obtain God's favor before I die, I shall count myself well off. But, O! should I die with my sins unpardoned, it will be ill indeed with me. O may my sins be pardoned, and my soul saved through Jesus Christ! And may Jehovah regard ine before I die, and then I shall rejoice, because I have obtained the favor of Jehovah.

"May Jehovah and Jesus Christ bless us all. "POMARRE."

"Papeite, Taheite, Oct. 8, 1812.

"MY DEAR Friends, "May Jehovah and Jesus Christ our Savior bless you. If it had not been for the mercy of God towards us, we should all have been cut off long ago. Had it pleased God to have given us up to the will of Satan, he would long ago have destroyed us all. To the Three-One we owe our preservation and salvation. O Jehovah, save us! O Jesus Christ save

us.

"Nothing bad (referring to the war,) is talked of at Taheite at present; if it were otherwise, I would not remain here: there is one thing that fills me with horror, which I will inform you of by and by. Satan perhaps is the author of it; he is envious of me. May Jesus Christ save me.

"The affairs of Taheite are pretty well settled, the chiefs having sent professions of subjections; but how long this will continue is uncertain. However, at present all is well.

"I continue to pray to God without ceasing. Ke. gardless of other things, I am concerned only that my soul may be saved by Jesus Christ! It is my earnest desire that I may become one of Jehovah's people, and that God may turn away his anger from me, which I deserve for my wickedness-my ignorance of him, and my accumulated crimes!

"If God were pleased to create all mankind anew, then they would be good. This is my desire, that God would enable me from my heart to love that which is good, and to abhor that which is evil; and that I may be saved by Jesus Christ. My dear friends, write to me that I may know your minds. Inform me also of the news from Port Jackson, and whether king George is alive or dead.

"May Jehovah and Jesus Christ our Savior bless you!

"To the Missionaries at Morea, Eimeo.”

"POMARRE."

The king wrote again to the missionaries in the same strain in February, 1814; and in September of the same year the missionaries inform the Directors, that the mission was increasingly successful, both at Eimeo, and at Otaheite, as called in Cooke's and other voyages, but Taheite as called by the natives; the letter O being dropped as only having something of the force of an article. The example of the king in publicly renouncing the idol gods and false religion of his country, and declaring his full conviction of the truth, superiority, and excellency of our religion, has had a powerful influence upon the minds of many. Several have been removed by death, leaving very satisfactory evidences of their having been truly converted to God by the gospel through the influence of the Holy Spirit. A meeting for prayer has been formed at Taheite, without the interference or knowledge of the missionaries at the time. At Eimeo, a Society is formed of more than forty natives, who have renounced their idol-worship and wicked customs, and who profess to worship the one living and true God, and to be desirous to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Mr. Marsden, the principal chaplain to the colony of New South Wales, and a magistrate, writes to the Directors, dated May 17th, 1814, as follows: "I have sent you several letters from the missionaries at Otaheite. I am exceedingly happy to hear that the good work is begun among the natives, and that many have renounced their idols, and have turned unto the living and true God. The private letters from the brethren are very gratifying to iny feelings. The Lord will establish his kingdom in their islands: the way is gradually opening. You have some of the best of men in my opinion, as missionaries, whose hearts are wholly engaged in the great work.

From these interesting facts, it appears that the labors and sacrifices of the Captain, the Society, and the missionaries, have not been in vain. The morning now begins to brighten on these long benighted lands. The desert at last buds, and will soon blossom as the rose. Some of the redeemed spirits from those distant isles of the sea have entered into bliss as the first fruits of the Spirit, and certain presages of the goodly number who shall one day surround the throne with joyful acclamations and unceasing strains of gratitude to God for the blessings derived from the exertions of the Missionary Society. Already have the blessed spirit of the Captain, and the glorified spirits from the islands mingled their joyful hallelujahs to God and the Lamb, and sung in elevated tones, "unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.

I shall finish this part in the language of the writers of the missionary voyage.

"We cannot but flatter ourselves, that the public, on an impartial survey of what has been done, will

consider the Missionary Society as among the real benefactors to mankind, and support an undertaking which God has hitherto singularly blessed, and which proposes, as its first object, the divine glory, and the salvation, temporal and eternal of those whom hitherto no man has cared for. Names, sects, and parties have no place among us we mean nothing political, partial, or exclusive. One is our Master, even Christ. We desire to know and teach nothing but him crucified; to interfere in no contest, to disturb no government established, or to introduce any peculiar modes of worship, but to leave every man to the book of truth for his guide, in a Spirit of meekness; to unite in one centre, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever; and to love one another out of a pure heart fervently. Time and better information, it is hoped, will dissipate every prejudice entertained against so benevolent an undertaking.

[For particulars as to the present state of the mission to the South Sea Islands, the reader is referred to the Appendix.]

PART IV.

From the settling of the Captain in London, after the missionary voyage, to the time of his death.

THERE is a special sphere of action, suited to the talents, dispositions, and habits of individuals, in which their excellencies concentrate, and shine in a pre-eminent degree, but out of which they often appear inferior to men of ordinary capacities. Captain Wilson was so deeply sensible of the truth of this position, and so naturally diffident of his own opinion on subjects not within the range of his immediate profession, that he sought and sighed for retirement even from the business and bustle of the Missionary Society. Accustomed to the manners of an East Indian merchant, and Captain, he felt himself incompetent to take any useful share in those popular meetings, or among untrained societies where it often happens that the most unqualified persons to decide or act are for a time the most prominent, and where they obtrude their opinions upon all subjects that come before them, with equal confidence and vociferation. He had not, perhaps, been sufficiently inured to the free discussions of voluntary societies, and the unrestrained animadversions of a body of -independent individuals to feel, after the storms of a protracted debate, the serenity of a summer's even