1887 JAMES CHALMERS. 1.5pp Autograph Letter of Pioneer Missionary to Rarotonga and Cook Islands.

Very fine 1.5pp ALS from pioneer missionary to New Guinea, James Chalmers [1841-1901], to Dr. & Mrs. Henry Robert Reynolds, President of Cheshunt College. 

James Chalmers was at first a young evangelist in Glasgow in the wake of the 1859 revivals involving Brownlow North, H. Grattan Guiness, etc., Having met George Turner, pioneer missionary to the Samoan Islands, he was convinced of the much greater need of the South Seas.

He attended Cheshunt College under the auspices of the London Missionary Society to prepare for work in Rarotonga and the Cook Islands. He departed for the field in 1866. Chalmers was deeply influential in Rarotonga and was awarded a Rarotongan name, Tamate. He and his wife were perhaps the most generally successful missionaries in the region, pairing a deep, authentic love for the native culture with a deep abiding desire for these beautiful people to experience the love of Jesus. He avoided all hints of Colonial ambition or cultural artificiality. Biographies of his life and ministry were among the best-selling missionary works of the era. 

"Withernsea
8/4/87

Dear Mrs. Reynolds,

For the few happy days I spent at Cheshunt I must thank you. 

We had a splendid meeting at Najing & I think we were all happy. I just wanted to turn the wheel of time & be the youth of other days. I think the present students a truly fine lot of fellows.

I do hope you will both benefit by the short holiday. I thought the Doctor looked as if he required a much longer one.

Kindest regards to Dr. Reynolds & yourself. 

Yours most truly,
James Chalmers."