Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/584

 54:6 FIJI AND THE FIJIAXS. solitary island for the Lord Jesus. But three hundred miles of ocean lying between destroyed all hopes of its becoming, for a long time, a regular Mission Station. Tongan Teachers, however, were sent, who applied themselves with great diligence to their work. They learned the language, and saw with joy that here also the Gospel, which had wrought such wonders of blessing in their own home, was, " the power of God unto salvation." For a few years two Fijian Teachers have been on the island, and have mastered the language better than their Tongan brethren, to whom some of the consonants present insuperable difficulties of pronunciation. A Missionary from the Fiji District has visited Rotuma about once a year, but under the great disadvantage of being ignorant of the language. For nearly twenty years has the Gospel been preached, by such means, on this island. The success has been remarkably great. The largest and best building on the island is the chapel, and there are now about a thousand converts, from among w^hom have been supplied some efficient helpers in the work. The state of the people generally has already received great benefit from the introduction of Christianity. The Fijian Assistant Missionary, Eliezer, lately accompanied Mr. Joseph Waterhouse to Hobart Town, where they translated St. Matthew's Gospel, Catechisms, and some elementary books into the language of Rotuma. A translation thus effected, though vastly better than none, must necessarily be inaccurate. A Missionary is needed for this Station. Only an educated man can do for the people what Cargill, Hazlewood, and Hunt did for Fiji. To the man of science, surely, it would be no mean ambition, to bring the language of this isolated people into grammatical order, and confer upon them the wealth of an established literature. But to the servant of God, whose heart is under the constraint of the love of Christ, Rotuma presents far greater attraction. He too would seek to catch and discipline the powders of that strange tongue; but it would be to marshal them in the service of the Gospel. He would give to the people the best of all literature — the Bible. The soil has been broken, and some sheaves reaped there are already stored in the garner of God. Every success obtained only makes the want of a well-qualified ]Iission- ary, to govern and direct, more painfully felt. The Teachers them- selves greatly need, and as earnestly desire such superintendence, while the Chiefs and people have for years past nursed the hope that a Mis- sionary would come among them. It is no prettily imagined fiction, but an actual fact, that when a vessel nears that lonely shore, the native pilot, as he springs on board, asks whether the Missionary is