In Fiji 
As we turn the pages of mission history upon which are 
recorded the deeds of those brave men who wrought for 
God by taking the gospel to Fiji, we find ourselves in con- 
tact with a work of unusual daring, which was followed by 
remarkable success. 
Within the many shores of that savage and populous group 
we are early led to see that “every evil passion had grown 
up unchecked, and previously unheard of abominations had 
run riot.” The worst deformities and foulest stains, black- 
ened and disfigured the most prominent of the people’s char- 
acteristics. Crime had become inwrought into their very 
souls. It “polluted every hearth, gave form to every social 
and political institution, and turned religious worship into 
orgies of unsurpassing horror. The savage of Fiji broke 
beyond the common limits of rapine and bloodshed, and 
violating the elementary instincts of humanity, stood unri- 
valed as a disgrace to mankind.” 
In 1797, missionaries had been sent to the Tongans, near- 
est neighbors of the Fijians, but the history of their efforts 
is a record of heartbreaking disappointment and perilous 
failure. Yet it was from Tongan Christians that the light 
of the gospel of Jesus first shone into the darkness of Fijian 
savagery. The natives of Tonga seem always to have been 
a seafaring people, sailing far and near in their crude craft. 
At the time when our story begins, intercourse between the 
Tongans and the Fijians of the island of Lakemba had be- 
come established, and some Tongans had settled among the 
Fijians of that place. These were visited from time to time 
by their relatives, and thus intercourse between the two BED: 
ples became more regular. 
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