There was one awful night in particular, when they believed their doom to be decided. There was no thought of defence, for that was quite impossible; but they closed the frail doors, hung up curtains of native cloth to hide them from the eyes that peered in through the slight reed wall on the great gloomy house, and throughout the long hours of that terrible night they knelt in prayer, expecting each moment that the savages would rush in and seal their doom. An awful brooding stillness prevailed, which suddenly was broken by a wild ringing yell; but it was not a death-shout. The people had determined to spare the strangers, and the call was an invitation to all the women to come out and dance, which they accordingly did. Scenes such as these marked the early years of the mission. So far from granting the promised protection, the chiefs opposed the work in every possible way, forbidding the people to become Christian on pain of death and the oven. The ladies and their children dared not leave the close house in the heart of the town, and their health suffered from the confinement. After a while Mr Lyth’s medical skill brought him into some repute, and the young chief was his first patient,—a man of magnificent stature and physical development. Mr Lyth attended him during a long illness, and had the satisfaction of seeing him recover his health, and also of feeling that he had in a measure won his friendship. The old king, too, was seriously ill, and claimed medical aid; but he was not a pleasant patient, as, on the slightest provocation, he would seize his club and threaten to kill his doctor, who on one occasion fled, leaving his coat-tail in the hand of his interesting patient—a loss not easily replaced at Somo Somo! It was at this time (1842) that Mr Cross came to stay here, to profit by Mr Lyth’s medical skill; but it was too late. The constant wearing anxieties of his life, first in the Friendly Islands, and afterwards at Lakemba and Viwa—continually striving and struggling with men fiercer and more degraded than any wild beasts—had utterly worn him out; and he arrived here only to enter into his well-earned rest, leaving a widow and five children. So he was laid here; and some little graves beside him tell of the sorrowing mothers whose little ones died in those sad years. Not long after this came the ceremony of the old king’s death. For some time he had gradually grown more and more feeble; and though a virulent old heathen, and most inveterate cannibal, his appearance was so venerable and benevolent, that the mission party had become positively attached to him. Latterly they had begun to acquire a little influence over him, and had succeeded in saving some women from being strangled, and some war-captives from being slain for the oven. Several large canoes had also been launched, and suffered to make their first voyage, without the sacrifice of one human victim,—a thing hitherto unprecedented; and though all Christian teaching