re willing to
have it; native teachers needed training, who had the will without the
knowledge to aid in the service. Thirty of them, Mr. Lefferts said, he
had under his care. With all this, they told of the wonderful beauty of
the regions where their field of labour was. Mr. Lefferts wrote of a
little journey lately taken to another part of his island, which had
led him through almost every variety of natural luxuriance. Mountains
and hills and valleys, rivers and little streams, rich woods and
mangrove swamps. Mr. Lefferts' journey had been, like Paul's of old, to
establish the native churches formed at different small places by the
way. There he married couples and baptized children and met classes and
told the truth. At one place where he had preached, married several
couples, baptized over thirty, young and old, and met as many in
classes, Mr. Lefferts told of a walk he took. It led him to the top of
a little hill, from which a rich view was to be had, while a multitude
of exquisite shrubs in flower gave another refreshment in their
delicious fragrance. A little stream running down the side of the hill
was used by the natives to water their plantations of taro, for which
the side hill was formed into terraced beds. Paroquets and humming
birds flew about, and the sun was sinking brilliantly in the western
ocean line as he looked. So far, everything was fair, sweet, lovely; a
contrast to what he met when he reached the lower grounds again. There
the swarms of mosquitos compelled Mr. Lefferts to retreat for the night
within a curtain canopy for protection; and thither he was followed by
a fat savage who shared the protection with him all night long. Another
sort of experience! and another sort of neighbourhood from that of the
starry white _Gardenia_ flowers on the top of the hill.

Nevertheless, of a neighbouring station Mr. Rhys wrote that the people
were at war, and the most horrible heathen practices were going on. At
the principal town, he said, more people were eaten perhaps than
anywhere else in the islands. The cruelties and the horrors were
impossible to be told. A few days before he wrote, twenty-eight persons
had been killed and eaten in one day. They had been caught
fishing--taken prisoners and brought home--half killed, and in that
state thrown into the ovens; still having life enough left to try to
get away from the fire.

"The first time I saw anything of this kind," wrote Mr. Rhys, "was one
evening w