living and true and only God who had sent them every
blessing which they possessed, and had at last sent us to teach them how
to serve and love and please Him. In wonder and silence they listened,
while I tried to explain to them that Jesus, the Son of this God, had
lived and died and gone to the Father to save them, and that He was now
willing to take them by the hand and lead them through this life to
glory and immortality together with Himself.

The old Chief led them in prayer--a strange, dark, groping prayer, with
streaks of Heathenism coloring every thought and sentence; but still a
heart-breaking prayer, as the cry of a soul once Cannibal, but now being
thrilled through and through with the first conscious pulsations of the
Christ-Spirit, throbbing into the words--"Father, Father; our Father."

When these poor creatures began to wear a bit of calico or a kilt, it
was an outward sign of a change, though yet far from civilization. And
when they began to look up and pray to One whom they called "Father, our
Father," though they might be far, very far, from the type of Christian
that dubs itself "respectable," my heart broke over them in tears of
joy; and nothing will ever persuade me that there was not a Divine Heart
in the Heavens rejoicing too.

CHAPTER LXI.
THE RELIGION OF REVENGE.

ON landing in November, 1866, we found the Natives of Aniwa, some very
shy and distrustful, and others forward and imperious. No clothing was
worn; but the wives and elder women had grass aprons or girdles like our
first parents in Eden. The old Chief interested himself in us and our
work; but the greater number showed a far deeper interest in the axes,
knives, fishhooks, strips of red calico, and blankets, received in
payment for work or for bananas. Even for payment they would scarcely
work at first, and they were most unreasonable, easily offended, and
started off in a moment at any imaginable slight.

For instance, a Chief once came for medicine. I was so engaged that I
could not attend to him for a few minutes. So off he went, in a great
rage, threatening revenge, and muttering, "I must be attended to! I
won't wait on _him_." Such were the exactions of a naked savage!

Shortly before our arrival, an Aneityumese Teacher was sacrificed on
Aniwa. The circumstances are illustrative of what may be almost called
their worship of revenge. Many long years ago, a party of Aniwans had
gone to Aneityum on a friendly visit; but the