THE CHRONICLE

OF THE

London Missionary Missionary Society.

1.-South Sea Mission.—Mangaia.

HE Island of MANGAIA is one of the Hervey Group, lying about 22o South latitude, and 158° West longitude, being about 20 miles in circumference. The island was discovered by Captain Cook, in 1777. A coral reef encircles the island, and, as there is no opening in the reef large enough to admit a boat, landing is effected in canoes, which, under the expert guidance of Natives, are borne over the reef on the top of the rising wave. About 136 feet inland from the beach, there rises a remarkable belt of hard coral rock, which, at an average height of 150 feet above the level of the sea, surrounds the island. This belt is in no part less than a mile broad, and thus it forms a vast rampart against the inroads of the ocean. This broad sea-wall of rock is perforated with numerous caverns, extending underground for miles. Some of these caverns abound in stalactites. Many were formerly used for burying the dead, each tribe having its own cave. Others were used as hiding-places by the survivors of the conquered party, in the dark times of heathenism. In the interior the hills are chiefly of red clay; the rock underneath being basaltic. The sides of these hills are, as in the days of Cook, perfectly barren. The numerous small valleys in the interior are watered by small streams, which nourish the taro, on which these islanders chiefly subsist. The population of the island in 1867 did not exceed 2237 persons. For forty-six years after the discovery of the island by Captain Cook, the people remained in darkness and barbarism, without any efforts being made for their enlightenment. But in 1823 Mr. Williams visited the

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island, and, under a promised protection from the chiefs, teachers with their wives were landed. The treatment, however, which these first messengers of mercy, especially the women, experienced from the Natives, from the moment of landing, was so violent, that it was deemed necessary, after a few hours, to take them on board again. Thus the dawning of the day of hope for the people was delayed.

In the following year, two young men, DAVIDA and TIERE, members of the church in Tahaa, who had accompanied Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet to the island, consented to make another attempt to obtain a footing on the island, with a view to the evangelization of the people. These brave men of God, with portions of the Tahitian New Testament tied upon their foreheads, leaping into the sea, swam on shore, and were the means of commencing that Christian work at Mangaia by which the people have been greatly elevated and blessed.

Davida and Tiere entered on their self-denying enterprise in Mangaia in June, 1821, and in 1834, the first little band of twelve disciples was formed into a Church at the station of Oneroa, by the Rev. C. BARFF, of Huahine. In 1841, a branch church was formed at Tamarua, an out-station, by the Rev. WILLIAM GILL, by whose successive visits much good was accomplished. In 1844, Katuki, a native of Atiu, and one of the first students in the Institution at Rarotonga, was sent to Mangaia to occupy the Station at Ivirua. Here he has laboured successfully for twenty-five years.

In 1811, the Rev. GEORGE GILL was appointed by the Directors to take permanent charge of the Mission in Mangaia, where he arrived in July 1845, and became the resident missionary in the island. In March, 1852, the Rev. W. WYATT GILL joined the Mission, occupying the Station of Tamarua.

Davida lived for many years, labouring for Christ, and seeing the numerous and beneficial results of the work which was commenced in 1824. In 1849 he entered into rest, and received the crown of the faithful Christian warrior. The Rev. William Gill bears the following high testimony to his character, and to that of Meduaarutoa, formerly a heathen priest and warrior, but who became the first convert to Christianity in Mangaia:

"The father and founder of this Mission was 'Davida,' who landed here in 1821. During the whole period of his missionary life, he had been a consistent, active man. In his last illness, he delighted to contrast what Mangaia now is, with what it was when he came to its heathen

people; and one day, speaking with humility of his labours, he inquired, Is it right for one to adopt the language of Paul, and say. "I have fought the good fight; I have finished my course"? These people were wild beasts when I came among them, but the sword of the Spirit subdued them. It was not I, it was God who did it.' At another time, he dwelt with much anxiety on this passage, 'Lest that by any means, when I have preached the Gospel to others, I myself should be a castaway.' While disease was making rapid inroads upon his body, a beloved daughter died, after which he sank fast. 'Do you really know that this is the hand of death on you?" asked the missionary. 'I know it,' was his reply. This is the messenger-I shall soon go;' and, seizing the missionary's hand, as if resigning the earthly charge which he had so honourably sustained, he said, with much animation and emhasis, I go to God, and to Christ! Oh! what life! Oh! what joy! Thus his body died: devout men carried it to its burial, and made great lamentation over it, but his spirit entered into honour, glory, and immortality! This good man died just five-and-twenty years after he commenced his missionary labours; and was honoured to see the universal spread of Christianity on the island. Five hundred members were in Church communion; 1,600 children and adults were under daily instruction; and, besides many evangelists gone to the heathen islands, 3,000 miles away, there were more than one hundred native teachers in the schools, willingly and gratuitously employing themselves in teaching the generation now rising up to fill the place of their fathers!

"Davida, the teacher, is now united in glory with his old friend, Meduaarutoa, who was formerly a heathen priest and warrior, and was the first man on the island who embraced Christianity. For nearly thirty years he was one of the most zealous and devoted fruits of the Gospel; as a deacon and class teacher, he was most efficient; and his occasional exhortations were characterized with intelligence, fervour, and energy. During his last illness, his enlightened confidence in the love and merits of Jesus, his exalted Saviour, was cheeringly explicit. The emphatic motion of his emaciated hand, and the reanimation of his eye, as he said, I know in whom I have believed,' were satisfactory and encouraging. His hope of a glorious resurrection was unclouded, and his joy in death often excited him into ecstatic expressions of heavenly gratitude and praise.

"It is joyous to realise that Davida, and Meduaarutoa, and Barima, and Meduaati, and Ngatae, and Tairi and Tairi and Simiona, and many other Mangaia worthies, are now among the saints in light,