* 
VALUE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 161 
Missionary requires every solace, assistance, and 
support that his friends can impart. The com¬ 
munications he receives from his patrons are valu¬ 
able, but they are frequently too much like letters 
of business, or treat only of general subjects. His 
communications from his relatives and friends are 
of a much more touching and interesting character. 
These, though they deeply affect, do not engross 
his soul; he feels connected with, and interested 
in, the general advancement of the Redeemer’s 
kingdom, and the gigantic energies of those insti¬ 
tutions of Christian benevolence and enterprise, 
which, under God, are changing the world’s moral 
aspect. The reports, &c. of these institutions 
should be sent, and, in addition to these, a regular 
correspondence should be kept up with the Auxi¬ 
liary Missionary Societies with which he may have 
been connected—the Sabbath-schools in which he 
may, perhaps, have been a teacher—but especially 
the Christian church of which he may have been a 
member. It should not be confined to a bare 
reply to letters, but should be regular and con¬ 
stant. 
Sometimes we have been six, nine, or twelve 
months on the island of Huahine, and during that, 
or a longer period, have seen no individual, except 
our own two families, and the natives. At length, 
the shout, Epahil e pahi! “ A ship ! a ship!” has 
been heard from some of the lofty mountains 
near our dwelling. The inhabitants on the 
shore have caught the spirit-stirring sound, and 
A ship ! a ship !” has been echoed, by stentorian 
or juvenile voices, from one end of the valley to 
the other. Numbers flock to the projecting rocks 
or the high promontories, others climb the cocoa- 
nut tree, to obtain a glance of the desired object, 
in. M 
