TAHITI. 17 



uncivilized men. No desire of pecuniary emolument has been 

 evinced by them, nor are they sustained by any expectation of 

 temporal reward, and I can testify, from personal observation, that 

 their position, in a worldly sense, is not to be envied. 



To jxidge of the amount of good they have accomplished, it is 

 necessary to turn back to the records of early voyages, and compare 

 the present with the former condition of these islanders. Now they 

 are seen enjoying peace, possessing a written instead of a mere oral 

 language, living under wholesome laws, and receiving the advantages 

 of school education and church discipline. In former times, we read 

 of perpetual intestine broils, of the worship of idols propitiated by 

 human sacrifice, of the depraved association of the Ariore, and its 

 accompanying crime of infanticide. In making this comparison, we 

 cannot but acknowledge that the persons who have effected these 

 changes, are both Christians and philanthropists, and that they have 

 been reasonably successful in implanting the principles of civili- 

 zation. 



As a proof of the value of their labours, my experience warrants 

 me in saying that the natives of Tahiti are honest, well-behaved, and 

 obliging; that no drunkenness or rioting is to be seen, except when 

 provoked by their white visiters and inmates, and that they are 

 obedient to the laws and to their rulers. That they should be 

 comparatively indolent is natural, in a climate where the fruits of the 

 earth almost spontaneously supply the wants of nature, and where 

 a mere animal existence may be maintained without labour. No 

 people is, in truth, so independent of the aid even of their fellows as 

 the Tahitians. A native may in the morning be wholly destitute 

 even of implements wherewith to work, and before nightfall he may 

 be found clothed, lodged, and have all the necessaries of life around 

 him in abundance. These he derives from the cocoa-nut, the poorou 

 (Hibiscus tiliaceus), banana, bread-fruit, and bamboo. That he does 

 not find it necessary to call upon others for assistance, does not make 

 him forget the duties of hospitality, btrt it does produce a thoughtless- 

 ness about his own wants, and takes away that incitement to labour, 

 which is so powerful an aid in the promotion of civilization. Still, I 

 am satisfied that the Tahitians do not avoid labour, when they can 

 work with profit to themselves. Those who were employed on board 

 the squadron, where their pay was liberal and regular, performed 

 their tasks faithfully and well ; and they bear the same character for 

 fidelity in the whale-ships, on board of which they are much 



