The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-08-24
The Rev. William Ellis.

On last Sabbath evening we had the pleasure of
listening to 4 very interesting sketch by Rev.
Dir. Damon, of the life and labors of the Rev.
VIM. Ellis, who, as we learn by the latest Euro
pean papers, died at his residence, Rose Hill,
IIoddesdale, Herts, England, on Sabbath morning
the 9th OF June, after n very short sickness, at
the age of seventy-seyen years.
This truly great Apostolic Missionary of the
10Th century, was one of the trio of English
Missionaries whose names the Christian world
will not willingly allow to pass into oblivion, viz:
Williamson, the Apostle of the South Seas and
Martyr of Eromonga Moliatt, the African Mis-
sionary and Explorer, and the Rev. VIM. Ellis,
the Apostle of Madagascar.
Mr.. Ellis visited the Society Islands in Febru-
airy, 1917, being then only twenty-one years of
age. To him belongs the honor of putting up
and working the first printing press in the Pacific,
the first impression being struck off on the 10th
Of June, 1917.
VI Five years afterwards Mr.. Ellis visited these
Islands, and assisted Messrs. Bingham, Tlurston,
hnd Whitney, in organizing the chaotic elements
of the Hawaiian language and society. Mr.. Ellis
preached the first sermon in the Hawaiian Ian
guage, wrote the first hymn, and baptized the
first convert, the mother of the then Teigning
King and his successor, besides writing the first
published sketch of q visit to, and description of,
the great crater of Kilauea, on Hawaii.
Mr.. Ellis remained on the Islands something
less than three years. yet during that time he ac-
complished an amount of good which will forever
identify his name with the pioneer American
Missionaries to these Islands.
lie wrote many hymns in Hawaiian, most of
IL a. - H. 1900 I...~ oT l-..,
just published and he will always live in the
hearts and minds of this people as long as there
shall be any left to praise God in the many songs
left them by this Apostle.
His "Polynesian Researches is a work
showing much research in the realms of natural
as well as mental science, and his evident knowl-
edge of Botany, Ethnology, Language and other
sciences show that he was able to make them
render useful service in the great cause in which
he was engaged.
Mr.. Ellis returned to England by way of Amer
lea, and on arriving at his home spent several
years IN preparing his great work on Polynesia.
He also wrote and published the history of the
London Missionary Society, of which, for seven
years he was the Foreign Secretary, from its
origin at the close of the 18th century, down to
the year 1895.
In 1853 Mr.. Ellis was sent by the Society to
Madagascar to examine and report upon the con-
dition of affairs on that island, and before he
returned to England he visited the island three
times and embodied his observations in q volume
entitled 80 Three Visits to Madagascar a volume
that We commend to all our readers.
Again in 1867 he revisited Madagascar, This
time to rear again the cross Of Christ amongst
the people, the cruel Queen who had striven to
extinguish the lamp of life in her dominions,
having died, and been succeeded by her son.
Radama H., who welcomed the Missionaries back
again. In all his literary labors Mr. Ellis was
encouraged and aided by his second wife, who,
like himself, had written much, and from whom
at his death he was but 4 little while divided,
she dying a few days after his decease. To the
last Mr.. Ellis was an indefatigable worker, and
his name and works will long survive in the
annals Of the church, and its Missionary efforts
in the . isles of the sea-"