| Activity | Scottish engineer who became a London Missionary Society evangelist, working in Lifou in the Loyalty Islands, (French) New Caledonia from 1859. Following French government demands for his removal, in 1871 he sailed from the Loyalty Islands to open reconnoitre New Guinea, later publishing on a return to England his ‘Story of the Lifu Mission’ (1873). Believing New Guinea unfit for European settlement, Torres Strait (Murray Island) became the mission centre. Macfarlane made numerous journeys into New Guinea, establishing missions but creating discord with fellow missionaries who chose to live among their congregations – including Chalmers. He returned to England in 1886 and published ‘Among the Canibals of New Guinea’ (1888).
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