8 The Ptoneer. 
i 
greatly fortified his purpose; which was strengthened on the 
other side by the hearty concurrence in it of his beloved part- 
ner. To her, with four little children round her knees, the work 
could have slight attraction of romance; but she would venture 
all for Christ.— He was worthy for whom they should do this. 
While they were waiting for their commission in Halifax, two 
of these little children died. If they had been looking for a 
sign from Heaven, this dark sorrow might have staggered and 
stopped them. Perhaps they did find an interpretation of it 
afterwards—* You are going forth among the perils of the deep, 
and the perils of the heathen ; entrust these little ones to ME.” 
The commission which they received was very vague. Under 
the guidance of God’s good Spirit they were to seek a field of la- 
bour somewhere in the South Seas. They wisely betook them- 
selves to the missionary brethren in Samoa, and craved advice 
as to their future movements. 
Their arrival was hailed with joy. There was a field of 
labour waiting for them. 
Ever since John Williams’s death his coadjutors had been 
longing to embrace the New Hebrides within the scope of their 
labours. They had frequently revisited them; they had sought 
to win the confidence of the natives, and had succeeded in 
planting christian teachers on five of them. The work, how- 
ever, had made little effective progress ; indeed, at the date 
of Mr. Geddie’s arrival at Samoa it seemed desperate. Only 
upon the island of Aneityum was there a gleam of hope. On 
the last occasion of the missionaries’ visit to that island they 
found the teachers sadly disheartened, and anxious to be re- 
moved. They were received on board, and sailed round to 
Anelcauhat. While lying at anchor there, one of the mission- 
aries, deeply sorrowing at the prospect of leaving this fair island 
under the powers of darkness, said to the teacher Simeono, 
