Page:A Lady's Cruise in a French Man-of-War.djvu/120

96 was no common calf, but one which had evidently been a household pet for Years, and, and YEARS!

The Samoans are natural orators, and love to illustrate their subject with facts and comparisons from every source within their ken. So the preacher who would rivet the attention of his hearers needed to have studied his subject well. But at that time he had no books to help him, no commentaries to refer to, only a translation of three Gospels and a few Scripture lessons; and many a teacher felt, what one expressed,—namely, that he was like a man attempting to cut down a forest with a blunt axe; or like a foolish man, always hammering, but never hitting the nail on the head.

The necessity of an educational institution was therefore apparent, and the chiefs were so favourably disposed to the scheme, that they offered to clear out of a whole village and make it over to the mission. It was, however, considered preferable to buy a piece of land on the coast, in a place quite apart from all other settlements; so Malua was selected, and fifty acres of land purchased in due form. This land was reclaimed from the bush by the students themselves, who raise yams, taro, and bananas in abundance, and have also planted several thousand bread-fruit trees, cocoa-palms, and other fruit-bearing trees; so that this noble institution is almost, if not altogether, self-supporting.

From its commencement to the present day, fully two thousand teachers and native ministers have been here trained, including a considerable number of men from far-distant Papuan Isles—from the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Tokelau, and Savage Isles—all speaking different tongues, but here meeting together to learn what they can, and then carry the truth to their own distant isles. Oh how these perplexed teachers must long for a new Pentecostal gift, to enable them to address these men, each in his own language!

It would be difficult to imagine a healthier, happier life, than that of these students. At the first glimmer of the lovely tropical dawn, the college bell rings to mark the hour for household prayer. (There is probably not a house in Samoa where the family do not assemble daily for morning and evening prayer.) Then all the