332 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
of purity and happiness. He died suddenly on the 5th 
of March^ 1823 y and^, to use the language of the Mission¬ 
ary who watched his progress and his end with the 
deepest interest, we doubt not he is gone to be with 
that Saviour, ^^whom he loved with all his heart. 
Infanticide, the most revolting and unnatural crime 
that prevails, even amongst the habitations of cruelty 
which fill the dark places of the earth, was intimately 
connected with this execrable institution. This 
affecting species of murder was not peculiar to the 
inhabitants of the Pacific, It has prevailed in different 
parts of the world, in ancient and modern times, among 
civilized as well as barbarous nations : but, until the 
introduction of Christianity, it was probably practised 
to a greater extent, and with more heartless barbarity, 
by the South Sea Islanders, than by any other people 
with whose history we are acquainted. Although we 
have been unable accurately to ascertain the date of its 
introduction to Tahiti and the adjacent isles, the tradi¬ 
tions of the people warrant the inference, that it is of no 
very recent origin. I am, however, inclined to think it 
was practised less extensively in former times than dur¬ 
ing the fifty years immediately preceding the subversion 
of their ancient system of idolatry. There is every 
reason to suppose that, had the inhabitants murdered 
their infants during the early periods of their history, 
in any great degree, much less to the extent to which they 
have carried this crime in subsequent years, the popula¬ 
tion would never have become so numerous, as it 
evidently was, not many generations prior to their 
discovery. 
It is difficult to learn to what extent infanticide was 
practised at the time Wallis discovered Tahiti, or the 
