to land they would bewitch him and his people, and he had determined to protect himself from harm.
"Numerous instances of the demoralizing effects of commerce, when controlled by bad men, can be given. The missionaries were the first to occupy Polynesia, when traders could not venture there; some of 
JOHN WESLEY, THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM. these good men lost their lives, but the work of taming the savages went on until commerce could follow in their footsteps. You might naturally expect that commerce would be grateful, but such is far from being the case."
Then the conversation turned upon the history of missionary efforts in the South Pacific from the opening enterprise of the London Mission near the end of the last century. Frank and Fred made copious notes on the subject from the books within their reach, and the information supplied by the Doctor, and from these notes they subsequently condensed the following interesting story:
The London Missionary Society was formed in 1795 by zealous men of different denominations; the call for the first meeting was signed by eighteen Independent clergymen, seven Presbyterian, three Wesleyan (Methodist), and three Episcopal, and the assemblage was held September 22d of that year. The islands of the Pacific were then attracting attention in consequence of the mutiny of the Bounty and the death of Captain Cook, and they were selected as the first field of operations.
Many young men offered themselves as missionaries, and of all the number of applicants twenty-nine were selected. The first delegation landed on Tahiti March 4, 1797, and formed the first mission of the Society. From that beginning the South Seas have been gradually covered with missions, and the Society has pushed its work into other fields
