POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
491 
favourable appearance under which the education of the 
inhabitants had been commenced. 
Next to the direct communication of the gospel 
by the living voice, the schools have been considered 
as the most important department of regular instruc¬ 
tion. We have always superintended the schools, 
and generally taught the higher classes. In some 
stations, the boys and the men have been educated 
in one school, and the women and girls in another; 
in others, the different sexes have been taught at 
different times; and in some, they have assembled 
in the same schools. This, however, has not been 
general. We have been highly favoured, in most of 
the stations, with valuable native teachers, in both 
the male and female schools. To this method of 
instruction we have looked for the perpetuity of the 
work, of which we had been privileged to witness 
the commencement; and from its influence on the 
rising generation, we have derived great encourage¬ 
ment in reference to the stability and increase of 
the Christian church. 
In the island of Huahine, we had, during the latter 
part of our residence there, two district schools, one 
for the males and the other for the females, which 
we found more conducive to their improvement, 
than the method of instructing both sexes in the 
same school. After the departure of Mr. Davies 
in 1820, the superintendence of the schools had 
devolved entirely on Mr. Barff. The female school 
in Huahine was under the management of Mrs. Barff 
and Mrs. Ellis; and those at several of the other 
stations were also superintended by the wives of the 
Missionaries. 
