140 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
a remarkable instance of conscientions regard for the 
Sabbath-day. 
Since the abolition of idolatry, no part of the conduct 
of the South Sea Islanders has impressed the minds of 
foreign visitants more forcibly than their attention to the 
observance of the Sabbath. I never saw any, even the 
most irreligious, or those unfriendly to Missions, who 
were not constrained to confess that it surpassed all they 
had heard or imagined could have been exhibited ; while 
others, more favourably disposed, have' publicly declared 
its effect on their own minds. 
When Mr. Crook arrived in 1816, the ship reaching 
Tahiti on the Sabbath, no canoe put off, no native was 
seen on the beach, no smoke in any part of the district— 
and they began to apprehend either that the population 
had been swept off by some contagious disease, or that 
they had all gone to battle. At length their fears were 
removed by one of the party, who had been there before, 
observing, that it was the Sabbath, and that on that day 
the natives did not launch their canoes, or light their 
fires, &c. In 1821, Captain Grimes ^Svas surprised at 
the regularity and good order observed; the children 
of the Sabbath-school were ushered in by their teachers 
in their different classes, with as much uniformity as we 
see in public schools in London.’^ Several masters of 
South Sea whalers, captains and officers in his majesty’s 
navy, have borne the most decided testimony to these 
facts. A naval officer, who was at Tahiti in 1822, stated, 
that he visited the islands under a considerable degree 
of prejudice against the Missionaries, and suspicion 
respecting the reported change among the people,—but 
that his visit had entirely removed both. It was Friday 
when the vessel arrived; the natives thronged the ship 
