VI 
Introduction of the Gospel. 
I. Lakemba. 
It will be remembered that, in 1796, the first mission- 
aries from the London Missionary Society were sent out to 
the islands of the Pacific. Discoverers and navigators had 
visited these islands, and had returned to England with 
wonderful tales concerning these " isles of beauty.'* Coral 
gems of ocean, fringed with palms, ferns, and other fragrant 
foliage, they seemed to stud the waters with tiny spots of 
earth, where all nature was beautiful and attractive, and 
" only man was vile." . Along with their accounts of the 
beauty, fertility, and populous state of the islands, they told 
of the depravity, subtilty, and debased idolatry of the 
inhabitants of those islands. Christian hearts thought 
seriously and prayerfully on these matters, and considered 
how best to fulfil the duty which God had laid upon them, 
of carrying the Gospel to these benighted people. The 
London Missionary Society sent, first, a large detachment 
of missionaries in the ship Duff^ to the South Sea Islands. 
Some of these were stationed at Tahiti, others in the Mar- 
quesas Islands, and others in Tonga, or Tongatabu, in the 
Friendly Islands. This first detachment of missionaries 
met with much misfortune and suffering ; persecution, cold, 
hunger, war, and death, being their lot. Most of them 
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