DESIRE OF INSTRUCTION. 239 
that they were not able to effect any thing. 
They said, they felt themselves unnerved and 
unmanned ; and their hearts, instead of swelling 
with bravery, turned round, jumped up, and sank 
down with fear. It was a strange sight, to be- 
hold the very persons, who had been disappointed, 
listening to us while returning thanks to God, in 
their own language, for having frustrated their 
purposes. 
Next to the blessings of a more spritual nature, 
thus far described, may be noticed the thirst for 
knowledge, which has been excited among the 
New Zealanders. Every one now wishes to learn 
to read and write ; and those who are sincere in 
their professions are willing to pay for the requi- 
site materials ; that is, to purcliase books and 
slates, for the purpose of instruction. Many na- 
tive villages have two schools established, under 
the direction of a lad who has previously received 
his instruction from the Missionaries themselves. 
It is scarcely to be expected that there should be 
much order or classification in a school com- 
menced and conducted by an untutored man, 
whose whole previous life has been disorder and 
irregularity, and where the visits of a superin- 
tendaiit must generally be ‘‘ few and far between."” 
But let the plan upon which they have conducted 
their schools be what it may, very many, some 
hundreds, have learned to read and write in them; 
to read so as to understand and to be understood; 
and to write a good bold hand upon a slate. 
