give my sins with His blood, and to bless you, and mother, and Bill, and Jane, and Mary, that we may meet in a better world. Farewell, dear Tom! God bless you! farewell! I'm sorry to part from you all; farewell! Your loving father until death. "P.S.-The chaplain has promised to give you my watch, and Bill my black silk handkerchief. Mother is to get my clothes that's to be on me when I die. God keep and bless her! I am sorry we cannot lie in the same grave. God's will be done! Amen!" Miss Duncombe with difficulty read this letter, and the girls pressed their handkerchiefs to their eyes. Martin moved not, with his head bent to the earth. As she finished, his voice was heard repeating portions of the beautiful liturgy which he had heard in the parish church. Did Martin only yield to the instinctive feeling that he could not be in sympathy with those he once loved on earth, who were now, he hoped, in some good and happy place, unless he was "religious?" and was this the method which suggested itself of being so, by repeating the only words he knew which were associated with religion? like the boy who, terrified in the storm, repeated, again and again, as a pions exercise, the first question in the Church of England catechism. "What is your name? My name is John Thomas." Or rather, had the old man hitherto retained in his mind those truths in the "form" merely "of sound words," even as the dead mummy retains in its hands the grains of wheat, which circumstances may at last transfer into kindly soil there to be quickened into new life? And did the hands of dead men oblige his mind also to relax its hold of those truths, until they now dropped into a softened heart prepared at last to receive them, and there to spring up into life everlasting? Whatever was the reason, certain it is that Martin began with bent head and clasped hands to mutter to himself snatches of confessions and prayers. "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep." "Yes." "We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts." "We have." "But Thou, O God, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare us, good Lord, spare us!" No one dared intrude upon such outpourings of his heart. Miss Duncombe gazed with intense interest upon him, while her own thoughts could not choose but rise to God in his behalf, so that out of the darkness of those old memories light might come through Him who worketh how and when He will. The scene was suddenly interrupted by a girl of about twelve years of age, with long jetblack locks, large black speaking eyes, and a beautiful gipsy cast of countenance browned like a hazel nut. She ran up to the old man with noiseless step, casting a side glance at the ladies, and put her hands round his shoulders, saying, "Uncle, uncle dear, who's meddling with you?" The old man started, and taking her hand, said, "No one, no one, my girl. It's just something these kind ladies and I are a talking about. My ladies," he continued, "this is Floxy, Flora, I believe, is her name, poor Bill Revel's only child, and her mother is dead, and she lives with me; a good girl-a good girl, and keeps my house all tidy, as you will see if you step in." Floxy, still holding by Martin's rough hand, stood like a beautiful statue, and gazed through her hanging black hair upon the two ladies. Miss Duncombe rose, and clapping her kindly on the back, said— "We shall come and see you again." "And take this," Kate added, springing forward, and putting a half-crown into her hand. "Yes, dear, your must-from me—and buy some tea, or tobacco, or anything you please for your uncle, and I'll come and see you too, and you'll find us friends." Floxy looked at the piece of money, and then at her uncle. "Thank you, you're too kind, no needcessity for this-none," said Martin, while Floxy attempted a curtsey, but seemed already bewildered. She put the half-crown in the meantime into her uncle's jacket pocket. Miss Duncombe and her young friends then took leave, giving their names and place of residence, and promising to return soon. They requested Martin to send Floxy with fish to them as often as possible. Kate begged the letter to copy for a friend. "If it's Tom's friend," said Martin, "let him have it. He will be able to read it, and he has a right to. Keep it, my young lady, keep it, and bless your pretty face for caring about poor Tom. The ladies walked on in silence, each wrapt in their own thoughts. At last, Miss Duncombe said, "God is merciful; man alone is cruel! Oh, | how intensely I feel our selfish pride, our shut-up hearts to our fellow-men, as if the poor were a different species from us, and were to be used or only patronized by us, and as if the ignorant and the bad were no longer our brothers or sisters to be cared for and helped to share our own undeserved mercies. What sin and sorrow might be prevented || by a timely work of sympathy and unpretending, simple, considerate love! What wealth given us— and given to bestow on others, in order to enrich ourselves also-we lock up until it leaves us, and we do not make others richer but ourselves poorer. The history of these Revels crushes me.” "Can't we do something for Floxy ?” inquired Kate. "I shall have her as my waiting-maid, she is so pretty and nice!" said Jane. "We shall see," quietly remarked Miss Duncombe; "but, oh, dear girls, the difficult and first work is, not the doing, but the being right! If we but seek and follow the light within, it is wonderful how all things without will become light. Let us follow God in humble faith, and not lead in proud self-confidence, and the work we are best fitted for will be given us. But, alas! we are either idle, or carve out our own work and fail. These Revels are given us, and I hope and believe we shall yet be of use to that old ma n and his niece." And so ends the early life of Ned and his friends. Our next chapter will open with the history of later years. NORMAN MACLEOD. (To be continued.) AND is it ours in even this our day, Surely He dwells among us as of yore, His Spirit works with ours, when SCIENCE turns From binding fast the elements, and o'er Neglected childhood yearns ! And, rescued little ones! ye need not pine Nor count the lingering hours that may not shine Ye never watched the gorgeous hues of morn, Nor marked the chastened splendours evening flings, For you the Sun of righteousness shall dawn, It is not yours a mother's smile to trace, Ye may not look upon the harvest-fields, Prophets and kings have yearned to look upon They never knew, the monarch or the sage, God's oracles of grace. And though the blessed daylight be denied, His word their lamp! more bright than sun or star; And o'er the path where DARKNESS must abide So when this earthly sun has set for us, E. K. T. THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS-AS THEY WERE TWENTY YEARS AGO. THE South Sea Islands are in many respects one of the most interesting portions of our globe. In actual appearance they come nearer to our ideas of the Hesperides, the Elysian Isles, or Fairy-land; nearer to the creations of poetry, or the realms formed and peopled by imagination, than any other region of the earth's surface. For three centuries and a half their history has read more like the tales in the Arabian Nights, more like Robinson Crusoe and the higher works of fiction, than the sober chronicles of real life. Yea, in many cases the truth here has been stranger and more striking than fiction. All the maritime powers of Europe have sent forth their most skilful and adventurous navigators to explore that mighty ocean. Spain led the way. On September 26th, 1513, a fortnight after the battle of Flodden, those waters were first gazed upon by European eyes. Balboa, governor of the colony of Santa Maria in Darien, first discovered them from a mountain on that isthmus, and as they lay south from the place where he stood, they received the name of the SOUTH SEA. Seven years later Magellan, a native of Portugal, but in the service of Spain, and as a navigator and discoverer second only to Columbus, passed through the straits that still bear his name, and getting into the range of the trade-winds, glided along in smooth seas over its whole length, till he reached the Ladrones, and from this circumstance he named it the PACIFIC OCEAN. In 1567, when the beautiful Mary Queen of Scots was abdicating her throne, Mendana, another Spaniard, discovered the group which he called Solomon's Archipelago, "from the belief that those islands had supplied the gold and treasure employed in building the temple." England, at that time only a second or third rate power, was beginning to show her character; the Reformation had taken deep root among her people, and was fast developing their inborn energies. The great men who guided the councils of Elizabeth, had their thoughts directed to this ocean, and John Oxenham, a native of Plymouth, the first Englishman that sailed in the South Sea, left England in 1575. He was followed by Drake, Cavendish, and Hawkins. Before the century closed the Dutch had a fleet of five ships in the same seas. The seventeenth century was less famous for maritime discovery than the preceding had been. Blake swept away the navies of Spain and Holland, and raised England to the sovereignty of the seas; but our country was convulsed by such fearful storms that foreign adventure was not thought of. Still during this century several names stand prominently out; two of the best known of these are Quiros and Tasman. Quiros, the pilot to Mendana, "eager to plow up the waters of the unknown sea, and seek out the undiscovered lands around the Antarctic pole," eager to discover the great southern continent, the dream of all the early geographers, sailed from Lima, in December 1605, a few weeks after the famous Gunpowder Plot. In the following year he discovered the most northern island in the New Hebrides. Supposing this to be the long-soughtfor continent, he named it the Archipelago del | Espiritu Santo, and drawing, as Sheridan said of some one, upon his imagination for his facts, he wrote home to Philip III. of Spain, that those countries discovered by him might occupy one quarter of the earth's surface, that Espiritu Santo was the most delicious country in the world; it was like the garden of Eden, and would prove the inexhaustible source of glory, riches, and power, to Spain. During this century the Dutch were the most enterprising of South Sea navigators. New Holland, or as it is now called Australia, was discovered in 1616 by Dirk Hatichs, while Tasman, one of the most famous of the Dutch navigators of that age, discovered Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, Tongatabu and the Feejees, in 1642. The rest of the century was barren of discovery. In the eighteenth century, Britain and France both appeared in the South Seas. Dampier, Anson, Byron, Wallis, and others, fairly represented Britain. Bougainville, La Perouse, and others, well represented France. Wallis discovered Tahiti in 1767, and Bougainville discovered the Samoan group in 1768. But the three voyages of Captain Cook threw into the shade all the discoveries that had been previously made in the Pacific; whether we take into account the extent of his discoveries, the scientific skill with which they were conducted, the amazing accuracy of his sur veys, and the truthful, all but photographic pictures which he drew of the personal appearance, the social condition, and the manners and customs of the different races with whom he came in contact. Cook's first voyage was undertaken in 1768, to observe the transit of Venus; the second in 1772, to solve the problem of a southern continent; and the third in 1776, in search of a passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This voy age resulted in the discovery of the Sandwich Islands, and the death of Cook, who was killed at those islands. The most interesting event after the voyages of Cook, was the mutiny on board of the "Bounty" in 1789; the settlement of the mutineers on Pitcairn's Island; and the remarkable voyage of Captain Bligh in an open boat with twenty-one men on board, and a very scanty supply of provisions, extending from the Feejees to Batavia, a distance of from three thousand to four thousand miles, an enterprise as well planned and executed as the famous retreat of Xenophon and the ten thousand. Thirst for gold and desire of political power were among the ruling motives that led to almost all the early expeditions for discovery in the South Seas. Cook's were undertaken for the advance ment of science. Late, and slow to recognise her obligations, to her shame be it spoken, Christianity appeared in those seas. The discoveries of Cook, and the trial of a part of the mutineers of the "Bounty" had an intimate connexion with the commencement of that which, in the present century, has invested the South Sea Islands with their greatest interest; because its effects upon them have been so striking and so important, namely, the MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. ants, comprises all the islands south of the line from long. 180° to New Guinea, including the Feejee group, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, the Solomon Group, and other islands. Micronesia, or the Little Islands (from μkpós little, and voos, an island), comprises all the slands north of the line, west of Hawaii or the Sa dwich Islands, including the Kingsmill group, the Scarborough range, the Radick and the Ralick chains, and a multitude of others. The London Missionary Society was formed in 1795, on a catholic basis, so as to include Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents. In 1796, the ship "Duff" sailed for the South Seas, commanded by Captain Wilson, a man singularly prepared of God for such a service; there were twenty-five missionaries and mechanics on board. Stations were formed on Tonga, the Marquesas, and Tahiti, all under the most encouraging appearances, and the vessel returned to London after a most prosperous voyage. The "Duff" was sent out a second The South Sea Islands are inhabited by two time with thirty missionaries and mechanics on distinct races. Polynesia, including New Zeaboard. The friends of missions were full of joy land, is inhabited by what are called the Malay and hope. But, alas! their faith, and patience, race, a people evidently of Asiatic origin; in and perseverance were soon to be severely tried. their persons tall and well formed, with light The "Duff" was captured by a French privateer; the yellow skin, and smooth glossy black hair. Their vessel was lost to the Society, and only a few of language is soft and mellifluous, rivalling if not these missionaries reached their destination. Some surpassing the Italian itself. It is a peculiar, of the missionaries were killed on Tonga, and but universal rule in all the dialects of this lanthe mission there abandoned. The Marquesas guage, that not only every word, but every syllable mission was also given up. War broke out in ends with a vowel. While of the consonants, it is Tahiti, and for many long years the mission was the semi-vowels l m n r s, and the slender consocarried on on the principle of hoping against hope. nants kp t, that are most commonly used; there To understand the South Sea Islands, it is de- are no gutturals, and ng is the only double consosirable that our readers would cast their eyes on a nant, while even that, in some of the dialects, is map of the Pacific; for unfortunately no portion softened into n. If on a map of the South Sea of the earth's surface seems to be so imperfectly Islands, a point is fixed upon at Easter Island, anknown as the South Seas; except those who have other to the north of the Sandwich Islands, and a lived on the islands or sailed among them, we can third on the south of New Zealand; and if lines rarely meet with any one, man or woman, who has are drawn from these three points, so as to form a any distinct conception of the relative position of triangle on the map, this triangle will include the groups, or the real and relative sizes of the nearly the whole of the Malay Polynesian race. islands. Even in Sydney, on the very edge of the While the language spoken by all the Malay polyPacific, where vessels are every week clearing out nesians is one, the natives of nearly every group for the islands, there is profound ignorance on this of islands speak a different dialect of this one subject. It is even said by some who ought to language. There are at least seven distinctly know, that the people in Sydney sum up the whole marked dialects: the Hawaiian, the Marquesas, the South Sea Islands under two divisions, Tahiti and Tahitian, the Rarotongan, the Samoan, the Tonthe Feejees. This ignorance, however, is not to gan, and the New Zealand. The Samoan is by far be wondered at; no portion of the terraqueous the softest and smoothest. The New Zealand is globe is so rudely laid down in our ordinary maps. the strongest and roughest. The one is the Ionic Even in some of the best and latest, the islands, of Polynesia, the other is the Doric. Climate, it is and even the groups, are as confused as the patches said, by affecting the muscles of the mouth, has a of star-dust along the milky way. In the maps of strongly modifying influence upon language. Cerold countries, and even in many of those of the tain it is, that Samoa, where the softest dialect is newest, kingdoms and counties are distinctly co-spoken, is the warmest locality; whereas New Zealoured, so that the eye at once perceives their position and their boundaries; but there is almost nothing of this kind in the maps of the South Sea Islands. And then the names; old and new, Spanish, Dutch, French, English, and native, are blended in all proportions, and spelled in all varieties, and upon every principle known and recognised in orthography. But as a help to a better understanding of this chaos of islands, we may mention that, exclusive of Australia and New Zealand, geographers have arranged the South Sea Islands under three divisions, Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Polynesia, or the Many Islands (from Toλús, many, and voos, an island), was the name at first applied, in a general way, to the whole of the islands; then they were divided into Eastern and Western Polynesia; but now Polynesia is restricted to the eastern islands, situated between long. 180°, the last meridian, and South America. Melanesia, or the Black Islands (from μéλas, black, and vîσos, an island), so called from the colour of the inhabit land is the coldest. But the softness and liquid smoothness of their language brings one great disadvantage to the Polynesians. It renders them nearly incapable of pronouncing English. Melanesia, or, as it is sometimes still called, Western Polynesia, is inhabited by a totally different people, commonly called the Papuan, or Negrito or Negrillo race; the most of them less in size than the Polynesians. With crisp hair of different shades, but never glossy black, their skin dark, a sort of coffee-and-milk colour, and their features coarse; their whole appearance pointing to an African origin, but without the prognathous, protruding jaws of the genuine negro. Their language is quite distinct, belongs to an entirely different family of languages from that of the Malay Polynesian, and is endlessly diversified. Not only on every group, but on every island a different dialect is spoken, and so widely different are they as to be almost, often altogether, unintelligible to the inhabitants of the adjoining island. It will be difficult to say, till the languages are more fully examined and compared than they have yet been, how far they are connected by a common paternity. On the south of the New Hebrides, the dialects have evidently sprung from a common language; there are strong resemblances in grammatical structure, but the diversity in vocables is very great. One would almost think that the whole race came direct from Babel; and that the inhabitants of one island had scarcely spoken a word to those of another ever since. A stranger going to those islands and seeing so much that is grand, beautiful, and lovely, seeing lofty mountains, green hills, towering peaks, and castellated rocks; rich plains, deep valleys, and undulating slopes; dense forests, and groves of waving palms; fragrant flowers, delicious fruits, and the earth teeming with plenty; clear streams, smooth lagoons, lake-like seas, and capacious harbours; coral reefs rising from the depths of ocean like walls of adamant, and crowned with battlements of crested waves; insects, birds, and fishes, sporting each in their respective domains; the soft light, the fleecy clouds, and the balmy air; the gentle breeze, the genial climate, the perennial spring, and the never-ending summer; the sun clear by day, the moon walking in brightness, and the whole firmament studded with countless stars; seeing these, and much more than these, he would naturally think that if "Paradise regained" is to be found on earth, it must be among those sweet and sunny isles. But, alas! in the days of heathenism, and so far as heathenism still exists, there is just the one grand exception to this state of things, so well expressed by Heber :- "Here every prospect pleases, But truly he is vile in all heathen lands, in none more so than in the South Sea Islands. In this paper I will confine myself to the Polynesians. In their heathen state their civilisation was of a low type, though not by any means so low as that of the Melanesians. They constructed good houses, made large canoes, manufactured beautiful mats, and prepared useful cloth, or rather a species of strong paper, which served the purposes of cloth; but they had no iron tools when they were first visited by Europeans, they had no printing, no writing, no literature of any kind. To them history, science, philosophy, and theology were all sealed books. Their moral character was still worse, vastly lower. They were idolaters, they were treacherous, cruel, revengeful, licentious, and given up to all that was abominable. If we collect all the sins and crimes, even the most unnatural, recorded by the Apostle Paul in the first chapter of the Romans, and in his other epistles, and if to all these we add the revolting practice of cannibalism, we have a true and faithful picture of heathenism in Polynesia, at least in most of the groups. In some of them they deny being cannibals; but it was, nevertheless, prevalent. The life of a shipwrecked mariner or passenger landing on their shores was not worth two hours' purchase. Forty years ago, those who spoke in proverbs, thought that they had exhausted comparisons for all that was barbarous and cruel, when they had said, “As savage as a New Zealander ;" and the same thing might have been predicated of all the Malay Polynesian race. Their number at that time might be about half a million. Such were the people among whom missionary operations were commenced sixty years ago. In 1797, the London Missionary Society located missionaries on Tahiti, the Marquesas, and Tonga. The missionary spirit awoke among the churches with great power. In 1814, the Church Missionary Society, guided by the venerable Marsden, the English chaplain New South Wales, established a mission in New Zealand. In 1822, the Wesleyans commenced operations both in New Zealand and in Tonga. And in 1820, the American Mission was established in the Sandwich Islands. At first the missionary enterprise was truly up-hill work. Most formidable difficulties stood in the way. It was nearly twenty years before a single convert was gained. But, finally, when all hope was nearly lost, man's extremity proved to be God's opportunity, and the labours of all these societies were crowned with remarkable success. The rapid progress and the extraordinary effects of the gospel in Tahiti, and the other islands of the group, took the churches by surprise. It was a nation born in a day. There was a new chapter added to the external evidences of Christianity. The reflex influence of the mission was perhaps even greater and more important than the direct. For many long years not a missionary sermon was preached, not a missionary speech was delivered, but Tahiti and the South Sea Islands were referred to for proofs and illustrations of the power and efficacy of Divine grace. The letters, the journals, and the reports of the missionaries were circulated extensively, and were read with avidity. Ellis's Polynesian Researches; Bennet and Tyerman's Journal, edited by James Montgomery, the Christian poet; Stewart's Narrative of the Sandwich Mission; Yates' New Zealand, and other works of the kind, were eagerly read by the Christian public. The climax of this intense and growing interest in the South Sea Missions was reached when, in 1837, John Wil liams returned to England, and related, with such touching and impressive eloquence, what the Lord had accomplished by himself and his fellowlabourers, in opening up the Austral Islands, the Hervey Islands, and the Samoan group for the reception of the gospel. Nothing had occurred like this since the Reformation. In little more than twenty years, from the time when the voice of prayer was first heard among the Tahitians, nearly the whole of the Malay-Polynesian race, numbering 400,000 or 500,000-with the exception of a few thousands in the Marquesas, and scattered over eight groups of islands-had abandoned heathenism, and placed themselves under Christian instruc tion; had given up all their cruelties and all their abominations-war, cannibalism, and licentious night-dances. The arts of peace and the worship of God had come in their stead; life and property had become in a great measure secure; and Wil liams's Missionary Enterprises read almost like an appendix to the Acts of the Apostles. Mr. Williams was a man singularly qualified both by nature, grace, and education for the work to which, in God's providence, he was called. Physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, |