2 1 8 • Voyage of the Kovara. 



ignorance. In four districts in the interior out of thirty- 

 three, live two or three French missionaries who instruct the 

 natives in French. There is neither lack of energy among 

 these zealous labourers, nor of the requisite funds,* to extend 

 the field of their labours, so that if the Catholic mission in 

 Tahiti makes no progress, and after twenty years' exertion 

 can only reckon 100 neophytes, the explanation must be 

 sought in the existence of conditions, which neither the self- 

 denying zeal of Catholic missionaries nor material protection 

 can affect, t 



Wliile in the interior of the island Sunday is thus observed 

 with much strictness, there is great indifference, if not worse, 

 in its observance in the seaport; indeed, it is the French 

 official who sets the example of disregarding it. For no- 



* The cost of the CathoUc missions in Eastern Oceania amounts on the average 

 to frs. 100,000 (£4000) per annum. "The Society for the Propagation of the Faith" 

 (French) subscribes annually from frs. 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 (£120,000 to £160,000) 

 for the races of heathendom. Of this Oceania and Australia get from frs. 400,000 

 to frs. 500,000 (£16,000 to £20,000). 



f With reference to this, the following remarks are especially noteworthy, made 

 by M. Guizot at a time when France still possessed a tribune and a parliament: 

 " What particularly strikes me is that our missionaries do not make new conquests for 

 a Church already powerful ; that they do not extend the sphere of supremacy of the 

 ecclesiastical government. The Roman Catholic missionary arrives alone, ignorant 

 of the actual state of affairs, having none of the affections common to humanity — in 

 a word, better fitted to acquire an ascendant than to enlist sympathy. The Protest- 

 ant ministers ai'e, on the contrary, family missions, so to speak ; so that a pagan 

 population will more readily be led to regard as brothers men who are husbands and 

 fathers like themselves. Thus these missions instruct by presenting specimens of 

 Christian society side by side with precepts of faith ; the example of all the relations 

 and sentiments of domestic hfe, regulated according to the morahty of the Gospel 

 they are sent to teach ; a mode of instruction most assuredly not the least effica- 

 cious, if not absolutely perfect." (Discours de M. Guizot dans I'Assemblee Generale, 

 du 11 Avril, 1826.) 



