e few months ago, I have a mind to give you. Our object
was specially an island between one and two hundred miles away, where
many have become Christians, and not in name only; but where up to this
time no missionary has been stationed. We visit them when we can. This
time we had the advantage of a brig to make the voyage in; the mission
ship was here with the Superintendent and he desired to visit the
place. We arrived at evening in the neighbourhood; at a little island
close by, where all the people are now Christian. Mr. Lefferts went
ashore in a canoe to make arrangements; and the next day we followed.
It was a beautiful day and as beautiful a sight as eyes could see. We
visited the houses of the native teachers, who were subjects of
admiration in every respect; met candidates for baptism and examined
them; married a couple; and Bro. Griffiths preached. There is a new
chapel, of very neat native workmanship; with a pulpit carved out of a
solid piece of wood, oiled to give it colour and gloss. In the chapel
the whole population of the island was assembled, dressed in new
dresses, attentive, and interested. So were we, you may believe, when
we remembered that only two years ago all these people were heathens. O
these islands are a glorious place now and then, in spots where the
devil's reign is broken. I wish you could have seen us afterwards, my
dear friend, at our native feast spread on the ground under the trees;
you who never saw a table set but with exact and elegant propriety. We
had no table; believe me, we were too happy and hungry to mind that. I
do not think you would have quarrelled with our dishes; they were no
other and no worse than the thick broad glossy leaves of the banana. No
fault could be found with their elegance; and our napkins were of the
green rind of the same tree. Cocoanut shells were our substitute for
flint glass, and I like it very well; especially when cocoanut milk is
the refreshment to be served in them. Knives and forks we had none!
What would you have said to that? Our meat was boiled fowls and baked
yams and fish dressed in various ways; and the fingers of the natives,
or our own, were our only dividers. But I have seen less pleasant
entertainments; and I only could wish you had been there,--so you might
have whisked back to England the next minute after it was over, on some
convenient fairy carpet such as I used to read of in Eastern tales when
I was a boy. For us, we had to make our