This past week I came across the story of Henry Nott. I want to say I had heard his name before, but I’m not sure, so I will say this was the first time I ever heard of him. And what a story! And how it makes me search my heart. For the whole story, go here.
Henry Nott (1774-1844) was an English missionary to Tahiti. He was in the first group of missionaries sent out by the newly organized London Missionary Society (formed at the suggestion of William Carey). He arrived in Tahiti in 1797 and spent the rest of his life there. He returned to England only two times during 47 years on the field.
Tahiti – we thought we knew ye
Ahhhh Tahiti. The only thing keeping it from being considered paradise is that they speak French there! Seriously, for this Hawaiian boy, Tahiti is like the mother-lode. It is one corner of the triangle that is Polynesia and the first settlers in Hawai’i came from Tahiti and/or the Marquesas. The early sailors loved it so they often deserted ship. Robert Louis Stevenson moved there. Paul Gauguin moved there. Tahiti, island paradise. Right?
Not so fast.
“It would be difficult to exaggerate either the beauty of the island or the depravity of its inhabitants. A scene of unsurpassed beauty presented itself to the missionaries: verdant valleys and stupendous mountains, the rich foliage of the breadfruit tree, the luxuriance of the tropical pandanus, the waving plumes of the lofty coconut groves, the exquisite lacery of enormous ferns, and, around it all, the white-crested waters of the Pacific, rolling their waves of foam in splendid majesty upon the coral reefs or dashing in spray against the broken shore. It was of such a scene that Bishop Heber wrote: "Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile." The Tahitians wallowed in the abyss of sorrows into which flowed the contaminations and corruptions of barbarism.”
Concerning the lechery of the Tahitians, Capt. Cook, said: "There is an abyss of dissolute sensuality into which these people have sunk, wholly unknown to every other nation and which no imagination could possibly conceive." ~ This was written by a sailor!
I can sum up the spiritual state of the Tahitians, their immorality and violence, in a few words: Unimaginable. Unspeakable. Indescribable. Unfathomable. Such depths of depravity! (The link above offers a few particulars) “It was among such a people that the missionaries began their apparently hopeless labors.”
Henry Nott
Henry Nott was a bricklayer who felt called to Tahiti and was among that first group of 30 missionaries sent out by the London Missionary Society, 17 of whom destined for Tahiti. He doesn’t appear to have had any special training. They recruited. He responded. They prayed for him. And off he went!
Their ship arrived and they went ashore. No one was waiting for them. No one expected them. The ship left to deposit the other missionaries and they had to wait five years for fresh supplies! During the five-year wait, several of his fellow missionaries deserted, died or were killed, or seemed to go mad. By the beginning of 1810, Henry Nott was all alone - the only missionary still in Tahiti.
After thirteen years he is the last man standing. What kind of man is this? Oh, not only is he left alone, so far he has had no converts. He didn’t see his first convert until he had been in Tahiti 22 years!
I am amazed and impressed beyond measure at the man and the grace of God at work in him. How would I have responded? being dropped off in a land so far from home? among a people so desperately wicked? who made it clear they didn’t want me there? and with no fruit for my labors?? I’m too embarrassed to write it down. How did he respond?
He was "troubled ... persecuted ... cast down ... but not in despair," for he believed that the cause of Christ would one day triumph. Looking up at the majestic mountain, called "The Diadem," he said: "That mountain is symbolic. It is a prophecy. This island will yet become a diadem of redeemed Tahitian jewels." This is a hero!
What was he doing all this time? Learning the language (so he could preach in their own tongue), praying, and preaching everywhere. And when the people did begin to respond, he increased his preaching circuits and also established schools everywhere. What was his message? John 3:16 seems to have been a favorite passage. But he was also diligent to teach them “to repent and bring forth fruit worthy of repentance.” All the while he was working on translating the Bible into Tahitian - he finished that too.
Eventually, people began to respond and turn away from their idolatry. His fellow workers began to return to the field and finally, a baptism! And then souls began to pour into the kingdom. “Thus, after more than two decades of tears and toil, occurred the first baptism in Tahiti. Twenty-two years of hardships and disappointments, and Henry Nott began to see the travail of his soul satisfied. In all the thrilling annals of missionary heroism, is there to be found anywhere a devotion to duty in the face of manifold perils, a fortitude under accumulated sufferings, and a fidelity that held on so long with no evidence of harvest, to surpass that of the bricklayer of Tahiti?
The harvest was at last ready and the reapers were busy. During the ensuing decade hundreds of baptized Tahitians became eager students of God's Word and earnest seekers of souls. Some of them, and also some of the missionaries, went forth to take the gospel to Borabora, Raiatea, Huahine and other dark islands.”
What an amazing story! How convicting and how encouraging!
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