to the same naval station, and was to proceed thither immediately in
command of H.M.S. Satellite; and, with the sanction of the Admiralty,
he offered a free passage by her to any missionary the Society could
send out.

Here was the opening, here were the means; but where was the man to
go? There did not seem to be anyone available; but, at length, only ten
days before the "Satellite" was to sail, a student, then under
training, was thought of. Who was this?

A few years before, one of the Society's Missionaries had addressed a
village meeting in the Midland Counties. It was a very wet night, and
but a handful of people attended. The Vicar proposed to postpone the
meeting; but the missionary urged that the few who had come were
entitled to hear the information they were expecting, and proceeded to
deliver a long and earnest speech. Among the listeners were three young
men, and the heart of one of these was deeply touched that night. He
subsequently offered himself to the Society, and was sent to the (then
existing) Highbury Training College to be trained as a school master,
under the Rev. C. R. Alford, afterwards Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong.
That young man's name was WILLIAM DUNCAN, and it was he to whom now
came the call of the Committee to start in ten days for British
Columbia.

William Duncan was ready. On December 19th, 1856, he took leave of the
Committee, and on the 23rd, he sailed with Capt. Prevost from Plymouth
in the Satellite. [Footnote: An interesting notice of Captain Prevost's
offer, and of the valedictory dismissal of Mr. Duncan, appears in the
recently published "Memoir of Henry Venn" p. 137.]