Book Description

Missionary John Williams was killed and eaten by cannibals on the island of Erromanga in 1839. This is his story. The lives of few men afford more ample material for an instructive and interesting biography than that of John Williams, missionary to the South Sea Islands. His fervent, energetic, and successful labors are almost without parallel. The friends of missions everywhere hold him in affectionate and melancholy remembrance as the 'Martyr of Erromanga' The author of the memoir has, without drawing largely upon the facts with which the Christian public are already familiar, written a volume of intense interest. The work is not merely the eulogy, but the history of the active and efficient life of a man whose works constantly spoke his praise, even to the hour of his tragic death on the island of Erromanga. This re-print edition has additional pictures and gives a thrilling capsule history of missionary work on that particular island; how three other major missionaries lost their lives before the islanders at last surrendered to the gospel. Of certain attention is the editor's account of the 2009 "Reconciliation Ceremony." Charles Milner-Williams, great great grandson of John Williams, accompanied by seventeen members of the Williams family, journeyed to Erromanga to participate in this rite. After a re-enactment of the murders, lines of descendants of the cannibals waited their turn to ask the Williams family for forgiveness. This book is enlightening, inspiring, and encouraging.