ew of
the women; and some few of the children attend school, and are being
taught to read, but they make little progress. There is one feature of
this mission which I believe will materially interfere with its moral
effect. The missionaries are allowed to trade to eke out the very small
salaries granted them from Europe, and of course are obliged to carry
out the trade principle of buying cheap and selling dear, in order to
make a profit. Like all savages the natives are quite careless of the
future, and when their small rice crops are gathered they bring a large
portion of it to the missionaries, and sell it for knives, beads, axes,
tobacco, or any other articles they may require. A few months later, in
the wet season, when food is scarce, they come to buy it back again, and
give in exchange tortoiseshell, tripang, wild nutmegs, or other produce.
Of course the rice is sold at a much higher rate than it was bought, as
is perfectly fair and just--and the operation is on the whole thoroughly
beneficial to the natives, who would otherwise consume and waste their
food when it was abundant, and then starve--yet I cannot imagine that
the natives see it in this light. They must look upon the trading
missionaries with some suspicion, and cannot feel so sure of their
teachings being disinterested, as would be the case if they acted like
the Jesuits in Singapore. The first thing to be done by the missionary
in attempting to improve savages, is to convince them by his actions
that lie comes among them for their benefit only, and not for any
private ends of his own. To do this he must act in a different way from
other men, not trading and taking advantage of the necessities of those
who want to sell, but rather giving to those who are in distress. It
would be well if he conformed himself in some degree to native customs,
and then endeavoured to show how these customs might be gradually
modified, so as to be more healthful and more agreeable. A few energetic
and devoted men acting in this way might probably effect a decided moral
improvement on the lowest savage tribes, whereas trading missionaries,
teaching what Jesus said, but not doing as He did, can scarcely be
expected to do more than give them a very little of the superficial
varnish of religion.

Dorey harbour is in a fine bay, at one extremity of which an elevated
point juts out, and, with two or three small islands, forms a sheltered
anchorage. The only vessel it contained