258 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
mencement of a Mission among an unenlightened 
people, where a school will be an essential part of 
such establishment; at subsequent periods, rewards 
to those who have excelled, consisting of books, 
penknives, inkstands, slates, or other articles con¬ 
nected with the pursuits of the school, may be 
given with a good effect, tending rather to stimu¬ 
late to diligent enterprise, than to cherish a spirit 
of dependent indolence, or to excite expectations 
that never can be gratified. 
In reference to presents made by Missionaries to 
chiefs, on their first settlement among an unen¬ 
lightened people, I am disposed to think they are 
always injurious, when given with a view of gaining 
influence, or inducing their recipients to attend to 
religious instruction. Self-interest, or a desire for 
property, is the principle upon which the inter¬ 
course uncivilized persons have with foreigners 
visiting their country for purposes of commerce, 
&c. is regulated; the estimation in which such 
individuals are usually held, and the influence they 
exercise, is 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 individuals, 
who, while their presents were unsparingly lavished 
upon the people, were regarded as kings and 
chiefs among them, but who, when they have 
experienced a reverse in their circumstances, have 
been treated with marked and contemptuous neg¬ 
lect. An equal degree of this kind of influence, 
the means of the Missionary will never enable him 
to gain among the people, nor ought he for a 
moment to desire it. Discouraging indeed will be 
his prospects, if the estimation in which he is held 
by those among whom he labours be only that 
