All very pleasant and harmless, no doubt, but hardly
reconcilable with the ideal held up in missionary magazines. Yet
I have no doubt whatever that this gentleman would have been
heartily commended by the very men who can hardly find words
harsh enough to express their opinion of missionaries of the
stamp of Paton, Williams, Moffat, and Mackenzie.
Well, it is highly probable--nay, almost certain, that I shall be
accused of drawing an idyllic picture of native life from first
impressions, which, if I had only had sufficient subsequent
experience among the people, I should have entirely altered. All
I can say is, that although I did not live among them ashore, we
had a number of them on board; we lay in the island harbour five
months, during which I was ashore nearly every day, and from
habit I observed them very closely; yet I cannot conscientiously
alter one syllable of what I have written concerning them. Bad
men and women there were, of course, to be found--as where not?
--but the badness, in whatever form, was not allowed to flaunt
itself, and was so sternly discountenanced by public (entirely
native) opinion, that it required a good deal of interested
seeking to find.
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