CHAPTER IV.

THE MISSIONARY--SUSPICIONS, SURPRISES, AND SURMISES.


Sandy Cove was a small settlement, inhabited partly by native converts
to Christianity, and partly by a few European traders, who, having found
that the place was in the usual track of South-Sea whalers, and
frequently visited by that class of vessels as well as by other ships,
had established several stores or trading-houses, and had taken up their
permanent abode there.

The island was one of those the natives of which were early induced to
agree to the introduction of the gospel. At the time of which we write,
it was in that transition state which renders the work of the missionary
one of anxiety, toil, and extreme danger, as well as one of love.

But the Rev. Frederick Mason was a man eminently fitted to fill the post
which he had selected as his sphere of labor. Bold and manly in the
extreme, he was more like a soldier in outward aspect than a missionary.
Yet the gentleness of the lamb dwelt in his breast and beamed in his
eye; and to a naturally indomitable and enthusiastic disposition was
added burning zeal in the cause of his beloved Master.

Six years previous to the opening of our tale, he had come to Sandy Cove
with his wife and child, the latter a girl of six years of age at that
time. In one year death bereaved the missionary of his wife, and, about
the same time, war broke out in the island between the chiefs who clung