The Chalmers Arrived at Rarotonga Aboard a Pirate Ship
The irrepressible missionary died a martyr in Papua.
“ON MAY 20, 1867, we anchored in the harbor of Avarua. I was the first to land, and on being carried ashore from the boat by a native, he asked, ‘What fellow name belong you?' so that he might call it out to the shore. I answered, ‘Chalmers,' and he roared out ‘Tamate;' hence the name.”
That is how James Chalmers described his landing on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, on this day, 20 May 1867. He and his wife, Jane Hercus Chalmers, had left England more than sixteen months earlier. Along the way, they were shipwrecked and completed the journey aboard the pirate ship of Bully Hayes. The pirate was so impressed with Chalmers, he allowed him to hold religious services and even ordered his crew to attend!
The Scottish-born Chalmers had first vowed to become a missionary in 1856 when he was fifteen, excited by the reading of a mission letter from Fiji. However, not yet a Christian, he soon became a gang leader instead, engaging in many fights with neighboring villages. One day he determined to break up an evangelistic meeting. A friend pleaded with him to attend the opening meeting to see if his project was worthwhile. Chalmers obliged. During the meeting, he became convinced of his sinfulness but doubted there could be pardon for him. A local minister assured him that Jesus’s blood could cover all wickedness—even his. He believed that day and soon began sharing the Gospel with others.
Chalmers now remembered his vow to become a missionary. Although he had never been a good student, he took courses from the London Missionary Society to prepare for mission work. Fellow students remembered him more for his practical jokes than for scholarship. He once terrified everyone by appearing in the dining hall in the dark dressed in a bear skin and growling horribly!
After close to a decade on Rarotonga, which was already partly Christianized, Chalmers transferred to Papua. There cruelty, warfare, and cannibalism were the norm. Chalmers’s life was in continual danger as he carried the Gospel along the steamy coasts. More than once he had to pluck clubs and spears out of enemy hands.
During these years, author Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island) spent several weeks aboard ship with Chalmers. “He took me fairly by storm for the most attractive, simple, brave and interesting man in the whole Pacific,” he wrote. He felt that if he had known Chalmers earlier, he would have employed his own life differently.
Stevenson had no further chance to speak with Chalmers. In April 1901, armed Papuans of the Aird River Delta poured onto the mission boat. To get them to leave, Chalmers promised to come ashore next morning. His young co-worker Oliver Tompkins insisted on accompanying him, as did ten heroic native missionaries. The Papuans promised the missionaries a feast, led them to a large house, and clubbed them from behind. Cooked with sago, their bodies formed the main course of the promised feast. Chalmers had served thirty-three years in the Pacific, but Tompkins was a novice fresh from England.
—Dan Graves
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A story from the modern island of New Guinea is told in YembiYembi: Unto the Nations. Watch at RedeemTV.
Yembi, Yembi and The Yali Story (also about the Island of New Guinea) can be purchased at Vision Video