The Polynesian., 1841-01-02

mercantile as missionary transaction.
and not an Improbable one. TOO much
praise cannot be given to the ingenuity
and perseverance displayed in building
the vessel, nor do we ccns,lrc the Author
for employing his time with profit to him
self. At the Island of Rorotonga, ON the
contrary. we much approve of his impart-
ing his mechanical knowledge to the ma
tvcs, but we much dislike the anccation
of a disregard of worldly objects. The
Messenger of Peace was built. no doubt,
by great PERSONAL labor, but a, little cost.
She received ESQ per month from the
Missionary Society, when employed Wis
ting Mission stations, and collected Oil,
Arrow Root, Bch dc la Mcr, Sinnit. &c.
on account Of Mr.. Williams. When un-
employed by him she was chartered by a
Mr.. Moorcnhout on voyage to NaIpa-
raiso and back to Tahiti. During the
last interesting voyage, the traveller was
specializing in timber, procured at the
Island of Maukc. One hundred tamana
logs were sold on his return, to the late
Capt. Bancroft, deliverable al that Island,
and the vessel took up Il cargo of the
same timber to Tahiti, consigned to his
brother Missionary, Mr.. Pritchard. In
1893, the Author sold the vessel to
Mcssrs. EbriIl e. Henry, for $500 stcr-
ting. Since his first settlement at the
Island of Riatca he has always been more
or less engaged in commerce, and we con-
slider it a want of candor to alludc only
to those transactions as efforts made to
encourage natives; the freight upon his
rope sent in the Ulitea to Sydney, in
1892, eat up his profits, and he did not
continue to purchase Of the natives. The
Bich dc la Mcr consigned to Mr.. Pri,ch-
ard in the same year offered but little en-
couragcmcnt TO natives. Besides the
Messenger of Peace. the Author built two
small vessels, during his mission, one sold
in 1929 to Capt Henry, for S l4O0, and
the other to Queen Polnare, for $1,000.
1t is not that we object to Missionary
skill and industry being exercised that
we refer to these things; far from it; but
we object to that pretension' of scll-deniaI
and disintercstcd action displayed through.
ont the work if we object to Il Mission
ary of the London Missionary Society
trading, it is more on the ground that it
is at variance with the plea by which such
enormous sums arc raised by that Society,
and that the Missionary sent out, assumes
a clerical character, and virtue of entire
devotion to the declared objects of the
Society. We believe that a person with
the Authors skill in his own branch of
mechanics, with his active and pcrseycr-
ing disposition, brought up with moral
and industrious habits, with religion with
out fanaticsm, who would reside among
the natives and shew them by example,
the happiness and advantages that NOR
al and industrious life affords, and who
would teach them the debt of gratitude
they owe to the Almighty for these benc-
fits, would produce more permanent good,
and raise the natives much quicker from
their degraded position, than the mission
aries, acting under the present system OF
insisting upon rigid observance OF out
ward forms of worship, lecturing upon the
mysteries of the Christian Faith, and en-
dcavorinS to force belief through fear of
eternal punishment. before the mind is
nronarnd IN roceiye tho ow(ul tyuths