[Image]  [Hi-Res Image]

Page 19

fifteen years made Raiatea his home. A complete Bible was published in 1839, chiefly through the labors of Rev. Henry Nott, one of the first missionaries, who rendered forty-eight years of valuable service. In 1836 two French Roman Catholic priests who attempted to settle in Tahiti were expelled by the queen, but shortly afterwards the Roman Catholics were established in the island by the French government. The Paris Missionary Society has 18 stations, 5 missionaries, 11 European teachers, 27 native pastors, 4,615 church-members, 253 catechumens, 1,794 scholars. There are 7,008 Roman Catholics, 23 mission priests, 10 lay brothers, 24 sisters, 80 catechists, 85 stations, and 14 schools with 207 scholars. The Seventh Day Adventists arrived in 1892, and have 7 missionaries, 73 adherents, and one school with 30 scholars.

Niue or Savage Island: See Vol. xii.; supplement.

The Solomon Islands: These islands lie in 155°163° east longitude and 5°-11° south latitude. The large eastern island Bougainville and some smaller islands and islets belong to Germany; the western islands have since 1899 been in possession of Great Britain, and these include the important islands of Choiseul, Mahaga, Guadalcana,r, Malayta, and Christoval; area 8,357 square miles, population about 150,000. The Roman Catholic missions were begun in the South Solomon Islands by the Marist Fathers in 1845 under Bishop Epalle, who with three priests was killed and eaten by cannibals on Ysabel Island. In 1895 a mission was begun in the North Solomon Islands. There are now in both groups 390 Roman Catholics, a bishop, a rector, 20 priests, 12 stations, 1,180 catechumens, and 12 schools with 357 scholars. The congregation of The Sacred Heart has also 12 priests at Issoudun. The Melanesian Mission began work in the Solomon Islands in 1857 under Bishop G. A. Selwyn and Rev. John Coleridge Patteson. It now has stations and schools on most of the group, with 11 clergy, 393 teachers, 151 schools, 8,026 baptized, 1,822 communicants, 1,163 catechumens, and 2,377 hearers. The Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia commenced work in 1902 under Rev. George Brown. It now has 27 churches, 13 preaching-stations, 4 missionaries, 2 missionary sisters, 127 class leaders, 68 church-members, 12 South Sea teachers, 6 Sunday-schools with 1,050 scholars, 15 day schools with 857 scholars, and 8,800 hearers. The South Sea Evangelical Mission began work in these islands in 1904. It has on four of the islands 11 missionaries, 4 stations, and 45 out-stations with native teachers, 1 boarding-school with 100 scholars; about 430 islanders have been baptized.

Tonga or Friendly Islands: The Tonga Islands lie south of the Samoan group and east of the Fijian, in 173°-177° west longitude and 15°-23° 30' south latitude; area 390 square miles, population 22,000. Since 1899 they have been under British protection. Mission work was begun in 1797 by the London Missionary Society, whose ship " The Duff " settled ten missionaries there. Three of them, Daniel Bowell, Samuel Gaulton, and Samuel Harper, were killed by natives and the mission was abandoned without success in 1800. The Wesleyan

Methodist Missionary Society reopened the work in 1822 under the Rev. W. M. Lawry, but he left in the following year so that the Wesleyan Methodist Mission practically dates from x826 when the Rev. John Thomas landed. In the mean time some native missionaries, sent from Tahiti, in the Society Islands, to open a station in Fiji, were detained through stress of weather in Tongatabu. Other workers were soon sent from Tahiti, and the adherence of a chief and 400 people was gained, and a church was built. After the Rev. John Thomas, who was the evangelist of Tonga, the Rev. Stephen Rabone.and Thomas Adams and others consolidated the work. A moat remarkable feature of the past thirty years has been the Tubou College, founded by Dr. Egan Moulton, where a number of young men have been trained for New Guinea and other mission fields. The whole group has been Christianized, and Tonga has taken its place among the civilized nations. In 1885 the Rev. Sidney Baker, who was afterwards premier, caused a disruption by founding the Tonga Free Church, which, though not, connected with any conference, has remained loyal to Methodist doctrine and polity. It has 15,000 adherents. The original Wesleyan Church claims about 5,000, and there is a prospect of reunion in the near future. The Roman Catholics have a bishop, 22 priests, and 14 stations. The Seventh Day Adventists, who arrived in 1890, have 4 missionaries, 12 adherents, 2 schools with 69 scholars.

ART7iQR N. JOHNSON.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Consult the literature under the articles on the workers to which reference is made in the text, the Reports of the various societies operating in these islands, and the literature on the missionary societies given in vii. 417 of this work. Also the following selected from a large range of books: A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, 1796-98, in the Ship " Duff," London, 1799; W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, ib. 1829; J. Williams, A Narrative of Missionary Etiterprises in the South Sea Islands, late eds., ib. 1886, Philadelphia, 1889; W. Hoffmann, Sieg des Kreuzes auf Tahiti, Basel, 1844; M. Duby, Hdst. de la distraction den missions evangiles h Taili en 1844, Paris, 1845; G. A. Lundie, Missionary Life in Samoa. 18/,0-1,1, Edinburgh, 1845; H. Weginer, Geschichte der chriatlichen Kirche auf dem Gesellschajts-Archipel, Berlin, 1845; H. Melville, Types, or, Marquesas Island. Polynesian Life, New York, 1848; E. Miehelis, Die V olker der Sfidaee and die Geschichte der protesEantischen and kaEholischen M%asionen enter derselben, Munster, 1847; H. T. Cheever, Island World of the Pacific, New York, 1851; W. F. Besser, Der Missionar and sein Lohn, oder die Frilchte des Evangdiums in der Sitd-See, Halle, 1852; Abbb Verguet, Hist. de la premikre mission catholique . .

de Melanesie, Paris, 1854; Sarah S. Farmer, Tonga and the Friendly Islands, with a Sketch of their Mission History, London, 1855; Tahiti and its Missionaries, ib. 1858; G. Cusent, Ilex de la Socieik. Tahiti, Paris, 1860; T. West, Ten Years in South Central Polynesia; Reminiscences of a Mission to the Friendly Islands and their Dependencies, London, 1865; G. Pritchard, Missionary's Reward: Gospel in the Pacific, ib. 1866; C. F. Angus, Polynesia ib. 1887; S. Macfarlane, Story of the Liju Mission, ib. 1873; idem, Among the Cannibals of New Guinea, ib. 1888; Mrs. H. S. Thompson, Ponape, Philadelphia, 1874; A. W. Murray, Missions in Western Polynesia, London, 1862; idem, Forty Years' Mission Work in Polynesia and New Guinea, ib. 1878; idem, Martyrs of Polynesia, ib. 1885; A. Fornander, An Account of the Polynesian Race, 3 vols.,

1ib. 1878-85; P. A. Lesson, Les Polynesiens, leer origins, leer migrations, leer langage, Paris, 1880; R. Steele, The New Hebrides and Christian Missions, London, 1880; Mrs' M. V. Dahlgren, South Sea Sketches, Boston, 1881; R. W. Logan, The Work of God :7L Micronesia, 1863-83. ib. 1884; J. Mbulu, Joel Bulu; native Minister in the South