Torringford, and was placed under the "care of those whose benevolence was without a bond or check, or a limit to confine it." Here he spent a part of the year 1810, and was treated wisely and affectionately. Mrs. Mills taught him the Catechism, and her son Jeremiah assisted him in his studies. At different times, and frequently, their house was his home.

He became gentle and refined in his manner, a Bible-loving, earnest, prayerful Christian. His friends who had been so careful in the training of his mind and heart, had not neglected his hands. He was taught much that was useful and practical, particularly in farming. He surprised all by the quickness and eagerness with which he learned. He was both inquisitive and acquisitive to a remarkable degree. He persisted in knowing and getting, that he might impart what he had gained to his own countrymen. To return to them for their enlightenment, was his consuming desire.

He visited many families, and many of the churches of New England, always creating a deep interest in his mission. Many people who had affirmed that the heathen could never be reclaimed from their low estate, were forced to change their opinions after seeing and knowing Obookiah, and were inspired to pray and give for his and other unevangelized races.

The presence of Obookiah in this country, as well as of other heathen youth, together with the desire to educate some of our own Indians, led to the formation of the Foreign Mission School, at Cornwall, Mass. This school was under the care of the American Board ten years. Its pupils were from many different nations. In 1826 it was discontinued, for by this time the missions were able to educate the young at their several stations.

Obookiah was pursuing his studies here, when, in the beginning of the year 1818, he was stricken with typhus fever, and suffered several weeks. On the 17th of February, 1818, he shook hands with all his companions present, and with perfect composure addressed to them the parting salutation of his native language, "Alloah ò e"—"my love be with you."

Mrs. Stone, in whose house he died, and who cared for him with Christian kindness during his sickness, said, "This had been one of the happiest and most profitable periods of her life; that she had been more than rewarded for her cares and watchings by day and night, in being permitted to witness his excellent example, and to hear his godly conversation."

Almost immediately after his death, missionaries, inspired by his life, hastened to accomplish his cherished purpose, the establishment of a mission in the Sandwich Islands. Mills was far from home, but returning at the time, not knowing Obookiah had died, he said to a friend, "If it please God that I may arrive safely, I think that I shall take Obookiah and go to the Sandwich Islands and there I will end my life."

From that day to this, missionaries and missions, schools, churches and Christians have multiplied, till all those islands name the name of Christ.

CHAPTER IV.

The missionaries found upon these islands naked savages, without books, education, or courts of justice. The people were slaves, governed arbitrarily by chiefs. It was a nation of debauchees, thieves and drunkards. There were no marriage laws. Two-thirds of the children born were destroyed. If an infant was ailing or troublesome, the mother scooped a hole in the ground, covered the child with earth and trampled out its life. The aged and infirm were taken to the brow of a precipice and pushed over. The sick were removed to such a distance that their groans could not annoy, and left to die. The insane were stoned to death.

God opened the way for the missionaries by a revolution which did away with idolatry, but did nothing for the uplifting of society. Some of the noblest specimens of our American manhood have devoted their lives to these desolate, far-away creatures. The mention of one will suffice as a sample of the salt that purified those bitter and filthy waters.

When he stepped on shore at Hilo, in 1832, it was to stay till his work was finished—and he lived beyond the three score and ten. Such a life is a rebuke to the restlessness of many modern workers. For forty-two years he labored patiently in pressing himself and what he knew upon Hawaiian youth—nearly a thousand in all—many of whom are now pastors, leading lawyers, men of affairs, missionaries to Micronesia, and the men who stand for righteousness in the native churches. Great events and advances in science were exciting his native land, but he worked on, struggling for things unseen and eternal. Amid uninspiring surroundings, and performing many menial duties, he led a high spiritual and intellectual life, not seeking honor, but service—thereby gaining honor, and the "rest that remaineth."

As for the results of such consecration, wisdom and work, the facts are a marvel in history. Any prophecy in regard to them would have been thought a wild dream. These islanders have taken their place among the Christian nations. Marriage is considered honorable, the family established, as well as schools, churches and a government, whose constitution ordains that "no law shall be enacted at variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or with the general spirit of His word."

In proportion to the population, there are more readers than in Boston. The proportion of true Christians is as great as anywhere in Christendom. They are decently clad, their homes are comfortable, even sometimes going so far as to possess a melodeon and a sewing-machine! They have progressed in agriculture, commerce, the industries, literature and the arts. It is a regenerated nation.

The American Board has erased this mission from its list and transferred all responsibility to the Hawaiian Evangelical Association.

CHAPTER V.

From Yale College, Mills went to Andover to study theology. Soon after entering, his dear mother died. His grief was passionate. He mourned for the loss of her face, her voice, her prayers, but not as one "without hope."

At Andover he met some of his former friends, and found new ones whose hearts the Lord had stirred—Newell, Judson, Nott, Hall, Mills! Names to shout at the sleeping saints of this our day! Lives to uphold to the view of our self-pleasing generation! These men organized a second missionary society, similar to the one at Williams. They met to pray and plan. Their prayers were answered and their plans resulted in the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

If the objections made to their plans were here rehearsed, the arguments would sound very familiar; they are the same, in spite of their repeated death-blows, that array themselves against the plan of missions to-day. The assailants of this cause are not students of history. There is no such thing as opposition, or even indifference, to Christian missions, unless there is ignorance behind it.

These young men succeeded in gaining the sympathy and alliance of some of the prominent pastors, and the professors in the seminary. To the annual meeting of the General Association of Massachusetts, at Bradford, June 27, 1810, they presented the following paper:

The undersigned, members of the Divinity College, respectfully request the attention of their Reverend Fathers, convened in the General Association at Bradford, to the following statement and inquiries:

They beg leave to state, that their minds have been long impressed with the duty and importance of personally attempting a mission to the heathen; that the