POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
5 
ing scenes they exhibit^ which in after life are seldom 
obliterated,—There are few who do not retain the 
vivid recollections of their first perusal of Prince Leeboo, 
or Captain Cook’s Voyages. Often^ when a school-boy, 
I have found the most gratifying recreation, for a winter’s 
evening, in reading the account of the wreck of the 
Antelope, the discovery of Tahiti, and other narratives of 
a similar kind. Little, however, did I suppose, when in 
imagination I have followed the discoverer from island 
to island in the Pacific, and have gazed in fancy on 
the romantic hills and valleys, together with their 
strange but interesting inhabitants, that I should ever 
visit any of these scenes, the description of which 
afforded me so much satisfaction. Yet this, in the 
providence of God, has since taken place ; and I have 
been led, not indeed on a voyage of discovery, commer¬ 
cial adventure, or naval enterprise, but, as a Christian 
Missionary, on an errand of instruction; not only to 
visit, but to reside a number of years among the inte¬ 
resting natives of those isolated regions. 
Letters written in 1812 by my esteemed pastor, the 
Rev. J. Campbell, during a journey in South Africa, 
undertaken at the request of the London Missionary 
Society, first directed my attention to Missionary en¬ 
gagements. Subsequent events led me to devote my 
life to these pursuits, and, under the patronage of the 
above Society, I was, in the year 1815, appointed a 
Missionary to the South Seas. 
In the month of January, 1816, in company with Mr. 
and Mrs. Threlkeld, Mrs. Ellis and myself sailed from 
Portsmouth for the Georgian and Society Islands. It 
was the morning of the Sabbath when we embarked. 
Our friends in Gosport were preparing to attend public 
