WILLIAMS, Jane, a celebrated missionary, was born at Tottenham, London, June 29, 179G. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to an ironmonger, and during his appren ticeship, displayed a great taste for mechanics, and acquired a knowledge of mechanical arts, which he afterward turned to great account. Having become deeply religious, he offered himself to the Loudon missionary society as a missionary to the South seas. He was ordained in 1816, and sent to Eimeo, one of the Society islands. Two months after his arrival, he was able to preach to the people in their native tongue. From Erne°, he soon went to Hualleine, and afterward to Raiatea, the largest of the Society group. His labors here were attended with great success; the island becameChristian, and the arts and habits of civilization were introduced along with Christianity. Wher ever Williams went, he not only preached the gospel, but instructed the people the arts, so as to elevate them from their state cf barbarism. At Raiatea, he heard of Rara tonga, the chief of the Hervey islands, and thither he went in 1823. The mission Nvilich he founded there was eminently successful; not only Raratonga but the whole group of the Hervey islands being Christianized. In his missionary work, Williams made great use of native teachers, trained by himself. He translated the New Testament into the Raratongau language, and prepared books for the schools which he established. After some time in Raratonga, he wished to return to Raiatea: but the island in which he lived lay out of the way of vessels, and he resolved to build one. He made
all the necessary tools, and in about 15 weeks completed the vessel itself, a boat CO ft. long, and 18 wide, the sails of native matting, the cordage of the bark of the Hibiscus, the oakum of cocoa-nut husks and banana stumps. In this vessel, during the next four years, lie visited many of the South sea islands, extending his missionary labors to the Samoa islands. In 1834 he came to England, where he remained for nearly four years, during which he procured the. publication of his Raratougan New Testament by the Bible society, and raised £4,000 for the purchase and outfit of a missionary-ship for Polynesia. In 1838 he returned to the chosen sphere of his labors, visited many of the islands, and finally the New Hebrides, where he hoped to plant a mission, but was killed, Nov. 20, 1839, and most of his body eaten by the savage natives of Erroinanga, on the shores of which he had landed. His death was the occasion of great lamentation in the islands which owed to him their Christianization and civilization. Williams was remarkably successful as a missionary, not only by his own preaching, but through the instrumentality of natives whom he trained. He possessed in an extraordinary degree the power of organizing. His mechanical skill and genius were also of great service, and no other missionary has ever been so successful in making the progress of civiliza tion attend upon the progress of Christianit7.