The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1901-11-06
MR.. CELL IN TONGA.

to If around the world and visiting the mis-
so1ary stations etc He writes from Tonga,
as fOllowsJ
Mr.. Wright, the most prominent
business man in the kingdom Of Ton
ga, has Just called to present petit
ton to me, signed by the British
Consul aud all the strongest traders,
Of all shades of religions faith and no
faith at all, asking me to deliver lee
lures similar to those given in FIJI,
that is, evangelistic discourses. The
king has also sent word that the
House Of Parliament is at my dis
p1sal. This is n great honor, for
never before in the history of the
kingdom has the Parliament building
been used except for the sessions of
the Mobiles and Commons. The mis-
sionaries are all very anxious to have
me conduct services, aud the traders
propose to send runners out to notify
all traders and others understanding
English to attend. ! am sending this
letter without waiting to report the
meetings because il will not be
possible for me To attend to il after
wards and before the steamer dcpalts
with me 10 Auckland md the Abort
ginat inhabitants Of TINT country.
For the first time in my journey
| find The Roman Catholics are Iii
minishing in numbers. They have
u,a1a ,,root a f1',rta Ia 90 ,t,,ro tho Tnn
cams and have had some success. In
deed find there is revival of energy
among the Catholics everywhere, and
it would be well for Protestants to
take notice. The Tongans are the
proudest and shrewdest and best
scholars of all the Polynesians. They
walk erect, are great Observation-Disclosures,
and give as much as 800, 900 n year
for religious purposes. That is good
for Il population Of little over 10000
all told. There are 23i churches, Gs
ministers and 9,74s full members. This
gives half the population members of
church and, when the children are re-
WONDERED, nearly all the grown people
belong to church. The Roman Gatho-
lies have 2300 members and while they
have made some proselytes among the
whites they have lost among the brown
people. 1t is not easy to fool the Ton
gan. On one occasion priest snid to
the congregation, 'You should be
very thankful to the Virgin Mary for
personally bringing down from lIea-
ven the waters for the sacrament. A
native said to himself | will see about
that These natives have wonderful
power to remain awake at nights; in
deed while coming on the steamer
passengers found fault because they
were singing at NIL times during the
night, and watched the priestly
grounds. Near four o'clock one morn
ing he saw some one moving about the
priests cook house and watched care
fully until he saw him make the waf-
ers That was enough for him, and
he left the church. The missionaries
fonnd it necessary to exercise great
caution that they be not misnnder
stood, but it ia satisfaction to work
among such n class of people.
The Tongans have sent away for re-
igious work in other lands some
years as much as 5000 pounds sterling.
The island Of Navau, one of the Ton
gan group, was recently visited by n
terrific hurricane this is in the huri-
cane belt) and demolished the cocoa
nut crop, aud the drought that fol
lowed used mp the yams and yet there
wns no begging while | was there and
no extra effort was made to sell me
anything, which under the eireum
stances would have been excusable,
but they will suffer aud not complain.
At ever, turn one sees the marvel
lous change wrought since the hump
back preacher come from islands away
to the East and preached after the
white missionaries had been mas
sacred and the remaining ones had
left. Then it was revenge, crime and
violence; now these chimneyless
houses have family prayer each day,
and send their missionaries whore the
white man can hardly stay. Not only
does the Tongan support his own
christian work but sends plentifully to
other countries. The native pastors
are better paid here than in other
places where | have visited. They
| receive from 40 to so pounds year.
That is very good for here, and be-
sides each has manse, a plot of
| for yams.
The little money expended by white
| christians for the converting of these
South Sea Islanders has been many
times repaid in contributions to the
Masters work in other islands, and
again am compelled by facts to say
that missions pay. In 1890 murder,
robbery, and in some cases cannibal-
ism awaited the unlucky person who
was east upon these shores. What a
change today, Going as ! did into II
native hut Mt shutdown, because il was
too far to reach Nukualofa that night
with tired horse, without even ask
ing who these two strange men were,
we were treated to seat on the best
mats sat crosslegged while little
pig was killed and roasted and the
vans dug out without the hands touch
ing them and cooked. Then with n
lamp without a chimney on mat be-
fore us and two dishes. the only
ones they owned one full of yams,
the other filed with dainty portions
of roast pig, we had n blessing asked
and then with right hand fingers en-
ployed with pig, and left hand full of
yams, we ate hearty meal without
salt or drink save only MS n lad went
to cocoanut tree, climbed it, knocked
~ UnnI lrinls,prs mt hnllpl n ont