POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
93 
made by one object^ was obliterated by the exhibition 
of some new wonder^ which prevented his paying par¬ 
ticular regard to any. This constant variety deprived 
him of all useful knowledge, and excluded his atten¬ 
tion to the important subjects that demanded his notice 
while residing in the metropolis of Britain. A most 
favourable opportunity was afforded for his acquiring 
that knowledge of our agriculture, arts, and manufac¬ 
tures, our civil and religious institutions, which would 
have enabled him to introduce the most salutary 
improvements among his countrymen. Thus he might 
have become a father to his nation • and his visit to 
England might have been rendered a blessing to its 
latest generations. But, as Forster, who accompanied 
him on his return, laments, no friendly Mentor ever 
attempted to cherish and to gratify this wish, much 
less to improve his moral character, to teach him our 
exalted ideas of virtue, and the sublime principles of 
revealed religion.^’ To the censure thus passed upon 
those, under whose care he spent the period of his resi¬ 
dence in England, one exception at least must be made, 
and that in favour of a name that will ever be dear to 
every friend of humanity. Granville Sharp became 
acquainted with Mai, taught him the first principles of 
writing, and, so far as his knowledge of our language 
allowed, endeavoured to pour the light of divine truth 
into his ignorant and untutored mind. He made such 
progress in the use of letters, that on his voyage to the 
South Seas, while staying at the Cape of Good Hope, he 
wrote a letter to his friend Dr. Solander. 
During the two years he spent in this country, he was 
inoculated for the small-pox, from which he happily 
recovered 5 and, loaded with presents profusely furnished 
