AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.

With a Sketch of the Labour Traffic,

AND

NOTES OF A CRUISE THROUGH THE GROUP IN
THE MISSION VESSEL.

BY

ROBERT STEEL, D.D., PH.D.,
MINISTER OF ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH, SYDNEY;

SOMETIME THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S TUTOR OF CHURCH HISTORY AND PASTORAL
THEOLOGY IN ST. ANDREW'S COLLEGE, WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY;
AND AGENT OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION.

JAN 80

GODLE

LONDON:

JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

1880.

133. f. 105.

MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,

PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.

PREFACE.

THIS volume has been compiled from the most authentic sources, after long acquaintance with the affairs of the New Hebrides Mission, and after a personal visit to the islands in the mission vessel. It is issued for the information of the friends of missions and of humanity, and in the hope that it may aid in promoting the evangelization and civilisation of Western Polynesia.

The New Hebrides Mission has had its martyrs. It was there JOHN WILLIAMS fell while attempting to introduce Christian missions, and on the same blood-stained Isle of Eromanga the GORDONS perished in the same cause. Many native teachers have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ' among the savage natives of the group; and a noble band of Christian missionaries have braved many dangers to teach a cannibal people the love. of God. Bishop PATTESON, who was killed at Nukapu, in another group, is also associated with missionary labour in the northern islands of the New Hebrides.

It is due to the memory of Christ's faithful servants to preserve a record of their work, and the biographical is therefore interwoven with the historical throughout this volume.

The recent inhumanities of the labour traffic, the fears of French occupation of the islands, and the strongly

expressed desire of many Australian colonists for the annexation or protection of the New Hebrides by the British Crown, give additional interest to the subject of this book.

The Author has endeavoured to be faithful in his narrative, just in his judgments, and charitable in his views; and he therefore hopes to meet with a favourable reception for his volume.

His thanks are due to the missionaries who have assisted him in collecting information, and to the Rev. John Kay of Edinburgh, who, from a long acquaintance with missions in the New Hebrides, as the Convener and Secretary of the Committee in Scotland, has given such intelligent and careful supervision to the publication of this contribution to the history of missions.