Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 11, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume III

FATHER DAMIEN
of Catholic testimony ; in no ill sense, but merely
because Damien's admirers and disciples were the
least likely to be critical. I know you will be more
suspicious still ; and the facts set down above were
one and all collected from the lips of Protestants
who had opposed the father in his life. Yet I am
strangely deceived, or they build up the image of a
man, with all his weaknesses, essentially heroic, and
alive with rugged honesty, generosity, and mirth.
Take it for what it is, rough private jottings of the
worst sides of Damien's character, collected from the
lips of those who had laboured with and (in your
own phrase) ' knew the ntan ' ; — though I question
whether Damien would have said that he knew you.
Take it, and observe with wonder how well you
were served by your gossips, how ill by your intelli-
gence and sympathy ; in how many points of fact
we are at one, and how widely our appreciations
vary. There is something wrong here ; either with
you or me. It is possible, for instance, that you,
who seem to have so many ears in Kalawao, had
heard of the affair of Mr. Chapman's money, and
were singly struck by Damien's intended wrong-
doing. I was struck with that also, and set it fairly
down ; but I was struck much more by the fact that
he had the honesty of mind to be convinced. I may
here tell you that it was a long business ; that one
of his colleagues sat with him late into the night,
multiplying arguments and accusations ; that the
father listened as usual with 'perfect good-nature
and perfect obstinacy ' ; but at the last, when he was
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