731 



WILLIAMS, REV. JOHN. 



WILLIAMS, REV. JOHN. 



733 



The inlands of the Pacific Ocean, the inhabitants of which bad been 

 made known to the British public by the voyages of Captain Cook and 

 others, were selected by the founders of the London Missionary Society 

 M the scene of their earliest labours. For many years the pioneers of 

 the benevolent enterprise laboured with very little success ; but before 

 the time wheu Williams offered himself to the Society, many of the 

 natives had embraced Christianity, and in some islands the cruel rites 

 of idolatry had been entirely abandoned. Tho most urgent demands 

 for more missionaries were sent to the Society in England, and the 

 directors, recognising the necessity of immediately meeting the require- 

 ment, despatched Williams and several other young men with only a 

 few months' preparation for labours which rather called for years of 

 preliminary study. During the short period allowed for the purpose, 

 Williams did not confine himself to literary and theological studies, 

 but also visited manufactories, and made himself acquainted with such 

 processes aa he might have to teach in accordance not only with his 

 own views of the missionary work, but also with the instructions 

 received from the Society with which he had connected himself, whose 

 aim it has always been, iu subordination to the great design of teaching 

 the gospel, to introduce among the heathen the arts of civilised 

 society. 



In October 181G, Williams married Miss Mary Chauner, who proved 

 an invaluable coadjutor in his future labours; and on the 16th of 

 November following, Mr. and Mrs. Williams, in company with several 

 other missionaries, embarked for Sydney, whence after a short stay 

 they proceeded, after calling at New Zealand, to Eimeo, one of the 

 Society Islands, which they reached exactly twelve months after 

 leaving London. Here they remained for some months, Mr. Williams 

 assisting the missionaries previously stationed there, and perfecting 

 himself in the Tahitian language. During this time he also made the 

 iron-work for a small vessel which the missionaries were building for 

 Pornare, king of Tahiti After a time a party of the missionaries, 

 including Mr. and Mrs. Williams, removed to Huahine, another island 

 of the same group, where they were very gladly received by the natives. 

 The fame of their arrival brought visitors from the surrounding island?, 

 and the urgent solicitations of Tamatoa, king of Raiatea (the Ulitea of 

 Captain Cook), induced Messrs. Williams and Threlkeld to remove to 

 that island, which is the largest and most central of the Society group. 

 Its population was at that time about 1300, but its political influence 

 was far greater than might be expected from its population ; it was 

 the centre of the idolatrous system prevalent in these islands ; it con- 

 tained "the archives of their religious legends; the temple and altar 

 of Oro, the Mars and Moloch of the South Seas ; " and its principal 

 chiefs received divine honours, as well as civil allegiance and tribute 

 from the neighbouring isles. Upon this interesting island the truths 

 of Christianity had been first proclaimed by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, who, 

 with Pomare and nineteen other Tahitians, had been accidentally 

 driven thither in a storm ; and the inhabitants had received their 

 instruction so well as to be exceedingly desirous of obtaining mission- 

 aries for themselves. While however the people were willing to adopt 

 Christianity aa a national religion, and to give a cordial welcome to its 

 teachers, Mr. Williams found their moral condition to be extremely 

 debased, and their idleness apparently inveterate. They were also so 

 scattered over the island as to render collective instruction almost 

 impossible. It was indeed evident that their habits must be entirely 

 remodelled before the missionaries could hope to prosecute their 

 labours with success. Without neglecting the primary object of his 

 mission, Williams induced the Raiateans to collect themselves to one 

 spot, and to build habitations for themselves, as well as a chapel and 

 school-house. For his own use he erected a comfortable house in the 

 English style, presenting a model to which the natives were encouraged 

 to look both iu its structure and conveniences, and in the furniture 

 with which it was adorned ; almost everything being done by his own 

 hands. The natives were thus taught not only to appreciate the com- 

 forts of civilised life, but to obtain them for themselves, by construct- 

 ing houses with two or more apartments, with wooden floors, framed 

 walls plastered with coral lime, thatched roofs, well-stocked gardens, 

 tables, chairs, sofas, and bedsteads with turned legs, carpets, and 

 hangings. They were also instructed in boat-building, and their dili- 

 gence and ingenuity were excited by judicious rewards in the form of 

 uails, hinges, and other useful articles which the missionaries procured 

 from England. Proceeding cautiously, first to make the natives feel 

 their necessities, and then to put them in the right way for supplying 

 them, the missionaries were at length gratified by a request to attend 

 a meeting couveued by the natives for the purpose of improving their 

 social condition by the establishment of legal marriage. In May 1820, 

 upon the occasion of the opening of a new chapel at Raiatea, at which 

 more than 2400 persons were present, a complete code of laws was 

 established by the votes of the people, and it differed from those pre- 

 viously introduced in other islands of the South Seas in the important 

 point of the introduction of trial by jury. An efficient executive 

 government was also organised, everything being done by the natives, 

 though under the immediate superintendence of their instructors. 

 Being desiVous of extending to others the benefits which they enjoyed 

 themselves, the Raiateans formed an auxiliary missionary society, 

 which was supported by liberal donations of such articles as they had 

 learned to prepare for sale ; and Mr. Williams laid the foundation of 

 future commercial wealth by teaching the people to cultivate tobacco 



and the sugar-cane, and to prepare sugar for the market. With this 

 view he constructed a sugar-mill, the rollers of which were turned in 

 a lathe formed by his own hand. 



The benevolence which prompted Williams to such exertions could 

 not rest content within the narrow limits of Raiatea and such places as 

 might be reached from it by 'occasional boat-voyages. The intelligence 

 received from time to time from other islands gave him a strong desire 

 to extend the peaceful conquest in which he had borne so distinguished 

 a part, and he perceived that nothing was so much wanted for the 

 political advantage of the civilised communities at the mission stations 

 as a market for their produce and a ready means of communication 

 with it. He therefore conceived that if a small ship were permanently 

 engaged in the service of the missionaries, it would tend greatly to 

 facilitate their labours for the civil and religious elevation of the 

 islanders. Although not seconded iu these views by the directors of 

 the Society, he was so fully convinced of the importance of the scheme 

 that he determined to undertake a very heavy pecuniary responsibility 

 rather than abandon his project. He therefore visited Sydney about 

 the commencement of 1822, and purchased a schooner of from eighty 

 to ninety tons, called the Endeavour, in the hope that the Society 

 would, upon full explanation of the circumstances, share the responsi- 

 bility of the purchase. He also made arrangements for promoting the 

 rising commerce of the islands, and returned with several cows, calves, 

 and sheep, presented by Sir Thomas Brisbane, governor of New South 

 Wales, for the use of the chiefs and missionaries. In July 1823, 

 Williams sailed from Raiatea in the Endeavour, for the Hervey Islands, 

 calling at the mission-station of Aitutaki, after which he endeavoured 

 to carry into effect a long-cherished scheme for the discovery of the 

 island of Rarotonga, which was then only known to the missionaries 

 by the report of a few of its natives upon other islands. Failing in his 

 first attempt, he visited Mangaia and some other islands, but at length, 

 as is described in the sixth chapter of his ' Missionary Enterprises,' he 

 discovered the desired island, which is the finest and most populous of 

 the Hervey group. Leaving a native teacher there, with a promise of 

 sending further assistance, the Endeavour shortly returned to Raiatea, 

 whence she soon sailed upon another expedition to llurutu and Riuia- 

 tara. Small as the vessel was for such a purpose, the indefatigable 

 missionary was preparing for a more distant expedition to the Navi- 

 gators' and other islands, when his projects were suddenly checked 

 and he himself was involved in most painful embarrassments by the 

 intelligence that certain interested merchants had procured the enact- 

 ment of fiscal regulations by the governor of New South Wales, which 

 greatly impeded the development of trade from the South Sea Islands, 

 and rendered the retention of the Endeavour hopeless. At the same 

 time he received intelligence from England that the directors of the 

 Society disapproved of the steps he had taken with regard to the ship, 

 they having a very commendable jealousy of anything that could, even 

 in appearance, impart a worldly character to their proceedings. He 

 was thus compelled to send the ship, laden with the most marketable 

 produce that he could collect, to Sydney, with orders for the sale of 

 both ship and cargo. Grievously as he felt this disappointment, he 

 did not abandon his .favourite design, but only allowed it to remain in 

 abeyance for a time, while he devoted his energies to Raiatea, where 

 it was found necessary, from the frequency of destructive storms, to 

 remove the settlement to the opposite side of the island. 



In the autumn of 1825 Rarotonga and other of the Hervey Islands 

 were revisited by the Rev. Mr. Bourne, one of Williams's fellow- 

 labourers, in the Haweis, a vessel chartered for the purpose by the 

 Society. In December of the same year Williams was joined by Mr. 

 and Mrs. Pitman, who were appointed to occupy the new station at 

 Rarotonga, but remained with him for some mouths at Raiatea before 

 proceeding to their destination. In April 1827 they obtained a passage 

 to Rarotonga, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Williams, who contem- 

 plated staying a few months to assist their less experienced friends. 

 What has been stated in reference to Raiatea will indicate the nature 

 of the labours to be performed in other islands ; but here was a new 

 difficulty occasioned by the difference of the Rarotongan dialect from 

 that with which the missionaries were acquainted under the name of 

 the Tahitian, and in which all their books were printed. Having con- 

 quered the difficulties of the language so far as to be able to speak and 

 preach to the Rarotougans, Williams next engaged himself in preparing 

 books and translating portions of the Bible into the language, which 

 of course he had to reduce to a written form and a grammatical 

 system. When at length prepared to return to Raiatea, he waited 

 month after month for an opportunity of doing so, and, when there 

 seemed to be no hope of a vessel passing within sight, he determined 

 upon building a ship, notwithstanding his limited knowledge of naval 

 architecture, the total absence of assistance beyond what the natives 

 could render, and the lack of iron and tools, of which he had a very 

 insufficient supply. One of the first steps in this undertaking was the 

 construction of a pair of smith's bellows, to obtain leather for which 

 three of the four goats on the island were killed. It must have proved 

 extremely mortifying to find that when the machine was completed it 

 did not act properly, owing to a little oversight in the construction ; 

 but the perplexity was abruptly terminated by the entire destruction 

 of everything but the boards by rats, which swarmed at Rarotonga. 

 Undismayed by this mishap, Williams contrived a blowing-machine, 

 which is fully described in his ' Missionary Enterprises/ in which no 



