ORIGINATION OF THE 
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idea of the superior character and disposition and 
abilities of the New Zealanders. On his first visit 
here, he found them, as he had anticipated, bold, 
dai'ing, adventurous, warlike, and in the posses- 
sion of good natural sense ; presenting a fine 
field for Christian labours, and for the hand of 
civilization. 
It was not till after very mature consideration, 
on the part of the Committee of the Church Mis- 
sionary Society, that the solicitations of Mr. 
Marsden, for assistance in the formation of a 
Missionary Establishment, were assented to ; and, 
even then, the means afforded were necessarily so 
inadequate, that any other than a mind formed 
like his would probably have abandoned the plan 
altogether. It was no small task which the Com- 
mittee imposed upon themselves, to find persons 
of a suitable character for the undertaking ; men 
who should be willing, with their lives in their 
hands, to go to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
to live among a strange and savage people, with 
whose language they were unacquainted, and of 
whose manners and customs, all they knew 
amounted but to this — that they were a nation of 
ferocious barbarians. The Committee, however, 
sent out from England three individuals, whom 
they placed under the direction of Mr. Marsden ; 
and assigned the sum of five hundred pounds per 
annum, for the purpose of making a commence- 
ment in these distant lands. The destruction of 
the Boyd, and the massacre of her crew by the 
