POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
429 
These remarks apply principally to the commence¬ 
ment of a Mission among an unenlightened people, 
where a school will be an essential part of such esta¬ 
blishment ; at subsequent periods, rewards to those who 
have excelled, consisting of books, penknives, inkstands, 
slates, or other articles connected with the pursuits of the 
school, may be given with a good effect, tending rather 
to stimulate to diligent enterprise, than to cherish a spirit 
of dependent indolence. 
In reference to presents made by Missionaries to 
chiefs, on their first settlement among an unenlightened 
people, I am disposed to think they are always in¬ 
jurious, when given with a view of gaining influence, 
or inducing their recipients to attend to religious in¬ 
struction. Self-interest, or a desire for property, is 
the principle upon which the intercourse uncivilized 
persons have with foreigners visiting their country for 
purposes of commerce, &c. is regulated; the estima¬ 
tion in which such individuals are usually held, and 
the influence they exercise, is generally proportioned 
to the extent of their property, or the portions of it 
which the natives receive. Not a few instances have 
occurred among the islands of the Pacific, in which in¬ 
dividuals, who, while their presents were unsparingly 
lavished upon the people, were regarded as kings 
and chiefs among them, but who, when they have ex¬ 
perienced a reverse in their circumstances, have been 
treated with marked and contemptuous neglect. An 
equal degree of this kind of influence, the means of the 
Missionary will never enable him to gain among the peo¬ 
ple, nor ought he for a moment to desire it. Discourag¬ 
ing indeed will be his prospects, if the estimation in 
which he is held by those among whom he labours be 
