CBAP. ixxiT,] TRADING MISSIONARIES. 495 



few of the women \ and some tew of the children attend 

 school, and are being tauj^ht to read, but they make little 

 progress. There is one feature of this mission which I 

 believe will Diaterially interfere with its moral effect. The 

 missionaries are allowed to trade to eko out tlie very small 

 salaries granted tliem fjroni Europe, and of coins e are 

 obliged to caiTy out the trade principle of buying cheap 

 a-nd selhng 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 reqiure. 

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

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

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

 coui-se 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 tlien stai-ve — 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^ ^ would be 

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

 first thing to be done by the missionary in attempting to 

 improve savages, is to convince them by liis 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 ^\ho want to sell, 

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

 be well if he coulbrmed himself in some degree to native 

 customs, and then endeavoured to show how these customs 

 might be gradually moditied, eo as to be more healthful 

 and more agreeable, A few energetic and devoted men 

 acting in this way might probably eflect a decided moral 

 improvement on the lowest savjigc tribes, whereas trading 

 missionaries, teaching what Jesus said, but not doing aa 

 He did, can scarcely he expected to do more than give 

 them a very little of the superficial varnish of religiuii, 

 Dorey haibour is hi a line bay, at one extremity of 



