ON THE ISLAND OF VATE £51 
who visited the island, Messrs. Hardie and Sunderland, 
were unable to obtain any particulars as to what led to the 
horrid tragedy. Superstitious fears may have had some- 
thing to do with it, but it is more likely that the desire to 
obtain possession of the property belonging to the teachers 
was the real inducement. 
“If the fear of disease had anything to do with it, the 
thing feared, instead of being averted, came speedily upon 
the natives, and that in a way so remarkable as to look 
like a judgment. Very soon after the murder of the teach- 
ers an epidemic broke out on the island and raged with fatal 
effect. As many as 150 were reported to have died, and the 
disease extended to the mainland also, and cut off many 
there. 
“When the island was again visited, in June, 1857, it was 
found that a goodly number were holding fast to Chris- 
tianity, and waiting and longing for the return of teachers; 
the public worship of God was being kept up, and the pro- 
fessedly Christian part of the people appeared to be striving 
to walk according to their little light; and when the island 
was again visited, in 1858, it was reoccupied by teachers, 
and from that time onward there has been no further break. 
The work of evangelization has advanced slowly, indeed, but 
surely, and so we doubt not it will continue to do till the 
end be gained.” 
In the course of time the management of the mission work 
on Vaté passed into the hands of European missionaries, 
and soon afterward the savagery of former years was done. 
But nothing there accomplished by missionaries of the white 
race can excel the heroism of the brave islanders who at the 
peril of their lives had gone to Vaté, and there had encoun- 
tered such danger and had sacrificed so much for the gospel 
of Christ. Great, indeed, has been their reward, though, 
sad to say, some of them who labored long and endured 
much did not live to see any of the glorious results that fol- 
lowed their labor. 
