"At our arrival we were led to the bed of Temaree, called also Orepiah, and beheld such a spectacle as we had never before seen. Brother Broomhall began immediately to apply what he had prepared with a carnel’s-hair brush over most part of his body. He was apparently more passive under the operation than we could conceive a man in his situation could be capable of. The night drawing on, we took leave of him by saying we would return in the morning with a fresh preparation. On the following morning... we were struck with much surprise at the appearance of the patient; he was literally daubed with something like a thick white paste. Upon our enquiry we found it to be the scrapings of yams. Both the chief and his wife seemed highly offended at Brother Broomhall’s application the preceding evening, and they denied his doing anything more for him, as he had felt so much pain from what he had already done. It was said there was a curse put into the medicine by our God."

The poor missionaries were scared beyond expression, for they saw the imminent danger that some native, in a moment of superstitious anger, might offer them as a sacrifice to the injured native gods; but they returned bravely to their duty, until Tu’s appearance proved too much for their nerves.

"In less than an hour [we] returned to the patient. Otoo and his wife were then riding in their usual style about the house with a train, or, more properly, a gang of the greatest villains on the island. They confronted that part of the house where we were assembled. Brother Broomhall and myself were at the foot of Orepiah’s bed. I asked him to go out, and we would speak to the king. We went out, and I, with one of the usual salutations, addressed him. It was returned with a

Indigenous Histories