hey let him go since I was not there. Had I gone there they would
certainly that night have killed me. Again, at midnight Abraham and his
wife and Matthew went to the Mission House, and found Nouka, Miaki, and
Karewick near by, concealed in the bush among the reeds. Once more they
enclosed them, thinking I was there too, but Nouka, finding that I was
not, cried out, "Don't kill them just now! Wait till Missi comes."

Hearing this, Matthew slipped into the bush and escaped. Abraham's wife
waded into the sea, and they allowed her to get away. Abraham was
allowed to go to the Mission House, but he too crept into the bush, and
after an anxious waiting they all came back to me in safety. We now gave
up all hope of recovering anything from the house.

Towards morning, when Miaki and his men saw that I was not coming back
to deliver myself into their hands, they broke up my house and stole all
they could carry away. They tore my books, and scattered them about.
They took away the type of my printing-press, to be made into bullets
for their muskets. For similar uses they melted down the zinc lining of
my boxes, and everything else that could be melted. What they could not
take away, they destroyed.

As the night advanced, Nowar declared that I must leave his village
before morning, else he and his people would be killed for protecting
me. He advised me, as the sea was good, to try for Mr. Mathieson's
Station; but he objected to my taking away any of my property--he would
soon follow with it himself! But how to sail? Miaki had stolen my boat,
mast, sails, and oars, as also an excellent canoe made for me and paid
for by me on Aneityum; and he had threatened to shoot any person that
assisted me to launch either the one or the other. The danger still
increasing, Nowar said, "You cannot remain longer in my house! My son
will guide you to the large chestnut tree in my plantation in the bush.
Climb up into it, and remain there till the moon rises."

Being entirely at the mercy of such doubtful and vacillating friends, I,
though perplexed, felt it best to obey. I climbed into the tree, and was
left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me
as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of
muskets, and the yells of the savages. Yet I sat there among the
branches, as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my
Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than