12 TAHITI. 



practise upon their alarms, and to threaten them with foreign inter- 

 ference. 



Much complaint has been made of the influence which the mission- 

 aries, and Mr. Pritchard in particular, exercise over the government 

 of Tahiti. They have, unquestionably, great influence; but I am 

 satisfied that they are justly entitled to it. Indeed I cannot but 

 consider it as part of their duty, nay, the great object of their mission, 

 to acquire and exercise a salutary control over their converts, both of 

 high and low degree. My own observations satisfied me that this 

 control is exerted solely for the purpose of fulfilling the laudable object 

 for which they were sent. It is possible that their views of the proper 

 method of instructing an ignorant people are not at all times, or in 

 every respect, 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 conferring 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 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 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 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 licentiousness. When 

 compared with many parts of the world that arrogate a superior 

 civilization, it appears almost in an advantageous light. Vice, at any 



