rsden. It was a very important
visit. Parts of the Holy Scriptures, catechisms, and spelling-books,
were printed; the ship, with the assistance of the Society of which
Marsden was agent, was purchased, a schooner of ninety tons, and named
_Te Matama_, the Beginner; a person named Scott secured, at 150_l._ per
annum, to instruct the natives in the cultivation of sugar and tobacco,
and stores laid in of presents for the natives, clothes for the women,
shoes, stockings, tea-kettles, tea-cups, saucers, and tea. The natives
had a great liking for tea, and as they could not cherish cups and
saucers without shelves to put them on, all this was an indirect mode of
introducing European comforts and decencies. As to shoes, there can be
no spade husbandry with an unshod foot, and thus the system of hoeing-
women doing all the labour was attacked.

On the way back to Raiatea, Mr. Williams visited New Zealand, but not at
a favourable moment, for the chiefs were at war, and he had to hurry
away. The cargo was gladly welcomed at Raiatea, and the desire to
purchase European dress was found a great incentive to industry.

In 1823, Mr. Williams began a series of missionary voyages. The events
of these have almost too much sameness for description, though full of
interest in detail. The people, when taken on their right side, were
almost always ready to admit teachers, and adopt certain externals,
though the true essentials of Christianity were of much slower growth.
Our limits prevent us from giving much of detail of his intercourse with
these isles. Raiatea was his first home, Rarotonga his second. There he
placed his family, which long consisted of his one boy, John, born in
Tahiti, all Mrs. Williams's subsequent babes scarcely living to see the
light, until, in the sixteenth year of her Polynesian life, another son
rejoiced her. She became a centre and pattern of domestic life, and
instructed the women in feminine habits, and she patiently encountered
the anxieties and perils, chiefly from storm and hurricane, that beset
her life. The chief troubles that Mr. Williams encountered at Raiatea,
were the vices that civilization brought. After old Tamatoa's death, his
son allowed a distillery to be established, and drunkenness threatened to
overthrow the habits so diligently taught. May be, the Puritanical form
of religion and the acquired tastes of the London tradesman did not allow
brightness and beauty enough to these childr