The Cruise of the Mary Rose; Or, Here and There in the PacificKingston, William Henry Giles
Religion
The Cruise of the Mary Rose; Or, Here and There in the Pacific
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Conduct of life -- Fiction; Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Missions -- Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Sea stories
"It became expedient to form a new village for the immediate followers
of Tinomana. A site was fixed on, the land was cleared, and in a few
months the village was completed. It was nearly a mile and a half in
length; a wide and straight road, gravelled with sea-side sand, was made
from one extremity to the other, on either side of which were rows of
the tall and beautiful tufted-top `ti' trees. The houses were built of
lime and wattle, each about forty feet long, twelve high, twenty wide,
and divided into three or four rooms. They stood back some fifty yards
from the road, and were that distance from one another. About the
centre, on one side of the street, was the chapel, and on the other the
school-house. A belt of trees protected the settlement on the sea-side,
while inland rose ranges of picturesque mountains, the intervening space
being occupied by pastures and fields cultivated or in the course of
cultivation. I remember the scene well. It gave me an indescribable
feeling of satisfaction when I first saw it, for it proved that a very
great change must have been wrought in the habits of the people, and I
trusted that their spiritual condition had likewise been much improved.
This was the first on the same plan of many villages which were erected
as Christianity spread among the people. At each village, or even where
there was a chapel alone, a school-house was erected, where the elements
of reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, were taught to adults as
well as to children, and only eight years after the landing of Papehia,
two thousand children and one thousand six hundred adults were under
instruction. Although many of the adults could never be taught to read,
they learned portions of Scripture, and as they willingly listened to
the teachers, the truth gradually spread among the whole population.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account