296 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
cloth. This was an article in great and constant 
demand throughout the islands. Mr. Armitage 
was therefore sent to attempt to teach the natives 
to spin and weave the cotton grown in their 
own gardens. He was a native of Manchester, 
where the members of his family still reside. He 
was well qualified for the undertaking, possessing 
an intimate acquaintance with the various processes 
by which raw cotton is made into cloth, and hav¬ 
ing been overseer or foreman of an extensive ma¬ 
nufactory. 
In acceding to the proposal of the Directors, 
and engaging in this enterprise, he manifested a 
degree of devotedness seldom excelled. He ex¬ 
changed inviting prospects of wealth, comfort, and 
usefulness at home, for the toil and self-denial 
inseparable from such an attempt. The gentleman 
who had hitherto been his employer had proposed 
to make him his partner, had arranged for the 
advance of a very considerable sum of money; 
part of the materials for commencing the new 
establishment were procured, and the results in 
that line of business have since been such, as to 
warrant the inference, that every advantage the 
parties anticipated might have been realized. This, 
however, he relinquished, and cheerfully engaged 
in an attempt to promote the industry of the 
islanders, with no other remuneration than the 
Missionaries receive—a bare supply of the neces¬ 
saries of life. 
It may, perhaps, be thought that I am trespass¬ 
ing the bounds of propriety in giving these particu¬ 
lars to the public ; but, in this instance, and there 
are others that might also be adduced, I feel it 
due, not more to the individual than to the cause 
in which he is embarked ; to the friends by whom 
