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New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 480, 20 November 1850, Page 1

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If we turn now to Mr. Lawry's work we shall find hat this legnid for Great Britain has not stopped at few Zealand. We shall find there that the inhabitants >f the Friendly Islands made repeated urgent proposals iat they might be permitted to enter into the most riendly and intimate nllinnce with Great Briiain ; and he same work contains abundant evidence of the ;rowing attachment of the Fejee Islanders to that emtire. Let us now leap over a vast portion of the globe, transport ourselves in thought to the kingdom of Yarraba, in Africa, and there, at Abokuta, we shall find the native! saying to the missionaries who first apteared amongst them— "Ah, we told our King that the English people loved us, and that missionaries would c lure to follow us to Abokutua ; but he could hardly elieve that any one would come so far to do us ood. Now what we told our King has really come > pass. Oh, Master ! you are welcome, welcome, welcome I" Let us then again press further to the westward in frica, to the kingdom of Ashanti,the people of which cuntry, but little more than twenty years since, de•ated entirely a British force, led by an English iovernor, whose heart was devoured by the principal liiefi, whose head was dried in the usual manner as a ropby, and whose bones were distributed as charms iroughout the Ashanti host. Now we find in the sapital of that country a British Governor, LieutenantJovernor Winniett, received ai a friend wlioie advice to be taken, and whose ill opinion is to be carefully filled ; and be writes as follows, telling the simple lie of so wondrous a change :— •" I was equally inte;sted and excited at the appearance of the Wesleyan lission House. * * * * As 1 sat down in the ry, spacious hall, in the cool of the evening, after c toili and excitements of the day, and contemplated us little Eurcpean establishment, planted in the lidst of barbarism, two hundred miles in the interior f Africa, exhibiting to thousands of untutored Pagans, le comforts and conveniences of civilized life, and the orsbip of the true God, I could not but think deeply and elingly on the great triumph thus achieved by Chrispnity and civilisation. 1 ' Again, to show fully the Iwnge that has been wrought in public opinion by the itiours of these missionaries in legard to the dreadful uhject of human sacrifices and the shame with which the nhghtmed portion of the Ashami race begin to regard »is abominable custom, Lieutenant-Governor Win. mrr statei that in a private interview, on the 2(Jlh f October, 1848, the King assured him "th.it the umber of human sacrifices in his capital had been reatly exaggerated, and that attempts had t'sus been tiade to spoil his name. He wished it therefore to be nderstood that human sacrifices were not so nuraeoui in his capital as they had been represented to be, nd txpressed his hopes that the English would not is<en to the mere reports relative to this subject that were flying abont the country." Thus, it will be seen, almost simultaneously have Missionaries, by mild Gospel truths, and by acts of ieiy and goodness, made the King of Ashanti to blush (TV human sacrifices; and gentle Englibh women, by the same means, caused the stern chief of Feejee to palter forth weak excuses for his victims slain for si* nilar purposes. We should only weary the reader by multiplying instances of this kind, so we pass to another subject, •—the contributions of Missionaries to a knowledge of modern languages, by which contributions they have enlarged the limits and facilities of commerce, li ive enabled Europeans to communicate freely with almost all nations of the earth, and have rendered the word of God into almost all tongues. Again, we in this instance cannot enter into so wide a field as to sketch all that in this respect has been done by the Missionaries of other denominations ; but confining ourselves to some of the most recent efforts of the Wesleyan Missionaries, we shall simply state that we have now lying before us several most useful works by thmn, translated into or written in the language of New Zealand ; a Lexicon of the Tonga Language, compiled by the Rev. S. Rabonc; an elaborate Grammar and of the Feejeeaa Language, together with a review of the ancient poetry of that people, compiled from materials furnielied by the Rev. Messis. Cargili, and Hunt, besides copies of the New Testament, and large portions of the Scriptures translated into various languages by the Missionaries of the Wesleyan Society. Another interesting result of modern Missionary effort is, that many natives of various barbarous countries, who by the Missionaries have been instructed in a knowledge of the Gospel, have themselves been sent forth as teachers of the things of Christ, into countries and inlands inhabited by strange races, but who spoke languages which ua ( l more or less affinity to their own dialects. These men — generally accompanied by their wives — have, without hope of temporal reward, chaered on by no applauding public, or loudpraising press, voluntarily thrown themselves amongst fierce and baibarous tribes of men. We are told on good authority that in the Islands of the Pacific alone, no less than forty of these native teachers have within. the last few years, either from violence or from sickness, produced by privation and want, laid down their lives in the set vice of their Lord and Master ; and that although one teacher may thus be sacrificed at a distant station, another devoted servunt of the tiuth, without hesitation or delay, supplies his place. In short, glancing from Aihanti to the limits of the Pacific Ocean, in the great majority of those lands where a few years since the unfortunate mariner who was thiown aabore, or the boats' crews who ventured there in pursuit ot lucrative baiter were, toogeneially, alike destroyed and devoured— now the cast-away is received by friends, tended carefully, conducted to a Mission station, and eventually restored to home and friends. The tiader in pursuit of gain finds with the Missionaries a home and friends who c.n interpret for him the language of the couutry, and arrange his dealings with thu natives, whom the Missionaries have inspired with a taste for European commodities and a love for the English customs and race. Who can calculate, in the Pacific Ocean, and on the Coast of Africa alone, the gains that have sprung, and are yet to spriDg, from the Bafety and advantage thus

gained to commerce ? Who can estimate the happiness and wealth to the human race, which must ariso from the peaceful occupation of the New Zealand Islands, and of the other Islands in the Pacific, in which, in like manner, not distinct and hostile laces, but fellow Clniatians bound together by community of fuith and laws, are for mutual advantage commingling into one people. Were it a mere investment of capital that we were cont- mplating, we should doubt if the merchants and people of Britain had ever more wisely and foresightedly invested their money than in subscribing for these Missionary objects which have produced, and are still producing, such large returns. At the first contemplation of the subject under this point of view, the mind for a moment think* that a machinery which is producing such vast national ie« suits, should be m.-vle a department of the State, and should be directed by a Minister of the Crown : but no such arrangement is needed. So long as the proceedings of the State arc conducted on Christian principles, on rules of Christian justice, for so long a time there must be perfect accordance between the acliona of the Missionary Bodies and of the State ; they have one common rule for their guidance, one common object for their goal. The very essence of what has taken place, and is still to take place, is that the people of a nation, not an individual church, are rising; up to do their duty as Christian men, to the uttermost parts of the earth. Such efforts, being in themselves true and righteous, must be crowned with success and great national lcwaids ; but no State policy can achieve this on any other grounds, than that what the Sate does ■hould be true and just. All the wealth of Britain, all the wisdom of hei Ssnate, directed to accomplish unrighteous ends, would in our belief ultimately fail ; and, however glorious and promising might be the beginning, would end in national calumnies and injury to the empire. j We may however, in the case of the Missionary enI terprises now going on, sustain ourselves with the belief that the results they achieve will endure. We J for our own part moreover firmly believe that these enterprises and results will increase to an extent and in a ratio which we should hardly venture to state We have seen that only eighty years bince the founders of the Wesley Misbions made a collecti >n amongst themselves, amounting to about seventy pounds, for the purpose of sending out two missionaii's. The an nual contributions to the Wealeyan Mist-ioue has, in those eigh'y years, swelled fiom seventy pound -> to oie hundied and eleven thousand pounds, ami their Missionaiies arc couuted by hundreds. Yet v,e even hold these great results to ba but tuo promise of good ihiugs to come. After all that has been yet achieved, large masses of mankind still remain sunk in heathen dark, ness, Providence in its bounty has given us work to do. To us it afforded the bright example of the past, for present to us and plainly visible are the results of the labours of the great and good who have gone before us, and all around us lies the mighty work, set by God for us to perform. With such grounds of hope to cheer them on, as can be diawn from a contempla* tion of what has been already accomplished, will men falter then in the path of duty? We believe not. "We believe on the contrary, that those who, a ceniuiy hence, may write the history of what this age has performed, will have to record much that will excite the ove and gratitude of future times.