FROM THE SOCIETY TO THE SAMOAN ISLANDS.—BEFORE THE TRADE-WINDS.—NOTES ABOUT THE MISSIONARIES.—OPPOSITION OF TRADERS TO MISSIONARIES.—HOW POLYNESIA WAS CHRISTIANIZED.—THE WORK OF THE MISSIONS.—REV. JOHN WILLIAMS.—ROMANTIC STORY OF THE HERVEY GROUP.—THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.—THE WESLEYAN AND OTHER MISSIONS.—DEATH OF MR. WILLIAMS.—SANDAL-WOOD TRADERS.—POLYNESIAN SLAVERY.—LABOR-VESSELS AND THE LABOR-TRADE.—HOW NATIVES WERE KIDNAPPED.—"THE MISSIONARY TRICK."—THE MUTINY ON THE CARL.—CAPTURE OF THE DAPHNE.—HOW LABOR IS OBTAINED AT PRESENT.
RUNNING BEFORE THE TRADE-WINDS.
The Society Islands are between latitude 16° and 18° south, and longitude 148° and 155° west; the Samoan Islands, the next destination of the Pera, lie in latitude 13° to 15° south, and longitude 169° to 173° west. Consequently the course of the yacht was a little north of west, and gave the party a pleasant run before the north-east trade-wind, the crew having hardly anything to do from the time the last peak of the Society Islands disappeared until the mountains of Samoa came into view. All the world over, there is no more delightful sailing than in the trade-winds. A ship bowls along for ten, twenty, or perhaps thirty days, without squaring a yard or changing a brace, and all the time she carries every stitch of her canvas, and the water beneath her bows is a bank of foam.
DR. COAN, MISSIONARY TO HAWAII.
During the voyage our young friends busied themselves as usual in learning something about the regions whither they were bound, as well as perfecting their information about what they were leaving behind. The conversation turned one day upon the work of the missionaries in the South Pacific in redeeming the inhabitants of the islands from their former condition of barbarism.
"The missionaries have not received half the credit they deserve," said Doctor Bronson, in reply to a question which Fred propounded. "It is the fashion among certain men who have had commercial relations with these islands to deride the missionaries and throw ridicule on their work, and sometimes travellers fall into the same way of talking. There are idlers and useless men and women among the missionaries, just as there are in every occupation in life, but this circumstance does not justify the denunciation that has been heaped upon the entire body."