274 I0IYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
that exist. They would operate powerfully, sup¬ 
posing the children were all that the parents could 
w r ish ; supposing they were qualified by talent, 
disposed by deliberate choice, and prepared by 
Divine grace, for the work of Christian Mission¬ 
aries ; but these indispensable requisites, it is 
unnecessary to remark, a parent, with all his soli¬ 
citude and care, cannot always secure. God 
rnay see fit to withhold those decisive evidences 
of genuine piety, without which the fondest 
parent would tremble at the idea of introducing 
even his own child into the sacred office of an 
evangelist. How r ever Missionary pursuits may 
have been accounted the honour, or have proved 
the happiness, of the parent, the child, as he growls 
up, may not even possess a desire to engage in the 
same: that desire the parent cannot give ; and, 
without it, it would, from every consideration, be 
both cruel and injurious to urge it. 
The alternative is most distressing to contem¬ 
plate. There are at present no situations of com¬ 
fort to fill, no trade or business that can be fol¬ 
lowed. Productive plantations, regular labour, 
mercantile establishments, warehouses, and shops, 
it is to be expected, will ultimately exist and 
flourish in these islands, but they cannot be looked 
for in the short period of fifteen years from the 
time when the people emerged from gross igno¬ 
rance, inveterate vice, and the most enervating 
and dissipating idleness. The circumstances of 
the female branches of the Mission families are, 
perhaps, still more discouraging. 
I have extended these remarks much beyond 
what I intended, when speaking of the South Sea 
Academy; and although they may be less inte¬ 
resting to the general reader than other mat- 
