POLYGAMY. 33 



mate and respectable, and, without their fault, becom- 

 ing illegitimate and outcasts, are driven from a home 

 to which they are bound by many ties. Had less ob- 

 jection been offered to polygamy, far greater progress 

 might have been made in christianizing Polynesia 

 and many other parts of the world, where a man is esti- 

 mated in a great measure by the number of his wives, 

 and it becomes a serious thing to ask him to lower 

 himself in public estimation by putting away all his 

 wives save one. Had or were the broad principle 

 admitted, that a man might remain a polygamist 

 on becoming Christian, but not add to his number, 

 many would have been induced to join the Christian 

 community who, under present circumstances, hung back 

 as long as they possibly could. The whole question 

 has often presented itself; and, in the earlier stages 

 of Christianity, the Church distinctly proclaimed the 

 necessity of admitting polygamists. Of course, as all 

 males born of the newly-converted would at once be- 

 come Christians, and only be allowed to have one 

 wife, polygamy would die out altogether in one gene- 

 ration. I am persuaded that this is the right view 

 to take of the subject, whatever some theologians may 

 argue to the contrary. When at Bau, the subject of suc- 

 cession to the throne was discussed, and the missionaries 

 were for seeing it descend upon Cakobau's youngest 

 son, because he was the son of his Christian wife, a boy 

 of very tender age ; and to fix the stigma of bastardy 

 upon his eldest son, the child of the highest woman of 

 his household, and to whom the king was not married 

 by Christian ritual, yet legitimately united according to 



D 



