16 TAHITI. 



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 manu- 

 factory, 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 desultory exertion, to the regular and stated occupation 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 to numbers of 

 women, and this change of dress, intended as an advance in civiliza- 

 tion, has had the effect of superseding employments which formerly 

 engaged their attention, and occupied their time. The idleness 

 hence arising, and the artificial wants thus created, have no little 

 influence in perpetuating licentiousness among the females, to whom 

 foreign finery is a great temptation. The European dress, at least as 

 worn by them, is neither as becoming, nor as well adapted to the 

 climate as that which it has almost superseded. Many of the mis- 

 sionaries now see these things in their true light, and informed me 

 that they were endeavouring to pursue a more enlightened course. 



Upon the whole, although the missionaries may be chargeable 

 with misjudging zeal, and have exhibited a want of practical know- 

 ledge of human nature in their efforts, and in the solution of the 

 difficult problem of bringing barbarians to civilization, they ought to 

 receive due credit for what they have actually accomplished. I am 

 decidedly of opinion, that in spite of all the drawbacks I have men- 

 tioned, as much would not have been done by any other class of 

 persons. It has demanded a sense of religious duty, to enable them 

 to persevere in a constant devotion to the cause in which they have 

 embarked, to enable them to undergo the privations and trials to 

 which they have been subjected, while continually at the mercy of 



