Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/360

 CHAPTEE V. It has already been said that, in 1849, it was decided that the print- ing establishment should be removed from Lakemba to Eewa, a town of great importance on Viti Lctu, being near to JMbau, which was already rising to considerable power, and having, on all sides, a large and influential population. Food, moreover, was much more plentiful here than at Lakemba, and the position seemed in all respects the best, both for the purposes of the printing establishment, and the more thorough working of a Mission in the very heart of Fiji. When Messrs. Cargill and Jaggar reached Rewa in July, 1849, in charge of the press, they found this new ground already broken ; for the zealous toil and faithful sacrifice and suffering of the devoted Mis- sionary Cross had not been without fruit. Tlius the new comers found not only a house built for them, but a small band of noble converts who had suffered great losses for Christ's sake, and who still remained faithful, though continually threatened and often persecuted. Tliat good man, John Hunt, had also begun his work here, and was now removed to open the most dangerous of all Fijian Missions at Somosomo, for which perilous enterprise he ever deemed himself well trained by his six months' residence under the direction of Mr. Cross. On leaving, Mr. Hunt wrote : — " We have been long enough in Eewa to become attached to the people, and many of them have- expressed a most friendly feeling towards us. This made it a trial to part after so short a res- idence among them, and especially as the Lord had been pleased to turn about one hundred of them from Heathenism to Himself, since we have been in the Circuit. To leave a place where Christianity is pro- gressing is a trial, and the accounts we have heard of the Somosomo people make the trial still greater. The Rewans speak of them in nearly the same strain in which the English speak of Fijians in general. But the difficulty of leaving Rewa and going to Somosomo only affected