natives, and a series of hurricanes that destroyed crops and homes. The heathen believed that this scourge of death and destruction had been brought upon them by

the missionaries and their new religion so, on May 20, 1861, a group of natives lay in ambush and, as Mr. Gordon walked up a mountain path, they tomahawked him to

death. Then they went on to the mission house and completed the tragedy by taking the life of Ellen Gordon in like manner.

It was five months before the terrible news reached the Gordon home in Alber- ton, Prince Edward Island. Tradition says that James Douglas Gordon was ploughing in the field when the news came and that then and there he said, “I must take my brother’s place.” He was a student for ministry at the time and he soon

volunteered to go to Erromanga.

Sailing from Halifax in November, 1863, he arrived at his destination the following June. What his thoughts were as he approached Erromanga, we do not know. Neither do we know the loneliness he must have experienced during those first years, especially when he was laid low with fever.

James Gordon was well-equipped to carry on his brother’s work. He, too, was a

tall, strong man, fearless and devoted. He had a keen mind with a special aptitude

for languages. Within a short time he could speak three Erromangan dialects and his translations of Scripture were almost without an error.

New interest in Christianity was awakened by his coming. Between one and two hundred attended services at Dillon’s Bay and native Christians assisted in conduc- ting services at several outstations.

On the 7th of March, 1872 he was busy revising his brother’s translation of the Acts of the Apostles, his native helper working with him. He had reached the 7th chapter, which tells of the martydom of Stephen, when two natives came to the verandah asking for empty bottles in which to carry drinking water.

As Mr. Gordon stood talking with them one stood on the ground facing him and the other, standing at his side, seized the opportunity to plunge his tomahawk into the missionary’s face. Mr. Gordon sprang to his feet and, pushing open the door to his study, fell heavily forward. The manuscript on which he has been working was lying on the floor and, when he was moved, it was found that the last

page was stained with his lifeblood. As has been said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed ofthe church.”

The work of the Gordons proved to be the foundation upon which their suc- cessors built.

Some two miles from Alberton, a stone cairn marks the site of the old Gordon home. In the United Church at Alberton are mementos from the New Hebrides,

pictures of the Gordons and a bronze plaque bearing this inscription: “In honored memory of two missionaries from this congregation, George Nicol Gordon who with his wife, Ellen Catherine Powell of London, England, were killed by the natives of Erromanga May 20, 1861, and James Douglas Gordon who took his brother’s

place and on March 7, 1872 also suffered a martyr’s death.”

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