MISSIONARY NOTICES, RELATING PRINCIPALLY TO THE FOREIGN MISSIONS CARRIED ON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE METHODIST CONFERENCE. MISSIONS IN POLYNESIA. NEW-ZEALAND. THE brief notice of the return of the "Triton" from Feejee, contained in Mr. Lawry's letter of the 20th of December, is accompanied by the most harrowing statements of the proceedings of hostile parties of the heathen nations. How necessary that we hasten to give them the "Gospel of peace!" How delightful the contrast to heathen Feejee is Christian New-Zealand, which was once equally distinguished for cannibalism and exterminating wars! Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Walter Lawry, dated Auckland, This THE "Triton" came in last night just in time to enable me to write by the "Bolina," which has deferred her sailing one day on my account. So devastating was the war at Feejee, that they have been obliged to remove the press from Rewa to Bau, with Mr. Jaggar, and all his family and things. they did under a brisk fire from the invading party, during eight or nine days, the shots whistling around them; but not a hair of their head was injured. It seems the natives are bad marksmen, and Providence ruled; but they ate twenty-seven human bodies the day before the "Triton" left Rewa, and were resolved to eat all the people and burn the town, which, Captain Buck says, either has already or soon will, no doubt, take place even the Chiefs are to be eaten, which is a step further than they have been accustomed to go. The Chiefs say, "We are devoted to be eaten, and we shall be eaten; but we will die fighting : and so say their people. But what is very remarkable, at this place, or in its immediate neighbourhood, is, the grace of God triumphs, and sound scriptural conversions are frequent among these people. When the Romish Priests came, Mr. Jaggar was obliged, by the influence which he had acquired, to use all his efforts to prevent them from being eaten; and we shall soon see how they will repay their benefactor. NEW-ZEALAND.-Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Walter Lawry, By the divine blessing, we are all well, so far as I am informed, throughout all our Mission establishments in this land; and, indeed, in the islands also, up to September 22d, when I last heard from them, with a slight interruption in the cases of Mr. Kevern and Mrs. Wilson. The "Triton" is not yet come in from the Feejees, though overdue by at least a fortnight. I shall do my best to induce Captain Buck to retain the command, at least another voyage. I have been favoured with letters from you, several of them in duplicate. Accept my sincere thanks for so much at tention. And it affords me very high gratification to inform you, that I shall be able to carry out your views, as fully explained in your letter of March 7th, 1844. At least I have entered upon the new scale, and see no very great or insuperable difficulties in the way of keeping quite within your limits. We are nearly out of paper again, at a time when I am very anxious to have the press going more rapidly than usual. Sin, in every form, has to be met and rebuked from the press. The ignorance of the natives, the wickedness of the emigrants, the assumptions of Puseyism, (rampant here,) and the daring blasphemy of "the man of sin," all call upon us to witness for God and his Christ. But the lack of paper cramps our operations. I trust you have sent off, long since, the two hundred reams of demy printing-paper which former letters have strongly urged as needed here. I feel very deeply the importance of our new training-school, or Native Insti tution; but I also feel its pressure and weight. We are all of one judgment here as to its being the design of the Lord that persons so well qualified, in many respects, as these hopeful natives are, for giving religious instruction to their countrymen, under the care and direction of the Missionaries, ought to have all the preparatory training and advantages within our reach. The Governor has given us a suburban allotment of seven acres, close by Auckland; that is, within one mile; and about five miles off he has given the Society a fine piece of land, somewhere about two hundred acres, not yet surveyed, for the purpose of cultivating their own food. The buildings I will pay or beg for; so that, while they are secured to the Society for ever by grant from the Crown, (I have it already in my iron chest,) these fine premises will cost the Wesleyan Missionary Society nothing. At the same time, we cannot avoid expense in clothes, salt, soap, and, now and then, a little rice and flour. If you could let us have £200 a year, for the entire expenses of this Institution, I should feel my heart glad and grateful before the Lord and his servants. Flannel or cotton shirts will be very acceptable. Jackets, trousers, and shoes will be of great consequence to them, when they feel the winter wet and cold. Twenty men are either already on the spot, working as native carpenters, or are soon expected from end to end of New-Zealand, the cream of our churches, and very hopeful characters. JOURNAL. July 24th, 1844.—I left Auckland for Hokianga, and was ill nearly all the way to the Bay of Islands; not from sea-sickness, but from a spasmodic affection; and, as the accommodations on board were not very good, this part of my journey was very trying. A thorough storm of wind and rain detained me two days at the Bay, where I was quite at home in the house of Mr. and Mrs. Addeman, who were members of our society in England, and who are found faithful in New-Zealand; but they talk of leaving this colony for some other, a step which I shall be glad if they do not one day see cause to regret. We can ill afford to part with such welltried Christians. 29th. I started in a boat up the Kiddy-Kiddy river; but, after hard toiling for seven hours, the gale, which threatened our destruction every moment, drove us into a creek on the north side of the river, where two natives under took to guide me by the light of the moon, over hill and bog and four rivers, to the point I had arranged to reach that night. I was carried across the rapid streams, now swollen by the late rains; and it was just as much as the strong New-Zealander could do to stand against the rush of waters, taking him far above the middle; and had he made only one false step, we must have gone over the falls, with little chance of escape from the foaming torrents. I trembled, and prayed that the Master would care for us. And so it came to pass, that, after hard toiling, we saw a glimmering light in the house of Mr. Kemp, an excellent man connected with the Church Mission here. Never was I more grateful than at this cheering prospect. Having tasted nothing during the last twelve hours, I was prepared to enjoy the fireside and suitable repast of a Christian family, whom I had not seen for some three-and-twenty years, when we met each other in New South Wales. 30th. By the grey light of the morn ing, and while the ground was covered over with hoar-frost, I set off, with two natives and one European, to cross the island of New-Zealand in one day, and in the depth of winter, being bound for the Mission-station at Mangungu, to join the Missionaries at their annual District-Meeting. About one half of our way was over a barren waste, on which grew here and there a few ferns only. But at our left lay the Waimate, where there is some cultivated land, a few buildings, and a lake of several miles extent. Bishop Selwyn lives here, and has what is called a Cathedral and a College. At two o'clock we got into a dense forest, the horrors of which will never be forgotten by me. We were threading our way through this wood till some hours after dark, and had to cross one river ten times, and creeks without saying how many. I have not the least hope of giving anything approaching to an adequate idea of bushtravelling in New-Zealand; but let the reader try to imagine hills so precipitous that walking gives way to all fours; for this is a singularly rugged and broken country: many of the mountains have been thrown up by volcanic action, and are very difficult of ascent. The appearance of the country, from one of these lofty cones, is not unlike a multitude of tents, pitched near together, each one rising from five hundred to several thousand feet high. At the foot will generally be found a bog. The roots of the trees are generally thickly webbed upon the sur face, and tend greatly to obstruct the traveller; the trees, with underwood and various vines, are so close together, that a passage through is a tedious and difficult matter. The clay below is seldom dry, and yields to the foot: so that one is in no small danger of being made fast at both ends at once; the feet in the clay, and the head entwined with vines and woodbines. It is here that honesty is no protection from being hanged. The knife or axe came often into play among these various obstructions of our rude paths. Riding in such a place is out of the question; and yet it is truly astonishing to see how expert the unshod horse becomes in climbing the rugged steeps, and hobbling over the roots and fallen trees of the forest. The worst part is, that one cannot travel here without being thoroughly wet from head to foot; and at night you have ferns for your bed, and in the morning your wet clothes, unless you carry a change. Food for the journey is conveyed by the natives, and also a tent, with all things needed by the traveller: these burdens cost very considerable payment, and are a heavy tax upon the Missionaries. Such travelling is wasting and cheerless beyond all the power of graphic delineation: there is, however, nothing better for these devoted men, who, year after year, wander up and down these hills and woods, seeking that they may save souls. And, thank God, they have not laboured in vain: for them the wilderness and solitary place are often glad, because the moral impression which they have succeeded in making, by the divine blessing, is so manifest, that all men see and admire it. Their preservation, too, is only to be attributed to the care of Providence, always watching and guarding his honoured servants. In the next world a faithful New-Zealand Missionary will be no ordinary character. peach-trees, with poultry, and a few domestic animals, around their village, among which were some good horses. All these things have followed in the rear of the triumphing Gospel, and more are yet to follow. I could not utter half the delight that I felt while comparing these things with what I witnessed here two-and-twenty years ago, when war was rife, and man ate man without a shudder: I saw them do it. But since then, "Our conquering Lord Hath prosper'd his word, Hath made it prevail, And mightily shaken the kingdom of hell." From early dawn till eleven at night, we continued our journey, the last seven miles of which were performed in a boat down the river Hokianga. Being wet and wearied enough, I was quite willing to lay me down to rest, though the Mission families got up and half roasted us with large wood-fires on the hearth, and in every possible way showed how glad they were to see a friend from home. Mr. Woon ran out in undress, while Mrs. Woon, who is an old friend of mine, came quickly after in full attire. Mr. Hobbs, with Dr. Day, and my son, were soon on their verandah; and very great was our mutual joy at meeting under such circumstances. At this our oldest Mission-station in New-Zealand, there was exercised a sound judgment in the selection of the locality; but the land in all these parts, so far as I went, is not good, and the few settlers who have come to it are suffering from a long and deep depression. Indeed, as a settlement, this part of New-Zealand has only one advantage, which is its lofty and valuable timber; but at present they meet with only a few who purchase from them. Better days, I trust, await them at an early period. The few improvements on the Mission-lands show About an hour before sun-down, we that the brethren here have been devoted crossed a river, and landed amid a few to some other kind of cultivation; and native sheds, where I was surprised to the moral state of the natives clearly see the smile of recognition on every indicates the presence of labourers in the countenance, which, though deeply ta- Lord's vineyard. I saw, however, notooed, was lighted up with glowing thing of which the Missionaries had any benevolence. Two fine Chiefs were cause to be ashamed, as to temporal among them, Tomate and Patuone, who things. The station is on a bed of pressed us to stay for the night; but clay, and very dirty in wet weather. cheerless was their tenement; and there- Their roads, I hope, will be improved fore, having drunk water out of their when I see them again. Just behind calabash, we urged them to be strong in the station is a deep, dense wood, which the Lord, and pursued our wretched will probably so remain till the earth is path towards the Mission-station, where burned up. There is an air of poverty these Christian natives worship on the about the natives, in some instances, Lord's day. I was glad to observe that which is truly deplorable, and may perthey had wheat growing, and some haps be accounted for on the ground of their having lost the timber-trade, which, when it flourished, was the source of considerable gain; and new wants arose, and new habits were formed,-smoking among the rest; their own flax-mats were but rarely manufactured, because the blankets and European clothing were preferred; but now they feel the absence of means to buy what they can no longer do without; and thus their transition-state is accompanied by difficulties and disappointments, of which they loudly complain. Christianity alone could restrain those people, even in this advanced stage of instruction. But for the Missions in New-Zealand, there could have been no colonization otherwise than by exterminating, or at least crippling, the aboriginal race. After sitting twelve hours every day in the District-Meeting, we were glad of the approach of the holy Sabbath; and to me it was peculiarly interesting to witness the fleet of canoes nearing the station on the whole of Saturday. At early dawn on the Lord's day the native prayer-meeting began, which was attended by about one hundred persons, notwithstanding the frost. They sing very badly, but with evident interest and devotion. At ten o'clock the large chapel was crowded with natives. Mr. Woon read the abridged service, and at the request of the brethren I preached in English, Mr. Hobbs interpreting. Im mediately after the public service ended, the love-feast began; nor was any time lost; for the biscuits soon disappeared, and the speaking of the native Christians was very earnest and uninterrupted for about an hour and a half. At my request, Mr. Buller took down several of their speeches: they were the following: Hakopa Taitua :-"This was the thought of my heart when Mr. Lawry was preaching this morning, 'I surely shall not live on account of my ignorance, my darkness, my slothfulness." In the Scriptures I see many wonderful things recorded of God. Although man cannot see my heart, yet God knows it." Mary Ann Woonoi :-"The Spirit of God showed me all the sins of my heart, and my heart became dark and pained. I thought all things here were perishing, and I cannot live by them; but the word of God endures for ever. This was my thought when I heard the word of God: therefore I gave my sins to Christ, and consented unto him; and if I be obedient unto him till death, I shall live." Tipene Toro" I did not formerly know that I was a sinner. I worshipped long before I felt a sense of my sins; but then I felt great pain in my heart, and sought mercy of God. I find great comfort from the words of Christ to Peter, I have prayed for thee.' It is my desire not to trust in my own righteousness, but to the righteousness of Christ." Edward Marsh (Patuone):-"This is my thought: I am from the seat of wickedness. When I heard of the Gospel, I thought to myself, I would recline upon it. God hath made the world, the trees, the grass; and he has given us his word; and I will seek to be saved by it. This is all I have to say." Manoi :-"When I first worshipped God, I was ignorant of the nature of sin. By and by I learnt that disobedience was sin; that rebellion against God's servants was sin; that falsehood was sin. Then I reflected upon my own conduct, and I saw that if these things were all sinful, then I must be a very great sinner. Then I felt great pain in my heart, and was greatly afraid. I feared greatly, and sought unto God for mercy, and prayed for strength, that I might believe; and this I continue to do even to this day." My Paul Matangi :-"My thoughts are little to-day, because I have sinned in those days that are past against my heavenly Father. But I have again entered into covenant with God. thoughts now recur to my father, the father of my body, and my relatives who have died in the faith. They were not left to die in their sins, but they departed in the faith of the Gospel; and I desire to follow them by fulfilling the injunction of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians: Stand therefore, having your loins girt with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.'' 9.99 The first who spoke was deeply ta tooed, and clothed with dog-skins, of many colours: the second was wrapped round with a blanket, and the third with a counterpane. This may be taken, not as an inventory, but as a fair specimen. It is pleasing to see that, while the middle-aged and old people are disfigured by the tatoo, the young folks are uniformly without it, except in the case of one tribe, in the vicinage of Auckland: these are again taking up their heathen custom, a striking illustration of the moral results of bad associations. But for these sad obstacles, one genera tion would scarcely have had to pass away before the tatoo would be a rare thing in New-Zealand. At half-past two the English service began; the congregation, composed of the Mission-families, and the few settlers up and down the river, amounting to about fourscore, some of whom had come in their boats from several miles' distance, and from many a creek and river branch. Some of the natives who knew a little English also attended. I was much impressed and gratified, while I observed the proper Christian way of the natives, to a man, in keeping holy the Sabbath-day. In the evening the chapel was again filled with natives, when, at the request of the brethren, I ordained, by imposition of hands, those of them who had not been so ordained in England: the sacrament of the Lord's supper was then administered to the society, and an address delivered to the natives, after they had been at the Lord's table. This was a high day at Mangungu; and richly was I repaid for my toils across the great wilderness. Thank God for the moral triumphs which I have witnessed over some hundreds of these cannibal warriors! I could not help wishing that my fathers and brethren at home, with the Collectors and subscribers to our Missions, could see the cheering harvest which here presented itself as the result of their combined and Christian labours in the name of the Lord. The crowded assembly of subdued and devout worshippers, with benevolence in their fine open countenances, formed a striking contrast to that which I witnessed here less than a quarter of a century ago. To their Missionaries, whose crown of rejoicing they will be in the day of the Lord Jesus, such a sight must be one of no ordinary interest. Our District-Meeting had begun at the same hour that the Conference met at Birmingham: only here it was nine o'clock at night. We united in earnest prayer for our honoured and beloved brethren, at home and abroad, and did not forget the excellent Barnsley family, with whom I was lodged so comfortably at the first Birmingham Conference, and with whom I should have been happy again had I remained in England. But I feel myself at home in New-Zealand, because I am fully satisfied that I am here by the will and appointment of Christ and his church. August 6th.-Having finished the business of the District-Meeting, I prepared for my bush-journey, but not without some, perhaps unnecessary, dread. During the sittings of the brethren, nothing occurred to interrupt for one moment the high Christian feeling of brotherly love with which we had bowed together at the table of the Lord. It is delightful to review such scenes as had passed before me and the brethren, while we had the pleasure and benefit of mingling together at this our first station in New-Zealand. As the weather was threatening, we pushed on with vigour till night-fall, and then made our fern-bed in the tent, the natives kindling a large fire. We soon made an end of our frugal meal, and commended ourselves to the care of our ever-present Lord and Master. A letter just received from my son, who is staying for a few weeks at Mangungu for the better acquirement of the native language, informs me that we had been pursued, on the day of our starting, by several New-Zealanders, not now, as formerly, with hostile purposes; for they said, "Great is our love to him; and, to prevent his walking over the land, we wish him to take our horses." They, however, did not overtake us. While pulling up the river, I observed a fine-looking and very powerful native making extraordinary strokes with his oar, and soon found that at the time of his baptism he had chosen the name of one of the greatest, best, and most useful men I know upon earth; for, upon my asking him his name, he pronounced, with a full, clear voice, "Robert Newton." 7th.-We were in motion at daybreak; and having passed over a dreary waste of some fifteen miles, reached again the house of our kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Kemp, where I was refreshed, and felt myself at home. But some of the bogs and precipices were to me thoroughly frightful and dismaying. I shudder when I think of them; but the cloud of His presence was our protection. In passing over the sixteen miles of water between the Kiddy-Kiddy and Russell, we encountered a heavy gale from the north the sea rolled awfully, and broke over our boat, on one occasion bringing on board a small sword-fish. The natives fell sick, and were useless; but, by God's mercy, we escaped the Bampton reef on our lee, on which had we struck, |