4o8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



great with human sympathy, and who, as Ellis says, would have per- 

 ceived that 



when the spirit is softened or subdued under the influence of suffering, it is 

 often most susceptible of salutary impression; and the exercise of christian 

 sympathy and kindness in such a season will seldom fail to produce even among 

 the most barbarous tribes highly favorable results. 



In place of words of love, these missionaries preached the horrors of 

 hell, in place of poverty they displayed that which was to the natives 

 unbounded wealth; and friendship they sought to win through gifts 

 rather than sympathy. 



Before passing judgment upon them, however, it is but fair to pause 

 to consider the probable results had they attempted to pursue the less 

 worldly course. Demon worship was and is the religion of the Poly- 

 nesian, and even to-day, despite the efforts of generations of high-minded 

 and enlightened whites, the natives cling tenaciously to their god of 

 hate and delight above all in sermons treating of his infinite power for 

 vengeance. Moreover, steeped as they have always been in communistic 

 socialism, personal poverty is unknown and can thus make no appeal 

 upon the side of virtue. Where wealth is naught, power is everything, 

 and it is doubtful whether any considerable number of the natives could 

 have been converted to Christianity even in a century had the mission- 

 aries not first won over, or forced, the chiefs to accept their faith. 



Moreover, Pomare and all the chiefs realized that this white man's 

 religion would never acknowledge the divinity of their descent, in de- 

 fault of which their authority to enforce the tabu, the keynote of their 

 power, was lost. 



Foiled thus in their direct effort to Christianize Tahiti, the mis- 



PiSO.MA TitEE, FAKAKAVA ATOLL, I'AUNUTLS GROUPS. 



