of the officers to serious thoughts, and on the
conclusion of peace he resigned his commission and resolved to enter the
service of a higher monarch. For some years he lived quietly in England
on his half-pay allowance, but his thoughts were drawn towards New
Zealand, a part of the mission field which seemed to offer the greatest
peril and the greatest need. The news that the C.M.S. were about to
equip a ship for their station in that country seemed to him a call to a
post where his nautical skill would be of service. He volunteered to
take command of this vessel without pay. His offer could not be
accepted, because the project of the ship had already been abandoned,
but the Society accepted the lieutenant as one of their missionaries.
All arrangements were made for his setting out, when news arrived from
the Antipodes that the settlers would probably soon be driven out of the
country. This was no time to be sending out fresh workers. But the
candidate was not cast down. He studied surgery, and bided his time. The
Society was now coming to the conclusion that lay catechists were
undesirable, and it ordered the lieutenant to stay for two years longer
in England, and to prepare for Holy Orders. He was now a married man,
and could not go up to a university, but he studied at home under the
direction of a clerical brother-in-law who had first turned his
attention to foreign missions. In 1822 he was once more ready, and had
received the orders both of deacon and priest when tidings came of
Hongi's first raid. The Committee offered to send him to some quieter
part of the world, but he earnestly pleaded to be allowed to adhere to
his original purpose. Thus it was that Henry Williams reached New
Zealand, at the age of thirty-one years, arriving just in time to save
the mission and to give it a new beginning.

The character of the man thus providentially trained and guided is a
factor of the utmost moment in our history. He brought to the mission
just those qualities of leadership and power in which it had hitherto
been deficient, and he was joined somewhat later by a brother whose
milder and more intellectual nature supplied what was wanting in his
own. Drawn from the professional class, the brothers Williams of course
stood for a higher culture and a wider knowledge than could be expected
of the settlers who were hitherto in the field. These advantages were by
no means unappreciated by the Maoris, but the quality which impresse