In  1849,  we  have  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Walpole,  who  arrived
after  the  epoch  of  persecution  had  come  to  an  end.  After
describing  the  Protestant  church,  he  says,  "  In  the  town  now
stands  a  Roman  Catholic  cathedral,"  the  building  of  which  Sir
George  Simpson  had  marked  the  rapid  progress ;  "  and  I  much
fear  the  congregation  of  the  one  tends  daily  more  and  more  to  the
other.  Of  the  Abbe,  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  Roman  Church
here,  no  eulogy  would  be  too  high.  Their  schools  are  excellent,

and  they  invite  scrutiny They  have  now  about  twelve

thousand  converts  /  one  hundred  schools;  three  thousand  pupils.
Most  earnestly  is  it  to  be  hoped,  that  by  strict  purifi-
cation of  themselves^  and  more  strenuous  exertions  towards  the
natives,  the  teachers  of  the  pure  Gospel  will  endeavor  to  regain
the  ground  they  have  lost."f

And  now  we  have  heard  enough  of  the  Sandwich  Islands.
Here  was  the  result  of  thirty  years  of  Protestant  effort,  and  to
this  bitter  humiliation, — the  scorn  and  compassion  of  their  own
friends, — the  "  teachers  of  the  pure  Gospel,"  as  Mr.  Walpole
calls  them,  had  come  at  last.  "  In  this  single  island,"  says  a
Catholic  missionary, — and  after  hearing  so  many  Protestant  wit-
nesses, we  may  well  claim  to  listen  to  one  at  least  of  our  own, —
'•'  more  than  live  thousand  persons  have,  within  twelve  months,
forsaken  the  ways  of  error  to  follow  those  of  truth."  And  then


*  California,  p.  244.
f  Oh.  xi.,  p.  249.    Cl  The  Natural  History  of  the  Varieties  of  Man,  by  R.  G.
M.D.,  p.  201.
