Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
3°6 
picked up some months later at an island 
a thousand miles to the westward; in it 
were the remains of three of the poor women. 
So much for one class of the old island adven¬ 
turer. 
But if there were a few such ruffians scattered 
about the then little-known groups of islands in 
the North and South Pacific, the generality ot 
the old style of traders were a good stamp of 
men ; and much of the success that has attended 
the labours of the missionaries in many parts of 
Micronesia and Polynesia is due to the influence 
these unknown and forgotten men exercised 
over the natives. The earlier missionaries 
on many islands had much to contend with 
in the bitter opposition of many of the white 
traders, who resented their interference in the 
domestic relations of the whites with the natives, 
yet in many instances they were sensible of the 
fact that only for the presence of these adven¬ 
turous whites Christianity would not easily have 
gained a footing in the Caroline and Marshall 
Islands. 
Still, the idea that all, or nearly all, of the old- 
time traders were men who had broken the laws 
of their country, and had fled from justice, and 
