r own Southern Seas--the binding of all their children
into a happy league of shareholders, first in one Mission Ship, and
finally in a larger and more commodious Steam-Auxiliary; and, last of
all, in being the instrument under God of sending out Missionary after
Missionary to the New Hebrides, to claim another island and still
another for Jesus. That work, and all that may spring from it in Time
and Eternity, never could have been accomplished by me, but for first
the sufferings and then the story of my Tanna days!

Never for one moment have I had occasion to regret the step then taken.
The Lord has so used me, during the five-and-twenty years that have
passed over me since my farewell to Tanna, as to stamp the event with
His own most gracious approval. Oh, to see a Missionary, and Christian
Teachers, planted on every island of the New Hebrides! For this I labor,
and wait, and pray. To help on the fulfillment thereof is the sacred
work of my life, under God. When I see that accomplished, or in a fair
way of being so, through the organization that will provide the money
and call forth the men, I can lay down my head as peacefully and
gratefully as ever warrior did, with the shout of victory in his
ears--"Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace!"

(_For "Good News from Tanna," see Supplementary Chapter by the Editor,_
p.393.)

CHAPTER XLIV.
THE FLOATING OF THE "DAYSPRING."

RESCUED from Tanna by the _Blue Bell_ in the Spring of 1869, I was
landed on Aneityum, leaving behind me all that I owned on Earth, save
the clothes upon my back, my precious Bible, and a few translations that
I had made from it into the Tannese language. The Missionaries on
Aneitymn united in urging me to go to Australia in the interests of our
Mission. A Mission Ship was sorely needed--was absolutely required--to
prevent the needless sacrifice of devoted lives. More Missionaries were
called for, and must somehow be brought into the field, unless the hope
of claiming these fair Islands for Jesus was to be forever abandoned.

With unaffected reluctance, I at last felt constrained to undertake this
unwelcome but apparently inevitable task. It meant the leaving of my
dear Islanders for a season; but it embraced within it the hope of
returning to them again, with perhaps every power of blessing amongst
them tenfold increased.

A _Sandal-wooder,_ then lying at Aneityum, was to sail in a few days
direct for Sydney. My passage was secu