A Memoir of the Rev. Richard Davis for Thirty-nine Years a Missionary in New Zealand

been corrected. They are exhibited in that state in which it is believed Mr. Davis would have wished them to appear, had he himself prepared them for the press. The arrangement, selection, and transcription have required intense labour, and occupied very much time. But the preparation of this Memoir, to which I feel the providence of God has called me, has brought with it its own reward, has been profitable to my own soul, and has recalled to recollection mercies, and persons, and scenes long passed away, but ever to memory dear.

Mr. Davis is his own biographer. His religious experience, from his first conviction of sin until death was swallowed up in victory, and his missionary operations in New Zealand for thirty-nine years, are detailed entirely in his own language. His letters and journal speak for themselves." His own works praise him in the gates." He needeth no eulogy. Few will read his practical application of the parable of the sower (page 25) without profit and edification. His missionary operations exhibit a graphic portraiture of the New Zealanders in their cannibalism and savage barbarism-of NATIVE SUPERSTITIONS, NATIVE ATROCITIES, NATIVE DISEASES, NATIVE REMEDIES, NATIVE COOKING, NATIVE FORTIFICATIONS, and of THE DEDICATION TO THE DEVIL OF MAORI INFANTS BY NATIVE BAPTISM -in his time universal, now rapidly passing into oblivion. They present an accurate delineation of the population of the Northern Island, and of the progress of the Church

Mission therein, from 1824 to 1863. Each successive event is detailed in vivid colours, fresh in the writer's mind, without concealment of the adverse, or undue amplification of the prosperous. They demonstrate the total inefficiency of the mission as long as the axe and hoe were relied on as the best missionaries (page 106), and its gradual expansion and victorious triumph, from the North Cape to Cook's Strait, when the banner of the Cross was unfurled, and it was determined to know nothing among the Maoris but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

His anticipation of evil results from European civilisation to the Maori race, whom he so dearly loved, and of the probability of their ultimate excision thereby, evidences his penetration and foresight of the future. His anticipation now seems in course of progressive fulfilment. A dark cloud looms over the future of New Zealand. May God avert the impending evil, and restore peace and tranquillity to the distracted colony!

It is the intention of the family to translate the substance of this Memoir into Maori, and to print this translation for circulation among the natives, who venerate the memory of the Rev. Richard Davis, and love the children for their father's sake.

A copy of this Memoir (the proof-sheets of which were revised in the sick-chamber of a beloved wife, now no more, whose name occurs so prominently in the letters of Mr. Davis addressed to me) will be presented to each of

his nine children and forty-two grandchildren, whereby they will learn many facts and conflicts of his early life, with which they are now imperfectly, if at all, acquainted. May God bless it to their edification!

As Mr. Davis in his letters repeatedly acknowledges how greatly he had been edified by the religious experience of those who were in Christ before him, so it is hoped that his experience may edify many readers, as well as his own descendants, and greatly promote a missionary spirit.

If the gracious providence of God has enabled me to be instrumental in the smallest degree to the missionary usefulness of Mr. Davis, or if this Memoir should, by the Divine blessing, promote the progress of the Gospel at home or abroad, I shall neither have lived in vain, nor laboured in vain. To God be all the glory.

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