BEREAVEMENTS IN THE MISSION FAMILIES. 91 
Mrs. Davies,—which took place on the fourth of 
the following September. Her disconsolate partner 
had scarcely received the sympathies of his com¬ 
panions in exile and labour, when the newly closed 
grave of the mother was opened again, to receive 
the remains of an infant daughter, who survived its 
parent but three short weeks. In one week more, 
Mrs. Hayward terminated in death her sufferings, 
and was buried by the side of her departed sisters. 
Hence, the letters which conveyed to England the 
animating tidings of the first dawning of a brighter 
day on Tahiti, conveyed also the sad recital of 
these inroads of death; and well might the Mis¬ 
sionaries on that occasion “ sing of mercy and of 
judgment.” 
When death enters a family, and removes a wife 
and a mother from the domestic circle, though 
every alleviation which society, friendship, and 
religion can impart are available, there is a chasm 
left, and a wound inflicted on the survivors, which 
must be felt in order to be understood: when 
death repeatedly enters in this way a family con¬ 
nexion, the distress is proportionably augmented; 
but it is impossible to form an adequate idea of 
the desolateness of the Mission family, (for such it 
might be called,) at this time, and the cheerless 
solitude of those thus bereft of the partners of 
their days, and the mothers of their children. They 
were left to sustain alone the toils, 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 
kindred and friends of the departed. They were 
equally remote from all the kind attentions of 
tenderest friendship, the rich consolations of Chris- 
