Eighteen years had passed since Mr. Williams formed the first conception of that important embassy upon which he had now embarked. If the reader will turn to the notices of his reluctant residence at Sydney in 1822, he will find there its outline sketched by his own pen. And every page of his subsequent history shows that this was not a mere brilliant illusion, originating in youthful ardour and unreflecting zeal, which delay and disappointment would moderate, if not destroy; but a project wisely formed, and well founded upon calculations which experience would confirm, and principles which time would only mature. Already in the successes of former years, his “patient continuance in well doing” had wrought for him a large reward; and no man had ever more reason than he to “rejoice in his own works;” but these previous conquests from the enemy were in his esteem little more than the outworks of a mighty citadel, which he burned with ardour to enter and overthrow. Not, indeed, that he expected by the voyage now commenced to accomplish all that was in his heart. He went primarily to survey the field and prepare the way for future labourers, and obtain an entrance, not for the missionaries of a single society, but of every institution willing to take its part in the evangelization of Polynesia; and had his life been spared and his design accomplished, every Christian body in Britain would have been invited to enter the field and gather the fruits of his noble enterprise.