a strong reinforcement of thirty
additional labourers.

"God, however, for a time, appeared to disappoint all their
expectations; for this hitherto favoured ship was captured by the
Buonaparte privateer. The property was entirely lost, and the
missionaries, with their families, after suffering many difficulties and
privations, returned to England." In addition to this trial "the
Marquesan mission failed. At Tongataboo some of the missionaries lost
their lives, and that mission was, in consequence of a series of
disastrous circumstances, abandoned." More discouragements were in
store, for "those settled at Tahiti, under such favourable auspices,
had, from fear of their lives, nearly all fled to New South Wales; so
that, after a few years, very little remained of this splendid embassy
of Christian mercy to the South Seas. A few of the brethren, however,
never abandoned their posts; and others returned after having been a
short time absent."

In addition to all other disappointments, these returned missionaries
and their brethren appeared to be labouring in vain and spending their
strength for nought. "For sixteen years," we are told, "notwithstanding
the untiring zeal, the incessant journeys, the faithful exhortations of
these devoted men, no spirit of interest or inquiry appeared, no
solitary instance of conversion took place; the wars of the natives
continued frequent and desolating, and their idolatries abominable and
cruel. The heavens above seemed to be as brass, and the earth as iron.

"At length," continues the Christian historian, "two native servants,
formerly in the families of the missionaries, had received, unknown to
them, some favourable impressions, and had united together for prayer.
To these many other persons had attached themselves, so that, on the
return of the missionaries to Tahiti, at the termination of the war,
they found a great number of `pure Atua,' or `praying people'; and they
had little else to do but to help forward the work which God had so
unexpectedly and wonderfully commenced.

"Another circumstance, demanding special observation in reference to the
commencement of the great work at Tahiti, is that, discouraged by so
many years of fruitless toil, the directors of the Society entertained
serious thoughts of abandoning the mission altogether. A few
undeviating friends of that field of missionary enterprise, however,
opposed the measure." Their persuasions prevailed, and after