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MERCIFUL PRESERVATION.

He had delivered us from them. Then, indeed, we trembled to look back upon our very escapes, so signally was his good hand discovered—not when He stretched it forth, but as He withdrew it, after having accomplished our rescue. For example ;-it was not till three days after our arrival here, that one of our crew, bathing and diving under our little bark, perceived that the rudder had broken two of the hinges or pivots on which it turned. Had the third yielded we must have drifted over the trackless ocean, till we had been carried to some friendly port, wrecked on some hideous reef, had foundered in the fathomless abyss, or perished for want of food; wood and water had actually failed when we reached Rurutu-and our vessel might have been cast (as native canoes on these seas occasionally have been) upon some barbarous coast, with "all dead men" on board.

Our friends at Huahine, both Europeans and natives, havę been overwhelmed with joy, astonishment, and thankfulness, to learn the extraordinary circumstances of our late unintended visit to the Sandwich Islands, and those blessed results, on which we may confidently calculate, in the establishment of Christianity there.

Oct. 15. The people presented Captain Kent, of the Mermaid, with what is called a feeding here, in consideration of his attention to us, on our late voyages with him to and from the North Pacific. This feeding consisted of six large hogs, a great quantity of cocoa-nuts, some bread-fruit, and other presents of native growth or manufacture.

Oct. 16. At Mr. Barff's we held a long conversation on the importance of establishing a seminary in one of these islands for the education of native youths, expressly for the Missionary work, as there is likely to be a great demand for such to carry the gospel to stations unvisited yet by