and veneration of all classes, is a fact which no dispassionate
observer can deny; but it is also equally notorious, that there
are too many of an opposite description, who practise every vice,
and do the most serious injury to that sacred cause to which they
have been delegated, and have engaged to support. If greater
pains were taken in the choice of servants, the Missionary
institution might tend to the more rapid promotion of the
knowledge of religion; but the work will be retarded while
improper instruments are used. A Missionary, of irreproachable
character, was unhappily murdered a few years since, by some
persons whom he had served, and who adopted this new and inhuman
method of repaying the obligation which had been conferred upon
him.

The natives are in general very superstitious, and entertain
some singular notions respecting their deceased friends and
countrymen, of which very ample accounts are given in
Lieutenant-Governor Collins's interesting publication. Their
funeral ceremonies are extremely impressive, and every mark of
respect, which suggests itself to their untaught minds, is paid
to the body of the deceased. A barbarous custom, however,
prevails, which is sanctioned by their rude ideas of
religion:--When a mother dies, while giving suck to an infant,
the living babe is uniformly thrown into the grave of the parent,
and the father having cast a stone upon it, the earth is cast
into the pit, and thus the innocent offspring is immolated to an
erroneous and superstitious prejudice.

Amongst the convicts the influence of superstition is less
prevalent, although, amongst many of the lower orders of Irish,