A HISTORY OF TAHITI 



455 



House and Natives of Bora Bora, Society Islands. 



jects; and the sj^stem of espionage and development of hypocrisy and 

 deceit resulting from such a system may well be imagined, or, if not 

 comprehended, may be observed to-day among the natives of the Ellice 

 and Gilbert Islands. 



Having given Tahiti a code of laws, the missionaries proceeded to 

 write out the plan of a " constitutional monarchy " and a " parliament " 

 patterned upon that of England, but Pomare and the high chiefs would 

 have none of it, and the scheme could not be thrust upon the natives 

 until after the death of the king in 1821 ; when owing to his son Pomare 

 III. being an infant, a " regency " was established and the power of the 

 missionary party was much augmented, although always opposed by the 

 conservatives under Tati, chief of Papara. 



Thus in less than a decade were the Tahitians driven over the road 

 of political and social progress that Europe had toiled a thousand years 

 to traverse. The natives were forced to harken to the voices of men of 

 an alien race whose traditions differed wholly from their own, and who 

 looked with ill-concealed contempt upon the religion, folk-lore and arts 

 of old Tahiti, forgetful of the fact that there was much in native culture 

 that was good and should have been encouraged as a basis for future 

 development. 



Perhaps the saddest mistake that has been made in the universal 

 attempt to introduce our civilization among the simpler races has been 

 the destruction of almost all that once was theirs in the hope that 

 things of our own creation might arise. Instead, the natives have lost 

 much and gained but little. Under friendly direction, the wonderful 



