Kōrero: Missions and missionaries

A predecessor of the Church Missionary Society was the London Missionary Society (LMS). One of its missionaries, John Williams, had been working in the Pacific for more than 20 years when he visited the island of  Erromango (later part of Vanuatu) in 1839. The islanders had recently been cruelly treated by traders looking for sandalwood. They killed Williams and his companion James Harris. This 1841 painting shows other LMS missionaries escaping by boat in the background.