194 Letter XIV. 
Qn several occasions the missionaries have been able to pre- 
vent the outbreak of war, and have succeeded in suppressing 
many of the vile heathen customs. They are respected and 
looked up to by the natives in their neighbourhood ; and if they 
are able to remain steadily at the stations they now occupy, 
will no doubt accomplish more than ever has been done yet on 
Tana. For although this island was one of the first on which 
missionaries settled, they were prevented by the fierce hostility 
of the natives from remaining long enough thoroughly to ac- 
quire the language or get acquainted with the customs of the 
people. The two missionaries now on the island have been 
longer there than any of their predecessors, and their influence 
is now beginning to tell in the manifest improvement of the na- 
tives'in the vicinity of the mission stations. On Fotuna, Era- 
manga, and Efaté, churches have been formed; while on 
Nguna and Santo, the islands last settled, a footing has been 
gained. 
A missionary cannot, like a clergyman, enter on his proper 
duties immediately on arriving at the sphere of operations. 
The language has to be learnt, and he has to get acquainted 
with the natives and their customs before he can expect them to 
benefit by his preaching. This may take a couple of years ; 
but during that time he may be quietly paving his way for his 
future work; he may be disarming the suspicions and gaining 
the confidence and goodwill of the people. It is not to be 
supposed that the savage islanders will be found on the beach, 
anxiously waiting to welcome the missionary, or that they feel 
in themselves the slightest desire for moral or spiritual improve- 
ment. No; they love their heathen customs, and it is an act 
of great self-denial on their part to give them up. For the 
most part, at first, they do not wish a missionary to come 
among them; or if they do acquiesce in it, it is merely in the 
hope of getting calico and other goods from him by fair means 
or foul. When Mr. Neilson went to settle at Port Resolution, 
