in Nova scotia, at the offices of Pictou’s Eastern Chronicle. Before he left for the South Seas, he obtained a press from a Scottish benefactor, purchased type in the United States, and picked up some paper in Samoa. Just four months after he arrived in Aneiteum, he proudly "struck off" three hymns in Aneiteumese along with an alphabet and a syllable sheet. The following year, Geddie printed 2 000 copies of a 12-page elementary text book — an optimistically large print run, considering that his scholars numbered half a dozen at the time! The Aneiteumese catechism and scripture translation proved a far greater challenge, but one that Geddie welcomed:
The study ... is one of intense interest and delight. Those are privileged indeed, whom God permits to prepare the key, which shall unlock the hidden treasures of divine truth, which makes the soul rich to all eternity.
By 1853, Geddie’s school boasted 120 pupils. A number of satellite missions had been established on the island, and Mrs. Geddie’s letters that year speak of "a constant demand for books". To satisfy this growing need, Geddie printed 3 000 copies of his elementary textbook, catechism, and scripture selections in a single volume. However, the mission press could not handle the length and complexity of the Aneiteumese Gospels, so Geddie was forced to send The Gospel According to St. Mark to Sydney to be published by the British and Foreign Bible Society, while Luke was sent to London. By 1856, Geddie had trained a number of native youngsters as apprentice printers, and he had obtained a larger press and brand new type from Scotland, along with a large supply of paper from the British and Foreign Bible Society, enabling him to print his translation of Matthew on his own press in January 1857. Geddie commented in his journal:
The large and clear type will make it a favourite book with the natives. I feel more than ever convinced of the wisdom of using superior type for our first books. The small and worn out type with which books for natives are too often printed is perhaps one of Satan’s devices to retard their progress in saving knowledge ... The time has now come when translating the scriptures and printing them, must become an important part of our work.
The Gospel According to St. John, the Acts of the Apostles and three Epistles followed — all printed on the mission press. Once the entire New Testament had been translated, Geddie sent the text to the offices of the British and Foreign Bible Society in London to be printed. Perhaps he desired a more professional product, sanctioned by this illustrious body.
In 1864, Geddie and his family were granted a sabbatical. They chose to return to Nova Scotia; so, for the first time in 16 years, Geddie experienced a Canadian winter — and the Canadians experienced Geddie. A crowd gathered at the frozen harbour in Pictou, eager to watch the exotic South Seas missionary skate! They were not disappointed; he had not forgotten.
While traveling through the Maritimes and Quebec to promote his mission, Geddie found time to translate The Book of Psalms. And he decided that this book would not be printed in London, or Sydney, or Aneiteum — but in Halifax by James Barnes, who was serving as printer for the Presbyterian Church in Nova Scotia at the time. Two thousand copies of the 96-page Psalter were printed at a cost of £118; of that sum, £95 had been raised by the Aneiteumese through the cultivation and sale of arrowroot, so great was their desire for the printed word, and the word of God.
The National Library of Canada is fortunate to hold two copies of this rare item. One copy is humbly but neatly and strongly bound in blue-grey cloth, grained to resemble crushed morocco. Copies in this binding were probably intended for the pupils and teachers on Aneiteum. The second copy is bound far more elaborately in deep purple leather. Both boards are stamped in blind, their edges modestly tooled in gold. The spine has five raised bands, although these are purely for show (the book is not sewn on raised supports), while decorative endbands of gold and orange silk have been affixed at head and tail. The endpapers are marbled, pale blue and black in a nonpareil pattern. The entire text block has been gilded, and the title stamped in gold on the upper board. This quietly elegant copy, which may have been intended for presentation to a clergyman or a benefactor of the mission, provides a nice contrast to the sturdier copy, meant for use in the mission field.
Geddie returned to Aneiteum in 1866, and though he continued to supervise the mission and translate portions of Scripture, long years of labour on the island had seriously weakened his health. He was in the midst of seeing the Old Testament through the press when he died at the age of 58.
Bibliography
Bible. O.T. Psalms. Aneityum. Nitasvitai irai salm is aged a Tevit Natimarid irai upu Isreel. Halifax : J. Barnes, 1865.
British and Foreign Bible Society. Library. Historical catalogue of the printed editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society. New York : Kraus Reprint Corp, 1963.
Geddie, Charlotte. Letters of Charlotte Geddie. Truro, N.S. : s.n., 1908?
Johnstone, Wm. E. Life of Rev. Dr. John and Mrs. Geddie. Summerside, P.E.I. : s.n., 1975.
Miller, R.S. Misi Gete : John Geddie, pioneer missionary to the New Hebrides. Launceston, Australia : Presbyterian Church of Tasmania, 1975.
Patterson, George. Missionary life among the cannibals : being the life of the Rev. John Geddie. Toronto : J. Campbell, J. Bain and Hart, 1882.