They have, in particular, a natural turn to the mechanical
arts, in which several of them show much ingenuity, and arrive at no
small degree of perfection. Some have discovered marks of genius for
music, poetry, and other liberal accomplishments; and there are not
wanting instances among them of a strength of understanding, and a
generosity, dignity, and heroism of mind, which would have done honour
to the most cultivated European. It is not, therefore, to any natural
or unconquerable disability in the subject we had to work upon, that
the little success of our efforts is to be ascribed. This would indeed
be an insuperable obstacle, and must put an effectual stop to all
future attempts of the same nature; but as this is far from being the
case, we must look for other causes of our disappointment; which may
perhaps appear to be, though of a serious, yet less formidable nature,
and such as it is in the power of human industry and perseverance,
with the blessing of Providence, to remove. The principal of them, it
is conceived, are these which here follow:
1. "Although several of our ministers and catechists in the college of
Barbadoes have been men of great worth and piety, and good intentions,
yet in general they do not appear (if we may judge from their letters
to the Board) to have possessed that peculiar sort of talents and
qualifications, that facility and address in conveying religious
truths, that unconquerable activity, patience, and perseverance, which
the instruction of dull and uncultivated minds requires, and which
we sometimes see so eminently and successfully displayed in the
missionaries of other churches.
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