CONVERTING THE SAVAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6996, 19 April 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

CONVERTING THE SAVAGES.

The Chicago Advance, in an article on the introduction of Christianity in the South Pacific, snj's A conversation which Mr. Logan had with an Knglioh lady at Auckland two years since on his circuitous route homo from Micron;:Bia, recalls a remarkable story in the early s:.ages of tbe mission-work at ihe Society Islands. There was an island to the westward apart from all the other groups. It was a very Ishtnael of the sea. The inhabitants, numbering about 5030, were so utterly liurco, and intractable, tuat it was called •ipd is still known 0:1 wauy map* as Savage Island. If any. utreis of accident or storm atrarrgors landed on its shores, th>y were immediately sacrificed for inhuman feasts. But, notwithstanding this ill-savoured reputation, a, number uf tbe firafc Society Island converts. in the surprise and joy of their new lite, determined to make an attempt to introduce the new Gospel. The result was fatal to the whole company. About three years .afterward, a native convert named Luke .sought permission of the missionaries to make another trial. They at last consented, feeling that, perhaps, it was the call of God. He waß taken as near the island as the ship dare go, and then, with a? true a martyr spirit as any early Christian ever ahowed in the amphitheatre, he deliberately bound his little bundle o£ clothes and a Testament on his head, and plunging into the surf, Bwarn ashore. He wa3 immediately seized and carried back into the island for sacrifice, as his comrades had been before. By signs and a few words common to the two languages, however, he induced tbem to hear a story. Ib was the old, old story, the death of Jesus on the cross. They were interested, and spared him till the next dav. But now, having gained their ear, he told them othor stories of the blessed Christ. They were soon won, and made him their teacher. Two or three_years later the little missionary ship ventured near these shores again. To the astonishment and delight of all they found the whole island revolutionized. Heathenism had been renounced, and the entire people deairod to be taufibt the Christian way. A white missionary was left among them, and in duo time it became thoroughly evangelized. That happened more than fifty yeara ago. But now comes the modern part of the story. It seems aboutien years since, this psoplo— of course it was a new generation—had sent out two of their nambsr with their wives, iu connection with natives of other islands, as missionaries to the savages on the north shore of New Guinea. The .English lady spoken of above told Mr. Logan that she was on this island of Niwe, when sad tidings reached them. It was at a public meeting. She said : " I never saw such a scene. When it was' announced to them that while their missionaries to that distant shore, with those from other islands, wore gathered in one of their houses for conference, they had been set upon by a hostile chief and the whole company had been massacred, the eDtire audience broke forth in outcries and weeping. But with prayer calmnosß caine, and when the qucation was asked. Who will go to take tho place of; our martyred missionaries ? twenty rose to their fett, and thus ofl'ered themselves for thin desperate acrvice. It was a spectaulo simply sublime. A suitable numbor wore Bolectcd, and now "a prosperous mission is the happy result of thcir.hazardoua labours." ■