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have ever heard, though in general civilization he was greatly behind vast numbers of them. A good many of the natives, both in the New Hebrides and in New Caledonia, can speak a little English very intelligibly. Even at the Solomon Islands we found a native dressed in a check shirt, and who could speak a few words of English. Throughout the whole of these groups the natives manifest a great fondness for speaking English and for holding intercourse with those who speak the English tongue. We found scarcely a trace of the French language in any of the islands.

The Missionary operations in these islands have been very limited, and confined almost exclusively to the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. A deputation from the London Missionary Society visited the New Hebrides in 1839, when the Rev. John Williams and Mr. Harris were unfortunately killed by the natives of Erumanga. Subsequent deputations planted some fifty or sixty native teachers from Samoa and Rarotonga, on Aneiteum, Tana, Erumanga, Fate and other islands of the New Hebrides, and also on some of the Loyalty Islands, the Isle of Pines, and New Caledonia. But a great number of these teachers have either died or been killed. In 1842 the Rev. Messrs. Nisbett and Turner, two of the London Society’s missionaries, were located with their families on Tana; but influenza or some epidemic appearing among the natives, after ten months they were obliged to leave the island, in consequence of the threatening conduct of the natives, who regarded them as the cause of the sickness and mortality, and no European missionary has been stationed there since.

Within the last few years arrangements have been made between the Agents of the London Missionary Society and the Bishop of New Zealand on behalf of the Church Missionary Society, in order to prevent any collision or waste of labour, that the London Missionary Society shall occupy the New Hebrides, and the Church Missionary Society, New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. The Bishop has been engaged in preparatory measures; he has brought several youths to his Institution near Auckland, and taken them back, after several months, to their own tribes, and is thus gaining the confidence of the natives, so that he may locate English Missionaries without danger to life or property.

In 1848 a Presbyterian Mission was established on Aneiteum, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. There are at present two families connected with this mission. There are five stations on the island; four are occupied by native teachers from Samoa or Rarotonga, and visited by the missionaries who reside at the fifth. The population of the island is 3,000. The progress of the Mission has been satisfactory and encouraging. The language has been acquired and reduced to writing; two primers have been printed; a good many of the natives can read a little; from one to two hundred attend public wor-

ship, and are under regular instruction; a taste for clothing is springing up; superstition is giving way to reason and truth; war is becoming less frequent; life and property are perfectly secure on the whole island, which can be affirmed of no other island in this group. There has been a sandal-wood establishment on Aneiteum for some years, in connection with which there are some respectable families; but the sandal-wood trade as a whole, admitting some honourable exceptions, has been conducted by persons of reckless character, and has been fraught with most disastrous consequences to the natives of most of the islands where it has been carried on, and the evils inflicted have in many cases recoiled with fearful violence upon the heads of those who inflicted them. But the regular visits of ships-of-war to these islands are likely to correct and prevent these evils.

A French Roman Catholic Mission was established on Aneiteum about three years ago, and also on New Caledonia somewhat earlier, where three stations were occupied by European Missionaries. But the missionaries have been withdrawn and the stations abandoned, both in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. The French Missionaries are at present all located on the Isle of Pines. The French are very unpopular in Polynesia. Their doings at Tahiti, and the cavalier manner in which they treat the natives generally, have alienated the affections of the natives from them. The French do not appear to have the same facility for acquiring the language and gaining the confidence of the natives as the English. In almost all the groups in the Pacific, natives of Britain and America are found living in security, having, after more or less difficulty, gained the confidence and acquired the language of the Aborigines.

The principal permanent difficulties to be encountered in prosecuting missions in the New Hebrides are, the number and smallness of the tribes, the diversity of languages or dialects, and the unhealthiness of the climate during the north-west monsoons, from November till April. During this season of the year fever and ague, and also the jungle fever of India, prevail among the foreigners, both white and coloured. This tendency to fever arises from the humidity of the atmosphere in the New Hebrides. It is a well-ascertained fact, that a dry air of ninety degrees is not so insupportable as a humid air of eighty degrees; and that a hot and humid atmosphere is unhealthy, although a hot air, when dry, may be very salubrious. In the one case, the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the body is rapid; in the other case, from the humidity of the air, evaporation is impeded; moisture collects on the skin; a sultry, oppressive sensation is felt; and chills and fevers are usually in the train. There are also frequently violent thunder storms, tremendous hurricanes, and for weeks at a time continuous torrents of rain. During these months the missionaries are either laid up with sickness, or