aracter of the populations of the Pacific has been
changed, and where wickedness runs riot to-day, it is due largely to the
hindrances placed in the way of the noble efforts of the missionaries
by the unmitigated scoundrels who vilify them. The task of spreading
Christianity would not, after all, be so difficult were it not for the
efforts of those apostles of the devil to keep the islands as they would
like them to be--places where lust runs riot day and night, murder may
be done with impunity, slavery flourishes, and all evil may be indulged
in free from law, order, or restraint.

It speaks volumes for the inherent might of the Gospel that, in spite of
the object-lessons continually provided for the natives by white men of
the negation of all good, that it has stricken its roots so deeply into
the soil of the Pacific islands. Just as the best proof of the reality
of the Gospel here in England is that it survives the incessant assaults
upon it from within by its professors, by those who are paid, and highly
paid, to propagate it, by the side of whose deadly doings the efforts
of so-called infidels are but as the battery of a summer breeze; so
in Polynesia, were not the principles of Christianity vital with an
immortal and divine life, missionary efforts might long ago have ceased
in utter despair at the fruitlessness of the field.

We were enjoying a most uneventful passage, free from any serious
changes either of wind or weather which quiet time was utilised to
the utmost in making many much-needed additions to the running-gear,
repairing rigging, etc. Any work involving the use of new material had
been put off from time to time during the previous part of the voyage
till the ship aloft was really in a dangerous condition. This was
due entirely to the peculiar parsimony of our late skipper, who could
scarcely bring himself to broach a coil of rope, except for whaling
purposes. The same false economy had prevailed with regard to paint
and varnish, so that the vessel, while spotlessly clean, presented a
worn-out weather-beaten appearance. Now, while the condition of life on
board was totally different to what it had been, as regards comfort and
peace, discipline and order were maintained at the same high level as
always, though by a different method--in fact, I believe that a great
deal more work was actually done, certainly much more that was useful
and productive; for Captain Count hated, as much as any foremast hand