Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/396

366 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS. Friendly Islands, desiring thirty Local Preachers ; and to Lakemba for the same number. From the former we have received four, and from the latter seven ; but what are they among so many islands, districts, and towns, that are all now crying out for help,— places where there is not any person who knows how to pray or teach anything in re- ligion ? It is most distressing to receive earnest applications for Teachers, without being able to supply even one. At the large and populous island of Kandavu, persons have lotued at twenty-one towns. When lately visited, the number was upwards of seven hundred ; and it is probable that soon there will be several thousands professedly Chris- tian, on that island of nearly one hundred towns ; and to it Mr. Moore can supply only four persons for the work. At Mbau we applied to King George for a canoe to take letters to Lakemba, again pressing our earnest demands for much help. The case of taking our letters was easily met, as one of his canoes was shortly to sail to Lakemba, in order to be employed by Tui Nayau in conve3'ing property to Lakemba from his outer island. At Rewa, I again called upon King George, and told him that calls for imme- diate help were perplexingly numerous and urgent, and that, if men were granted from Lakemba, I feared there would be no conveyance for them. He promptly decided, though the property to be collected by the canoe was for himself, and said, ' Of what im- portance can attention to Tui Nayau's commands be, when compared with the obtaining of Teaehers when they are so much needed ? The canoe shall return direct with Teach- ers.' He had already shown that his heart is in the work of God, when I met the Local Preachers and Class Leaders, about eighty in number, who are now with him from the Friendly Islands. On that occasion I had urged them to vigilant attention to their own souls, and to those who are under their care, and laid before them the case of Fiji. He then spoke out plainly, saying, that only a want of love to souls kept them back, as there were numbers of Local Preachers in Tonga whose services were not required there. He was also very kind in bringing many things from Yiwa to Rewa to meet Mr. Moore's present wants." The old King of Nakelo, who became nominally Christian on going to Mbau after the taking of Kamba, had not great influence in his powerful district. His two eldest sons, who ruled the people and town, were divided, one having been fighting on the side of Mbau, and each scheming to get the other slain. They had not become reconciled. Ra Ngata, the ruling Chief, who resided with his father, had rendered the most powerful aid to Rewa, and had defied successfully all the energy and treachery of Mbau at the time of its greatest power. Mara and the people of Ovalau, backed by the whites, were still at war with Mbau. Ra Ngata might fear lest his brother should still be encouraged by Mbau to kill him : he might be stout-hearted, and disposed to stand out against Mbau with Mara : but the sparing of a younger brother, friends, and people, when Kamba was taken, had made an impression on his mind. While he was pondering over this pleasing occurrence, Mr. Moore and his family, on their way back to Rewa from Mbau, were compelled by the tide and current in the river to stay at Nakelo. It was rather doubtful whether they would be safe with Ra Ngata. The canoe-men, and Missionary too, were far from desiring to remain there : and it was a most severe trial to Mrs. Moore, who was not well.* Ra ♦ Mrs. Moore wrote as follows to Mrs. Calvert, on her arrival at Kewa : " "We spent one night