NEW-ZEALAND.-Extract from the Journal of Mr. Whiteley, from May 21, 1833, to May 30th, 1834. MAY 21st, 1833.-To-day, about four o'clock, P. M., we first set foot on the shores of New-Zealand. From Sydney we had a tedious and tempestuous passage, lost one of our boats, had our bulwarks washed away, and were necessitated by stress of weather to relinquish our hopes of making Port Hogianga, and to bear away for the Bay of Islands. Here we came to anchor about eleven o'clock this morning. About two, the Rev. H. Williams, of the Church Mission, and J. Busby, Esq., the British Resident, came on board; the other Missionaries at Paihia soon followed with their boats, and very kindly took us to their settlement, where we were most cordially received, and affectionately treated. We were five in number,- Mr. Orton, Mr. and Mrs. Tucker, Mrs. Whiteley, and myself. Our vessel was the "New-Zealander," schooner, Captain Cole. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker, and probably Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs, will proceed by the same vessel to Tonga. Mr. and Mrs. Cargill, for the present, remain at Sydney. 30th. I left Kidikidi, where Mrs. Whiteley has been kindly entertained several days at Mr. Baker's, for Mangungu. Mrs. Whiteley was obliged to be carried in an arm-chair, fixed on two poles, by eight strong men, two at a time in their turns. Our road lay by the Church Mission station at Waimate, where we arrived about eleven o'clock. Here our friends were exceedingly kind, and pressed us much to remain with them until the following day; however, as the weather was fine, we thought it best to proceed, although we had a good day's journey before us. The roads were exceedingly bad, owing to the late rains. It is impossible, except by experience, to form a correct idea of the difficulty of travelling in New-Zealand. We were benighted in the wood; twice the natives fell with Mrs. Whiteley; and, after much fatigue, invariably connected with NewZealand travelling, we arrived safe at Mangungu about nine o'clock, thankful to God for having brought us safely home. Our dear friend, Mrs. White, received us with joy; and we trust that Iwe shall all have mutual cause for gratitude to God for having brought us together. 31st. This morning Mr. Hobbs and family took their departure for the Bay of Islands, in order to go by the "NewZealander," together with Mr. and Mrs. Tucker, to Tonga. The Lord preserve VOL. XIV. Third Series. MAY, them by the way, and make them a blessing to thousands! June 1st. I have to-night had the happiness of witnessing a scene, which, to a Christian, cannot but be highly interesting,—the worship of God celebrated, and his praises sung, in a savage land, by those who have borne the character of rude barbarians and voracious cannibals. Mr. White conducted the service. After preaching, the class-meeting was held, when my heart was gladdened by witnessing about twenty New-Zealanders conducting themselves with all the order and Christian simplicity of the members of an English class-meeting. O may the number abundantly multiply! 9th. A few days ago an unfortunate seaman fell overboard from a vessel passing up the river, and was drowned. This morning the crew, and several other Europeans, residing in this neighbourhood, assembled for divine service in our little chapel. Mr. Orton preached a most faithful and impressive discourse. May the word be applied effectually and savingly to the heart! The corpse was interred in the evening, when Mr. Orton performed the service. To November 5th. This day twelve months we sailed from our native shores. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. day I have commenced a regular system of visiting the natives at their country villages, my Superintendent having made out a plan by which I am appointed to attend to the duties of the station (every alternate week, and every intervening week to visit the native places six days out of the seven. To-day I have visited the natives at the head of the river. was received with every manifestation of pleasure, and hope my visits will not be useless. To-morrow I go to Utakura river, where are several tribes, favourably disposed to the Gospel; and on Thursday to Waima and Omania, for the week. I rejoice on account of these arrangements; but I feel my inability. The Lord support me. I January 8th, 1834. - Understanding that the brethren Cross and Cargill were at the Bay of Islands, on their way to Tonga I set out on Monday last for that place, taking with me a number of natives to bring over goods which we have had lying there some time, from the colony. And as the vessel was likely to remain in the bay some time, the brethren have to-day returned with me to Mangungu. With the conversation of 1835. 2 D Mr. Cross I was much edified. Truly he is a devoted, holy, and experienced Missionary. O for grace to follow him as he follows Christ' 24th and 25th.-At Waima and Omania. This is a laborious journey, and an extensive field of labour; I think quite enough for one Missionary, independent of any other; and the people generally seem ripe for the Gospel. Sunday, February 9th.-A high day at Mangungu. Six couples have been married, and nearly thirty adults and children baptized. Truly the Lord is at work among this people. O that he would make bare his arm yet more effectually, and claim the nations for his own! 13th.-To-day we have held a DistrictMeeting, and have recommended several new stations to the consideration of the Committee. May the great Head of the Church crown these proceedings with his blessing! 15th-22d.-On the Saturday evening I went down the river, and spent the Sabbath with the natives and Europeans at the Heads; and on Monday proceeded towards Kaifara, where I arrived on the evening of the following day. No Missionary has ever visited these natives before; yet they have erected a chapel, they have obtained books; and, to the best of their knowledge, have for some time past regularly attended to the ordinances of religion, as taught by the Missionaries in other parts of the island. The joy occasioned by my visit, and the hopes held out to them of being visited again, cannot be expressed; every manifestation of gratitude and respect was given, and every indication which I could reasonably expect, that God is preparing their hearts for the reception of his word. O that his churches may be aroused to send them help! 27th, 28th.-I was engaged in laying the foundation, and making preparations for a new chapel. the place is become too strait for us; the people flock to the house of God as doves to their windows. O may the number be multiplied tenfold! This is pleasing toil; March 3d-10th.-This week I spent in itinerating in the District of Wangape. This is recommended to the Committee as my future sphere of labour; and the people are anxious to receive me. O may God fit me for the great undertaking! May 30th. Twelve months have fled since the Lord brought me and mine to Mangungu! Thank God, I do not repent having left my father's house, but would call upon all that is within me to bless his holy name for having brought me here. This is a fine country; the scenery is picturesque in no ordiuary degree; there is, however, a difficulty in travelling to carry instruction to the scattered tribes of the natives. The hills, the forests, and the extensive and almost impassable swamps, make travelling in New-Zealand labour indeed. Often without coat, waistcoat, hat, or handkerchief, have I been bathed in perspiration, as though dipped in a river. The NewZealanders are a fine race of men; and, though not now far removed from the savage barbarity connected with cannibalism, are capable of amazing improve ment. But as yet their general condition is deplorably wretched. In England I have heard of the miseries of Heathenism, but here they are to be seen; and who can see, and avoid feeling? O how does it speak to the heart of a Christian to consider, that these Heathens, thus degraded, thus deluded, thus sunk in wretchedness, are fellow-men, fellow-heirs of immortality! Thank God, though I sometimes weep on thinking of these things, I rejoice to know that some of them are fellow-heirs of glory; and the number is increasing, and will increase; for God is true, and God is love! SOUTH AFRICAN MISSIONS. LONG before this number of our "Notices can be circulated, our readers will have learned, from the public Journals, the afflictive intelligence that has arrived from South Africa, during the last few weeks. We refer to the calamity which, in the month of December, overtook the settlers in the Albany District, and other portions of the eastern borders of the British colony, by an irruption of the pagan Caffres, who passed the frontier line at various points, and in very numerous bodies, and have pursued a course of plunder, devastation, and murder, the description of which is too horrible for minute recital in our pages. At the date, however, of the latest accounts hitherto received, (January 30th,) there was reason to hope that the progress of the invaders had been arrested; and that general security and tranquillity would, in some tolerable degree, be speedily restored; but the loss of life, as well as of property, has, we fear, been very considerable; and the distress entailed by the visitation will be both intense and enduring. We refer our friends to the recent numbers of an excellent weekly paper, ("The Watchman, ") distinguished by the early and correct character of its intelligence from Missionary stations, for what we deem to be the most authentic accounts of those transactions, and of their probable results. Amidst these scenes of alarm and peril, there is reason to believe that the lives of all our Missionaries, and their families, have been preserved. For this mercy, we unite with them and their numerous English friends, in offering devout thanksgivings to Divine Providence. Their circumstances, however, and those of our societies in South Africa, are still such as to call for the tenderest sympathy, and entitle them to a very special interest in the prayers of all who have the cause of Christ at heart. When more ample intelligence shall have arrived from themselves, we shall endeavour to satisfy the intense anxiety of our readers by publishing the particulars. In the mean time we rejoice to add, that the influence of Christianity, where its truths and institutions had previously been brought into even partial operation, appears to have been pacific and salutary on those Chiefs and tribes who had made any explicit acknowledgment of its authority; and that the mischief has thus been, in some degree, checked and mitigated. Had the Gospel been more extensively propagated, and the moral feelings and habits of the natives at large brought under its mild and ameliorating control, by means of a more adequate supply of Missionaries and Schoolmasters than has hitherto been afforded to Caffraria, even by the united efforts of all the Societies, who can tell how much of the calamity might have been altogether prevented? Large and powerful masses of unchristianized and uncivilized men can never long be safe neighbours to a Christian colony. We must give them our religion, if we would reckon with certainty on securing their cordial confidence and friendship. The following letters were written before the occurrence of the recent troubles. They will, however, be found worthy of attention, as illustrating the cruelty and wretchedness of Paganism,-the indirect usefulness of Missionaries, in promoting the temporal welfare of the barbarous Heathen among whom they sojourn,-the claims which Missions therefore possess on our humanity, as well as on our piety, and the necessity of connecting, with all our other agencies and efforts, the exercise of fervent prayer for that rich and mighty effusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which the difficulties of our great enterprise are manifestly in superable, and its success impracticable. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Palmer, dated Morley, October 16th, 1834. By the following extracts from my journal, you will see that this is truly a land of darkness and of blood; but that, in the midst of all, we are not without encouragement : men that were hunting. I sent off messengers to make inquiry. July 14th, 1834.-I heard that three of Faku's men, who were coming to see their friends at this station, had fallen into the hands of a company of Umyeki's 15th. This morning the messengers returned, from whom I learned that one man had been killed, and the other made prisoner; but they succeeded in procuring the release of the latter, and brought him with them to the station. In the afternoon, accompanied by my Assistant and a few men, I went to inter the murdered man. We discovered the body in a valley not far from Morley, and found that every kind of ornament, as beads, rings, &c., had been taken off; that the head had been beaten with clubs; that one deep wound had been made by an assagai; that both legs were nearly severed, by cuts under the knees, and that one foot was almost cut off, just above the heel. This agrees with the account given by the man who escaped to the station with the news, viz., that, when they were taken, and stated they were on their way to this station, some of the party proposed letting them all go, whilst others contended for having them all put to death; and, after a long debate, it was determined that one should be set at liberty, one taken prisoner, and the other killed; that immediately after releasing the one, they commenced beating the other on the head with their large sticks or clubs, and, supposing him to be dead, went off towards home with (him) their prisoner, and that he saw nothing more of his companion; but, as they were proceeding, one of the company on looking back saw the body move; upon which some persons were sent back to cut the sinews of his legs and feet. The men that accompanied me dug a grave, into which we put the body, and did what we could, by laying large stones on the top, to keep it from the wolves. Thus an active man, little more than twenty years of age, who had very recently been married, and yesterday was nimbly moving towards this place, to ask a wedding present of his uncle, (one of our members,) is numbered with the dead. Surely the habitations of cruelty are around us; but the news we proclaim is, "Peace on earth, and good-will to man:" this, and only this, can reclaim the inhabitants of this long-forgotten and deeply degraded land. In the midst of all our difficulties we are encouraged, knowing that "the Gospel is the power of God," and that it "is mighty to the pulling down of strong holds." Sunday, 26th.-This day a most gracious influence rested on the congrega tion; many of them wept aloud, whilst I, as the ambassador of Christ, besought them to be reconciled to God. Our Sabbath congregation continues to increase; and though by reason of war we have lost the whole of a tribe that formerly resided near us, (they being removed to another part of the country,) yet others who live near attend better than formerly; recently the spirit of hearing has indeed rested upon the people. I have lately formed a catechumens' class of five meinbers. - Sunday, August 4th. Early this morning, shields were seen moving in all directions; and upon inquiry I found that Umyeki's men were following the footmarks of cattle they had lost in the night. Fearing the consequences would be serious, I considered it my duty to interfere, though it was the Sabbath; and therefore, leaving the school to the care of Mrs. P., I rode, accompanied by the Assistant and my interpreter, after Umyeki's men. In a short time I saw a house burning, and a great number of men at a distance with cattle: we therefore left the main road, and met them in the valleys, when we found that they were Umyeki's men, who, after setting fire to the house, were returning with a large herd of cattle, together with all the plunder they could find among the Amatembu, two or three hundred of whom were following at a distance asking for their cattle. Umyeki's men had the cattle in front; and several hundreds of the men were loitering behind, singing their war-song and defying the Amatembu, by which means they had drawn them into a place where they could easily have turned round upon them and destroyed the whole; for the plundered Amatembu were so anxious about their cattle that they were quite unconscious of their danger: it was just at this time we arrived, and got between them. We endeavoured to learn, from Umyeki's men, the cause of all the disturbance; but they would not stop longer than to say, "We have lost our cattle, and these are now ours." Finding it impossible to have any explanation, we went forward with them, until we found that crossing the next rivulet, and ascending the hill immediately before us, would bring us into Umyeki's country. Seeing this, I rode forward and turned the cattle; and before Umyeki's main body came up, the men from our station arrived, into whose charge I gave the cattle, and informed Umyeki's Commander that the cattle should go with me to the station, and the news be heard to-morrow, (as we could not talk over such matters on the Sabbath,) when we would endeavour to find out the thieves and set all right. To this he consented, saying, "Yes; what you do will be right, as we found on a former occasion;" but immediately after, when the main body came up, a general muster was made by Umyeki's men, who surrounded both us and the cattle, declaring they would fight rather than allow the cattle to go. They were all prepared for action, and one man took out his assagai to stab one of the people belonging to the station; but, as this would be taken for a signal to commence, I immediately rode up to the man, succeeded in frustrating his design, and at length, after much trouble, we were permitted to take home the cattle. During the time we were contending about the cattle, the Amatembu, from a distance, collected on the hills on the one side, and Umyeki's men soon mustered on the opposite hills, so that in a short time the former amounted to between two and three thousand, and the latter to about one thousand. The Amatembu, finding themselves superior in point of number, were exceedingly anxious to make an attack; I feared that, after all, there would be a battle; and, in the midst of their songs of defiance, (as they sat on the opposite hills,) I was ready to give up all in despair. Just at this moment I thought of my dear fathers and brethren who were assembled at the Conference in London, of the thousands who surrounded the sweet singers of our Israel that morning, of the delightful harmony with which the great congregation could sing, "Lord of the world above, How pleasant and how fair," &c. When I thought of this, looked round, and heard their awful songs, I was ready to say, This is too much for me. Just then, the Assistant, (Mr. Wakeford,) to whom I mentioned my musings about the Conference, replied, "Yes; and you have an interest in all their prayers." On this I took courage, and again urged the Amatembu Captains to return: but no sooner had I succeeded with one than another with his clan would arrive, and begin to state the injury Umyeki had done him, and call out for revenge; and as soon as I had prevailed upon him to be quiet, another would arrive, saying, "Where is my father's head that Umyeki took?" and then call upon the other Captains, to remind them all of the injuries they had sustained from the same enemy;-by these means all would be roused again, and every heart burned with revenge, whilst savage rage was depicted in every countenance. However, trusting in the Lord, and remembering that many thousands would that day pray for Missionaries, I was determined to persevere; and, by the blessing of God, succeeded in prevailing upon all the Amatembu Captains to return home. It was well they did; for though no more than one thousand of Umyeki's men could be seen, yet several Captains who were his friends had assembled their men, and were behind the hill, ready to assist Umyeki, had any attack been made upon him. We arrived at home in time to have preaching in the afternoon: during the time of morning service the people had held a prayer-meeting, and in their petitions we were not forgotten. 5th.-To-day, one of the Amatembu Captains sent twelve head of Umyeki's cattle, and stated that he and some other Captains had been employed all day in discovering the thieves; adding that they had not been able to recover more yet, but in haste sent those to convince me that they did not want to make war, and also to show Umycki that his cattle would be restored. 6th, 7th, and 8th.-Nearly the whole of these days have been occupied in hearing the above case. Umyeki's men endeavoured to make their loss greater than it really was; and the various cross-examinations by the Amatembu consumed so much time that even now it is not brought to a close. Five more of the stolen cattle were returned by the same Amatembu Captain who restored the former lot. He informed me that some young men in his tribe stole the cattle, without giving any notice of their intention to do so when they left home; and that Umyeki sent him no word about the cattle, but took up his shield and plundered other persons: he therefore thanked me for my interference, and said, if I continued to interest myself in the case, it would be settled with words. It appears Umyeki's men missed their cattle, and immediately followed the footmarks; but on perceiving that it would lead them among a people they had greatly injured, and into a part of the country with which they were unacquainted, they were afraid to proceed. They therefore left that tribe, took another course, and came suddenly upon another clan of the Amatembu, not at all connected with the former, and made an attack upon one village, burned one house, stripped the women of their clothes, ornaments, &c., and then drove off all the cattle; so that the innocent were suffering, and, to all human appearance, the men would have lost their lives in foolishly following their cattle, had it not been for the interference of the Missionary: but now all has been settled in a peaceable manner, each party getting his own cattle; and they have all expressed themselves as being grateful for the interference. The goodness of God to me in this |