38 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
treachery and crime^ and^ above all^ their love of 
war, and their wretched system of government, which 
is probably one of the greatest barriers to their general 
reception of Christianity. 
It was a favourable circumstance attending the change 
that has taken place both in the Society and Sandwich 
Islands, that each island had its chief; and that in some 
instances several adjacent islands were under the govern¬ 
ment of a principal chief or king, whose authority was 
supreme, and whose influence, in uniting the people 
under one head, predisposed them, as a nation, to receive 
the instructions imparted by individuals countenanced 
and protected by their chief or king. Persons of the 
highest authority not only patronized the Missionaries, 
but frequently added to their instructions, their com¬ 
mendation, and the influence of their own example in 
having already received them. 
In New Zealand there is no king over the whole, or 
even over one of the larger islands. The people are gene¬ 
rally governed by a number of chieftains, each indeed a 
king over his narrow territory, supreme among his own 
tribe or clan, and independent of every other. The same 
system prevails in the Marquesas, and the Friendly and 
Figi islands, where no law of right is acknowledged, but 
that of dominion. A desire to enlarge their territory, 
increase their power, or satisfy revenge, leads to fre¬ 
quent and destructive war, strengthens jealousy, and 
cherishes treachery, keeps them without any common 
bond of union, and prevents any deep or extensive 
impression being made upon them as a people. This 
necessarily circumscribes the influence of the Mission¬ 
aries, and is, in a great degree, the cause which led 
the Wesleyan Missionaries for a time to suspend alto- 
