CHAP, xxxiv.] TRADING 3IISSI0NARIES. 303 



obliged to cany out the trade principle of buying cheap 

 and selling dear, in order to make a profit. Like all 

 savages the natives are quite careless of the future, and 

 when their small rice crops are gathered they bring a large 

 portion of it to the missionaries, and sell it for knives, 

 beads, axes, tobacco, or any other articles they may require. 

 A few months later, in the wet season, when food is scarce, 

 they come to buy it back again, and give in exchange 

 tortoiseshell, tripang, wild nutmegs, or other produce. Of 

 course the rice is sold at a much higher rate than it was 

 bought, as is perfectly fair and just — and the operation is 

 on the whole thoroughly beneficial to the natives, who 

 would otherwise consume and waste their food when it 

 was abundant, and then starve — yet I cannot imagine that 

 the natives see it in this light. They must look upon the 

 trading missionaries with some suspicion, and cannot feel 

 so sure of their teachings being disinterested, as would be 

 the case if they acted like the Jesuits in Singapore. The 

 fijst thing to be done by the missionary in attempting to 

 improve savages, is to convince them by his actions that 

 he comes among them for their benefit only, and not for 

 any private ends of his own. To do this he must act in a 

 different way from other men, not trading and taking 

 advantage of the necessities of those who want to sell, 

 but rather giving to those who are in distress. It would 

 be well if he conformed himself in some degree to native 



