FEEJEE GROUP. 363 
anxious for the means of instruction for their children, of whom they 
have among them about fifty. It is to be hoped that this opportunity, 
which is offered to the missionaries, will not be long neglected. ‘To 
instruct children, who are thus offered to them, appears to be one of 
the best possible modes of furthering the great object they have in 
view. The present generation of the Feejee nation I cannot but con- 
sider as irreclaimable, and that it would be the true policy to direct 
their whole efforts to the rising one. In this they will be most likely 
to succeed by fostering the white men of Levuka, and connecting 
themselves with them. From them they would receive every possible 
assistance, in consequence of their anxiety to forward the education 
of their own children; and the latter, under missionary auspices, 
would soon rise up into a class, that, connected in blood and language 
with the natives, and at the same time instructed in the way of religion 
and civilization, could not fail to exert a most salutary influence over 
the destinies of these fine islands. 
In taking leave of the Feejee Islands, I was deeply impressed with 
the recollection of the various feelings and anxieties to which my 
operations among them had given rise. In spite of the severe loss I 
had sustained in the death of one dear to me, I could not but consider 
that we were fortunate in having performed our duties without suffering 
a greater number of serious accidents. The contrast of the character 
of the islands themselves, with that of the race of beings by which they 
are inhabited, is marked most strongly. The latter are truly wretches 
in the strongest sense of the term, and degraded beyond the conception 
of civilized people. For the sake of decency, and to avoid shocking 
the moral sense of my readers, I have refrained from relating many 
things which happened under my own eyes. What I have stated, will, 
however, serve to give an idea of the habits, manners, and customs of 
the natives of Feejee, in every point that can be spoken of without 
exciting a blush. 
No one can visit these islands without feeling a poignant regret that 
so lovely a part of God’s creation should be daily and hourly sullied 
by deeds of such unparalleled depravity as those to which I have 
alluded. 
The time will, I trust, ere long arrive, when the missionaries, by 
their perseverance, courage, and devotedness, shall reclaim these 
islanders from their sensual and savage customs, and bring them 
within the fold of civilization. For the success of their meritorious 
labours they have my most hearty prayers; and it has afforded me no 
small pleasure to learn that we were considered by them as having in 
