The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-07-23
THE MARSHALL ISLANDS.

Il
The Morning Star made her trip
through the Marshal group in Septem-
Der last, having on board Or. and Mrs
Rife. DR.. Pease and Misses Palmer and
Crosby. DIR. Pease, it will be remem-
bered. went down on the Star last year,
principally for the purpose of making
this tour through the group with which
he was so well acquainted. He thus
summarizes the situation:
2 1.-The last year has been the most
fruitful yet known, over 400 additions
having been made to the churches. At
no point is there any symptom of retro
erosion. The workers are earnest and
hopeful, and harmony prevails every
where. At Mejij, Mile and EbOn the
most striking changes were manifest in
the line of progress. Those islands
seem to be what Christian chief said
of one of them, New islands. During
the past year their contributions have
been enough to a little more than pay
the salaries of all the preachers and
teachers. This they have done out of
their deep poverty, and notwithstand-
ing the exorbitant taxes imposed on
them. The attitude of the German
Commissioner continues to be friendly,
and he seems disposed to help us so far
as he can. Of course all the petty trad
ers get their cue from him and are also
apparently friendly. The translation of
the w. G. T. u. Temperance Catechism'
which was circulated on our cruise
through the islands-has already caus-
ed quite d sensation. The tobacco vend-
ers are naturally indignant and have
complained to the Commissioner, but
don't suppose their objections will
count for much with him or any one
else. The Christian natives were all
glad to get it,
From the more detailed report of the
trip, given by DIR. Rife, we print the fol-
lowing extracts:
Reaching Jaluij on Monday, Septem-
Der 9, we dined with the German Com
missioner and went to the mission sta
ton in the afternoon. The next day we
took our old standby, JEREMIAH on
board and sailed for Ebon. We found
the work here prosperous, with an adj
dition of ninety-nine church members
The people are very 10th to part with
their head teacher, Lejilarik, but we
feel that we must have him for Mejuro
a large and populous island, where La
MEN, our only teacher, had disappoint-
ed us. We next went to Mile, where we
found Josef and Loktop doing good
work, though there was scarcity of
food. Food is here usually plentiful,
but when we asked them about it this
year they replied that there was 'ka-
nuij ejolok,' which literally means very
none. Loktop, while taking me off to
the Star one day about noon, said that
the day before he had eaten a cocoanut
and a little breadfruit, but on that day
he had eaten nothing. Mrs. Rife soon
saw that he had one good meal at least
When there is sufficient food the peo-
pie usually come to the village where
the mission is, to attend school, but
when there is scarcity many of them
must go to their homes to try to find
food. and those who remain are so
hungry that they cannot study. In
spite of the famine here, they raised
$109 contribution.
I'VE were somewhat anxious to reach
Mejuro and to learn of the work there
We were very agreeably surprised,
Christian chief, had preached on Sun
days and kept up the contributions,
while another man had attempted to
get the school together Tomas and
Reijok had been over from Arno at
two different times and had received
fifty-One into the church. So the work
of God had gone forward in spite of the
opposition of Satan. We left Lejilarik
and LemOjin at the mission station.
and lie Iberik, the chief who has been
two years at Kusaie, to begin work at
the other end of the island.
I'VE next went to Arno, at the west
end of which Tomas and Lejurlon,
whom we left last year, are holding the
fort. The high chief here lost one of
his two wives during the year, and
have hopes that he will soon become a
Christian. He has always been friendly
to the teachers, and when they were
left there he said that if he had food
they also should have some. One would |
think from his appearance that he was
never hungry more than a few hours
at time.
Our next stop was with Raijok He
said that the people had very little food
and on this account there were not
nearly so many in the school as during
the previous year.
From there We went to Aur, where
Nabunbun had forsaken his flock. They
had been visited occasionally by the
teachers from Malwonlap, but had had
no school. There had, however, been
an accession of fifteen to their COM
paratiVely small church. We went
ashore early in the morning here and
held meeting, so that we might reach |
the same day Laiken. an
other student whom We left last year.
had been caring Tor Malwonlap and
Aur as best he could during part of the |