o possess, a single foot. This fact should surely
set at rest for ever the question of the disinterestedness of Henry
Williams.

Land-buying was not the only fault of which the missionaries were
accused. An English artist, Earle, visited New Zealand in 1827, and on
his return published an account of his travels, in which he accused the
church clergy of churlishness and inhospitality. Yet these same men were
the ones who came to his assistance when his house was burned, and
supplied all his wants to the full. This fact Mr. Earle does not
mention, and has not a favourable word to say on behalf of those who had
befriended him.

A very different visitor arrived some eight years later in the
research-vessel _Beagle_. This was Charles Darwin, whose name had not
yet achieved renown, but who was already distinguished for that
philosophical temperament and keen observation which make his judgment
to be of exceptional value. He speaks of "the gentlemanlike, useful, and
upright characters" of the missionaries; expresses his admiration of the
civilised appearance of Waimate; and finds in the results thus achieved
the best ground for hope for the future of the country. He had evidently
been previously impressed by Earle's denunciations, and was even
surprised to see one of the missionaries' sons playing cricket with the
Maori scholars. The mention of this little incident was doubtless
intended to soften the impression of extreme austerity, and is not
without its value to this end. But it does not go very far to modify the
picture of old-fashioned gravity and severity. In modern times the
missionaries would have been playing in the game themselves.

On the whole, the reports which reached the mother country were
favourable, and caused great rejoicing among the friends of the mission
staff. But there was one doubt which agitated the minds of a certain
circle of English society, and that was as to the _churchmanship_ of the
New Zealand mission. Its agents were good men, and had achieved
astonishing success; but had they kept up the distinctive tone and
system of the mother Church? Were they distinguishable from the
Methodists by whose side they laboured? No treatment of the subject can
be considered complete which omits this feature of the situation.

Undoubtedly there was some justification for the fears entertained in
the Home land. Marsden himself had been born and brought up in a
Methodist family. From this, as a young man, he