REVIEW. 1. Lawry's Visit to the Friendly and Feejee Islands. London, 1850.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 478, 13 November 1850, Page 1

REVIEW. 1. Lawry's Visit to the Friendly and Fee jee Islands. London, 1850.

The Wcdeyan Missionary Notice? for January, 1850, conlci'mim? Extracts from a DespaUh from the Lieutenant- Governor of the Gold Coast. (Continued from tliu" New-ZeaLindor " of the Clh inst.) The population of all civilized natioiiß have invaiLbly a tendency to 1 press! outwards from the centre of the extremities of the Empire. They ate partly urged forward by the density and the iapid increase of the population of the more anciently selt'ed portion* of the country ; partly from the facility of acquiring and occupying the lands thinly populated by the buibaious races which lie beyond the pale of civilization ; partly from the desire of obtaining the articleb of luxury or of wealth which may be peculiar to the locality to which they resort, and for which they find a ready and lemunerative mart in the crowded capital. But, whatever may be the object which attracts them to the outskirts of the empire, they are there necessaiily brought into contact with races of men between whom and themselves no mutual acquaintance of language, customs, or appearance existi, and between whom and themielvus there consequently can be but little of sympathy, and still less of lasting legard. The emigrants from the civilized stutc are of course invariably superior in knowledge and discipline to the npw tubes amongst whom they arrive. I3y the word" discipline" we must understand much besides skill in militniy exercise/), and in manoeuvriug bodies of armed men ; eipeciully we must include in this word superioiity of weapons. The supeiiority which helmets, cuirasses, and defensive armour generally, as well as excellently tempered swords and spears, gave the ancients over their naked and painted enemies, who woie armed with siings, clubs, wooden swords, or very ill consliucted metal weapons, was not less real, hardly less effective, than the superiority which well constructed firearms and artillery, together with an unbounded bujiply of ammunition, aft* ml to the cirilixed man over Lib buibaious udvei'suiy ut the present time. But iv ,

truth, we must include in tln> word discipline all the means of conducting and prolonging a protracted war, and all the means of compelling, encouraging, and rewaiding tbose engaged in it which a great empire possesses, It is then evident that uncivilized man must in all instances either recede before his civilized fellow man, or become incorporated in the gradually advancing empire. But this process of the recession or disappearance oi" uncivilized races before the advancing tide of civilization, or of their incorporation into the empire, or of their disappearance from ama'gamiilion with the larger population, may be accomplishsd by very different methods. Much depends upon the character of the uncivilized race. Mere tribes of hunters, who have no settled village, and rather an attachment to the objects of the chase which they pursue, than to ■pecific localities, and who, from the very nature of the sources from which their subsistence is derived, must be a scanty and thinly scattered people, may easily be swept more and more towards the outskirts ; and from the international wars into which they are necessarily forced by being compelled to trespass on each other's hunting grounds, from the gradual disappearance of their means of subsistence, from the .diseases which follow want and failing hopes, from intemperance, and other causes, may melt away before the advance, and in the presence of civilization, in a manner apparently mysterious almost unnoticed, — and Jfrora the mode in which it takes place hardly troubling the civilized men who come pressing on to occupy the vacant space. Every now and then however, the tide of civilization meets with rocks and cliffs which not so easily worn away, and against which it may long chafe and rage with almost.impotent fury. When what may be termed semi-civilized tribes of men who obtain their subsistence partly or in a great measure from the cultivation of the soil, and amongst whom a love of settled home and conntry exists, are encountered by the advancing tide of civilization, then the pionee s of the Empire who are in advance have geo« erally bloody, often long and protracted wars to conduct. The uncivilized barbarian, when brought into thcactuul presence of his civilized opponent, is invariably sooner or Idler, defeated ; but he has always one curtain refuge, which is flight to his fastnesses, where from the want of supplies, of means of providing for the wounded, aiid of oilier like requirements, he cannot be followed ;— one certain revenge, which is, the moment the superior force of Ins enemy is icmovcd to another portion of the frontiers, to fall upon, plunder, and destroy all ihe weak and defmceless of the hostile race wliqm , he can rea Ii in a lapid incursion. This procWt of alternate rctteat and attack may be repeated througlu \x\ an nlmost indefinite nutnbei of years. It is certain to produce an incalculable amount ol suffering and loss. Nor is this danger le^s leal, although leas appHient, if the Empire is un insular one, and if the luboriou s tribes arc themselves! inhabitants of isluiklh. It is o irue th it m this ca6e the uncivilized race cannot be the aggressors : but civilized men, pushed on by manifold wants and desires, will visit their territories, where, by the destruction of the vessels which may visit or be wrecked upon their coasts, and the murder of their crews, or by pillaging isolated settlements which may be established there, and massacring the inhabitants of them, difficulties not less formidable than in the other case are opposed to the advance of civilization and to the pursuits of commerce. No Empire can prevent such difficulties arising. The tide of civilization cannot be wholly cheeked, although it may be diiccted and governed. Yet no Empire could bear the expense of maintaining a permanent force on all the points of its frontier which may be menaced with such dungers, or of conducting long aggressive and most costly wars with barbarous races, whose huts, or little fields, or scanty herds of cattle, afford no moans of quartering or subsisting nn army, and whose poverty yields no resources which can de« fray even the most tniuutc portion of the cost of the wur, Before the introduction of. Christianity such a [difficulty was but little felt. A war with such a race as as we are considering was a profitable one. A people of that character, trained from youth to a rude and sometimes laborious agriculluie, made valuable slaves. The sale of the captives paid therefore not only the the cost of the war, but left a large profit to the slate and to the captors. Thus m reference to our own Island, we know that this anticipated source of profit formed the sole inducement which led Cscsar and his legions to attempt the conquest ol that lace whose descendants, animated by such ir.fiaiti.ly higher views, and in pursuit of such veiy different objects, were ultimately to occupy so large a portion of the wot Id. Cicero sums the whole matter up very briefly in one of his lefters to Atticus :<— " Britannia belli cxilus expcclalur. Conslal euita adtius insula.' mumtui essc mhi/kts molihus. Eliam illud jam coynitum c.\t, ncquc argcnli icnpulum ease utluni tn Ma inMtla, nc/no ullam t,pem pia-dae, nisi cv mancipiis ; ex quibus nullos pulo, la lilvrts, mil musical eruddos explicit a.'* " All is suspense legaiding the issue of the war in " Britain. It is certain that the access of the lbland is " strongly fortified, iind it is now certainly known that "there is not apaiticleof silver in it, nor anytning " else but slaves, of whom you will scarce upect any, " I dare say, skilled in music or letteis." It will be observed that Cicero, in thus speaking of our ancchtors, usrs the letter mancipiis, thus classing them, as to their civil lights, with animals u«cd for burden, draught, or forridinr. Unskilled they were in Iciteis and music, valued alone for their thews and sinews; no slight inbciitance, however, vveic these thews and sinews, winch they have transmitted to descendants who have usfd these hereditary qualities to clear with them hundreds of square miles of Amp. rican forests, to dot a large portion of vast Australia with fertile farms, and also ate now applying them to | make homes for unborn millions in the fertile Itilcs of the Pacific, Yet, beside their tlieus und smucs, some bright qualities mu^t have lurked in these poor JJiilons, unskilled in letters and music, <,o contemptuously spoken of by the luxurious heathen philosopher, since ftom its ruce of despised slaves bprang the noble men who hesitalud not to pay twenty millions sterling tj free ull slaves thiOJgliout th..ii

empire, and who have spread free institutions rouuf the globe. Oil, blind and short-sighted man. How little co^ld the grcnt statesman and philosopher of antiquity, whe'J he penned these few familiar lines to his intimate friend, have pictured to himself, even in his wilder* dreams, the wonderful career that that Isl.ind, tlr" only rich in Blares, now rich in all things, bill most in freedom, was continually to run. It was evident that under such a s)strm ol polir",i the empire might extend its away, and at the s»mp time enrich the public treasury and its subjects. P.ufc such itate of things, by introducing habits of injustice and cruelty, and by impressing upon the character of the people the licentiousness and immorality wind* necessarily spring from slavery, contained within it&clf the germs of destruction of the Empire, which, in the lapse of time, together with the whole (system of ido! » atry of which slavery formed so fitting an accompani ment, fell prostrate and extinct before the milder genius of Christianity. Jiut when such a Bystem of conducting the spread of civilzation was abolished, the question yet remained to be solved, what new method was to be adopted in its place ; a very puzzling one, no doubt, which we might expect would take some centuries for its solution, and which could not be fullybrought to light until some lamentable mistakes Lad been made, and various blunders had been committed. Accordingly we find that in the year of grace 743 Carloman was extremely troubled upon the northeastern frontier of his father's dominions by the Saxons : indeed ho never got satisfactorily through these troubles at all, but left the question unsolved to Fcpin, his father, who, in 715, 7-18, 752, and 71>7, marched valiantly forth against these enemies, and, having defeated them in Bkirnaiahei, followed them as far as his resources would permit, and lie could penetrate an impracticable country without roads, and then marched back again as he best could, encumbered with wounded, and with the Saxons in his rear, waiting again to devastate the conntry in their neiglibout - hood the moment he quitted tlie frontier: and s» I'cpin, notwithstanding ull his vuliant fighting and seeking for some solution of these difficulties, found none, and, departing from the same, left the question to be solved by some one who might follow him. His death wa« immediately followed by the partition of the empire between his two sons, Cailoman and Charlemagne; but it was not until the death of Car> lonian, about the year 770, when the whole French empire came under the Bole control of Charlemagne, that the war against the Saxons w.is raided on with any dmsive s,ucceßB, if a war indeed can he said to have been at all successful which lusted for thirty-three years, with such slight intervals of leposc lhat they could hardly be termed even truces; Mibiorians generally admit that the war against the Saxons was the most formidable, the most enduring ot the many wars in which, during the course of his laborious life, Charlemagne was engaged. It was. renewed at each meeting of the Military Parliament, It appeurtd suppressed, but broke out again on the slightebt occasion. Tho Saxons only submitted instantly to levolt again. They advanced to the Rhine, and were by the tide of war rolled back again lumultui ously on the shores of the Baltic. JJut there again, no sooner were the enemies of Charlemagne engaged in some dibtant expedition in Italy or France, than the Saxons hurriedly collected in crowds, and passed down en the borders of the Rhine, and even on those of tho Moselle, raised again idolatrous altars, desecrated the Christian temples, levelled the fortifications which Charlemagne bad erected in their territories, und made such bloody incursions into the country ol their enemy as are alone made by vagrant and warlike baibariaus, whose armies arc composed of petty tribes commanded by a thousand chiefs, who aie under no general control, although in the case of the Saxons the name of the great chief Witikiud stands forth, even in the obscure history of bucli remote eventp, us that of a chief wlio, by his courage, eloquence, and constancy in the hatred of the foes of his country, had gained a great and almost permanent ascendancy over the minds of his countrymen. Amidst this confused hatred of races and div of arms, Christianity, however, by degrees impressed itself, calming slowly but certainly the tempestuous waves of barbarism which then incessantly chafed against the rocks of civilization. An. English clergyman of tiiu the name of Winifnd, commonly called Saint Boniface, had, as a missionary, visited the baibarous races of Germany, spreading amongst them a knowledge of the truths ot Christ, and had even established a ccnlial station at Mayencc, from which he hoped a moie extended knowledge of the Gospel might be spread on all sides; but his glorious career was too soon closed by his mailyrdoai amongst the inhabitants of tfiicslaud. Even in these eaily ages of Christianity the British Isles were, however, distinguished for tho pioty ol many of their inhabitants, and even then they com* menued to pour foith aline of distinguished men, in whom weie singularly united the piety und eiilcipriso of their race ; — whose bravery in encountering peril was us the valour of those British aimiet; who have blood triumphant in every quarter of the globe; — whose hardihood and cnduiance were such a3 is the hardihood of those sailors who have explored ull seas, have endured all climates, and hive lujipoitcd all earthly dangers, but yet in whom the^e line qualities aie tempeicd by a Christian gc ii things and tortitude, such us distinguished those many maityrs of their race who have meekly endured lingering deaths and tho won>t of huniun sufferings for the truth's suite. These men neie as it were the miccbtois irom whom have uniiit nuptcdly to the piefcent day descended that illustrious line of men who iiavc borne and continue to bear the gospel to all nations, to ull tongue*. To men of »u h character who were then alivt in Uriiain, the conversion of the Saxon must have been mi object uidear.d by moie than ordinary lies, for from lhatiaue tb(y were themselves in pait ctcscsn'Jcd; und the common lunguagc of their imcfulhcta wan equally heard ascending in Britain in holy suains ol pra.se from many a Cluimian cliuicb, and in the Kind of the Saxons in idnhili ous yells, in piuisc of then, ulocnty duty Adurmuuuilc, in honoi of whom, upon allure formed ol uiubbivu &tuiici>, tiny pim< d lli;

hpnrtq of dieir human victims, with portions of whose cntrnilfi and bodies Uu-y decorated the temples of "j'laully*, therefore, had Winifred, ns r martyr, fallen gloriously in the service of his Maker, than another English clergyman* nnmeil Lebioin, quitted his retirement in England to visit the Saxons as a missionary. Passing the Rhine, he preached Hie Gospel on the borders on the the Ibbcl, whcie he baptized many converts nnd erected many chapels, and then, animated by his success, he resolutely advanced, ilclcrminod to preach the Gospel in the very midst of the Geneial Assembly of the Saxons, which was then being held on the borders of the Wescr, for the purpose of arranging the details of the approaching campaign. At the moment that the fieici- and warlike tribes of Saxons were tci initiating the business of the Assembly by the custo.r.ary human snciificc3 of their deity, Lc. broin appeared in the midit of the tumultuous crowd, and attired in bis Bishop's robes, and wilh a cross in his hand lie cried aloud to the multitude :— "Listen, listen 1 He whose message is delivered to you by my mouth, is the Creator of heaven and earth the only God. The idols that you now sacrifice to ore but gold, silver, or stone. The true God who compassionates your ignorance, hai sent me to you. Be baptized. He can deliver yon from all evils. But, If you despise these woids, at least attend to the warnings of a friend, and be upon your gnaid ; for the bravo King who is even now in your vicinity, is advancing as a torrent to ravage your country: he will carry off your women and children into captivity, some part of you will perish from want, part wiH fall in battle, and you will all have to bend beneath the yoke of this powerful chief." The excited tribes were roused by these wordi. The taost impetuous of them seized stakes, or such rude weapons as' were at hand and rushed upon the Miskionary to sLy him. His fate had shortly been decided Imt for the chief Buton. who coming forward, calmed tho excited passions of the crowd by these words : — ••Are all these in truth reflecting men t Why, have not Ambassadors from the Normans or from the Sclavonians, frr-quently come amongst us, and have we not always received them honourably even making them presents? For what possible reason therefore should we treat ignominiously an Ambassador from a god ?" The tide of irritated feelings was turned : Labroin was favourably listened to : the germs of Christianity were sown : permanent missions were established, and active steps taken for the civilizinlion and temporal improvement of the people. Fiom these measures marked results soon flowed. Charlemagne was no unconcerned and ignorant •pectator of these events. With the eye of genius he Ut once saw that the Saxons might be made Christians and civilized ; that by benefiu bestowed, he might attach the improvable and good to his rule, and that with a large portion of the population thus gained to his interest', he might then readily, by forcible means, repress the violent, the iircclaimable, and the fierce. From that time, therefore, his policy became a mingled one, of the repression of violence by force, of a gaining the affections of the good and wise by the introduction of Christianity and the improvement of the nation. By these means the Saxons were slowly but certainly reclaimed from idolatry, from human sacrifices, from fierce and barbarous wars. From that time the energies of the nice were directed fully into those wise and beneficient channel in wl.ich they have ever since almost uninterruptedly flowed. Without tracing in detail tho line of policy pursued by Charlemagne, we may Btate that in a very short period of time Wittikind was converted and baptized ; Chris tian churches were erected throughout a considerable portion of the territories of the Suxons, who passed laws by which any one who killed a clergyman, or offered a human sacrifice, was condemned lo be puniihed by death ; and that Charlemagne, in pursuance of what may be termed a mixed military and civil policy, at each of his great military stations founded one of the eight celebrated bisliopricks of Bremen, Verden, Minden, Ilalbcrstadt, Hildcsheim, Padcrborn, Muniter, and Osnaburgh. Through the twelve centuries which since that time have elapsed, some traditionary glimpses of the mixed charaetur of these bisliopricks still appear to have adhered to them, and it is only so recent y as in the rase of the late Duke of York, that •we have seen the strange apparent anomaly presented of bis Grace the Coramander-in-Chief of the British Army, being at the same lime Bishop of Osnaburgh. From the time, then, of Charlemagne, the great truth may be said to have been recognised, that iiii«« sionaries are the best pioneers of civilization. This truth has been more or less recognised in all the intervening ages, and it has invariably been most fully so recognised in those ages which were most distinguished fur knowledge and intellectual advancement. It was particularly so recognised about the period of the rise of We^leyan Methodism : and at, in the idolatrous nnd uncivilized races amongst whom a missionary* duty calls him, the works of bin and the devil are especially manifest in their fiercest and most revolting forms, there could be no doubt that those warriors who bad determined with grace and courage to combat against these adversaries, would soon be found struggling for a foremost place in bo glorious a conflict. But the warfaiu was great, and its costs and charges nec<'SSftrily heavy; and they (the Methodists) ■were a poor and lowly people, and then somewhat despised withal ; yet they weie called on to fight in this spiritual uarfiuc, and it was their duty to use such weapons as God has given them, mean and humble though these might be. Is it not written that David slew Goliath with a pebble from a brook ? Let them, therefore, despise no means, however apparently contemptible ; it it God that giveih the increase. So they met, these poor people, at Lecdi, some eighty years ago (in the year 1709), at the annual Session of the " United Societies ol the People ca'led Meihodial'," and adopted the following minute: — " We have a piosing call from our brethren at Ntw York, who have have built a preuching-house, lo come over and help them. " Who is willing to go ?" "Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor." " What can we do further in token of our biothcrly love?" " Let us now make a collection among ourselves." This was immediately done, and out of it £50 was allotted towards the payment of their debts, and about £20 given to our brethren for their passage." Thus the Weileyan Missionary Society wai established. About 70 pounds is collected, und brother Boardman and brother Pilmoor, with the scant sum o £20 between them, are sent forth to find their way across the Atlantic as they best can. They fired but indifferently on their long journey, we have no doubt. Nevertheless, the great work of the Wesleyan Mission was fairly entered on. Mr. Lawry's book and Lieutenant-Governor Winnibtt's despatches will help us in some degree to ascertain what gieat events have pprung from such an in&ignificant commencement. Ol the lirst of these works we shall only f,ay that it u written in a most agreeable and spirited manner ; that the benevolent mind of the wiiter can be traced in every page ; that it is a book which must encourage alike the Missionaries whoie labours it nairates, and the supporie.s of mia«

Bionariea, who will in it find recorded the rciultt of the entcrpiizcß which they have encouraged and aided, wViilat, from the amount of information it contains (although * most unpretending little work) regarding the present state hihl the future prospect! of the Islandt in the Pacific, it ii well worthy tho perusal of all who take an interest in the progress of the human raco. Of Lkutenant-dovernor Winnikh's despatch, wo must say that it reflects credit alike upon hit enti'i prise and his ability, and that ho deserves well of his country for the service which he rendered in undertaking, nml conducting in the manner he did, his laborious journey to the cnpitai of Aahuuti.

[To lie continued.!