For thirty-five years Chalmers labored for the salvation of the South Sea Islanders. Six times he was shipwrecked, many times he was on the brink of death at the hands of savages, his two devoted helpmeets had died, the first in 1878, the second in 1900, and Chalmers was left alone and well advanced in years, yet full of energy and zeal in the work of spreading the Gospel. On the Fly River he continued to explore and open new stations, in which work he was nobly assisted by a young Englishman named Oliver F. Tomkins, who joined him in 1901, described as “a man of faith and prayer, mighty in the Scriptures,” just the kind of helper Chalmers needed, and heartily welcomed.
On April 4th, 1901, they went forth on a voyage to visit the Papuan Gulf, and seek an entrance to several tribes which had not been reached. These were described as “skull hunters,” and in going into their territory, they knew they were taking their lives in their hands. But God had won savages as bloodthirsty as them by the power of the Gospel, and the remembrance of this nerved the noble Gospellers to go forward in His Name to reach these also. On April 7th, they anchored in their vessel, the Nine, off Risk Point. Some of the natives came on board, and stayed till evening, Chalmers promising to visit them on shore next day. At five the next morning, a crowd of natives boarded the vessel and behaved badly. Canoes filled with armed warriors surrounded the ship, with bows and arrows, clubs, bamboo knives, and spears, in a threatening attitude. Chalmers had seen such anger quelled before, and decided to go on shore, thinking thereby to induce the natives to return with him. Fearless of danger, the noble soldier of the cross, accompanied by his helper, Tomkins, set foot on the unknown island, and entered the village of Dopima, and that was the last ever seen of them. The Nine sailed along the coast, but could neither see nor find any trace of them. A vessel sent by the Governor of British Guinea to the scene of the massacre learned the sad story of their end, which is briefly as follows:—
Garopo, the chief of Dopima, opposite whose village the ship cast anchor, was the man to suggest the massacre. He called together the warriors of eight other villages and sending forth the canoes filled with his men, invited Chalmers to come on shore. No sooner had they landed, than a signal was given for their massacre, a native from behind striking both the missionaries with a club on the head, which felled them senseless to the ground. Kaitine, of Dopima, then stabbed Chalmers in the right side, with a cassowary dagger, and Murera cut off his head; while Ema beheaded Tomkins. Their heads were taken to Dopima, and their bodies cooked and eaten. Thus ended the life of the man who had given himself to God for the evangelization of the South Sea Island cannibals. Writing of the event, his fellow-worker of earlier days, Mr. Lawes, says:— “Could Chalmers have chosen his end, we do not think he would have had it other than it was. He died at the post of duty. He died while trying to benefit fierce savages, whom his great heart loved.” And in the coming day of review and reward for service rendered to the Lord on earth, the One who knows it best will not fail to recompense the life and service of His noble witness, JAMES CHALMERS, the South Sea missionary-martyr.
May the record of his early conversion to God in the quiet Argyllshire village, his willing response to the heavenly call to go forth with the Gospel message to the cannibals of the South Seas, his arduous years of toil and testimony there, which were closed by a martyr’s death, be used to impress upon you, reader, the blessedness of being saved in life’s early days, saved to serve the Lord who needs and deserves the best and brightest of your years, whether in a lowly path of hidden service in the midst of ordinary duties in the home, on the farm, at the desk, or in high places of the field, making known to those who have never yet heard it, the message of God’s great and glorious salvation.