POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 7^ 
a native, who dug two or three feet into the ground on 
the outside, and, burrowing his way under the wall or 
side of the house, came up through the earthen floor 
within, and stole several valuable articles. 
Their increased acquaintance with the people had 
awakened their deepest commiseration, when they be¬ 
held them, not only wholly given to idolatry, and mad after 
their idols, but sunk to the lowest state of moral degra¬ 
dation and consequent wretchedness. This furnished 
a powerful incentive to energetic perseverance in the 
acquisition of the language, that they might speedily 
instruct them in the principles of Christianity, and 
thereby elevate their moral character, diminish their 
actual suffering, and improve their present condi¬ 
tion. 
The Tahitian was the first Polynesian language re¬ 
duced to writing. In acquiring a knowledge of its 
character and peculiarities, and reducing it to a regular 
system, the Missionaries had to proceed alone. In 
adapting letters to its sounds, forming its orthography, 
and exhibiting the vernacular tongue in writing to the 
people, presenting to the eye that which had before 
been applied only to the ear, and thus furnishing a 
vehicle by which light and knowledge might be conveyed 
through a new avenue to the mind, they were unaided by 
the labours of any who had preceded them, and were 
therefore the pioneers of those who might follow. That 
their difficulties were great, must be already obvious. 
They advanced with deliberation and care, and though 
the Tahitian dialect as written by them is doubt¬ 
less imperfect, and susceptible of great improve¬ 
ment, the circumstance of its having formed the basis 
of those subsequently written, the ease with which it 
