Delving into history is a risky business and it is very easy to make mistakes— I’d like to correct an error in Rev. Cheol Soon Park’s June column. I think the following information is correct.
Charlotte and John Geddie were the first missionaries sent by Canadian Presbyterians. In 1848 they went to Aneityum in the New Hebrides and served for 24 years. the Geddies moved to Australia in 1870 to complete the translation of the Aneityumese Bible. John Geddie died there in 1872. Charlotte died in 1916 at her home in Victoria, Australia.
Park may have been thinking of John Williams who was the first missionary to the New hebrides. He was sent by the london Missionary Society in 1839 and met a martyr’s death on the island of Erromanga. Erromanga was called the Martyr Isle. George and Ellen Gordon, missionaries from Prince Edward Island, arrived in Erromanga in 1857. they were murdered in 1861. George Gordon’s brother, James, went to take his brother’s place. ten years later, he was murdered.
