Marquesan Version of the Scriptures

Marquesan Version Of The Scriptures The Marquesan is a dialect spoken in the Marquesas or Washington group of islands, situated about nine degrees south of the equator, at a distance of nine hundred miles north-east of Tahiti. Ever since 1797 various efforts have been made at different intervals to proclaim the glad tidings of the gospel in these islands. For a long period these attempts were rendered abortive, till at length, in 1834, the Reverend Messrs. Rodgerson, Stallworthy, and Darling, agents of the London Missionary Society, met with some encouragement in their endeavors to instruct the people, and reclaim them from idolatry. Mr. Darling devoted himself to the translation of the Scriptures, or, rather, to the adaptation of the Tahitian version to the Marquesan dialect. Single extracts of Scripture were published, but the first complete book of the New Test. the gospel of Johnwas not published till 1866. This is up to date the only gospel printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. See Bible of Every Land, page 380. (B.P.)