ate, when, after a pause, his son-in-law went to him with the
sacred elements. There were many tears shed by those who foreboded that
his hand would never administer to them again. On the Tuesday he set out
for a short journey, but apparently he took a chill on the way to the
house of his friend, Mr. Styles, at Windsor, and arrived unwell;
erysipelas in the head came on, with a stupor of the faculties, and he
died on Saturday, the 12th of May, 1838,--a man much tried, but resolute,
staunch, and gallant, and, in the end, blessedly successful.

Two years later, New Zealand, by the wish of the Maories themselves, was
added to the British dominions, a bishopric was erected there, and, did
not our bounds forbid us to speak of those who are still among us, we
could tell much of the development, under Bishop Selwyn, of Samuel
Marsden's work: though, alas! there is a tale to tell that disgraces, not
our Government, but our people,--a story of lust of land and of gain, and
of pertinacious unfairness towards the Maori, which has alienated a large
number of that promising and noble people, led to their relapse into the
horrors from which they had been freed, overthrown their flourishing
Church in favour of a horrid, bloodthirsty superstition, and will
probably finish its work by the destruction of the gallant race that once
asked our protection.

CHAPTER IX. JOHN WILLIAMS, THE MARTYR OF ERROMANGO.

Of Welsh extraction, and respectable though humble parentage, the pioneer
and martyr of Polynesia, John Williams, was born at Tottenham High Court,
London, in the year 1796. His parents were Nonconformists, and he was
educated at a "commercial" school at Edmonton, where the teaching did not
aim at much beyond writing and accounts, all that was supposed, at that
time, to be needful for a young tradesman. The chief point remembered of
his childhood was an aptitude and handiness which caused all little
breakages to be kept for John to repair,--a small quality, but one of no
small importance in the life of a missionary, who often finds ready
resource essential to safety and to influence.

His mother was a good and religious woman, whose one great purpose in
choosing a situation was to place him in a family where he might be
influenced for good; and she was fortunate in finding a furnishing
ironmonger whose care of his apprentices exactly met her views. While
serving his time, John Williams was observed to delight in the hard