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
"In the Hervey group ten or more stations are well worked by these
native teachers; in Samoa four of them have stations; they have
introduced the gospel to the Maniiki group; and in Western Polynesia
they have successfully preached the truth in the language of the
inhabitants, and braved, and several have suffered, martyrdom for the
gospel's sake. What should you suppose is the total expense of
instructing, clothing, feeding, and lodging these most valuable
missionaries? Only five pounds a year; while the entire outlay of their
providing for twenty students does not amount to the sum of three pounds
a week, or less than a hundred and fifty pounds per annum.
Comparatively very few of those educated at the college have fallen away
or proved unworthy of the confidence placed in them. Of course there,
as elsewhere, the faith of the missionaries has been tried. Storms, and
floods, and disease have visited the island; evil-disposed persons have
come from other lands and endeavoured to introduce drunkenness, and to
turn the unstable to their own bad courses. Still I may safely say,
that there are not twenty persons in the island, and very few in the
whole group, who do not attend Christian worship.
"A large edition of the whole Bible has been purchased by them; and I
may also venture to assert that, in consistency of conduct, in civil and
social propriety, in commercial industry and honesty, and in zeal and
liberality, they are not behind any other community in the world. The
gospel has been introduced and completely established in the Penrhyn
Islands, or Maniiki group, as they are more properly called, entirely by
native teachers from Raratonga. But I wish to describe to you the
progress made by the gospel in Samoa. Before I do so, however, I will
give you a sketch of the way in which some of the missionaries I have
met, whose duties require them to be stationary, spend their time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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