COMMENCEMENT OF MISSIONS. 257 
have been ardent, and the attendance regular; 
but when these had failed, their zeal, &c. would 
have declined, and the chapel and the school 
would have been deserted. In addition to this, 
whenever a fresh supply of articles, for our own 
maintenance or use, might have arrived, if we had 
not been equally liberal in the distribution of our 
presents, we should have been unhesitatingly 
charged with keeping for ourselves that which was 
designed for them, and thus have been involved in 
unpleasant altercation. 
The plans of procedure, in the commencement 
of a new Mission, must necessarily be regulated in 
a great degree by the circumstances of the people 
among whom it may be established ; and the ex¬ 
treme poverty, or fugitive habits, of the parents, 
may render it desirable for the teachers either 
wholly or in part to maintain the scholars, in order 
to secure attendance. These instances are, I be¬ 
lieve, very rare, and absolute necessity alone can 
warrant recourse to such a plan. Instruction itself 
will be undervalued; it can never be attempted 
but on a very limited scale, and will be always 
liable to vexatious interruptions. A system of 
maintenance should only be adopted in regard to 
such pupils as it is hoped are under religious 
impressions, or are training with a view to their 
becoming monitors or schoolmasters themselves. 
In those parts of the world where the scholars 
could not be supported while at the schools, it 
would be better for them to devote a portion of 
their time to such employment as would enable 
them to procure the means of subsistence them¬ 
selves, than that they should receive their mainte¬ 
nance from the Mission. 
These remarks apply principally to the com- 
II. s 
