and spend his lifetime there, while there were other fields, of wider extent and immensely larger population, to which he might go, and where he might prove more useful!

After two years' travelling about in these leeward islands (he wrote home to the Directors), I am concerned to say that I can find not more, or very few more, than about four thousand inhabitants. I know that one soul is of infinite value. But how does the merchant act who goes in search of goodly pearls? Supposing that he knows where there is one pearl, which would pay him for the trouble of searching And procuring it, and at the sametime of another spot, where there were thousands of equal value, to which place would he direct his way? Of course to the latter. Let us not, then, act a more inconsiderate part than those who seek after earthly riches.

The Directors, however, refusing to sanction his removal, he remained; and the sequel, as Williams himself soon saw and acknowledged, proved them to have been in the right. Scarcely a year from this time had elapsed, when, seeing the way which Providence was about to open up before him, he wrote home: "We have now no desire to leave; and, as our station is assuming rather an unexpected importance, I am resolved to stay, unless compelled to aban

don it."

The circumstances which caused so great a change in Mr Williams' mind will be best detailed in his own words:

An island called Rurutu, about three hundred and fifty miles to the south of Raiatea, was visited by an epidemic, which appears to have been exceedingly fatal. As the natives believe every such calamity to be an infliction of some angry deity, two chiefs of enterprising spirit determined to build each a large canoe, and, with as many of their people as could be conveyed, to launch upon the mighty deep, committing themselves to the winds and the waves, in search of some happier isle; but, a violent storm having arisen, the greater part of the crew of one of them perished. Auura, to whom the other belonged, and his party, were driven about they knew not whither, and for three weeks they traversed the trackless ocean; during which time they suffered exceedingly from the want of food and water. At length, He who holds the winds in his Ests, and the waters in the hollow of his hands, to whose merciful designs the elements are subservient, guided them to the Society Islands. They were driven on the coral reef which surrounds the island of Maurua, the farthest west of the group. Had they not reached this island they must have perished. The hospitable attention of the inhabitants of this little isle soon restored the strength of the exhausted voyagers, who related the dreadful calamities which had befallen their country and themselves. Mauruans informed them that they formerly worhipped the same deities, and attributed every evil that befel them to the anger of their "evil spirits;" but that now they were worshippers of Jehovah, the one living and true God; giving them a detailed account of the manner in which Christianity had been introduced among themselves, and pointing to the demolished maraes (or temples), and mutilated idols in confirmation of their statements. The astonished strangers, on hearing that white who had men, come in ships from a distant country to bring them good tidings, were living at islands the summits of whose mountains were in sight, determined to proceed

The

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there immediately. A westerly wind setting in, Aunra and his friends again launched on the deep, not to fly who could explain more fully to them the nature of from the anger of their gods, but in search of those the astonishing news they had heard. Not being acquainted with the coast of Porapora, they missed the entrance, and were driven to Raiatea. On landing, their astonishment was again excited; the missionaries, their wives and families, the natives in European dresses with hats and bonnets, their neat white cottages, together with the various useful arts which had been introduced amongst the people, filled the strangers with admiration and surprise. When they were conducted to public worship on the Sabbath, they beheld with astonishment the assembled multitude; heard them sing the praises of the one living and true God; and listened with the deepest interest to the message of mercy. At once they were convinced of the superiority of the Christian religion, and concluded that God had graciously conducted them there for the purpose of making them acquainted with its inestimable blessings. They were immediately placed avidity and attention, and, at the end of three months, under instruction, which they received with great departed for their own island again. Auura, however, objected to go to their "land of darkness without a light in his hand;" by which he meant some person to instruct him and his people in the truths of bers of our congregation, mentioned Auura's desire, the Gospel. We (says Williams) assembled the memand inquired who among them would go as teachers to the heathen of Rurutu. Two of our deacons, who were amongst cur best men, came forward, and, we hope with the spirit as well as in the language of the prophet, said, "Here are we; send us." They were therefore set apart to their work by an interesting service. The greater part of the night previous to their departure was spent in providing them with some necessary and useful articles. Every member of our Church brought something as a testimonial of his affection; one a razor, another a knife, a third a roll of native cloth, a fourth a pair of scissors, and others, various useful tools. We supplied them with elementary books, and a few copies of the Gospels in the Tahitian language, from which their own does not materially differ. Thus we equipped them for this expedition as well as our means would allow. And, in a little, as we were anxious to know what reception was given to the teachers, and to open a communication with this, to us, unknown island, we sent a boat of our own, with a native crew, to bring back intelligence. After an absence of little more than a month, we had the pleasure of seeing this boat return, laden with the trophies of victory-the gods of the heathen taken in this bloodless war, and won by the power of the Prince of Peace. On reading the letters which accompanied them, and seeing with our own eyes the rejected idols, we felt a measure of that sacred joy which the angels of God will experience when they shout, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ."

These events "revolutionized Mr Williams' view of his position." He saw now that his field was not so narrow. Rurutu had cast off

its idols. Why not Rarotonga-why not Mangaia--why not the Samoas--why not all the countless islands with which the Pacific was studded, and of which Raiatea was but one? Had he but a missionary ship, the whole of these could be reached; and once reached, and the Gospel proclaimed, "what wonders" could the Lord not work! His soul was fired with the thought, and from that time he was in

spirit, as he was afterwards in action, "the Apostle of Polynesia." A glorious vision opened up before him, the realization of which formed the business of his future life-the object of his most ardent hopes, and prayers, and efforts.

In the midst of joy there is weeping. About this time Williams was greatly weighed down by intelligence which he received of the death of his mother; to whom, as may well be conceived, he was very fondly attached. But

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weeping did not hinder sowing." He seized the opportunity of writing a solemn and faithful letter to his father, who, till now, had been, although a decent, yet a worldly and irreligious man. And the reaping was in joy. The letter was blessed to his father's conversion; and he died in 1827, blessing God for the child who had been made the instrument of thus leading him from "darkness unto light."

Near the close of 1821, Mr and Mrs Williams having been attacked with a rather dangerous malady, found it to be their duty to leave, for a short time, the scene of their labours, and proceed to New South Wales, for the purpose of obtaining medical advice; a course which they resolved on the more readily, as they hoped to be able, not only to visit some islands in their course, but also, when they were at Sydney, "to advance and consolidate the civilization of the Society Islands, by establishing a regular communication between them and the colony, and opening a market there for native produce."

They first sailed for Aitutaki, one of the Hervey Islands, which was reached on the 26th of October.

On the arrival of the vessel (says Williams), we were very soon surrounded by canoes; the natives were exceedingly noisy, and presented in their persons and manners all the wild features of savage life. Some were tatooed from head to foot; some were painted most fantastically with pipe-clay and yellow and red ochre; others were smeared all over with charcoal; and in this state were dancing, shouting, and exhibiting the most frantic gestures. We invited the chief, Tamatoa, on board the vessel. A number of his people followed him. Finding that I could converse readily in their language, I informed the chief of what had taken place in the Tahitian and Society Islands with respect to the overthrow of idolatry. He asked me, very significantly, where great Tangaroa was? told him that he, with all the other gods, was burned. He then inquired where Koro of Raiatea was? I replied, that he, too, was consumed with fire; and that I had brought two teachers to instruct him and his people in the Word and knowledge of the true God, that he and they also might be induced to abandon and destroy their idols, as others had done. On my introducing the teachers to him, he asked me if they would accompany him to the shore. I replied in the affirmative, and proposed that they should remain with him. He seized them with delight, and saluted them most heartily by rubbing noses; which salutation he continued for some time. On the chief promising me that he would treat the teachers with kindness, and afford them protection, taking with them their little store, they got into his large canoe, and the natives paddled off to the land, apparently greatly delighted with their treasure.

Mr Williams then left and proceeded to Sydney, where, after obtaining medical advice, he made it his first business to look out for a ship. The Society's agent there refused to undertake the risk of the purchase; but seeing Williams determined, notwithstanding, on having it, he relented, and proposed, on the part of the Society, that the risk should be shared between them. Williams instantly closed with the offer having inherited some property on his mother's death. "Whatever the sum may be," he wrote home to the Directors"whether £500 or £1000, I have, rather than not accomplish the object, agreed to advance." A vessel of from eighty to ninety tons' burden was accordingly purchased, which they named "The Endeavour;" and ever anxious for the temporal good, and improvement of the islanders, he made arrangements also with a gentleman at Sydney, to come and superintend the cultivation of various articles of produce suited for exportation. In April 1822, he returned to Raiatea his own health and that of Mrs Williams greatly restored-and was received by the people with every demonstration of attachment and delight.

EXTRACTS FROM A TRAVELLER'S NOTE-BOOK.

BY THE REV. W. K. TWEEDIE, EDINBURGH.

THE PASSES OF THE ALPS.

St Gothard-The Splugen Trap-The Great St BernardMont Blanc-The Semplon-Mont Cenis. WHEN a traveller from the southern parts of this island, whose eye is not accustomed to measure great altitudes, first approaches the Alps, his feelings are often or generally those of disappointment. His mind is not able to take in at once the true idea of the gigantic masses on which he gazes. He requires a scale of measurement now different from all that he has hitherto used, and must grow familiar with new objects and new proportions, before he can thoroughly estimate the grandeur amid which the Alpine traveller moves. Till that be done, it is rather a vague, indefinite awe that pervades the mind, than any clear perception of the magnificence that surrounds him. For days, we felt in this way almost bewildered. When we first saw the Alps, Mont Rosa, Mont Blanc, the Young Vraw, and a hundred other masses wonder-struck the mind at once; but it was days or weeks before it grew familiar with those giants of the earth, so as to comprehend their real vastness.

This familiarity, however, is at length acquired; and the following Notes are designed to tell the impressions that were produced by a summer's journeying among those wondrous scenes.

Switzerland, with its mountains, cities, lakes, and stirring associations, might detain us long; but we pass at once from these, and would have our readers to suppose us, after a sail of five or six hours on the Lake of Walstetten, or the Four Cantons amid scenes made famous by the achievements of Tell, the Wallace of Switzerland, and by the first Swiss Con

federation (1307), which broke the chains which the House of Hapsburg was forging for that free landquartered for the night at Altdorf, the capital of Uri, preparing for the ascent of the St Gothard. We are surrounded with many tokens of the superstition of the canton of which Altdorf is the little capital, for it is one of those which rejected the Reformation-which loved and bled for civil liberty, but cared not for that with which Christ maketh free. To reconnoitre the steep and glaciered pass which we had to face and traverse on the morrow, we ascended an eminence above the town, and found its summit crowned with a church, filled with all the insignia of superstition, and telling to the very eye how the system which is characterized by "all the deceivableness of unrighteousness," cheats and deludes its adherents by giving them a religion for the senses, not for the soul -hiding the things of the Spirit, as Achan hid the gold, "beneath their stuff." Tell is the genius loci here. The ruins of his house, the spot where he is said to have struck the apple with an arrow from the head of his son, at the command of Gessler, the tyrant of the times, and other mementoes, are here pointed out; but legend is so largely mixed up with the truth, that you gladly take refuge in scepticism when you

are not forced to examine and decide.

We began the ascent of the St Gothard betimes, although we were some leagues from the base. On the right and the left, around Altdorf and up the pass, mountains rose to the height of more than 8000 feet. Their flanks were covered with stupendous glaciers, among which those of Trift and Gelmer are the most remarkable; and even beside these, we found that man had been frequent and keen in the pursuit of his mimic glory-the counterfeit of the real, the glory that is hereafter to be revealed. At the Pont-du-diable, over the Reuss, the French and the Russians encountered each other during the revolutionary war (1799). Many were precipitated into the dizzy chasm which is spanned by the bridge; and when the Russians under Suwarrow entered the village of Andermat, which stands far up on the mountain, hunger had reduced them to such a state, that soap was greedily devoured, hides were cooked and eaten, and everything was endured which could demonstrate the madness of man's ambition-the extravagance of the price paid to indulge his lust of power. The regions which we were now traversing, with nothing to disturb us but the constant crackling of the neighbouring glaciers-next to the avalanche, one of the most awing sounds to which we have listened-are dreary and bleak, like a world which is indeed weighed down by the primal curse; but the desolation that is spread over such scenes is nothing like the moral blight which has passed over the creature that has risen in revolt against its God.

Much delusion, fostered by mere romance, exists on the subject of Swiss Cottages. Their Alpine positions, and eyry-like clinging to the rocks, as seen on the sides of St Gothard and elsewhere, no doubt render them often picturesque in the distance; but, to examine their interior in detail dissipates the charm. First of all, they are never cleanly, and cannot be comfortable. Formed chiefly of wood, or

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having only the ground storey of stone, they are so clumsily constructed as to appear misshapen masses. Their large projecting eaves, covering a balcony which serves the multifarious purposes of an apiary, a vinery, a washing-house, a hen-roost, a depôt for wood, a hemp-store, cum quibusdam aliis, give the whole rather the aspect of a huge Gipsy encampment, than of those drawing-room sketches which are as fanciful as Utopia. Wherever such Swiss cottages are to be found, we have not seen them in all Switzerland.

summit. It is a work of seven or eight toilsome But we ascend the pass, and are approaching the hours to those who travel on foot, as every traveller in Switzerland should do. The path formed over the mountain, to connect Switzerland with Italy, is a work of utility rather than of genius, like the Semplon. The highest point of the pass is 6390 French feet above the level of the sea, though the mountain, at one point, rises nearly as much more, sheer above the traveller's head. The windings and embankments of the route, the granite rocks blasted, and at one place tunnelled, the bridges built, and galleries formed-all tell of the efforts needed to level, or at least to lower, the barrier between Switzerland and Italy. On either side, and all along the pass, the inhabitants seem wholly given up to idolatry; and as one wanders from place to place, amid these strange, stupendous scenes, he is prevented, when he reflects, from enjoying their grandeur, by the spectacle of degraded minds and enslaved souls, which everywhere meets him. If the religion of the Saviour be found only in the Bible, these people still need to be converted to it; but the route formed with so much labour, and at such a cost, which carried us over the Alps, was a step towards the grand consummation, when "men shall run to and fro, and knowledge (the knowledge of the Lord) shall be increased.”

During a short residence in one of the valleys to the north of St Gothard, we made an experiment which, to ourselves at least, was more important far than all Professor Forbes' observations on glaciers or moraines, although we do not think meanly of his labours. We were at no great distance from Mont Pilate, Rigi, Titlis, the Blum-Alpe, Wetterhorn, and other mountains pyramidal and peaky-one of the noblest amphitheatres in the midst of which man could stand. The Sabbath calm was reigning; for, though there was no house of God to which we could resort, He who said, "Lo, I am with you alway," is ever redeeming his promise, and imparting his peace to those that seek him-and a Sabbath day among the Alps may be, to a spiritual mind, a sweet foretaste of "the rest that remaineth for the people of God." As the moon rose unclouded on that most lovely eve, we tried to put it to the proof whether men can "rise through nature up to nature's God;" or whether there be not a fallacy, nay, something Antichristian, involved in that maxim, if the kingdom of nature be viewed apart from the dispensation of grace. The stupendous objects that lay around us-the serene moonshine-the cold glittering of glaciers far and near the deep shadows of Mont Pilate and the Wetterhorn Alp-with the grave-like silence that