THE MARTYRS OF TONGA 19 
them to die was gain. . . . They were the first martyrs 
among missionaries of modern times, the forerunners of 
those who in the recent movements of the church have since 
been called to part with life in the sacred cause; and their 
sudden and unexpected removal, though afflictive in the ex- 
treme, was, there is reason to believe, beneficial in its influ- 
ence on survivors in the field, and on the churches at home.’ 
“They were all comparatively young. Harper, the eldest, 
was twenty-nine years of age, Bowell was twenty-five, and 
Gaulton was still younger. It is painful to think of their 
brief and checkered course, and of its sad termination; but 
all, no doubt, was wisely and kindly ordered, however ap- 
pearances may seem to indicate the contrary. ‘Precious in 
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ To the 
eye of sense, indeed, it seems as if their lot had been a pecul- 
iatrly hard one—as if they had sacrificed their earthly all, 
and suffered and died in vain; but that cannot be. We may 
not be able to trace the results of their labors and sufferings, 
but it does not follow that they were fruitless; yea, may we 
not rather confidently conclude that it was otherwise, that 
they were instrumental at least in preparing the way of the 
Lord, and that the blood of the first Polynesian martyrs, like 
that of others of early and later date, proved in the Friendly 
Islands, as elsewhere, the seed of the church? 
“The next day after the sad occurrences narrated above, 
was Sunday. It was spent by the remaining missionaries 
among the rocks, where they had sought and found a hiding 
place, in devotional exercises, and solemn and deeply affecting 
conference on the privileges of those who, amid all the dis- 
appointments and desolations of the world, could rejoice in 
the Lord as their refuge and their strength. 
“The scenes which took place this day in other parts of 
the island,’ Mr. Ellis remarks, ‘appear in awful contrast with 
the quiet solitude and devotional engagements of the mis- 
sionaries among the rocks of Eligu.’ The conflict between 
the contending parties was renewed, and maintained with 
