POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
427 
studiously avoided presenting any other inducements to 
learn^ than the advantages that vrould be secured to 
our scholars themselves, by the possession of that 
knovrledge, which we were not only willing but desirous 
to impart. At the same time we were most anxious, 
distinctly and powerfully to impress on their minds the 
desirableness and necessity of their possessing correct 
ideas of the true God^—the means of seeking his favour 
—^the happiness that would result therefrom in the 
present life, and in that state of existence after death, 
to which this was but preparative—together with the vast 
increase of knowledge and enjoyment that would attend 
their being able to read the printed books,—preserve 
whatever they heard that was valuable, by making it 
fast upon the paper,—and corresponding by letter with 
their friends at a distance, as familiarly and distinctly as 
if they were present. By representations such as these, 
we endeavoured to excite in their minds a desire to 
hear the Scriptures read, and the Gospel preached, 
in the chapels, and to attend our instructions in the 
schools. 
Had our means been ample, and had we, on landing, 
or when inviting the attention of the chiefs and people 
to the objects of our proposed residence among them, 
liberally distributed presents of cloth, ironmongery, &c. 
or even engaged in part to support the children that 
would receive our lessons, the chapel would undoubtedly 
have been well attended, and the scholars proportionably 
multiplied; but then it would have been only from the 
desire to receive a constant supply of such presents—a 
motive highly prejudicial to the individuals by whom 
it would have been indulged, destructive of the com¬ 
fort, and disastrous to the future labours, of the Mis- 
