ide
as good as dead!

For a time, Aniwa was left without any witness for Jesus,--the London
Missionary Society Teachers, having suffered dreadfully for lack of food
and from fever and ague, being also removed. But on a visit of a Mission
vessel, Namakei sent his orator Taia to Aneityum, to tell them that now
revenge was satisfied, the cut in the earth filled up, and a cocoanut
tree planted and flourishing where the blood of the Teachers had been
shed, and that no person from Aneityum would ever be injured by Aniwans.
Further, he was to plead for more Teachers, and to pledge his Chiefs
word that they would be kindly received and protected. They knew not the
Gospel, and had no desire for it; but they wanted friendly intercourse
with Aneityum, where trading vessels called, and whence they might
obtain mats, baskets, blankets, and iron tools. At length two
Aneityumese again volunteered to go, Kangaru and Nelmai, one from each
side of the Island, and were located by the Missionaries, along with
their families, on Aniwa, one with Namakei, and the other at the south
end, to lift up the Standard of a Christlike life among their Heathen
neighbors.

Taia, who went on the Mission to Aneityum, was a great speaker and also
a very cunning man. He was the old Chief's appointed "Orator" on all
state occasions, being tall and stately in appearance, of great bodily
strength, and possessed of a winning manner. On the voyage to Aneityum
he was constantly smoking and making things disagreeable to all around
him. Being advised not to smoke while on board, he pleaded with the
Missionary just to let him take a whiff now and again till he finished
the tobacco he had in his pipe, and then he would lay it aside. But,
like the widow's meal, it lasted all the way to Aneityum, and never
appeared to get less--at which the innocent Taia expressed much
astonishment!

CHAPTER LXII.
FIRST FRUITS ON ANIWA.

THE two Teachers and their wives on Aniwa were little better than slaves
when we landed there, toiling in the service of their masters and living
in constant fear of being murdered. Doubtless, however, the mighty
contrast presented by the life, character, and disposition of these
godly Teachers was the sowing of the seed that bore fruit in other
days,--though as yet no single Aniwan had begun to wear clothing out of
respect to Civilization, much less been brought to know and love the
Saviour.

So soon as I could speak a little to them in th