26 The Fruit. 
and mire of sin into the pureness and calmness of the christian 
faith and the christian life, will readily understand this. He 
will understand what a joy it must have been to the missionary 
when (for example) he liberated the whole people of a district 
from the fear of their chief, Yakanua. He was a sacred man, 
a great disease-maker, and a voracious cannibal. The first 
teachers who were settled in that district found very few children 
there.—The explanation was that Yakanua had killed them and 
eaten them. The old people, too, lived in great fear for their 
lives. He used to lie in wait for his victims, and spring upon 
them and murder them. His sacred character shielded him 
from all reprisals—so that he went about among them like a 
ravening beast of prey. ‘Towards the close of 1854 he was 
carried with the stream into the profession of christianity—with 
what good to himself I do not know; but with very decided 
good to the people of the district, who ‘Geslaedl that zou they 
would be able to sleep in peace. To tame that child-devouring 
savage, and let fathers and mothers sleep in peace, was surely a 
blessed work ; and then to set before them that good Saviour, 
who would give them the everlasting rest, and would suffer them 
to bring their children to Him that He might lay His hands 
on them and bless them. 
Let us take, as further samples of -the redeeming power 
of the Gospel, the two chiefs of Anelcauhat—Waihit and 
Nohoat. The first was the ruler of the sea, the other 
of the land. Waihit was as much dreaded as Yakanua. His 
club was always in his hand, and many a poor woman’s bones. 
were broken by it. He was one of the first earnest listeners 
to the gospel, and by-and-bye took his stand beside the mis- 
sionary as a christian. The change in his conduct gave very 
gratifying proof of the change in his character. He began to 
tell his countrymen that he was ashamed of his old evil ways, 
and wished them to serve the living and true God. He became 
the object of deadly hatred. Many a spear was hurled at him. 
