TAHITI. 13 



from the English convict settlements, and deserters from vessels. 

 These men, the outcasts and refuse of every maritime nation, are 

 addicted 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 pro- 

 fanity 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 enjoy- 

 ment of the means of instruction, and in the face of such obstacles, its 

 inhabitants should as a body have become patterns of good morals. 

 Licentiousness does still exist among them, but the foreign residents 

 and visiters are in a great degree the cause of its continuance, 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 licentious- 

 ness. When compared with many parts of the world that arrogate a 

 superior civilization, it appears almost in an advantageous 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 instruc- 

 tion, by our rules of propriety; 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 themselves 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 natives, and procured the enactment of laws for- 

 bidding 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. How- 

 ever this may be, the external signs of moral and religious improve- 

 ment are conspicuous. Many of the natives are scrupulous in their 

 attention to Christian duties, and members in communion of the 

 church. All are strict observers of the Sabbath; indeed, nowhere 



