of the younger Lucilius, and contributed to the _Anecdota Oxoniensia_
various unedited Bodleian and other manuscripts. In 1907 he published
_Appendix Vergiliana_ (an edition of the minor poems); in 1908 _The
Annalist Licinianus_.
ELLIS, WILLIAM (1794-1872), English Nonconformist missionary, was born
in London on the 29th of August 1794. His boyhood and youth were spent
at Wisbeach, where he worked as a market-gardener. In 1814 he offered
himself to the London Missionary Society, and was accepted. During a
year's training he acquired some knowledge of theology and of various
practical arts, such as printing and bookbinding. He sailed for the
South Sea Islands in January 1816, and remained in Polynesia, occupying
various stations in succession, until 1824, when he was compelled to
return home on account of the state of his wife's health. Though the
period of his residence in the islands was thus comparatively short, his
labours were very fruitful, contributing perhaps as much as those of any
other missionary to bring about the extraordinary improvement in the
religious, moral and social condition of the Pacific Archipelago that
took place during the 19th century. Besides promoting the spiritual
object of his mission, he introduced many other aids to the improvement
of the condition of the people. His gardening experience enabled him
successfully to acclimatize many species of tropical fruits and plants,
and he set up and worked the first printing press in the South Seas.
Returning home by way of the United States, where he advocated his work,
Ellis was for some years employed as a travelling agent of the London
Missionary Society, and in 1832 was appointed foreign secretary to the
society, an office which he held for seven years. In 1837 he married his
second wife, Sarah Stickney, a writer and teacher of some note in her
generation. In 1841 he went to live at Hoddesdon, Herts, and ministered
to a small Congregational church there. On behalf of the London
Missionary Society he paid three visits to Madagascar (1853-1857),
inquiring into the prospects for resuming the work that had been
suspended by Queen Ranavolona's hostility. A further visit was paid in
1863. Ellis wrote accounts of all his travels, and Southey's praise (in
the _Quarterly Review_) of his _Polynesian Researches_ (2 vols., 1829)
finds many echoes. He was a fearless, upright and tactful man, and a
keen observer of nature. He died on the 25th of June 1872.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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