ON TANNA 139 
“They were visited in April, 1841, and a little over twelve 
months from that date two missionaries from England, the 
Rev. George Turner and the Rev. Henry Nisbet, and their 
wives settled among them. Missionary work was now com- 
menced in thorough earnest, and for a few months all went 
on hopefully; but troubles again arose, and the devoted 
laborers were compelled to abandon the island. An epi- 
demic broke out among the tribes who had not attached 
themselves to the missionaries; it proved intensely fatal, and 
it was remarkable that the district in which the missionaries 
resided was wholly exempt from the visitation. This gave 
plausibility to the notion which the poor dark-minded hea- 
then were so ready to entertain, that the calamity was to be 
ascribed to the missionaries and the new religion, and it was 
determined that they should either be killed or driven from 
the island. Those who had received the missionaries were 
ready to defend them to the utmost of their power, but they 
were only a handful compared with their enraged enemies. 
Hence the missionaries were in most imminent peril. 
“The story of the danger and deliverance of the mission 
party is one of the most intensely interesting tales in the 
history of modern missions; our limits, however, forbid our 
entering into particulars. After a few significant acts, which 
had well-nigh proved fatal to individuals belonging to the 
mission, war was formally declared and actually commenced 
against the little party of strangers and their native adher- 
ents. 
“Deeply anxious days and nights followed; the danger 
became more and more imminent; the enraged savages, like 
ravening wolves thirsting for blood, were drawing nearer 
and nearer. An unsuccessful attempt was made by the mis- 
sionaries, under circumstances intensely interesting and af- 
fecting, to escape from the island; but He who in the course 
of His providence, mercifully, we have no doubt, rendered 
their escape impossible in the way which they planned and 
attempted, sent them deliverance in His own way. 
