James Chalmers

James Chalmers was born on August 4, 1841, in Ardrishaig, Argyll, Scotland. His father was a stonemason, and the family lived in modest circumstances. He was a lively and mischievous boy, with a love of adventure. He was not an enthusiastic student and was often in trouble at school. As a teenager, he joined a gang of youths and had little interest in religion. In 1856, at the age of fifteen, he was moved by a talk about the work of missionaries in Fiji, delivered at his Sunday school. He felt a call, and he decided to be a missionary.

He was converted in a revival in 1859 and joined the Free Church of Scotland. He worked as a clerk in a lawyer's office in Inveraray and later in Glasgow, where he took part in city mission work. He then trained at the Cheshunt College in England and was accepted by the London Missionary Society. In 1865 he was ordained, and with his wife, Jane, he sailed for the South Seas. They were posted to the island of Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, where they worked for ten years. He was a robust man who loved to be among the people and soon learned their language.

In 1877, he was transferred to New Guinea, one of the least known and most dangerous parts of the Pacific. The people there were reputed to be headhunters and cannibals. Many Europeans feared to land. He settled at Port Moresby with Jane and began to work among the tribes. He made a number of journeys of exploration along the coast and into the interior. He traveled in a small boat and on foot and met the people with courage and humor. He took no weapon, and he treated the local people as friends. They gave him the name Tamate, a version of his name Chalmers.

He was an explorer as well as a missionary, and he mapped large areas of the coast. He also served the British government as a guide and was involved in the proclamation of a British protectorate over the region. His journals are filled with accounts of adventure. He was a man who loved people and had a fine sense of humor. He often said that he went to New Guinea because he loved its people. He wrote about his work in a number of books, including Work and Adventure in New Guinea.

His personal life was marked by sorrow. His wife Jane died in 1879 after a long illness, and he was heartbroken. He later married again, in 1888, to Harriet Hercus, a widow. She died in 1900, and he lost another companion. He bore these losses with faith. He was a man who needed companionship and who felt the loneliness of his work.

In 1901 he went on a journey to a district called Goaribari Island, in the Gulf of Papua, in the hope of establishing a mission station. The people of the area were known to be warlike. He was accompanied by another missionary, Oliver Tomkins, and a group of Papuan students. On April 8, 1901, they went ashore and were attacked by a group of warriors. Chalmers and Tomkins were killed with clubs, and their bodies were eaten. He was fifty-nine years old.

His death shocked the world. Some said that his willingness to go among such people unarmed had been reckless. He had known the risks and had accepted them. His example inspired many to take up the work, and the church in Papua New Guinea grew in the following decades. His life shows that courage and kindness can win hearts, and that those who go to the hardest places may pay the highest price.