190 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
sorrows^ and privations of their remote and isolated 
station_, and to pursue in solitary pilgrimage the arduous 
and rugged track in which the providence of God had 
called them to walk, far from the sympathy of the kin¬ 
dred and friends of the departed. They were equally 
remote from all the kind attentions of tenderest friend¬ 
ship, the rich consolations of Christian intercourse, 
and the public ordinances of that religion, which is 
alone adapted to impart effectual consolation. Cut off 
also from the endearments of home, the pleasures of 
delightful intercourse in civilized life, the satisfaction 
derived from books, and the reciprocal interchange of all 
the offices of friendship, the only earthly solace a 
Missionary enjoys among an uncivilized people, except 
what he derives from his work, is found in the social 
endearments of the domestic circle. However remote 
from the land of his nativity may be its locality, however 
rustic his abode, however rude its appendages, or limited 
its sources of comfort, compared with what in other 
parts may be enjoyed,—around his rural hearth, and in 
the bosom of his family, there he finds the scene of his 
richest earthly felicity. In any situation, bereavements 
such as those which befell the little band at Eimeo at this 
time, would have been distressing: to the Missionaries 
they were peculiarly so. The channels of comfort were 
dried up, and though they had full and free access to the 
fountain of all blessedness and consolation, and were 
enabled to say—^^He hath done all things well,’" yet their 
trial must have been peculiarly poignant and severe. It 
is remarkable, that at a period of such unparalleled 
domestic distress, the most encouraging appearances 
of the Divine favour towards the nation around them, 
should have been afforded j and it is probable that the 
