224 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the true God. The latter^ however, frequently became 
indignant at the very proposal, charging the God of the 
foreigners with all the maladies under which they 
suffered, and the disturbances that agitated the country 5 
accusing them also of bringing down the vengeance of 
their own gods upon the family, by deserting their 
altars, and worshipping with the strangers. Frequently, 
however, they answered their entreaties only with ridi¬ 
cule and scorn, tauntingly inquiring. Where is the good 
of which you speak so much—the salvation of which you 
tell us ? the foreigners themselves die, their pupils die, 
or suffer the same pain that we do ; and what good have 
you derived from going to their schools ? Let us see—if 
you go this week, and bring home a good bundle of 
cloth, or scissors, or knives, or any thing else worth 
having, then we will go too; if not, we will have nothing 
to do with such profitless work. The state of things 
resembled greatly that described by the Saviour, when 
speaking of the results that should follow the promulga¬ 
tion of his gospel. In many a family, the husband was 
an idolater, and the wife a Christian,—or the reverse; the 
parents addicted to the gods of their ancestors, and the 
child a disciple of Jesus Christ; and many a wife was 
beaten by her husband, and many a child driven from 
the parental roof, solely on account of their attachment 
to the new religion. In Tahiti, the idolaters proceeded 
to the greatest acts of lawless violence and horrid 
murder. 
More than once, individuals were selected to be 
offered in sacrifice to the gods, only because they were 
Christians. Mr. Davies, in his journey round Tahiti, 
in 1816, met with the murderer of the young man 
who was offered in sacrifice by the people of Taia- 
