This is the strange and wondrous story of an eight-year voyage and a mission to save souls. Their mission started in the South Seas, where they reported scenes of chiefs surfing, perpetual warfare and a sudden surge of Christianity. From there they went via New Zealand, Australia and its aboriginal hinterland, through 'the Orient' to India and slave-ridden Mauritius. Based on contemporary journals, mission reports, letters and illustrations, and bursting with character and anecdote. ON THE MISSIONARY TRAIL is both the enthralling narrative of the longest missionary voyage ever undertaken and a colourful, detailed, eye-opening snapshot of little-known worlds, set against the wider picture of evangelism and guilt, heroism and humanity.

V. l. Origin and early work of the Society. Polynesia. Africa. Madagascar. Appendix I. A complete list of the missionaries who have laboured in Polynesia, Africa, and Madagascar. Appendix II. Letter from W. H. Wills on the origination of the London Missionary Society.--v. 2. India. West Indies. China. Missions abandoned. Home affairs: 1821-1895. Appendices: I. A complete list of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society who have laboured in India, the West Indies, Ultra-Ganges, China, North and South America, and other countries. II. Plan and constitution of the London Missionary Society, established in 1795. III. Analysis of the income and expenditure of the London Missionary Society from 1796 to 1895.

Anna Johnston analyses missionary writing under the aegis of the British Empire. Johnston argues that missionaries occupied ambiguous positions in colonial cultures, caught between imperial and religious interests. She maps out this position through an examination of texts published by missionaries of the largest, most influential nineteenth-century evangelical institution, the London Missionary Society. Texts from Indian, Polynesian, and Australian missions are examined to highlight their representation of nineteenth-century evangelical activity in relation to gender, colonialism, and race.