56 POLYNESIAN MISSIONARIES : 



missionaries in Polynesia, I may with propriety 

 hazard a few remarks upon the apparent extent 

 and effects of missionary exertions ; although, 

 from the conflicting opinions existing on this 

 topic, the task becomes one of extreme delicacy. 

 I have been led by personal observation to 

 believe, that while the missionaries at these 

 islands have been libelled by one party, they 

 have been too highly lauded by another ; and 

 that the strictures of Kotzebue are not more 

 unworthy of implicit belief than the flowery and 

 exaggerated tone of description adopted by the 

 missionary party. From the statement of the 

 one, we should judge that missionaries were 

 tyrannical, ignorant, bigotted, avaricious, and 

 almost the cause of every vice perceptible in the 

 native character, and that the natives themselves 

 are in a more degraded state than at the period 

 of their most barbarous idolatry. From the 

 other, we are to believe, that the missionaries are 

 universally beloved ; that the natives are saints, 

 martyrs, and primitive apostles ; that their 

 churches are cathedrals, and their grouped huts 

 cities. But with whichsoever of these party im- 

 pressions the voyager visits the debatable land, 

 he will find himself disappointed; and by ob- 

 serving calmly and unprejudiced, will doubt- 



