ll equipped in every respect, and specially provided with
certain fittings that will conduce to the comfort of the missionaries
and their families. The Directors placed on board an excellent
library, a large Atlas of the best maps, illustrative of the South
Seas and the Australian colonies; also a quadrant and barometer for
general use; and it only remained to supply the library with a set
of the different Polynesian Scriptures.

"Heaven speed the canvas gallantly unfurled,
To furnish and accommodate a world.
Soft airs and gentle heavings of the wave
Attend the ship whose errand is to save,
Which flies, obedient to her Lord's commands,
A herald of God's love to pagan lands."

[Illustration: THE "JOHN WILLIAMS."]

Rare in the world are those scenes of enchanting beauty, which the
islands of Polynesia so frequently display. Yet nowhere did
heathenism descend to deeper degradation; nowhere did it develop
blacker vices and commit more hellish crimes. Incessant war,
merciless cruelty, infanticide, indescribable vice, in many places
cannibalism, made the strong races a ceaseless terror to each other
and to the world outside them. Over millions of their brethren such
heathenism and wickedness hold the same sway still. In all but
Western Polynesia, the Gospel has swept this heathenism away. The
four great Societies which have sent their brethren forth as
messengers of mercy, have gathered into Christ's fold 300,000 people,
of whom 50,000 are members of the Church. They have together expended
on the process less than 1,200,000 pounds, a sum which now-a-days
will only make a London railway, or furnish the Navy with six
ironclads. Yet how wonderful the fruit of their toil! "The wolf
dwells with the lamb; the leopard lies down with the kid." The
destruction of life has been stayed. Beautiful as were these lands
by nature, culture has rendered them more lovely still. Everywhere
the white chapel and school have taken the place of the heathen marai.
The trim cottage, which Christianity gave them, peeps everywhere
from its nook of leaves. Land and people are Christian now. The
victories of peace have taken the place of war. Resources have
multiplied: wealth has begun to accumulate. Books, knowledge, order
and law, rule these communities. Large churches have been gathered;
schools flourish; good men and good women are numerous. Not a few
have offered themselves as missionaries to heathen islands; and in
zeal