All the other girls had returned to their homes. Lisele remained, eager to gain more information about the wonderful things she had heard. What a happy thing it would be if boys and girls in Britain were as anxious to obtain spiritual knowledge as was the young savage girl in that Pacific island!
Chapter Two.
Our station threatened by heathen natives.—Lisele, accepting the truth, desires the conversion of her father, and obtains permission from her aunt and Abela to visit him.—I describe our voyage, when Little Maud was found.—Condition of the station at the time when my narrative commences.
Our little Christian settlement was truly an oasis in the wilderness. We were closely beset by heathens, and frequently we could see them assembling on the hill side, performing their savage dances, or threatening our destruction with fierce gestures—shaking their clubs and spears, and shrieking and hooting wildly.
Most of the converts settled round us belonged to the tribe of Masaugu, Lisele’s father; for although he himself still remained a heathen, he did not oppose those of his people who wished to lotu, or become Christians.
Among them was Lisele’s aunt, the sister of her mother, with whom she resided, and through her influence Lisele had first been induced to attend the school.
On the day I have spoken of, when it was time for Lisele to return to her aunt’s house, she invited me to accompany her, which my mother gave me permission to do. She wanted me to assist her in persuading her aunt to allow her to return to her father.
“I have been so long accustomed to speak falsehoods, that if I tell her that I wish to go she will not believe my object,” said Lisele. “Besides, she will not think it possible that so fierce a warrior as my father will consent to lotu; but I heard your mother say the other day, that with Jehovah nothing is impossible, and therefore I believe that if I pray that my father’s heart may be changed, he will, notwithstanding his fierceness, become a Christian.”