an any of the English met with among the islands.

"Captain Erskine also bears testimony to the character of other
missionaries. Describing the work at Samoa, he says: `The first
circumstance which must strike a stranger on his arrival, and one which
will come hourly under his notice during his stay, is the influence
which all white men, but in particular the missionaries, exercise over
the minds of the natives.

"`No unprejudiced person will fail to see that had this people acquired
their knowledge of a more powerful and civilised race than their own,
either from the abandoned and reckless characters who still continue to
infest most of the islands of the Pacific, or even from a higher class
engaged in purely mercantile pursuits, they must have fallen into a
state of vice and degradation to which their old condition would have
been infinitely superior. That they have been at least rescued from
this state, is entirely owing to the missionaries; and should the few
points of asceticism which these worthy men, conscientiously believing
them necessary to the eradication of the old superstitions, have
introduced among their converts, become softened by time and the absence
of opposition, it is not easy to imagine a greater moral improvement
than will then have taken place among a (once) savage people.

"`With respect to those gentlemen of the London Mission, whose
acquaintance I had the satisfaction of making in Samoa, I will venture,
at the risk of being considered presumptuous, to express my opinion,
that in acquirements, general ability, and active energy, they would
hold no undistinguished place among their Christian brethren at home.
The impossibility of accumulating private property, both from the
regulations of the Society and the circumstances surrounding them, ought
to convince the most sceptical of their worldly disinterestedness, nor
can the greatest scoffers at their exertions deny to them the possession
of a virtue which every class of Englishman esteems above all others,
the highest order of personal courage.' [See Note.]

"But I need not quote further from Captain Erskine, nor from other
unprejudiced writers, to convince you, and through you your friends, of
what has been accomplished through the instrumentality of missionaries.
You will have many opportunities of judging for yourself. There is,
however, another subject to which I would urge you to draw attention,
that is, the attempts made by French pr