240 DIFFUSION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
Much may be expected from these schools : they 
are an inquiring people in this country ; and the 
knowledge thus obtained is easily communicated 
from one to another : sometimes it is carried 
to a great distance, to tribes whom we thought to 
be in perfect ignorance. Persons who have been 
made prisoners of war, and enslaved by the Bay- 
of-Islanders, have been educated in the Mis- 
sion Schools ; and then, having by some means 
obtained their freedom, or having received per- 
mission, from the cliief to whom they belonged, to 
depart for a season, have visited their friends; 
and, carrying with them their little stock of know- 
ledge, have at once commenced the work of in- 
struction, and have been readily and eagerly 
attended to by the whole people. In this way, in 
some of our distant journeys, we have met with 
the most agreeable surprises. When we have 
been telling them of some of the first principles 
or truths of our holy religion, what has been our 
astonishment, to hear them say, “We know all 
that!” — and, upon examination, to find that they 
really had obtained no contemptible degree of 
knowledge. The cause has, however, soon been 
explained : their friends, one, or two, or more, 
had returned from slavery, and had again and 
again told them all the wonders they had heard ; 
and had willingly communicated to them all the 
religious and other knowledge they possessed. 
And when the remoter natives became acquainted 
with the other acquirements of their returned 
