WHALING VOYAGE. 
879 
from an intention of casting any reflections on the 
general character of perhaps as ardent and devoted a 
body of Christian missionaries as have ever assisted in 
spreading the voice of the gospel in distant lands, among 
dangers and privations of every kind ; yet, from what 
I have myself witnessed and deplored, I fervently hope 
that the eyes of the public may be widely opened to 
the necessity of some more strict supervision into the 
character and conduct of many of the missionaries, who 
now disgrace their country and their creed in some of 
the islands of the South Sea, and thus throw discredit 
on the exertions of their really well-disposed colabourers. 
And, moreover, a religious tyranny of the most irk- 
some character has been resorted to in many places, 
where the people, long before they have been sufficiently 
educated to perceive the beauties of the Christian faith, 
have been compelled to attend churches and prayer- 
meetings, two or three times a-day, by the orders of 
their kings or chiefs, whose interest may have been 
bought by the missionary, and who causes the unhappy 
people to be goaded with the most obnoxious laws, for 
the purpose of forcing them to believe in a religion 
which in their present state of ignorance they are totally 
unable to appreciate— they therefore naturally feel the 
tyranny of such proceedings, and they revolt against 
that which, if gentle persuasion had been used, or other 
means more fitted and congenial to their present state 
of barbarism, they w r ould no doubt have accepted with 
willing thankfulness. 
At the Sandwich Islands a system of religious intole- 
