He apologizes also to that dear lady herself for the liberty he is thus taking with her “Family Epistles,”—written for the delight of her inner circle of friends, and for their eyes alone. He is well aware that if she were at his side, instead of being in the New Hebrides, while he is sending these pages to press, nothing would probably induce her to give her consent to this appearance in print. But he trusts that her wrath will be assuaged, when she returns to the Colonies and learns how the Christian Public approve in this respect of what her friend has done. The Editor makes no apology to the reader for this break in the flow of the story, or even for re-touching one or two scenes that are past, for he already instinctively knows that even these fragments will be appreciated, as a great enrichment to the Autobiography which he has been privileged to introduce to them.] (1867.) TO REV. DR. MACDONALD, SOUTH MELBOURNE. “... How much I enjoyed your kind letter which came by the _Dayspring_ last month! I was delighted indeed to hear that your Parish now extends to the New Hebrides,—rather a scattered one certainly, nevertheless you are bound to look after your flock, and we shall soon be expecting _a pastoral visit_.... “You were, I dare say, surprised when you heard that we had been sent to Aniwa instead of Tanna. It was a blow which Mr. Paton has hardly got over yet; but all the brethren were decidedly opposed to us going there alone, and we feel now that we have been Divinely led hither. Mr. Inglis, in his last kind letter, said to Mr. Paton that he believed he was doing more real work for Tanna, by bringing the Aniwans to a knowledge of the truth and thus fitting them for by-and-bye spreading the Gospel among the Tannese, than if he were now labouring alone among that dense mass of people. We are encouraged, therefore, to hope that there may be many ambassadors for Christ from this little Island, for the Aniwans are a superior people, and the work has made steady and rapid progress of late. I don’t mean that half the people are converted,—very far from that! There is a great deal to be done, before the soil is prepared even to receive the seed,—they cling so to their old prejudices and superstitions. I believe, to many of them, it is like taking a great leap into the dark to risk the anger of their gods by coming to the Worship. For what proof have they at first that we are leading them into the right way? True, they see we wish to be kind; but the idea of any one coming among them simply for their good is a doctrine they cannot understand.