ession accomplished the first and apparently
most laborious part of this task; instead of which a large class of
writers find a species of satisfaction in thinking nothing but evil."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

A HAZARDOUS EXPLOIT.

Mr Bent had been waiting for my recovery to restore Alea to her father,
and to revisit the newly-established Christian community in her native
island. It was important to lose no time in doing this. Mary Bent
would have accompanied us; but as her father proposed being absent only
a short time, and as the inconveniences of voyaging in a native canoe
were very great, he wished her to remain at home. She was, however, not
alone; for the widow of a missionary resided with her, and shared her
onerous duties in instructing the native girls, an occupation in which
both ladies took the greatest delight. All the inhabitants of the
island now, it must be understood, professed Christianity, and might
justly be called thoroughly civilised. Many also were true and sincere
believers; so that these two English ladies, left alone on a small
island of the Pacific, felt as secure as they would have done in the
centre of civilised England.

As we drew near her father's island, Alea showed considerable
trepidation and anxiety as to the way in which she would be received.
She could not persuade herself that one from whom she had fled so short
a time before, and left a fierce, ignorant heathen, would be willing to
forgive her, and treat her with kindness. Might he not also, after all,
compel her to become the wife of the cannibal chief to whom she had been
betrothed? That was the most dreadful thought. Mr Bent used every
possible argument to calm her apprehensions. Although the poor girl had
felt the influence of grace in her own soul, she scarcely as yet
comprehended its power to change the heart of men. I had entertained a
sincere interest in the fate of the young princess from the day we had
found her and her perishing companions on board the canoe. I was now
able to exchange a few words with her, and there was one subject on
which she was never tired of dwelling,--the praise of Mary Bent,--in
which I could always join.

Believing that my future lot would be cast among the people of these
islands, I had begun seriously to study their language, and I took every
opportunity of practising myself in speaking it. We had two native
teachers on board, who were to be left among the new converts, and all