Publishing Williams' Life and Death
A Martyr’s Death
Williams death on the island of Erramongo would be printed long before an account of his lantern shows. In a way, Williams desire to obtain martyrological material for his lantern shows foreshadowed his own death as a missionary. Eager to expand the influence of missionaries, Williams set his sites on Erramongo in the Vanatu island chain. On the morning of November 20th, 1839, Williams rowed ashore along with James Harris (Williams’ secretary), Robert Clark Morgan (the Captain of the Camden), and Mr. Cunningham (a crew member).[1] Williams was initially frustrated by the islander’s apparent lack of interest in communication, for only a few could be lured into conversation with the trade goods that Williams brought with him. Unbeknownst to Williams, this hesitancy was caused by a string of violent encounters with European traders, Hawaiians, and Tongans who had tried to extract the island’s sandalwood. In the weeks prior to Williams’ landing, a group of European sandalwood traders had kidnapped and killed several Erromongans. Harris attempted to improve communication by going with a group of islanders further inland. Just as Williams proposed leaving the island, Harris reappeared running down the beach being chased by Erramongons. Harris was knocked down and speared through while Williams watched in shock. These few moments of hesitation would give the Erramongans enough time to catch Williams while he was wading toward the boat. Williams was clubbed to death before he could reach it.[2]Word of Williams’ death would reach London Missionary Society supporters in England through the May 1840 issue of the Chronicle. The magazine’s editors noted that
The Director’s caution stemmed from the fact that their source was several steps removed from an eyewitness. Captain Morgan had made it safely back to the Camden. Upon returning to Sydney, his testimony was published in several Australian newspapers.[4] Of these, The Australian made its way to Kolkata, where it was reprinted in the Bengal Hurkaru. The Kolkata newspaper then reached the secretaries of the LMS.[5] A letter to the LMS from Morgan, written a week after the Australian newspapers published announcements of Williams’ death, confirmed the sequence of events described in published sources.Although the Directors have not yet received any direct of official intelligence as to this most painful event, they are unable to entertain any doubt of its general accuracy. But as soon as any fresh and authentic information is received, the friends of the Society may depend on receiving the earliest possible intimation of so mournful and mysterious a dispensation[3]
“The most revolting calumnies”
While the LMS mourned Williams' death in England, news of missionary work in the South Pacific traveled through Catholic circles to France. One Congregationalist missionary in Paris, Mark Wilks, was so shocked by the rumors of a magic lantern show that he assumed it was slander.As the son of one of the founding members of the LMS, Wilks had more latitude than most to imagine the founder’s response to French competition. Wilks inherited his missionary zeal from his father, Rev. Matthew Wilks, who was pastor at Moorefields Tabernacle in London. The elder Wilks knew John Williams personally. According to Richard Lovett, Matthew Wilks encouraged Williams to pursue missionary work and prepared him for life in the ministry.[7] Williams seems to have followed his training insofar as he preached in addition to giving a lantern show. However, the allegation that lantern shows had replaced sermons was enough to make Wilks coil defensively. Wilks could not imagine a situation in which a British, Protestant missionary would resort to a lantern, let alone give it greater precedence than a sermon, so he pinned the rumor on the directors of Catholic Missionary Society, even though the details of the account align with Williams' own account.A consul [of Catholic Priests] is established at Tahiti, who has published in France the most revolting calumnies against the Protestant missionaries of England, and their native converts. The priests even are encouraged to write to the directors of the association for the propagation of the faith for publication in France, that the English missionaries assemble the people in their chapel, and, instead of preaching, exhibit by a magic lantern, the Pope and the Catholic priests burning the Protestants in a furnace. Little did the founders of the London Missionary Society imagine that these groups of islands, which they hoped to rescue from paganism, were to be so soon invaded by missionaries from those “other unenlightened countries,” contemplated among the objects of the Society’s efforts, and embraced by their Christian charity.[6]
Williams’ Posthumous Biography
The timing of Wilks' letter to the LMS suggests that he had not yet seen the official account published in Williams’ posthumous biography, which was edited by Ebenezer Prout and printed in 1843.[8] The table below visualizes the editorial changes made by Prout to Williams letter to his son.[9] Phrases in blue appear only in Williams’ letter whereas phrases in green are only found in Prout’s published version.[10]Letter to Samuel Williams | Memoirs of the life of the Rev. John Williams, missionary to Polynesia |
| Thousands of the people can read, but I must tell you a little about Rarotonga; before however I do this, I must inform you of the prodigious interest the exhibition of the magic lantern produces. [extra space] At the Natural History slides, exhibiting birds, beasts, &c. they were highly delighted. The Kings of England afforded them still greater pleasure, but the scripture pieces are those which excite the deepest interest. The first time [page break] I exhibited, it was at Mr. Murray's station, and then the birth of Christ, Simeon taking Christ in his arms, and the flight into Egypt, and indeed all that had reference to the Saviour excited prodigious interest: but when the plate of the Crucifixion was shown, there was a general sobbing; their feelings were overcome, and they gave vent to them by weeping. I took care to inform them that it was only a representation. This is a very valuable present and I shall ever feel obliged to good Mr. Walker for it. The plates of the Martyrs have given the people a dread of Popery. You will be sorry to hear there are a great many priests about trying to get a footing in the different Islands. I hope and pray they may not succeed. | The following reference, in a letter to his son, will show the use which Mr. Williams made of this valuable preset, with the results. “I may here inform you of the prodigious interest the exhibition of the magic lantern produces. At the natural history slides they are delighted; the kings of England afforded them still greater pleasure; but the Scripture pieces are those which excite the deepest interest. The first time I exhibited it was at Mr. Murray’s station; and then the birth of Christ, Simeon taking the Saviour in his arms, and the flight into Egypt, [page 149] indeed, all that had a reference to the Savior, exited prodigious interest; but when the plate of the crucifixion was exhibited, there was a general sobbing, their feelings were overcome, and they gave vent to them in tears. This is a very valuable present, and I shall ever feel obliged to good Mr. Walker for it. |
Aside from minor changes in punctuation, the differences between the accounts are mainly omissions. The published version of Williams’ account downplays the theological risks of using a lantern for evangelistic purposes. Prout excised Williams’ assertion that the image of Christ was “only a representation” and left no clues that there were portions of the letter that had been erased. The editor also moderated the audience’s emotion by changing “by weeping” to “in tears.” By moving quickly from the audience’s response to Williams’ vociferous praise of Mr. Walker, Prout celebrates the effect produced by the lantern and the immersive viewing experience it structured. The letter in its manuscript and published form speaks to the tensions between immediacy, hypermediacy, representation, and presence that other missionaries would also have to negotiate.
Williams’ legacy
Following Williams’ example, other missionaries would write to the LMS in order to obtain lantern material. The account of Williams’ lantern show in Prout’s biography eventually reached Kovai, India. Inspired by this account, William Addis, a fellow London Missionary Society missionary, wrote to the foreign secretary requesting “a superior magic lantern, something of the sort Mr. Williams procured for his use in the South Seas.”[11] His letter then requests scripture slides produced by Carpenter. Later correspondence reveals that Addis balked at the expense of the equipment; the advertisement that Addis saw must have been old because the equipment cost more than he expected. The total would have been £4 12s after a small subsidy from the Society. In the end, Addis requested that the secretary not send him a lantern, “altho I much regret it, as it would have been useful not merely to the juvenile parts of the congregation.”[12] Addis’ request reveals a significant factor in the global circulation of Carpenter and Westley’s slides. Although Williams’ use of the lantern was praised in his posthumous biography, the Society was hesitant to formally support the use of projection apparati. Instead, Williams (and subsequent LMS missionaries who used lantern equipment) would have to obtain lantern material through para-missionary society friendships.Despite the risks, the lantern would leave a lasting impression. W.G. Lawes, an LMS missionary who visited Samoa almost forty years after Williams, recounted how
I would argue that these memories of visual material cannot be solely attributed to the lantern’s status as a technological novelty, but they also could be by-products of the immersive viewing practices fostered by a pitch black performance space and selectively illuminated images. Though there are no accounts of conversion as a result of Williams’ lantern show, Lawes account suggests that the scriptural lecture would become part of the audience’s spiritual life. The Samoans who were most eager to share their memories of Williams' lantern show had continued to support the Christian community by becoming teachers for the LMS.Some of our Samoan teachers saw a magic-lantern which the Rev. J. Williams exhibited not long before he was killed. They have not forgotten it, but often talk about it, and could describe what they saw now, even though so many years have passed since they saw it.[13]
[1] The Camden had been chartered by the LMS to transport missionaries from England to the South Pacific and to provide inter-island travel for the missionaries.
[2] Anthropologist James L. Flexner offers a material history of the island and of Williams’ death. See “Erromango: Archaeology and the Martyr Isle.” An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu: Kastom and Religious Change on Tanna and Erromango, 1839–1920, by James L. Flexner, vol. 44, ANU Press, Australia, 2016, pp. 17–58. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1q1crx5.10. pp. 22-24.
[3] “Mournful Death of John Williams.” The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle. vol. 18, no. 5, May 1840. p. 246.
[4] These include the The Sydney Herald, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, and The Colonist.
[5] For an extended analysis of the announcement as it appeared in The Australian, The Bengal Hurkaru, and the Chronicle, click here.
[6] “General Chronicle.” The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle. vol. 21, no. 3, 1843. pp. 189-192. Accessed via Googlebooks. 8 April 2019. p. 192. Wilks continues his rant by referencing the hostile take-over of the LMS’s ship, the Duff, by French privateers in 1799.
[7] The History of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895. London: Henry Frowde, 1899. pp. 239-240.
[8] Memoirs of the life of the Rev. John Williams, missionary to Polynesia. Second edition. London: John Snow, 1843. pp. 537-538.
[9] John Williams. Letter to Samuel Williams, 7 February 1839. CWM/LMS/Personal Papers/ South Seas Personal/Box 2. Council for World Mission Archive, School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London, England. 30 June 2016.
[10] I discuss the rationale behind this color-coding strategy here.
[11] Letter to Arthur Tidman from William Addis. February 7th, 1848. CWM/LMS/10/02/04/032. Council for World Mission Archive, School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London, England. 30 June 2016. Tidman added notes in the margin about the price of the lantern. The society would offset the total cost by “25 cent,” leaving Addis with the rest of the 4l 12s bill.
[12] Letter to Arthur Tidman from William Addis, December 6th, 1848. CMS/LMS/10/02/04/032. Council for World Mission Archive, School of Oriental and African Studies Library, London, England. 30 June 2016. The association between children and magic lantern shows stems in part from their use in Britain as part of Sunday School Christmas parties.
[13] W.G. Lawes Report from Savage Island, 1864. Printed in the Juvenile Missionary Magazine. vol. 21, no. 1, January 1865. pp. 14-19. Accessed via Google Books. 20 June 2016. p. 16.
