speedy dissolution, and pass on to con- 
siderations of higher utility. 
The enviable state of the Otaheiteans 
Was at one time the theme of general 
anegyric among our Anti-Christian 
BGigcophists. Happy people, whose 
food was produced spontaneously, and 
who had no other object in existence than 
enjoyment ! 
The Otaheiteans, and probably all the 
inhabitants of Polynesia, are a degene- 
rated race > to trace the history of their 
degradation is impossible, but the fact is 
certain. Their mythological fables are 
physical allegory, and imply a degree of 
observation and knowledge of which at 
present they are utterlyincapable. ‘The 
cause of their degradation is equally 
certain. It exists in the very circum- 
stances for which they were envied by 
the sensual sophists of Europe—their food 
was produced spontaneously, and they had no 
other object in existence than enjoyment ; there- 
fore do these islanders present to us the 
aweful spectacle of a whole people aban- 
doned to lust, the most intensely selfish, 
the most brutalizing of all the passions. 
‘It is supposed that two-thirds of the 
children who are born into the world 
there, are immediately murdered. The 
fashionables, (we may thank the impu- 
dence of ‘modern folly for this word of 
distinction, which implies nothing that 
either is, has been, or can be,respectable) 
the fashionables of the island are asso- 
ciated together for the purpose of pro- 
Miscuous intercourse, every female 
Aveeoie being bound to procure abor- 
tion, or murder every child of whom she 
may be delivered. These are the cus- 
toms of the Otaheiteans, of these islan- 
ders who have been held up ‘as the 
exemplars of savage innocence and sa- 
vage happiness! After these atrocities 
it would seem trifling to speak of the 
human sacrifices common in all the 
islands, and of the J/ive-cannibalism of 
Tongataboo. 
In this state of sensuality, the most 
abandoned and most atrocious, were 
_ they discovered by the Europeans. Let 
| the missionaries relate the consequence. 
«¢ Jan. 31st. Among the natives around 
‘us are many objects of compassion, whose 
_ bodies are wasting with disease, and their 
souls hurrying into eternity in a state of the 
utmost insensibility. It is surprising what 
_ havock disease has made since we have been 
fi on the island. Matavai is almost depopu- 
tated, in comparison to what it once was, 
according to the accounts given by the na- 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
199 
tives; and not only this district, but the 
whole island. Stout men are cut down in 
a few months ; women and children share 
the like fate. They say the disorder that 
makes such havock among them came from 
England ; and we have told them repeatedly 
that it is owing to the wickedness of their 
women, in prostituting themselves to the 
sailors of the vessels that come here. They 
understand what we say, and assent to the 
truth of it, but their hearts are so set upon 
covetousness, that the appearance of a vessel 
effacesall- remembrance of the evils they 
have suffered, and are sufering ; and they 
burn with a desire to obtain something, if it 
is but arag; this induces husbands to pro- 
stitute their wives, and parents their chil- 
dren.” 
Thus have these “ merciless mur- 
derers of children been tormented with 
their own abominations.”? We have car- 
ried among them not the comforts of 
civilization, not the improvements of 
science, not the blessings of the gospel ; 
but instead thereof we have communi- 
cated to them that tremendous disease 
which seems to have well nigh done its 
work in Europe, and is now dispensed 
more severely to scourge or destroy this 
«* cursed seed,” who perhaps, like the 
Canaanites, are no longer to be suffered 
to pollute the earth. 
The skill and industry which they pos- 
sessed when first discovered, has mate- 
rially declined. ‘ So important,” says 
Vancouver, ‘ are the various European 
implements, and other commodities, 
now become to the happiness and com- 
fort of these Islanders, that I cannot 
avoid reflecting with Captain Cook on 
the very deplorable condition to which 
these good people on a certainty must be 
reduced, should their communication 
with Europeans be ever at anend. The 
knowledge they have now acquired of 
the superiority, and the supply with 
which they have been furnished of mcve 
useful implements, have rendered these 
and other European commodities, not 
only essentially necessary to their com- 
mon comforts, but have made them 
regardless of their former tools and ma- 
nufactures, which are now growing fast 
out of usé, and I may add equally out 
of remembrance. Of this we had con- 
vincing proof in the few of their bone 
or stone tools or utensils that were seen 
among them: those offered for sale were 
of rude workmanship and of an inferior 
kind, solely intended for our market, to 
be purchased by way of curiosity. I 
am likewise well convinced that, by 2 
O4 
