486 KELIGION. 



among them many rude idols.* Captain Cook found their 

 religion, "like that of most other countries, involved in 



o ' 



mystery, and perplexed with apparent inconsistencies." -\ 

 They believed in the survival of the soul, and in "two 

 situations of different degrees of happiness, somewhat ana- 

 logous to our heaven and hell ;" but, far from regarding them 

 as places of reward and punishment, thought that the happiest 

 lot was of course intended for the chiefs and superior classes, 

 the other for the people of inferior rank.J Indeed, they did 

 not suppose that their actions here in the least influenced 

 their future state ; so that their religion did not act upon them 

 by promises or threats, and their "expressions of adoration 

 and reverence, whether by words or actions, arise only from 

 a humble sense of their own inferiority, and the ineffable 

 excellence of divine perfection." However mistaken they 

 may have been on many points, however wrong many of their 

 customs doubtless appear to us, surely under such a creed as 

 this, good actions become doubly virtuous, and virtue itself 

 shines the brighter. 



They had no laws, nor courts of justice. Personal security 

 and the rights of private property were but little regarded 

 among them. The chiefs and priests exercised an authority 

 founded on fear and superstition. They were, in fact, governed 

 by custom rather than by law, for which, indeed, they had no 

 word in the language. It is only fair to the chiefs to add 

 that they were above being idle, and thought it a disgrace if 

 they did not excel in all departments of labour. || In character 

 the inhabitants of Tahiti, according to Captain Cook, " were 

 liberal, brave, open, and candid, without either suspicion or 



* Ellis, 1. c. vol. i. p. 526 ; Wil- Cook's First Voyage, vol. ii. 

 son, 1. c. p. 242. p. 239 ; Ellis, vol. i. p. 518. 



t See also Forster, 1. c. p. 539. Ellis, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 427. 



|| Ibid. vol. ii. p. 178. 



