Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/417

 PEINTING, TEANSLATIONj AND PUBLISHING. 387 it had remained at Viwa, for a time, unused, while the work of trans- lation went on vigorously. When printing was urgently wanted, Mr. Hunt nobly gave up a stone house, which he had built at the cost of much toil, and there the work again commenced. During Mr. Hunt's residence in Somosomo, where his Mission work was greatly hindered, he had acquired a thorough knowledge of the Pijian language as spoken there ; and his recent stay in Viwa had made him familiar with the Mbau dialect, which was found there. A Vocab- ulary and Grammar which he had prepared for his own use, were never completed for publication, in consequence of his other unremitting labours. At the District Meeting, in 1845, Mr. Hunt was requested to revise and carry through the press his translation of Matthew and Acts, three thousand copies of which were to be issued at once to meet the urgent demand, and one thousand to be retained for binding up with the rest of the Testament when complete. Everything concurred to help the work. The press had been unexpectedly brought to Viwa, and the most efficient translator and the Missionary who superintended the printing resided there. The demand was great ; and fresh stim- ulus was given, by the arrival of the Romish Priests, to issue that word, the knowledge of which would prove most fatal to the errors which they tried to teach. In May, 1846, Mr. Hunt writes : " My great work in the study is the important one of translating the Scriptures into the Fijian language. To this we are now devoting ourselves in good earnest ; and I humbly believe I have succeeded, to an extent which has greatly encouraged me, in the Gospel of St Matthew and the Acts of the Apostles. I have the most important assistance that can be desired in a very intelligent native, who has been with me three years, and has become an excellent preacher. I have him by me when trans- lating, and make him the judge of the work, so far as the Fijian is concerned." On the completion of this work of Mr. Hunt, both Missionaries and people were greatly delighted, and the question of dialect became thenceforth settled. At the Annual Meeting in 1846, the best thanks of all his brethren were given to Mr. Hunt ; and those who were engaged in translating other parts of the New Testament, cordially requested him to take the whole into his own hands, to which request he at once agreed. Among many other advantages which he had gained at the Wesleyan Theological Institution in England, Mr. Hunt had, by hard study, acquired a knowledge of both the Hebrew and Greek languages, and was thus fitted to carry on the work, for which he pos- sessed great natural aptitude, and in the prosecution of which he showed