CHAPTER VI.

Printing-press at work-Interest evinced by Pomare-Excitement of the islanders-The Haweis-A missionary idyll-Religious condition of Huahine-Introduction of industrial arts-Limeburning-Mr Williams's ingenuity-He builds a ship-First trip of the Messenger of Peace-Rats at Rarotonga-A graceful demonstration of gratitude-Native huts-Europeanised cottages.

WHEN Mr Ellis landed in Aimeo, two years after the abolition of idolatry, the crying want of the island was for books. Hundreds of the natives, after mastering the alphabet and the spelling-book, could procure nothing to read. Others knew by rote whatever had been translated into their language, and were an-hungered for more. In the neighbouring islands not a few had taken the trouble. to copy out the whole of the spelling-book, either on writing-paper, or on native cloth made from the bark of a tree. Others had committed to leaves, or scraps of paper or cloth, detached texts and fragments of Scripture, which they would treasure up as gems of great price, frequently perusing and re-perusing them with the utmost reverence.

To meet this demand for spiritual instruction, a printingpress had been sent out under the charge of Mr Ellis, who, previous to his departure from England, had taken lessons in printing and bookbinding. As all classes were eager to see this wonderful machine in operation, land, labour, and materials were readily forthcoming, and no time was lost in preparing for action. When all was complete, the

Pomare as a Printer.

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king proceeded to the printing-office, accompanied by some of his most intelligent chiefs, and attended by a multitude of his humbler subjects. The composing-stick being placed in his hand, he was taught to arrange the capital letters, then the ordinary letters, and finally the monosyllables which made up the first page of the spellingbook. There his labours ended as a compositor; but a few days later, when the first sheet was ready to go to press, Pomare took his turn as a pressman. Receiving the printer's ink-ball into his hand, he struck it two or three times upon the face of the letters. Then laying out a sheet of white paper upon the parchment, it was laid down under the press, and he was directed to turn the handle. When the paper was brought forth, chiefs and assistants all rushed forward to see the effect of the royal manipulation. A moment of silent wonder was followed by exclamations of delight, when the clear black forms were presented to their view, and they felt that a new power was established in the midst of them. And when the marvellous sheet was displayed to the crowds that thronged the exterior of the premises, a sudden shout of joyful acclamation went up to heaven.

An edition of 2600 copies was soon worked off, succeeded by an edition of 2300 copies of the Tahitian Catechism, a collection of texts from Scripture, and Mr Nott's translation of the Gospel according to St Luke, of which nearly 3000 copies were composed and struck off by Messrs Ellis and Crook, almost unaided. After a while two natives were instructed to work the press; but from eight to ten hours a day, in a tropical temperature, these two gentlemen toiled as compositors, cheered on, indeed, by the eager interest evinced by the natives, but primarily sustained by the sense of Christian duty. So

great was the curiosity of the people, that the beach was lined with canoes from distant parts, while the crews stood upon the fence round the building, or climbed upon one another's backs to get a glimpse of the interior. Strangers from other islands scarce knew what to make of the wondrous machine, fearing to approach too closely, and slow to believe that it was not an animated being forced to slave for the missionaries.

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As each book was finished, the sheets had to be folded, stitched together, and placed within some sort of binding. The millboard on hand being speedily exhausted, recourse was had to various ingenious devices for obtaining suitable substitutes, which were found to answer the purpose sufficiently well. The natives themselves took kindly to this process, and also to the preparation of leather. The skins of all kinds of animals were turned to account, and one of the commonest of rural sights was a skin stretched on a frame, and suspended on the branch of a tree to dry." To make the people more careful of their books, the costprice was charged for the Scriptures, though elementary treatises continued to be distributed gratuitously. In the absence of coin, a small bamboo-cane of cocoa-nut oil constituted the medium of barter. The demand far outstripped the supply. Canoes would lie on the shore for weeks together while St Luke's Gospel was in course of preparation.

One evening a canoe arrived with five men from Tahiti, who hurried to Mr Ellis's dwelling, exclaiming "Luka!" or "Te Parau na Luka"-The Word of Lukeand holding up their bamboo-canes of oil. Not a copy remained on hand, but the missionary promised that if they came to him on the morrow they should have what they wanted. Looking out of his window at daybreak, he

Launch of the "Haweis.”

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saw them lying on the ground outside his house, with some plaited cocoa-nut leaves for their sole bedding. In reply to his inquiry why they had not lodged in a native hut for the night, they replied that they feared others might arrive before them and get all he could spare. So he at once went to work, and made up seven books, the additional two being asked for a mother and a sister. Each wrapped his book up in a piece of white native cloth, put it in his bosom, wished Mr Ellis good-morning, and, launching their canoe, without stopping to eat or to drink, they made all haste back to their native island. Scarcely less attractive than the gospel, was a little volume of hymns, some original and others translated, the islanders being particularly fond of rhythmical compositions.

Nor was it only in the art of printing that these early missionaries showed themselves expert. Towards the close of 1817 they launched a vessel of seventy tons burden built by their own hands. It was appropriately named the Haweis, Pomare himself breaking the conventional bottle of wine across her bows as she was about to glide into the water. This venture, however, was not encouraging; and after two or three short trips from island to island, the Haweis was sold in Port Jackson, and became a regular trader between that port and Van Diemen's Land. Still the fact remains that these simple messengers of glad tidings to the heathen succeeded in building and rigging a craft of considerable tonnage, and which took her place among the handiwork of professional shipbuilders.

Mingled with the stern realities of missionary life in the South Sea Islands came occasional glimpses of romance

that illumined their hard, self-denying existence, and relieved the monotony of their daily, and too often depressing, work. Thus in June 1818, it was resolved to remove the printing-press to Huahine, the most easterly of the Society Islands. The voyage was safely effected on board the Haweis, and on the 20th of that month Messrs Ellis, Williams, and Orsmond, with their respective wives, landed in Fa-re harbour, on the verge of a virgin forest. Two of the party were received into the house of a respectable native farmer, but the four others were glad to take shelter beneath a roof supported by three posts up the centre and several round the sides,—for the building was of an oval shape. For carpet and floor there were stones, sand, and clay; and to obtain some sort of privacy, four stout sticks were driven into the earth, to which sheets and native cloth were attached so as to form a screen. A couple of chests served as a bedstead for the parents, by the side of which some packages were laid for the children. At each end of the open building a private apartment was thus constructed, and in the centre part the luggage was piled up as neatly as possible.

"Large fragments of rock," says Mr Ellis, "were scattered at the base of the mountains that rose on one side of our dwelling, the sea rolled within a few yards on the other, and in each direction along the shore there was one wild and uncultivated wilderness." A present of fish and bread-fruit opportunely arrived from a neighbouring chief, and a youth stepped forward and offered his services as a cook. In due time the little party sat down to their simple fare of fried fish, baked bread-fruit, fresh plantains, cocoa-nut milk, and tea. As evening closed in, they prepared for the sudden and intense darkness of the tropics by converting one end