’The Bishop had just come back from a week’s journeying with William in his boat.  They had been to Santa Maria, Vanua Lava, and Saddle Island; the weather was bad, but the Bishop, although he is tired, does not think he is any the worse for his knocking about.  He is not at all well; he is in low spirits, and has lost almost all his energy.  He said, while talking about the deportation of islanders to Fiji, that he didn’t know what was to be done; all this time had been spent in preparing teachers qualified to teach their own people, but now when the teachers were provided, all the people were taken away.  The extent to which the carrying off of the natives has gone is startling.  It certainly is time for us to think what is to be done next.  I do not think that it is an exaggerated estimate, others would say it is under the mark, that one half the population of the Banks Islands over ten years of age have been taken away.  I am trying not to expect anything about the Solomon Islands before we are there, but we have heard that several vessels have cargoes from there.  If the people have escaped a little longer for their wildness, it will not be for long.

’The Bishop still remained at Mota, while I went back to the Solomon Islanders.  The cliffs of Mota, and perhaps the intelligence of the people, had comparatively protected it, though Port Patteson had become a station of the “labour ships.”  The village of Kohimarama was not a disappointment.’

Bishop Patteson proceeds:—­

’Things are very different.  I think that we may, without danger, baptize a great many infants and quite young children—­so many parents are actually seeking Christian teaching themselves, or willing to give their children to be taught.  I think that some adults, married men, may possibly be baptized.  I should think that not less than forty or fifty are daily being taught twice a day, as a distinct set of Catechumens.  Besides this, some of the women seem to be in earnest.

’About two hours and a half are spent daily by me with about twenty-three grown-up men.  They come, too, at all hours, in small parties, two or three, to tell their thoughts and feelings, how they are beginning to pray, what they say, what they wish and hope, &c.

’There is more indication than I ever saw here before of a “movement,” a distinct advance, towards Christianity.  The distinction between passively listening to our teaching, and accepting it as God’s Word and acting upon it, seems to be clearly felt.  I speak strongly and habitually about the necessity of baptism.  “He that believeth, and is baptized” &c.  Independently of the doctrinal truth about baptism, the call to the heathen man to take some step, to enter into some engagement, to ally himself with a body of Christian believers by some distinct act of his own, needing careful preparation, &c., has a meaning and a value incalculably great.

’"Yes, Jesus is to us all a source of pardon, light, and life, all these treasures are in Him.  But he distributes these gifts by His Spirit in His appointed ways.  You can’t understand or receive the Gospel with a heart clinging to your old ways.  And you can’t remake your hearts.  He must do it, and this is His way of doing it.  You must be born again.  You must be made new men.”