Heroes of the South Seas

until he had accomplished his object. After John Williams had returned to Raiatea he immediately set about preparations for a voyage to the Samoan Islands, which had not yet been reached by the gospel. This was a plan that he had long had in mind, and now, with the help of the Messenger of Peace, he meant to carry it out. The Samoan Islands were about two thousand miles away, but that fact did not take the courage and the determination out of John Williams. Difficulty and danger seemed only to make him more resolute and more daring. Before going to Samoa he visited the Her- vey Islands, although they were out of his course. He stopped first at Mangaia, to whichtwo teachers had been sent after Mr. Williams' first call at that island five or six years before, and the good missionary was delighted to be welcomed by about five hundred Christians, the results of the work of these men. These converts had cut off their hair. The heathen wear long hair, but as the Christians wear their hair short it had come to be a kind of first step in giving up heathenism to bring the length of the locks down to that of those of the white men. In speaking of any one who had accepted the Christian religion the natives were wont to say, " Such a one has cut his hair." So John Williams felt sure of the sincerity of the people of Mangaia because they had been willing to make this sacrifice in order to be as much as possible like the Christians. At Atui, where he next landed, a ...