Here was a disappointing beginning for these earnest young people!  At first it seemed quite probable they would not even be allowed to land; and though permission was after a time obtained, yet in six weeks they were told they must go elsewhere, as they would not be permitted to settle.

A few days later, however, the prospect brightened.  “We have obtained leave,” writes Mrs. Newell, “to go to the Isle of France (Mauritius).  We hear that the English Governor there favours missions; that a large field of usefulness is there opened—­18,000 inhabitants ignorant of Jesus.  Is not this the station that Providence has designed for us?  A door is open wide.  Shall we not enter and help the glorious work?”

But it was by her influence alone that she was permitted to engage in the work her heart longed for.  On the journey to Mauritius rapid consumption set in, and day by day she became weaker.

Although she felt at first a natural disappointment that she would not be allowed to labour in the mission field, she was able to look upward in her hour of trial and to say:  “Tell my friends I never regretted leaving my native land for the cause of Christ.  God has called me away before we have entered on the work of the mission, but the case of David affords me comfort.  I have it in my heart to do what I can for the heathen, and I hope God will accept me.”

On the 30th November, 1812, at the early age of nineteen, Harriet Newell passed away.

Might not many a one justly ask, was not her life a failure?  And the answer, based on the experience and results of what her life and death accomplished, is No—­emphatically No!

For her example produced a wave of religious life and missionary enthusiasm in America, the like of which has hardly ever been known.

The very fact of this whole-hearted girl giving up her life for the cause of Christ, and the pathos of her untimely end, did more to touch the hearts of multitudes than perhaps the most apparently successful accomplishment of her mission would have done.

A MARTYR OF THE SOUTH SEAS.

THE MORNING AND EVENING OF BISHOP PATTESON’S LIFE.

John Coleridge Patteson was born in April, 1827.  He was blessed with an upright and good father, and a loving and gentle mother; and thus his early training was calculated to make him the earnest Christian man he afterwards became.

Here is an extract from a letter written from school at the age of nine, which shows that he had faults and failings to overcome just like all other boys:—­

“My dear papa, I am very sorry for having told so many falsehoods, which Uncle Frank has told mama of.  I am very sorry for having done so many bad things—­I mean falsehoods—­and I heartily beg your pardon; and Uncle Frank says that he thinks if I stay, in a month’s time Mr. Cornish will be able to trust me again....  He told me that if I ever told another falsehood he should that instant march me into the school and ask Mr. Cornish to strip and birch me ... but I will not catch the birching.”