Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/253

 BEGINNINGS — LAKEMBA AND KEWA. 223 who have come to the Islands have laboured under insurmountable difficulties, in their attempts to gain influence over the minds of the people. The houses so hastily put up for the Missionaries were only in- tended to shelter them until the King should erect the more substantial buildings which he had promised. Week after week passed on, and the promise remained unperformed, until, one day, a hurricane blew the temporary dwellings down, and the King could delay no longer. The work was then carried on in earnest ; and tolerable Mission-houses were soon completed. A chapel was much needed, and the posts and spars of the ruined houses went towards the erection of a place fit for public worship ; the Tongans helping to put up the materials thus prepared. Thus, while the storm caused great inconvenience for a time, it led to more comfortable housing of the Mission families, and the building of a chapel. All this, however, brought a great addition of labour upon the new settlers ; and any extra exertion in such a climate is very ex- hausting for Europeans, A desk of some kind was wanted for the chapel, and -doors, windows, and other necessaries had to be made for the houses. This work fell on the Missionaries, and, after a time, was brought to some sort of completion. Peculiar qualifications are needed for a Missionary. Besides a head well stocked with general knowledge, he must have a ready hand, fit for any work, or he will have a poor time of it among such people as these Fijians ; and worse still will he fare if, in addition to all other endowments, he is not blessed with a good and easy temper. Thus the commencement of the new year found the Missionaries pos- sessed of a new chapel, with a regular congregation of nearly two hundred persons. Classes had been formed for church naembers, and a school started for pupils of all ages. On March the 20th, a Sabbath morning, thirty-one adults, who had been under careful instruction, were publicly baptized. This sacrament was never administered in- discriminately to all who had merely forsaken their heathen practices and attended the Christian services ; but only to those who had re- ceived sufficient instruction, and thereby acquired an enlightened know- ledge of the obligations thus imposed upon them ; while there was required good evidence that the candidates sincerely embraced the Christian religion, and endeavoured to live according to its principles. The greater part of the thirty-one just mentioned were Tongans ; and, in the afternoon of the same day, twenty-three of their children were also baptized. By this time several Fijians had given up Hea- thenism, and become avowed worshippers of the true God. Some of