Ellis, WILLIAM

Ellis, WILLIAM, an eminent English missionary, was born in London, 29th August 1794. He was brought up as a gardener, but having offered himself to the London Missionary Society, was trained and despatched in 1816 to the South Sea Islands, where he laboured for nearly ten years, first at Eimeo, next at Oahu, one of the Sandwich Islands. The illness of his wife obliged him to return to England in 1825, after which he became foreign secretary to the London Missionary Society. Mean-time his Tour through Hawaii (1826) and his Polynesian Researches (1839) extended his fame as a missionary of rare earnestness and enthusiasm, and still rarer intelligence and breadth of sympathy. His wife died in 1835, and two years later he married Sarah Stickney, who for many years conducted a school for girls at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, and wrote many excellent and popular books, as The Women of England (1838), The Daughters of England (1842), The Wives of Eng- land (1843), Hearts and Homes (1848-49), and The Mothers of Great Men (1859). Ellis published in 1838 a history of Madagascar, and in 1853 he was sent to that island with a view to improve the condition of the Christians there. He made four different visits to the island, the last extending over four years (1861-65), and by his tact and sagacity did much to settle the external relations of the Christians on a safe basis. His Three Visits to Madagascar (1858), Madagascar Revisited (1867), and The Martyr Church of Madagascar (1870), besides their personal and religious interest, are still the best books we possess on the history, the scenery, the productions, and the people of Madagascar. Ellis died 9th June 1872; his wife, but a week later. See the Life by his son (1873).