ans to the southward, but he found that these were on good
terms with the Chilian Government, and that no one could come among them
without a pass from thence; and, as there was a cautious attempt at
Christianizing then going on, by persuading the cacique to be baptized
and to admit priests to their villages, there was both the less need and
the less opening for him.

So, picking up his wife and children again at Concepcion, he sailed with
them for Valdivia, where, as wandering Europeans were always supposed to
be in search of objects for museums, and perhaps from some confusion
about his name, he was called "El Botanico." Again he plunged among the
Indians; but, wherever he came to a peaceable tribe, they were under the
influence of Spanish clergy, who were, of course, determined to exclude
him, while the warlike and independent Indians could not understand the
difference between him and their Spanish enemies; and thus, after two
years of effort, he found that no opening existed for reaching these wild
people. A proposal was made to him to remain and act as an agent for the
Bible and Tract Societies among the South American Roman Catholics, but
this he rejected. "No," he said; "I have devoted myself to God, to seek
for openings among the heathen, and I cannot go back or modify my vow."

The Malay Archipelago was his next goal. He sailed with his wife and
children from Valparaiso for Sydney on the 29th of May, 1839, but the
vessel got out of her course, and was forced to put in at Tahiti, where
he found things sadly changed by the aggression of Louis Philippe's
Government, which had claimed the protectorate. The troubles of Queen
Pomare's reign were at their height, and the conflict between French and
English, Roman Catholic and Protestant, prevented any efficient struggle
against the corruption introduced by the crews of all nations.

The great savage island of New Guinea seemed to Captain Gardiner a field
calling for labour, and, on his arrival in Australia, he found that the
Roman Catholic Bishop of Sydney was trying to organize a mission. He
left Australia, hoping to obtain permission from the Dutch authorities at
Timor to proceed to Papua, to take steps for being beforehand with the
Australian expedition. He reached the place with great difficulty, and
he himself, and all his family, began to suffer severely from fever. The
Dutch governor told him that he might as well try to teach the monkeys as
the Papua