and sugar might be successfully cultivated | The indomitable spirit of the man is by the inhabitants, and prove lucrative ar- characteristically displayed in the followticles of commerce; and he accordingly ing passages from a letter to his father, and endeavored to acquire the arts of boiling another to his constituents, the Directors sugar and curing tobacco, that he might be of the Missionary Society :— able to instruct the natives. Some small be

"I am taking with me to the islands, clothes for the women, shoes, stockings, tea-kettles, teacups and saucers, and tea, of which the natives are very fond, and which, I hope, may prove an additional stimulus to the cultivation of sugar. And, moreover, when they have tea, they will want teacups, and a table to place them on, and seats to sit upon. Thus we hope, in a short time, that European customs will be wholly established in the leeward islands."

In the same year he writes:—

"With respect to civilization, we feel a pleasure in saying that the natives are doing all we can reasonably expect, and every person is now daily and busily employed from morning till night. At present, there is a range of three miles along the sea-beach studded with little plastered and whitewashed cottages, with their own schooner lying at anchor near them. All this forms such a contrast to the view we had here but three years ago, when, excepting three hovels, all was wilderness, that we cannot but be thankful; and when we consider all | things, exceedingly thankful for what God has wrought.

"In a temporal point of view, we have every thing we can possibly desire to make us happy. We have a good house, plenty of ground, an abundant supply of the productions of the island, cows, ducks, geese, turkeys, pigeons, fowls, &c., and a regular communication with the colony. But above all these things, we have the hearts and affections of the people, and the prospect of great usefulness in our Saviour's

cause."

"I bless God that my heart is as much alive to missionary work as it was the first day I set my foot on these shores; and in this work of my Lord and Saviour I desire to live and to die. My highest ambition, dear father, is to be faithful to my work, faithful to souls, and faithful to Christ; in a word, to be abundantly and extensively useful. Our own station flourishes, and the people improve. I am fully occupied. I have lately made several lathes and a loom; and am intending to try to weave cloth. I am hoping we shall succeed, as the people have many grasses and barks of which they make cord, &c. My dear Mary is a good spinstress, and knows how to dress flax. But of course our principal attention is devoted to their spiritual, improvement; although I have no great opinion of the missionary's labors who would neglect those minor matters."

To the Directors he says:

"It is our duty to visit the surrounding islands. You have fourteen or fifteen missionaries in these islands, missionaries enough to convert all the islands of the South Seas, and every one of these within a thousand miles of us ought Now to be under instruction. Six good active missionaries, united in heart, mind, and plan, could effect more, if you would afford them the means, than you either think or expect. A missionary was never designed by Jesus Christ to gather a congregation of a hundred or two natives, and sit down at his ease, as contented as if every sinner was converted, while thousands around him, and but a few miles off, are eating each other's flesh, and drinking each other's blood, living and dying without the gospel. Upon this subject it is my full determination to have some decided conversation with the deputation. For my own part, I cannot content myself within the narrow limits of a single reef; and, if means are not afforded, a continent would to me be infinitely preferable; for there, if you cannot ride, you can walk; but to these isolated islands a ship must carry you."

Under the date of November 13th, 1822, Mr. Williams informs the Directors that "the Endeavor" was then nearly ready for sea with a This sanguine and enthusiastic spirit cargo, the proceeds of which and of another car-precipitated the lamented fate of this admigo which the people were preparing, would, he rable and devoted man. On the death of believed, complete the purchase-money of the his mother, Mr. Williams received a conship. "Every thing," he adds, "is succeeding siderable sum of money, which enabled beyond our most sanguine expectations. The natives have prepared from 120 to 150 large him to prosecute, with greater effect, complantations, and I am perfecting myself in the art of curing tobacco, and boiling sugar. The people have also learned to boil salt, three or four tons of which they have recently prepared. You would be delighted to survey the scene of industry which our island presents. Even the women are employed in cultivating little patches of tobacco, in order to purchase European clothing, and we are most anxious to introduce these articles without expense to the Society."

mercial objects for the advantage of the natives, though always in subservience to his principal duty as a missionary. But his hopes were destined to be harshly, and, as we cannot help thinking, unwisely,

checked.

Through the intervention of some interested merchants at Sydney, the governor had been persuaded to impose a prohibitory duty upon

South Sea tobacco, and to make other fiscal regulations which materially reduced the value of all Polynesian produce. This severe and unexpected check to the newly-created industry and enterprise of the leeward islands, burst like a tornado upon their inhabitants, and proved a source of extreme embarrassment and distress to Mr. Williams. Not only did it contravene his benevolent plans for the social improvement of the natives, and deprive him of the means of more extended usefulness, but it involved him in serious pecuniary responsibility, from which he could not now expect to extricate himself without loss. To complete the calamity, and consummate his own disappointment, Mr. Williams at. the same time received a letter from the Directors, in which the speculation was condemned, and his conduct censured. But his spirit, though bowed down, was not broken. Thus beset with difficulties, he summoned a meeting of the chiefs to whom the Enterprise belonged; and, after ingenuously explaining to them the exact position of affairs, it was resolved to send her immediately to Sydney, laden with the most marketable produce they could collect, with an order to sell both ship and cargo. Great as was the trial of parting with a vessel in which he had already done much missionary work, and by which he expected to accomplish still more, and keenly as he felt the censure of the Directors, he was comforted and cheered by the conduct of the chiefs and people, who clearly understood the whole case, and neither attributed the failure to their missionary, nor evinced towards him the least diminution of confidence and esteem.

To the Directors he wrote:

"I am sorry that my conduct meets your disapprobation, and acknowledge the justice of all you say respecting a missionary entangling himself with the affairs of this life. But the benefit of others, not my own, was the sole object I had in view. Yet, should I get free from this perplexity, I shall in future avoid any similar entanglement. But although I have thus expressed myself, do not conclude that there is no need of a vessel in the islands. Even as a means of preventing other vessels from trading with the people, it is invaluable; for with few exceptions, they are the very arks of Satan."

Some time subsequently, he formed the bold idea of building a vessel himself, and he accomplished his object by plans, and processes, and pains, which, in the detail, are as vividly interesting as the building of Robinson Crusoe's famous boat. Of this vessel, named the " Messenger of Peace," Mr. Williams's biographer fitly says, it was one of the most remarkable incidents in his life.

When he formed this purpose, he did it with the full foreknowledge that, in order to its accomplishment, he would be compelled not only to invent some things, but almost to create others, (for may not his new combinations truly bear this name?) and all this, moreover, by the

aid of the people whom it would be necessary to teach, before he could employ. What, then, must have been the skill and self-reliance of the man who, in these unfavorable circumstances, could form and execute the design which he has thus described?" After some deliberation, I determined to attempt to build a vessel; and although I knew little of ship-building, had scarcely any tools to work with, and the natives were wholly unacquainted with mechanical arts, I succeeded, in about three months, in completing a vessel between seventy and eighty tons burden."

Of the various expedients by which Mr. Williams supplied the deficiencies and surmounted the difficulties of his position, that which, perhaps, has been regarded with the most lively interest was his novel substitute for a pair of bellows. This contrivance was perfectly original. It was not, however, a happy guess, but the result of reasoning. "It struck me," he observes, "that as a pump threw water, a machine constructed upon the same principle must, of necessity, throw wind." Acting, therefore, upon this suggestion, he constructed his new "air-pump." But although to him this contrivance was new, he subsequently ascertained that he was not its sole inventor; for, during a missionary tour in our manufacturing districts, he discovered with surprise and delight a similar machine in use there, and learned that it was deemed superior to the bellows.

But the exemplification of Mr. Williams's genius will be found, not so much in any single invention, as in the circumstance, that it proved equal to every exigency, and enabled him to answer every demand. "None but a Williams," writes Mr. Pitman, "would have attempted such a thing as to commence building a vessel, not having wherewith to build her. I have often been amazed to astonishment to see with what coolness he met the difficulties as they successively arose in his undertaking." The cordage, the sails, the substitutes for nails, oakum, pitch, and paint, the anchors and the pintles of the rudder, made from a pick-axe, an adze and a hoe, are all striking illustrations of this remark. Nor should the fact be overlooked that, within the same limited period, Mr. Williams constructblocks, the machinery which spun the ropes and ed the lathe which turned the sheaves of the cordage, the forge and its furniture, as well as all the numerous smaller tools required by himself and his native assistants in this remarkable undertaking.

In a letter to the Rev. Mr. Ellis, he says of this nautical masterpiece,

"I have built a little vessel of between sixty and seventy tons for missionary purposes. She was not four months in hand, from the time we cut the keel until she was in the water. I had every thing to make, my bellows, forge, lathe, and all the iron work, out of old axes, iron hoops, &c.; but I cannot enlarge on my numerous would be interesting to you no doubt. Suffice manœuvres to overcome difficulties, though they it to say she is finished!"

This was the very man to be sent forth,

"My dear Mary is near her confinement. She is very delicate, but I trust all will be well. The Rarotonga people much wished her to be confined there, that their land might be honored with the birth of one of our children. We have, notwithstanding the kindness of the natives, often been in want while at Rarotonga; having had neither tea, sugar, flour, rice, or fowls, for some months, and being obliged to make our own salt and soap."

as missionary, among the uncivilized | in the Navigators' Islands, where the proheathen. Few, if any, have been found at gress of civilization has since been little all points so qualified. To complete the less than miraculous. His labors in the picture of difficulties surmounted, it should Navigators' Islands, and the results, may, be mentioned, that the ship of which Williams indeed, be considered as the greatest of all was so justly proud, was built at Raroton- Williams's missionary enterprises. These ga, then a quite new missionary station- fine and populous islands, which are only and under very severe privations. He inferior to the Sandwich Islands of any was at this remote place with a wife in archipelago in the whole South Seas, were very delicate health, and though not apt to ound, but a few years back, in as rude and complain, he is compelled to say,- barbarous a condition as any that had ever been visited by Europeans. The natives were described by so recent a visitor as Kotzebue, in 1823, as among the most fierce and treacherous cannibals in any of the Polynesian Islands. When Williams ventured to approach them, he had along with him an intelligent man, a converted chief, a native of one of the islands, and his wife, who proved most invaluable auxiliaries. Yet it was not without considerable danger that he approached some of these tribes. The native chief, Fauea, and his wife were left at Samoa, an important island of this group; and when Williams came back, in about two years, on his second expedition, the people were found Christianized, or, at least, nominal Christians. He had had a delightful run of 800 miles, from his station at Rarotonga, to the Navigators' Islands; and when he touched at the first of the group, was delighted with the salutation of his visitors, who exclaimed-"We are sons of the Word." This great change had been effected by Fauea, aided by the native teachers subsequently sent to different stations. The narrative of the conversion of these islanders is replete with interest. Williams carried forward what he had been the instrument of so happily commencing. He everywhere, acting on the maxim, "Kindness is the key to the human heart," gained the confidence and love of the people, who, wherever he went, formed the warmest attachment to him. At the Navigators' Islands, songs were sung and solemn dances performed by the women in his honor; the former of a description which forbids us to call the natives savages, horrible as some of their late practices had been. The following are specimens of the native poetry of Samoa. Viriamu, it should be premised, is the pronunciation of the name of Williams, in the soft language of these islanders.

The passing allusion to their privations at Rarotonga, contained in the preceding letter, will convey but a very inadequate idea of their extent. They were much more severe, and in their injurious effect upon his delicate and selfdenying partner, far more serious, than such slight references would lead the reader to suppose. Accustomed as they had been at Raiatea to European food, it was not without difficulty, nor even without danger, that they conformed to the diet of the natives. But of this Mr. Williams would never have complained, had he suffered alone. Of personal privations he thought little, and said less. Although from his childhood he had been accustomed to domestic comforts, and knew how to provide and enjoy them, as was evident from the manner in which he had stocked his garden and poultry-yard at Raiatea, he could be content with the simplest provisions; and for a man so healthy and laborious, his temperance at the table was remarkable. Even when most actively engaged, he frequently manifested his indifference to food, and often would have rather prosecuted work in which he was interested, than submit to the interruption of the customary meals. Thus, when building his vessel, he could with difficulty be drawn from the scene of his delightful occupations; and, although he frequently continued from dawn until dark toiling at the bench or the forge, even through the sultry hours of noon, when the natives had slunk under the shadow of the trees, he was well satisfied with the humble fare of a single bread-fruit and a draught of

water.

The possession of the vessel, built under such extraordinary circumstances, was of vast consequence to the missionary cause in the islands of the Pacific. By means of it, Mr. Williams and some of his brethren, accompanied by those most useful auxiliaries, -the native teachers, whom they had trained -were enabled, like Apostolic Bishops, to visit the different island groups; and thus was the gospel first carried to, and planted VOL. II. No. IV.

32

All malo are we now, for we have all one God.
No food is sacred now. All kinds of fish we catch
and eat: Even the sting-ray."

"The birds are crying for Viriamu.
His ship has sailed another way.
The birds are crying for Viriamu.
Long time is he in coming.

Will he ever come again?
Will he ever come again?

Tired are we of the taunts of the insolent Samoans.
Who knows,' say they, 'that white chief's land?'
Now our land is sacred made, and evil practices

have ceased.

Pistaulaut has risen. Tauluat has also risen.
But the war-star has ceased to rise.

neither so tall nor so muscular, and the females were not so beautiful, as the Tahitians and Friendly Islanders. But the inferiority of the men in height and bulk was fully compensated by their grace and agility. Of all the Polynesians whom he had seen, Mr. Williams pronounced the Samoa the most symmetric in form, and the most polished in manners. And of this they were themselves aware; and no means were neglected which could, in their estimation, set off or enhance their personal attractions. The toilet was a shrine before which the gentlemen, no less than the ladies, daily offered incense to their own vanity. A pair of portraits from the pencil of Mr. Williams, sketched from life upon his journal, will enable the reader to form his own idea of the people amongst whom "Picture to yourself a fine well-grown Indian, with a dark, sparkling eye, a smooth skin, glistening from the head to the from the hips to the knees; with a bandage of hips with sweet-scented oil, and tastefully tattooed red leaves, oiled and shining also, a head-dress

For Sulueleelet and the king have embraced the he had now arrived.

sacred word.

And war has become an evil thing."

Mr. Williams's first impressions, on seeing these islanders, convey a favorable idea of their natural capacity, and a lively pic-of the nautilus shell, and a string of small white ture of the best condition of the inhabitants shells around each arm, and you have a Samoan of the South Sea, when its tribes were first gentleman in full dress; and, thus dressed, he seen by Europeans. The natives and the thinks as much of himself, and the ladies think principal chiefs were delighted at the pros- English beau fitted out in the highest style of as much of him, as would be the case with an pect of receiving teachers from the mission- fashion. A Samoan lady, in full dress for a ball, aries, of whom Fauea and his wife had wears a beautifully white, silky-looking mat told them such wonders, and they were around her loins, with one corner tucked up, a prepared to give Mr. Williams the most wreath of sweet-smelling flowers around her enthusiastic reception. How much in such head, a row or two of large blue beads about cases is to be attributed to novelty, and how her neck; her skin shining with scented oil, and much to the vague hope of secular advan- the upper part of her person deeply tinged with turmeric rouge. The ladies spend a consideratage, it is not important to us to determine.ble time in preparing themselves for company, as An opening was won; and the people, in much so, perhaps, as their more enlightened professing Christianity, often appeared in- sisters in Christian and civilized lands, and two fluenced by the most reasonable motives. or three 'lady's maids,' will be required to assist Fauea eloquently pointed out to them the in these decorations. They are not tattooed like great superiority of the white people; the men, but many of them are spotted all over." whose religion, he said, had made them what they were. Mr. Williams, in part, Of his subsequent visit, that on which attributed the remarkably rapid progress of the parting-song above cited was sung, he the missionaries among the Samoans "to relates,the absence of an interested, sanguinary, and powerful priesthood," and of temples and idols; a peculiar feature in their social condition, which, as compared with the inhabitants of the other islands, in all of which there were priests and idols, was found eminently favorable to missionary objects. We have given a specimen of the poetry of these islanders; and now select a few passages from a long and picturesque descrip

tion of the first intercourse which Mr. Williams had with them :

In language, and in their leading physical features, he at once perceived that they were Polynesian Asiatics; but in form, the men were

*Malo was a name given to those who were victorious in war, and is the opposite of vaivai, the conquered

t Names of stars.

‡ The king's daughter.

"The people manifested a great deal of feeling at parting; and, as I passed through their ranks, they kissed my hands, and importunately entreated me to bring Mrs. Williams and my children, and to come and live with them, and teach them the word of salvation."

At another point of the island, touched at next day, he relates,

surrounded by canoes, from which the natives "As soon as we had dropped anchor, we were came up the sides of our little ship, until she was almost deluged with them. Silence was Riromaiava gave orders to his duulaafale, or then commanded; and, when it was obtained, orator, to tell the people who I was, whence I came, and what I wanted. He then commanded his spokesman to proclaim to the staring and wondering crowd, that Malietoa (the principal chief], his father, had given me his name; and, consequently, that all the respect due to him

must be shown to me. This was followed by a strict charge to steal nothing whatever from the ship, but that all should immediately bring off to us pigs, and bread-fruit, and yams.

The lotu appears to be the native name for the Christians, the Gospel, and every thing connected with the new religion.

&c., &c., the plates of Foxes' Martyrology, exhibiting the cruel sufferings of Protestant martyrs from the Papists, were added to "Having obtained wood and water, with a the list of pictures; a somewhat questionatolerable supply of provisions, I made presents ble addition. The natives were delighted to the various chiefs, and bade them farewell. with the magic-lantern, and particularly On landing at the district of Riromaiava, I found with the Scripture pieces. Mr. Williams that I had to walk two miles to his settlement. carried out better gifts, in numerous copies On reaching it, I was invited into the govern- of the New Testament, which had been ment house. Here I was requested to take my previously translated into the native tongue seat upon a beautiful new mat, and was immediately surrounded by all the chiefs. Soon after by himself, and printed in England. He we had seated ourselves, a fine stately young had scarcely visited and inspected his dif woman entered the house, and was introduced ferent stations, when the long-formed deto me by the name of Maria, as Malietoa's eld-sign of extending his labors to islands yet est, handsomest, and favorite daughter. She unvisited by the Messengers of Peace, came expressed her sorrow at not having seen me be strongly upon him. His last fatal expedifore; and assigned as a reason, that, at the tion to the New Hebrides was accordingly time of my visit to Samoa, her husband was fighting against her father, and that she was undertaken, and was, at the outset, successwith him in the fort. 'But,' she added, 'we ful. At the Island of Fatuna, and at Tanna, were conquered; and, since then, I have been the strange, white visitors were well reover to Sapapalii, and spent much time with the ceived; and that strong natural anxiety, or, teachers, who have taught me the lotu, and I as it is here represented, the deep or superam learning it still.'” natural presentiment of impending evil with which the devoted man approached that group of islands which he regarded as the key to the ultimate evangelization of New Caledonia, New Britain, New Guinea and the whole of Western Polynesia, seemed to be wearing off and confidence returning when he landed on the fatal shore of Erromanga. The reception at Fatuna and Tanna had dissipated his previous fears, and fulfilled his warmest desires. He now appeared to feel a strong confidence of success. The grand object for which this Columbus of Missions had planned, and prayed, and pleaded, seemed almost within his grasp, when the fated hour suddenly drew near. On the horrible particulars, so well-known and recent, we need not dwell. The account of the murder of Williams and his companion, Mr. Harris, was transmitted to this country by the captain of the missionary ship, from the deck of which his murder was witnessed; and probably no event, involving merely the fate of a single individual, ever excited deeper sympathy in the public mind. But the grief and sorrow felt at home could not have been deeper or more sincere than that experienced by his native friends and disciples in the various places where he had af fectionately labored with head, and hand, and heart; and, indeed, over all the Christianized parts of the islands. "Lamentation was universal." Monuments to his memory have been erected in different islands. That in Samoa, where his family were living at the time of his death, and to which he had first sent the glad tidings of salvation, bears this simple and touching

Shortly after this period, Mr. Williams and his wife visited England, from which they had been absent nearly twenty years. The great popularity of the returned missionary, on his progresses through the principal towns of England and Scotland, when, in his own manly and plain style, he expatiated on the wonders he had seen, and modestly alluded to what had been achieved in Polynesia, must still be fresh in the recollection of many of our readers. By the liberality of those who listened to his appeals, Mr. Williams was enabled to purchase a vessel of a size that transcended his most sanguine expectations. A large sum of money was raised for this object; and many worthy people were as munificent to him with gifts of ship stores, and other useful things, as ever he had found the South Sea Islanders with their pigs and sweet potatoes, when to celebrate the opening of a chapel, or any other great event, from 300 to 700 pigs were sometimes slaughtered at once. The Polynesian Christians are certainly not ascetics.

Among the other articles which Williams carried back with him was a magic-lantern with slides representing Scripture scenes, objects in natural history, and in the English annals; and, as the whole was with the view of counteracting the operations of the Romish priests, who were even then supposed to be on their way to the islands with miracle-working electrifying machines,