After leaving Tahiti, the first place at which Captain Cook touched was the lovely and fertile island of Huaheine. This became the refuge of the first party of missionaries when, in 1808, they were driven from Tahiti; and it was afterwards visited by John Williams, Ellis, and others, accompanied by some chiefs from Eimeo, who purposed forming a mission there. As this place became, in a certain degree, the centre of operations, that particular missionary enterprise in the Society Islands is generally known as the Huaheine Mission.
While Mr Williams was residing at Huaheine, Tamatoa, the King of Raiatea, who had, while visiting Eimeo and Tahiti, learned something of the principles of Christianity, arrived with several chiefs, entreating that missionaries might be sent to instruct their people in the truth.
Messrs. Williams and Threlkeld promptly responded to the call, and accompanied the king back to Raiatea. The population of the island was at that time only thirteen hundred, though the island is the largest of the group, and, from its reputed sanct.i.ty, and from being the centre and headquarters of all the idolatries and abominations of the neighbouring islands, its chiefs exercised great authority over them.
Tamatoa, instructed by the Holy Spirit, and aided by others who had learnt something of the truths of Christianity, had for some time been labouring among his fellow-islanders. He had himself been converted by what might well be considered a providential circ.u.mstance. Two years before, a small vessel, having on board the king, Pomare, Mr Wilson, the missionary, and several Tahitians, had been driven by a storm from her anchorage at Eimeo down to Raiatea. Here they were hospitably received, and continued three months, the whole of which time was employed by Mr Wilson and the king in preaching the Gospel to the inhabitants. The chief, Tamatoa, was among their princ.i.p.al converts.
After their teachers had departed, Tamatoa and his fellow-inquirers felt an earnest desire to learn more of the truth. They built a place of worship, met together for mutual instruction, kept holy the Sabbath, and put away their idols and heathen practices. Several times the heathens laid plots to destroy them, but were each time signally foiled in their wicked plans.
At length, Tamatoa paid that memorable visit to Huaheine which resulted in Messrs. Williams and Threlkeld taking up their abode at Raiatea.
Having collected the hitherto scattered inhabitants into villages, he built a substantial mission-house as a model, which was readily imitated. Places of worship and schoolhouses were also built; and though many years elapsed before the abominations of heathenism were eradicated, the great ma.s.s of the people became not only well educated and moral, but earnest and enlightened Christians. The satisfactory progress made by the inhabitants of the islands where Mr Williams resided was owing, humanly speaking, to the wonderful rapidity with which he had acquired their language, and was able to preach to them, in it, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Soon after the mission at Huaheine was established Mr Ellis set up a printing-press, from which quickly issued the Gospel by Luke, eight hundred copies of which were sent to Raiatea. Small school-books were also printed in the native language. The desire for instruction became general wherever missionary stations were established. Not only the children, but adults became scholars. During the hours of instruction other engagements were suspended, and the various scenes of busy occupation throughout the settlements forsaken.
Such was the picture to be seen at that time in several islands of the Society group. Borabora, or Bolabola, whose inhabitants in Cook"s time had been the fiercest warriors of the neighbouring islands, yielded to the benign influence of the Gospel. The history of the last island visited by the great navigator before he left the eastern side of the Pacific for New Zealand, called by him Oheteroa, but known generally as Rurutu, is of great interest. It is situated about two hundred and fifty miles to the south of Raiatea. A destructive pestilence having visited the island, two chiefs, one named Auura, built two canoes, and, with as many of the people as they could convey, left their native sh.o.r.es in search of a happier land, and to escape from their infuriated deities.
After touching at Tubuai, they were cast on the reef surrounding Maurua.
Here, instead of being murdered, as might once have been their fate, the starving voyagers were received with all kindness and charity. How was this? Through the agency of native teachers the people had learned the blessed truths of the Gospel, and were trying to obey its precepts.
Auura and his companions, hearing that the white men, who had brought to their seas that beautiful religion the practical fruits of which they had just experienced, were living in the islands the summits of whose mountains they could see, set sail once more, with the desire of hearing from their own lips a fuller account of the religion they taught. They missed Borabora, but reached Raiatea. Here they remained rather more than three months. When they were landed they were ignorant savages, wild in appearance and habits. Before they left Auura could read the Gospel of Matthew, had learned the greater part of the catechism drawn up for the natives, and could write correctly. Several others could do nearly as well, though previously ignorant that such an art as writing existed.
But these earnest men were not content to go back to their people alone; they entreated that some missionaries would accompany them. Two native deacons at once offered themselves, and were accepted. Auura"s great fear was that many of his countrymen would have been carried off by the pestilence before the glad tidings of salvation could be preached to them. At that time a vessel belonging to a friend of the mission touched at Eaiatea, and the captain agreed to carry Auura and his companions, with the missionaries, to their home.
Within fifteen months after this, Rurutu was visited by Dr Tyerman and G. Bennet, Esquire, who had been sent out by the directors of the London Missionary Society to visit their stations in the Pacific. When they reached it they were not certain what island it was, but were greatly surprised at seeing several neat-looking white houses at the head of the bay. A pier, a quarter of a mile in length, had been constructed of vast coral blocks, affording a convenient landing-place. Besides the two comfortable mission-houses, there was a large place of worship, eighty feet by thirty-six, wattled, plastered, well floored and seated, built within a twelvemonth, under the direction of the two native missionaries, who performed much of the work with their own hands. Many of the chiefs were dressed in European clothing, and all were attired in the most decent and becoming manner. Not a vestige of idolatry was to be seen, not an idol was to be found in the island.
Mr Turnbull, in his account of a voyage he made to the Pacific in 1804, describes the way in which the then savage inhabitants of Raiatea attempted to cut off the ship in which he sailed. See the contrast in the conduct of the people of Rurutu shortly after they had embraced Christianity. Captain Chase commanded the Falcon, an American trader, which was cast away on a reef off their island. He says; "The natives have given us all the a.s.sistance in their power from the time the ship struck to the present moment. The first day, while landing the things from the ship, they were put into the hands of the natives, and carried up to the native mission-house, a distance of half a mile, and not a single article of clothing was taken from any man belonging to the ship, though they had it in their power to have plundered us of everything that was landed. Since I have lived on sh.o.r.e, I, and my officers and people, have received the kindest treatment from the natives that can be imagined, for which I shall ever be thankful."
Aitutaki, one of the Hervey group, was another of the islands discovered by Captain Cook. It contained about two thousand inhabitants, described as especially wild and savage. Mr Williams heard of it from Auura, and on a voyage to Sydney, which he was compelled to take on account of the health of his wife, he landed on its sh.o.r.es two native missionaries, Papeiha and Vahapata. On first landing they were led by the people to the morai and given up to the G.o.ds; but their lives were spared and they were left at liberty. Wars broke out in the island, and all their property was stolen; but they persevered in preaching the Gospel, and, by degrees, gained converts. The king, Tamatoa, became a Christian; but his old grandfather refused to give up his G.o.ds. While holding a high festival in their honour, a beloved daughter was taken ill. In vain he besought his G.o.ds to restore her to health; she died. In his rage, he ordered his son to set fire to his morai, and to destroy it with his idols; two others caught fire near it, and the son was proceeding to burn others, when the people dragged him away, expecting to see him struck down by the vengeance of the outraged G.o.ds. As no evil consequences followed, the idolaters began to call in question the power of their deities.
Shortly after a vessel arrived from Raiatea, bringing another missionary, with many books, and several pigs and goats, which Papeiha and his companion had promised the people. This raised the missionaries in their estimation, and they with one accord threw away all their idols, and resolved to listen to the teaching of the Gospel. On his return from Sydney, Mr Williams, calling at Aitutaki, found that all the inhabitants had nominally embraced Christianity, while a chapel, two hundred feet long, had been built for the worship of the true G.o.d. They have now the entire Scriptures in their own language, and their desire after and reverence for the Word of G.o.d are very remarkable.
The description given of the inhabitants of Aitutaki applies equally to numerous other islands of the Pacific, which have been for some time under missionary instruction, provided there are no ports where the crews of foreign vessels remain any length of time, and set a bad example to the surrounding population.
Rarotonga, one of the Hervey group, about seven hundred miles south of Tahiti, and discovered by Williams, in 1823, when the people were in the most savage condition, is now the chief missionary station in the Pacific. In 1839 a missionary college was established, the buildings consisting of a number of separate neat stone cottages, in which the married students and their wives could reside, a lecture-room, and a room for female cla.s.ses. Up to 1844 thirty-three native missionaries, male and female, had received instruction, and six of the young men had gone forth as pioneers to Western Polynesia. Up to 1860 two hundred students had been admitted, a considerable number of whom were married, and the inst.i.tution had been greatly enlarged in many respects. The course of instruction embraces theology, Church history, Biblical exposition, biography, geography, grammar, and composition of essays and sermons. The students are also taught several mechanical arts, and for two or three hours every day are employed in the workshop. At the printing establishment on the island a variety of works have been translated, printed, and bound. In three months, ending March 1859, _Bogue"s Lectures_, the _Pilgrim"s Progress_, twelve hundred copies of _Voyages of Mission Ship_, hymn-books, Scripture lessons, and several other works were turned out of hand. The press-work of these various books, comprising nearly three hundred thousand sheets a year, had all been performed by young men, the first-fruits of missionary labours before their fathers had any written language.
We must now describe the present state of other solitary islands and groups discovered by Captain Cook. In the course of his second voyage (1774) he fell in with a low, solitary island, which, from the ferocity of the inhabitants, he called Savage Island. The inhabitants, numbering between three and four thousand, for very many years remained in the condition in which Cook found them. The first attempt to leave native missionaries was made by the Rev. John Williams, in 1830. But the natives refused to receive them. In 1840, and in 1842, other attempts were made. In the latter year the Rev. A. Buzacott nearly lost his life.
Still these visits had a good effect on the younger part of the population, who desired to see more of the strangers. Several found their way to Samoa, where they embraced the Gospel, and two of them, after a course of instruction at the training college in Samoa, were found well fitted to return, and to spread its glad tidings among their benighted countrymen. They were accordingly conveyed to Savage Island in the John Williams, missionary ship, but were received with a good deal of suspicion by the natives, and only one remained. He narrowly escaped being put to death, but undauntedly persevered, and, by degrees, gathered converts around him. When visited in 1852 by the Rev. A.W.
Murray, he had upwards of two hundred sincere believers gathered into a church, and many heathen practices had been abandoned by others.
In 1861 the John Williams conveyed Mr and Mrs Lawes to Savage Island.
They were the first European missionaries appointed to labour there.
Hundreds of men and women, all well clothed, were a.s.sembled on the sh.o.r.e to receive them. Outwardly, not a vestige of heathenism remained among them. There were five good chapels in the island, one of which held eleven hundred, but it was too small for the congregation. Prayer meetings were frequently held, at which all the people in the district attended. On each occasion when they were held by Mr Lawes not less than eight hundred were present. The whole of the inhabitants are now professing Christians, and a very large proportion are earnest and enlightened believers.
The reader will call to mind the incidents of Captain Cook"s visit to the Tonga, or Friendly group, the high state of cultivation in which he found the islands, the apparently friendly reception he met with from the chiefs, and their treacherous purposes to cut off the ship, as they shortly afterwards did a merchantman which visited their sh.o.r.es, murdering most of the crew.
In consequence of Captain Cook"s too favourable report, a number of missionaries were sent out by the London Missionary Society, in the ship Duff, already mentioned, under the command of Captain Wilson. These pious men landed on the islands in 1797, but they made no apparent progress, and war breaking out, three of them lost their lives, and the rest escaped to Sydney. This was in the year 1800.
In 1802, Mr Lawry, of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, commenced a mission at Nukualofa, in Tongataboo. Though compelled for a time to abandon it, he returned in 1826, and, through his instrumentality, Tubou, the king, and many of his chiefs and people embraced Christianity. It is worthy of remark that, just before this time, the London Missionary Society had commenced a mission on the island; but they yielded up the field to the Wesleyans, while the latter retired from Samoa, where they had commenced a mission. The Wesleyans have since then laboured exclusively, and with most encouraging success, in the Friendly and Fiji Islands and New Zealand, leaving to the London Missionary Society the wide scope of the Pacific.
In 1827 the Revs. Nathaniel Turner and William Cross took up their residence at Nukualofa. At that time Josiah Tubou was king in Tonga.
Taufaahau, now King George, was king only of Haabai, and Feenau was king of Vavou. The first became a Christian, as did his queen, and was baptised on January 10, 1830. He died in 1845, Feenau having previously died; thus George became king in chief, and reigns over the three groups, Tonga, Haabai, and Vavou, or the whole of the Friendly Islands.
The labours of the two zealous missionaries just mentioned were largely blessed, and when Tubou was baptised the congregation amounted to six hundred professing Christians.
King Josiah"s reign was not altogether free from difficulties. The heathen party was strong, and took up arms against him, being supported by some French Roman Catholic priests who had settled in the islands.
They tried to embroil him, as they had already done Queen Pomare, of Tahiti, with their own government, but were unsuccessful, and with the a.s.sistance of King George the rebels were put down.
King George had himself become a Christian and a preacher, and contributed greatly to the spread of the Gospel among his countrymen.
He is thus described by Mr Lawry, after he had become sovereign of the whole group; it was in the large chapel of Nukualofa: "The king was in the pulpit. The attention of his audience was riveted while he expounded the words of our Lord, "I am come that ye might have life."
The king is a tall, graceful person; in the pulpit he was dressed in a black coat, and his manner was solemn and earnest. He held in his hand a small bound ma.n.u.script book, in which his sermon was written, but he seldom looked at it. His action was dignified, his delivery fluent and graceful, and not without majesty. His hearers hung upon his lips with earnest and increasing interest. Much of what he said was put interrogatively, a mode of address which is very acceptable among the Tongans. It was affecting to see this dignified man stretching out his hand over his people, and to observe that one of his little fingers had been cut off: this was formerly done as an offering to a heathen G.o.d, a custom among his people before they became Christians. But while he bore this mark of Pagan origin, he clearly showed that to him was grace given to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
The Tongans have been especially blessed in having had several missionaries of high character, abilities, and zeal sent among them.
There are schools sufficient for the wants of the whole population, under native teachers, and overlooked by the missionaries, whose duties are somewhat arduous. There is a training inst.i.tution at Nukualofa, for missionaries, and for masters and mistresses of schools. There are also schools, or colleges, for the upper cla.s.ses; indeed, many of the wants of a civilised and intelligent community are supplied in the Tonga Islands. The population of the whole group is supposed to amount to between thirty and forty thousand.
The islands of Western Polynesia--New Hebrides, Loyalty, and Britannia-- were little-known, or, at all events, little thought of, till the year 1839, when they were brought into melancholy prominence by the distressing tragedy which occurred in one of them, the island of Erromanga.
The Rev. John Williams, after his return from England in the previous year, sailed in the Camden missionary vessel, resolved to convey the Gospel message to the inhabitants of these remote islands, hitherto sunk in the deepest heathen darkness. It is not too much to say that there was no species of wickedness practised by heathens in any part of the world which could not have found its parallel in those countries.
Barbarous rites, nameless abominations, and cannibalism in its most fearful forms characterised the whole population. Mr Williams was accompanied by several European, and a considerable number of native missionaries, who were to be landed as opportunities might offer, to preach the Gospel.
Having landed missionaries at the island of Tanna and elsewhere, with every prospect of success, the Camden proceeded to Erromanga, off which island she arrived on November 20, 1839. Here Mr Williams, Mr Harris, Mr Cunningham, and Captain Morgan landed, and while the two former were at a distance from their companions, the natives attacked and killed them. The murder had been provoked, not by the crew of the Camden, but by that of some other ship, who had ruthlessly shot down several of the natives and carried off their provisions. Thus the innocent suffered for the guilty, and while the life of one eminent missionary was sacrificed, that of another was cut off at the commencement of what might have been a course of similar usefulness. Let it be added, as an interesting fact, that the murderer of John Williams was afterwards converted to G.o.d, and lived as a sincere and consistent Christian.
Notwithstanding the sad commencement of this missionary enterprise, it was resolved to pursue it with vigour. At Aneiteum, the first island of the New Hebrides visited by the missionary ship in 1841, two Samoan missionaries were landed. These devoted men had much to endure, and it was not till after years of toil that they saw any really satisfactory results from their labours. By degrees many came to seek instruction, some of whom abandoned their heathen practices; and subsequently other native teachers were introduced; but when, in 1848, the Rev. J. Geddie arrived at Aneiteum, he still found the great ma.s.s of the people fearfully degraded, and addicted to the most horrible cruelties. Soon after his arrival eight women were strangled--one, an interesting young woman whose husband he had been attending till he died; he attempted to save her, and was very nearly clubbed to death by her relatives in consequence.
A wonderful change is now evident. In 1858 there were sixty villages on the island, each of which had a school-house or a chapel, with a resident teacher. Nearly the whole of the New Testament, and some books of the Old, had been translated, and a large number of these lately degraded heathens could both read and write.
Fatuna is a small island, containing about a thousand inhabitants. Here Williams touched just before his death; but no teachers were left there.
A couple of years afterwards, however, two Samoan evangelists, Samuela and Apela, were landed, the former accompanied by his wife. They laboured for four years with some success, when a severe epidemic breaking out among the inhabitants they were accused of being its cause, and were killed and eaten. Samuela"s faithful wife was offered her life if she would become one of the wives of the chief. She replied, "I came to teach you what is right, not to sin amongst you." No sooner had she uttered the words than she fell beneath the club of a savage.
Notwithstanding this tragedy, missionaries from the lately heathen Aneiteum have gone to Fatuna, and many of the savages have been converted.
At Tanna, supposed to possess fifteen thousand inhabitants, Mr Williams left three missionaries the day before he was murdered at Erromanga; but two of them soon died, the climate being more injurious to the natives of Eastern Polynesia than to Europeans. In 1842 Messrs. Turner and Nisbet were sent to occupy the island, but were driven away by the savages, and sought shelter in Samoa. Native teachers from Aneiteum, however, took their places, and met with some success; and in 1858 several European missionaries landed on the island; and the larger part of the people have come to the truth.
With Erromanga the name of Williams will always be a.s.sociated. After his death, native evangelists from Samoa and Rarotonga landed on its sh.o.r.es, but died, or were compelled to leave, from the effects of the climate. In 1857 the Rev. G.N. Gordon, and his wife, took up their residence on the island. They laboured on with considerable success, Oviladon, the chief of the district, being among the first-fruits of their toils. The greater number of the inhabitants of his district also became Christians.
An epidemic, however, broke out in 1860, and the heathen inhabitants of another district, believing that it was caused by the Christians, attacked the settlement, and killed Mr and Mrs Gordon. The day after they were buried, amidst the tears and lamentations of the people; the native teacher, who had escaped, stood beside the grave, and delivered an address which powerfully affected the bystanders.
In the large island of Fate or Vate, Christian teachers have been landed at different times, but some have been killed and eaten, and others have died of disease. In 1858, however, three teachers, with their wives, were landed under encouraging circ.u.mstances. From Nina, a small island near Tanna, several of the natives, hearing of the wonderful things taking place on the latter island, proceeded thither to procure a teacher. In consequence of their application, in 1858, the John Williams took them two from Aneiteum, who are now labouring successfully among them.
The Loyalty group must be briefly noticed. Native teachers were landed in 1841, and after they had induced many natives to abandon heathenism, Messrs. Jones and Creagh arrived in the island in 1854. Their labours have been blessed; the Gospels and other parts of the Scriptures have been printed in the Nengonese language, and upwards of three thousand of the inhabitants are under Christian instruction, although a large number of the natives still follow their heathen customs.
The mission in Lifu was not commenced till 1843, when native evangelists were landed, and in 1858 two European missionaries arrived to take charge of the work. The inhabitants amount to about ten thousand, and of these very few, if any, now remain heathens, though it is to be feared that the great ma.s.s of the converts can only be looked on as nominal Christians.
The small Britannia group, near New Caledonia, has been occupied by teachers from Rarotonga and Mars since 1837, but Roman Catholic priests have arrived on the princ.i.p.al island, sent, they say, by the French governor of New Caledonia. They have built a capital, called Porte de France, but it is a penal colony, and free emigrants have not been attracted to its sh.o.r.es.
The last islands visited by Captain Cook were those to which he gave the name of the Sandwich Islands, and which now form the small but independent kingdom of Hawaii, having a capital called Honolulu, with a population of eleven thousand, not less than a thousand of whom are white foreigners. With its well-paved, lighted streets, its king"s palace, its houses of parliament, its cathedral church, its numerous hotels, its police, and other accompaniments of high civilisation, it is difficult to imagine that a hundred years ago this was the home of tattooed savages. To Englishmen in advanced years, indeed, the murder of Captain Cook at Owhyhee seems like an event that happened in their own childhood. And, in truth, not fifty years ago the natives of Hawaii were ignorant and idolatrous heathens, while it is but as yesterday that a refined, elegant, and well-educated lady, the queen of those islands, was visiting England.
When Cook was killed Kalampupua was king. He was succeeded by his nephew, Kamehamea the First, who made himself sovereign of the entire group. When visited by Captain Vancouver, in 1793, it is said that he requested that Christian missionaries might be sent to him. Whether Captain Vancouver delivered the message to the English Government or not, no attention was paid to it. Captain Vancouver, however, returned the next year with some horned cattle and sheep, which he presented to the king, obtaining a promise that none should be killed for the s.p.a.ce of ten years. This promise was faithfully kept; but so rapidly did the animals increase that they became exceedingly troublesome to the natives by injuring their fences and taro plantations. They were accordingly driven into the mountains, where they now form a source of considerable wealth to the nation.
Kamehamea was about to abolish the taboo system when he died in 1819, and was succeeded by his son Liholiho, who took the name of Kamehamea the Second. He carried into effect his father"s intention, and also destroyed his temples and G.o.ds.