POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
27i 
exceedingly circumscribed. In addition to these dis¬ 
couragements^ the prejudices of many of the king’s most 
warm and valuable friends were unusually strongs as they 
considered the continuance of his misfortunes to result^ 
in part, from the countenance he was giving, and the 
inclination he manifested towards the religion of the 
foreigners. 
In the means employed there was nothing extraordinary. 
It is recorded, in the history of the Greenland Missions, 
that the Moravian brethren, for five or seven years, 
laboured patiently and diligently in teaching their hearers 
what are termed the first principles of religion,—incul¬ 
cating the doctrines of the being and attributes of God, 
and the requirements of his law,—without making the least 
favourable impression upon them, or being, in many 
instances, able to secure the attention of the people to 
their instructions. The first instance of decisive and 
salutary effect from their teaching, was, we are in¬ 
formed, what would, in general, be termed accidental, 
and occasioned by their reading to some native visitors 
an account of the sufferings and death of the Saviour, 
which they were translating into the vernacular tongue. 
The attention of one of the party was arrested, his heart 
deeply affected, and ultimately his character entirely 
changed. This circumstance led to a complete 
alteration in the instructions they gave. The incarna¬ 
tion, the life, especially the sufferings and death, of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, were, from this time, the principal 
subjects brought before the minds of their hearers, and 
the results were such as to shew the propriety of the 
alteration. Where they had before been unable to make 
the least impression, they now beheld numbers deeply 
affected, and on Whom these truths appeared to 
