Thomas - Brief aus Tongatapu Lot n° 493

(Worcester 1796 - 1881). Handwritten letter to 'the Secritaries of the Wesleyan Missonary Society.... London'. Signed. Dated 'Hihifo Tongatabu Jan. 4. 1828'. Circle postmark of the Sydney Post Office 'Sydney NSW A 5 1828'. 4 pages on 1 double sheet. 32.5 x 20.5 cm. Formerly folded (small tear where seal removed and small marginal cut to open letter, both with some loss of text). John Thomas had been accepted by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in 1824 and was sent to Tonga in the South Pacific two years later. With another missionary, John Hutchinson, he preached from 1826 to 1828 in Hihifo, Tongatapu and then on Ha'apai. In 1822 already, Reverend Walter Lawry had tried to proselytize there for over 1 year, but had met with great resistance and finally gave up trying to Christianize the Tongans. Through Thomas and Hutchinson, however, by the end of 1834 most of the inhabitants were no longer heathens.-. Thomas writes in English to his Methodist brethren in London about an incident in which he and his missionary brother were in great danger ('Our lives have been in great danger') and that he does not think others would have acted differently from him ('I do not think others would have acted very differently had they been in my circumstances').- The circle stamp is the first dated Sydney stamp of the pre-philatelic era, it stamped the period 8 March 1828 to 12 January 1832. The number '18' was fixed, with slots for the last two years and the month and day for the respective plugs. The 'A' stands for the month of April. (cf. article about John Thomas at auspostalhistory.com).-