Micronesian Mission.

A YEAR ON RUK.

Our

By the Morning Star which arrived at Honolulu, October 25, bringing Mr. Sturges disabled, we have full letters. from Micronesia. The tidings from Mr. and Mrs. Logan, who had been nearly a year alone on Ruk, are most interesting, revealing both perils and successes. Young People's Department, to which we refer our readers young and old, sums up the news; but extracts from Mr. Logan's journal letters will be given here. Other letters from this mission, referring specially to the voyage of the Morning Star through the Gilbert group, must be put over until our next issue. The first week after the Jennie Walker left Ruk was spent in house-building - Mr. Logan being quite unused to carpentry. He wrote November 13, 1884:

"I found that I gained skill and somewhat of strength as I went on, so that I was able to accomplish two or three times as much as at first. I made some blunders, and was often at my wits' end to know what to do next and how to do it; but the Lord helped me not to get discouraged, and I always found out how to work after a while. The first evening after the ship left I began to have evening meetings with the natives, and have kept up meetings both morning and evening ever since. We begin here at very nearly the foundations, as the natives know almost nothing of religious truth. My Mortlock is not very comprehensible to them, as there are not a few different words in use here, and they have different ways of mouthing the words.

"We worked on at the house as we were able, Mrs. Logan helping about the painting and driving nails, etc. I wondered at the physical strength I possessed. I was able to work regularly day after day with only a short rest at noon. Mrs. Logan was not very well. The natives were ready to do all they could, and in

many ways could help along. We had the rooms below substantially finished the week before Christmas, and Christmas week began school. About forty came the first day. A very few knew their letters, but most of them had probably never had

a book in their hands."

A SCHOOL OPENED.

Writing March 17, 1885, Mr. Logan

says:

"Our first term of twelve weeks has closed, and we are having a vacation of two weeks. The scholars have learned very well. The majority are now masters of the alphabet, and more than half can read and spell many of the more simple words. The teaching is hard work. They are determined to learn by rote. One in a class would say over the letters, and the others repeat after him, and the same way in reading and spelling. This might seem an easy thing to break up, but after all these weeks we have only partially succeeded. They learn spelling very slowly, but we hope when some have learned others will learn a good deal out of school. Some began and soon got tired of the effort and the restraint; some clung to tobacco and had to be dismissed; but on the whole the interest and attendance have been good.

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'The house is nearly done now, and we think it is very nice and convenient.

"The little church we found here, built under the supervision of Moses, of Ponape, has been for a long time too small for the congregation, and the people are now enlarging it. The morning and evening meetings are attended by from thirty to sixty or seventy. The Sabbath congregations are from 200 to 300. The interest we think is growing healthily. At first I could not make them understand very much, but now have some fluency in speaking. Some listen earnestly. There is a training-class of twenty, of whom the greater part promise well, so that we shall

On April 11 Mr. Logan wrote: "We have had two weeks of school this new term. There are eighty-five scholars, and they are learning well. On Fridays, after roll-call at the beginning of school, we have a time for iooking over the events

of the week, and the scholars tell of any wrong thing they have done during the week. On Saturday evenings the class who are preparing for baptism confess their sins, and tell their thoughts in reference to the new life. These meetings are growing to be of great value to them. It is very interesting to watch the development of the spiritual life of these babes. Some are developing rapidly. New ideas are crowding upon them from what they see of our own lives, from the teachings of the Sabbath, and the morning and evening meetings and the school. God grant that the foundations be laid wisely and well! It is a delight to work for these people; there are many hopeful things; they make no use whatever of anything intoxicating; they do not cling tenaciously to their old superstitions; they are teachable; and they readily learn to love us. The Ponape people were quite irascible, but these people are very patient under reproof.

"We have been enlarging our church, which will now seat about 300. The bell

which the Market-street Mission Sundayschool of Oakland, Cal., sent us, we have hung, and the natives enjoy intensely listening to its clear tones. I have made a rude pulpit on which we spread a pretty stand-cloth sent by young ladies in Dr. Taylor's Broadway Tabernacle Church, New York; and on this lies a fine large Bible, the gift of Rev. John Thompson. of Oakland, Cal. So our pulpit has a pleasant appearance.

"The pupils from Uman have ventured to come back, and we hope the chief - Pokio will not molest them. The weather is pleasant. About once a week we have a heavy rain, and then clear weather. There is not too much rain to keep things growing well. We are much enjoying working up our plantation. We get on but slowly in making improvements, as we have so many other things to do; but we enjoy the work very much. Indeed we are very happy in our quiet lives; get a little time for reading every day; enjoy our school, our religious meetings, and our intercourse with our loving people. You can hardly estimate what a large place in their lives we are now filling. Of course they do not fully appreciate how much we do for them, but we are very much to them in many ways. You would be greatly amused to see the clothing in which the people come about us. The women think it perfectly proper to come with a man's shirt on, and one of our good women had for some months nothing to wear about her shoulders except an old coat."

ON THE UMAN ISLET.

"I thoroughly enjoy looking after our land. We have planted some yams, a few sweet potatoes, many bananas, much taro of several varieties, some sugarcane; and we have fine squashes and a few small tomatoes, some radishes, and also watermelons and muskmelons.

"July 15.- Last Friday I went to Uman to have a communion service. You will remember that this is Moses' station. He has labored here four years, but this year is absent at Ponape. His people

have done really well. They have kept up regular services, and there has been very little disorder or irregularity. Mrs. Logan and our daughter Beulah stayed at home and, with Esaiam's help, held all the services. I started about 8 A.M. Saturday. Mrs. Logan came down to the shore to see me off. She felt uneasy about me, as to my health; and there is some danger of being attacked, too. She, however, bravely bade me God-speed, and she and a number of the scholars sang a hymn as we pushed off. I went on a paddle-canoe, with nine natives to paddle. Our good Mortlock boy, Johnny, went along also. There was but little wind, and we had a pleasant trip. I had made arrangements to have some one climb the mountain behind the house whence our canoe could be seen until we had passed the dangerous localities, so that Mrs. Logan need not feel uneasy all the time until my return.

"I found the school in successful operation, taught by three of those who were with us at Anapano last term. It numbers nearly one hundred scholars. I had a meeting with the church after seeing the school, heard their confessions and experiences, and then, with the deacons, went over the church-roll, name by name, to settle who should be admitted to the communion. I was much pleased to find that but few needed to be excluded."

NEWS FROM THE OUTSIDe world.

Writing July 23, Mr. Logan says: — "One year ago to-day we sailed from Honolulu. Five days ago we got our first mail. The Morning Star was at Ponape the twentieth of June, and found there a schooner coming to Ruk; so Captain Bray kindly sent on our mail. Letters from mother, brothers, and sisters are opened first. No one can describe one's feelings when the silence of a year is thus to be broken. How much we have to thank God for! It is hard to go to bed at night, even when we know we must or be sick. Mr. Hall has kindly sent a large, framed picture of the Morning Star, and this has delighted the people greatly. The

schooner which brought the mail carries the American flag, and it was a delight to see the dear old flag once more. They locate a trader on the south end of Fefan. He is a white man- an American citizen, born in Sweden."

A WILLING PEOPLE.

"The morning and evening meetings are attended by from thirty to fifty. In the evening, after singing and prayer (the Lord's Prayer in concert, and prayer by two of the people), I tell a Bible story. After I have told it, I question them upon it, and then appoint one of them to tell it over the next evening. The progress made in the ability to understand and tell over again a story is very pleasant to see. Occasionally I spend a whole evening in questioning them on previous lessons. At the close I pray, we sing the doxology, and unite in concert (standing) in a closing prayer we have taught them.

"In the morning, very soon after dawn, we have singing, prayer, and then I read and explain a short passage of Scripture. I have gone over Matthew-picking out the stories mostly—and Mark, as far as Gethsemane (this morning's lesson), quite thoroughly. I first read, then explain, then question the people; and the next morning, before taking up the new lesson, I question them on the lesson of the previous morning. On Sunday we have a sermon at 9 A.M., then Sundayschool; and at 3 P.M. another service, at which Mrs. Logan takes the women, and I the men, separately, and question on the sermon quite thoroughly. We give out very little which we do not try to get back. Thus I am helped to get down to their understandings, and they are helped in many ways. At first we could have no Sunday-school, as no one could read except our two Mortlock boys, but now we have about 150 scholars in thirteen classes. Mrs. Logan gets the teachers together twice a week, and helps them to learn and understand the lesson.

"In school we have six who have begun to read in the Testament and a dozen others who will be able to commence in it

The books

by the close of another term. prepared in the Mortlock language are of untold value. It is a great stimulus to the scholars to feel that there are other books beyond the primer all ready for them.

"It is exceedingly encouraging to watch the growth of the people in knowledge and in right living. One thing is very hopeful the people are utterly without intoxicants of any kind. Toddy, from cocoa-sap, is very easily made; but the people throw it away when it ferments, thinking it is spoiled. This seems strange, as they will eat fish after they smell so badly as nearly to knock one over. Doubtless white men will some time teach them to drink, as they have at the Marshall Islands; but at any rate the gospel is here first."

valuable silver mines and newly erected fifty-stamp mill of a company of Boston capitalists, whose expenditures for labor and materials are the chief support of a native population of about two thousand. To this point, a year ago, I journeyed with horse and cart, carrying two boxes of Bibles, Testaments, and Gospels, with miscellaneous books and tracts, hoping to find a sale for them there and in another town seventy-five miles further on in this great state of the border, whose area is almost equal to that of New York and Pennsylvania combined. But in the first two days all the copies of the Scriptures were disposed of, and further travel in that direction had to be postponed. This surprising result indicated greater freedom from Roman fanaticis:n and independence

THE LEAVEN AT WORK.

MR. EATON sends the following communication from Chihuahua :

"About eighty miles west of this city, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains, is the mining town of Cosihuiriachic, often shortened familiarly to 'Cóosi.' The most direct road leads through a picturesque cañon, whose rocky sides exhibit to the imagination a wonderful succession of towers, buttresses, battlements, and complete castles built on the frowning heights, and which is traversed by a clear stream of water that the traveler must ford some thirty times in his winding course of ten or twelve miles. Very impressive is it to enter the town at the close of the day, when the gathering gloom indicates late nightfall, while a glance upward reveals a sky yet bright with sunlight, and solemn mountain heights on either hand suffused with the warm glow of approaching sunset. Here are the

be met with in this land, especially in case of the more retired towns, and gave promise of good success in the gospel.

Six months later, our newly engaged colporter was sent into the region, and at once reported large sales, with various individuals already interested in the truth through their unguided reading, and asking to know the way of God more perfectly. About this time also, there returned to her home in Cóosi' a widowed mother accompanied by son and daughter, who had spent a year in the city of Chihuahua, where the son heard the gospel and, through diligent reading and constant attendance upon our meetings, was led to accept it as true. His mother and sister, as they now confess, had on various occasions accompanied the young man to the doors of our chapel and, not venturing to enter the forbidden place, had waited outside in the street to listen to the services. But they avoided making the acquaintance of the missionary when he was seen to approach their little place of business.

"Now mark the change! The missionary and his wife and son, not omitting the horse, have just been entertained for three days by this family, at their own urgent wish, and with every possible attention. Our foreign tastes were politely consulted;