The Yield

Reverend Ferdinand Greenleaf—founder of the Prosperous Mission—writes to Dr. George Cross of the British Society of Ethnography in 1915. Greenleaf recalls their most recent interaction at the World’s Fair in Chicago, in which he refused to supply the “measurements” of his Aboriginal Australian residents to Cross’s exhibits because he found it demeaned his “brothers.” Seeming troubled, Greenleaf confesses he has doctored his own accounts of life among the indigenous people of New South Wales but intends to tell all now. The reverend believes his life will soon end and hopes Cross can assist him in helping the people of Massacre Plains before it is too late, no matter the personal risk.

Recently, Greenleaf rediscovered the Bible he brought with him to Australia as a young boy traveling with his parents. Inside was a newspaper cutting from Greenleaf’s 13th birthday detailing Foucault’s proof that the Earth rotates. Like the physicist, the reverend has wanted to prove that God’s light can save anyone, even the Aboriginal Australians. After 34 years working in Australia, the government has taken control of the Mission despite the Bishop’s recent acknowledgement of Greenleaf’s service. The night before his dismissal, Greenleaf dreamed he was trying and failing to build something. He woke to the sound of armed townsmen outside his home, apparently threatening his life. Believing they will return and hang him eventually, Greenleaf intends to confess the “unhandsome truth.”