62 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
France is represented in the Pacific by the names of D'Urville, La 
Perouse, and D’Entrecasteaux, whose expeditions encountered more than 
ordinary misfortunes. 
Missions. à 
During the latter portion of the last century the accounts published by 
Wallis, Cook, and other voyagers in the South Seas, the visit to London of 
Omai, the Society Islander, concerning whom Cowper wrote, the tragic 
death of the great navigator himself, and the mutiny of the Bounty, kept 
public attention in England fixed upon the Pacific, and the state of the 
Polynesian Islanders. A strong desire was expressed for the religious 
improvement of the natives, and the London Missionary Society, at that 
time but: newly formed, gratified that desire by sending away eighteen 
missionary clergymen to the Society Islands. On March 8rd, 1797, the 
Duff, the first missionary vessel, anchored in Matarai Bay, Tahiti, where 
Cook, in 1768, had observed the transit of Venus. 
When the history of the Pacific is written, the year 1797 will be noted 
for the actual commencement of civilization therein. Previously to that date 
the islanders had been taught to fear rather than admire modern civilization. 
The teachings of the Spaniards can hardly be called civilized. Between 
1668 and 1681 the island of Guam, in the Ladrones, was nearly depopulated 
by them of its 40,000 inhabitants, a notable instance of Spanish dealings 
in the Pacific. Our missionaries have carried out a totally different policy 
from that formerly pursued by the Spaniards. From 1797 to the present 
date, the loss of life has been always on the missionary side. Quietly and 
bravely have English missionaries advanced, reclaiming island after island 
from barbarism—at what cost only the missionary records can tell—until 
there are few islands now left which have not yielded to their gentle in- 
fluence. No monument exists to commemorate this noble work, or to tell 
of the many lives which it has cost. Cannibalism, 'immolation, suicide, 
idolatry, infanticide, tabu, polygamy, domestic slavery, tribal and inter- 
necine strife, have all been conquered. The rising generation is almost 
entirely ignorant of the dark deeds of its predecessors. 
The London Missionary Society commenced the work of planting mis- 
sionaries simultaneously at the Society, Marquesas, and Friendly Islands. 
The Wesleyan Missionary Society began its labours in the Friendly Islands 
in 1826, and in Fiji in 1835. The Church of England (or rather the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel) about the year 1850 directed its attention 
to the Loyalty, New Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, and Solomon groups, 
or, briefly, Melanesia. In 1820 the American Board of Foreign Mission 
took charge of the Sandwich Islands. The Presbyterian clergy are endea- 
vouring to Christianize the New Hebrides. Roman Catholic missionaries 
