236 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



within a reasonable time, so much produce at a fixed rate. 

 There is another point upon which they lay great weight : 

 ' Have a woman of your own, no matter what island you take 

 her from ; for a trader without a wife is in eternal hot water.' 

 Lastly, they impose the condition : ' Give no assistance to 

 missionaries either by word or deed (beyond what is demanded 

 of you by common humanity) ; but wheresoever you may find 

 them, use your best influence with the natives to obstruct and 

 exclude them.' It would occupy too much space for me to 

 explain the reasons of this last condition ; it is enough to say, 

 that it has originated on very simple grounds. Throughout 

 the Pacific for the past twenty-five years, there has been a 

 constant struggle for the mastery between missionaries and 

 merchants, each being intensely jealous of the influence over 

 native affairs obtained by the other. Merchants make the 

 greatest profits out of savages, for the reason that savages are 

 content to sell their produce for blue beads, tomahawks and 

 tobacco. When these savages are brought under the influence 

 of the missionaries, they are instructed to demand payment in 

 piece goods wherewith to clothe themselves, and in coin 

 for the purpose of subscribing to the funds of the missionary 

 societies. This reduces the profits of the merchants, who 

 bitterly resent such interference. Moreover, the English mis- 

 sionaries were for years the grand opponents of the Messrs. 

 Godeffroy in the matter of Bolivian coin, and although the firm 

 came off victors, they have never forgotten or forgiven their 

 ancient antagonists. 



Another singular feature of the Godeffroy system, so essen- 

 tially peculiar in many respects, was the sending of their vessels 

 to sea from their headquarters at Samoa with sealed orders, so 

 that no one on board knew positively where they were bound 

 for, until in a certain latitude the master opened his instruc- 



