Many thousands who never formally became Christians felt their influence, marked their example, profited by their schools.

They fought against war, discredited cannibalism, abolished slavery.

From the first Marsden had a sound belief in the uses of trade and of teaching savages the decencies and handicrafts of civilized life.

He looked upon such knowledge as the best path to religious belief.

Almost alone amongst his class, he was far-sighted enough to perceive, at any rate in the latter years of his life, that the only hope of New Zealand lay in annexation, and that any dream of a Protestant Paraguay was Utopian.