98 Letter [11 
work, and latterly, the labour traffic has been assisting greatly to 
depopulate the New Hebrides. But even before the natives came 
in contact with and were affected by Europeans, they were, ac- 
cording to their own account, decreasing gradually. Their 
naturally vicious habits, frequent wars, and the practice of 
infanticide, seem to have been lessening their numbers, 
as it was doing upon the islands of Eastern Polynesia, where 
Ellis says that the people spoke of themselves as being merely 
a remnant of the population that formerly existed. 
One thing only can apparently stay this destruction, and that 
is Christianity. It has done so in the case of some the Eastern 
islands, and it is doing so here. On the island of Aneityum a 
census is carefully taken every year, and this is its verdict. It 
stands to reason that whatever can put a stop to that which is 
causing the extinction of a people, will also stay the extinction. 
This Christianity has done on Aneityum and Aniwa ; for there 
the vilest of their old customs are done away with, wars are 
never heard of, and infanticide is no longer practised. 
In this direction, then, Christianity can and does tend to- 
wards saving these tribes from extinction; but what can the 
missionary do to prevent plagues being introduced into the 
island by trading vessels? It may be absolutely necessary for 
a vessel having disease on board, to touch at some island; but 
then every means should be taken to prevent its spreading on 
shore ; and when men who, from carelessness or mere brutal 
inhumanity, indirectly destroy the lives of hundreds of human 
beings, and cause infinite suffering to many more, they ought 
surely to be made aware that the lives of even the most de- 
graded of men are not to be sacrificed with impunity. 
There are two missionaries upon the island of Tana— 
Mr. Watt at Kwamera, and Mr. Neilson at Port Resolu- 
tion. We spent a very pleasant day ashore with the latter, 
wandering about the bay and seeing the lions of the place. The 
great roarer, the volcano, was kept for a better occasion, when 
