Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/543

 MBUA. 505 "The Mbua Circuit has been formed nearly three years, during which time we have entered six new preaching-places, and built three chapels. Nearly two hundred Heathen have embraced Christianity, and three hundred persons have become members of the visible Church of Christ by baptism. We are looking forward to still better days, and praying that God will abundantly bless His word, that the yet heathen tribes may learn to bless His name." Mr. Lawry was much pleased with the chapel, and wrote in his Journal : " Mr. Williams has by far the best chapel that I have seen in the two Districts. It is clean, strong, and tastefully laid out and fin- ished, reminding me of one of our cathedrals at home, ornamented to the very ridgepole, and built not only in the best style, but of the best material in the land, and completed by those -jvho use it ; and it is free from debt. The worship was solemn and cheerful, hitelligent and feeling. About two hundred persons were present." The good work continued to progress. Schools were carried on with success, and the blessing of God attended the preaching of His word, and the admmistration of the sacraments. Towards the end of 1850 new trouble came. Instead of hearing rumours of distant fighting, war came now close to the Mission Station. The following account of the events of this period appeared in the Wesleyan Missionary Notices for August, 1851 : — " On the 12th of September, 1850, the day upon which the ' John Wesley ' left Mbua bay,"^ the Chief of Mbua took his warriors to attack Na Korombase, a heathen fortress in which the Tavea Christians, with their heathen friends, had taken shelter. Mr. Williams, the Missionary at Tiliva, expostulated with the Mbua Chief; but his determination to fight was fixed. The Chief, however, pledged himself to save the lives of the Teacher and his wife, should he succeed in taking the fortress. The Christians at Tiliva, to a man, prayed daily for the failure of what they knew to be an unjust war ; and, after an absence of thirteen days, the warriors returned, saying, ' Fear seized us ; the longer we stayed, the more faint-hearted we grew.' They killed one woman, and four of their party received gun-shot wounds. The Mbua Chief said to Mr. Williams, the day after his return, ' The prayers of the Christians are more powerful than our arms.' " On Sunday, November 17th, a discharge of musketry in the Ndama District annoimced to the Missionary that war had commenced ; and a messenger arrived shortly after, to inform him that a skirmish had
 * See Lawry's Second Missionary Visit, page 370.