Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/279

SOMOSOMO. 249 losing a source of wealth and honour. Towards evening a tiresome old Chief took up a board, and Mr. Williams stopped him ; whereat the old fellow was very angry, and seized his great club, vowing that he would there and then kill the Missionary. Mr. Calvert interposed, and begged the old Chief to be quiet, and comfort himself by taking off the board ; but the ship's crew were much alarmed, and seemed glad to get on board with their charge. That night all the Mission party slept on board, leaving nothing but fragments of flooring, etc., ashore ; and the next morning the " Triton " left Somosomo. The actual amount of good accomplished by the Missionaries at Somosomo cannot well be estimated. There was little success to show, according to the ordinary rule of statistical return ; but a very impor- tant work was effected nevertheless. The people were dark and bad beyond other Fijians, of haughty disposition and diabolical temper, and exercised great influence at Mbau, Lakemba, and almost all parts of the great adjoining island of Vanua Levu. Thus, though the Missionaries made but little visible impression on the Somosomans themselves, yet all that was done among them told upon the work through a great part of the group. And even in the people among whom they toiled some good general results could be seen. Brethren on distant Stations visited by the Somosomans could see a great difference in the behaviour of these abominable cannibals. The preaching and prayers, the daily con- versation and endurance of the labouring and suffering servants of Christ, produced some beneficial effect. The men of Somosomo were thereby restrained from hindering the work at Lakemba, and other places to which it had now spread through their wide dominions. During the residence of the Missionaries here, many visitors from other islands had called, and taken home with them the glad tidings which they heard proclaimed. Some actual conversions took place in Somo- somo. Among them was that of a foreigner who was left sick, under the care of the Missionaries, by a whaler. He forsook Popery, which had for years kept his mind in darkness, and died happy in an assur- ance that he was justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. While this Station- was kept up, those who laboured there had more leisure than on the other Stations, and diligently used it in studying the language, and working at translations. It was now that Mr. Hunt gave that close attention to the written word of God, which enabled him, a few years after, to furnish such an admirable Fijian version of the New Testament. One great good which the Missionaries and their wives devoutly