256 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
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 seek¬ 
ing his favour through Jesus Christ the only 
Saviour—the happiness that would result there¬ 
from in the present life, and in that state of exist¬ 
ence after death, to which this was but preparative 
—together with the 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 instruc¬ 
tions 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 pre¬ 
sents 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 it would have been only from the 
desire to receive a constant supply of presents ; 
a motive highly prejudicial to the individuals by 
whom it would have been indulged, destructive of 
the comfort, and disastrous to the future labours, 
of the Missionary among them. So long as our 
distributions had been frequent and increasingly 
valuable, the expressions of attachment would 
