58 MISSIONARY INFLUENCE, 



moral laws. A missionary, resident amongst 

 these newly-converted people, has almost a 

 regal influence ; for however passive he may be, 

 his presence alone has the effect of stimulating 

 the chiefs and church party to enforce the 

 observance of religious law amongst the people ; 

 whilst the latter, from a feeling of decorum, and 

 a love of approbation, (peculiar to their character,) 

 act with much show of propriety; since no 

 native, however depraved in principle, will act 

 in open violation of morality under the eye of 

 his missionary, whom he always regards with a 

 kind of innate respect, although professing, to 

 his party, that he holds both the man and his 

 precepts in contempt. 



It may be asked, how far has commercial in- 

 tercourse alone, with civilized nations, tended to 

 the improvement of these islanders ? I would 

 answer, that the effect of commercial intercourse 

 can extend but little farther than to make the 

 natives acquainted with civilized habits, (and 

 bad habits they too frequently are,) and by the 

 introduction of foreign manufactures, to increase 

 their comforts, and afford them the means of 

 imitation. But it would be absurd to assume, 

 that the transient visits of shipping, or even the 

 residence amongst them of foreign merchants, 



