In the course of his cruising in the South Seas, Lord Byron (a
cousin of the poet), landed on an island of which he thought
he was the discoverer. Suddenly a canoe appeared. Instead of
containing armed savages, its occupants were two noble-looking
men, clothed in cotton shirts and very fine mats. They boarded
the ship and presented a document from a missionary stating that
they were native teachers employed in preaching the gospel to
the people of the island. Lord Byron then went ashore. In the
center of a wide lawn stood a spacious chapel, and neat native
cottages peeped through the foliage of banana trees. On entering
a cottage, he found on a table a portion of the New Testament in
the native language.
This story of Lord Byron’s surprize visit was told at an
overflow meeting in Exeter Hall at the anniversary of the Bible
Society in 1836. When the speaker had concluded, a stranger
arose and introduced himself to the audience as the missionary
who had discovered the island, had made Christianity known to
its people, and had translated the very portion of the Scripture
which Lord Byron had found. It was John Williams, the heroic
missionary of the London Missionary Society, whose noble work
had drawn those savages from cannibalism and idolatry to the
worship of the true God.
(2069)