Barry Duke is mistaken to suggest the Rev Thomas Baker, the East Sussex missionary who was cooked and eaten by the people of Navatusila in 1867, was intent on destroying their culture and beliefs and supplanting them with Christianity (Letters, October 22).

Christian missionaries from the time of St Paul have never set out to destroy people's culture or beliefs.

Indeed, the town clerk of Ephesus confirmed St Paul and his companions were "neither sacrilegious nor blasphembers of our goddess" (Acts 19:37).

Rather, their positive preaching of the gospel of Christ has led to a response from the native population, even after a period of initial rejection and persecution.

This was true in Fiji, for after the martyrdom of such men as Thomas Baker, the people themselves turned to faith in Christ with amazing results.

Instead of cooking and eating their enemies they began to love them as commanded by Christ himself and St Paul.

Polygamy, where men treated women little better than their pigs, became Christian marriage where men began to love and cherish their wives and children.

Illiterate people learned to read and write so they could read their Bibles and the whole of society on the islands was transformed for good.

The apology for Baker's death was initiated by the islanders themselves who were so grateful that he laid down his life to bring them a Gospel that not only gave them hope for eternity but a better life in the present.

-Rev John Webster, Hove