but he had since been lost at sea. What wonderful glimpses we get of
strange wild lives!

But the Tahitian Mission had not included any one leading character, so
that it may be enough to state that, after years of patient effort and
often of danger, the missionaries beheld King Pomare II., the successor
of him whom they had found on the throne, solemnly burn his idols, and
profess himself a Christian.

From that time the island has been Christian. The standard of morality
has been by no means as high as it ought to be, and there is much
disappointment in dealing with any nation, with none more so than with an
indolent and voluptuous people, in a climate disposing them to inertness,
and in a part subject to the visits of lawless seamen of all nations.
However, the mission kept its hold of Tahiti, until the French, in 1844,
began a series of aggressions, which ended in their establishing a
protectorate over the islands, introducing their Church, and doing all in
their power to discourage the London Mission, to which, however, many of
the natives still adhere.

This, however, is anticipating. When the five young men sailed in 1817,
and after a kindly welcome on their way from Mr. Marsden at Sydney,
things were in the full blush of promise. Eight hundred people
worshipped at the chapel of Erineo, near the landing-place. It was a
circular building, a good deal like a haystack, with walls of stakes, a
thatch of large leaves, and a desk in the centre of the floor for the
preacher. This was his first station, and whilst there he gave his
assistance in building a ship, to enable King Pomare to open a trade with
New South Wales. He stayed in this place till he had become familiar
with the language, and his first child was born there.

Not long after some allies of Pomare, from Huahime, struck with the
benefits produced among the Tahitians by the missionaries, entreated that
some might be sent to them likewise; and Williams, his wife and child,
with two other married pairs, and an interpreter, were told off for the
mission.

They were welcomed eagerly, had oval huts assigned to them, and no lack
of pork and yams, but Mr. Williams did not long remain there, being
called away by an invitation from Raiatea. This is one of the loveliest
of tropical islands, the largest of the Society Islands. Huge mountain
masses rise from the centre of an isle, about fifty miles in
circumference, and give it the grandeur of the rock, th