MISSIONARY 3.ABOURS. 255 
letters, when there was every reason to believe 
that unwillingness to conform to the precepts 
inculcated, was the true cause of disinclination. 
They neglected public worship, because they said 
they did not know how to read; this being con¬ 
sidered a sufficient apology for the non-observance 
of the Sabbath, or the social duties of religion. 
Such neglect was also frequently used as a cover 
for wickedness. When spoken to on the impro¬ 
priety of their conduct, they would sometimes 
answer, “We are not scholars,” or, “ We are 
not praying people these being the terms em ¬ 
ployed to designate those who made a profession 
of religion. Many were induced to keep back 
from the schools, and the place of public worship, 
from a desire to remain free from those restraints 
on their vicious practices, which such profession of 
Christianity was considered to impose. 
Under these circumstances we acted upon the 
principles by which our predecessors had invariably 
regulated their endeavours to teach the inhabitants 
of Tahiti and Eimeo ; and respecting which, after 
careful observation, I believe we are unanimous in 
our conviction that they are the true principles 
upon which any attempts to instruct a rude 
untutored people can be prosecuted with a pros¬ 
pect of the greatest ultimate success. We made 
no presents to those who were our scholars, more 
than to others from whom we had experienced an 
equal degree of hospitality; we offered no reward 
to any one for learning, and held out no prospect 
of personal or temporal advantage to our pupils 
and hearers ; and studiously avoided presenting 
any other inducements to learn, than the advan¬ 
tages that would be secured to our scholars them¬ 
selves, by the possession of that knowledge, which 
