202 Voyage of the Novara, 



most splendid success. To them is due the merit of having 

 abolished the hideous custom of human sacrifice, of having 

 introduced law and order into the native administration, and 

 of having extirj)ated various odious vices from their social 

 habits. By their representatives, King Pomdre II. was in- 

 duced to prohibit all distilleries and places where the kawa- 

 drink was fabricated. Schools and chapels were erected, 

 Bibles and spelling-books were printed and disseminated, till 

 within ten years not alone did all the natives profess Chris- 

 tianity, but tlie majority of the younger population had 

 learned to read and write. 



The cheering spiritual influence exercised by these Pro- 

 testant missionaries over the aborigines was not unfor- 

 tunately accompanied by a simultaneous elevation of their 

 physical condition. In consequence of early debauchery and 

 the spread of diseases of a certain class, which appear to be 

 the inevitable concomitants of the first contact of the white 

 man with primitive races, there has been a marked falling off 

 among the population. It almost seems as though the Ta- 

 hitians had attained the utmost pitch of their civilization, 

 and thence, in obedience to a mysterious natural law, have 

 been compelled, like so many other coloured races, to surren- 

 der this lovely abode to a more energetic and self-developing 

 race, till the appalling doom befalls them of being erased 

 from the list of nations ! 



Thirty-nine years had elapsed since the first mission- 

 ary had set foot in Tahiti, and Christianity had sj^rcad 



