Murdered missionary’s South Pacific items to go on auction

A “Ula” throwing club – similar to the type of weapon used to kill him – and a Maori canoe bailer are to go under the hammer.

Williams and his wife Mary travelled on their first missionary expedition to the South Pacific in 1817.

They visited Tahiti and other island chains including the Cook Islands to spread the Gospel and were the first missionary family to visit Samoa.

They returned to Britain in 1834 where John supervised the printing of his translation of the New Testament into the Rarotongan language of the Cook Islands.

Undated handout depiction issued by DukeÕs auction house of missionary John Williams being hacked to death by cannibals.

He also published his Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands before returning to the region.

In 1839, while visiting Erromango, Vanuatu, he and fellow missionary James Harris were killed and eaten by cannibals.

The natives of those islands recently received The Prince of Wales and made him an honorary high chief.

In 2009 the descendants of Williams went to the islands where locals apologised on behalf of their ancestors who ate the missionaries.

The items are being sold at Duke’s auction house in Dorchester, Dorset, on Thursday.

Undated handout photo issued by DukeÕs auction house of an Ula…