improvement in the native 

 character. 



TAHITI. 



Change of the national 

 dress. 



their views of the proper method of instructing an 

 ignorant people are not at all times, or in every re- 

 spect, the most enlightened; but no one can with 

 propriety question their pious zeal, or the honesty 

 of their intentions. We may perhaps lament their 

 intolerance towards other sects, but no one can 

 visit the island without perceiving on every side 

 the most positive evidence of the great benefits 

 they have already bestowed, and are daily confer- 

 ing upon the inhabitants. 



All this good has been done in the face of many 

 and great difficulties. The most serious of these is 

 the evil influence of a large portion of the other 

 foreign residents. Although among these are some 

 who are truly respectable, the majority is made up 

 of runaways from the English convict settlements, 

 and deserters from vessels. These men, the out- 

 casts and refuse of every maritime nation, are ad- 

 dicted to every description of vice, and would be a 

 pest even in a civilized community. It may easily 

 be conceived what an injurious influence such a 

 band of vagabonds, without trade or occupation by 

 which they can support themselves, guilty of every 

 species of profanity and crime, must exert upon the 

 morals of the natives, and what a barrier they 

 must oppose to their improvement in morals and 

 religion. 



Tahiti, when first visited, was proverbial for its 

 licentiousness, and it would be asking too much, to 

 require that after so short an enjoyment of the 

 means of instruction, and in the face of such obsta- 

 cles, its inhabitants should as a body have become 

 patterns of good morals. Licentiousness does still 

 exist among them, but the foreign residents and 

 visitors are in a great degree the cause of its con- 

 tinuance, and an unbridled intercourse with them 

 serves to perpetuate it. Severe laws have been 

 enacted, but they cannot be put in force in cases 

 where one of the parties is a foreigner. I see no 

 reason, however, why this island should be pointed 

 out as conspicuous for licentiousness. When com- 

 pared with many parts of the world that arrogate a 

 superior civilization, it appears almost in an advan- 

 tageous light. Vice, at any rate, does not stalk 

 abroad in the open day, as it did in some places 

 we had lately visited upon the American continent. 

 It would be unfair to judge of these natives, before 

 they had received instruction, by our rules of pro- 

 priety ; and now many of those who bear testimony 

 to the laxity of their morals, visit their shores for 

 the very purpose of enticing them into guilt, and of 

 rioting without fear or hindrance in debauchery. 

 Coming with such intentions, and finding them- 

 selves checked by the influence of the missionaries, 

 they rail against them because they have put an 

 end to the obscene dances and games of the na- 

 tives, and procured the enactment of laws forbid- 

 ding illicit intercourse. 



The missionaries are far from overrating their 

 own success in effecting an improvement in morals, 

 and inculcating the obligations of religion. So far 

 from this, I found that they generally complained 

 that sincere piety was rarely to be found among 

 the natives. However this may be, the external 

 signs of moral and religious improvement are con- 

 spicuous. Many of the natives are scrupulous in 

 their attention to Christian duties, and members 

 in communion of the church. All are strict ob- 

 servers of the Sabbath ; indeed, nowhere is its 

 institution more religiously attended to than in 



those Polynesian islands which are under missionary 

 influence. On that day no canoe is launched upon 

 the waters, and no person is seen abroad except 

 while on his way to or return from church. When 

 thus seen, they are neatly and decently clothed, 

 although in very bad taste. At church they form 

 a respectable-looking congregation, and listen with 

 attention to the preacher. 



The success of the missionaries in introducing 

 this strict observance of a Sabbath is ascribed by 

 themselves in a great degree to its analogy to the 

 taboo-days of heathen times, and the continuance 

 of its sanctity is now insured by the penalties which 

 await an infraction of it. The punishment for 

 Sabbath-breaking consists in the offender being 

 compelled to make a certain number of fathoms of 

 road, and upon a repetition of the offence, the 

 number of fathoms is much increased. 



Although much has been done for the improve- 

 ment of the natives, still it appears evident that 

 much more might have been done if the mission- 

 aries had not confined themselves so exclusively 

 to teaching from the Scriptures. The natives, by 

 all accounts, are extremely fond of story-telling, 

 and marvellous tales of their ancestors and ancient 

 gods are even now a source of amusement. The 

 missionaries, as I am told, possess much informa- 

 tion in relation to the history and mythology of the 

 island, embodied in the superstitious tales still oc- 

 casionally current among its inhabitants. It is to 

 be hoped that they will preserve a record of these, 

 before they are obliterated by their exertions to 

 destroy the ancient superstition. But they would 

 have succeeded sooner in eradicating the practice 

 of reciting these legends, had they provided a sub- 

 stitute in works of fiction, inculcating moral and 

 religious lessons, or teaching useful knowledge. So 

 also, while it was indispensable to put down those 

 amusements which were the means or incentives 

 to debauchery, this measure ought to have been 

 accompanied by the introduction of innocent modes 

 of recreation. For want of the first resource, much 

 time is now spent in unmeaning gossip, and the 

 necessity for the other is often shown in a listless 

 idleness. 



No attempt has been made by the missionaries 

 to introduce the mechanic arts, or improvements in 

 agriculture, yet it cannot be doubted, that to have 

 taught them even the simplest of these, would have 

 materially aided the progress of civilization, and 

 reacted favourably upon that of religion. The 

 failure of a cotton manufactory, with expensive 

 machinery, which was erected on the island of 

 Eimeo, affords no argument against the probable 

 success of less complex arts. The natives were 

 not prepared to pass at once from habits of de- 

 sultory exertion to the regular and stated occupa- 

 tion of the mill. But the spinning-wheel, the hand- 

 loom, and the plough, would not have required such 

 a decided change in the number of hours of labour, 

 and would have served as a preparation for more 

 continuous industry. The two former implements 

 have at length been introduced by other hands, 

 and have already been adopted with eagerness by 

 some of the natives. 



The change of dress which has been introduced 

 by the missionaries and other foreigners, has, on 

 the contrary, had an injurious effect on the industry 

 of this people. While they wore their native tapa, 

 the fabric, though of little value, gave employment 



