366 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



' Many lamentations have been poured forth by p'ersons 

 interested in South Sea missions concerning the evil influences 

 of French domination over the Society islanders ; but their 

 premises are groundless and their arguments unsound. The 

 Tahitian race could never be rendered systematically indus- 

 trious or truly enlightened; they were always and still are 

 indolent, luxurious, superstitious, and incurably vicious.' 



I quote this authority, but I venture to doubt that the pro- 

 gressive advance of the Society islanders would be as hopeless 

 as he makes out, if their group was under British rule, with 

 Mr. Thurston as Colonial Secretary or Governor. I do not 

 myself believe that they will ever become good labour hands, 

 but they might be made large producers, and that would be a 

 grand step in the right direction. In this matter of the mate- 

 rial improvement of native races, there are three courses open 

 for the governing class : either the natives must be reduced to 

 abject slavery, or allowed by drink and disease to perish off 

 the face of the earth, or else they must by degrees be educated 

 up to a higher standard by means of labour like that of agri- 

 culture which they can understand. The Spaniards adopted 

 the first course ; in Fiji we are developing the idea contained 

 in the last. 



In Tahiti, as in other islands, the policy of letting the 

 natives ' drift ' is bearing its bitter fruit in their depopulation. 

 If a choice must be made, I would prefer the simple slavery of 

 the Spaniard to the carelessly indifferent ' Am I my brother's 

 keeper ?' which has been the rule in Tahiti and elsewhere. 



Some account of the Areoi society as it existed in the 

 Society Islands, and also to a certain extent in the Caroline 

 Islands, is worth giving here. 



As stated in the account of the Tahitian tradition of the 

 deluge, Taaroa was the Creator-god, and he created two 



