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100 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.

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."

Frank asked why it was that so many men engaged in commerce were opposed to the missionaries.

"Principally for the reason," was the reply, "that the missionaries defend the natives against the dishonesty of certain classes of traders, and thus reduce their profits. There are honest men and dishonest ones engaged in commerce in Polynesia, just as there are elsewhere. When you hear a Polynesian merchant denouncing the missionaries in vehement terms, you may fairly conclude that the missionaries have stood in his way when he was endeavoring to defraud the natives. He is a man not to be trusted, at least that is a fair inference, though in this as in everything else he may be an exception.