CAPACITY FOR INSTRUCTION. 319 
was given at an early hour every morning, that 
the people might attend the school before engag¬ 
ing in their ordinary avocations. The natives, 
therefore, assembled soon after sunrise : Mr. Barfif 
usually repaired to the school for the men and 
boys about half past six o’clock in the morning, 
and, during the latter part of our residence in 
Huahine, Mrs.BarfF and Mrs. Ellis, either unitedly 
or alternately, visited the female school at the 
same hour. It closed in general about eight, after 
which the people repaired to their daily employ¬ 
ments. The boys’ school was open at two o’clock 
in the afternoon, but it was principally for the 
instruction of children. Many of the adults 
received instruction more readily than the chil¬ 
dren, and acquired a knowledge of reading with 
much greater facility than persons of the same age 
would do in England. With many, however, 
more advanced in life, it was a difficult task ; and 
some, after two or three years’ application, were 
unable to advance beyond the alphabet, or the 
first syllables of the spelling-book. Another 
source of perplexity resulted from the injudicious 
methods of the native teachers, who at first, in 
their zeal to encourage their scholars, repeated to 
them every word in the columns of spelling, and 
lessons, so frequently, that many of their pupils 
could repeat from memory, perhaps, the whole of 
the book, without being able to read a single line. 
When they took the book, it was only necessary 
for them to be told the first word or sentence in a 
chapter, in order to their repeating the whole 
correctly, even though the book should be open at 
some other part, or the page be placed bottom 
upwards. Such individuals did not always like to 
go back to the lowest classes ; yet it was neces- 
