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
his desire to become a servant of the true God, on the 12th June, 1812,
just fifteen years after the arrival of the missionaries in that group,
followed immediately by the open profession of several natives of
Tahiti. The second event occurred in November, 1819, when King
Rihoriho, of Hawaii, one of the Sandwich Islands, in one day breaking
through the most revered of heathen customs, set fire to the temples,
and destroyed the idols, a few months before the arrival of the
missionaries, who were then on their way to attempt the conversion of
his people. The third event occurred in 1829. It was the conversion of
a powerful chief of the Friendly Islands, who afterwards became King
George of Tonga. Some time before this, two Tahitian teachers connected
with the London Missionary Society, on their way to Fiji had resided
with Tubou, chief of Nukualofa. Under their influence and instruction
Tubou gave up the Tonga gods, destroyed the spirit house, and erected a
place for Christian worship, in which he and his people, to the number
of two hundred and forty, assembled to listen to Divine truth in the
Tahitian language, on the 4th of February, 1827. He was not, however,
baptised till 1830. A fourth event, which appears still more wonderful
to those who know the man than any I have before mentioned, was the
conversion of the fierce and proud cannibal, King Thakombau, of Bau, the
most powerful among the chiefs of Fiji, on the 30th April, 1854. He
may, indeed, be considered the king of all Fiji, for all the other
chiefs are either his vassals, or vassals to those who acknowledge him
as their chief. Although a large number of the inhabitants of the
group, of all ranks, had embraced Christianity before the king, yet his
conversion more especially marked the triumph of the truth in Fiji, and
proves the power of the gospel to change the heart of a man, however
benighted, savage, and bloodthirsty he may have been.
"To these more prominently important events may be added the
establishment of a church at Raratonga, in May, 1833, ten years after
the landing of the first native teacher, which went on increasing till
the entire population had been brought under Christian instruction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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