Character of Mr. Marsden--His Life and Labours.
The reader may naturally expect in conclusion a summary of Mr. Marsden's
character. In attempting this, we are by no means insensible to the
difficulty of the undertaking. Indiscriminate eulogy, and the arrogance
which affects to blame in order to establish its own claim to superior
wisdom, are both alike impertinent and unbecoming. Yet it is not easy to
speak of one whose motives were so high, whose labours so constant and
self-denying, and whose triumphs so remarkable, without enthusiasm.
While, on the other hand, those infirmities which may generally be
detected even in the best men, and which truth requires to be
impartially noted down, did not much affect his public life; and we have
felt all along as we have written with the disadvantage of having known
him only by the report of others. Still, however, something should be
attempted. The character of Mr. Marsden is too instructive to be lost;
perhaps few great men ever lived whose example was more calculated for
general usefulness,--for the simple reason that he displayed no gigantic
powers, no splendid genius; he had only a solid, well ordered, mind,
with which to work,--no other endowments than those which thousands of
his fellow men possess. It was in the _use of his materials_ that his
greatness lay.
Mr. Marsden was a man of a masculine understanding, of great decision of
character, and an energy which nothing could subdue. He naturally
possessed such directness and honesty of purpose, that his intentions
could never be mistaken; and he seemed incapable of attempting to gain
his purpose by those dexterous shifts and manoeuvres which often pass
current, even amongst professing Christians, as the proper, if not
laudable, resources of a good diplomatist, or a thorough man of
business. When he had an object in view, it was always worthy of his
strenuous pursuit, and nothing stopped him in his efforts to obtain it,
except the impossibility of proceeding further. Had his mind been less
capacious such firmness would often have degenerated into mere
obstinacy; had it been less benevolent and less under the influence of
religion, it would have led him, as he pressed rudely onwards, to
trample upon the feelings, perhaps upon the rights, of other men. But he
seems, whenever he was not boldly confronting vice, to have been of the
gentlest nature. In opposing sin, especially when it showed itself with
effrontery in the persons of magistrates and men in power, he gave no
quarter and asked for none. There was a quaintness and originality about
him, which enabled him to say and do things which were impossible to
other men. There was a firmness and inflexibility, combined with earnest
zeal, which in the days of the reformers would have placed him in their
foremost rank. None could be long in his society without observing that
he was a man of another mould than those around him. There was an air of
unconscious independence in all he did which, mixed with his other
qualities, clearly showed to those who could read his character, that he
was a peculiar instrument in the hands of God to carry out his own
purposes. These traits are illustrated by many remarkable events in his
life.
When he first arrived in New South Wales, while theft, blasphemy, and
every other crime, prevailed to an alarming extent among the convicts,
the higher classes of society, the civil and military officers, set a
disgraceful example of social immorality. Such is the account given by a
Sydney periodical a few weeks after Mr. Marsden's decease, which goes on
to say: "Many an individual of a more plastic nature might have been
moulded by the prevailing fashion of the age in which he lived, and
instead of endeavouring to struggle against the tide of popular opinion,
would have yielded in all probability to its seducing influence. Such
was not the case with Mr. Marsden. When he was opposed on all hands, and
even by the civil and military authorities of the day, he faithfully
performed his duty, and careless of the powerful coalitions combined for
his destruction, 'all the ends he aimed at were his country's, his
God's, and truth's.' Educated in the school of the Milners, the Simeons,
and the Fletchers, he was not disposed to flatter the vices of any man;
but with plainness and sincerity of speech, he discoursed 'of
righteousness, temperance and judgment to come.'" He has been known to
rebuke sin at a dinner-table in such a manner as to electrify the whole
company. Once, arriving late, he sat down in haste, and did not for a
few minutes perceive the presence of one who should have been the wife
of the host, but who stood in a very different relation to him. Mr.
Marsden always turned a deaf ear to scandal, and in the excess of his
charity was sometimes blind to facts which were evident enough to
others. The truth now flashed upon him, and though such things were
little thought of in the colony, he rose instantly from the table,
calling to the servant in a decided tone to bring his hat, and without
further ceremony, or another word, retired. That such a man should raise
up a host of bitter enemies is not to be wondered at.
To these qualities his great successes in life, under God, were due. The
young chaplain who single handed confronted and at length bore down the
profligacy of New South Wales, and the shameless partiality of its
courts of justice (the immediate result and consequence of the
licentious lives and connexions of the magistrates) planned, and was
himself the first to adventure upon the mission to New Zealand. Against
the rashness of this attempt the timid expostulations of his friends,
the hesitation of the captains who declined so perilous an adventure,
and even the remonstrances of Governor Macquarie himself weighed not a
feather in the scale. He saw his way clearly; it was the path of duty,
and along it he must go. And when, ten years afterwards, scarcely a
nominal convert had been won from among the cannibals, when tens of
thousands of good money had been spent, when the church at home was
almost weary of the project, and half disposed to give it up, he was
still true as ever to the cause. He neither bolstered up his courage
with noisy protestations, nor attempted to cheer the languid zeal of
others by the slightest exaggerations, but quietly went forward calmly
resting upon the two great pillars, the _commands_ and the _promises_ of
God. So again with respect to the Polynesian missions; at first he
showed little of that enthusiasm in which some of its promoters were
caught as in a whirlwind, and carried off their feet. But high principle
endures when enthusiasm has long worn out. And it was to the firm and
yet cheering remonstrances of Samuel Marsden, and to the weight which
his representations had with the churches of Christ in England, that
the directors were indebted for the ability to maintain their ground,
and that this perhaps the most successful of Protestant missions, was
not finally abandoned upon the very eve of its triumphs.
While he embraced large and comprehensive projects, it was one of his
striking peculiarities that he paid close attention to minute details.
Some minds beginning with the vast and theoretical, work backwards into
the necessary details; others setting out upon that which is minute and
practical, from the necessities of the hour and the duties of the day
before them seem to enlarge their circle and to build up new projects as
they proceed. The former may be men of greater genius, but the latter
are in general the more successful, and to these Mr. Marsden belonged.
The cast of his mind was eminently practical. No crude visions of
distant triumphs led him away from the duties which belonged to the
scene and circumstances in which providence had placed him. Paramatta
was for many years the model parish of New South Wales, although its
pastor was the soul of the New Zealand mission, and of many a
philanthropic enterprise besides. Commissioner Biggs, in his "Report of
Inquiry," which was published by order of the House of Commons, observes
that "Mr. Marsden, though much occupied by the business of the missions
which he conducted, and by the superintendence of the orphan school
which he had himself called into existence, was remarkably attentive to
the duties of his ministry." "The congregation at Paramatta appeared to
me to be more respectable than at the other places of worship, and the
choral parts of the service were admirably performed by the singers, who
have been taught under the direction of the Rev. S. Marsden." He was
well known to all his parishioners, to whom he paid constant ministerial
visits; his attention to the sick, whether at their own homes or the
government hospital, was unremitting, and here his natural shrewdness,
sharpened as it was by his spiritual penetration, showed itself in his
insight into the true character of those he dealt with. Nothing
disgusted him more than a want of reality. High professions from
inconsistent lips were loathsome to him, and his rebukes were sometimes
sharp. A gentleman, whose habits of life were not altogether consistent
with Christian simplicity and deadness to the world, had been reading
"Mammon," when that volume had just made its appearance, and with that
partial eye with which we are too apt to view our own failings, had come
to the flattering conclusion that by contrast with the monster depicted
in "Mammon," the desires he felt to add field to field and house to
house, were not covetousness, but that diligence in business which the
Scriptures inculcate. In the happy excitement of the discovery, he
exultingly exclaimed, "Well, thank God, I have no covetousness." Mr.
Marsden, who had read no more about covetousness than he found in the
Bible, had sat silent; rising from his chair, and taking his hat, he
merely said, "Well, I think it is time for me to go: and so, sir, you
thank God that you are not as other men are. You have no covetousness?
havn't you? Why, sir, I suppose the next thing you'll tell us is that
you've no pride;" and left the room.
But when he spoke to a modest inquirer, these roughnesses, which lay
only on the surface, disappeared. To the sick, his manner was gentle and
affectionate, and in his later years, when he began, from failing
memory and dimness of sight, to feel himself unequal to the pulpit, he
spent much of his time in going from house to house and amongst the
prison population, exhorting and expounding the Scriptures. Upon one of
these occasions, a friend who accompanied him relates that he made a
short journey to visit a dying young lady, whose parents on some account
were strangely averse to his intrusion, pastoral though it was. But the
kindness with which he addressed the sufferer, whom he found under deep
spiritual anxieties, and the soothing manner in which he spoke and
prayed with her, instantly changed the whole bias of their minds. "To
think," they exclaimed when he left the house, "of the aged man, with
his silver locks, coming such a distance as seventeen miles, and
speaking so affectionately to our feeble child!"
"At Paramatta, his Sunday-school," his daughter writes, "was in a more
efficient state than any I have since seen;" and the same remark might
probably be applied to his other parochial institutions, for whatever he
did was done with all his heart; and he was one of those who easily find
coadjutors. Their example seems to shed an immediate influence. And his
curates and the pious members of his flock were scarcely less zealous
and energetic than himself.
He found time to promote missionary meetings, and to encourage the
formation of tract and Bible societies, as well as other benevolent
institutions, at Sydney and other places. On many occasions he delivered
interesting speeches, and not long before his death he presided at a
Bible Society meeting at Paramatta, when, in the course of an
affectionate address, he alluded to his beloved New Zealand. New Zealand
was near his heart, and he now seldom spoke of it without being
sensibly affected. Relating an anecdote respecting Mowhee, a converted
New Zealander, he was completely overcome, and burst into tears.
His manner of preaching was simple, forcible, and persuasive, rather
than powerful or eloquent. In his later years, when he was no longer
able to read his sermons, he preached extempore. His memory, until the
last year or two of his life, was remarkably tenacious: he used to
repeat the whole of the burial service _memoriter_, and in the pulpit,
whole chapters or a great variety of texts from all parts of Scripture,
as they were required to prove or illustrate his subject. He was seldom
controversial, nor did he attempt a critical exposition of the word of
God. His ministry was pure and evangelical. "You can well remember him,
my hearers," says the preacher, in his funeral sermon, "as having
faithfully preached to you the word of God; clearly did he lay before
you the whole counsel of God. Man was represented by him as in a
condemned and helpless state, lying in all the pollution and filthiness
of his sin, totally unable to justify himself wholly or in part, by any
works of righteousness which he can do; God, as too pure to look upon
iniquity without abhorrence, and yet too merciful to leave sinners to
their sad estate without providing a refuge for them; Christ, as All in
all to the sinner; as wisdom to enlighten him, as righteousness to
justify him, sanctification to make him holy in heart and life, as
complete redemption from the bondage of sin and death into the glorious
inheritance of heaven; the Holy Spirit of God as the only author of
aught that is good in the renewed soul; faith as the only means of
applying the salvation of the gospel to the case of the individual
sinner; justification by faith; the necessity of regeneration; holiness
indispensable. All these were represented by your departed minister as
the vital doctrines of the gospel, and the mutual bearing and connexion
of each was clearly shown. And this he has been doing for nearly
forty-five years."
Dwelling on the outskirts of civilization and of the Christian world, he
was too deeply impressed with the grand line of distinction between
Christianity and hideous ungodliness, whether exhibited in the vices of
a penal settlement or the cannibalism of New Zealand, to be likely to
attach too much importance to those minor shades of difference which are
to be met with in the great family of Jesus Christ. As his heart was
large, so too was his spirit catholic. He was sincerely and
affectionately attached to the church of England. He revered her
liturgy, and in her articles and homilies he found his creed, and he
laboured much to promote her extension. Yet his heart was filled with
love to all those who name the name of Christ in sincerity. Wherever he
met with the evidences of real piety and soundness of doctrine, his
house and his purse flew open; and orthodox Christians of every
denomination from time to time either shared his hospitalities or were
assisted in their benevolent projects with pecuniary aid. With what
delicacy this was done may be gathered from such statements as the
following, which is copied from the "Colonist" newspaper, September
12th, 1838: "An attempt having been made to build a Scotch church in
Sydney, the colonial government for a time opposed the scheme, and in
consequence some of its friends fell away. Then it was that the late
Samuel Marsden, unsolicited, very generously offered the loan of 750_l._
to the trustees of the Scotch church, on the security of the building
and for its completion. This loan was accordingly made; but as it was
found impracticable to give an available security on the building, Mr.
Marsden agreed to take the personal guarantee of the minister for the
debt."
In the same spirit he presented the Wesleyan Methodists with a valuable
piece of land on which to erect a chapel, at Windsor. This act of
Christian charity was acknowledged by their missionaries in a grateful
letter. Mr. Marsden's reply is full of warmth and feeling. "You express
your acknowledgment for the ground at Windsor to build your chapel and
house upon. I can only say I feel much pleasure in having it in my power
to meet your wishes in this respect. To give you the right hand of
fellowship is no more than my indispensable duty; and were I to throw
the smallest difficulty in your way I should be highly criminal and
unworthy the Christian name, more especially considering the present
circumstances of these extensive settlements, 'where the harvest is so
great and the labourers are so few.' ... The importation of convicts
from Europe is very great every year; hundreds have just landed on our
shores from various parts of the British empire, hundreds are now in the
harbour ready to be disembarked, and hundreds more on the bosom of the
great deep are hourly expected. These exiles come to us laden with the
chains of their sins, and reduced to the lowest state of human
wretchedness and depravity. We must not expect that magistrates and
politicians can find a remedy for the dreadful moral diseases with which
the convicts are infected. The plague of sin, when it has been permitted
to operate on the human mind with all its violence and poison, can never
be cured, and seldom restrained by the wisest human laws and
regulations. Heaven itself has provided the only remedy for sin--the
blessed balm in Gilead; to apply any other remedy is lost labour. In
recommending this at all times and in all places, we shall prevail upon
some to try its effect; and whoever do this we know they will be healed
in the selfsame hour. I pray that the Divine blessing may attend all
your labours for the good of immortal souls in these settlements."
His private charities displayed the same catholic spirit. His
disinterestedness was great, and his only desire seemed to be to assist
the deserving or to retrieve the lost. He was not foolishly indifferent
to the value of money, as those who had business transactions with him
were well aware; but its chief value in his eyes consisted in the
opportunities it gave him to promote the happiness of others. Hundreds
of instances of his extraordinary liberality might be mentioned, and it
is probable that many more are quite unknown. The following anecdotes,
furnished by his personal friends, will show that his bounty was dealt
out with no sparing hand.
A gentleman, at whose house he was a visitor, happened to express a wish
that he had three hundred pounds to pay off a debt. The next morning Mr.
Marsden came down and presented him with the money, taking no
acknowledgment. The circumstance would have remained unknown had not the
obliged person, after Mr. Marsden's decease, honourably sent an
acknowledgment to his executors. All he assisted were not equally
grateful. Travelling with a friend in his carriage, a vehicle passed by.
"Paddy," said he, calling to his servant, "who is that?" On being told,
"Oh," said he, "he borrowed from me two hundred pounds, and he never
paid me." This was his only remark.
Yet he was not tenacious for repayment, nor indeed exact in requiring it
at all where he thought the persons needy and deserving. The same friend
was with him when a man called to pay up the interest on a considerable
sum which Mr. Marsden had lent to him. He took a cheque for the amount,
but when the person retired, tore it up and threw it into the fire,
remarking, "He is an honest man. I am satisfied if he returns me the
principal; that is all I want."
On another occasion, a friend who had been requested to make an advance
of fifty pounds to a needy person, but was unable to do so, mentioned
the case to Mr. Marsden, with, "Sir, can you lend me fifty pounds?" "To
be sure I can," was the answer, and the money was instantly produced.
When he called, shortly afterwards, to repay the loan, Mr. Marsden had
forgotten all about it. "Indeed I never looked to its being repaid."
The Rev----, being pressed for a hundred pounds, walking with Mr.
Marsden, mentioned his difficulties. Mr. Marsden at once gave him a
hundred pounds, simply remarking, "I dare say that will do for you."
A lady had come to the colony at the solicitation of her family, with
the view of establishing a school of a superior class for the daughters
of the colonists. At first she met with little success. Mr. Marsden saw
the importance of her scheme, and at once invited her to Paramatta,
offering her a suitable house and all the pecuniary aid she might
require, and this under the feeling of a recent disappointment in an
undertaking of the same nature.
Of the large sums he expended on the New Zealand mission from his own
private resources it is impossible even to conjecture the amount, to say
nothing of a life in a great measure devoted to the service. He one day
called upon a young man of enterprise and piety, whom he was anxious to
induce to settle in New Zealand, and offered him fifty pounds per annum
out of his own purse, as well as to raise a further sum for him from
other sources. Nor should it be forgotten, in proof of this
disinterestedness, that with all his opportunities and influence in New
Zealand, he never possessed a single acre of land there, or sought the
slightest advantage either for himself or for any member of his family.
Another feature in his character was his unaffected humility. This was
not in him the nervous weakness which disqualifies some men for vigorous
action, rendering them either unconscious of their power, or incapable
of maintaining and asserting their position, and consequently of
discharging its obligations. This, though often called humility, is, in
fact, disease, and ought to be resisted rather than indulged. Mr.
Marsden's mind was vigorous and healthy; he took a just measure of his
powers and opportunities, as the use he put them to proves abundantly.
There was nothing in him of the shyness which disqualifies for public
life; he was bold without effrontery, courageous without rashness, firm
without obstinacy; but withal he was a humble man. His private
correspondence will have shown the reader how anxious he was to submit
his own judgment, even on questions affecting his personal character, to
what he considered the better judgment of his friends at home. To vanity
or ostentation he seems to have been a perfect stranger. There is not a
passage in his correspondence, nor can we learn that a word ever fell
from his lips, which would lead us to suppose that he ever thought
himself in any way an extraordinary man. Flattery disgusted him, and
even moderate praise was offensive to his feelings. When the life of his
friend, Dr. Mason Good, appeared from the pen of Dr. Olinthus Gregory,
it contained an appendix, giving an account of his own labours and
triumphs at Paramatta and in New Zealand. This he cut out of the volume
with his penknife, without any remark, before he permitted it to lie
upon his table or to be read by his family. He was so far from thinking
he had accomplished much, either in the colony or amongst the heathen,
that he was rather disposed, in his later days, to lament that his life
had been almost useless; and indeed he was heard more than once to
express a doubt whether he had not mistaken his calling, and been no
better than an intruder into the sacred ministry. Perhaps failing health
and spirits were in part the cause of these misgivings, but his
unfeigned humility had a deeper root. It originated in that evangelical
piety upon which all his usefulness was built. He saw the holiness of
God, he saw his Divine perfection reflected in his law, and though he
had a clear, abiding sense of his adoption through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, this did not interfere with a clear conception too of his
own unworthiness. When told one day, by a justly indignant friend, how
basely he was misrepresented, "Sir," he exclaimed, and the solemnity of
his manner showed the depth of his meaning, "these men don't know the
worst. Why, sir, if I were to walk down the streets of Paramatta with my
heart laid bare, the very boys would pelt me."
Such was Samuel Marsden, a man whose memory is to be revered and his
example imitated. "Not merely a good man," says the preacher of his
funeral sermon, "who filled up the place allotted to him on earth, and
then sank into his grave; not merely a faithful minister of Christ, who
loved and served his Saviour and turned many to repentance, but more
than either of these. Rightly to estimate his character we must view him
as a peculiar man, raised up for an especial purpose." And he adds--
"As Luther in Germany, and John Knox in Scotland, and Cranmer in
England, were sent by the Head of the church, and fitted with
peculiar qualifications to make known his glorious gospel, hidden
in Romish darkness, so too, no less truly, was SAMUEL MARSDEN
raised up in this southern hemisphere, and admirably fitted for
the work, and made the instrument of diffusing the light of that
same gospel, and of bringing it to bear on the darkness of New
Zealand and the Isles of the Sea, and upon the darkness, too, no
less real, of the depravity of society in early Australia."
APPENDIX I.
Progress of the Gospel and of Civilization in New Zealand, since
Mr. Marsden's Decease.
The great work of Mr. Marsden's life was undoubtedly the New Zealand
mission; but he was also, as we have seen, the early friend, the wise
adviser, and not unfrequently the generous host of that devoted band of
men who first essayed the introduction of the gospel to the Society
Islands. Each of these missions has been attended with astonishing
success; each has produced what may be called magnificent
results,--results which already far exceed, in some respects, the most
sanguine hopes, extravagant as at the time they seemed to be, of Mr.
Marsden and his early coadjutors some fifty years ago. Yet in other
respects their disappointment would have been great had they lived to
witness the present state of things, whether in New Zealand or Tahiti.
Instead of native tribes growing up into Christian brotherhood, and
asserting a national independence, these beautiful islands have bowed to
a foreign yoke. Instead of native churches they have rather assumed the
form of offshoots and dependencies of British churches. A great work has
been accomplished, and its fruits will never cease to ripen. But events
have occurred which only prophets could have foreseen; changes have
taken place which neither political sagacity nor the saintly wisdom of
those good men who first projected our foreign missions amidst storms of
insult, or, what was worse to bear, the withering influences of a
contemptuous neglect, anticipated. It is often so in this world's
history. Our successes, our trials, the events which happen to us, our
national history, and that of the church of Christ, scoop out for
themselves fresh channels, and flow still onwards, but in the direction
perhaps least of all expected.
Our readers are, we trust, so far interested in the details already
given as to desire some further acquaintance with the later history of
these great missions since Mr. Marsden's death. This we propose to give,
briefly of course, for the subject would fill a volume; and such a
volume, whenever it shall be written well and wisely, will be received
with delight by every intelligent member of the whole catholic church of
Christ.
We shall direct our attention in the first place to NEW ZEALAND.
Attempts to colonize upon a large scale, attended with constant
aggressions upon the native tribes, had occurred before Mr. Marsden's
death, and awakened his anxiety. A New Zealand Company was formed in
1839, with the avowed object of purchasing land from the Maories, and
settling large tracts of the island with English emigrants. It made no
provision for the spiritual welfare of the natives, nor indeed for that
of the European settlers; and it was evident that, however
well-intentioned, the project in the hands of a mercantile company would
be effected, as such schemes always have been effected, only at the cost
of injustice and oppression to the natives. Meanwhile danger was
threatening from another quarter. Louis Philippe now sat upon the throne
of France. Though not ambitious of military conquest, he was cunning
and unprincipled, and anxious to extend the power of France by force or
fraud. Her colonial possessions she had lost during her long war with
England, and now scarcely one of them remained. He saw and coveted the
islands of the Southern Ocean, and resolved to repair his colonial
empire by the addition of these splendid and inviting prizes. It was
said, and we believe with truth, that a frigate was already equipped and
on the very point of sailing for New Zealand with secret orders to annex
that island to the crown of France, when the English government, tardily
and with sincere reluctance, resolved to anticipate the project and
claim New Zealand for the queen of England. This was done, and the
island was formally annexed to the English crown, and in January, 1842,
became an English colony.
For once the story of colonial annexation is neither darkened with crime
nor saddened with war and bloodshed. The measure was essential both to
the security of the natives and to the work of the Protestant missions.
Lawlessness and anarchy were universal: the Maori tribes were
slaughtering one another; the white man was slaughtering the Maori
tribes. For the native laws were obsolete, and the laws of England no
man yet had the power to enforce.
There was, too, on the part of England, and it was strongly expressed in
the British parliament, a determination to secure, as far as possible,
not only the safety but the independence of the natives under their old
chiefs, and to leave them in possession of their ancient usages and
forms of government. In fact, the authority of queen Victoria was to be
that of a mild protectorate rather than an absolute sovereignty. The
chiefs were to acknowledge the supremacy of the crown as represented in
the governor. To him, and not as heretofore to the field of battle, with
its horrors and cannibalism, were their disputes to be referred; and in
all doubtful questions English law, its maxims and analogies, were to be
held supreme. Upon these easy terms the most fastidious will find little
to blame in our annexation of New Zealand. The Maories did not exceed,
it was computed, one hundred thousand souls. Suppose they had been twice
that number, still they could scarcely be said to _occupy_ the whole of
an island of the size of Ireland, and quite as fruitful. There was still
room for a vast influx of Europeans, leaving to the natives wide tracts
of land far beyond their wants, either for tillage or the chase, or for
a nomad wandering life, had this been the habit of the Maories. And when
the threatened seizure by France is thrown into the scale, few
Protestants, of whatever nation they may be, will hesitate to admit that
the conduct of England in this instance was both wise and just.
The Maories in general accepted this new state of things with
satisfaction. Those of them who resided on the coast and in the
neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands saw that the aggression of the
colonists was restrained, and that their own safety was secured. Further
in the interior, where the want of an English protectorate was less
felt, heart-burnings occurred, fomented, as usual, by designing men, and
aggravated by the occasional outrage of individuals. Some of the tribes
resisted, and a war broke out, though happily neither bloody nor of long
duration, in which the Maories maintained the reputation of their native
valour, even against English regiments. Nor was it till the year 1849
that the peace of the island and the supremacy of the English crown
were perfectly restored and asserted.
For a time the progress of the gospel was triumphant. For example,
archdeacon William Williams could report that the number of communicants
in the eastern district, beneath his care, had risen from twenty-nine in
1840, to two thousand eight hundred and ninety-three in 1850; and these
were "members of the congregation who were supposed to walk in the
narrow way. Here then," he exclaims, "is abundant encouragement; the
little one is become a thousand. In the course of ten years, there has
been time for the novelty of Christianity to wear away; but, while some
are gone back again to the beggarly elements of the world, hitherto the
Lord has blessed his vineyards with increase." In other districts the
progress of the gospel was equally gratifying. At Tauranga, out of a
population not exceeding two thousand four hundred, upwards of eight
hundred partook of the Lord's supper; and yet there were many native
Christians who, from various causes, had been kept away from this
ordinance. Other denominations of Protestant Christians had likewise
their trophies to exhibit to the "praise of his grace," who had crowned
their labours with success. "The facilities," reports one missionary,
upon the eastern coast, "the facilities for usefulness are great; the
coast might become one of the most interesting missionary gardens in the
world. Crowds can be got together at any time for catechizing; the dear
children are all anxious for schooling; the native teachers and monitors
put themselves quite under your hands; and they are, I think, a very
improving and improvable class."
Similar reports reached home from almost every station in New Zealand.
At the intervention of a missionary of the church of England, a Wesleyan
missionary, and an English lay gentleman, (the surveyor-general,) the
Waikato and Wangaroa tribes, bent on mutual slaughter, laid down their
arms at the instant the battle should have joined. They had had their
war-dance; some random shots had even been fired; their mediators had
begun to despair; when at length, towards evening, they agreed to leave
the subject in dispute between them (the right to a piece of land), to
Sir George Grey, the governor, and Te Werowero, a native chieftain, for
arbitration. The question was put to the whole army, "Do you agree to
this?" Four hundred armed natives answered with one voice, assenting.
The question was put a second time, and they again gave their consent.
"The surveyor-general giving the signal, we all," says the missionary,
"gave three hearty cheers; after which the natives assembled for
evening-prayers, and," he adds, "I trust I felt thankful." The accounts
that reached England, filled men's hearts with astonishment; even upon
the spot, men long enured to the spiritual warfare with idolatry, were
amazed at the greatness of their triumph. They wrote home in strains
such as the following.
"Rotorua is endeared to us by every tie that should endear a place
to a missionary's heart. We came hither, to a people utterly
debased by everything that was savage. Now, there is not a village
or place around us, where the morning and evening bell does not
call to prayer and praise, and where the sabbath is not observed.
I am sometimes astonished when I look back upon the past, and
remember what we have passed through. If I think only of those
scenes which occurred to us during the southern war, the
remembrance seems appalling. Now peace reigns in every border;
the native chapel stands conspicuous in almost every Pa; wars seem
almost forgotten; and for New Zealand, the promise seems
fulfilled, 'I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.'"
New Zealand was at length, outwardly at least, a Christian land. Bishop
Selwyn had, in 1842, taken charge of the church of England and the
oversight of her missions, and other denominations assumed a fixed and
settled character. The missionary began to merge and disappear in the
stated minister. The ancient warrior chieftain too, was fading fast from
sight; and we cannot deny that, savage as he was, we part from him with
some feelings of respect. Who that has a heart to feel, or any
imagination capable of being warmed by strains of exquisite pathos, can
read unmoved the last words of the dying Karepa? The scene is in the
lonely village of Te Hawera, of which he was the chief. Mr. Colenzo, the
missionary, arrived just as his people, with loud cries, sitting around
his new-made tomb, bewailed his departure. At night they gathered around
their spiritual father in his tent, and one of the natives thus related
the last words of Karepa.
"He summoned us all," said he, "to come close around him, and with
much love exhorted us; talking energetically, as was his custom, a
long while, he said:--'You well know that I have brought you, from
time to time, much riches, muskets, powder, hatchets, knives,
blankets. I afterwards heard of the new riches, called faith. I
sought it. I went to Manawatu; in those days a long and perilous
journey, for we were surrounded by enemies; no man travelled
alone: I saw the few natives who, it was said, had heard of it;
but they could not satisfy me. I sought further, but in vain. I
heard afterwards of a white man at Otaki, and that with him was
the spring where I could fill my empty and dry calabash. I
travelled to his place, to Otaki, but in vain; he was gone--gone
away ill. I returned to you, my children, dark minded. Many days
passed by; the snows fell, they melted, they disappeared; the buds
expanded, and the tangled paths of our low forests were again
passable to the foot of the native man. At last we heard of
another white man who was going about over mountains and through
forests and swamps, giving drink from his calabash to the secluded
native--to the remnants of the tribes of the mighty, of the
renowned of former days, now dwelling by twos and threes among the
roots of the big trees of the ancient forests, and among the long
reeds by the rills in the valleys. Yes, my grandchildren, my and
your ancestors, once spread over the country as the Koitarekè
(_quail_) and Krivi (_apteryx_) once did; but now their
descendants are even as the descendants of these birds, scarce,
gone, dead, fast hastening to utter extinction. Yes, we heard of
that white man; we heard of his going over the high snowy range to
Patea, all over the rocks to Turakiráe. I sent four of my children
to meet him. They saw his face; yes you, you talked with him. You
brought me a drop of water from his calabash. You told me he had
said he would come to this far-off isle to see me. I rejoiced, I
disbelieved his coming; but I said he may. I built the chapel, we
waited expecting. You slept at nights; I did not. He came, he
emerged from the long forest, he stood upon Te Hawera ground. I
saw him. I shook hands with him; we rubbed noses together. Yes, I
saw a missionary's face; I sat in his cloth house (_tent_); I
tasted his new food; I heard him talk Maori; my heart bounded
within me; I listened; I ate his words. You slept at nights; I did
not. Yes, I listened, and he told me about God, and his Son Jesus
Christ, and of peace and reconciliation, and of a loving Father's
home beyond the stars. And now I, too, drank from his calabash and
was refreshed, he gave me a book, as well as words. I laid hold of
the new riches for me, and for you, and we have it now. My
children, I am old; my teeth are gone, my hair is white; the
yellow leaf is falling from the Táwai (_beech tree_); I am
departing; the sun is sinking behind the great western hills, it
will soon be night. But, hear me; hold fast the new riches--the
great riches--the true riches. We have had plenty of sin and pain
and death; but now we have the true riches. Hold fast the true
riches, which Karepa sought out for you.'
"Here he became faint, and ceased talking. We all wept like little
children around the bed of the dying old man--of our father. He
suffered much pain, from which he had scarcely any cessation until
death relieved him."
But New Zealand was now passing through a dangerous crisis. The Maori
ceased to exist in his savage state. Cannibalism was a mere tradition.
Of the ancient superstitions scarcely a trace was left. European arts
and manners were introduced in almost every part of the island, and New
Zealand took her place amongst other civilized communities. Still, under
new circumstances fresh dangers threatened her. The church of Rome saw
from afar and coveted so glorious a possession; and in the course of a
single year a Romish bishop and sixteen priests landed at Wellington,
and a second bishop with his troop of priests and nuns at Auckland. For
a while the childish simplicity of the Maori character, fond of show and
a stranger to suspicion, gave them great advantage; and the missionaries
of evangelical churches viewed their progress with serious apprehension.
But as the novelty wore off the Maori Christian discovered that Popery
was but a hollow pretence, without heart, or life, or abiding
consolation, and whole tribes which had been led astray returned with
their chiefs to purer churches in search of better pasturage. Lately the
translation of the whole of the Bible has been completed, and in this we
have the best antidote, under God, to the progress of this baneful
superstition. New Zealand, too, besides its several Protestant bishops
of the church of England, its zealous missionaries, and stated ministers
of every evangelical denomination, has now at length a native ministry
of her own Maories, few as yet in number, but holy men, men of competent
learning and gifts of utterance, who have evidently been called of God.
One of these, the Rev. Riwai Te Ahu, who was ordained by Bishop Selwyn,
is not only highly esteemed by all the natives of whatever tribe they
may be, but by the English too; and he is entirely supported by internal
resources, by regular contributions from the natives, and a private
grant from the governor himself. We can understand something of the joy
with which an honoured missionary, one of the oldest labourers in the
field, sat and listened in the house of prayer while he officiated,
assisted by the Rev. Rota Waitoa, the only two Maori ministers of the
church of England in New Zealand, and his own early converts, "the one
reading prayers, and the other preaching an admirable sermon to his own
native tribe." Other churches have similar triumphs. The Wesleyans have
three native assistant ministers, and probably these are not all, for it
may be presumed that a great work is going forward in so large an
island, of which our missionary societies have no official reports, and
by agents who are no longer responsible to them. Thus it is often found
that in the interior some village or hamlet has become Christian where
no European missionary was ever seen. Native converts have done their
own work.
Still the church in New Zealand is in an infant state, surrounded by
many dangers. The influx of Europeans, the sudden increase of wealth and
luxury, the introduction of a new and foreign literature from England,
bearing as it were upon its wings all that is bad as well as all that is
lovely and of good report in theology, politics, and morals, may well
cause, as indeed it does create, the deepest concern to those who have
at heart the purity of the Maori faith, and the continued progress of
the gospel. It is not for those who know that the gospel is the power of
God unto salvation, to doubt for a moment of its ultimate success; but
the firmest faith may, at the same time, be apprehensive and anxious, if
not alarmed, for the fiery trial that awaits her,--not of persecution,
but of wealth and luxury, and the sad example of every European vice.
Let the reader help them with his prayers.
We cannot close our sketch of the progress of Christianity in New
Zealand, without some allusion to the Canterbury Association, one of the
most remarkable attempts of modern times to colonize on Christian
principles, or rather perhaps we should say, to carry abroad the old
institutions of England, and plant them as it were full blown in a new
country. The design was not altogether original, for the New England
puritans of the seventeenth century, had led the way, in their attempts
to colonize at Boston and in New England, in the days of Charles I. They
would have carried out the principles, and worship of the Brownites to
the exclusion of other sects, though happily for the freedom of
religion, their design was soon found to be impracticable, and was only
partially accomplished. The Canterbury Association was formed on high
church of England principles, "avowedly for the purpose of founding a
settlement, to be composed in the first instance of members of that
church, or at least of those who did not object to its principles." Its
early friends now admit that their project was, in some of its parts,
utopian and impracticable. The idea, if ever seriously entertained, of
excluding by a test of church membership those whose profession differed
from their own was abandoned by most of the colonists as soon as they
had set foot on the shores of New Zealand. In 1848, Otakou or Otago, in
the southern part of the Middle Island, was colonized by an association
of members of the Free Church of Scotland; and in 1850, the first
colonists were sent out to the church of England settlement, founded in
the vicinity of Banks's Peninsula, by the Canterbury Association. The
site made choice of possessed a harbour of its own, an immense extent of
land, which it was supposed might easily be brought under cultivation,
and removed from danger of disturbance from the natives, of whom there
were but few, an extent of grazing country unequalled in New Zealand,
and a territory "every way available for being formed into a province,
with a separate legislature." The plan was to sell the land at an
additional price, and appropriate one third of the cost to
ecclesiastical purposes. The sums thus realized by sales of land, were
to be placed at the disposal of an ecclesiastical committee, who were
empowered to make such arrangements as they might think fit to organize
an endowed church in the colony. A bishopric was to be at once endowed,
a college, if not a cathedral, was to be connected with it, a
grammar-school of the highest class, was to be opened as well as
commercial schools; and all the luxuries of English country life,
including good roads, snug villas, well cultivated farms; and good
society, were to be found by the future settler, after a very few years
of probationary toil.
The scheme was warmly taken up at home, and within a single twelvemonth
from the 16th December, 1850, when the first detachment arrived, nearly
three thousand emigrants had seated themselves in the Canterbury Plains.
The towns of Lyttelton and Christchurch were founded, and operations on
a large scale were fairly begun. Of course bitter disappointment
followed, as it too often does with the early colonists, whose
expectations are unduly raised by the romantic stories told them in
England. But we must quote a passage from "Archdeacon Paul's Letters
from Canterbury," just published. It may be of use to other emigrants,
into whatever region of the world they go. "Restless spirits, who had
never yet been contented anywhere, expected to find tranquillity in this
new Arcadia, where their chief occupation would be to recline under the
shadow of some overhanging rock, soothing their fleecy charge with the
shepherd's pipe, remote from fogs and taxation and all the thousand
nameless evils which had made their lives a burthen to them at home.
"Alas! the reality was soon found to be of a sterner type--
'These are not scenes for pastoral dance at even,
For moonlight rovings in the fragrant glades:
Soft slumbers in the open eye of heaven,
And all the listless joys of summer shades.'
Long wearisome rides and walks in search of truant sheep and cattle;
bivouacs night after night, on the damp cold ground; mutton, damper, (a
kind of coarse biscuit,) and tea (and that colonial tea) at breakfast,
dinner, and supper, day after day, and week after week, and month after
month; wanderings in trackless deserts, with a choice of passing the
night on some bleak mountain side or wading through an unexplored swamp;
and, after all this labour, finding perhaps that his flock are infected,
and that no small amount of money as well as toil must be expended
before he can hope for any profit at all;--these are the real
experiences of a settler's early days in a young pastoral colony."
Yet, upon the whole, the founders of the settlement consider that it has
answered all reasonable expectations. None of the early settlers have
been driven home by the failure of their prospects, and few have been so
even from qualified disappointment. The plains of Canterbury have a
thoroughly English look, dotted in every direction with comfortable
farm-houses, well-cultivated inclosures, and rickyards filled with the
produce of the harvest: and the great seaport of the colony, Lyttelton,
is well filled with shipping. Christchurch boasts at length its college,
incorporated and endowed. It became an episcopal see, too, in 1856,
under the first bishop of Christchurch; it has its grammar school and
Sunday schools. Here, too, as well as at Lyttelton, the Wesleyans have
taken root, and, besides chapels, have their day and Sunday schools.
From the first, the Scotch Church was represented by some enterprising
settlers. The decorum of religion is everywhere perceptible; "I
believe," writes a nobleman, whose name stands at the head of the
Association, "that no English colony, certainly none of modern days, and
I hardly except those of the seventeenth century has been better
supplied with the substantial means of religious worship and education.
No one doubts the great material prosperity and promise of the colony;
and no one denies that it is the best and most English-like society in
all our colonies.... Sometimes a very vain notion has been entertained
that we meant or hoped to exclude dissenters from our settlement. Of
course, nothing could be more preposterous. What we meant was to impress
the colony in its origin with a strong church of England character. This
was done by the simple but effectual expedient of appropriating one
third of the original land fund to church purposes, but this was of
course a voluntary system."
Thus New Zealand stands at present. The lonely island of the Southern
Ocean approached only fifty years ago with awe by the few adventurous
whalers which dared its unknown coasts and harbours, now teems with
English colonists. The dreaded New Zealander has forsaken his savage
haunts and ferocious practices, and may be seen "clothed and in his
right mind," and sitting to learn at the feet of some teacher of "the
truth as it is in Jesus." The face of the country has undergone a
corresponding change. And in many places, the scene is such as to force
the tears from the eye of the self-exiled settler; the village spire
and the church-going bell reminding him of home. What the future may be,
we shall not even hazard a conjecture. Let it be enough to say that a
mighty change has already been accomplished, and that its foundations
were laid, and the work itself effected more than by any other man, by
Samuel Marsden.
APPENDIX II.
State and Prospects of the Protestant Mission at Tahiti under the
French Protectorate.
At the period of Mr. Marsden's decease, the Tahitian mission, over which
he had watched with parental solicitude from its infancy, presented an
aspect even more cheering than that of New Zealand. Idolatry had fallen;
its idols were utterly abolished; they had found their way to the most
ignoble uses, or to the museums of the curious, or those of the various
missionary societies in Great Britain. So complete was their destruction
that natives of Tahiti have actually visited the museum of the London
Missionary Society within the last few years, and there seen, for the
first time in their lives, a Tahitian idol. But a dark cloud already
skirted the horizon, and the infant church was soon to pass through the
purifying furnace of a long, relentless, wearying, and even bitter
persecution.
The revolution of 1830 had placed Louis Philippe on the throne of
France. During the earlier years of his reign, the church of Rome was
deprived of much of that power and dignity which it had enjoyed under
the elder Bourbons. As to any hold on the affections of the people of
France, this it seldom boasted,--certainly not within the last hundred
years. Yet the crafty king of the French was not unwilling to give to
his restless priesthood the opportunities both of employment and renown
in foreign parts; especially if in doing so he could extend his own
power, and add a wreath to that national glory so dear to Frenchmen.
The priests were therefore instructed to direct their attention to the
South Sea Islands. Animated partly by hatred to England, they succeeded
in effecting a settlement in the Society Islands. The first of them, who
arrived there, called Columban (though his original name was Murphy),
came in rather strange guise. "He was clad like a man before the mast,
smoked a short pipe, and at first was mistaken for what he appeared to
be. He had an old English passport, and among other pious tricks,
endeavoured to make use of the lion and the unicorn, to prove to the
natives that he was sent by the king of Great Britain."[L] Two others,
Caret and Laval, arrived soon afterwards. The law of the island forbade
foreigners to reside without obtaining the sanction of the queen. The
priests, accordingly, when their arrival became known, were ordered to
depart. They refused; comparing the Protestant missionaries to Simon
Magus, and claiming for themselves the exclusive right to instruct the
Tahitian people. After some delay, however, they left, and went to the
Grambier Islands. Captain Lord E. Russell, then with his ship of war at
the island, publicly declared, that "if the priests had remained in the
country, anarchy and confusion, disastrous to the island, would have
inevitably ensued." This was in December, 1836.
[L] Wilkes's Tahiti, etc.
In September, 1837, M. Montpellier, accompanied by Murphy-Columban,
arrived at Tahiti. He was followed in 1838 by Captain Du Petit Thouars
in the frigate Venus, who made no secret in avowing to our English
officers that he was looking out for a suitable island on which to hoist
the French flag for the purpose, he added, of forming a penal
settlement. Returning to Paris, Thouars was raised to the rank of
rear-admiral, and sent back to the Pacific with his flag in La Reine
Blanche on a secret expedition. He seized on two of the Marquesas
Islands, built a fort on each, and garrisoned them with four hundred
men. He now wrote home, demanding thrice that number of troops and four
ships of war for the maintenance of his conquest; but he had further
objects in view. False representations had probably been made to the
French government with regard to the removal of Caret and Laval; and
Captain Du Petit Thouars was instructed to demand satisfaction at Tahiti
for injuries done to French subjects. A desire of conquest no doubt
inflamed Guizot the French minister--alas! that a Protestant should thus
have tarnished his fame--as well as his royal master; but hatred of
Protestantism had its full share in these nefarious proceedings.
One M. Henicy, who accompanied the Antoine French frigate to Tahiti, in
the summer of 1839, thus writes of the English missionaries: "Ferocious
oppressors, shameless monopolizers, trafficking in the word of God, they
have procured for themselves a concert of curses. Their ministers are
found to be vile impostors." Caret, Murphy, and the other priests now
returned to Tahiti. A French consul was appointed, a worthless,
profligate man; he professed, however, to be a zealous friend of the
true faith, anxious for missionary labourers to convert the deluded
Tahitian Protestants. Very little progress, however, could be made in
this spiritual work; the natives obstinately preferred sermons to
masses, and possessed so little taste as to reject pictures and rosaries
while they still read their Bibles. It was evident that efforts of a
more strenuous kind, though, such as the church of Rome is never
unwilling to resort to when persuasion fails, must be tried. And now it
was announced that the island was placed under the protection of France;
to this arrangement, it was pretended, the chiefs of Tahiti and the
queen herself had consented; nay, that they had solicited the protection
of France. This unblushing falsehood was immediately exposed, and we now
know, from queen Pomare herself, that all the proceedings in this
disgraceful affair had their origin in fraud and treachery. They were
chiefly carried out by the French consul, who is accused of having,
under false pretences, prevailed on certain chiefs of the island to
affix their signatures, in the name of the queen, to a document, the
object of which was to induce the king of the French to take Tahiti
under his protection, the pretence being grounded on a false statement,
which accused some native chiefs, and the representatives of other
nations, of bad conduct and various crimes. When the queen was apprised
of this document, she called a council of her chiefs, with an assembled
multitude of natives and foreigners; and, in the presence of the
British, French, and American consuls, denied all knowledge of it, as
also did the chiefs themselves who signed it. They declared that the
French consul brought it to them in the night, and that they put their
names to it without knowing what it contained. The governor, being one
of the persons imposed upon, wrote to the British consul, Mr.
Cunningham, declaring that the parties subscribing did not know what
were the contents of the letter which the French consul brought them to
sign, and that they affixed their names to it, as it were, in the dark.
The translator also affirmed that it must have been written by some
person not a Tahitian; its idiom being foreign, its orthography bad,
words misapplied, and the handwriting even foreign.
But the most convincing evidence of the forgery was the declaration of
two of the chiefs who signed the document, Tati and Ulami, to the
following effect: "That all men may know, We, who have signed our names
hereunto, clearly and solemnly make known and declare, as upon oath,
that the French consul did wholly dictate and write the letter, said to
be written by the queen Pomare and her governors, requesting protection
of the king of the French. Through fear we signed it. It was in his own
house, and in the night time, that the document was signed by us. And we
signed it also because he said, If you will sign your names to this, I
will give you one thousand dollars each when the French admiral's ship
returns to Tahiti.
(Signed) "TATI,
"ULAMI."
This disgraceful plot was carried on in the absence of the queen. She
was no sooner made acquainted with it, than she addressed a short and
dignified protest and remonstrance to the queen of Great Britain, the
president of the United States, and the king of the French. Few
diplomatic notes are more worthy of a place in history than that which
was addressed to Louis Philippe.
"Peace be to you. I make a communication to you, and this is its
nature,--
"During my absence from my own country a few of my people,
entirely without my knowledge or authority, wrote a letter to you,
soliciting your assistance. I disavow any knowledge of that
document. Health to you.
(Signed) "POMARE."
But the French consul proceeded to form a provisional government of
three persons, placing himself at the head of it as consul-commissary of
the king. The triumvirate behaved with the greatest insolence, not only
to the poor queen, but even to the British flag. Captain Sir T.
Thompson, with the Talbot, lay in the harbour. The queen arrived and
hoisted the Tahitian flag, which the Talbot saluted. A letter from the
consul-commissary and the two French officials with whom he was
associated was addressed as a protest to the gallant captain, "holding
him responsible to the king of the French, his government and nation,
for the consequences of such disrespect, and for a measure so hostile
towards France." Sir Thomas knew his duty too well to answer the
affront, or in any way to notice it; but he could only look on with
silent sorrow and disgust, he had no power to interfere. The queen also
received an insolent letter from the consul; he even forced himself into
her presence, and behaved in a rude and disrespectful manner. "He said
to me," she writes, in a letter to the captain of the Talbot, "shaking
his head at me, throwing about his arms, and staring fiercely at me,
'Order your men to hoist the new flags, and that the new government be
respected.' I protested against this conduct, and told him I had nothing
more to say to him." Bereft of other hope, the insulted and greatly
injured Pomare wrote a most touching and pathetic letter to queen
Victoria. It was published in the newspapers, and went to the heart of
every man and woman in Britain who had a heart to feel for dignity and
virtue in distress, "Have compassion on me in my present trouble, in my
affliction and great helplessness. Do not cast me away; assist me
quickly, my friend. I run to you for refuge, to be covered, under your
great shadow, the same as afforded to my fathers by your fathers, who
are now dead, and whose kingdoms have descended to us." She explains how
her signature was obtained. "Taraipa (governor of Tahiti) said to me,
'Pomare, write your name under this document (the French deed of
protection); if you don't sign your name you must pay a fine of 10,000
dollars, 5000 to-morrow and 5000 the following day; and should the first
payment be delayed beyond two o'clock the first day, hostilities will be
commenced, and your country taken from you. On account of this threat,"
says the queen, "against my will I signed my name. I was compelled to
sign it, and because I was afraid; for the British and American subjects
residing in my country in case of hostilities would have been
indiscriminately massacred. No regard would have been paid to parties."
There was no exaggeration in this pathetic statement; it is confirmed by
a letter--one of the last he ever wrote--from John Williams, the martyr
missionary, who called at Tahiti, March 1839, on his last fatal voyage
to the New Hebrides. "You will doubtless see by the papers the cruel and
oppressive conduct of the French. A sixty-gun frigate has been sent here
to chastise the queen and people of Tahiti for not receiving the Roman
Catholic priests; and the captain demanded 2000 dollars (10,000?) to be
paid in twenty-four hours, or threatened to carry devastation and death
to every island in the queen's dominion. Mr. Pritchard and some
merchants here paid the money and saved the lives of the people. The
French would only hear one side of the question, but demanded four
things within twenty-four hours: 2000 dollars (10,000), a letter of
apology to the French king, a salute of twenty-one guns, and the
hoisting of the French flag."
In short, the island became a French dependency, and the poor queen was
left with the mere shadow of her former sovereignty. And so it remains
to this day. A strong feeling of indignation was aroused in England.
Missionary meetings, particularly a noble one at Leeds, were held,
pledging themselves to do all in their power to induce our government to
exert its legitimate influence with the government of France to restore
to the queen of Tahiti her just independence, and to all classes of her
subjects their civil rights and religious freedom. But the English
government was either infatuated or afraid. Lord Aberdeen, secretary of
state for colonial affairs, stated in the House of Lords that, "although
he was not sufficiently informed of the precise grounds upon which the
French government had acted, or of the complaints made against the
authorities in those islands which had led to the convention; yet he had
no apprehension as to the establishment of the French in those seas, nor
that our commercial or political interests would be affected by it." He
stated that "he had received the most unqualified assurance that every
degree of protection and encouragement would be afforded to the British
missionaries residing in those islands; that in granting the
protectorship to the French king, it had been stipulated that all the
places of worship at present existing would receive protection, and that
the fullest liberty would be given to the missionaries to exercise their
functions." And he concluded by saying, "that he reposed the fullest
confidence, not only in the king of the French himself, but in the
minister, who at this moment was the principal adviser of that monarch."
But a righteous God looked on. This king was driven from his throne, and
died an exile in England; while his minister, M. Guizot, who sacrificed
his Protestantism to his ambition in this matter, after escaping with
difficulty in 1848, from a mob who would have torn him to pieces, saw
himself compelled to give up for ever all hope of recovering power in
France.
From that time to the present all political power and influence has
centred in the French governors, who have been sent out from Europe, and
their subordinate officers. Pomare still lives, revered by her people,
but without being able to exercise any one independent act of
sovereignty; and the native chiefs and governors who formerly took a
prominent part in all public affairs, and in their respective districts
possessed great influence, are without a vestige of authority, except in
those instances in which they have been induced to accept office under
the French governor. In 1842, a treaty, so called, was framed, which did
indeed provide for "the freedom of religious worship, and especially
that the English missionaries shall continue in their labours without
molestation." "The same shall apply," says its fifth article, "to every
other form of worship: no one shall be molested or constrained in his
belief." But this treaty was probably intended only to cajole those whom
it could not intimidate, and in practice it is a mere dead letter. The
treaty itself is brief and informal, and evidently drawn up in haste, or
perhaps with a view, from the absence of precision in its language, to
provide for its more easy violation. Yet if the language in which it is
couched conveys any meaning the treaty provides that the people of the
island, and the English missionaries in the prosecution of their labours
amongst them, shall continue to enjoy unrestricted religious liberty.
Now it might be urged, and with some plausibility, by the French
authorities in Tahiti, that the people are still allowed, as heretofore,
to attend their public worship, and to retain their Bibles and Christian
books. They might even maintain, that although a number of Romish
priests, with a bishop at their head, have been thrust upon the island,
no Protestant missionary has been expelled by the act of the
authorities. The substantial truth of these statements cannot be denied,
and yet there is abundant evidence that the clauses of the treaty
guaranteeing the religious liberty of the islanders and the missionaries
have, for every practical purpose, been palpably and grossly violated.
The places of worship have not indeed been closed, but the English
missionaries have, from time to time, been placed under such severe
restrictions that four of their number, finding themselves entirely
debarred from the free exercise of their ministry, left the island in
1852. There are at present but two missionaries remaining. One of these
is solely engaged in the operations of the press, but without permission
to preach to the people; and the other--far advanced in age--is merely
permitted, by a kind of sufferance, to remain at his post, and to
minister to his own flock, though prohibited from extending his labours
to other districts. So far as the churches and congregations scattered
over the island are still supplied with the means of religious
instruction, it is by the agency of natives, many of whom were formerly
trained to the work by the missionaries. But these native preachers are
subject to the constant inspection and interference of the authorities,
and they hold their offices solely by sufferance. It will thus be seen,
that although the English missionaries have not been forcibly ejected
from the island, the object aimed at by the French authorities has,
through the artful policy they have adopted, been effectually attained.
The missionaries have been silenced, disowned, and cast aside.
In pursuance of the same cautious and subtle policy, the French rulers
have not ventured to excite or irritate the people by sanctioning any
hasty measures for enforcing conformity to the Roman Catholic faith;
still they have encouraged the formation of elementary schools, in which
the young people are taught by priests appointed by the government, and
everything is done to give undue importance to these schools, so that
the pupils taught in them may, at the periodical examinations, appear to
more advantage than those under native masters.
Notwithstanding the prevalence of a system so calculated to ensnare and
mystify the minds of a simple unsuspicious people, it is a most
remarkable and gratifying fact that instances of apostasy to Romanism
have been exceedingly rare, and that the bulk of the people continue
stedfast in their attachment to the pure Scriptural truths taught them
by the missionaries. To account for this it should be borne in mind that
the churches and congregations still assemble as heretofore for Divine
worship under native pastors, some of whom are known to be pious,
devoted, and well qualified men. Then again, through the active and
efficient agency of the Rev. W. Howe, who, though prohibited from
preaching, still remains in charge of the mission press at Papeete, the
native pastors and people have been well supplied with religious books.
And it is further to be noted that the natives generally are amply
provided with copies of the sacred Scriptures in their own language,
which will no doubt, in the good providence of God, prove an effectual
safeguard against popish error and superstition. In the year 1847, five
thousand copies of the entire Tahitian Bible, revised by the Rev. Messrs
Howe and Joseph, and generously provided by the British and Foreign
Bible Society, were sent out in the missionary ship John Williams for
circulation in Tahiti and the other islands of the Society group; and
again, in 1852, three thousand copies of the New Testament were
despatched to Tahiti, chiefly for the use of schools.
In proof that the social and political troubles of the island have not
had the effect of diminishing the number of its Christian population,
the following most satisfactory statement, furnished by Mr. Howe, dated
11th July, 1856, may be adduced.
"I have been comparing the number of persons in church fellowship
at the present time with the numbers respectively before the
establishment of the French protectorate, and at the period when
it had become fully established. In 1842, there were about one
thousand six hundred and eighty church members in Tahiti and
Eimeo. In 1851, when the island of Tahiti was supplied by three
foreign missionaries, and the students in the seminary, the report
of the Society stated the number of church members to be upwards
of one thousand six hundred, which is probably equal to that of
1842. Almost ever since that period the districts have been
entirely supplied by native pastors only, with the exception of
Bunaauia; and there are at the present time upwards of one
thousand six hundred members on the two islands, and many are now
seeking admission. It must also be borne in mind that during the
interval between 1851 and the present time, the population of the
two islands has been reduced by epidemic disease and removals at
least one thousand, a large proportion of whom were church members
from middle to old age, so that the present number in fellowship
is comprised of the strength and pride of the nation, and the
proportion of communicants to the population is greater than it
has ever been."
Of the kind of annoyance to which the missionaries are exposed, and of
the influences which are brought to bear against them, the reader will
be able to judge after perusing the account of a prosecution lately
instituted by the Romish bishop against the Rev. Mr. Howe. In the autumn
of 1855, the Roman Catholic bishop having issued a catechism in which
the doctrines and superstitions of Popery were dogmatically stated, and
Protestantism as grossly misrepresented, Mr. Howe felt constrained, by a
sense of Christian fidelity, to publish in reply a firm but temperate
refutation. For this publication a criminal action was commenced against
him by the bishop; but so vexatious and unfounded were the charges that
the legal officer of the government, on whom it devolved to prosecute,
though urged by the governor, declined to bring the case into court, for
which he was suspended from his office; and when at length the case was
carried before the proper tribunal, the charges against our missionary
were dismissed. But the bishop, notwithstanding his signal discomfiture,
was not to be diverted from his object; he determined to renew the
contest, in the hope that by a change of tactics his ultimate object
might be secured. The _criminal_ prosecution already described was
brought to a termination in December. On the following 15th of March,
Mr. Howe received notice that his inveterate opponent had entered a
_civil_ action against him; and although the charges brought forward
were essentially the same, they were put into such a shape, and
contained statements so grossly exaggerated, that in order to meet them
Mr. Howe was compelled to remodel his reply.
After various delays, the trial at length commenced, in the court of
First Instance, on the 28th April, 1856, and in proof of the malevolence
by which the bishop was actuated, it may be stated that he demanded
30,000 francs damages, the suppression of the Tatara-taa,[M] and that
Mr. Howe should pay all the expenses of the courts, and also for 2000
copies of the judgment for distribution.
[M] The native name of the publication issued by Mr. Howe, in
refutation of the bishop's catechism; which the latter charged to be
libellous.
The following is a summary of the proceedings, which excited the
liveliest interest in the island, both among the natives and the foreign
residents.
"My pleadings," writes Mr. Howe, "were so successful that the court
declared itself incompetent to judge the case, and fined his lordship
100 francs, and condemned him to all the expenses of that court and
those of the preceding chambers.
"The judgment was read on the 3rd of May. On the 10th I received notice
that the bishop had appealed to the Imperial Tribunal, and demanded that
the previous judgment should be rescinded.
"This tribunal met on the 16th, when I objected to one of the judges,
giving as my reasons that an intimacy existed between him and the
bishop, which rendered his sitting as a judge in the case illegal. My
objection was sustained by the court.
"On the 17th, I objected to his lordship's advocate, as being under the
sentence of banishment for political offences, and by which he had
forfeited his civil rights. This was also sustained by the court.
"On the 26th, the bishop himself appeared to plead his own cause, and he
likewise objected to one of the judges, but his objection was overruled.
Suffice it to say, that after having made several unsuccessful attempts
to prove my defence unsound, the bishop beat a retreat, and said that if
I would consent to submit my cause to arbitration he would withdraw the
action. I demanded that his cause, to which this is an answer, should be
submitted to the same test, and he consented.
"The court then retired, and on its return announced its judgment to be,
that the decisions of the previous courts were sustained, and that the
bishop should pay all the expenses of this appeal, as well as the
expenses of the previous courts. By this step his lordship cannot appeal
again, either to the administration here, or to the Court of Cassation
in France."
It is gratifying to learn, that through this long and painful affair,
our missionary not only had the countenance of the British and American
consuls, and the fervent prayers of the native converts, both in public
and private, but that even the French officers, greatly to their honour,
openly expressed their sympathy.
In order more fully to appreciate the result of this protracted contest,
it should be borne in mind that the real point at issue was, whether the
cause of Protestant Christianity, as represented by Mr. Howe, should be
permitted to hold a footing in the island; that Mr. Howe stood alone,
unsustained, excepting by a stedfast confidence in the justice of his
cause, and the generous aid and sympathy of friends, French, English,
and native, who rallied round him in the time of need; that his potent
adversary could reasonably calculate on the countenance and
encouragement of the authorities, who, as Frenchmen and Roman Catholics,
would naturally be disposed to favour the interests of their own church,
and to repress what they had been taught to regard as heresy. But in the
providence of God, the presiding judges of the French tribunals before
which the cause was heard magnanimously regardless of all prejudices on
the score of nationality or religion, delivered a judgment which, while
completely exculpating the accused, reflected the highest honour upon
their own discernment, impartiality, and justice. While, therefore we
devoutly recognise the hand of God so conspicuously manifest in
overruling and directing this trial, or rather series of trials, to so
merciful an issue, we would add the expression of our hope and belief
that so long as the cause of Protestant Christianity is represented in
Tahiti by men like-minded with Mr. Howe, and so long as the courts of
justice on the island are presided over by men who, without fear or
favour, dispense their judgments in accordance with the principles of
truth and equity, the light of the gospel, which has for so many years
made glad the hills and valleys of Tahiti, can never be extinguished.
LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.
* * * * *
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.
BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS.
THE LIFE OF FRANCIS, LORD BACON, Lord Chancellor of England. By the
Rev. JOSEPH SORTAIN, A.B. of Trinity College, Dublin. With a
Portrait engraved on Steel. Foolscap 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._ extra cloth
boards.
LUTHER: HIS MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL HISTORY. By BARNAS SEARS, D.D.
12mo. with Portrait of Luther. 3_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE LIFE OF AMELIA OPIE. By MISS BRIGHTWELL. With Portrait.
Foolscap 8vo. 3_s._ cloth boards; 3_s._ 6_d._ extra cloth boards,
gilt edges.
MEMOIR OF OLD HUMPHREY; with Gleanings from his Portfolio in Prose
and Verse. With Steel-plate Portrait. The Twenty-ninth Thousand.
18mo. 2_s._ cloth boards; 2_s._ 6_d._ cloth extra.
MEMOIR OF LADY WARWICK. With her Diary, A.D. 1666 to 1672. With a
Portrait. 12mo. 3_s._ cloth boards.
THE HENRY FAMILY MEMORIALISED. By Sir J. B. WILLIAMS. 18mo. 1_s._
6_d._ cloth boards; 2_s._ half-bound.
THE CHRISTIAN LADY OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By Sir J. B.
WILLIAMS, KNT., LL.D. A new edition. 1_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards;
2_s._ 6_d._ half-bound.
MISSIONARY IN SYRIA; or, the Life of Mrs. S. L. SMITH, late of the
American Mission in Syria. 18mo. 1_s._ cloth boards; 1_s._ 6_d._
half-bound.
THE PRISON VISITOR; or, the Life of Miss SARAH MARTIN, of Great
Yarmouth; with Extracts from her Writings and Journals. 18mo. 1_s._
cloth boards.
MEMOIR OF JOHN LANG BICKERSTETH, late of Rugby School. With a
Preface by the Rev. J. BICKERSTETH, M.A. 18mo. 1_s._ cloth boards.
THE USEFUL CHRISTIAN; or, Memoir of T. CRANFIELD. 18mo. 1_s._ 6_d._
cloth boards; 2_s._ half-bound.
THE LIFE OF HARLAN PAGE. 18mo. 1_s._ cloth boards.
THE LIFE OF FELIX NEFF. 18mo. 1_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE PASTOR IN AFFLICTION; or, the Life of the Rev. H. MOWES. With
Preface by the Rev. J. DAVIES, B.D. 18mo. 1_s._ cloth boards; 1_s._
6_d._ half-bound.
THE SWISS REFORMER; or, the Life of WILLIAM FAREL. 12mo. 2_s._
cloth boards.
THE SWISS PASTOR; or, the Life of the Rev. F. GONTHIER. 18mo. 1_s._
cloth boards.
THE LIVES OF THE POPES. Parts I., II., III., and IV. 6_d._ each,
fancy cover; 10_d._ cloth boards. Or may be had in Two Volumes,
1_s._ 6_d._ each; 2_s._ extra boards.
BIOGRAPHY OF EMINENT CHRISTIANS. 2_s._ cloth boards; 2_s._ 6_d._
cloth extra.
THE CHURCH IN THE ARMY; or, Memoirs of Officers and Soldiers. 18mo.
1_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards; 2_s._ half-bound.
NEW EDUCATIONAL SERIES.
_Recommended to the attention of Heads of Colleges, Members of
Universities, and Principals of Public and Private Schools._
THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND; from the Invasions of Julius Cæsar to the
Year 1852. By THOMAS MILNER, A.M., F.R.G.S. 12mo. With Two Maps.
5_s._ cloth boards.
THE HISTORY OF GREECE; from the Earliest Times to A.D. 1833. By
Professor STOWELL, D.D. 12mo. With a Map. 2_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE HISTORY OF ROME; from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the
Empire. By THOMAS MILNER, A.M., F.R.G.S. 12mo. with three Maps.
3_s._ cloth boards. [Questions on ditto. 12mo. 6_d._]
A UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY: in Four Parts: Historical, Mathematical,
Physical, and Political. By THOMAS MILNER, A.M., F.R.G.S.
Illustrated by Ten Coloured Maps. 12mo. 5_s._, cloth boards.
LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS GREEKS. By Professor STOWELL, D.D. 12mo. 3_s._
cloth boards.
THE BIBLE HANDBOOK; an Introduction to the Study of Sacred
Scripture. By JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D., Member of the Royal Asiatic
Society. 12mo. With a Map. 5_s._ cloth boards; 6_s._ half-bound.
[Questions on ditto. 12mo. 6_d._]
PALEY'S HORÆ PAULINÆ. With Notes and a Supplementary Treatise,
entitled HORÆ APOSTOLICÆ. By the REV. T. R. BIRKS, A.M., late
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. With a Map. 12mo. 3_s._ cloth
boards.
PALEY'S EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. With Introduction, Notes, and
Supplement. By the Rev. T. R. BIRKS, A.M. 12mo. 3_s._ cloth boards.
THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION to the Constitution and Course of Nature.
Also, FIFTEEN SERMONS. By JOSEPH BUTLER, D.C.L. With a Life of the
Author, a copious ANALYSIS, Notes, and Indexes. By JOSEPH ANGUS,
D.D. 3_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE ELEMENTS OF MORAL SCIENCE. By FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D. With Notes
and Analysis by JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D. 12mo. 3_s._ cloth boards; 4_s._
6_d._ half-bound.
BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL WORKS.
A BIBLICAL CYCLOPÆDIA; or, a Dictionary of Eastern Antiquities,
Geography, Natural History, etc. Edited by JOHN EADIE, LL.D. With
Maps and Pictorial Illustrations. A new Edition, 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._
cloth boards; 11_s._ 6_d._ calf.
CHRISTIAN ENCOURAGEMENT; or, Attempts to Console and Aid the
Distressed and Anxious. By JOHN SHEPPARD. Royal 18mo. 3_s._ boards;
4_s._ half-bound; 12mo. edition, 5_s._ boards; 8_s._ morocco.
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. By ALEXANDER VINET, D.D. 18mo. 1_s._ 6_d._
boards; 2_s._ half-bound.
COMMENTARY ON THE ROMANS. By Professor HODGE. 12mo. 3_s._ 6_d._
cloth boards; 4_s._ 6_d._ half-bound.
ESSAYS ON THE EVIDENCES, DOCTRINES, AND PRACTICAL OPERATION OF
CHRISTIANITY. By JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY. 12mo. 3_s._ cloth boards.
HARMONY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS, in the Authorized Version. By EDWARD
ROBINSON, D.D., LL.D., Author of "Biblical Researches in
Palestine." With Explanatory Notes and Reference to Parallel and
Illustrative Passages. Two Maps. Royal 12mo. 3_s._ boards.
JACOB'S WELL. By the Rev. G. A. ROGERS, M.A. 18mo. 1_s._ 6_d._
cloth boards.
LEIGHTON'S (Archp.) PRACTICAL COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST GENERAL
EPISTLE OF ST. PETER. 2 vols. 18mo. 4_s._ cloth; 6_s._ half-bound;
royal 18mo. with Portrait, 6_s._ cloth boards; 11_s._ calf.
POCKET PARAGRAPH BIBLE: According to the Authorized Version; with
an entirely New Selection of Copious References, Prefaces, and
Notes. With Maps. 3_s._ cloth boards; 4_s._ roan gilt; 5_s._ French
morocco; 6_s._ Turkey morocco; flexible back, 7_s._
ROME; Its Temper and its Teachings. By GEO. H. DAVIS. Foolscap 8vo.
2_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE ANNOTATED PARAGRAPH BIBLE. THE OLD TESTAMENT, according to the
Authorized Version, arranged in Paragraphs and Parallelisms, with
Explanatory Notes, Prefaces to the Several Books; and an entirely
New Selection of References to Parallel and Illustrative Passages.
With Maps and Engravings. Super-royal 8vo. 14_s._ cloth boards.
THE ATONEMENT: being Four Discourses by the LORD BISHOP OF
GLOUCESTER, DR. CHALMERS, W. ARCHER BUTLER, M.A., and ROBERT HALL,
M.A. Foolscap 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE ATTRACTION OF THE CROSS. Designed to Illustrate the Leading
Truths, Obligations, and Hopes of Christianity. By GARDINER SPRING,
D.D. 12mo. 3_s._ cloth boards; 4_s._ half-bound.
THE BENEFIT OF CHRIST'S DEATH. Originally written in Italian by
AONIO PALEARIO. An Introduction by the Rev. JOHN AYRE, M.A. 18mo.
1_s._ 6_d._ bound in cloth.
THE BOOK OF PSALMS, According to the Authorized Version: arranged
in Parallelisms. With a Preface and Explanatory Notes. 3_s._ extra
cloth boards; 3_s._ 6_d._ with curtain-flaps to cover edges.
THE DIVINE LIFE: A Book of Facts and Histories. By the Rev. JOHN
KENNEDY, M.A., F.R.G.S. Foolscap 8vo. 3_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE ESSENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY, Theoretically and Practically
considered. By the late Rev. JOSEPH MILNER, M.A. Foolscap 8vo.
3_s._ cloth boards.
THE GREAT QUESTION; Will you consider the Subject of Personal
Religion? By HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D.D., of Philadelphia. Royal 18mo.
1_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards.
THE GREAT USURPER. (2 Thess. ii. 4.) Royal 18mo. 1_s._ 6_d._ cloth
boards.
THE JUSTIFIED BELIEVER: his Security, Conflicts, and Triumph. By W.
B. MACKENZIE, M.A. 2_s._ boards.
THE LIGHTS OF THE WORLD; or, Illustrations of Character, drawn from
the Records of Christian life. By the Rev. JOHN STOUGHTON. Royal
18mo. 2_s._ 6_d._ boards; 3_s._ extra boards.
THE NEW BIBLICAL ATLAS, AND SCRIPTURE GAZETTEER. Containing Twelve
superior Maps and Plans, together with descriptive Letterpress.
Super-royal 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ plain; 4_s._ outlines coloured; 6_s._
6_d._ on imperial drawing paper, full coloured, and bound in
boards.
THE NEW TESTAMENT POCKET COMMENTARY. 18mo. 1_s._ 4_d._ cloth
boards.
THE OLD TESTAMENT POCKET COMMENTARY. With numerous Explanatory and
Illustrative Notes. 18mo. 2 vols., 1_s._ 4_d._ each, 2_s._ 6_d._
cloth boards; or in one volume, 2_s._ 6_d._
THE STARS OF THE EAST: or, Prophets and Apostles. By the Rev. JOHN
STOUGHTON. Royal 18mo. 3_s._ 6_d._ cloth boards; 4_s._ extra
boards, gilt.
THOUGHTS CHIEFLY DESIGNED AS PREPARATIVE OR PERSUASIVE TO PRIVATE
DEVOTION. By JOHN SHEPPARD. Royal 18mo. 3_s._ boards; 4_s._
half-bound. 12mo. edition, 4_s._ 6_d._ boards.
WATER FROM THE WELL-SPRING, for the Sabbath Hours of Afflicted
Believers. By EDWARD BICKERSTETH, M.A. Royal 18mo. 2_s._ cloth
boards.
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Missing punctuation has been added and obvious punctuation errors
have been corrected.
Alternate spellings have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved closer to their reference points as an
aid to the reader.
The following printer errors have been corrected:
Page vi: "The Bay of Islands, New Zealand (_Engraving_)"
added to the Table of Contents.
Page 11: "aud" changed to "and" (Discovery and early History of).
Page 25: "Shoolhouse" changed to "Schoolhouse" (breaking and
entering Schoolhouse at Kissing Point).
Page 84: "set set" changed to "set" (in fact set on foot)
Page 256: "misssionaries" changed to "missionaries" (the advice of
the faithful missionaries).
Page 305: "asistant" changed to "assistant" (three native assistant
ministers).
Page 306: "Cantrebury" changed to "Canterbury" (The Canterbury
Association).
Page 330: "copions" changed to "copious" (a copious ANALYSIS, Notes,
and Indexes.)